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.

navigation | faq | locations | report updates

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Boring. Her face falls in disappointment, but she doesn't protest. He sounds like Nate, complaining about achy joints.

She twirls to face him, setting the hat on her head and prancing over to offer him a hand up. "I'm Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens, atcher service. Don't you worry, the Federal Gov'mint's here t'save the day."

"Most dangerous sentence in the English Language is 'I'm with the Government and I'm here to help'," he countered, unoffended and unbothered by her borrowing the hat. So long as he got it back.

He took the offered hand, grunting as he hoisted himself up with her help.

"Mmhmm. Fine, be that way but I'mma call you Miss Kitty till I get your real name. Where'd you learn to.. do all that?"

No, he didn't expect a straight answer if he couldn't get her name but it was worth the shot.

"Archie," she offers, without elaboration. Her name, or a surpremely unhelpful attempt at an answer to his question? It's hard to tell.

She glances around at the church ruins surrounding them, still hoping for something interesting.

"Are you sure there's nothing here? I thought creepy old ruins were supposed to have buried treasure. Or at least ghosts."

Very unhelpful.

"Mathis likes to make a show of shit and I don't think there's any triggers up there gonna make the floor open up, as disappointin' as that might be for ya. If there were ghosts, they'd already be here tryin' to scare the shit outta us."

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?"

"You haven't been here long, have you," he said, the whole statement lacking the question mark she might expect. He could tell; she didn't have to answer.

"It's not.. sheet ghosts or Poltergeist or nothing, more.." He clucked softly in frustration. "Unsettlin' than scary. Least the Others weren't the specters in the mirror was kinda fucked up.. So's the scratching in the walls. If you ever have to wonder if you have rats, you don't. Its Her."

It's been way too long, in Parker's opinion, but she can tell he's not really looking for an answer, and stays quiet, just listening. She stiffens when he mentions the mirrors, remembering her own panic in the bed and breakfast. Ghosts are maybe exciting. But those indistinct shadows passing behind her in the mirror, nowhere to be seen in reality...she hadn't liked those at all.

And scratching in the walls. Her brow furrows, as she tries to remember if she's heard anything like that. Now, of course, she'll be convinced she's hearing it constantly. No one on Team Leverage is going to be getting anything approaching peaceful sleep anytime soon.

She's silent for a moment, absorbing it all, gathering up her courage, before asking. Softly, as if she's afraid of being overheard. Or maybe not sure she really wants to hear the answer at all.

"...Her?"

It was fair to say that Raylan's view of time was a little skewed after being here far too long himself, but that particular windsock had already torn off it's stick and tumbled down the hellish beach once he realized his own timeline kept going. Anyone here for any length of time was too long, but time brought hard learned lessons.

He wanted to spare anyone he could from that being a surprise.

"Mathis," he replied, lifting serious eyes to meet Parker's. "The fog, the shadows, the rain, the chasm.. It's all Mathis that's chasing us. Whatever.. spirit or.." His jaw worked, eyes sliding to the side as he chewed over admitting what sounded crazier than all that. "I dunno. Whatever is here."

He could continue. He could elaborate. He'd rather see how all that was taken before doing so because there was a line where shit sounded just too insane to be reality. The line where people had to learn for themselves.

She shivers, instinctively stepping closer. At least she doesn't look at all like she doesn't believe him or thinks he sounds insane. If anything, it's all too believable.

"The town..." She bites her lip, half in thought, half in unease. "The town is doing all of it?"

She has no reason not to believe him. This is Jeff. Her friend, or at least someone who maybe could be a friend. She trusts him, even if he wouldn't do any magic for her. Her voice drops into a whisper.

"Is it trying to chase us out?"

If he knew her better, he'd offer some comfort to go along with all this bad news but he could only give her the truth as he knew it, with a soft sympathy that was for all of them.

"There is no 'out'. Just trees and fog that'll kill you quicker than anythin' in town." He took a deep breath, glancing at his boots and then the church around them as he continued. "You want the truth of it, Miss Kitty?"

Dark eyes returned back to her face. "I think she's tryin' to do the opposite. Drive us into truama and turnin' in on one another. I.. I think she wants us to start sacrificin' one another." He expected to be told he was crazy. Prepared for it, even.

She'd thought that the idea of the town trying to chase them out was a bad one. She doesn't want to be lost out in the woods, and she knows Hardison doesn't.

But what he says even worse. She'd nodded when he'd asked if she wanted the truth - knowing has to be better than pretending not to, right? But when he says sacrificing her eyes widen and she steps back, shaking her head.

"No." What does that mean? Is he going to try to sacrifice her? Is she going to be expected to sacrifice someone else? She shakes her head again, fiercely, taking another step back from him. "No, I don't want to! I won't!"

