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.

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"Hmh," Doc grunts as he drapes the dishcloth over his shoulder and starts on his cup and the few dishes in the sink. "Much as I would advocate for the direct approach, 'Raylan, I don't think you're evil' is not how I would be starting that conversation." It's a bit lacking in the uh... Southern Charm department.

"Having said that, I think you're overthinking it. Just go with the flow. And if that's what ends up coming out, you can just roll with it." Probably easier said than done and requires more practice than it looks, but he doubts Raylan knows what he's doing either. They can be idiots together.

"...Yeah, I don't tend to start any conversations with my thought process. Like I said: nobody likes it."

He took a sip of his own tea, moving out of Doc's way to perch on one of the stools at the island.

"I'm just saying... when people don't think you're a bad man... it's not necessarily hero worship."

That's funny. Doc starts his conversations with his thought process. Just about all the time, in fact. In this instance, maybe it should be something Malcolm does more of and Doc does less of.

"Maybe framing other men as 'good' and 'bad' isn't all that useful. Nobody knows anybody else and their deeds well enough to pass that sort of judgement. Sometimes the more you think you know someone, insisting they're good or bad or whatever you think of them, the more certain they are you don't know 'em at all." In Raylan's case perhaps the 'less is more' approach might work out better. He can work through his own... whatever issues he thinks he's got in his own time if he isn't told repeatedly what the science and the behaviour people believe about said issues.

"It's hard to be the recipient of kindness and pretend it isn't kindness," Malcolm said quietly. "I don't normally... tell him what I think of him. Only if he asks or if he says something I don't agree with. It's never... I don't spontaneously just tell him how great he is. That wouldn't be keeping anything a secret at all, would it?" he pointed out with an awkward laugh.

Oh, Malcolm. You are not subtle at all.

"How would you ever know if he is capable of returning your sentiments if you never give voice to them?" Doc has maintained that people sharing the same house shouldn't keep too many secrets from each other. He hasn't changed his stance on that.

"If the last time I saw Raylan was the last time I ever saw him, he knows what I think of him. And if this was to be our last conversation, you know what I think of you, too. I don't think anyone should leave this god-forsaken place with any regrets. If for no other reason than that, there is some value in the occasional spontaneous compliment."

Malcolm looked down into his cup, both hands wrapped around it as it sat on the counter.

"He knows I value his friendship. And that I think he's a good person."

"Long as that's good enough for you, for right now." Baby steps will take them somewhere else somewhere down the line. But maybe they can afford to dally a bit in this place.

"You okay for willow bark?" he asks with his back turned to the sink, drying his hands. While he's happy for Malcolm to linger, Doc anticipates he will be handing Malcolm off soon, to Raylan or anyone else who might want to borrower the profiler for the afternoon.

"I'm. Um. Getting a little low, actually. I didn't want to... bother you about it. I wasted some. Dropped a couple of cups that had some in it," he admitted, shifting uncomfortably.

"It happens. Maybe we should find you something made out of plastic, or wood." Doc doesn't care for the breakage or the apparent waste but he's worried about Malcolm cutting and burning himself.

"I found some plastic cups on the Amazon before," he declares. All that googling has been affecting his targeted ads. "The internet used to try to sell me whiskey and ammo. Now it's got all this weird shit people buy for infants." Modular, stackable plastic cups included. 21st century parents. It all seems so complicated.

"I am sure there is something more dignified to be found here for you."

"....Maybe we can find one of those metal... camping cups?" he suggested. He was worried they'd find plastic that wasn't suitable for hot liquids. "It's rustic here. There must be... camping stuff somewhere," Malcolm mused.

"Hm. I'll see what I can find." Maybe he'll hit up that house that had the anchor rope, for the bridge. It seems like as good a place as any to start.

"With any luck they'll have a hunting knife and a tent, too." For when it's warm enough to be sleeping outside. Not that the snow and chill would stop Doc from making himself comfortable in the ice.

"What... do you need a tent for?" Malcolm asks suspiciously. The use of a camping knife is obvious.

"Sleeping in the backyard if anyone else would like to stay with us," Doc answers almost immediately with a small shrug. They can maybe squeeze in one more person and then they're either going to have to do something about the garage or Doc is sleeping outside.

“What? No,” Malcolm said immediately. “You’re not sleeping outside! It’s winter! And you and Raylan started this house. Why can’t we modify the garage? We could make two bedrooms as roomy as the ones upstairs or four perfectly serviceable smaller ones,” he insisted.

