villagelogs | 024-027 » neither reward nor punishment

024-027 » neither reward nor punishment

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central/Western Mathias + ???
WHEN: Days 024-027
WHAT: The consequences of their actions.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here! The next log will be posted January 23rd.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Onryo" 怨霊

DAYS 024-025
CONSEQUENCES
“There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments —
there are consequences.”
— Robert G. Ingersoll
When the unwilling residents of Mathias Township wake on the morning of the 24th day, they will find themselves in yet another set of frustratingly unnerving circumstances. None of them are where they last remember being, and some of them have strange marks on the palms of their left hands. It's all incredibly unsettling, but truthfully they should be used to it by now. No one will remember traveling to their new location.

Residents can wake up anywhere within their new location and in any position. Curled up in a bed, sprawled on a couch, huddled beneath a coffee table, propped against a wall... Wherever they are, they will themselves to be in quite an unusual state. While they are wearing whatever clothing items they went to sleep in, plus their shoes and a coat. The newest arrivals to Mathias Township will perhaps stand out for being slightly more appropriately dressed than their new neighbors. They are all a bit damp, physically worn out, and half-frozen from their apparent walk through a blizzard.

Each of the four locations is inescapable — residents are trapped, with exterior doors and windows being shut tight and a blizzard raging outside. The locations are stocked with fresh food and water and a large pile of firewood for the fireplaces in each building. The circumstances residents will face, however, may vary wildly between locations as the forces at work in Mathias respond to the recent actions of certain individuals.

BOARDING HOUSE | GREY GULL
NEW HOUSE | MYSTERY MANSION

These residents will wake with a mark on their left hand palms, a spiraling black symbol similar to those some may have seen around town. All marks are identical and cannot be removed, but will have seemingly vanished from their skin on the morning of the 26th day.

Castiel, Daisy Johnson, Dean Winchester
Elena Gilbert, Elijah Mikaelson, Helen Magnus
Phil Coulson, Quentin Coldwater, Sherlock Holmes

DAYS 026-027
IN THE AFTERMATH
After their ordeals of the past two days, the unfortunate residents of Mathias Township will be grateful to find that they were back where they are supposed to be, a chill still clinging to their clothes in whatever place they went to sleep the night of the 23rd day. New arrivals will wake in the living room of the boarding house. None of the residents will wake with anything in their possession from the locations in which they were previously trapped, including any notes or documentation they may have made during their time there.

CONDITIONS UPDATE
— SNOW continues to fall heavily on Days 024-025, resulting in white out conditions from the wind that blows in gusts of over 35 mph; the temperature also drops drastically, making conditions extremely dangerous for residents. The blizzard clears on Day 26 and residents are left with a cold, calm world covered in white.

— THE FOG remains blocking the paths in the forest, urging residents to stay huddled within the town proper, and it also now blocks the northern section of town, beginning just before where residents know the chasm in the earth to be. Venturing into the fog is... ill-advised.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue to plague the town. Kylo Ren and Thomas Richardson have vanished without a trace.

— NO NEW DEATHS have occurred in town, but there is a new "grave" in the small makeshift graveyard near the schoolhouse. Rey's corpse has been moved and covered with stones to wait for the ground to thaw enough for a proper burial.

— THE LANTERNS will be gone from the morning of Day 024. No trace of them remains.

OOC UPDATES
— A GIFT for everyone! As a thank you for being part of this spooky little game, every character in the game is being gifted 2 Activity Points. These may be banked over here — instead of linking to an AC post, you may put "New Year gift" in that field. Happy 2021, friends!

— NEW LAYOUTS have been installed for our communities! Huge thanks to our Eldritch Librarian Stars for putting in the time to get this place looking shiny. (You may have also noticed some new page layouts being installed — these are also our Librarian's handiwork!)

— DISCOVERIES have been collected and collated for your review. Please note that this is OOC information only, put together for the purpose of helping you as players see connections and possibilities for CR and your own character's potential avenues of exploration and investigation. (If we are missing something, please report it so we can add it to the list.)

