079-081 » to the hideous end

[villagemod]

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 August 22 29.
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.

---

SANITY LOSS

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.

---

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— 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...

---

OOC NOTES

— 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.

navigation | faq | locations | report updates

Comments

[thering]

Yeah, well, that's about one and a half inches too far apart for Doc to feel comfortable. Not that size is everything.

"Ain't nothing nobody can do about that." Or, rather, they've already done all that they can. The things that are getting under Raylan's skin are completely outside of their control. And Doc has taken a long time and a lot of self-reflection to come to a point to grow his pool of patience, where he takes fewer things personally now. Not many hot-headed people have that luxury.

"He'll come right." If that wasn't the most useless sentiment Doc had kept from his old Southern ways. "And if he doesn't - it wa'n't anybody's fault."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm nods, wringing his hands absently in the absence of anything else to do with them.

He looks at Doc.

“I want to help him, though. I just… don’t really know how, except… trying to keep things going, like both of you would, if you could.”

[thering]

"There is nothing wrong with that being the only thing you can do." Oftentimes it is a distraction for Doc, keeps his mind occupied. Otherwise being here is no different from being at the bottom of the well, with nothing better to do other than slowly driving himself mad.

"Long as he knows you are there for him, should he wish to seek you out. And that he doesn't need to worry about you. But let him worry anyway."

[abrightboy]

"I can't stop him from doing that," Malcolm replies with a huff of a laugh. "Not since the day we got stuck in the lighthouse." It seems like so long ago. "The first time he saved my life."

Malcolm looks down into his lap, clenching his hands together.

"If you and he hadn't taken me in, I'd probably still be sleeping in a corner of the library. I owe you a lot. If I can help you... just tell me what you need. Okay?"

[thering]

"It was the right thing to do." Simple as that. Besides, Raylan was the one who had invited Doc back with him in the first place. Even if Doc didn't care enough to want to share a space with Malcolm, which was certainly not the case, it was Raylan's stray-collecting tendencies that brought them together in the end.

"You have already helped me plenty." Doc will be feeling a lot better about settling down in the schoolhouse when they're all supplied up and ready to bunker down for at least a few days without having to leave the premises.

"Don't suppose you'll be needing any more willow bark, with your pills on hand." Not that Doc is in any condition to go chipping away at anything, although Raylan can probably help with that particular fetch quest, if needed.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm shakes his head faintly.

"Which, I guess, is fortunate since I wasn't able to grab it before Negan dragged me out of the house." He smiles a little. "I did rescue the snowglobe on the way out, though."

[thering]

"That surely would have been more important. This little bauble will break in the next quake." Not that he doesn't appreciate the thought - it's a small, simple but not necessarily meaningless little pleasure for him - but it's not really worth risking anything for.

"It's actually survived a surprising number of incidents." Surely there were other natural and unnatural disasters to have befallen Mathias between the time the original residents left and when Raylan and Doc arrived.

Doc can't resist giving the snowglobe just a little shake before setting it down again.

"Who knows. Maybe we are in a snowglobe. And some asshole keeps shaking it. It would feel like an almighty blizzard, holed up in that small house for ants."

[abrightboy]

“The bauble was easy to grab as I was dragged out the door. I spent too much time filling my pockets and then Negan’s to toss the kitchen, too. It’s a good thing he was there. My focus was narrow. I conducted myself like a junkie, I’m afraid.” He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a bottle, shaking it. “I saved a bunch, but not all. They’ll run out evetually; it’s only a matter of time.”

[thering]

While Doc hasn't spent nearly enough time around modern day junkies to understand that reference, he understands desperation and dependencies and irrational wants that don't feel irrational at the time just fine.

"We'll find another way," Doc says quietly, but no less reassuring and determined in his tone. They always do. And honestly, he doesn't think that the pills are helping anything. He can see with his own eyes the effect that they have on Malcolm. It's not really the kind of 'functional' that Doc was expecting.

While he doesn't verbally acknowledge Negan's hand in the matter, it doesn't mean he didn't hear it, or appreciate that he had been there when it mattered. Doc just needs a while before they're back on some kind of tolerable footing.

