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villagelogs2021-08-01 05:41 pm
villagemod) wrote in villagelogs2021-08-01 05:41 pm
Entry tags:
079-081 » to the hideous end
WHO: Everyone
WHERE: Mathias Township proper
WHEN: Days 079-081
WHAT: More mysteries are revealed in the aftermath.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here! The next log will be posted the weekend of August22 29.
MOD NOTE: Thank you again for your patience!
RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Kosho"
SANITY LOSS
CONDITIONS UPDATE
OOC NOTES
navigation | faq | locations | report updates
WHERE: Mathias Township proper
WHEN: Days 079-081
WHAT: More mysteries are revealed in the aftermath.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here! The next log will be posted the weekend of August
MOD NOTE: Thank you again for your patience!
RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Kosho"
DAY 079-081 “If I am mad, it is mercy! May the gods pity the man
who in his callousness can remain sane to the hideous end!”
― H.P. Lovecraft
The day dawns red from the smoke that still hangs in the air, though the fires have long since burned out overnight. Ash covers the ground like grey snow all throughout Mathias, even to Baneberry Hall at the far edge of the town. There is still a strange heat clinging to the little town as if the fog that surrounds them has trapped even the temperature within its borders, but the skies have at least cleared of those ominous storm clouds.
While the fires have gone, the ruin they left behind remains. The eastern side of town is full of the charred shells of what were once homes, collapsed walls and questionable flooring warning off those who might consider venturing inside. There may be a few salvageable items within the wreckage but it certainly won't be much, and those foolish enough to try searching the rubble may sustain injuries in the attempt.
What residents are almost guaranteed to find in their wanderings through the town are decidedly more unsettling. Scattered throughout the town are the corpses of current residents seemingly still alive and well, their causes of death as varied as their locations: crushed bones and organs on the beach; asphyxiation on the steps of the library; broken neck in the tunnels under the residential district. The time of death is equally as varied, with some still warm to the touch while others have begun to rot and decay like the buildings around them.
And if that isn't enough to send their anxiety spiking, they will find that the darkness in Mathias has become even less welcoming than before. From nightfall to sunrise, wherever they have chosen to shelter, strange things may happen from one night to the next. These occurrences are not consistent, either across the night or the location, and no patterns arise to make sense of what happens. It is simply another oddity of Mathias perhaps designed to drive them further into madness.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.THE RESURRECTED
Those who perished on Day 078 will wake with the smell of burnt flesh still filling their nostrils, near what little remains of their former body. This will likely be in the crumbling, unstable remains of whatever building they were trapped inside. Welcome back to the land of the... living?
CORPSES BY DAY
— During any day of this log, characters may find one or more corpses in a location around town. This is an activity that must be opted-into by both players involved: the corpse-owner and the corpse-finder.
— The corpses that appear are only those of current residents within Mathias. The cause of death does not need to match any previous deaths that characters may have experienced in-game, though it should be only natural or possibly accidental — there should be no signs of the cause being an intentional death. (And, for the sake of your fellow players, please try to keep it light on the gore.)
— Corpses may be found in any outdoor location or inside any space where characters are not currently sheltering (such as the crumbling homes on the west side or the burned homes on the east side). The corpses will not appear inside any location where characters have been sleeping.
— The corpses can appear at various times throughout the day, meaning that a character may pass by the library in the morning with no corpse on the steps and then pass by again in the afternoon to suddenly find a corpse hanging out there.
— There may be items or clues found upon the corpses! These are not guaranteed for everyone. Players should submit this form to find out if they've won the Mathias Lottery.TERRORS BY NIGHT
— Where players have chosen to shelter at night may have unexpected consequences, especially for those in the western half of Mathias. All characters must be accounted for.
— Mod feedback will provide either confirmation that nothing unusual happens in this location or details of any strange or unsettling occurrences on a given night and the potential consequences of staying there.
— If a player wants to opt-out of the consequences of their character staying in a particular location on a specific night, they must find another location at which their character can shelter.
There are multiple opportunities for sanity loss within this log. All instances of such should be reported before the next log.— CORPSE DISCOVERY Depending on your character's mental state, their relationship to the corpse, and the cause of death, sanity loss can range from 1-5 points per corpse found. This amount is up to the individual player. Items found on a corpse may also induce additional sanity loss per mod instruction.
— NIGHTTIME LOCATIONS Some locations within Mathias are safer than others at night. Players will receive mod feedback on their chosen nighttime locations which may include sanity loss for some things experienced.
