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

[abrightboy]

Malcolm noticed the clenching of the fist, the tension in Doc's frame. He watched him sidelong as they walked down the front walk.

"Raylan's been drinking two plus bottles a day," Malcolm observed. "You were kind of there before the hatch. Are you sure you don't want to get anything off your chest?"

[thering]

"I haven't noticed." Which is only a bit of a lie, but. He's been drinking downstairs, often in the garage so he can smoke there too. Raylan sometimes joins him. Sometimes doesn't. Whatever happened in the hole has clearly been more than a little traumatising for them both. They are still finding their way back to each other.

"We're fine." Doc's been sleeping on the couch in front of the fireplace. He needs the light. "Has he been treating you right?" Doc thinks Raylan's been sleeping on the mattress on the floor next to Malcolm but he honestly hasn't checked.

[abrightboy]

“Raylan? I haven’t seen much of him after the day you got back,” Malcolm told him. “Of either of you, really. You’ve both been distant and... relying on even more coping mechanisms than usual. I’m concerned.”

[thering]

Mum and dad didn't really fight, per se. But they might need some time and space, still, before they can regain some sense of normalcy.

"We weren't fond of being stuck underground. It will pass." Doc lets himself into the house, 1305 Phillips Drive. Given its proximity you would think he might have come here before on more than one occasion but he's not familiar with the layout, nearly tripping over a chair on his way towards the kitchen.

"Have you talked to him or... are you just asking me?" He doesn't want to accidentally not corroborate anything Raylan might have said.

[abrightboy]

"I talked to him the night you got back. But I'm not asking you about him. I'm asking you about you. I'm just saying you're both displaying stress reactions that are understandable in the circumstances but need to be worked through, not... bottled up." He looked at Doc sidelong. "I have traumatic claustrophobia, too. I know it's not much to complain about compared to 130 years in a hole, but... when I was seventeen, another kid at my school locked me in a broom closet for an entire long weekend. Three days in the dark with no food or water. The janitor found me on the floor when he showed up for work on Monday morning. That was when my psychogenic tremor really got bad."

[thering]

"I'm working through them." Bottling up is considered working through, for him. Or emptying the bottle, even more so. He gives a wary look over at Malcolm and his eyebrows furrow before starts going through the pantry and filling up his crate. There is some pasta and a few small glass jars of herbs, powdered mustard and a few other things that are worth bringing over.

"If you ever feel threatened or bullied here you should tell us." He knows Malcolm has mentioned before that a few people make him uncomfortable. Doc was there when they met Dean Winchester. Even though he thinks nothing ill of the man, he doesn't want to invalidate how Malcolm might find the occasional look or comment to be unsettling.

Though, maybe Malcolm should be confiding in Raylan about these things. Doc is more likely to be overprotective and threaten with violence.

"Was that when you stopped eating?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm smiled faintly.

“No, that was around the time of my father’s murder trial, about six years earlier.” The quirk of his smile broadened a little. That was what was called ‘deflection’. He turned and opened the fridge, taking out some eggs and some milk and a few apples. “Was it easier, having someone down there with you?” Malcolm asked. “Or was it harder?”

[thering]

So was the trend of not eating from before or after that? He's guessing before, but Malcolm isn't giving him time to ask anything else before he's asking about that hole again. Doc grunts and shrugs a bit. Malcolm would find it difficult to get any other kind of reaction out of him.

"Easier to pass the time, having someone to talk to." Whether it was psychologically easier being there or not, he's pretty sure it made no difference. The same thoughts ran through his mind. Having Raylan there had him worry about other things, perhaps. About Malcolm and the house and anything else his slowly spiralling mind could grasp onto on its way down.

"Someone like Raylan," he adds. He might have found it more stressful if it was Malcolm. Not that he would say that aloud, even if Malcolm can guess at that. Raylan just grunted or gave him one or two lines back. When he asked questions he only ever asked the one and mulled it over for some time. That is a pace Doc can handle. Malcolm is speeding down a different highway altogether.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nodded. It was okay; he was the favoured company of few if any.

“Raylan said he didn’t think anyone would come.”

Malcolm looked over to see what Doc thought of that.

“To get you out,” he clarified.

[thering]

"That is what I told everyone to do." To just not bother, if Doc didn't return one night. He had said it glibly at first but he was doubly sure after the museum.

"I am not worth coming after." He shuts the pantry door and moves to the cupboard to take some salvageable cutlery, plates and mugs. They had lost a few in the quake and a few things were in disarray in this house too. Nothing wrong with stocking up a few more.

