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

[villagemod]

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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Comments

[revvedup]

Max can tell by the tension held in her body that the girl is someone know knows how to fight, too. She doesn't, though she's clearly still wary and frightened, and Max remains a careful distance from her even as she lowers to her level, careful to give her space but get close enough to steady her if she needs it.

"You heard things?" It's a question, except not really. "Voices?"

[enduresurvive]

Ellie knows she should be on her damn feet by now, but it's still so cold, and things are so...fucked up. She could just sit here and freeze to death and on some level that's not the worst idea she's ever had. But then reality or something like it sinks back in. She absolutely cannot die. Not here. Not in this town. Not until she kills Abby. After that, well, who gives a shit.

She watches Max, taking her in. She doesn't recognise her, but she seems like a familiar enough type, someone not to fuck with. But also someone who decided to help when they didn't have to. Ellie will remember that.

She manages a nod. "Yeah. Yeah, I...I don't even know what they were saying. I know it's bullshit. They couldn't be real, but...well, here we are anyway."

She flexes her toes, stiff and cold inside her sneakers. She forces herself to straighten her legs and remember how to move.

"Fuck, I'm lucky you showed up."

[revvedup]

Ellie has the air of someone who's spent their life fighting, too. Maybe she hadn't literally been built for it like she had, but it's an easy thing to recognize if you're familiar with it. Max stands as she does, trying to suppress her own shivering - she's built to withstand extreme temperatures, but her physiology has felt off since she's arrived here, unable to focus her vision or hear anything beyond her regular limits. She should probably stop trying to push those if she wants to survive long enough to get out of here.

"I heard them, too," she says, arms wrapping around herself as she keeps a careful eye on Ellie, in case she becomes unsteady. "I don't - who I heard was calling my name, and it - he was someone I couldn't ignore."

Given how long Ben has been dead, that'll probably sound ridiculous. But it's not as if the other girl knows who she'd been hearing.

"No problem." Max looks around, trying to see if there's anyone else out here - evidently they're the only ones who have strayed this far. "Where were you staying? I'm at the boarding house, but it's not like we've been able to stray that far."

[enduresurvive]

Ellie looks surprised at Max's admission. So it's not just her. Maybe she's not losing it as much as she thought.

"Really?" she asks, just confirming. Her head is still kind of fuzzy, as much from the cold seeping into her as anything else. It really is lucky as hell that Max found her here.

"I don't know what I thought they were saying. Stupid, right? But I just...couldn't ignore them, either. And then I just couldn't keep going." She rubs her hands along her arms, getting her blood flowing quicker again. It's not like she can really get warm out here, but she can get slightly less cold.

"I'm in a house a couple streets back that way. Haven't been to the boarding house yet."

[revvedup]

"Yeah." She gets the need to confirm things for herself, the need for reassurance that even if something's wrong, she's not the only one it's affecting. She frowns when Ellie mentions she couldn't go any further - she's not feeling the way she had the other day, just cold, freezing almost to her core. And the other woman doesn't look like she's feeling anything but cold, either. "The other day, I went out to explore, but got to a certain point and immediately felt sick - was it anything like that?"

She nods when Ellie mentions where she's been staying. "I can walk with you back. Or if you want to say at the boarding house for the night, you can take my room." She feels like sleep is going to be unlikely for her tonight.

[enduresurvive]

Ellie considers the question. "Yeah, I just felt, like, kind of gross and dizzy and then I just...couldn't keep going. It's not like the day there was that crazy fucking storm. Were you here when that happened? I went out but it was like I was the most tired I'd ever been. This place is crazy as hell, man." She's mostly just chattering, but Ellie is someone who tends to fill silences with noise when she's nervous about something or feeling off-kilter.

"No, no, that's okay. The house has, uh...I don't know, three or four rooms. You can stay with us if you want. There's a girl staying with me. Rey. She's pretty cool, I guess."

[revvedup]

"Yeah. I woke up on the beach right before it, had to be dragged to shelter before it broke out." The girl's talking a lot, but Max doesn't interrupt, also understanding the need to talk once there's someone there to listen. She also takes the opportunity to take stock of how she's feeling - she's freezing and weary, but not feeling as sick and exhausted as she had that day.

"Rey?" She's not someone Max has met yet, but then Ellie wasn't, either. "Looks like our population is growing." And that is absolutely not a good sign.

[enduresurvive]

Ellie's on the same page, more or less. This doesn't feel good, but it's got nothing on the way that gross ass storm felt.

"Rey was here from the first day I was," she says. "Actually, I...guess I don't know how long everyone has been here. It's been like a week maybe? Hard to tell when it's dark as shit."

i'm so sorry, this thread got lost in my inbox! let me know if you'd prefer handwaving the rest. <3

[revvedup]

"Yeah. I think, but you're right, the days have been kind of running together." Even more than they had been back when she was at Manticore, and that's saying something. It's a tactic they'd used back then, keeping people isolated, changing the environment so you couldn't tell what day it was or how much time had passed. If she didn't know any better she'd swear she had never left, but then what's everyone else doing here?

"My name is Max," she adds, once she realizes she hasn't yet. "I was helped out when I first got here by a woman named Daisy, I don't know if you've met her."