— REMINDERS — Don't forget about the bulletin board. Please continue reporting your updates to locations, plots, and discoveries. The map of Mathias has been added to the locations page for ease of reference. Make sure your character's sanity level is kept updated. Prospective players are still joining the TDM, so it's recommended to track new top-levels so you don't miss them.

navigation | faq | setting | mod contact

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The worn paperback in her hands has all but been forgotten in the minutes (hours?) since she'd failed to get past the tenth page. The third paragraph on the tenth page, to be precise, the words failing to stick in her mind long enough for her to process what was happening in the story. Eventually, her mind had just fully drifted while she lay curled up on her bed in sweatpants and a long-sleeved shirt with holes cut at the end of the sleeves for her thumbs to hook through. She'd foregone her bandages for this reading session, which her bruises have thanked her for.

The knock on the door startles her, jerking her from the messy churning of thoughts so quickly she drops the book on the unmade bed and loses her place. Well, she probably needed to start over anyway... She might know the broad strokes of A Christmas Carol but it's been a while.

Slipping off the bed, she quietly pads across the floor in her socks to open the door. The sight of the person on the other side of it takes her by surprise — the good kind. ]

Neal. Hey. Come on in. [ She doesn't even hesitate to step back to give him room. ]

[ He hesitates to walk in, though. Will she want him anywhere near her in the next few minutes?

Just do it, Neal, he thinks, and it sounds not unlike Peter.

So he walks inside, all the way inside, before turning around to face her.

He really wants to kiss her. Just in case she never lets him do it again. ]

How're you doing?

[ Closing the door, she faces him as well, taking a few steps closer but not wrapping her arms around him the way she wants to. There's something off that makes her hesitate to cross those last few inches. ]

I'm okay. [ And then, because he'd promised honesty and she figures it's best that be reciprocated: ] Tired, but that's nothing new. Sleep doesn't really come easy in Nightmareland.

[ She says it almost flippantly, downplaying the truth of that. Sleep had been hard to come by before she'd ended up in this creepy town, but now some nights it was near impossible. It... had been easier with him, though. Not that she has any intention of telling him that. ]

Haven't been having too much luck there myself. [ Except with her. He sleeps so much better with the warmth of someone safe nearby.

Deep breath. ]

I have to tell you something. [ His throat tightens around the words, but he pushes on, because he nearly lost his nerve on the way over here as it is. He reaches out, taking hold of the fingertips of one of her hands. ]

I promised you I would be honest. And honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't know what this is. What we've got. I know I didn't expect it when I woke up under a bed four days ago.

[ He exhales a pained little laugh. Four days. This is ridiculous. He's just making an ass of himself, acting like there's something here to break. ] I don't even know if it is to you what it feels like to me. I think it might be something, though.

[ He focuses on breathing, talking, meeting her eyes. ] All I know is that I'm terrified of messing it up. And I might have.

[ Neal brushes his thumb over her knuckles. ] In the week I've been here...

[ Deep breath. Exhale. ] I thought it was because no one here knew me. But people don't look at me like a criminal. That's never happened to me before, not when I'm just being me. I can count on one hand the number of people who trust me, and sometimes I'm not even sure of those.

[ He falters, finally. Drops his eyes, unable to look her in the eye. ] I told someone here what I was. What I've always been. A thief, a con man. I told him I couldn't be anything else, and he told me I was wrong. I kissed him.

[ He tries to swallow around the knot in his throat. A thief and a con man, stealing kisses from near-strangers. Maybe that is all he can be. ] I'm sorry. I can't pretend I... didn't, don't feel anything, there.

[ Neal forces himself to look back at Daisy's face. His heart fills his throat with tiny hammers, making it hard to breathe. ] But I told him there's someone else I promised myself to, for as long as we're here, anyway.

[ He laughs faintly, his smile wary and a little wounded. ] If you'll still have me.

[ I have to tell you something. No good conversation has ever started with those words. But Daisy takes a deep breath and braces herself to face whatever he's preparing to share with her.

