villagemod: (sᴛᴏɴᴇ)
The Village Mod ([personal profile] villagemod) wrote in [community profile] villagelogs2021-06-05 08:09 pm

063-064 » no matter how much / part ii (group A)

WHO: Group A members only.
WHERE: Mathias Township proper
WHEN: Days 063-064
WHAT: Matthias becomes a little larger and a little smaller at the same time.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ DEADLY AVENGER "Raiju"





DAY 063-064
NO MATTER HOW MUCH

“No matter how much suffering you went through,
you never wanted to let go of those memories.”
— Haruki Murakami

At first, in the calm following the storm, nothing seems amiss. When the residents awake, it is to another glorious morning dawning in the unsettling paradise that is Mathias Township. Indeed, it does seem rather glorious that morning, for there is sunshine in a blue sky that has been cleared of any remnant of the angry storm clouds from the day before. But before long, residents will start to notice signs of something being not quite right.

It should be a familiar sensation to most by now.

It begins as just a feeling, a strange hint of something in the air, a nagging voice at the back of the mind. They can't quite put their finger on it but there is something. Something wrong, something that shouldn't be — which is quite a statement in a town where everything shouldn't be. But then the pieces will begin to come together.

A person has gone who ought to be there. This in itself is not a strange occurrence, for many have vanished and then returned, or not. This time, though, it is one person, and then two and three... A dozen people or more have gone, with no trace of their whereabouts to be found.

No resident is alone, thankfully. There are others who also remain: friends, acquaintances, strangers. Others who are just as trapped in this nightmarish place.

As the hours stretch on and residents begin to venture beyond their self-claimed shelters and move about the town, they will find that their fellow captives are not the only things that have vanished. The Chasm is gone as well, the crack in the earth that once stretched across and cut off the western part of town. There is not even the smallest mark to show where it had once been; it has gone so completely that some might wonder if they had merely imagined it.






ABOUT THE NEW LOCATIONS

POPPY COTTAGE This bed and breakfast has a sense of casual elegance with the elusive quality of being both sophisticated and comfortable at the same time. Aside from being covered in dust and grime, of course.

PENHEW HOUSE Perhaps familiar to some in Mathias, this grand house is different from any of the others the residents have entered. It looks... new. Fresh. Clean. The usual thick layers of dust and grime that would be caked onto every visible surface are nowhere in sight; this absence may be a relief for some and unsettling to others. There are certainly other unsettling things to be found in this location.

THE OLD CHURCH Barely more than ruins, the property is marked by a crumbled stone outline that has no roof and only partial walls, nothing left inside besides a broken cobblestone floor.

BANEBERRY HALL From the outside, Baneberry Hall seems like your average rich person's house, but one would be mistaken to assume anything of the sort. Even the baneberries that cover the back lawn leading to the forest treeline are deceptive, for they appear harmless but are fatal to any human foolish enough to eat them.

The building is decaying from within. The rooms have begun to rot, from the parlors and libraries still done up in grand and expensive style to the bedrooms that have locks on the doors and bars on the windows. There are restraints in some of those bedrooms, while others are bereft of sharp objects. In the hall closets, there are identical sets of white pajamas of all sizes, and the offices have locked cabinets (that may be picked) full of a rainbow of sedatives (that will not replenish). The names on doors and in logbook lists are all smudged beyond legibility, and all paperwork has been water-damaged and weathered, leaving no indication of who may have been kept in those bedrooms or why. But within each room, there is an item that may be familiar to one of the residents now wandering its halls. As caked in dust and grime as anything else, each item is placed as if it belongs there, as if it might have been there for years. But it couldn't have been... could it?



ABOUT THE ITEMS FROM HOME

Within the unsettling walls of Baneberry Hall, residents may find OBJECTS that are uncomfortably familiar to them. Each item has one singular memory attached to it that, when touched in any way, will be experienced first hand, as if the person receiving it had lived it themselves. This person will endure all of the associated emotions and psychological reactions to the memory that the memory's owner experienced.

— Items may only be found within Baneberry Hall. These items from home are not all in one room or a specific location but instead are scattered throughout the bedrooms. (Only the items on this list are available to this group.)

— Ownership and possession of the item are important elements to this event. While the item is in possession of someone who is not its owner, it will continue to infect all who touch it with the memory that belonged to its owner. The item will also, before long, begin to make the possessor ill, both physically and emotionally uncomfortable and upset. This only occurs until the item is reunited with its owner, or until it is no longer in someone else's possession. (For example, if Person A finds Person B's teddy bear and carries it with them, they will continue to experience the bear's associated memory until they no longer have it in their possession, whether this means they have left it somewhere or it has been returned to Person B.)

