villagelogs | 030-035 » a-hunting they will go

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.

navigation | faq | setting | mod contact

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Well, when I 'died' I got the pleasure of the Devil offering me an... offer. So I suppose you're lucky." Or something.

"God didn't say shit to me."

"Well, you didn't miss out, She's a judgy brat." He's still miffed about what She said to him, okay!

"Well, the devil's a smelly, old arse with bad teeth." So they are two peas in a pod.

"I'm Alex, by the way."

"A perfect pair." He snorts.

He grins and offers her a hand, "Klaus."

She takes his hand for a shake and still feels a delight at being able to touch someone. Anyone. "Nice to meet you."

"Ditto." He grins. "So- hey- you've figured out some place to crash yet? There's empty rooms at the boarding house, if you haven't." It was a sort of landing space for newbies, even if they didn't always stay there long.

"Em... I've been crashing in an empty house," she said quietly as if she's a wee bit ashamed of squatting in some space that is not her own, that belonged to someone who isn't here anymore.

"Lot of people are doing that, no worries," he grins a little, noting the almost sheepish look about her at that answer. "My brother's at the boarding house, so it kind of defaulted where I'd be, when I got here. I like being around people more, anyway, so..." He shrugs. "There's...only six of us left over there now, I think? Which is weird, because it was almost full-capacity when I got here..." He frowns a little.

"Well, I prefer being around people too. I'm not used to living alone, if I'm being honest. I lived with two flatmates before this, as a ghost. And before that I was living with my brothers and my dad." So it's honestly been lonely.

However, his words stop her from going on further. "What do you mean... where did the others go?"

"How many brothers do you have?" He zones in on that for. Reasons. "I'm one of seven-- two girls."

He shrugs a little. "Some of them just moved out, into their own spaces out there," he waves vaguely to indicate the houses in the town. "Some of them...just disappeared, same as we show up here, they just vanish sometimes, too. And--" His gaze drops. "There've been a few people that've died."

"Three," she answers, trying her best not too sad about it. She misses the boys a lot.

"Just vanish? What do you mean by that? People can't 'just vanish', right?"

"You're older, or younger?" He's guessing the first, she has that Older Sibling Vibe, somehow. The same way Five and Luther both do; Luther's came as result of being Number One, being leader, and it sort of defaulted him into older sibling role because of it, Five's is... well, by all technicalities, he actually is oldest now. But the feeling was there, all the same, no matter how it came about, and no matter how they were the same age.

"They do, here..." He shrugs. "I don't get it, either, but... sometimes, it just happens. We don't know where they go. There've been people that disappeared for a little bit and then came back, with no recollection of being gone, or where they might have been. They didn't even know any time had passed. Just--" he mimes with one hand. "Poof. Here one day, gone for a week, and suddenly here again. No rhyme, reason, or explanation."

"Em, I'm the eldest." And the caregiver since her mother just up and abandoned them. "You're the... youngest? Or maybe the middle?" He's got both vibes if she were being honest.

She doesn't like his answer next, however. "Shit. And do you have any idea who brought us here? Or why?" She has ideas, obviously, but she's curious what this man thinks.

Sighing soft, she runs her hand through her hair. "Christ, I could use a nip of something."

"It's complicated," he laughs softly, but he doesn't feel like getting into the timetravel math of it all, so he just relents, "But yeah, all intense and purposes... I'm in the middle. That obvious, huh?"

He shakes his head. "No... no clue. Other than the people like us that show up here, we haven't really seen anyone here." He pauses and snaps, "Well, there was one time, but I'm not convinced that dude was human." A beat. "Or real." They never did figure out who that weird shadow guy was, or what he even wanted.

"No real alcohol to speak of, but if you're not against something more home-brewed, I know where to get some moonshine."

"A little," she nods her smile goodnatured. It doesn't mean anything bad. He's just got that energy.

She jumps on the next bit because it's important. "What 'dude'? What did he look like? Did he look like a dodo bird?"

She does laugh at the mention of moonshine. "I'm trying to decide if I'm that desperate. I didn't think that existed outside of cowboy movies."

Edited 2021-03-01 03:33 (UTC)

He just gives a casual shrug at that; it's a fair assessment, he really does have massive amounts of middle child energy.

"He looked like...a...." His hands mime a vaguely person shape in front of him. "Shadow? Shadow of some guy. Like a 3-D silhouette, kinda, actually." That makes no sense, but.... it's the best he can describe it.

"Well, it was made by a pair of cowboys, so I'd say that still counts." He snorts.

030-035 » a-hunting they will go

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