001-003 » a chilling mathias welcome

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: The east end of Mathias, along the waterfront.
WHEN: Days 001-003
WHAT: The newest residents of Mathias Township are welcomed with a storm.
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: A small love letter from your mod. This spot can be used for plotting.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Mara"

DAY 001
THE ARRIVAL BEGINS

Is it the whooshing crash of waves on dark jagged rocks that wakes you? Perhaps. It might also be the near-continuous rumble of thunder growing closer every second, the vibrations almost seeming to come from the wet sand beneath your hands. Or maybe it’s the shivering of your own body as water recedes from the pebble-covered shore, the cold sinking into your very bones as a chilled wind picks up. It could be any of these things that rouse you from a deep slumber that leaves you feeling groggy and out of sorts--

But it’s the fear that gets you moving. A deep, intense terror grips your chest and squeezes the breath right out of you, and you know without a shred of doubt that you have mere minutes before whatever it is you’re so afraid of arrives on that stretch of rocky beach to greet you. Even if you want to stay rooted to that spot and faced it head-on, your body betrays you, a survival instinct etched into your genetic code forcing you to seek shelter.

Welcome to Mathias. You should probably run now.



THE STORM ARRIVES

When the storm crashes into the small township, it's hard to remember what life was like before it. The ocean becomes a raging thing, waves rising and falling as if trying to attack whatever they can reach along the coast. Any foolish enough to venture along the beach have no hope of surviving the encounter; their bodies will be swept out with the current, gone in the blink of an eye.

The wind is a howling beast, screaming between buildings and driving spikes of cold into any crevice it can reach. The rain is just shy of freezing, every drop like a shard of icicle trying to itself into your skin. It will bite at your nerves and leave you shaking if you stay out in it too long, so you had best get inside if you haven't already. You certainly don't want to attract the attention of the lightning that arcs in the sky like a vengeful god ready to unleash its wrath.

The Grey Gull restaurant sits at the edge of the town along the beach, and just a few yards away are two parallel rows of houses lining what might be a picturesque street if the world weren't beginning to resemble an apocalyptic landscape.

Move quickly, and choose wisely.

DAY 002
THE STORM RAGES ON

The storm has somehow become even more violent overnight. The world outside your shelter might be trapped in an endless night, for all you can see through the thick covering of storm clouds. Lightning continues to streak across the sky, thunder following almost immediately in its wake, threatening just how near those spikes of electricity truly are. You can see them touch the shore at times, even the street between the homes, but never the buildings themselves. A blessing, perhaps, or an oddity to take note of?

Some may be foolish enough to try venturing outside. They are welcome to, of course, that is their right, but the rain is still like ice and that lightning is so very near. You may try heading further into town, and you can certainly see buildings beyond this row of houses, but should you walk toward them...

Well. It is far from a pleasant experience. Exhaustion sinks into your bones so quickly that it leaves you reeling, and every second you push through it makes you physically ill with a feeling that you might collapse at any moment. The second you turn away from that path, however, you feel infinitely, and even more so each step back the way you came.

Something wants you to stay where you are. Perhaps you should.

DAY 003
THE CALM DESCENDS

The third day begins much as the second, with waves crashing upon the shore and thunder booming with such force that the ground seems to shake. It feels very much like the world might end right there, torn apart by a force of nature unlike any seen before. Any who venture outside at this time are almost immediately afflicted with a terror so intense that they can make it no more than a few yards or the short distance to cross a street before they become incapacitated by the fear that sets their heart beating dangerously fast. The term scared to death may very well become literal this day.

And then, suddenly it stops. The rain, thunder, lighting— all if it just stops and the silence that fills the night is deafening. There are no sounds of life within the town, no car motors or dogs barking or the voices of anyone beside those new arrivals in the immediate vicinity. In fact, none of those things even exist in Mathias. There are no cars, no animals or insects, no other people. There is just... emptiness and silence.

It may be best to wait until daylight to move further inland.



THE NIGHT DARKENS

For those who are foolish enough to leave the relative safety of the cluster of houses near the Grey Gull, they will find their journey quite chilling, in a very literal sense. There is another row of houses beyond where they had been, branching off on either side into a neighborhood. There are no lights on in any of these homes, though there are occasional streetlights illuminating their way. But as they continue further, reaching a third block of houses, those lights begin to dim, until they have gone out completely, and what had previously been a simple fall chill becomes biting cold as the temperature sharply drops.

