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

You're afraid.

[She insists again, equal parts approving of and agitated by the denial.]

Because it's weird, yes? You're afraid on weird things?

[She's been picking up vocab! But she still finds prepositions easy to mix up.]

I don't...like them.

[ She doesn't like this. She scowls, stomping her foot on the ground again, hard and solid. ]

I don't like this.

Well, you're not going to break it open by throwing pebbles at it.

[Callisto says critically, in Greek, before kneeling down to the ground. Picking up one of Parker's discarded sticks, she makes a thoughtful noise in the back of her throat.]

Do this.

[She starts scratching at the earth with the stick, digging as best she can.]

[ Parker watches curiously, going so far as to bend down and pick up a stick of her own. But when it becomes clear what Callisto is doing, she scowls, shaking her head fiercely. ]

I'm not going to redig the whole thing!

Small.

[She retorts, digging the stick down further into the dirt, continuing on in a mix of Greek and English.]

We'll see how deep it goes - small, and I see if it's there; if this go down. You understand? If the pit is still down there, I'll be able to drop the stick through to it, and if I can't - well, then you'll have your answer, won't you.

[ As expected, there's a flurry of Greek that she doesn't understand, but there's enough English scattered in for Parker to follow what Callisto is saying. She watches for another moment, still skeptical, and then drops down to her knees next to Callisto, starting to dig alongside her. ]

[The earth is soft, so even though they're just digging by hand, it doesn't take long to dig a hole of decent depth. When it's about a foot deep, Callisto pokes the stick into the bottom of it, digging further and still finding only more dirt.]

There is nothing, Parker.

[Or if there is, it's much deeper down.]

[ 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.

["Illusion" means nothing to her, but "magic"? That's practically the same word in both languages. Convenient!]

Why are you afraid? You don't know magic? Before Mathias, in your-- your village.

[Your home.]

There is no magic?

I'm not afraid.

[ She'll keep insisting on it, as many times as she needs to. But she hesitates at Callisto's question. Eliot or Hardison would have just said no. No such thing as magic. But Parker's never been so sure. ]

Not...like this.

[ She reaches down, prodding again at the all-too-solid ground. ]

People can't do things like this.

Gods can do things like this. Magic people can do things like this.

[She shrugs, unconcernedly. Magic is just a part of life where she's from; even as a person who's decidedly non-magical, she can't imagine making this big of a deal about it.]

You are what? Angry?

[ Parker shrugs. She's never been especially in touch with her feelings, able to modulate or sometiemes even identify her own emotions. All she knows is that she isn't afraid. She knows what fear is. This isn't it. ]

Maybe.

Who...who would do this?

[ Who could do this? ]

It's...a lot of magic, right? To make it all go away?

[They are absolutely twinsies on that front. Callisto toes the ground again, kicking up dirt and dust, and then turns to head towards the new part of town - waving for Parker to follow.]

Very. I think it is gods, not-- magic person.

[She glances back at Parker.]

I think they never will tell you why they do this.

[ Parker's more than ready to follow her. The chasm is gone. There's nothing left to see here. And if it really was the magic of the gods that had done it, she's just as happy to get somewhere else.

She thinks as she joins Callisto, still unsettled. ]

Do the gods do that kind of thing a lot?

Do they - [ She waves an arm back towards the place where the chasm had been, trying to think of another way to phrase it. ] Use big magic a lot?

Yes.

[She says, but then she pauses, because it's actually not anywhere near that simple.]

Sometimes. It's easy for them, and they can whenever they want to, but plenty of people go their entire lives without the gods interfering with them directly.

[Certainly most people never meet the gods, at least not before their own deaths.

But how in the world is she going to translate any of that.]

With us--

[She draws a finger between her and Parker.]

This is big magic. But with the gods this is small. You understand?

[ She does. She looks back over her shoulder uneasily. ]

They could do a lot more.

[ Hurt her and Callisto, maybe. Not even have to try. Parker shivers. ]

Why did they do it?

Why.

[She snorts, as if that's a silly question.]

Because they want. Because they can.

[Because why not, essentially.]

[ Parker shivers, wrapping her arms around herself. She leans closer to Callisto, whispering so quietly she's nearly inaudible. ]

Are they listening to us now?

[ Will they get in trouble? Be punished? ]

Maybe we should...make an offering or something.

[ Callisto had tried that before, right? ]

Why? You want what?

[Callisto asks - mildly skeptical, but still considering the idea.]

For this?

[She looks back over her shoulder as they walk, gesturing at the space where the chasm used to be.]

No -

[ She shakes her head, as if the denial wasn't clear enough. ]

To - make them like us?

So they don't...use magic on us. Like that.

[Ah. Staving off the retribution of the gods by appealing to them and trying to appease them - that's a concept that every Greek is familiar with.]

It might work.

[She says in Greek, waggling a hand back and forth in an effort to indicate "maybe".]

But it might not. The gods are fickle. The gods are weird. But--

[She shrugs.]

A lot people do this. To make the gods like them. You want-- you want see how? Seeing how?

[She's a little stuck on the grammar, but is assuming her message will come through regardless. She'll show you how to make an altar, Parker!]

[ Whatever Callisto's saying, her expression isn't promising. But it's worth a shot, right? It has to be.

Parker hesitates, and then nods, firmly. She has to try. They took away people and then they took away the chasm. What if Hardison is next? ]

Yes.

I want to see.

[Callisto stops walking, turning to study her. Then, abruptly, she switches course, heading back towards the main part of town.]

Come. There is food; the gods want food and drink. Food from--

[She wrinkles her nose, unsure of how to say meat.]

-- from animal.

[ There's a second of delay before Parker hurries to follow her. Good. This is good. This will help. She and Hardison and Eliot will be safe.

She nods, following along, listening intently to what Calliso is saying. Food and drink, they can do that. Food from -

She stops, eyes going wide. ]

But there are no animals!

Yes, in the Grey Gull.

[She insists, thinking of the meat that gets magically stocked in the fridge. It probably won't be as impressive to the gods as meat that they actually killed themselves, but surely it'll be better than nothing - assuming these gods care about meat at all. Impatiently gesturing Parker forward, she continues:]

Come, you see.

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

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