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

Entry tags:

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

WHO: Group B 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.

THE NEW ARRIVALS
The newest arrivals to Mathias will wake up on the lawn of Town Hall, at the center of the little town square. There are shops all around them, with houses just beyond, and at first glance, everything seems almost picturesque. Except for the silence that is at times so complete as to be maddening... Welcome to Mathias.

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

It is a part of my history that I have tried to atone for and leave behind.

( if he sounds defensive, it's because he is. he's immediately on his guard, preparing himself for something similar to what his mother had done to him.

elena is not her but he can't help himself. )

No, it doesn't hurt to look at you, Elena. What happened to Tatia was a long, long time ago. I've tried to make as much peace with things as possible. It doesn't hurt to look at you.

Okay.

[ she says it quietly and nods. it's an awkward situation. she's not entirely sure what she should do. she doesn't really know how to comfort elijah. it's been him taking the reins and refusing he needs any help from her. ]

I don't really know what to do. When Stefan told me I looked like Katherine… I ended up in a car accident and Damon took me to Atlanta. Considering there are no cars and we can't leave the town… [ she purses her lips and taps her fingers against the table. pushing off of it, she clasps her hands in front of her awkwardly. ] I'm not really sure how to move on from this.

You don't need to do anything. If you want to walk away, you can.

( he's not expecting anything from her. he's unfortunately trapped in his own memories for the moment, unable to really see her clearly because she's just reminded him of something terrible and something he feels intense and immense guilt for.

he turns and peers down at the journal, taking a breath. )

I'm not expecting anything from you.

[ as the oldest person in the room—and often as the person who postures in knowing what's best (sorry, elijah)—elena had been hoping he'd have some guidance on where to go from here. she had suspected that there was someone else out inside of mystic falls' history that looked like her. how could katherine be the first doppelgänger if there wasn't an original to copy? but to know how close she had been to her… and to know that it seems to start and begin with elijah and klaus…

elena has questions, but she knows that being in this hall, this new place in mathias, isn't the right stage for it. she'll ask once they're out of here and once they find the rest of the residents. ]

You never told me you wrote in a journal. And your writing is… chicken scratch.

[ laugh, please. she's trying here. ]

I didn't see the need to share that.

( unfortunately, he doesn't laugh. he doesn't because he can't because he knows what she's seen and his head is full of memories of tatia, of his mother, of his many mistakes.

he swallows and shakes his head, looking down. he knows he has to pick up the journal and look at it himself but he doesn't want to see tatia.

he's not ready yet. )

[ elena's used to a lack of response. after all, she had jeremy to contend with in the aftermath of their parents dying. she knows how to deal with that. if he doesn't latch onto any jokes, then that's his choice. elena's not going to force anyone to laugh.

sliding her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, she shrugs and looks down. because he won't laugh, she thinks it's only fair what she proposes next. after all, she's not the one who kept a very big piece of information to herself. ]

I think that when we get back to the Boarding House… I think it's time for you to tell me everything I need to know. About doppelgängers, Original vampires…

[ everything. the sun and moon curse's origins. the reason why klaus felt the need to become a hybrid. why elijah tried to help her—she thinks it's allowed to be on the table now. ]

I don't think it's out of line to want to know that.

I don't know if I'm ready to talk about all of that, Elena. I don't know if it's necessary.

( they were far removed from tatia and katerina and all that. he was the only one there. he doesn't know why she needs to know all this.

he doesn't know if he can talk about certain things. his past is a blood soaked painting and he wants to keep it hidden. )

I think there are more important things to consider.

I died because of it.

[ she crosses her arms against her chest, hip jutting out. she grounds her feet into the floor, standing taller than she had before. she'd given elijah his chances to take a tangent and he hadn't done so. now, she thinks it's fair for her to seek answers. after all, he's not the only person who's been affected by this.

seeing herself die again isn't going to simply wash off of her. ]

There's nothing more important to me than understanding why.

Tatia had nothing to do with why you died. You're asking me to relive some of the most painful moments of my life. Does that matter to you?

( she can stand as tall as she wants, she needs to know that this isn't easy for him. while he agrees that she deserves to know somethings, he can't tell her everything.

it's not the right time, it's not the right place and he's not ready. )

I get to have an opinion, Elena.

Didn't I?

[ she looks at him incredulously. out of all the people she knows… really, the only one who ever seemed to think of her was stefan. her choices have always been made for her. she thinks, given what she knows, they were always made for her long before she was capable of making them. even elijah's made choices on her behalf. ]

I'm a dead seventeen-year-old. I don't get to have any more opinions. Doesn't that matter to you?

Fine, Elena. You always get your way so I will sit down and tell you everything about my life, even the parts that I don't want to remember. The parts that my mother made me relive via torturing me. But you're right.

