001-003 » a chilling mathias welcome

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: The east end of Mathias, along the waterfront.
WHEN: Days 001-003
WHAT: The newest residents of Mathias Township are welcomed with a storm.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: A small love letter from your mod. This spot can be used for plotting.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Mara"

DAY 001
THE ARRIVAL BEGINS

Is it the whooshing crash of waves on dark jagged rocks that wakes you? Perhaps. It might also be the near-continuous rumble of thunder growing closer every second, the vibrations almost seeming to come from the wet sand beneath your hands. Or maybe it’s the shivering of your own body as water recedes from the pebble-covered shore, the cold sinking into your very bones as a chilled wind picks up. It could be any of these things that rouse you from a deep slumber that leaves you feeling groggy and out of sorts--

But it’s the fear that gets you moving. A deep, intense terror grips your chest and squeezes the breath right out of you, and you know without a shred of doubt that you have mere minutes before whatever it is you’re so afraid of arrives on that stretch of rocky beach to greet you. Even if you want to stay rooted to that spot and faced it head-on, your body betrays you, a survival instinct etched into your genetic code forcing you to seek shelter.

Welcome to Mathias. You should probably run now.



THE STORM ARRIVES

When the storm crashes into the small township, it's hard to remember what life was like before it. The ocean becomes a raging thing, waves rising and falling as if trying to attack whatever they can reach along the coast. Any foolish enough to venture along the beach have no hope of surviving the encounter; their bodies will be swept out with the current, gone in the blink of an eye.

The wind is a howling beast, screaming between buildings and driving spikes of cold into any crevice it can reach. The rain is just shy of freezing, every drop like a shard of icicle trying to itself into your skin. It will bite at your nerves and leave you shaking if you stay out in it too long, so you had best get inside if you haven't already. You certainly don't want to attract the attention of the lightning that arcs in the sky like a vengeful god ready to unleash its wrath.

The Grey Gull restaurant sits at the edge of the town along the beach, and just a few yards away are two parallel rows of houses lining what might be a picturesque street if the world weren't beginning to resemble an apocalyptic landscape.

Move quickly, and choose wisely.

DAY 002
THE STORM RAGES ON

The storm has somehow become even more violent overnight. The world outside your shelter might be trapped in an endless night, for all you can see through the thick covering of storm clouds. Lightning continues to streak across the sky, thunder following almost immediately in its wake, threatening just how near those spikes of electricity truly are. You can see them touch the shore at times, even the street between the homes, but never the buildings themselves. A blessing, perhaps, or an oddity to take note of?

Some may be foolish enough to try venturing outside. They are welcome to, of course, that is their right, but the rain is still like ice and that lightning is so very near. You may try heading further into town, and you can certainly see buildings beyond this row of houses, but should you walk toward them...

Well. It is far from a pleasant experience. Exhaustion sinks into your bones so quickly that it leaves you reeling, and every second you push through it makes you physically ill with a feeling that you might collapse at any moment. The second you turn away from that path, however, you feel infinitely, and even more so each step back the way you came.

Something wants you to stay where you are. Perhaps you should.

DAY 003
THE CALM DESCENDS

The third day begins much as the second, with waves crashing upon the shore and thunder booming with such force that the ground seems to shake. It feels very much like the world might end right there, torn apart by a force of nature unlike any seen before. Any who venture outside at this time are almost immediately afflicted with a terror so intense that they can make it no more than a few yards or the short distance to cross a street before they become incapacitated by the fear that sets their heart beating dangerously fast. The term scared to death may very well become literal this day.

And then, suddenly it stops. The rain, thunder, lighting— all if it just stops and the silence that fills the night is deafening. There are no sounds of life within the town, no car motors or dogs barking or the voices of anyone beside those new arrivals in the immediate vicinity. In fact, none of those things even exist in Mathias. There are no cars, no animals or insects, no other people. There is just... emptiness and silence.

It may be best to wait until daylight to move further inland.