"Let's just take things one day at a time, for now." After all, it's not as if anything they could have planned would have worked out for their current eventuality.

[abrightboy]

The pills they have aren’t all the pills he needs, but they do calm the buzzing in his brain when he really needs it. They mute the noise. He’s never really reached functional here.

He shifts his weight, leaning in slightly, like he’s telling a secret.

“Doc… a few days ago - before the fire - I started having nightmares about fire killing all of you. Did you have any dreams like that?”

[thering]

"No." He gets nightmares. Nobody gets nightmares to quite the same degree as Malcolm, but. He dreams of different things. Darkness. Madness. Women and little girls from back home. Here? Sometimes he dreams of this place killing him, but fortunately or unfortunately, the boys of 1306 plague his waking hours much more so than his sleeping ones.

"The same fire that ripped through the town? I'm not surprised to hear that." It was traumatic. Still is. The smell of all that burning still fills the town, not to mention those who are wounded and laid up here.

[abrightboy]

"I think it was like the fire that ripped through town but... I saw it before the town burned. Do you think Mathias was... I don't know. Warning me? Playing with me? I know Raylan and Neal dream of the fire since they saw it in the other Mathias but... I didn't see it."

[thering]

"I wouldn't know what Mathias is thinking. We are not on speaking terms at the moment." He doesn't want to know and he doesn't think he wants to be on speaking terms either.

"Either way, nothing of what happened was anybody's fault." Nobody could have seen the fire coming. There was no onus on anyone to interpret the problems that plague them at night as possibly premonitions and try to preempt these disasters that keep befalling them.

[abrightboy]

“If I figured that out, you didn’t have to get hurt like this,” Malcolm tells him.

[thering]

It was about time, to be honest. Everyone else had gotten their fair share of unwarranted suffering. That Doc somehow managed to make it this far mostly unscathed is more luck than any sort of preparation or foreknowledge.

"Well I thought I'd put up my feet for once and be waited upon for a change," Doc tries to joke with as good-natured of a smile as he can manage.

"It's not nearly as bad as it looks, Malcolm. I'll be back on my feet tomorrow. I promise you." He does so hate to be the cause of other peoples' worries. That isn't allowed. It's supposed to be the other way around.

[abrightboy]

“Don’t push it too hard too fast,” Malcolm tells him firmly. “I know how bad your injuries are. I was raised on a diet of medical knowledge. If my father wasn’t a killer, I probably would have become a doctor, like him.”

Maybe things would have changed as he got older, but he distinctly remembers how badly he wanted to be just like his father.

“You’re going to be okay but you need to get some rest.”

[thering]

One would argue that there's nothing wrong with becoming a doctor regardless of whatever path had been taken before. It's a noble if rather thankless profession. Used to be, you didn't have much choice in the matter anyway. Family business and trade and life devotions all went hand in hand.

"I would think you to have become a good doctor. Especially if this is your bedside manner." Doc flashes Malcolm a tight-lipped smile and nods, before tipping his head over towards the door.

"Take care of yourself out there." Malcolm does have a history of getting stuck in places and that asshole Negan can't escort him everywhere. Negan shouldn't be escorting anyone everywhere.

[abrightboy]

Negan’s dragged his ass out of two of them; maybe he can.

Malcolm pushes to his feet. “I’ll bring you something to eat in a bit. If you see Raylan, try to get him to take it a little bit easy. He’s not okay.”

He wants to lean in and kiss Doc’s forehead, but he barely starts the motion before he remembers what his hug yielded.

“And don’t push yourself,” he adds before heading to the door.

[thering]

Well there is a grand total of zero people who are doing okay so Raylan is not alone, even though Doc at this point is a little oblivious as to how not okay Raylan is doing. He's survived Kentucky all these years - he's survived marriage in Kentucky all these years. It can't be that bad. Real men are Just Fine, all the time.

But Doc will grunt at Raylan at some point when he comes to visit, sure. And if he doesn't grunt back right, he'll decide what to do then.