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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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welladjustedwhitly: (Smile bright)

[personal profile] welladjustedwhitly 2021-06-21 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
She huffs a soft sound of amusement at that, shaking her head.

"Really?" Her eyebrows lift. "Could've fooled me."

She shrugs. "Same way anyone does. I needed something that would look good on a college application, so I worked on the student paper. Kind of just... fell in love with it." She smiles a little.
abrightboy: (pays attention)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
“Only psychopaths start off laughing about cracked skulls,” Malcolm tells him. “And I have more psychopath blood in me than you do. You know it’s a slow slide of escalation. You know it is, because that’s how it happened to you. Then one day you’re at the point where you have to crack a skull to save the world and you don’t see any other choice.”
tinstar: (hmm)

[personal profile] tinstar 2021-06-21 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
"Just the one," he retorted with a side long, narrowed eyed glance at her. Watch it missy.

"Fell in love with chasin' the story or bein' on scene?" They were two different things, when you brought into context how Ainsley arrived, what Raylan knew she did, and the probability that she was an adrenaline junkie who maybe didn't quite realize it yet. But self reflection seemed to only be a Malcolm thing, as best as he could tell.
vampirebats: (pic#14493386)

[personal profile] vampirebats 2021-06-21 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
"Alright, but just because you could doesn't mean you will or that the circumstances here will ever warrant that kinda shit, Malcolm." There's always a choice, in the end, but Negan chose the more gratifying of the two.

"Remember when you told me about the kid who locked you in a room in school? You said you intended to kill him, right? But then you didn't. You made a choice. And if it ever gets to the point you gotta crack a skull, you'll still have it in you to step aside, Malcolm because I'll be here. Hell, Raylan, Doc..." Guys who are used to getting their hands dirty.
myfavoritemurder: (I'll get over it)

[personal profile] myfavoritemurder 2021-06-21 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes, I want them to hate her," she says, immediately jumping on that second thing - both because it's true, and because she doesn't fully understand the first. Victimhood, pity, and feeling sorry for people are not things that have typically come up in her conversations so far.

That last bit, though, earns him a frustrated sound made in the back of her throat. She is so tired of people asking her what she's going to do after, as if after is something that matters at all.

"Why?" she fires back, purposefully echoing his own words. "Why I should care about after?"
likeknives: (Hurt - I'm protectin' you)

[personal profile] likeknives 2021-06-21 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
"Trust is the most important thing in a place like this, and you're not sure if you can trust me."

He gets that, he understands that, and despite his cold demeanor it doesn't sound like he's upset or put off by it. It's fair to him. He understands.

"You wanna protect the people here and that's what I wanna do, too."

He can't prove his worth to him on just a few words, and he understands that, too. If he was in Raylan's place he'd say the exact same thing.

"But you can trust Hardison and Parker. You can ask 'em about me." He's not sure if Raylan has met Parker yet, but he figures it'll happen so enough, if it hasn't happened yet.
abrightboy: (tries to understand)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
Malcolm bites his lip and looks at Negan.

"I don't want you to have to do it either. Let's hope it doesn't come to that," he says.
Edited 2021-06-21 01:52 (UTC)
tinstar: (Trying to be patient)

[personal profile] tinstar 2021-06-21 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
"So we can what, suffer more death on her? You can only kill a person once, Callisto. So yeah. What then. Because life, because you keep going after Xena." 'You' was punctuated with a finger at her before that hand settled on his hip.

"If you kill her, what happens after? You don't stop because she does." He lifted a hand to stop any response. "Don't answer. You think about it. You oughta be more than Xena. Or she's stealin' everything you could be. You could be a real leader, get.. land or somethin'. Build somethin'."

Half of that probably went over her head but he couldn't gesture out all that.
welladjustedwhitly: ({Bright} Smug smirk)

[personal profile] welladjustedwhitly 2021-06-21 02:10 am (UTC)(link)
She lifts her eyebrows in a sort of challenge, but otherwise makes no further comment.

"Why not both?" She shrugs. "I've always been an overachiever." She looks pointedly up at him and echoes something she told her mother once. "My ambition is the best thing about me."
sharker: (bored now)

[personal profile] sharker 2021-06-21 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
It makes sense, she supposes. And maybe it's for the best. The one time she had seen a ghost here, the one in the fog, it had been horrible. But she still can't help being disappointed. It might be cool to see a real ghost. One who floats around in a long flowy dress and screams at her, not one who looks like Eliot.

"Have you seen any ghosts here? Were you scared of them?"
sharker: (pic#2398458)

[personal profile] sharker 2021-06-21 02:23 am (UTC)(link)
[ Parker had already come to more or less the same conclusion. She keeps digging for a moment after Callisto stops, as if that extra few inches might make a difference. But of course it doesn't.

Reluctantly, she stops, sitting back on her heels and staring down at her grubby hands, dirt packed under her nails. ]


Then it's not an illusion.

It really got filled all the way in. By magic.
sharker: (pic#14882021)

[personal profile] sharker 2021-06-21 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
She'd had to process it first. Figure out if she was ready to forgive him, after seeing that. After seeing Hardison, under the water far too long, nearly drowning.

But in the end, there hadn't really been a question. They're a team - Team Leverage, but the three of them, especially. There's no one else in the world she trusts as much as she trusts the two of them. And she knows Eliot, understands him on a level she doesn't even really understand Hardison, as much as she loves him. She knows how seriously he takes his self-imposed duty of protecting them. She knows he'd never, ever put them in harm's way unless there was no other way. Knows he'd die before he let anything happen to them.

She hangs on to him for a long time, longer than either of them would normally be comfortable with, before finally, reluctantly letting go. When she does, she just looks at him for a moment, trying to think of what she can say. How she can make things a little better.