In all of this, there is silence. No sounds travel through that night air to comfort them, and even looking up to the sky stretched out above them offers little reassurance. That sky is black, without a single star and not even the faintest outline of the moon to guide them. All that reaches them here is the barest hint of light traveling from the way they've come. The longer they linger outside in this place, the colder it will become, and any light they carry with them will slowly begin to dim as well.

Truly, they should have waited until the sun rose once more.

---

LOCATIONS

THE GREY GULL is what one might expect of the most frequented restaurant in a small coastal town. The wrap-around porch is lined with white chairs characterized by peeling paint. Exposed wooden walls and worn seating speak to its many years of existence, and the mishmash of décor confirms that the owner never much cared for how the place looked. What mattered here was the food, and faded chalk menus advertise soup specials and a daily pie. The bar appears to have once been well-stocked, but all the bottles remaining are unfortunately empty. There is, however, quite a bit of food in the kitchen that is somehow as fresh as if it were purchased that day.

The second floor of the restaurant is a sparsely furnished apartment. There are no personal items to be found; perhaps it was waiting to be rented out to someone.

THE HOUSES are well-kept, middle-class homes, four lining either side of the street. Their doors are unlocked, windows unshuttered, and everything within feels like the owners might return at any second. There is running water and electricity, fresh food in the fridge, photographs on the wall... but also dust everywhere. If you didn't know better, you'd say the place had been abandoned for years, and yet nothing has aged. It is both strange and unsettling, and yet no matter how hard you search, no answers may be found within these homes.

What can be found within them, however, is a phone. One single black phone within a main room of the house, and beside it, a list of handwritten numbers and names that have been crossed out.

1302 8-5491 Thomasen
1304 8-9256 Lyrie
1306 8-4712 Anders
1308 8-3201 Mulcalley

1301 8-0415 Sanderson
1303 8-6762 Reese
1305 8-9132 Evers
1307 8-9025 Hirano

Should your character choose to shelter in one of the houses, you are welcome to choose the features of that particular unit. Please reply to the comment thread below with the details you decide upon, specifying the house number in the subject line.

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[chuju]

at the grey gull —

Daisy's been avoiding this long enough, it's time to get to work. With her clothes and boots drying in the kitchen, she's found a grey t-shirt to cover up with and try to provide herself a little extra warmth over her underwear that's still soaked through. The name of the restaurant is arched across the front; it's something that maybe the employees had worn, or it might have even been for sale as a souvenir. Either way, she's sure as hell not paying for it.

She's talked with the British guy for a bit but there are others in the building who might offer further insight into their shared predicament. So, armed with two cups of steaming hot coffee, she selects her next victim and moves in.

"Hey," she offers by way of greeting, holding out one of the coffee cups to the guy who looks like he just walked off the set of an underwater cowboy movie. She's still shivering a bit, the cold having set in hard when she'd been outside, and her hair is still struggling to dry, but she's hoping her pale exhausted state will simply be attributed to their apparently shared method of arrival. She doesn't need anyone asking questions about her health right now, that can be saved for when she finds Simmons or Sousa.

[tinstar]

Being the first person Raylan's laid eyes on, Daisy got a very wary look before he glanced hastily around the rest of the place. Being greeted by a half dressed woman with hot coffee was not what he expected. Hell, she even almost looked comfortable, if it wasn't for the shivering that was also setting into his bones.

He squinted an eye at her, hand still stuck halfway up from where he was protecting his face.

"Hey," he greeted in return, hand finally slowly lowering as he glanced around again like it would give him some answer it hadn't before. "Is that coffee?" He could smell it and saw the steam and somehow, getting something warm and hot into him was more important than any of the questions he currently had. Coffee was just easier to deal with, and he took it carefully from her with a sniff of it before taking a hesitant sip and shrugging with his face.

"That uh.. standard work attire?"

[chuju]

Get used to expecting the unexpected, pal. This is your life now, for as long as they're stuck in this place anyway.

Grimacing at the idea he's proposed, she gives a brief shake of her head and answers with a very firm, "Hell no." And then she moves to the closest table and sits in one of the old chairs, setting her mug on the tabletop before gravity proceeds to pull her down a little too heavily. Go ahead, cowboy, say something about her present clothing situation. Just give her an excuse.

She rubs at her forehead for a moment before gesturing back over to the kitchen. "I found some extra shirts back there if you want something dry."

[tinstar]

"So just a whim then?" Despite his wetness and the sense of useless urgency, he couldn't help himself. "Weirdest Hooters I've ever been to in my life," he continued, ambling over to put the cup down, drop his wet hat and start peeling off the thigh length black duster jacket he'd been wearing.