— THE WEATHER Summer continues in Mathias, with warm days that average 70°F and comfortably cool nights.
— THE FOG has maintained its recent 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 & DEATHS have started up again. Neal Caffrey, Athena Carrigan, Jeff Calhoun, and Caitlin Snow have vanished from the town while Wynonna Earp died in the town fires.
— THE SHAPES in the water may be spotted more frequently, and residents may get the sense that whatever is out there is watching them and waiting for something...
— ENDGAME (Repeat message.) We are officially heading into endgame. Over the next few months, things will begin ramping up and moving toward the always planned conclusion, with the last log projected to go up between the end of October and middle of December.
What does this mean? Essentially, hopefully, this will mean more opportunities to dig into the mysteries and lore of the game, as well as more chances for your characters to creep toward insanity. However, how things progress and what information comes to light will depend upon character interaction with the setting and involvement with the mysteries of Mathias.
— SANITY NOTES— Make sure that you're reported any sanity losses from the last log and claimed any madnesses earned with those losses. And report all the losses from this log before the next is posted!
— There is now additional guidance available about what happens when characters fall below 50 sanity points.
— A reminder that sanity may be regained through character actions.
— APPLICATIONS There are only two application rounds left before apps will be permanently closed. If you're trying to lure someone in for the end of the game, now is the time to get enabling.
— FORMS If there are comments on posts that have forms, please try to remember to respond directly to that comment. With DW notifs sporadically going missing, I rely on those comments ending up in the proper journal inbox, which is the only way I'm guaranteed to see them.
— MOD UPDATE The summer program I run is over but I'm back in person at the office for the first time in 16 months, so life is still incredibly stressful and I will continue to be slow for the next while.
I will be prioritizing sleeping location and corpse responses for this log since these are timely matters with information you will need in order to move forward.
— REMINDER Once again, there are a lot of moving parts to this log. Ask questions if something is not clear! Please also make sure to check questions others ask, as well.
Day 79
Raylan had been all over town. Except here. Except Phillips Drive and the Grey Gull. The one fucking place that had started to matter to him. The houses that had kept them all safe, held fights and tears and love and dinners and game nights. There was a reason that Raylan had left Kentucky, a reason he'd never come back for his mother's funeral, a reason he avoided heartfelt fights if he could; running was easier than facing things head on when it came to wounding matters of the heart and soul.
It was half of why he was here now. He'd found Tim, his first priority with the light of day and now the sun was hanging like an innocent ball of butter in a deadly blue sky, almost taunting him with how pretty it was, in front of the charred ruins of.. Home. The word felt bitter, unspoken on his tongue but clear as a bell in the way his jaw set as he surveyed the total destruction of the place he had openly called that for the last two months. But it didn't matter how much he hated it, there was still work to do. Boxes to check off that the Darkness hadn't erased from his priority list.
Raylan moved woodenly but with an unmistakable purpose as he made his way through the houses.
The first body he came across was the worst of it, though death by coughing and internal lung hemorrhages or whatever TB actually was is likely one of the tamer ways to die in Mathis, but it didn't matter. Raylan's throat tightened to the point where it took conscious effort to try and draw air and when he managed it, it was wildly uneven. It didn't matter that he knew Doc was alive and well back at the schoolhouse, just like it hadn't mattered that he had held Tim in his hands and saw the sniper's corpse nearby. John Henry Holliday had escaped that terrible, now treatable fate. To see him laid out the way he was, sky blue eyes dull and starting to film over tore Raylan's heart out.
It didn't matter that he knew Doc was safe because this was, somehow, still Doc in front of him and there was no wheelbarrow to easily carry him. Raylan took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright Darlin'," he said to the gunslinger as he squatted down and brushed his hand over Doc's face to close his eyes. He couldn't look at that dead gaze anymore. "Don't you worry. I'm gonna come back and we'll get you someplace more suitable." Raylan folded Doc's hands over his stomach, feeling like Doc would be furious if his corpse was so rudely grotesque in the street.
Ignoring the way he still wasn't breathing like someone who wasn't on the verge of tears, Raylan moved on from 1307 across the street, only to be immediately met with another shock. It only took a turn around what used to be his front door to see Malcolm splayed backwards with a decoration of rebar sticking out of his chest and Raylan stopped short with a rough, choked sound. He knew full well that Malcolm was okay too, but neither did that matter. It never would.
