030-035 » a-hunting they will go

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central Mathias.
WHEN: Days 030-035
WHAT: Unexpected changes come to Mathias, followed by a Hunt.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here! And shiny new CR meme too.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Marco Beltrami "It Hears You"

DAYS 030-032
A CHANGE IN CIRCUMSTANCES
The day after the earthquake dawns like any other in Mathias Township. The sky is a light winter grey, clouds obscuring even a hint of true sunlight, and snow falls off and on in dustings that rest atop the piles left from the storm a few days past. The air is bitterly cold, a gentle wind feeling like ice in the sub-freezing temperatures, and residents should be grateful that the earthquake didn't do more damage than just breaking a few household objects.

It seems like business as usual. It will not be until the second day that residents will begin to notice the difference.

The General Store's shelves have not been restocked. Items in kitchens have not replenished in the passing night. Food from the previous day has aged as normal, and as the days continue to pass, things will begin to grow stale or become moldy as they would in the outside world. Two days pass, three, four... Still, the food does not return.

Perhaps rationing should be considered.



NEW ARRIVALS
The newest arrivals to Mathias will wake on the snowy beach near the Grey Gull restaurant. They should probably hurry inside and get warmed up before hypothermia sets in or something finds them out in the cold...

---

DAYS 033-034
IN THE NIGHT, IN THE DARK
These days, too, seem to be simply more of the same. The days are cold and grey, the food does not replenish, and they continue to be trapped in this eerie town. But when night falls, the story changes.

An hour after sunset, it begins. Scratching sounds at walls, like something searching for a way inside. The ominous feeling of something out there in the darkness, moving through the town, stalking through the night. The inability to find any sign of something being there at all. It's enough to make anyone feel like they're going mad. To happen just one night, it could be a fluke, a trick of the mind as so many things here seem to be. But to happen a second night, with more intensity... There is something there, or they are going mad.

It's hard to know which to hope for.

DAY 035
THE HUNT
This day is not like the others. There is something in the air, a dreadful anticipation that rises inside them all as the hours pass. Every moment that brings them closer to nightfall brings it closer too — if only they knew what it was.

An hour after sunset, the Hunt begins.

Those who are outside at this time are gripped by such terror that they can do nothing but run and be chased. They are prey and the predators that stalk them with steadfast determination are creatures never meant to be seen by mortal eyes. All lights outside go out, from streetlamps to flashlights, and the world descends into deeper darkness, only the clouded moonlight and curtained glow from illuminated houses lighting their way as they flee.

Those who are inside at this time are trapped in their safe havens. No doors or windows can be opened from within, nothing can be broken or forced, and they can do nothing but wait and listen while their friends and neighbors are pursued by creatures whose very presence they can feel in their bones and whose growls echo in the night, entwined with the screams of their victims.

In the thick darkness, these creatures appear little more than shadows, large and looming, deadly and unknown, but in rare glimpses in scattered pieces of light, the Hunted are met with a sight they cannot comprehend and will never be able to properly describe or fully remember, for these creatures cannot be fathomed within the limits of the human mind.

The Hunt lasts for one hour exactly and then the creatures vanish into the darkness, leaving only fear and death in their wake.


ABOUT THE HUNT
— Players may choose to have their resident be one of the Hunted or a Witness to the Hunt. None are exempt from the the Hunt and all will be affected by it in some way.

— Those who are hunted must flee the creatures or they will die. The Hunted may move throughout the town at any speed, for the creatures may choose to move both quickly or slowly, but the creatures will always inevitably find them. The only escape is to seek shelter — the creatures will not enter a building where living people are, but they will follow the Hunted into buildings where there are no other living people.

— Those who are trapped within buildings at the start of the Hunt are unable to open doors and windows from within, but the Hunted may open them from outside in order to take shelter in these safe havens.

— Those who are hunted are unable to fight back against the creatures until the moments just before their death. This is due the creatures only having physical form in these final moments, rendering any attacks against them useless, whether they be physical, magical, or psychic in nature. Attempts may be made in those moments before death, but by then it is too late — the prey has been caught.