She couldn't have expected what he tells her. Hearing that he'd kissed someone else, that he'd felt something for someone else here who saw him the way she did... It breaks her a little, deepening a wound in her chest that's been there her entire life. She can count on one hand the number of people in her life who have put her first beyond anyone else and still have fingers left over. Her father did that for her — both of them, but no one else. For thirty years, she's always been a second choice, a third, a fourth, unwanted and rejected even when she tried so very hard. So hearing this now from Neal, it brings all of that trauma rushing to the surface, and she can't help the way her emotional walls rise to protect herself. Her expression smooths out and she braces herself for the blow she knows is coming.

But it doesn't. Not quite. Not fully. It's still there, hovering over her, waiting to fall and crush her heart that she's been so stupid to give away. For as long as we're here — how long will that be? How stupid has she been to let herself feel something for someone she'll never see again when they finally find a way to leave this place? Four days. She should have known that's all the happiness she'd find here.

It's all that she deserves. ]

If you want to be with him, you should. [ She wants to pull her hand away from his, but she's also desperate to hold on to that precious touch for every second she has left before this breaks too. Like her voice does, trembling with the weight of the words she forces out. Like her heart does, aching in a way she hasn't felt in so long. ] You didn't promise me anything, and I wouldn't hold you to it if you did. You deserve to be happy.

Daisy. [ He drops the rose, unwilling to let go of her hand, needing to touch her cheek. ] I'm here. I'm happy to be.

[ Neal rests his forehead against hers, praying she doesn't move away. ] And I never said I promised you. I promised me.

[ He strokes her cheekbone with his thumb. His smile gets warmer, though no less tentative. ] I just kinda hoped you'd go along with it.

Edited 2021-01-22 06:50 (UTC)

[ She hadn't paid much attention to the rose before, only vaguely taking note of it before it was swept from her thoughts. It only passes through briefly as she sees it fall from the corner of her eye.

Closing her eyes at his touch, she doesn't move away, but one wrong move could send her running like a frightened cat. She can feel the tension in her muscles, fight or flight preparing for the latter because she can't bear the former, and her smooth expression crumples like a piece of paper. ]

Why? [ She hates how weak she sounds, how scared and desperate that single word comes out. ] Why would you... You wouldn't choose me if you knew.

Now you sound like me. [ He lets go of her hand, finally, but just to cup her face between his hands as he kisses her. If she lets him. ]

[ She lets him. Of course, she lets him. She sinks into the feeling of his lips on hers, drowns in the taste of him, and is swept away by the feeling of how right this is.

And it terrifies her. She breaks the kiss so she can hide her face against his shoulder, wrapping her arms around him as tight as she can manage, clinging to him like he's the last sane thing in her world. ]

Please don't choose me. [ She hates the muffled words that are like a knife in her heart, begging him to stop before he gets hurt too. Her fate is already sealed, but maybe she can save him before it's too late. ]

[ He shifts to hold her, one hand around her waist, the other twining into the hair at the back of her head.

Neal lets out a long, shaky breath. ]

Pretty sure I already did. [ It's surreal, the relief he feels, knowing this whatever-it-is isn't one sided. ] No take-backsies and everything.

[ She should fight this. He doesn't know what he's doing, he said so himself. How could he understand what he's getting himself into when he doesn't know even a fraction of the baggage she carries with her? He'd said before that he would help carry it, but that weight would be too much for any sane person to willingly take on.

She should fight tooth and nail to make him understand why this is a terrible decision that he cannot make. But all she wants to do is fight to keep him for as long as she can. ]

This is crazy. [ Lifting her head enough to look him in the eye, she shakes her head so slightly but still keeps a firm hold of him. ]

This is crazy. [ She says it so forcefully but she can't tell if she's trying to convince him or herself. ] It's been four days. How can we already feel like this after just four days...

[ Neal laughs. He can't help himself. ] To be fair, it's been a very strange four days.

[ And she can't help but smile at that laugh. Going by everything he's told her, it's probably been some of the strangest four days of his life. ] Yeah, it has. Not the strangest I've ever had, but pretty high on the list.

[ He clears his throat, voice soft. ]

You’re half the reason I feel like I’m not going to lose it at any given moment. So. There’s that.