"Jesus," he breathed before rubbing his whole face and hiding it there in his palms for a long second. An astute eye might see the shake of his shoulders as an errant fraction of how he felt slipped out of his tear ducks but when his hands dropped, his face would be dry. Malcolm looked smaller somehow, laid out this way, paler than any corpse he'd ever seen. Then again, he hadn't seen many drained of their blood.
"Let's get you off there," he choked out, his control slipping with every second he stood still. It took a bit of effort and more time than he wanted to get Malcolm's body to budge and the sound his body made as it slid off the rebar made Raylan want to hurl. If it was anyone else except the three that held him together, he would have been able to handle it more stoically. But Mathis had taken the softest parts of his heart and littered her streets with them.
Malcolm was lighter than he should be. It felt like an odd thing to notice but he felt fragile in Raylan's arms. Like if he dropped the profiler, he'd shatter. Raylan didn't drop him though, but set him down gently next to Doc and followed the same closed eyes/folded hands procedure. "I'll come back for you both. Don't worry."
Raylan went through the rest of the houses, searching 1308 first with a particular kind of frenzy for Jeff and Athena before coming up empty handed. That almost hurt more and Raylan sat in the ashes of the first kind of real home and comfort he'd felt for a very long time until the sun started to set. It was only then that he got up and, starting with Malcolm, started carrying the bodies to the graves he was now sadly appreciative for him having dug.
--
The School House - OTA
By the time Raylan made it back to the schoolhouse, darkness had already fallen and he was dirty with soot and grave dirt, hands scraped and discolored with his blood from the wooden crosses that he had to fashion together. Everything in him hurt and once he'd verified that everyone who was alive continued to be that way, Raylan holed up in the teachers Lounge to wash his hands and face. In a moment of mania, the soap line crept up his arms the harder he scrubbed until his arms were red. It was only then that he stopped and rinsed them off, giving no thought to his face as he turned off the tap and leaned there for a long second.
If he was at home, he'd get drunk and go do sleep, ignore everything. But he wasn't and he couldn't. There was no escape from the horrors and disappointments he'd seen today. So he collected himself and slipped into the least populated room to find a corner to lean himself into. Raylan slid slowly down the wall until he was seated, hands finding a place in his hair as he propped his elbows on his knees and tried to breathe.
He couldn't remember the last time he'd slept. He didn't know the last time he'd eaten. He knew he should care about these things, and yet all he could do was relive the past few days in silence until there were hot tears streaming down his face. He wasn't sure how much more he could take and he had no idea what happened after that.
It wasn't long until the flutter of paper and an odd, certain heavy thump of a book being dropped jolted him from his self-loathing and comfort, drawing him to his feet to go investigate.
no subject
If asked directly the younger marshal would be quick to claim that he was trailing after Raylan, like a shadow, for the older marshal's sake. That was two thirds of the truth. The last third was a desperate need to keep his partner in sight. The silhouette of broad shoulders, down to lean hips and long legs providing a comforting draw.
Tim didn't try to regain Raylan's attention. Under different circumstances he actions would be nothing more than textbook partner field behavior 101. If others came across them, or appeared to want to speak with Raylan, Tim easily drifted out of earshot but to a point where he still had a sightline on Raylan. When the older man moved on, Tim followed. An imprinted duckling, following the familiar shadow.
It wasn't until Raylan began to encounter corpses that Tim came any closer. When he realized the cowboy meant to gather to bodies and move them to the graveyard, the sniper drifted closer and silently began to help. Inwardly, he didn't see that this provided any purpose. They should be cataloging the bodies; who, what, where, manner of death, anything found on them, etc. Then they should take all the bodies and cremate them down on the beach.
But Tim recognized that the motions of gathering and properly burying were for Raylan as much as for the corpse, so he held his tongue and did his best to help.
no subject
He'd never felt this broken down, this ragged, this pushed. This was more than a three or four day stint or sting operation where he had to be hyper vigilant - they were being tortured.
So there was no need to burn them down at the beach - Mathis didn't care either way and the graves were already dug. There were no sheets, otherwise, Raylan would be wrapping them in sheets before carrying them off. He noticed Tim while he was trying to push Malcolm's body off the rebar he'd found the profiler on and when their eyes met, Tim would get to see and hear just how devastated Raylan was.
"Help me with him. Please. I can't leave him up here. He doesn't deserve to be left up here." Just like he hadn't been able to leave Tim's body in the tunnels and the way he couldn't leave Doc laying gracelessly on the ground.