— When one of the Hunted is caught, there is no escaping, there is only screaming in madness as death falls painfully upon them. No one can come to their aid and their body will be found afterward, the bloody remains ripped and torn apart by something that cannot be identified. Large sprays and pools of blood stain the area around the corpse, turning the snow sickening shade of crimson that darkens as the hours pass.

— After the creatures have vanished, there are no signs of them to be found in the snow. There are no tracks or marks of any kind save for the carnage of the fresh kill.

— Those who have been sacrificed to the Hunt will revive two days later on Day 037. The conditions in which they revive will be detailed later, but there will be only minor lasting physical damage from the Hunt.

— The Hunted will lose 5 points of sanity. Those Witnesses who find the corpses will lose 2 points of sanity, or 3 points if they are not unaccustomed to this type of sight. Others who are merely Witnesses to the sounds of Hunt may choose to lose 1 point of sanity as a result of the experience.

---

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— THE WEATHER is fairly typical of a northern winter. The sky is almost always grey, the temperature is below freezing during the day (and colder at night), and a light snow falls intermittently. The sun sets early in the evening. Residents should bundle up when going outside and not venture too far into the dark night...

— THE FOG remains blocking the paths in the forest beginning a few dozen yards past the treeline, urging residents to stay huddled within the town proper, and it also now blocks the northern section of town, beginning just past Hill Lane, before where residents know the chasm in the earth to be between Hill and Stine Road. Venturing into the fog is ill-advised.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue. Sherlock Holmes is still missing, and Phil Coulson, John Constantine, Zed Martin, and Helen Magnus have vanished as well.

---

OOC NOTES

— FOOD will be restocked in some fashion in the next full log, don't worry. We aren't going full survival mode yet.

— DAY 036 The next log will cover Day 36 only and will include the locations of deaths and any corpse burials that occur the night of Day 35 or are planned for Day 36. (There will be prompts included for both the "living" and the "dead" in this single day log.) Please submit all information by Wednesday, Feb 17.

— MOD STATUS It's mostly just Amy steering this ship for now, so things will probably be pretty slow for a while. Apologies in advance, and please don't feel shy about pinging me if you're stuck waiting for something.

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Comments

Doc Holliday | Wynonna Earp

[thering]

(Plotting Post)

Day 31 @ Ellie

[thering]

After a night that can be considered uneventful following the one spent having a terrible time trapped underground in the dark with Raylan, Doc is still not much in the mood for talking. He went through the motions of the morning and left the house as soon as he could, going on a long stroll around the town before circling back to Ellie and Yennefer's house next door.

He doesn't seem overly shaken or irreparably broken when he knocks on their door but he can't quite muster up a forced smile or any sort of small talk when Ellie lets him in, muttering a quiet 'thanks' and slipping in past her, returning automatically to that spot he likes to stand in behind the couch, sitting on the backrest.

"Ellie," he starts, so rarely addressing her without a 'Miss' prefix, "I uh... came to talk to you. What you were thinking, about there being underground passages. You were right." He's starting to get stressed just talking about it, unable to keep completely still, one hand rubbing the ring on the other.

[enduresurvive]

Doc tends to at least be good at faking a smile when he comes to check on her. So she's immediately sure something is up. Besides that, it's just Ellie today. She prefers that, but Doc just has a way about him.

She follows him to the living room and sits a bit away on the couch, perching on the edge. It's rare she sits all the way back. She has too much wound up tension to even pretend to relax. The closest she gets to relaxing is playing guitar, and even that is loaded.

She's surprised at his news, though.

"What, really? There's really tunnels? Oh shit. Did you...did you go down there?" She knows that's not exactly the first thing he wants to do, but he's sure acting like he's had something upsetting happen. She can only assume it has to do with being in a tunnel.

[thering]

"I did. It is... vast. While it does not mirror the layout of the streets up here, the network of tunnels appear to connect the whole town." However it is dark and very scary and if he were to give a rating it would be a solid, not recommended at all 0/10. What kind of underground network doesn't have motion-activated floor lights that illuminate the way to an emergency exit?