THE NIGHT DARKENS

For those who are foolish enough to leave the relative safety of the cluster of houses near the Grey Gull, they will find their journey quite chilling, in a very literal sense. There is another row of houses beyond where they had been, branching off on either side into a neighborhood. There are no lights on in any of these homes, though there are occasional streetlights illuminating their way. But as they continue further, reaching a third block of houses, those lights begin to dim, until they have gone out completely, and what had previously been a simple fall chill becomes biting cold as the temperature sharply drops.

In all of this, there is silence. No sounds travel through that night air to comfort them, and even looking up to the sky stretched out above them offers little reassurance. That sky is black, without a single star and not even the faintest outline of the moon to guide them. All that reaches them here is the barest hint of light traveling from the way they've come. The longer they linger outside in this place, the colder it will become, and any light they carry with them will slowly begin to dim as well.

Truly, they should have waited until the sun rose once more.

---

LOCATIONS

THE GREY GULL is what one might expect of the most frequented restaurant in a small coastal town. The wrap-around porch is lined with white chairs characterized by peeling paint. Exposed wooden walls and worn seating speak to its many years of existence, and the mishmash of décor confirms that the owner never much cared for how the place looked. What mattered here was the food, and faded chalk menus advertise soup specials and a daily pie. The bar appears to have once been well-stocked, but all the bottles remaining are unfortunately empty. There is, however, quite a bit of food in the kitchen that is somehow as fresh as if it were purchased that day.

The second floor of the restaurant is a sparsely furnished apartment. There are no personal items to be found; perhaps it was waiting to be rented out to someone.

THE HOUSES are well-kept, middle-class homes, four lining either side of the street. Their doors are unlocked, windows unshuttered, and everything within feels like the owners might return at any second. There is running water and electricity, fresh food in the fridge, photographs on the wall... but also dust everywhere. If you didn't know better, you'd say the place had been abandoned for years, and yet nothing has aged. It is both strange and unsettling, and yet no matter how hard you search, no answers may be found within these homes.

What can be found within them, however, is a phone. One single black phone within a main room of the house, and beside it, a list of handwritten numbers and names that have been crossed out.

1302 8-5491 Thomasen
1304 8-9256 Lyrie
1306 8-4712 Anders
1308 8-3201 Mulcalley

1301 8-0415 Sanderson
1303 8-6762 Reese
1305 8-9132 Evers
1307 8-9025 Hirano

Should your character choose to shelter in one of the houses, you are welcome to choose the features of that particular unit. Please reply to the comment thread below with the details you decide upon, specifying the house number in the subject line.

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Comments

[hellblaze]

He rolls the cigarette on his lips a bit as he thinks back to the events thus far. The beach and that bloody annoying terror, the Grey Gull, finding the last moments of the inhabitants of the home he has shacked up in for the moment. He inhales then, only to let out another puff of smoke.

"Haven't gotten one just yet. That's why I'm not out in the dark pokin' around just yet." John finally finishes the cigarette and flicks it to the ground, putting it out with the tip of his shoe. "What I do know is that at least some people in this town weren't expecting 'It'--whatever that was--to happen. That something is more powerful than we'd think. Maybe It controlled the storm, maybe It has some bloody terrible manners and scares everyone off beaches as a hobby. I need more information before I go about trying to poke the nest in more ah, crude manners. Once I've got my answers? Maybe I'll try to banish It wherever It came from."

John looks at the young man who gives off an odd air. Bit formal, bit rigid, and something else that strikes him as odd. "What's your plan?"

[fika]

The difference in their approach is extremely evident as the other continues to speak, with Five's frown only deepening.

See, John thinks there's an It. Their judgements, left to themselves from the sheer lack of anything else, are made from their experiences.

"Well, good luck with that," it may sound facetious, but there's a pinch of passive honesty in there. It doesn't matter to him what someone else's method to the madness is - the fact is, they're each seemingly working to figure it out.

"Answers are seemingly hard to come by right now," he peers into the darkness around them, still and silent, and seems to be surprised to be asked. "I need to figure out the date. And a time, both of which seem to be completely wiped. It's like this place doesn't exist."

"You think there's something controlling this shit? Why - you know of anything that can pull people out of so many different timelines like this?" Asks the literal time traveler. "Because save for a temporal anomaly that fucks with the quantum state of everything here, I'm fresh out of ideas right now."