— Recipients of memories will retain those memories even after the event has ended.

— When the owner of an item finds their item or has it returned to them, they will also experience the memory once themselves, having it returned to them as if they had just lived those moments again. The memory is only replayed once in their minds and then the memory effect of the object is gone. After this point, the item can be held by the owner or any others without consequence.

— If a person removes an item from its room in Baneberry Hall but does not remove the item from the property entirely, the item will be mysteriously returned to its original location when no one is looking. This is so that people do not have to keep close track of where items are going in the possible changing of hands, so the original owners can still easily locate the item without having to plan in great detail. Once an item is removed from the property, it will not return to its original location even if it is discarded by the possessor before reaching its original owner. Instances such as this should be planned among all involved parties, including the owner of the item.

— Once an item is removed from the property, please comment below so that information may be updated. Items that are not removed by the end of the event may reappear at a later time, so accurate records are essential.

— Before an item's memory is viewed by someone other than the owner, permission must be granted or requested for that memory to be viewed by another character. Because the experience is an uncomfortable one for the other characters, the viewing of memories not their own should ideally be kept to a small number.








CONDITIONS UPDATE
THE WEATHER conditions remain fairly typical for early fall: warm days and cool nights. It feels almost like spring arriving except that there fewer red and orange leaves on the ground and more of them oddly returning to the trees and slowly fading to green. It's like watching one of those nature documentaries that have a timelapse of the seasons, only it's going in reverse.

THE FOG has new boundaries.
— Residents may now wander the southern stretch of the forest surrounding Mathias Township — it is possible to leave the paths but potentially unwise to do so.
— The fog has also retreated from the western section of town entirely.
— Access to the northern section of the forest is still blocked beginning a few dozen yards past the treeline; this section of fog will urge residents to stay huddled within the town proper by inducing a physical reaction of panic and fear.

DISAPPEARANCES AND DEATHS continue! Yennefer, Number Five, and Tony Stark have vanished and Ellie is still missing, though this may be difficult to tell with half the town also seemingly having vanished. Will Graham's body may be found within the ruins of the Old Church; he appears to have been frightened to death. (If someone decides to take care of the body, please report it below. For in-game reasons, this does not need to be coordinated across groups.)

ALCOHOL supplies have run dry, save for any dregs that have been squirreled away by individual residents. Moonshine can still be acquired by those in desperate need.








OOC NOTES
NEW MAP Thanks so much to Scy for yet another amazing new map of Mathias!

UPDATES Don't forget to report updates as they come up! Changes to locations (like toppling a few bookshelves in the library), big plots you have coming up that will affect the game (parties, major property destruction, etc), or exciting discoveries that may tie into the game's mythology (even the things provided by the mod) are very helpful to have in one place so relevant page updates can be made. IC events are also helpful to know about in advance so they can be included in the log write-ups.

MOD STATUS For those who don't know, I run a summer program that is set to start in just 2 weeks. We've only recently been given the green light to go ahead in person, so it's a scramble to get everything pulled together in time. My non-RP life is going to be busy and chaotic for the next while and I am thus asking for your forgiveness and understanding as things continue to be slow, as I cannot guarantee timely mod responses beyond weekends, and even that is not guaranteed.

NEXT LOG Because of the aforementioned real-life chaos, the next log will be more relaxed and free form with everyone coming back together again and having a few chill days. It would be very much appreciated if some of the more intense investigations could be saved to take place in future logs, as the new locations that are opening up in this log will remain open in the next few at least and there will be plenty of time to explore all their mysteries.

ITEMS FROM HOME The items from home remaining in Baneberry Hall will not be available past this log, at least not in this form, so if you would like to play with these elements, you should not sleep on this opportunity. More things may show up in the future but, for now, this is the main event.

DW NOTIFS Back at the beginning of the year, the issue of missing email notifs was discussed in a code push plurk by Mark of the DW admin team. For those who missed it, the gist is that the issue with missing notifs is not going to be fixed anytime soon. The issue is so sporadic that the dev team has concluded the only way to possibly fix it is to redo the notification system entirely. This issue does not extend to DW's internal inbox, so short of checking every thread you're involved in, the DW inbox is the best way to make sure you're not missing things.

ACTIVITY CHECK Beginning with June's AC (posted at the start of July), all tags that consist of only dialogue will count as 0.5 comments, not just those that occur in an inbox thread. This applies to both AC and AP totals.