"It... would be good to gather a few people, sometime." Not Doc though. And not Raylan. They'd happily look for trapdoors or find other tasks above ground to busy themselves with. "Try to find as many ways in and out and draw a map, so that we may meet even during the most averse weather conditions and go to the store to resupply."

[enduresurvive]

She listens and considers. She hadn't really expected to be right. Or if she was, she wasn't thinking there would be anything complex.

"Who the fuck designed this town?" she asks, but that's rhetorical. Tunnels don't just appear, after all. Someone had designed it, executed it. But why? It can't just be the weather thing. It's been obvious from the start that some crazy shit happened here.

"If there's that much, we should probably try to do a map, yeah. I could put something on the bulletin board. But fuck, I wish we had more weapons. My little knife is just one little knife."

She has no idea what might be down there. If there are people, they might not be friendly. If there's something other than people, it's almost certainly not friendly.

Day 32 @ OTA

[thering]

He should have noticed it sooner, but he hasn't made a supply run since resurfacing from underground until now and now that he has, he has found that the other 1306 residents have gone on ahead to do the sensible thing. Perishables to be cooked and finished out of the fridge first. Anything in the 1307 and other adjacent vacated houses' fridges were cleared out and brought back to 1306. They had started planning on using a few frozen things except for the peas which Doc insisted be set aside for burns and any other potential injuries. They hadn't yet made a sizeable dent into his stockpile in the garage, but he was happy to see three cans being used out of it, feeling somewhat justified in what might have been considered overly paranoid hoarding tendencies.

The fridges were clearly working so Doc couldn't imagine it was just their houses that were affected by the food supply problem. Mindful as he is about rationing what they would need to sustain themselves, it wouldn't have been right to let everyone else starve. Doc takes a few surplus items off the garage shelf; a small bag of rice, a packet of beans and canned fish is not much, but it's better than nothing. He also has enough space blankets and bandaids to go around after weeks of collecting surplus first aid kits.

Throughout the daylight hours he makes the rounds that start to feel familiar to him now, starting at 1304, then 1301, then the Boarding House, and begrudgingly over to 1387. The cowboy with the black hat might also be spotted taking detours to the clothing store and making a few other stops throughout Mathias along the way.

Early Afternoon

[abrightboy]

After getting back from his morning with Neal, Malcolm heard noise from the garage. He wondered if someone was preparing for the addition they’d been discussing. He opened the door and stepped out only to find Doc counting the pile of cans stashed in there.

It didn’t seem casual, but it was hard to tell by either his or Raylan’s body language since they came out of the hole.

“What’s up? Do you need some help?”

[thering]

It's been a couple of days since Malcolm and Neal fished them out of their shaft but Doc hasn't really come back right and it's not clear whether his lack of interest in making too much conversation - already a bit of a problem from before, but at least before, he was happily chatting away when it came to humorous old stories or dispensing advice nobody asked for - is a permanent feature or just something he will need some time to get over. Still, he always finds ways around words, and he acknowledges Malcolm entering the garage with a half-turn of his head over his shoulder and a quiet little 'mmh' before setting aside the can of tuna that happens to be in his hand.

"Just keeping others fed." He didn't stockpile enough for the whole town, and it feels selfish to have to pick and choose who he can provide for. But making sure Ellie will be okay next door is a priority for him, and by proxy Yennefer who is staying with her. The other young ladies he has gotten to know, too - Claire, Daisy, Elena. And of course, he's planning on giving the Hargreeves brothers whatever he thinks they can spare.

[abrightboy]

"From your stash?"

Malcolm always thought the stash was a prudent precaution.

"Why? Is someone injured? Can't go to the store?"

[waywardsister]

"Aw, look at you. You come bearing gifts."

Last time they really spoke was when Claire was trying to dig up her own corpse.

Not the most dignified day of her life, that, if life is what you could call the existence here, especially after dying and then waking up elsewhere, while your corpse was still hanging about the place.