Raylan kept his hands were they were, propped loosely on his unevenly cocked hips - seriously, the man was incapable of looking like he was standing straight, even when he was. No, he wasn't going to try and sacrifice her, for however evident his lack of movements made that idea.

Her reaction was the correct one.

"No one is asking you to. No one here wants to and no one here is plannin' on testin' the theory out. But that doesn't mean that's not what she's drivin' us towards anyway."

She stays where she is, just out of reach, still tensed up like she's waiting for an unexpected lunge or attack. But she doesn't flee any further, either. Hoping, at least, that he means it. That he's not a threat.

"How do you know that's what she wants, then? Did she tell you?" She cocks her head, eyeing him warily.

"How do you know no one wants to try?"

"There was a cult that used to run this town. Sacrificed one of their editors.. He was happier than a pig in shit. Ellie ran across a bowl of blood and a sacrificial knife. Mathis pushed someone else to slit their wrists in the tunnels. Penhew house-" he continued, gesturing at the fine house that came before this one on the road. "Has 'This we offer in humility and fear' etched over the mirror in its main hall."

Somewhere along the way, his dander had started to fluff up and his gesturing was somehow firmer for it. "How do I know the people here don't want to try? Because most of us come from sane fucking realities where human sacrifice isn't something reasonable people do."

She manages to stand her ground as he describes everything he'd found, despite how horrific it all is. Suicide. Sacrifice. The mirrors she never wants to see or think about again.

It's not until he starts gesturing again, his tone a little harsher as he swears, that she flinches. The words he says might be meant to be reassuring. They are, maybe. Mostly. But he's upset - angry in a way he'd never been close to during their first meeting - and it's uncomfortable. Unpredictable and unsettling.

Besides which, what he's saying isn't really as reassuring as all that.

"What do you mean most of us?"

She flinched. He'd gone too far. Had to calm down, tuck the edge of himself that had peeked through back under his hat and did so with a deep breath, hand resettling onto his hips as he looked at the ground.

"I mean us who don't have God or Demons or Gifts or magic or any of that fantastical crap that throws more wrenches in the works. Those of us that share the same general world rules. Murder is bad, sacrificing people is worse, and if you don't do either of those things, you're doin' pretty alright." He looked up at her from under his eyebrows, features softer for his remorse of letting it all out. It had been several very long days.

"Can I have my hat back please or are you holdin' it hostage."

Parker's eyebrows scrunch together in confusion. Those of us who don't have magic? No, he must mean something else. After all, even if Jeff's world does have magic, he definitely agrees that murder is bad.

But she'd completely forgotten about the hat. She stares at him blankly for a moment, then reaches up, taking it off and handing it carefully back. It's a good hat, and he's her friend. She wouldn't just steal it for good.

Probably.

"So there are people here who don't -" What had he said? "Share...those world rules?"

"Thank you," he said graciously as he stepped forward enough to take the hat back before pulling back to where he'd been. Established space lines were to be strictly followed most of all the time and the only time he broke that rule was to punch bad guys. For all she could do, the blond did not feel like that.

"There's only about twenty of us here. Twenty somethin'. You tend to sus out those idea fairly quickly. They're all appropriately horrified and pissed to be here, and no one's been gutted in the town square yet." He took a deep breath.

"Sorry I don't have a better report for you. Mathis ain't exactly a fun and happy place."

"I know."

She's not stupid. She would have figured that out for herself even without Hardison warning her as soon as she'd arrived. Even without Eliot telling her about how he'd died and seen his own body. It's scary and upsetting and horrible. And there are no bugs. There should be bugs.

"What if someone shows up who does start murdering people?"

Clearly an understatement. His mistake; consider him slightly admonished.

"Then I do my job." And he was good at his job; US Deputy Marshal.

She pauses, trying to make that make any kind of sense. And then she cocks her head at him, frowning.

"High school teacher?"

"United States Deputy Marshal," he answered, face pinching a little as he finally pieces something together.

"You wouldn't'a... Happen to meet someone wearin a similar kinda mug," he asked with a circling gesture at his face, "Would you?"

What? She frowns as she thinks. Who else here is old?

"No..." She shakes her head. "Why?"

Edited 2021-06-27 18:58 (UTC)

"Why 'high-school teacher'?" Raylan knew he looked like a very few specific things. High school teacher was not one of them.

"Your job."

She says it slowly and carefully, like he's the one not quite getting it. And then she huffs out an annoyed breath, gesturing at his hat. Good thing he'd stepped back again after taking it back, or she would have flicked the brim.

"Your real job? Not US Marshal or wizard thief rock star."

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)