[hellblaze]

"It's unusual I get wished good luck even in an honest way." He raises an eyebrow with a lazy grin on his face. "Found a calendar back at the Grey Gull that was last in October. No idea which October, or if its even October now. Best I've got so far on that one though, mate."

John looks at the window beside him and into the home he'd been staying at the last few days and sighs. Happy family without a damn realization of whatever happened.

"In my experience there's always something or someone pulling the strings - even of natural phenomenon. I know of magic that can pull across realities and dimensions. This is a bit massive. Something powerful, if that's what it turns out to be." He looks over at the younger man again. "Something's not right with the ebb and flow of time though. Dust without eroding houses? That's unnatural."

[fika]

"That's - relatable, actually."

He doesn't exactly know what to make of John, quite yet. Just another man with a past of secrets and stuck in the same damn predicament as the rest of them.

"October, yes, but that "calendar" didn't have a single date on it, though, and I saw one in the Grey Gull."

It's so incredibly frustrating. So much so, with the whir of thoughts, that Five barely manages to pull himself back enough to listen. "So...magic? You're not the only one thinking that, here." He leans further against the guardrail of the porch, crosses his arms, pressing his jacket closer around the scrawny frame.

A snort of acknowledgement at the mention of time. "Yeah - nothing seems to be working in any consistent pattern either. I don't get it," he says, staring at his wristwatch. "No patterns at all. The clocks all stopped at different times. This watch tells me a different thing every time I look at it." He looks about ready to chuck it across the street. "We just need to keep digging. Nothing's infallible. Whatever happened here should have left traces."

[hellblaze]

He nods to that. Good to know that time doesn't quite match up to what he'd think it does. He looks at the watch on his wrist, almost surprised it's still running at all.

"Magic would be easiest. Could be a curse, an omen, maybe even a slip into another dimension." John purses his lips and sighs. There's plenty of things it could be. "I can't take on whatever 'It' might be while knowing nothing. I need a name, where it comes from... what it best responds to. Then, I might be able to do something about it."

John looks up at the younger man in front of him. "Depends on how far we are from the epicenter of events. This house?" The hand with the watch taps on the glass behind him. "Not close enough, it seems. Did a bit of poking around earlier... got one hell of a magical hangover for it too. Which means that even the outlying areas don't want to be poke and prodded for answers."

Then, he grins. "Which is why we poke and prod it more."

He stands then, offering his hand for a shake. The younger man seems to have some manners and it'd probably be best to roll with them for now. "John Constantine. Exorcist, demonologist, and petty dabbler of the Dark Arts. Seems like I left my business cards in my other coat."

Not that he had another coat.

[fika]

Five is ready to brush the rest of the speculation off for what it is - speculation. They can go in circles of their minimal information until another storm shows up, but the truth of the matter was, it will remain speculation until then. All the possible sources, omens or curses or temporal breaks in the fabric of time and space. Something to fight or something to solve.

"- wait, you got powers? And they're acting up here?" That's an important detail. So far, he's only gotten that confirmation out of Daisy. If someone else was experiencing this...

"Name's Five," he takes the offered hand with a firm shake. "And I'll take your word for it."

[hellblaze]

"Afraid so." He bristles slightly with that. "Five... like the number? Odd name."

But, who is he to judge? Do as thou will and all that.

John nods to the firm handshake before gesturing back to the house. Just in case Five wants to do a bit of poking around in side. "Sometimes certain spells can leave you floored for days. Takes a lot out of someone to cast a big one. Thing is? A spell like that? Well, it's more like just giving the dormant energies a bit of a kick to get going again. It shouldn't leave you feeling like you've been kicked in the bollocks and punched in the chest. Not normally, anyways."

[fika]

"Yeah, well. Dad liked to keep it simple." Like calling his adoptive children by order of the usefulness of their powers but - at this point, Five's name is such a warn glove, he doesn't stop to think of its conception until others stop to point it out.

Which has been each time since coming here, so. The response is practically automated at this point.

"I've noticed similar," he looks to where John gestures, gives him a look, and heads towards the door. He's not one to admit to exhaustion easily, so he keeps it at that and lets the implied notion hang.