Mathias sucks, but at least most of the people don't. Claire smiles a little.

"You guys holding up okay?"

[thering]

"Yes. We will be alright." At least for this week. Next week is... well. It is another matter entirely. They might not even make it until tomorrow, and not because of their present food situation.

"I see things are getting lively in this house, also." They have almost as many people as in 1306. It must be a double-edged sword to have so many familiar faces from home. Comforting maybe but also despair at knowing what this place would put them through.

"If you are busy I would not stay long," he offers. She can politely kick him off her porch then.

[waywardsister]

"You kidding me? No, please, stay. This has become the house of sad Dads, I could use literally any other company for a hot second."

She loves Cas, Dean and Sam, of course. She'd kill for them and die for them. Doesn't mean sometimes they don't drive her up the wall, same as her family back home. But worse because of a certain Situation maybe.

Men. More precisely: These men.

"Wanna come in?"

Boarding house

[bestfuneralever]

Klaus is tugging on boots to make a trek to the store, like he usually does most days. He's on his way out the door when he finds Doc on the other side of it, hand poised to knock, but not getting to make the effort just yet. "Oh- hey." he blinks in surprise; it's always a little jarring when you find someone on the other side of the door unexpectedly. (Ignoring the fact that it wouldn't have been so unexpected three seconds later).

"What're you doing here?" Because something tells him it isn't just to say hey, with... whatever it is he's carrying, there, in hand.

[thering]

Huffing a quiet, relieved sigh at managing to catch at least one of them at home, Doc cracks a smile and lowers his hand, raising his bag of gifts that clink and clank against each other.

"I thought the two of you might need these in the coming days." Even though it's barely enough to last a day or two. He did manage to put in a half pack of smokes though. That is one of few things that is always in short supply around here.

"Where were you going?" he asks quietly as he steps inside and offers Klaus the small bag of groceries.

[bestfuneralever]

He can't stop the mirror of Doc's smile on his own lips. It softens further at the pushed point and he reaches to take the items. "Thanks..." He frowns a little. "It's still not- refilling, I take it?" He makes a vague motion for Doc to follow him inside; it's fucking cold out there, and there's no reason to hang in the doorway.

He leads the way back into the living area downstairs, leaning against the back of the couch. "Nowhere, I was just gonna check the store... I've been checking back every day since stuff stopped coming back." He sounds nervous about it, to say the least.

[descendent]

It really shouldn't surprise her. Henry had been kind to her within moments of meeting, and he continues to be a calming presence in a town that feels like it's turning everything she knows inside and out.

Although she's holding out hope the General Store will replenish once more, not even her denial can keep her from worrying. Walking into the common room of the Boarding House, she's ready to head out and make the General Store stock up once more. She's dressed in a thick winter coat and wrapping her scarf around her neck when she spies him.

Henry, with what appears to be a care package. For someone who seems to think he's out of place in a town like this, he's the one making her feel like she belongs.

She smiles, feeling touched and incredulity all at once. "You really have a knack for taking care of people, don't you?"

[thering]

"Well I'm usually much better at shooting people, but that wasn't in the cards when we got here." That probably doesn't make her feel any better, but he doubts there are any genuinely good people in this town. They're all just frustrated and trying to get by.

"I've been plucking a few extra items off the shelves at the end of the day over the past few weeks." Not that anyone had poked fun at his hoarding or had told him he was being overly paranoid, but he doesn't want her to feel like she's taking from anyone else at this point. They have enough to last. For a little while, anyway.

"How have you been holding up?" He wouldn't stop her or keep her hanging around too long if she was headed somewhere. She looked about ready to march on out there and pick a fight with an abominable snowman.

[descendent]

Elena lets out a hard breath. "I'm okay." It's better than her go-to word of 'Fine'. She's not fine, but is anyone? Mathias was a town that played by its own rules. Just as soon as she understood something, it was ripped right out from underneath her.

But she can't complain. At least Elijah is still in town. Henry, others who have proved to be comforting presences are still here. Maybe she's horrible for being grateful for that.