"I don't suppose you're local and are holdin' up here because your house has no electricity or something, huh?" If he had to bet on it, he'd bet no. He didn't bother peeling off anything else and sat down to pull off one boot after the other, pouring out the water that was sloshing around his toes with a half disgusted look.

[chuju]

He is honestly so lucky that she doesn't have more energy right now. Instead of a punch to the face or quaking his feet out from under him, she just crosses her arms on the table and stares at him incredulously. Because did he seriously just—

Okay, she's going to give him this one because they're all having a rough day. But this is his only freebie.

Watching him shed a few layers and then add some more water to the grimy floor, her voice is flat and tired as she replies, "Nope. I don't have any idea where we are or why we're here, which I'm guessing is probably your story too. Right?"

Raised eyebrows and an expectant look wait for his confirmation.

[tinstar]

"Ain't been here long enough to have one," he said, not oblivious to the obvious faint offence he must have given but with no real acknowledgement of it, without lifting his eyes from the work of peeling and wringing out his socks before pulling it all back on again, one foot at a time with an equally disgusted look. It was one of the worst feelings he'd had in a while, sliding on wet socks.

"Though I don't remember takin' any cruise or jumpin' into any hurricanes either." He glanced sidelong over at her. "Thank you for the coffee, by the way."

He did have manners, under all that.

"You got a name?"

[chuju]

Daisy watches with a grimace as he pulls the socks back on, suddenly not at all regretting having left her own to dry in the kitchen. Her feet might be cold and a bit gross from the floor, but she's leaps and bounds better off than what he's putting up with. No thanks.

It's telling that he assumes he'd fallen overboard from a ship or something else equally normal. Her first assumption is being kidnapped by something that knows who she is, meaning something in the realm of Weird that she deals with on a daily basis. The fact that he also doesn't share that assumption... Well.

Excuse you, cowboy. Those are some pretty short-lived manners.

"I do," she confirms with a particularly pointed look. Maybe try again there, pal.

[tinstar]

Point taken. He gestured at her, elbow pivoting on his knee with an open faced look. "I'm sorry. My name is Raylan. Might I trouble to ask what your is?"

He could manners for days if he needed to. And.. well, apparently, he needed to, but he didn't take any offence by it. It had been a little abrupt. He'd been aiming for casual and clearly missed the mark.

[chuju]

He might have been perfectly on the mark for someone who wasn't half-frozen, in pain, and had just been compared to a Hooters waitress. His second attempt is much better received, however, with all ruffled feathers smoothing out as she settles back in her chair and takes a sip of her coffee.

"Daisy." She glances briefly around the room, her gaze catching on the windows being pelted by rain, and asks a question of her own. "Where were you before this?"

[tinstar]

"I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you but under the circumstances.." Well, they were shit circumstances and no one had any room to be happy until they were all drier.

"Around Lexington, Kentucky. Not exactly a 'port' town." Considering it was in the middle of the state. He was still trying to figure out how he got into such a large body of water. That'd be a literal road trip. "You?" he asked as he picked up the coffee again, wrapping both his hands around it as he breathed into it, kicking that heat back up into his face before taking a sip.

[chuju]

Kentucky. Huh. Though honestly, that doesn't really tell her much. Anything with the ability to grab her team from the Zephyr could easily grab someone from another part of the country.

"New York," she answers, cradling her mug between both hands in her lap. "But I was on a plane the last time I was awake, so the how of being here is as big a question mark as the why." Which is just exhausting to think about.

[tinstar]

He nodded. "Been through a few times, never stopped to look around." Decent enough City, he supposed but he didn't have much of an opinion on it and what little he did wasn't under the kindest light. Carpetbaggers still came down to Kentucky to try and take them for a ride; he couldn't ignore that.

"You remember crashin' or anything? Screams, lights goin' off, possibly a bit whole in the side of it?" At least that would explain why she might be in the ocean, however unhelpful it might actually be.

[chuju]

"Definitely not." There's exasperation in her voice and distantly she hopes he doesn't think it's directed at him. Well, maybe just a tiny bit, but mostly it's at everything else. This place, the storm, the mystery of how they'd gotten here at all...

"If something could take our plane down, we have much bigger problems than being kidnapped and stuck in a storm," she mutters, rubbing a hand over her eyes this time. She really hopes that isn't what happened.