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walkingtrigger: (pic#14813473)

Let me know if this isn't okay and I'll edit!

[personal profile] walkingtrigger 2021-06-09 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Tim isn't breaking any land speed records today. At least he wasn't until he heard that first feral scream. He recognized her voice and having picked up that ribbon earlier in the day he has a strong suspicion of what might have just happened.

Mind over matter. Training and first responder motivation causes him to ignore the pain as he runs back towards the room he believes she is in. At least in his mind he runs, it's more of a pathetic stumble where he's falling forward very quickly and just manages to catch himself in the last seconds. It causes him to have to grab the doorframe when he stops, panting through his teeth for a second as he scans the room, eventually finding her curled on the floor.

Dragging himself up the doorjamb Tim got his feet under him enough to at least avoid lurching like a zombie into the room. He approached but stopped a short distance away, hands held lightly out to the sides of his body in a non-threatening posture. ]


Callisto?
thering: (DH_315)

[personal profile] thering 2021-06-09 05:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"There would not be much left of her now," Doc points out. After all these years she would have likely decomposed, if he didn't... grind her to dust or eat her, or whatever it is serial killers do with their prizes.

Doc manages to catch the cardholder itself - apparently you might need some good reflexes to be a quick draw - but he can't do that and try to save the cards and also try to make sure Malcolm doesn't collapse and hit his head on something all at once. Two out of three ain't bad at least and his hand falls away after briefly gliding across Malcolm's lower back.

"What are these for?" he asks, deciding the affirmations to be a better topic than a dead girl who could not be saved. They've both got enough of those to dwell on.
tinstar: (Hallways)

Raylan Givens

[personal profile] tinstar 2021-06-09 05:52 pm (UTC)(link)
tinstar: (the plan)

Day 63 - Closed threads

[personal profile] tinstar 2021-06-09 05:53 pm (UTC)(link)
It was well into mid-morning before Raylan was able to talk his bones into walking again, under much protest from the rest of his Everything. The long, purposeful stride people knew him for were gone - his feet were stuffed into a pair of ill fitting slippers, heels half out enough to see the bandages that covered them and every step was one carefully taken. A sharp eye would spot the socks hanging out his back pocket as he worked his way, slowly and steadily towards the Gull. All in the name of boots.

But once he and his long limbs had a rest on the porch there, he carefully pulled on his socks, the soles immediately darkening with blood that was ignored as he pulled on his sand swept boots, one at a time. The pain was enough that he had to take another long minute to breathe before he stood back up and headed towards the rest of town.

Closed to Malcolm Chasm + Baneberry Hall

Raylan wanted to go check the Chasm, see what the new day, the storms, the chaos of it all that wasn't on the landscape at all (how convenient, considering how many buildings had been destroyed), but considering everything that had happened, him not being at home, whatever changes he might find in Mathis, he wanted Malcolm next to him for a bit. Call him greedy - he did, often enough.

He'd start at 1306 if he didn't see him along the slow way Raylan made there in the first place, but as soon as he found the man, he started in.

"Malcolm. I'm gonna go for a.. a walk. You wanna come?"

Penhew House - Closed to Doc and Tim

Raylan stood outside Penhew House for several long minutes, hands propped on his hips. This was the first house that was 'on the other side', regardless of the fact that there was no other side anymore. What had prompted the change? After all the bullshit he'd gone through to get over here, one might think that he was happy about it. He wasn't. People were missing, the landscape had changed and Mathis never opened up something without it having something horrible to give them, in the end.

Face schooled into a hard mask of neutrality, Raylan and his very careful steps worked his way up onto the porch. Once up to the door, he found himself almost afraid of what would happen if he touched the handle. Some part of him worried that the Shadow Man would rear up out of no where and kick his ass for daring to come into the house.

"Goddamn bullshit," he swore to himself as he pushed the door open.
walkingtrigger: (Default)

Tim Gutterson

[personal profile] walkingtrigger 2021-06-09 08:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Plotting Post but I also love to "vibe it" so just tag in with what feels fun!
abrightboy: (unsure)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-09 09:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Malcolm was meandering aimlessly up Philips Drive, looking for storm damage, curious about how there wasn't any. He'd seen several houses caved in. When Raylan drew up alongside him, he brightened immediately, though his expression grew a little skeptical at 'walk'.

"I'd love to come but... are you sure you're okay?" He'd seen the state of Raylan's feet last night.
myfavoritemurder: (is this what it's like to be Solid Snake)

[personal profile] myfavoritemurder 2021-06-09 09:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Callisto's eyes narrow further, and she takes a step closer, peering at him with interest.