Neal... [ She loosens her grip on him so she can reach up and rest a hand against his neck, framing his jaw with her thumb. There's something like wonderment in her eyes as she studies him, though it wavers into another wave of doubt. ]

My life has been full of strange and horrible things. Are you really sure you want to get tangled up with someone who's been broken by all that? [ She smooths her thumb against that slight prickle along his jaw. ] Because I am. I am so broken and I'm not sure it's fair to put that on you when you have no idea what you're getting into. I might be helping now, but I might just make things worse later.

I'm pretty sure everyone I've met here has been broken by things I couldn't have started to imagine before this place. [ He bends enough to retrieve the rose, holding it up between them, eyes on her face. ] If you're broken, it's a beautiful, human kind.

[ It's too much to meet his gaze after he says that, so she lets her eyes fall to that rose. Made of paper and wire, it's clear he put time and effort into it, which heals a little piece of her that broke with his confession. He'd prepared for this even when he'd had no idea of the outcome.

She moves her hands to wrap around his and that beautiful flower before looking up at him again with a little pout. ] I didn't agree to you being wonderful.

[ It startles a laugh out of him, one that's as relieved as it is anything else. He leans forward to press a kiss against her forehead. ]

I'm broken too. I can promise you that.

[ She smiles up at him, more tentative than outright happy, but happiness is still there underneath a very thick layer of nervousness. Some part of her is still so worried about everything, though she's trying her best to embrace her emotions instead of running from them. ]

Yeah, well, I'll remind you of that when you wake up to the room shaking from one of my nightmares. [ A moment of pause, then she quickly adds in a slightly flustered state: ] You know, if we ever— If you—

[ And then she just stands there awkwardly, because what the hell, Johnson. ]

[ He grins, and it's not the most innocent expression. ] Agent Johnson. Are you propositioning me?

[ He slips his arms around her waist, leaning in to speak against her lips. ] I'm not sure about jurisdiction around here, but as a responsible member of law enforcement, I might have to take you in.

[ Embarrassment rises in her before being eclipsed by a need to return that playful flirting. Keeping hold of the rose in one hand, she uses her other to gently poke him in the chest with a purposefully pointed finger. ]

A responsible member of law enforcement, huh? You know, Caffrey, I'm pretty sure I outrank you, considering I'm like second in the chain of command at SHIELD.

[ She's actually not entirely sure how that stands now, with Coulson back and their little adventure in time travel, but she feels pretty confident with that particular claim. ]

Inter-agency politics. Sexy.

[ He kisses her, lingering. ] When you're comfortable with it, I'd love to spend the night.

[ Whether that means sex or not. ]

[ He is such a dork and it's surprising how much she likes that about him. That he can be so serious and so heartfelt one moment, and then joking like this the next... It's nice. Really nice.

She flattens her hand out against his chest, feeling the steady rhythm of his heartbeat beneath her fingers. Her eyes fall to that spot so she doesn't have to see his reaction to her next words. ]

I don't know what it says about me that I'd be comfortable with it right now, but it's true. I feel safe with you. [ Her fingers curl under into a fist, still resting above his heart. ] Maybe it has to do with how alone I feel in this place, and how I don't feel that when I'm with you.

[ She takes a quick, deep breath and keeps barrelling forward in her sudden introspective confession. ]

Ever since I joined SHIELD, I've lived with my team. I chose to stay here so I could be around other people; I haven't been on my own since just after Lincoln died. [ Those words come so much more easily than she ever thought they could. ] But the more nightmares I have... the more dangerous that seems.

I feel safe with you... [ Her voice breaks a little. ] But you might not be safe with me.

[ I feel safe with you.

Those words practically take his breath away. No one has ever said that to him. Neal Caffrey isn't the kind of person who makes others feel safe. That position belongs to people like Peter, like Raylan, like Doc. Like Daisy herself.

He brushes his knuckles gently against her cheek. ]

I'm willing to risk it.

Edited 2021-01-26 05:47 (UTC)

[ She wants to argue, to make him see reason, but there's a part of her that always wants to respect his choice. He knows what she's capable of, generally speaking, and if he's still wanting to be with her... She can think it's a bad idea all she wants, but she also wants desperately to have a normal night with the guy she really likes. There's a battle raging in her that only calms when she leans in for another soft kiss. ]

Then stay. It doesn't have to be tonight, but... whenever. Any time.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject