villagelogs | 004-006 » it was the possibility of darkness...

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004-006 » it was the possibility of darkness...

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern Mathias.
WHEN: Days 004-006
WHAT: Where has the day gone?
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Graham Plowman "The King in Yellow"

DAY 004
THE DAY OF DARKNESS

For those who ventured out on the third night, the day will look eerily familiar, for this is no day. The sun does not rise in the morning as it should, and the black sky still stretches ominously above them with no stars or moon to light their way. It is impossible to tell either the hour or the passage of time, a truly disorienting experience for those used to the normal cycle of day and night.

Beyond the safety of that initial cluster of houses are three blocks more of residential spaces, along with streets branching off on either side into neighborhoods. There are no lights on in any of these homes, though there are occasional streetlights illuminating the way. The unwilling residents of Mathias are welcome to explore these home, though it is wise to take care of being out in the cold for too long. The temperature hovers near the freezing point, dipping lower the further one ventures down those side streets. At a certain point, the temperature drops sharply and those comforting streetlights blink into darkness. These same conditions befall those who try to walk beyond the Mathias Public Library.

The silence from the start of the unearthly night also continues into what should be day. No sounds travel through that bitterly cold air and while there is no physical impact on any who wander outside, the silence feels oppressive and like the rest of the world has disappeared beyond their small circle of sound and whatever light they carry with them.

A NEW ARRIVAL

A terrible time to arrive in Mathias, surrounded by darkness and freezing cold. The newest resident will find herself shivering awake beneath a streetlight outside the Public Library, with no sign of how or why she has ended up in this unfamiliar place.

Best get inside, dear. It isn't safe in the cold.

DAY 005
NIGHT CONTINUES

There is still no sign of the sun. No moon. No stars. Nothing but darkness and painful cold greets our weary fellows on the fifth day.

Indeed, it seems almost monotonous, like this stretch of hours will be exactly as the last... until it isn't. At unpredictable intervals, the power begins to fluctuate within buildings where it had previously held steady. Lights flicker, central heating stutters, and as the hours wear on, there is the notion at the back of the mind that the electricity may go out entirely. Many houses and buildings in Mathias have fireplaces — it might be a good time to start using them.

DAY 006
SILENCE BROKEN

Across Mathias, the power fails completely. Now our ill-fated friends understand why emergency kits are so easily found in residences and businesses in town. Candles, matches, crank flashlights — these are the only means to light your way if you're foolish enough to move beyond the safety and warmth of a fireplace.

The silence is no longer relegated to the outdoors now, but has seeped inside. Sounds almost seem to be absorbed by the impenetrable blackness, disappearing into its depth so completely that one might begin to believe they never existed. The feeling of utter isolation becomes almost maddening, relief only provided slightly by the company of others. And then, suddenly, within that dark nothingness—

Voices. Indiscernible whispers from within the black, one voice or a dozen, with no source to be found. Lasting a mere second or for minutes or hours on end, coming from any direction or from nowhere at all, heard by only one person or by everyone, there is no shutting them out. Following the whispers is ill-advised, as they may lead away from the safety of a group, or out into the cold and beyond the point of no return.

LOCATIONS

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY A large brick building with a string of round lightbulbs draped across the double door entry way, the library resides at the intersection of Phillips Drive and Jackson Boulevard. The building is older than most in this area and coated in more dust than an ill-used library might usually see. There are a number of tall windows throughout the main room that are either broken with glass and debris scattered across a wide stretch of floor or coated in grime so thick that light couldn't penetrate even if there was any. There are lanterns with candles set around the room on lower shelves or the tops of pedestals, and low lamps with green glass are perched on reading tables at one end.

The books are what one might typically find in a small town library - classics, history, dry biographies, but nothing too controversial and nothing published after 1990. But these books are all collected at the front half of the library — toward the back is a different story. Almost as if walking into a different era, the shelves suddenly filled with old leather-bound tomes that smell add a musty smell to the air. Those shelves rise up toward the high ceiling, the tops barely able to be seen with one of the lanterns should it be lit, and as one reaches the very back of the library—

Streaks of soot cover the shelves, or what remain of them, and those along the wall are a blackened mess of what is left behind when books burn. From floor to ceiling, these shelves are a mangled ruin, and there is no way to tell what these books might have contained, or why the fire did not spread further into the room.

THE RESIDENTIAL HOUSES The stretch of new houses mentioned on Night 3 may still be explored as the night continues. Phillips Drive continues on for three blocks past where Mathias's newest residents took shelter, and the cross-streets of King Lane, Stoker Park, and Jackson Boulevard are also open for one block in either direction. Venturing beyond this area is met with painful cold and debilitating exhaustion.

The houses in this section of town are both locked and unlocked, ranging from pristine (if dusty) condition to rundown and falling apart, as if some houses have aged where others have not. The "oldest" houses have been overtaken by rot, interior walls missing whole sections, holes in the floors between levels. There is running water in all the houses in this area of time, but only the best condition houses have working electricity, though the electricity will begin to fail as the night stretches on. The corded landline telephones found within the homes are still working, thankfully, and new sets of numbers (this time without names) are easily found for each block.

As utterly empty as the "newest" houses seem to be, the oldest are... less so. There's a feeling that someone could walk around the corner at any moment. It is almost the sensation of being watched, or of there being thing else there that cannot be seen. Nothing in the houses is disturbed and there are no shadows springing out, so perhaps there's really nothing there at all...

THE BOARDING HOUSE Another large brick building at the intersection of Phillips Drive and Jackson Boulevard, the boarding house occupies the opposite corner from the library and seems to be almost as old as the larger building across from it. There are three stories to the building: the first floor contains the kitchen (fully stocked), dining room, shared living room space, and a half bath; the second floor has four single bedrooms and one full bath; the third floor also has four single bedrooms and one full bath. There is a locked door on the third floor that leads to an attic. Each room is furnished with a double bed, desk, and small table and chairs, and in each room there can be found the clothing and personal effects of the former boarders. The electricity and other utilities in the boarding house function just fine until the power fluctuations begin as in the rest of town.
Room 1 — unclaimed
Room 2 — unclaimed
Room 3 — Daisy Johnson
Room 4 — Max Guevara
Room 5 — Number Five
Room 6 — Phil Coulson
Room 7 — Claire Novak
Room 8 — unclaimed

To claim a house for layout designing/exploration or a room in the boarding house, comment here. House numbers will be generated in response to comments.

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( it reminds him that he should honestly look for a warmer set of clothing.

the bad thing about having tunnel vision in the midst of an unpredictable place is being less prepared than he liked. maybe he'll go get a thicker sweater after looking here.

he grabs the lantern he set down, holds it in front of him, and continues down the trail of soot, frame just at the slightest angle. an easy, defensive stance.

the damage seems to get worse the further down they go, however slowly. far more ruined books, and ruined shelves. he does chance a glance to his unwitting companion. ]

Out of curiosity, John, do a lot of people appreciate your jokes?

[ John looks side to side as they walk. Looks like the fire went from the bottom of the top. Whoever tried to get rid of what didn't do the most stellar job it seems. ]

Depends on the company, but, no. Not as often as I'd like. [ He wears a grin like he's proud of that. ] Now then, about these books. What do you reckon that there was something here once upon a time that was a bit darker than the Grimm stories?

( there's a thoughtful hmm at that, a quirk of a brow. looks like terrible humour would be the hallmark of everyone here.

claire had her dad jokes, so maybe this was better.

the books around, at first glance, are all painfully every-day. mostly nonfiction, histories and geographies and sciences. ) Seems too unimportant to provoke any book burning...

Think the archives were here? Would be damn great to get a map of this shit hole. ( someone woke up on the wrong side of the nap today, apparently. )

Archives. Town history. Usually if you've got nasty dark secrets, you don't keep them in the open.

[ he steps around a few broken things. ]

Unless, it's not a secret, and the whole town knows what's going on and don't say anything.

[ John points further in. ] Oh, and, don't mind the hole, mate. That was yours truly.

Why did you decide to renovate? ( five's approach stops near the opening, the apparent product of john's efforts before peering down.

small towns and secrets did go hand in hand, after all. ) It's odd - the rest of the library didn't catch on fire. Looks like it was a sizable one too, so -

( his mind drifts, at the end, as it always does, to his family. the burnt library is close enough to the ruins of home - the smell of paper ashes and old wood and old leather and dust - to provoke a memory, to tumble it together into the necessary association and in the end - he thinks of klaus, and of conjuring the dead.

he hadn't thoughts about it seriously in a long while, and he turns to cast his fellow investigator a sidelong glance. ) - your, ah, spells. Can you...figure out if anyone died?

Oh, well, you never know where people might keep their secrets. Possible a hidden room could of been down below that they were hoping would go up with the rest of the room. [ he gestures to the burned area with his hand. ] Had a mate that had a mill house filled with magical trinkets and things that would make your head spin. A hidden door in a library really wasn't that far of a stretch of the imagination.

[ and he was mad. frustrated. took it out on the floor. ]

Suppose I could. Though, magic is a bit iffy right now.

[ john sets the flashlight on a burned shelf and rubs his hands together. his eyebrows raise -- just to see how serious five is about him going down that rabbit hole. ]

Ah, good to know what your particular brand of investigation is. [ direct approach, and all that.

sure, maybe that was an approach. screw trying to find the right switch to reveal a hidden tunnel, when you could make the entrance yourself... ]

Yeah - I know. My powers have been halfway to shit since I got here. [ that said, five doesn't look like he's backing down from the idea. he rarely asks something simply for the sake of asking.

he's...trying to embrace the supernatural expertise of several people here, however skeptical or otherwise detached he personally is from the idea. ] But death is a clue.

And what would that brand be? In your own words.

[ sometimes things need to be forced. he'd like things to be nice, clean, easy for once. they usually aren't though. ]

Oh, your powers? What might those be? [ since it is now show and tell. or at least tell. ]

Death and how it occurred, although the Rapture idea might not be too far off the mark. [ he takes a few steps around. ] Could try a reveal spell... not a corpse to reanimate so the light touch of necromancy is off the table for now.