[abrightboy]

"You couldn't believe that we wouldn't look for you, though," Malcolm said earnestly, still watching him.

[thering]

"I have had closer friends than you who did not look, the first time around." Which is not a slight or comment about their friendship. He has just internalised the flawed belief that his not being found in the 1880s meant that no one had bothered to search, which means he isn't worth being searched for.

[abrightboy]

"Well. Neal and I are... me and Neal. We'll always look for you. Always."

It had made a difference to him, trapped in the clinic, knowing that Raylan and Doc would come for him. He needs them to know it, if it ever happens again. They're coming. Like hell they'd abandon people who's always been there for them.

[thering]

Finding a bundle of clean tea towels, Doc dumps them into his crate and gives Malcolm a couple from the top to cover his food haul with. This had been a fruitful run, even if these perishables might only last them a day. With how things are going in Mathias, it seems prudent to only take things a day at a time.

"I appreciate it. Even if I- would not recommend it." He figured they might have, on account of being stuck with Raylan. And Malcolm and Raylan being... whatever they are. But if Doc's ever alone he- it's probably different.

"We ought to head back. Did you find anything good?"

[abrightboy]

It isn’t even a little bit different. Malcolm doesn’t only watch the backs of people he’s sleeping with. His responsibilities would be a pretty short list.

“Found some eggs.” He looked at Doc sidelong as they stepped outside. Wouldn’t recommend it? “You understand that we love you, right?”

Raylan had needed to know, because clearly he hadn’t. Doc seems to need to be informed too.

[thering]

Love is not a word that Doc uses lightly. It is so strange to hear it uttered aloud. His initial reaction is more indicative of how he receives it - not well. It has some trouble sinking in. Needs to be translated and processed and bandied around in his head a few times once it goes in one ear before it goes out the other ear.

"Of course," he hears himself say. Because he knows an outright rejection of the sentiment would only have Malcolm insisting upon it. He deals with it the way he deals with a compliment - with a small and simple 'thank you' even when he knows he does not deserve it, so that the topic may be dropped without incident.

"Is there any particular reason for this sudden confession?"

[abrightboy]

“You don’t seem to understand why we’ll never, ever let you rot in a hole,” Malcolm told him matter of factly. “I wish we’d been more thorough the first time we were in 1307, but we didn’t realize you could be under the floor. Now we know.”

[thering]

"There is a lot, down there." The same could probably be said of the two cowboys. Still waters running deep.

"It was my fault we ended up stuck. Not yours, for finding us." And just as quickly as Doc started to open up about the hole, he wants to shut the door on the conversation again. They're back in their house and he changes the subject once more.

"Raylan would be thrilled with the eggs. Though we should probably tell him they may be the last for the foreseeable future."

[abrightboy]

“I’ll tell him,” Malcolm confirmed. “And if you ever get lost somewhere again, we’ll come find you again.”

[thering]

"Malcolm. Let's- I mean. Thank you. Truly. But-... do it if it's safe to. And don't if it is not." Look for him, that is. Doc doesn't want to be the reason someone got hurt. Especially if he's already dead by that time.

He would, however, accept the compromise, knowing they're not risking much to come looking next time.

[abrightboy]

“Existing in this place isn’t safe and we’re not going to abandon you. You’d never abandon us,” Malcolm pointed out, going to the fridge to put his items away. “You just have to accept that you’re important to us and we’ll fight for you.”

[thering]

The tip of his tongue flicks over his upper lip but he's not sure this is a point he could win, despite his numerous insistent protestations. Setting his crate down on the kitchen counter, he hunches over it and watches Malcolm move. Getting Doc to talk can feel like watching paint dry sometimes but enough persistence can sometimes pay off. He figures now is as good a time as any to say something, and then Malcolm would just leave it alone.

"It was... important, to me. That you came." For all the unsolicited advice that Doc freely gives out, he can sometimes come across as being about as emotionally stunted as an unripe mango.

"But I. Don't wish to speak of it."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looked over at him.

"I understand," he said solemnly. Then he stepped over and gave Doc a tight hug.

[thering]

Doc doesn't really do hugs outside of post-nightmare sessions but he seems to be allowing an exception for today, for right now, with Malcolm. One arm wraps around behind Malcolm's lower back and then the other cups behind his head, holding it nested against his collarbone before his palm slides down to rest between Malcolm's shoulderblades. Doc holds him tight, eyes falling to the kitchen floor before fluttering closed. A sure sign that he wants and craves the touch without giving himself the capacity to ask for it.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm held him for a long moment like that and, when he let go, he gave Doc's shoulder a squeeze before turning back to his crate to get the rest of the apples out like nothing had happened.