"You know him?"
myfavoritemurder: (I'm coming over to punch you in the face)

[personal profile] myfavoritemurder 2021-06-09 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Callisto takes the candle, digging her fingers into the wax - and then, after just a moment or two, tosses it aside.

"What?" she asks impatiently - picking up on the something for you part, but not catching either the past tense (she's iffy on tenses) or the bit about its misplacement. "Something for me, yes?"
myfavoritemurder: (requesting permission to die)

[personal profile] myfavoritemurder 2021-06-09 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[She's so wrapped up in her grief that at first, she doesn't notice him - she doesn't register the pounding footsteps, nor the fall, nor the voice calling out to her. But then, after a moment or two, it breaks through to her. Her sobs hitch, then stop. She uncurls just enough to let herself get a look at him, and to let him get a look at her tearstained face and shattered, shellshocked expression.

She scrabbles her hand around on the ground, looking for something - anything - to pick up and throw at him. Finding nothing, she abandons the idea as quickly as she'd landed on it, and settles for just staring.]
abrightboy: (considers ruefully)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-09 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
"There wouldn't be much of her now, but her family would get closure," Malcolm says quietly. Looking down at the cards at Doc's question, he raises his eyes to Doc's. "They're daily affirmations. My therapist gave them to me. See, depression and anxiety, they... warp your perception of things. Slant your thoughts to the negative. So the point of these is, in the morning, you pull one and read it and try to set your intentions for the day from a place of positive reinforcement." He held one up and waved it. "'Negative thoughts only hold the power I allow them.' See? And so your task that day is to be mindful of negative thoughts and to choose not to give them power."
abrightboy: (regretful)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-09 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Malcolm takes a breath, looking conflicted for a moment.

"He's my father. The child is me. I found the woman in our house and he poisoned me to make me silent. To make me forgetting."
myfavoritemurder: (is this what it's like to be Solid Snake)

[personal profile] myfavoritemurder 2021-06-09 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
"The father you should have killed."

Oh. Penny dropped, connection made.

"But you said he killed people. Why didn't he kill the woman?"
walkingtrigger: (pic#14791794)

Day 64

[personal profile] walkingtrigger 2021-06-09 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Morning - OTA

Whether his body might want to sleep in past 6:30am, his mind was having none of it. The best he could manage was to allow himself to lay in the soft embrace of his bed, staring up at the pink ceiling for a couple of hours. Then the need to pee reached the point of urgency and Tim began to lever himself up out of the bed.

He was still in the clothes he had borrowed from Raylan the night of the storm. For the normally fastidious young sniper; it was well past time to change. Scooting up to the head of the bed, he used the wall for support as a way to take some strain off his battered abdomen, while he worked through the initial muscle stiffness. Once he was vertical the short trek to his pink dresser was made without incident. Clothes acquired he made his slow, old man waddle to the bathroom.

As he suspected there was blood in his urine but it was not an alarming amount so he took that as a win. A shower was attained, the hot water helping to further soothe angry muscles, so that by the time he was dressed and headed for the stairs he was at least no longer waddling. In fact he managed to get into the kitchen, get coffee and get himself out back on a lawn chair. Once there, he stretched out under the sun, sipping cautiously at the coffee and pretending that he'd sat down; rather than fell with good aim.

Afternoon - OTA

After coffee and some sunshine Tim decided he was feeling limber enough to investigate the current bullshit Mathias was visiting upon them.

He was moving slowly, looked more than a little ridiculous to be quite honest, but he was a determined tortoise. His primary goals were the Old Church and Baneberry Hall. If he managed to make it past Penhew House ... bonus!
abrightboy: (hates to break it to you but)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-09 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
“He did. Just… not right then. He liked to… play first,” Malcolm tells her. He wraps his arms around himself, his weight shifting back and forth from one foot to the other. “I don’t remember most. But we went on a trip to the forest after that. She was there.”
tinstar: (Porch Thinkin)

Day 63- Late afternoon- Open 4 Memory sharing! Just comment and I'll continue with him finding it!~

[personal profile] tinstar 2021-06-10 12:11 am (UTC)(link)
It didn't matter that Raylan had already half been through the house once, he was back again and pushing his way boldly into Baneberry Hall. He'd stood outside for a long minute like the exterior of the house would give him something, he wasn't sure what, but when it hadn't relented, he had to. Raylan was still moving slowly, his feet and body still screaming at him to sit before he fell, but he was too stubborn to give that up.

