024-027 » neither reward nor punishment

[villagemod]

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.

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Comments

[thering]

There are many questions to be asked there about what she means by that. He has summarised a lot in what he has told her and she hasn't told him everything either.

"I do not believe so. But sometimes I do think it would have been better to have accepted my condition and died." Surely she must feel the same, if she has lived a few lifetimes already. It can get dreary. Especially if you are the only one, or one amongst very few, to outlive everyone else around you. Watch them die, get a little colder and harder with each passing generation.

[liliowy]

Perhaps a conversation for when the either of them had a bit more familiarity shared between them. Sometimes unspoken understanding just wasn't enough to jump into sharing the extent of their tragic backstories.

"Mm," she can, in fact, relate to the sentiment, silvered scars still a reminder on her wrists. "And yet here you are, for better or worse. " It doesn't sound like she's referring to just him.

She was taught an odd sort of acceptance of her long life; it was all around her, and Aretuza assured her isolation. Sorceresses were always so easily removed from everything else. Maybe it made watching other die around you easier, but it mattered a bit less when you had no legacy to speak of.

But he, on the opposite end, seems the sort who, despite the years and the cruelty of a long imprisonment, in what little he actually told her, held on to something distinctly sincere. Patient and perhaps kind.

They'd both known cruelty, she thinks. But they might have grown from it in different ways.

"To think, I would have been robbed of your company otherwise," it doesn't sound like an insult, curled in subtle, dry humour. She tosses another look at the shops around them, at the white of the snow that her eyes are finally used to, breath clouding from her exhale.

[thering]

"Well for no other reason than to have made your acquaintance I am glad to have survived," he says, teasing right back. There is no mockery or sarcasm in his voice. It is not his preferred way of communicating until they are much better acquainted.

"We are coming up to the clothing store now," he gestures as they pass it. It is unremarkable in every way and Doc doesn't stop to let her admire the farming convention's latest innovations in buttons and buttonholes before continuing northward towards the botanical shop. He would return on his own another day to find a swatch of similar fabric and shade to mend the hole in her dress.

"And this is the florist, here." It is next to the greenhouse so once she knows where to find it, it is not easy to miss.

"Mind your head ma'am, going in." A low hanging beam and wayward vines threaten to trip people up.

[liliowy]

It's a good thing they keep walking. She's not sure how much more questionable button choices her sensibilities could take. The location is noted, but her attention doesn't linger on it long.

She drifts a step towards the entrance of the botanical shop instead, eyeing the settling, dried vines, snow nestled between their hard stems. She halts, for a moment, to turn fully to face him.

It is fairly easy to see that gratitude doesn't come easy to her, but the subtle smile is just enough to pinch the corners of her eyes, less cutting than before.

"Thank you." He didn't need to do any of this, and even if her side aches, it has been alleviated in time. "Should you require magical talents, I would insist you come find me. I can at least offer that, without the insult of entrapment." And, it makes her feel better, fragile ego and all. Less of outwardly accepting help, and more offering a trade. She can understand if he won't, but at least it was an option.

"And it's Yennefer," she doesn't mind ma'am much, but still, it feels like a point she should make. A gust picks up flecks of snow around them, cutting through the fabric decorated by winking polar bears. Even in the crisp cold, in the conversational space between them, Doc might still think of the oddly particular scent of lilac and gooseberries, before she takes another step away.

[thering]

"...I am a little wary of magic," he admits after she had gone inside, taking a moment to place and name the scent. Hard not to be seeing how it has ruined a great many things, and not many people have benefited from it at all.

"But I will call upon you," he promises. Whether she is next door or has found somewhere else to stay.

"Do you need some time alone? Should I wait here?" He has been inside already, taken what he wanted. He does not wish to get in her way should she decide to turn the place upside down.

[liliowy]

Considering what he just told her, that's not unfair.

Even more so, it isn't as though she can blame him. She may owe a lot to magic, to her magic, but she just as well knows how different her life would have been without it, pig shit and all. Not everything she endured because of her power was worth remembering.

She peers back out from the doorway. "Consider your chivalrous duties fulfilled, Henry," is the light tease. His assessment was pretty spot on - she'd every intention of turning this place on its end, and was likely to bowl over someone in the process. "I'll fetch my dress after I speak with Ellie."

[thering]

"Alright ma'am. 'Yennefer'," he corrects himself. He doesn't feel right to leave her here by herself, especially with her injury, but if she's going to consider and actually ends up staying with Ellie, he might feel reassured enough to leave her.

"Perhaps you might like to return after a day or two instead," he offers, one hand on his hip and the other forearm raised up to his forehead level, scratching his eyebrow, lingering outside.

"I can check on how you are healing up at the same time."