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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Comments

[40seconds]

Yeah, I think it's worth a try. At worst, nothing happens, but at best, we might start to feel more like ourselves again.

[ He doesn't want to be too forward, but he adds: ]

Think you can handle moving on your own, or would you like a hand?

[ They might make better progress if they work together, but he'll understand if she'd rather move on her own without help. ]

[revvedup]

[ max nods in agreement, but shakes her head at the offer. she's...relatively steady, just nauseous as hell. moving even slightly has her briefly considering the offer, but the quicker they move, the easier that'll be to ignore. she hopes. ]

I'm okay. What about you? [ he's the one who had fallen. ]

[40seconds]

[ This does seem like one situation in which moving faster seems like the right choice, because lingering too long seems to be working against them. ]

Aside from some mild embarrassment that you had to see that, I'm fine. [ Everyone stumbles and falls sometimes, but still, Coulson can't quite stop this particular reaction. ]

Ready when you are.

[revvedup]

[ max shuts her eyes for a second, steeling herself before nodding. she's not about to judge him for falling over - hell, she'd basically ended up having to be dragged off the beach and into shelter yesterday - but she understands the embarrassment. her eyes focus on him as they open again and she nods. ]

Okay. Let's go.

[ with that, she starts moving, back in the same direction they'd come from. at first it doesn't feel like anything's improving, but then once they're a few feet past where they'd been, the nausea abates and exhaustion in her bones feels like it seeps away, leaving her feeling improved, if not exactly better. what the hell could have caused that?

she looks back at him, eyebrows knit together in confusion. ]

Are you - do you still feel sick?

[40seconds]

[ He doesn't say anything at first, just taking it a step at a time, waiting for the axe to fall and the nausea to sweep back over him, but that's the thing: it doesn't. ]

No, I don't. In fact, I think I feel a little bit better than I was back there. What about you?

[revvedup]

[ it doesn't for her, either. she feels normal - well, as normal as she has since arriving here, anyway. she looks back at where they previously were, then back at her companion. ]

No. I feel fine.

[ max takes another look back to where they were. nothing looks different about that, she can't spot any boundaries or hints that they went beyond a point they were supposed to. then she looks back to the man. ]

I'm gonna try something. Stay here.

[ before he can react or try to stop her, she runs back in the same direction they'd just come from. she comes to a stop like she's run into a wall as the same sick feeling comes back, leaving her needing to brace her hands on her knees as she hunches over. ]

[40seconds]

You know, all the times I've heard that, it's never ended w-

[ But it's too late, she's already gone off to do whatever she's about to do, and he just watches her turn and run right back to where they came from. And right where they'd both gotten sick before, it looks as though the same thing hits again.

Forgetting everything except wanting to help get her out of there and back to safety, he runs over to her and promptly regrets it. He immediately doubles over for the second time in not too many minutes and curses his choices. ]

Well, I have to say, as far as decisions go, that wasn't a very well thought out.

[ Referring mostly to his completely forgetting everything in favor of trying to help her out. In between his attempts to not dry heave, he manages to ask: ]

Did that accomplish what you thought it would?

[revvedup]

[ max really wants to respond that she'd told him to stay back, but she's currently finding herself needing to use every bit of the energy she's not expending on staying (mostly) upright and trying not to vomit. she does manage to look up at him with an exasperated expression that's somehow both annoyed and apologetic, and after a few moments she straightens and staggers toward him. ]

We know for sure now, don't we? [ ignoring that they probably didn't need her to do that in order to be sure there was some barrier this place didn't want them going beyond. ] Let's go before either of us end up painting the ground.

[ not that she has much to come up besides stomach acid, but that would be even an less pleasant experience. ]

[40seconds]

[ Sure, she did tell him that, and ordinarily, he's better at listening. He acted before he thought, and he's also not so good at ignoring people in trouble, even people who are conducting an experiment of sorts. ]

Yes, we sure do, and now we can hopefully warn others from trying the same thing. [ If they can spread the word around effectively enough, that is. ]

No need to tell me twice.

[ Once was bad enough and this second time was pushing it. He doesn't really need any further repeats. ]

[revvedup]

[ it's going to be interesting trying to figure out how they can do that. she's only seen a handful of people here thus far, him included, and she can probably easily warn daisy if and when she sees her but there's no guarantee she will. do they go from house to house and warn them individually? room to room? hope that people will stop by the restaurant?

max nods at him again and starts moving back to (relative) safety. the exhaustion and the worst of the nausea dissipates, save for some residual queasiness, but she's not sure if that's from the lingering effects of the boundaries or just her overall discomfort regarding this place. ]

Where were you staying? Do you need help getting back?

[40seconds]

[ He's thinking along similar lines. Unless he's missed his guess, they're all a bit spread out and there's no telling just how many of them there are. Ideally, they'd have a plan of attack, but that also involves having knowledge of who's here and where they are. So for now, he puts that idea on the back burner as they move out of the danger zone. ]

Nowhere permanent. Just wherever has space and happens to be close by to where I am at the time.

[ It's more of a transient lifestyle than he's used to, not having any one base of operations, but there's not much he can do about that. ]

I think I'm all right to find my way back, but if you want to stick together for awhile longer, I don't think that's a bad idea.

[revvedup]

[ they're similar creatures in that way. max has more or less been curling up wherever there's a spare place to in the rare moments she feels like resting. she'd lived her first few years out of manticore like that, so it's not really a hardship, except for the fact that she can't leave. which has just been made all the more clear to her and makes her feel all the more sick. ]

Yeah. Might be a good one. [ she keeps quiet for a few moments as they continue making their way back. ] What's your name?

[40seconds]

[ It's mostly a practical move, but he really doesn't have a lot of choice. If he wants to cover more ground, he just has to hole up wherever there's space. And he's with her: the fact that they apparently can't leave isn't really sitting all that well with him. ]

Phil Coulson. It's nice to meet you, even if the circumstances could be better.

[revvedup]

[ it doesn't with her, either. this feels like a different kind of prison than the one she'd just escaped from, but that something definitely doesn't want them to leave makes her wonder if they're any safer here. at phil's introduction, she nods. ]

Max Guevara. And likewise.