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 laughs.

"Yeah. You say 'tangerine' and I'll know I'm awake," he jokes back. He holds up his free wrist, looking at the makeshift restraint, then looks at Doc.

"Is this the craziest thing you've ever seen?" he asks.

[thering]

"Oh, Malcolm." You sweet summer child. "I could tell you things that would make you blush and scream 'tangerine' all night long." He brushes his thumb over the restraint and rubs along the length of Malcolm's forearm. Things had tended to get a little wild and chaotic for Doc - he just had that kind of energy before he mellowed out. He never could settle for ordinary or boring nights.

"I'm sure you could regale me with a few tales, yourself." There's probably something wild lurking beneath that tailored suit.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm breathed out a laugh.

"I can tell you a lot of exciting things that happened when I was arresting murderers," he admitted. "Like the time I cut off a man's hand with an axe to save his life. But. My personal life is... only slightly better managed at home than it is here. And that doesn't tend to be... attractive."

[thering]

It would probably give whoever Malcolm is with great joy and great relief to use some duct tape and tighten these restraints. He used to enjoy the occasional kinky night. Now he would likely panic if he was similarly restrained.

"I've had a wife once, Malcolm. This and-- you are not the craziest thing I've ever seen."

[abrightboy]

"I went out with a girl before Christmas. She was a human rights lawyer that was working on a charity project with my mother. I fell asleep without my restraints and almost stabbed her to death in the night. I thought I was protecting myself from a creature in my dream," he confessed. "She... doesn't return my calls anymore."

[thering]

"Were you honest with her from the get-go, about your night terrors? Had she seen you sleep before?" She probably wasn't expecting it to be this level of... vivid.

"Sometimes people try to play down their baggage. I know I do too." The number of near misses he's had, pulling the gun under his pillow. Doc's lost count by now. Honestly he didn't much like sleeping with others either, but his nightmares are nowhere nearly as vivid to warrant any mention of it. And right now, he would risk waking Malcolm from a nightmare than braving it alone on the floor.

"You can elbow me in the face. I would still come when you call," Doc promises.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm shook his head. "I didn't tell her. I actually hid my medication in a drawer. She was part of a failed attempt I made at... normalcy. My therapist thought maybe I'd be able to let things go and live a normal life if I tried just... doing things that normal people do instead of..."

He shrugged a shoulder.

"I went at it full force but... I understand where the advice came from. It's... She's helped me a lot in my life but that wasn't our best or most successful moment."

[thering]

"I'm not sure it is fair on either of you to be hiding this part of yourself as some-... dirty little secret. All this - this is part of who you are. You are the sum of your good days and your bad days. And if someone who can love every other part of you cannot accept this then it would be doing them a kindness to kiss them goodbye and show them the door."

Doc props himself up on the one elbow, tugging down on Malcolm's pajamas riding up his waist while he rests his cheek against his closed fist.

"Your medication is your normal. My drinking problem is my normal." He turns his free, empty hand over, palm facing upwards as he does a small shrug in the dark. "You just have to be your normal, not anyone else's."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nodded.

"I learned that that day. But... my 'normal' ruins everything. I don't think... I think I have to accept being alone."

[thering]

Doc huffs a sigh and slowly lies back down again, drumming his fingers against the mattress in that sliver of space between them. This was the conclusion he had drawn for himself a hundred and forty-odd years ago. But every once in a century, shit happens and someone just comes along to give God's forsaken and rotten leftovers more than the pity that they outright reject. Folding his arm over his own abdomen this time, Doc blinks at the ceiling a few times before turning to glance over at Malcolm.

"You're not alone tonight." This is the only comfort he can offer, and it is not what Malcolm wants, but he hopes it will suffice for now. Just for tonight. And tomorrow is... tomorrow is a different day where different things might happen. They can worry about tomorrow when they get there.

[abrightboy]

"Not here," Malcolm clarified. He looked over, feeling the absence of Doc's arm acutely, his eyes falling to that hand. "I'm never alone here. But... when we get out? You're not coming back with me. Raylan's not coming back with me. Nobody is."

[thering]

He closes his eyes and runs his hand through his hair, humming quietly back in response. There were obligations that needed to be attended to when they got back. This place has not been as hospitable as it could have been, towards them. But all that would not make parting ways any easier, when the time comes.

"I promise you, that when you leave this place, you will meet a hundred better men than Raylan and I. We are just a chapter in your life that is meant to end. The surgeon chapter will come to an end, too."

Sliding his hand over the sheets to find Malcolm's in the dark, he forces a smile and gives Malcolm's a firm squeeze. Take it from the almost-170-year-old man. Everything comes to an end, whether anyone likes it or not.

"I would think about you, and hope you are living a much better life than you are here. You need to be getting home, where better things are waiting for you." He brushes his thumb over Malcolm's knuckles. This place is going to kill Malcolm, if it doesn't drive him completely insane first. He does not want to lose Malcolm like this, but he's not sure how much of a choice he or anyone else has in the matter.

"We want to make this place warm, and safe, and comfortable for you. But this was always a nest, not a prison. When the time comes, you need to fly. Okay?"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm presses his lips together and nods.

Would he go crazy here? He could. He could have already if not for the people in this house. Sometimes he even almost feels like himself. On good days.

He keeps hold of Doc's fingers.

He isn't sure the Surgeon chapter will ever end. It'll always be woven through him.

"You'll still stay up here tonight? You're not going to leave before I wake up?"

[thering]

"I will be here," he promises. He's not sure he has much else left to give, but he can probably manage one night, if he can quietly leech some comfort off of Malcolm as well to assuage his own burdens. Sometimes a man who has loved the bottle more than he has ever loved some people who deserved more in his life is still capable of realising that the answers he has been seeking at the bottom of said bottle will not be there, and there are rare occasions where it is better for two people to be miserable together than to be miserable alone. They might both be able to sleep easier, like this, much as he loathes allowing this kind of vulnerability to creep in.

The tips of his toes slip under Malcolm's blanket and then the solid proof that Malcolm is not going to be alone tonight returns, putting Malcolm's hand back where it had been found earlier so that Doc can wrap his arm around Malcolm's waist and hold him, lest the errant dessert spoon attempt to slip his restraints and escape.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm relaxes palpably when the arm slips around him again and it isn't long before his breathing evens out, his head turning to the side, to tip his forehead against Doc's shoulder as he falls asleep.