There was so much house to go through, he knew he wasn't going to get through it all, but he could try. Starting one room at a time, despite the dust and grime that it left on his fingers. There had to be something here, there just had to be, considering the images of a young Malcolm being chloroformed still danced behind his eyelids.
tinstar: (hmm)

[personal profile] tinstar 2021-06-10 12:37 am (UTC)(link)
Raylan smiled back at that brightness, resisting the urge to throw his arm around the smaller man's shoulders and draw him in against him, mainly because it would require more balance than his feet really wanted.

"I'm passable enough, I promise, just-," He lifted a hand with a chuckle. "Don't make me run or chase you anywhere. I still hurt but.. I need'ta see how things are.. I'll make sure to try and nap some tonight once we've seen what we can see. You haven't seen anyone else, right?"
walkingtrigger: (pic#14791794)

[personal profile] walkingtrigger 2021-06-10 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
[ He is infinitely grateful that she wasn't able to get her hand on any projectile objects. A hacky sack would have laid him out at this point. He respected what the aborted action meant, and made no move to come closer.

In fact he began to slowly lower himself to the floor. Gone were his usual graceful actions, he winced as he sank deciding that it would be best to stay on one knee, rather than sitting down completely. Still he managed to position himself so he wasn't looming over her.

Once he was settled Tim looked towards the ribbon and then back to her. His expression wasn't one of pity but it was sorrowful. ]
abrightboy: (a bit smug)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-10 12:49 am (UTC)(link)
Malcolm glanced down at his feet, then back up to his face.

"Neal went out. Tim stayed in. Doc went out and came back." He gestured to the buildings around them. "Everything that got broken in the storm is fixed." He gestured between Raylan and 1306, behind them, as they walked. "Except you and Tim."
tinstar: (Laughin)

[personal profile] tinstar 2021-06-10 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
"Woulda been nice if she put us back together," he grunted. "Henry tell you what happened yet? He cleaned up my feet and everythin' so don't worry about that. I'll be raw and feel like I'm a million years old, but I'm in one piece. Tim's lucky he is but I'm not gonna rush to sayin' he got the better end of the deal."
thering: (Default)

[personal profile] thering 2021-06-10 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
Doc will find Will Graham's body on the late morning/early afternoon of Day 63 in the church ruins and bury it in the makeshift graveyard. Haven't threaded it out yet but he is with Malcolm and Neal.
abrightboy: (counterpoint)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-10 01:50 am (UTC)(link)
“Well, the good news is that - if he suffered a closed head injury - symptoms would have presented already. Dizziness, confusion, mood changes, vision or hearing problems, memory loss… so we won’t have to drill a hole in his skull to save his life,” Malcolm told Raylan conversationally.
tinstar: (biting down)

[personal profile] tinstar 2021-06-10 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
But had Henry told him what happened?

"I doubt it'll come to that, he's got his faculties. All those checks were.. done in the tunnels as we were waitin' out the storm.." Raylan's face drew into seriousness. "It was a rough night."

He replayed as much of his conversation as he could before Malcolm spoke again, in those few half seconds. He was going to have to tell Malcolm. Part of him wanted to spill it now. Get it over with. But to set that on top of all the worry..
abrightboy: (wants to help)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-10 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
He hadn’t told him, but they were caught out in the storm. Malcolm saw Callisto’s house almost collapse on top of her. He assumed something similar happened to them.

“What building caved in on you?” he asked. He looked up as they came on the house that collapsed around Callisto. “That one fell in last night. I barely got Callisto out. She insisted on putting her armour back on.”
thering: (Doc451)

[personal profile] thering 2021-06-10 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
He would find Doc inside the house already, studying the big oval mirror in the entry hall as though there's something really interesting on his face. He's been here before, of course, so the writing on the wall and the photos are of little interest to him, it seems. At the sound of someone coming into the house, Doc turns to look, and his mild surprise melds into slightly narrowed eyes and a half-disapproving hand on his hip. It's only half since he's not got both hands on his hips, after all. That's how this works, isn't it?

"If I have to take a pipe wrench to your kneecaps to get you to sit still, you know I would." Can a cowboy threaten affectionately? Well, Doc seems to make it effortless. He checks behind Raylan's shoulder to see if he brought any other idiots who should be resting with him in tow and at the visual confirmation that he's alone, turns his attention back to Raylan.

"You look like shit."
conning: (screencaptures_362)

NEAL CAFFREY || WHITE COLLAR

[personal profile] conning 2021-06-10 02:28 am (UTC)(link)
Plotting comment here!

This is Neal's memory, and I'm happy to give Emotional Deets if needed!
Edited 2021-06-10 02:35 (UTC)