"We didn't start anything. He picked me up off the side of the road one night, not long before he met you." Yeah, okay, maybe that is starting something. It wasn't a conscious decision though.

"We don't have much by way of building or cladding material. Wouldn't be much warmer in there." Or less noisy. "Suppose it would keep us busy though. Our own home renovation project." Maybe there's nothing wrong with making themselves a little more comfortable even if they're still fantasising about escape.

"It's alright Malcolm. I would still be outside under an old rug if I hadn't met Raylan. I'm not picking a fight with mother nature."

"We can get building material from the houses that aren't being used. Ones that are already broken. The one I met Raylan in the first day I was here, where he was tearing the pipes out of the walls. We could get wood and insulation there. We just need lots of insulation. Lots of it. And maybe we can salvage a wood stove from one of the houses or garages just for heating in there," he said, becoming more animated as he went on, gesturing to the garage with both arms. "And we have to seal around the bay door. I'm sure we can find something to do that with."

Well, someone has surely given this a lot of thought.

"I'm surprised you haven't started on this project already," he muses. Doc is less comfortable about ripping apart perfectly good houses - the town might suddenly boom in size, the way it did on the first day they arrived. Raylan did board up those windows too, anticipating... maybe other people. Doc didn't think he was fruitlessly passing the time - they could have used those precious floorboards as firewood. The Marshal chose charity and compassion over selfishness and comfort. Destroying a good, functioning thing may not sit well with him. The places that are already little more than glorified debris, however, he would happily assist in taking apart if required.

"If it is something you would like to do, I am happy to lend a hand. And I am sure Raylan would be, too." He's always silently pining for something to do, to make himself feel as useful as he is, unlike Doc who has found ways to keep himself busy and doesn't feel the compulsion or the need for reassurance.

"I... don't really have experience with the actual... building... things," he admitted. Look at this rich kid, Doc. Look at his soft rich boy hands. "I understand the principles; I'm just not sure I can... execute it myself. But I'd be happy to help you and Raylan with it."

"My father taught me a few things that I would be happy to teach you." There is no real need to read into the offer or the lineage of this passing on of inherited skills. It is just Doc offering to share what he knows. He did not have the same kind of ambivalent, troubled relationship with his father as Malcolm does. Or Raylan. Or Neal, for that matter.

"You have to get your hands dirty sometime." As long as each soft rich boy hand has a few functioning fingers and a decent thumb, Malcolm can contribute plenty.

"I'd love to learn some... tricks of the trade from you," Malcolm said with a smile. He had a problematic relationship with his father, but he had a father figure in his life who taught him a lot. "I just don't know where to start. But if you have some time to set aside for it... we could do a little each day."

"I always have time for you," he promises. Doc makes time in his day for everyone who might want it. Time probably works differently in Mathias which could possibly explain how he seems to have 30 hours to spend in a day on everyone he wants to spend it with.

"But, we need some rules. Like putting the tools down if you think you're starting to feel unwell." They'll keep the lessons short and the time spent with dangerous sharp or blunt objects even shorter. He doesn't want to have to forcibly disarm Malcolm if he's hallucinating and swinging a hammer around.

Malcolm smiled at the assertion that Doc always had time for him, but it faltered as the rules came up.

Right. He hadn’t thought about that; he could be a danger to them with a hammer or a screwdriver in his hand.

He looked down and nodded.

“Maybe I should just. Hand you guys things. Fetch and carry.”

"No," Doc protests. "I would make a real man out of you yet." Not that Malcolm isn't a real man, but that particular phrasing speaks to a culture with remnants that still resonate today of what masculinity entails.

"I would not let an improbable outcome stop you from trying new things."

Malcolm's brow pinches faintly at the phrasing 'real man', but he doesn't comment on it; he understands where it comes from.

He would like to try the thing.

"Okay. I'll give it a shot," he says. "Thank you. I'll let you... get on with things. Maybe I'll see if Neal or Raylan has come home. Run this by them."

He is far more open than most men of his time but from time to time Doc still slips up when it comes to those deeply entrenched values about what it means to be a man, a gentleman, how he should treat men and how differently he should treat a lady.

"Alright. If I find any supplies in the meantime I will bring them back."

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abrightboy - 2021-02-10 00:45 (UTC) - Expand

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