There isn't really a question about that either, in the end.

"Can you make me a sandwich?"
myfavoritemurder: (good things come)

[personal profile] myfavoritemurder 2021-06-21 02:37 am (UTC)(link)
"Escape is this?" She shoots the hiding hand out from under its cover, miming fleeing. She's pretty sure she gets that through context, but wants to make sure, because her next point hinges on it.

"Yes, you understand."

He's completely right. She never escaped the fire. She's never really tried.
sharker: (pic#2398737)

[personal profile] sharker 2021-06-21 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ The moment Hardison's arms wrap around her, warm and solid, she feels better. He's here, he's alive, he's breathing fresh air, and everything's going to be okay. Everything feels almost normal, for a moment.

He wants to know what's wrong, which is...understandable, she guesses. She'd want to know why if he was this upset. But explaining it is another question. She doesn't want to bring up bad memories for him. Or worry him.

So she stays where she is a moment longer, just enjoying the security of a nice, classic Hardison hug, before pulling back just enough to look up and meet his eyes. ]


I'm okay. [ She is now. And he is, she knows that. But she finds herself wanting to double-check anyway, searching his face. Looking for reassurance that he's okay, that he hasn't been getting locked into coffins and fighting panic attacks while she hasn't had her eye on him. ] Are you okay?
ofthegeek: (doing hot girl shit)

[personal profile] ofthegeek 2021-06-21 12:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ah. Hardison sobers right up for that much. That whole incident's been pretty fresh to mind for him since he wound up running head-first into it.

Definitely lends some explanation to the hugging. ]


Right. Uh. [ Phew. ] Sorry, man. You know, if it was up to me, we'd just have some time we did something cool and not terrible floating around. Our team's got a lot of cool stunts on the record.

[ Which is not so much all that he wants to say, which is something more along the lines of I hope you're not holding any of that against him, so he goes on: ]

Didn't have any other real options, on that one.
ofthegeek: (now i do not want to do it)

[personal profile] ofthegeek 2021-06-21 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay. Baseline-baseline. That's probably good. Let him know what to expect. Will that help if he actually hits whatever it was that made that happen, or- jeez, if there's more than the one floating around?

Probably not much. But it could help.

The questions and feeling unsettled, that's one thing. One way or another he can handle that. The idea of Eliot sitting through it again, no kind of heads up or anything, that's a frontline concern as soon as Hardison has the thought.

"So, first thing. If you go back to digging around the rooms," he starts, looking away, serious as he ever gets, "I need you to be careful. 'cause I kinda found a front-row seat to someone else's memories? Which is pretty much not cool on any level."

That's chill, right. That sounded like a chill way to put it. Good starting point. Master of conversations.

He misses when they had problems that he could say 'we have a problem' about to Eliot, and the answer to the problem was Eliot punching it. Take nothing for granted.
likeknives: (Unsure - 1)

[personal profile] likeknives 2021-06-21 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
That's chill.

Or not.

Eliot pauses and frowns, all amused secretly soft grumpiness evaporating into concern.

"Wait--what'd ya mean, a front row seat to someone else's memories?"

And then, nearly as soon as he's spoken, he speaks again, intensely worried, all previous current paperwork sorting and discovering completely forgotten--

"Are you okay? You're not hurt, are ya? It didn't do nothin' to ya, did it?"
abrightboy: (pays attention)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
"Mmhm. What... if they're some kind of cyanide compound used to put people down when they got to be too troublesome?" Malcolm asks.
abrightboy: (figuring you out)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 02:25 pm (UTC)(link)
"So you kept doing both of them afterwards; that makes sense," Malcolm remarked with a nod. He gestured around. "Do you need anything before I go? Something to eat? A blanket? Carried to the bathroom?" Okay, so the last one might have been teasing a bit.
abrightboy: (consider this)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 02:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"Then say hi to my father, next time you're there," he tells her. "Though maybe I'll see you there, too."
abrightboy: (legit smile)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"What a menace we'd be with bottomless pockets and your skills," Malcolm teases. He falls quiet a moment. "If... I can go with Raylan... you should come with us. Come with us." He looks at Neal. "Best friends don't grow on trees."
abrightboy: (regretful)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 02:31 pm (UTC)(link)
"I have some... dietary issues," Malcolm admits, "though I'm sure they're delicious. I can't... eat most things." He pauses, looking back at the room, then he looks at Eliot. "Sorry, I can't just..." He takes a breath and gestures at the room. "There's a hat in that drawer, and I think it belongs to you."
abrightboy: (concession)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Malcolm snorts, then laughs, then look at her.

"I'll talk to him. That's silly," he tells her. "Don't be silly," he murmurs, voice trailing off a bit and he goes back to staring at the ceiling. "Silly."
abrightboy: (thoughtful)

[personal profile] abrightboy 2021-06-21 02:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I understand that. Nobody's memory here is showing them in the best light. If you had to see me doing something, I'd go with the time I jumped on a landmine to save the team and then had to use a seventeenth century flintlock pistol to blow the window out so I could leap clear of the explosion out a third storey window onto my boss' car.
thering: (Doc1065)

[personal profile] thering 2021-06-21 04:19 pm (UTC)(link)
"He would be," is all Doc has to say about that. It is no secret that Raylan has been keeping himself very busy of late, run himself off his feet, and not necessarily by choice. That is all Doc is willing to speculate, really. What a man does at night with anyone he chooses to is frankly none of his business.

"You will be teaching him something useful, presumably." Not that Doc would ever imply that Raylan doesn't know anything useful, but. His gentlemanly charm could use some work. Doc is of course envisioning something slightly more traditional than moonwalking and twerking.