[ five stops, raises his brows, and gives john quite the pointed look. ] Head on. Impulsive.

You're lucky the entire floor didn't collapse. [ five can reliably guarantee his descriptions will never be all that flattering. sorry, john. ]

Spatial displacement and time travel. [ is rattled off, conversationally, as he crouches down to inspect the floor opening more. there really...didn't seem like there would be a lot of evidence here, in the first place.

the idea itself gets nothing more than a shrug, though there's open curiosity to his expression now. ] Yeah, some sort of Mass Exodus is sounding more and more likely.

You need anything for that spell?

[ john pauses, flashing the flashlight down to the younger man. he lets a dramatic beat pass. ] Sounds like me.

[ then, a grin. just to show he took it in good nature and he isn't all bent out of shape. it's an accurate way to describe him. head on, impulsive, never thinking things through all the way. although most the time he did and it was the alternatives that were botched. because the main way of getting things done hurt people. ]

Huh. Can't say I've met a time traveler before. Psychics, warlocks, people who got multiple lives, self-proclaimed voodoo kings, angels, demons? Oh, sure. Met the lot of them. Not a time traveler though.

[ attacking the floor had been more out of frustration than anything. though, maybe the universe would of thrown him a bone and found a secret hatch or something. no. just apparently someone who was a bit peeved at the local librarian and torched the place. ]

Something that belongs to the area. Ash here might be enough to see if we can get a bit of revival going on. Salt... maybe offering another book up at the same time. [ it sounds like a half-assed spell because it is. ] If anything maybe we could at least find out what one of these bloody books were before.

[ so he got it in one. subtle satisfaction, on that note.

not that five would be any better, but he isn't about to go around admitting that. those personality traits would become self-evident in their own time. ] Well, first time for everything then. [ adding to quite the eclectic list that five still halfway can't believe is real. but well...a lot more things were real than most people thought so - fair is fair. ]

[ five begins to rummage through the area, and lifts a book from the ground - or, more accurately, half of one.

he'd never seen magic in the works before. he's almost inquisitively curious. something for his notes, as it were. ] I thought similar - if we find out at least a topic.

That tends to be every other day for me. Can't say I'd been kidnapped to an abandoned town before either.

[ john looks over once the rummaging starts. oh, a book that has most of it in tact. that'd make it easy. he walks over, holding his hand out for the book. it's definitely charred to hell. if anything he could try to repair it magically, but, that'd be a stretch.

then, he turns around and starts kicking the area free of any rubble or left over bits and bobs. he kneels down on one knee, holding the book in one hand and pulling his lighter out with the other. there's a cross on the lighter. with a click, the lighter comes to life. he inhales sharply, wondering what punch he'll get for this spell, but figures it is worth the shot.

john closes his eyes and mutters a phrase in celtic. the flame grows until the seal on the lighter begins to glow. then, he holds it up to the remains of the back of the book. the flame dances before dying suddenly... and john raises an eyebrow. things go quiet before the gold light of the seal starts to illuminate the outline of the book.

he laughs a bit - he didn't think it'd work. ]

Right, come here. [ he nods for five to kneel down in front of him. ] Take the lighter and hold it where I've got it. Bit of a thrown together spell, but, let's just keep it at the idea of I'm using my own energy to manifest a spectral version of what it once was, yeah?

[ five watches on with a distant sort of curiosity, handing the book over with a lift of his brow before brushing the soot from his hands.

the magic - that does catch his attention, pulls it into its orbit as he takes a few steps closer, head cocked.

five takes the lighter in his hand, keeps it dead-steady as he takes a knee to help with the hold. a marksman's grip, as it were. ] Alright, Houdini.

[ he considered using his own powers for this - resetting a book, as it were, or trying to do a time reversal. he's still determined to try, of course. especially if this solutions gets them some sort of answers. he squints at the back of the book, though that part is albeit obscured. ] Anything legible?

Houdini? Well, better than Potter anyways.

[ one hand holds the remains of the book while the now free one raises and starts making the motions of flipping the pages. the spectral ones turn slowly, showing shimmering images of calculations, symbols ...and a language john hasn't seen before.

well, that's new. ]

I don't suppose any of that looks familiar to you?

Huh.

Neat trick, [ five sounds vaguely impressed, even as his attention turns back to the book, and he cants his head to the side.

a frown quickly forming. ] No. My proficiency in linguistics ends at creepy languages in magic books. [ which is saying something, considering how many languages he was taught. ]

Wait till the big magic comes out.

[ Not that he really... is looking forward to that idea. Mathias seems to not like his brand of magic. Rude, really.

A laugh comes from him at the quip. ] Can't say it's familiar to me either. Impressive, really. I've seen more than a few dead ones in my time.

[ He moves his hand again to turn another page. ] Calculations, huh? Could be alchemy.

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004-006 » it was the possibility of darkness...

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