"How have you been?" Her brows furrow as she looks back at his little care package, worry beginning to swell in her gut. "Hopefully you didn't use up all of your extra items for everyone else."

Day 34 AM @ Yennefer

[thering]

He should have probably started on this sooner but Doc doesn't think he has much of a green thumb, never quite living out someone else's dream to be a farmer and not knowing if he would be any good at it. Still, it's better late than never when it comes to starting. Nothing would grow any sooner by delaying any attempts, and even a few herbs might go a long way for them psychologically feeling accomplished even if it wouldn't solve any food shortages and they can't live off of a few droopy leaves from the windowsill plant.

He returns to the greenhouse and botanical shop thinking he might be alone, and is surprised to find Yennefer there. Perhaps she has the same idea? It... still comes as a bit of a surprise sometimes, to be so similar and yet several universes apart.

"Ma'am," he greets with a tip of his hat, no doubt a completely foreign gesture to her, standing outside the botanical shop in a funny, uncanny mirror of how he left her when they first met. She makes him feel comfortable and at ease enough to rest his forearm on the doorframe at the same level as his forehead, as though this shop belongs to one of them and he comes by frequently.

"Don't suppose you've found any sage to ward off the undead raccoon dwelling in my walls?"

[liliowy]

He will find her cleaning, within the shop. The accumulated mess on one of the counters is swept aside, bottles and pots stacked into a wooden crate. The doors to the greenhouse are propped open, cold wafting in from the thin structure beyond and into the space proper.

It smells musty, of old soil and dust and dead leaves.

Arguably, this wouldn’t be her preferred pastime, but it’s better than idle hands. She needs a workshop, else she turn her shared kitchen into one, and she refuses to be relegated into the position of just some kitchen witch.

Eliot may have been scarce as of late, but she wasn’t going to complain about anyone staying out of her way.

She’s on a small step-stool, searching the wooden shelf when Doc arrives, making her look over to him with mild surprise.

There’s something familiar in the manner of greeting - perhaps not exactly in the gesture, insofar as it has been only unique to him - but in the comfort of it, the casualness. It reminds her of the time working as a mage, stuck in some quiet town before she flitted through it like a tornado.

Except she won’t be gone the next morning here. Luxury of a fickle habit taken from her.

“Mm, is the scratching starting to itch?” a small hop down, hands dusted off in her approach. “I haven't had much luck finding the source."

[thering]

"I thought I might take a look but the company in 1306 is too pleasant to be taking the wall apart." He wouldn't be particularly gentle about it. She didn't chase him away or tell him the area is off-limits so he is approaching boldly. He had briefly seen her yesterday when he came by to drop off some food to tie them over for a little bit. He is planning on spending a little more time here today.

"Actually I was considering planting a few things. But I see the shelves have mostly been emptied." Doc doesn't seem overly disappointed by that revelation though. Better that people who know more than him attempt to grow anything than he does.

[liliowy]

She had just about been ready to take a particularly hard object to the walls herself. It had almost been their phone. But the noise hardly reacted to her magic, poking and prodding at the chaos of this place only to come up empty. She doubted a well aimed block of anything would have done a better job.

It unsettled her more than she was willing to admit.

So, she turns to a topic she can address better, head canting to the side before her gaze slides away from him and to the rest of the shop.

Food will become scarce soon, she can imagine, unless they find their own resource. She doesn’t think it’s necessary to point out that this was exactly what she was talking about earlier - the purported table scraps. A reminder than none of them here are in control. Never mind that she still wasn’t sure how to react to Doc’s continued insistence on giving a damn about the people in this town, her included by proxy.

“They hadn’t been terribly well stocked to begin with, but there’s - more seeds in the greenhouse,” she seems almost pleasantly surprised at his interest. “Soil too.”

“I had planned on doing the same,” there’s a stack of pots further to the side. A carafe of water, too. “I’m curious what will come of it. Join me.” It’s an offer, though out of her mouth it never sounds as such. A thorny habit.

