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.

navigation | faq | setting | mod contact

Comments

[conning]

"Well, come with me, then," he says. Casual and calm. "If no one else asks. June--my landlady--she's got lots of spare rooms, and Peter's got the connections to set you up consulting, probably. We'd get you on your feet."

[abrightboy]

"I wonder what that would be like," he muses. "To do the work and not be the son of a famous and prolific killer." He peers over at Neal. "Maybe I'd just be weird with no reason for it."

[conning]

Neal grins at him, lifting his shoulders in a shrug. "All the most interesting people are weird."

[abrightboy]

"I'm not sure I know who I am without his shadow," Malcolm admits. "It might be... liberating."

[conning]

"Think about it," he says, shrugging again. A pause. "I know what it's like, a little bit. Being given a chance to... exist outside of who you were."

Neal stops, realizing for the first time that he knows the feeling even better, now. With Peter, with the unit, with everyone back home, he's Neal Caffrey, thief and forger. Criminal given a second chance.

With the people here, he's just been Neal Caffrey, the accomplished New Yorker with a perhaps questionable skill set. Yes, Raylan and Malcolm both had that moment where they noticed his tracking anklet, but neither one of them had let it be the full definition of who Neal was. He wasn't a dog on a leash, here, as confining as the little town could feel. Neal rotated his ankle, wondering when he'd gotten used to not having the anklet on again. For the longest time, he felt strange without it.

What's it going to be like, going back to that? What's it going to be like, going back to people who can't help but remind him at least once a day who he is and what he's done? All the little barbs Peter levels his way about being able to follow his every move, every 'joke' about putting Neal back behind bars if he steps out of line. They're all going to hit differently, after this. He knows they will, and the thought is uncomfortable.

"It is," he says softly, his tone one of realization. "Liberating, I mean."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm watches his face in the half light. He doesn’t understand what the journey is, exactly, but he gets what it’s about to some degree.

“Maybe you should come with me,” he suggests.

[conning]

Neal snorts softly, pleased that he manages to sound so dismissive.

"Peter always finds me," he says, tone one of casual amusement. "I wouldn't be surprised if he could do it from one world to another, too."

No, Peter hadn't found him here, not yet, but that didn't mean he wouldn't. And...

"I can't just leave everyone behind. I wouldn't want to."

[abrightboy]

“Imagine if we both went with Raylan or Doc,” Malcolm said, looking to lighten the mood with the ridiculous. “How long do you think we’d survive Toxic Masculinity Land?”

[conning]

Neal's snort this time is far more genuine and amused. "I don't know, I think if it was both of us, we could redirect hostility between the two of us long enough for Raylan or Doc to knock out whoever wants to kill us."

[abrightboy]

"People will probably assume we're a couple," Malcolm points out. "Which would be flattering, to be honest."

[conning]

Neal grins outright at that. "You're right, I would be flattered."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm laughs and looks over the side of the bed.

"I'd suggest you're the one flattering me now, but you did kiss me first," he teases.

[conning]

"I don't regret it, either," he says, not teasing in the least. Softer, he adds, "I think things turned out the way they needed to, since... Daisy doesn't have anyone else left, here. But I don't regret it."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm peered over the edge of the bed at him again.

"Thanks for being here," he tells him genuinely. "I know you could just as easily choose to be there. But they need a break sometimes. It's been non-stop since I moved in with them."

[conning]

"I wish you could get a break," Neal says. The rest of them at least can rotate the duty roster, give each other respite from Malcolm's pain. He's the one who has to live with it relentlessly. "I know I've said it before, but you have to be one of the strongest people I've ever met."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm shifted to settle back against his pillows.

“I think... we all do what we need to to survive, but... thank you. That means a lot to me.”

[conning]

Neal settled in a little more comfortably on the mattress, thinking about letting it go at that. Letting things lapse into quiet, letting them both get as much sleep as might happen that night. But something itched at him to add just one more thing, to make just one more point.

"I've known people who do what's needed to survive. You're not like them. You don't just want to keep existing, or feel like you have to because... because. You want a life. It's hard, to want a life when surviving is already a challenge."

A moment, then, "Give yourself credit for that."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm leaned over the edge of the bed again to look at Neal.

“I never thought of it that way. I’ll try to do that,” he promised earnestly.

[conning]

He smiles. It's small, but genuine. "Good. You should."