[hellblaze]

"Great things Dads are." John replies lowly. His father didn't do much of a bang up job either. He won't push though. It's obvious that the multiverse is out of sync and they all really shouldn't be here. So, ta.

With a few steps, he opens the door and lets Five enter first. Then he shuts it behind him. The home is comfortable, cozy even. There's no evidence of magic or any occult signs until one walks into the kitchen. Remains of the dirt-salt circle are in the middle of the room. He's already removed the candles.

"Welcome to the Mulcalley home. Three generation family. Grandparents, mother and dad, and..." John pauses as he walks further in. He stops for a moment, looking back at the kid with a frown on his face. "Twin daughters."

[fika]

"Sure," is Five's equally mild reply and it's left at that because there's no use on crying over spilt milk. He isn't sure what their dad gave them other that maladjustment.

(No, that's not fair, but his family had spent their entire lives - him included, displaced as he'd been, haunted by a man who was very much alive, until his death and beyond.)

Five ventures in, a careful look thrown out - professional and clipped and calculating. He can't help but note the exits. The means of escape, or weaponry or otherwise. Where John is behind him. Habits, with nerves running on high.

There's a circular spot on the floor, but beyond that, he can't tell there's been anything else here. John's point on the family gets him a curious look, albeit detached. "Quaint."

It was clear enough that everyone just up and disappeared. The details of which were still an unsettling unknown, and that much Five could agree on. He does venture to the kitchen, though, and John gets a raised brow for that.

Sometimes shit happens. The problem was that it was the rest of them now stuck in it and Five was a bit too uprooted to dive head first into the mysteries of missing families. He wanted out. "A lot of the other houses were the same. Families, and no trace left. What made you choose this one?"

[hellblaze]

"Just happened to be the one I dipped into during the storm. Nothing in particular." John shrugs casually. It's true. "Figured that if I was holing up in the house I might as well do a bit of digging and see if their spirits were at unrest. Doesn't look like any of their spirits are in the houses. Somewhere else..."

He just gives a stern frown to that. It's the look of a man who has seen one too many things in his time. Horrible things. The ones that make the skin crawl about just how evil humanity can truly be.

"Or, I suppose, maybe we're the ghosts."

[fika]

He never considered that possibility, and Five visibly stops.

Ghosts had, for all intents and purposes, been more of a specialty of his brother. But the extents of that had only ever barely been dinner-table discussions before he disappeared, whisked away from sharing the rest of his growing up with them.

So, Five never put too heavy a thought on them. Where Klaus had his ghosts, Five had silence, no matter how many he'd killed.

"What makes you think that?" His question is casual, specifically so, because he really, absolutely, in no way shape or form wants to consider the actual truth of such a thought. "Think we're in an afterlife?"

[hellblaze]

"Never said it was the afterlife. Sure, ghosts suggest that, but it could be a shared unconscious experience. Maybe an out-of-body experience." John looks around the room again with a frown. "Might explain a thing or two if we're disjointed from the proper way the universe should be flowing. That or whatever runs this place likes the idea of It's hostages nicely fed."

Which would bring the question as to why.

"Can't be the afterlife. It's not where I'm going to be ending up."

[fika]

"Gee, what a happy thought," Five deadpans, running both of his hands up across his face.

Good god he's tired.

"So, then back to the question - who, or what messed up the universe so much it landed us here."

Arms crossed again, and he chooses a wall to lean against. "You really think it's supernatural?" For whatever that word meant.

He supposed his family would fall into the most base of definitions.

[hellblaze]

"Not much is a happy thought." He just felt the need to tack that bit on. Though, he has the feeling the kid has an idea or two about that.

John lets out a long sigh and leans against the wall of the kitchen and flings a hand up. No idea. Maybe the local ancient deities? Maybe a really pissed off local mage? Or, something that was summoned that shouldn't have been? Too many possibilities and not enough to really go off of.

"In my experience? It usually is. Though its got a dash of the human touch to it." John shakes his head at that. "Humanity usually goes poking and messing with what it shouldn't. Dabbles in things too big for itself and causes all sorts of issues and calamities. Even the ones gifted at the art do shit they shouldn't."

Personal experience, obviously.