Day 34 PM @ Neal

[thering]

He might not have been actively counting the sleeps, but he knows it's been more than a month. A month of unpleasantness with few morsels of good news and blessings to tie him over. Weeks of watching Malcolm get progressively worse, like a familiar, degenerative sort of illness he would not wish upon anyone, a helpless and impotent spectator to someone else's ruin. He can handle being displaced - twice. He can handle being the stalwart gargoyle posted up to watch over the house, keeping up the pretense that he only has the emotional capacity of a garden gnome. He didn't handle being stuck underground with Raylan, but they made it out intact.

But when he's alone in 1307 after sampling the latest batch, staring at the rug with its corner folded up revealing the edge of the trapdoor, he thinks maybe it's fine to drop his garden gnome chirpiness and give in to the frustration. Take it out on whatever is crawling in the wall.

It's late in the evening when some impromptu demolition work commences in 1307. The doors are closed and for the most part the noise doesn't carry much outside. But there is a muted sort of thumping and his silhouette moving in the window as he swings the pipe wrench repeatedly into a hopefully non-load bearing wall.

[conning]

Neal's on his way back from checking the Grey Gull and the General Store to see if the food stores had replenished. No joy. He knew the people in 1306 would be all right, thanks to Doc, but he was starting to get substantially worried. From his count--from the little hatchmarks he's started making in secret on the bedroom wall--it's been 34 days since the first arrival. Thirteen days since his own.

He's trying very hard not to think about the perfect lines of hatchmarks that he'd kept on his prison cell walls. At least in prison they'd been sure of the food. What would happen when the supplies in Mathias finally ran out? A little thread of tension hums through him like a violin string just touched with a bow. He's scared. It's not the same kind of acute fear he felt in the tunnel with Will or in the Gull with Daisy. It's low-grade and persistent and he knows it will only get worse. There are too many well-publicized stories of what happens to desperate people when there's nothing left to eat. He's not sure whether the idea of being a victim scares him more than the idea of being willing to eat another person. It's not something he's ever had to think about before.

He doesn't want to be someone who would do that to another person.

Neal's so caught up in his thoughts he almost misses the shadows and sounds as he walks past 1307. Almost. The fight-or-flight brain that's been growing ever sharper over the past two weeks kicks in the moment the sound properly registers, and Neal freezes until he spots where it's coming from.

He can think of very few people who would have reason to be in 1307, particularly at this time of day, particularly after what happened so recently. He glances toward 1306, thinking he should get backup, thinking he should leave well enough alone, but...

But what if one of them is in trouble right now?

He slips through the front door as quietly as possible, still poised to run the moment he feels the need.

When he peers around the corner into the room where the now-much-louder bashing noises are coming from, he freezes again, eyes wide. Seeing Doc hammering away at the wall is like seeing Peter lose his temper. It's shocking. A little frightening. Malcolm would be so much better suited to this situation. He would know what to do, what to say. As it is, all Neal can think of is to step fully into the room. He starts to move toward Doc, then stops, wondering if the temper will be turned on him if he gets too close and promptly being ashamed of the thought.

He clears his throat. "This batch not turn out so well?"

[thering]

Hearing another person's voice cutting through the ruckus has Doc freezing like he's been caught red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar, and with some reluctance he lowers his pipe wrench. He probably would have kept swinging until he brought the whole roof down on himself. Raylan would be pissed off about losing this batch of shine.

"I uh..." There's really no excusing what Neal is bearing witness to. Doc leans the wrench against the wall - what's left of it - and clears his throat, dusting his hands off and leaving white patches and streaks on his jeans.

"Everything tastes better with a bit of added drywall," he tries to joke it off. It comes off a little awkward.

"Everything okay, Neal?" Doc needs a minute of panting and calming down before he can 'Mister Caffrey' this. Well, Malcolm did mention he wanted to do up an extra bedroom in the garage. There's... some cladding falling out of the wall now. And some extra pieces to be used as firewood... still, Doc isn't sure how to talk himself out of this one and still pretend everything is fine.