[tinstar]

He didn't. It was a rough.. day? Night? He wasn't sure - the storm blotted out the sun and threw everything even more off-kilter. But he believed her answer; she wasn't lying.

"Well, good news is that towns aren't made up of nine buildings-" Yes, he'd counted while he was out there with his glancing about. "-so maybe we'll find some answers when this storm passes. A radio or TV or somethin'." It had better pass. He finally noticed the bar off to the side and lifted his chin at it. "Anythin' drinkable in there? Coffee's great but whiskey warms better." Lasted longer in his veins too.

[chuju]

He has a point about the storm and the town itself. Sure, they're stuck here for now, the world outside apparently being torn apart by wind and rain, but it can't last forever. She just has to hope that wherever her missing teammates are, they're safe.

She wrinkles her nose slightly at the mention of whiskey; she's a beer girl, preferring to keep things simple and affordable. "No, all the bottles are empty. They must have had one hell of a party before they left."

[tinstar]

"That's just rude," he commented, taking another draft of his coffee. There was only so much they could do with the limited information that they had and Raylan wasn't going to cry over lost whiskey when he had hot coffee and still had food to worry about. Better to find something else to focus on in the meantime.

"So what were you doing on a plane? Business or pleasure?"

[chuju]

She has to agree. The least the previous occupants could have done was leave them some alcohol to help cope with all this weirdness. Of course, she's grateful they have anything at all here, even if that is a pretty substantial factor of weirdness in itself.

"Working," she answers instead, with another sip of coffee. "My team has a mobile base of operations, so it's kind of workplace and home in one." She's spent more time in the past year on the Zephyr than off.

[tinstar]

He bobbed his head as he fished out his phone with a grimace and set it on the table next to him. He doubted there'd be rice here and he didn't have high hopes that it would survive.

"Sounds expensive." He couldn't say much; he lived in a cheap motel and sometimes worked in the Marshal's offices at the courthouse. Tragically mundane things compared to working and living on a plane.

"I'm a Marshal, so I only get economy class wherever I'm going and the offices are always fifty/fifty. Doubt we're gonna get either here, by the look of the dust on the place. How long you been up here?"

[chuju]

Daisy eyes the phone but can already tell it's a goner. If they did manage to get it working though... Well, she'll be checking for rice in the pantry just in case. Because a chance is still a chance.

Expensive. He has no idea. The comment reminds her of when they'd rescued Sousa from the train back in 1955. He'd questioned their identity and how they could possibly have the tech they did. Our budget's also off the books. She'd spent so much of career living in the shadows, yet she doesn't feel the slightest hesitation to talk about her job right now. Reckless, maybe, but they're all in this together, right?

"Up here, as in Creepytown USA?" she confirms with raised eyebrows. "I woke up maybe an hour or two ago, out on the beach. Same as the other couple of people I've talked to."

[tinstar]

"Suggests we're not all dropped into the same place at least." Something was better than nothing and right now they had a lot of nothing. "How many people have you seen so far?"

He didn't have a lot of questions left, but knowing how many people might be here or at least starting that rough count felt useful enough.

[chuju]

She narrows her eyes at the Marshal for a moment, taking stock of him and the way he's immediately launched into an investigation. It's impressive, considering how nuts their situation is. (Of course, he doesn't seem to fully be grasping the craziness of their situation just yet...)

"Just one on the beach, then a few more here," she says with a gesture to the room. "How about you?"

[tinstar]

He shook his head. "You're the first."

Throwing a fit about not having answers was a lot of work and Raylan was to wet and to cold to throw it. They couldn't have gotten arbitrary dropped into the ocean; his brain refused to believe it. Something, something or someone had to be behind why they were here. How they were here.

He just needed the time to figure it out.

"I'm sure I'll run into the others then, if they're there. If I don't freeze to death first."

[chuju]

"Not freezing to death is a good plan, you should probably try to stick with that," she advises with a slightly concerned, somewhat skeptical look. Because the other shouldn't even be an option.

Glancing over his very wet and probably very uncomfortable attire, she reaches up to pinch the shoulder of her borrowed t-shirt. "You sure you don't want something else to change into until you dry out?"

[tinstar]

He huffed a dry breath of half laughed amusement. But Raylan was a realist, even if he totally planned on not dying from being wet today. "It's definitely runnin' Option A."

Eyes lifting at the offer, he nodded more quickly than he planned on. "I don't know that I have much of a choice, yes, please. If you show me where they and the rest of this pot of coffee are, I'd be much obliged. It's better than what we've got in the office, and that's not sayin' much, but I'll take it."