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

Entry tags:

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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Good.

[It's not the reaction that most people are likely to have over this, but Callisto is firmly on the side of wanting to spread her painful memories around to as many people as possible. Let every last one of them experience what it's like to see your family die in front of you. They should.

Nodding at the ribbon, not realizing that experiencing the memory herself has pulled all the power from the object, she orders:]

Do it again.

Once was enough. [ He says in a soft but firm tone. He'd witnessed enough during the war, through the lense of his scope and had those replays in his nightmares. He did not need a replay of the memory associated to that ribbon. ]

I never questioned your claim to your anger. [ Tim continued, doing his best to sign out the key points of that statement; never questioned, your, anger. ]

You're scared.

[She accuses, before swapping over to Greek that she knows he won't understand.]

I see it in my head every day, and you're too weak to see it twice.

[ Tim was in too much pain to rise to the obvious bait and his expression said as much.

He understood that she was lashing out. He understood why she was lashing out. But at the end of the day, there was not a damn thing he could do about it. Trying to offer his condolences would simply be patronizing. She would savage any attempt at sympathy. There was absolutely nothing he could tell that young child, who had seen her family burn that would take the pain away or even come close to offering comfort and closure.

In other circumstances he'd offer her the release of physical violence. They'd proved out in the woods the other day that he could keep up with her in ways that allowed for pain, but did not risk actual damage. But today he was no good to her, even in that arena.

So in the end he gave a small nod and began to laboriously pry himself back up to his feet. ]

I am scared.

Where do you go.

[She hisses furiously at him, scrambling over to the ribbon to grab it up and throw that at him, for lack of anything else close at hand. When she's in these moods, she's impossible to please: she might very well have yelled at him for trying to stay, but that doesn't mean she's not going to yell at him for trying to leave. Another soft, hiccuping sob escapes from her throat, but in contrast, her face is all glaring fury.]

I was ... [ He began before automatically snapping his hand up to catch the item thrown in his direction. The quick movement results in a grunt and low groan as muscles yelled at him, though it might read as him trying to avoid the ribbon.

It hits his fingers and he holds on to it while trying to prepare himself for falling back into the memory. Only nothing happens. Instead of the shouting, chaos, fear and confusion he expected, his awareness stayed in the here and the now.

Tim frowned and flipped the ribbon this way and that, instinctively giving it a shake as if trying to rattle the memory to 'play' but there is nothing. ]

That's curious. [ Tim muttered, giving the ribbon another turn this way and that, before handing it back towards her. His expression remains carefully neutral, professionalism in the face of her emotional turmoil. ] No memory.

[Callisto stares at the dead, memoryless ribbon, and she finds herself torn between two disparate impulses. On the one hand, there's relief that she won't have to see it again. On the other, there's anger that it's just gone - that something so important and so foundational could have dissipated like so much smoke.]

Why you are here?

[She asks Tim in a hoarse voice, dropping the useless ribbon onto the floor. He's clearly injured, after all; he looks like he can barely walk.]

[ Listing out the string of events, his curiosity, her scream would take too long and really wasn't pertinent to the final answer.

He went right to the heart of the matter. Hands moving, more stiff than usual but still in a deliberate pattern to help bridge language gaps. ]

You are my friend. I care about you, and you are in pain.

[ He managed a small shrug. Where else would he be? ]

I am in pain always.

[She hisses through gritted teeth, slamming an open palm down onto the floor.]

Pain, and nothing. Do you understand? Pain and nothing.

At some point, Callisto, it becomes a choice. [ He said with gentle firmness. ] You have reason to hurt, be angry and sad. [ Tim gestured towards the ribbon, while also working his hands to indicate 'reason' and the emotions. ]

But you are choosing to suffer. Is that what they wanted for you?

I don't understand.

[She insists - though at least part of that is a refusal to. She makes a point of turning away from his hands as he tries to act out his words.]

[ His knee jerk reaction is to walk around in front of her to continue their conversation, but he stopped himself.

Anger and pain like what she struggled with was damn near hardwired in her at this point. The trauma of a child, layered so deep in the psyche she was more like Malcolm in the diagnosis of Complex PTSD. It was as harmful to constantly challenge her mindset as it was to tell anyone to 'just be positive'!

The fact that she hadn't jumped all over him for his words was something he would take as a win. ]

I'm going to keep wandering around for a bit. Moving like I am, suspect you can find me if you want me.

[ Especially as he was going nowhere fast. He was, however, heading out the door to give her some breathing room. ]

[If Tim had asked her whether she wanted him to stay or go, Callisto would have said, without hesitation, that she wanted him to go. She doesn't want his comfort, doesn't want his pity, doesn't want his words that she can only partly understand. She doesn't want him. She's sure of it.

But then he actually does leave, and she's alone again, and somehow that's even worse.

She stays curled on the floor for a while, hunched into herself, whimpering softly the way she sometimes had in Tartarus when her throat was raw from screaming. And then, after close to half an hour has passed, she pulls herself up into a seated position, hugging her knees to her chest. She turns towards the door, making sure that it's still open. And then she does again what had summoned him the first time: she pulls in a deep breath, and lets loose with an ear-splitting shriek.]

[ Jeebus Christmas. That shriek, especially in this place is unnerving as hell.

It does, however, get the result she was looking for, though perhaps not as quickly as she may have anticipated. He's still moving slow, and when he gets to the doorway he has to hang on to the jamb to keep himself upright. ]

Couldn't just, [ a few shallow pants ] call my name?

[Absolutely not, Tim; screaming is superior in all ways. Ignoring his question, she gestures to his legs.]

You fight?

Right now? No.

[ Sorry Callisto but he is in no shape to be your sparring partner today. ]

No, before. You're--

[She points at his injured legs again, impatiently.]

How?

Oh. [ He said feeling his adrenaline shot starting to wear off, leaving him slumped against the door frame.

He thinks for a couple of breaths, coming up with a way to sign out the idea of 'lighthouse', 'cliff', 'storm', and 'fall'. Once he thinks he has something that should work, he explains. ]

During the storm the other day, I tried to get to the lighthouse up the cliff face. The storm blew me off and I fell into the ocean.

[ He brings his hands together in a whip crack smack. ]

[The tall tower by the beach, she thinks distantly. She hadn't been sure what it was for, and she's still not sure now, but she thinks that's what he's talking about.]

Death?

[ Tim shook his head, and fuck it. He moved stiffly into the room and towards the bed. He didn't care that it was dusty, he didn't care that he was having a conversation. He needed to lay down for a bit. If she tried to put the restraints on him he ... well he would glare, very firmly! ]

Only wish I had.

[ Ahhh. Creepy flat surface, at least the mattress was firm and he hadn't seen any suspicious stains on the sheet before he'd laid out on his back. ]

[She doesn't stand. She barely even moves. She just tracks him with her eyes, eerily quiet until he's settled and still.]

You wish to death?

Last time I did death here I came back hale and whole. [ Tim continues without looking up at her, which might be a mistake. ] None of this mincing around like a 90 year old man with a bad sunburn on his balls.

Use your hands.

[She orders, wrinkling her nose.]

I don't understand.

I don't have the balance to walk on my hands?

[ She's not the only one who doesn't understand. ]

No. Talk with your hands. Like you do, like--

[She signs Liz's name sign in ASL.]

Like she does. I don't understand. You're all unfathomable and tiring, and your language is IMPOSSIBLE--

[This last bit is snapped off in frustrated Greek, despite her general exhaustion.]

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