( he snaps the words off, unable to help himself. he doesn't know why he's angry but the sudden reemergence of tatia and the memory of what happened to her has drawn a dark shade across his mind.

without thinking, he scoops down and grabs the journal, finding himself immediately assaulted by the memory of her death. this is what elena had seen.

he shudders, falling to a knee and cradling the journal like he'd cradled tatia when he'd realized what he'd done. )

[ well, that's a bucket load of unfair. elena feels like she's been slapped by him—and considering she's been slapped by rose, it fucking hurts.

but when he takes such a physical tumble, she's moving towards him without thought. she's still angry—and rightfully so—but she's not cruel like he's made her out to be. she's not going to stand before him like an impenetrable tower and she's not going to turn her back on him. since arriving in mathias, elena thinks she's proven ten times over that she's not that person. ]

Elijah—

[ on her knees, she places her hand on top of his. gently, ] Give it to me.

( he doesn't give up the journal. he tightens his grip on the journal and shakes his head. the memory keeps playing out and he can feel himself sink his teeth into tatia's neck, feel the warm blood and he jerks away from elena, trying to stop what happened long in the past.

when the memory fades, he's breathing hard and staring at the floor. realization comes back to him slowly and then he shakily moves to stand up. )

I don't want to talk right now.

( not after that. )

Okay.

[ she says that quietly and nods. talking about it isn't completely off the table, but elena likes to think she knows when to press. right now isn't the time. she won't get anything that she wants out of him, and she sincerely doubts he's going to be any kinder if she tries.

besides, she doesn't want to.

she's slow to stand up and slaps her hands against her upper thighs. ]

Did you want to leave it here?

[ a strange question, she knows, but it's clearly causing him physical pain. it'd caused her the exact same thing, except it'd all been overwhelming in her mind. ]

No. I don't want someone else to find it and have to deal with this.

( so, he keeps an almost white knuckle grip on the journal, taking a slow breath and blinking a few times to focus. )

I'm keeping it.

( he knows that he'll eventually want to read it, to go back and relive some of these memories but he can't do that right now. )

Maybe you should put it in something.

[ she eyes him for a long moment before she looks around. it looks like they're in some hospital ward, truth be told. all they have to do is find something appropriate to wrap it in…or a bag, even.

hesitantly, ] It seems like it affects whoever's touching it.

Later.

( though the memory has idled out, he still doesn't let go of the journal. she's right in that he probably should take care with it but since the memory isn't assaulting him, he takes a breath and tries to focus. )

Where did you find this?

( he's still irritated about earlier and he's still feeling weighted by the memories but he wants to know where this came from. )

I told you—in a room.

[ elena feels a little guarded. she'd answered that question, hadn't she? even though her mind isn't clouded anymore by... tatia, she still doesn't know how it got there.

it was just there. ]

It was just on a bed, so I picked it up. I wanted to make sure whoever owned it got it back.

Can you show me?

( his tone isn't as sharp as it was when he'd been arguing with her but he wants to see where she found this. he can't let it go. things like this just don't appear. )

Please, I just need to know how this got here.

( she just needs to point him in the direction and he'll go there on his own. )

[ regarding him for a short moment, elena nods. if it's going to give him some semblance of peace, then she will. ]

Not in this room, obviously. I'll take you.

[ she thinks to reach out and touch his arm, but she keeps her hands to herself. instead, she turns on her heel and knows he'll follow her, walking slowly out of the room and into the hallway. it's not purposeful; she's slow because she can't quite remember where she had come from. she regards the hall with a furrow to her brow, knowing she hadn't come from either door on the left and right just outside of the room they'd been in. ]

( elijah nods, following her silently. he doesn't say anything, doesn't want to talk. he keeps his eyes on her and he follows, hands holding his journal in a death grip.

he trusts her in that she will take him to where he wants to be so he keeps quiet and follows her. )

[ any other time, elena would have tried to liven the room up with talking… no, she wouldn't have. she's not caroline. she simply walks, not wanting to speak at all. she's happy to show elijah the room where she stumbled upon the journal, but she doesn't particularly want to say anything that would start yet another fight.

so, she walks along the hallway, stepping to the left or right when she comes to a room she thinks might be the room she found the journal in. after peeking inside of four rooms on either side, when she comes to the fifth on the right, she waves him in with her hand.

the room's dusty and decaying. the bed's tilted to the right and the restraints fall from its side like a ship's anchor. the bars on the windows give it a sinister look. elena steps to the side, not wanting to venture any further in. ]

( he's seen a room like this when he'd been exploring. stepping inside here is like wrapping oneself in the feeling of death and rot. he doesn't like it. he's not alive, not really, and this room makes him feel like he should be in a coffin somewhere.

he swallows, glancing around. there's nothing that points to why his journal would be here. still, he believes her when she says this is where she found it. )

This room is wrong.

( this whole place was wrong. )

[ quietly, ] This is where I found it.

[ all elena can do is shrug. she's not interested in another fight. she found it in here, she'd taken it from here, and she ended up stumbling to him as if the memory had dictated her path rather than her feet simply memorising what's become natural for her.

she sighs, looking around the room. it makes her too uncomfortable. ]

This whole town is wrong.

I believe you. I just...this room feels like rot.

( and he doesn't understand why his journal would suddenly appear. but hadn't hers done something similar? appeared without warning.

he swallows, looking around before his eyes fall on her. he wants to say something, maybe apologize but nothing comes out. )

We should leave this room.

( he doesn't know what his point of coming in there was but he doesn't want to stay. )

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