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

[reydacted]

[ She huffs, rolling her eyes. Like he's in any position to speak of honor.

She's got a few options here. Fight, although if he's got both their sabers she stands no chance-- or run. Her eyes flick to the side and back to him, so fast she hopes he doesn't notice. She's agile, she could dash over the rocky outcropping and into a patchy forest stand. Is the cover good enough that she could lose him? ]

Corpses don't talk back. Or steal. [ A pretty hypocritical accusation from the girl who seems content to take everything that belongs to him. ] Give it to me.

[ Where else would her saber be? ]

[warfares]

Give what back?

( frustration twists his expression into a snarl as he staggers to his feet. his hand falls instinctively to his belt, seeking the familiar weight of his saber — except that his fingers grasp at empty air, the hilt gone.

panic snaps through him like an electric current, eyes widening briefly. his first thought is that she must have taken it. a thought that gets brushed aside almost as quickly as it pushes to the surface. she can't have it. she wouldn't have risked getting this close to him if she did.

which means someone else must have it, or —

a quick glance toward the rolling waves, mouth pulling down in a frown. if the see has taken it there's no way he'll be getting it back. then, he's back to watching rey. wary. )

Planning to kill me in my sleep? How very like a Jedi.

[reydacted]

[ A low blow. Her features flinch defensively. She had left him unconscious and (physically) mostly unharmed on the Supremacy. Darkness slides against the edge of her mind, it would have been so easy. Even now she can feel a familiar fury building against him on the heels of what she had been pushed to do on Pasaana, her fists clenching as she's tempted to end this once and for all without even crossing sabers.

Lucidity and light manages to break through, though, and her stomach churns at the thought of unleashing the full might of her own power. Her face pales at the realization and she turns to run instead, bolting inland. ]

[warfares]

Frak. ( softly, just beneath her breath. he hadn't intended that reaction—isn't sure, truthfully, of what he's intended except to hurt her at least as much as she had hurt him.

overhead there's the ominous rumble of thunder. bursts of light illuminating the thick wool of the storm clouds overhead, as if to drive home the fact that lingering is quickly becoming a non-option. it takes away some of the sting as he gives chase, long legs quickly eating up the ground as he closes the distance between them. )

[reydacted]

[ She doesn't have to look over her shoulder to know he's following her, but that doesn't stop her from doing it. She grunts, long and frustrated and loud as she bolts through the landscape. She juts her arm out to throw debris from the ground-- twigs and rocks, nothing that's anything more than annoying at worst --to get in his way and let her keep her lead. ]

Stop chasing me.

[ Naturally he must have chased her here even if she can't remember how she got here. It must be his fault. Must be.

The problem with running without looking where you're going is exactly that. She'd normally easily vault over the obstacles like a fallen log or a knotty tree branch, but her boot catches in one all the same now. She tumbles forward, knees and hands scraping against the dirt. She scrambles to her feet as quickly as she can but her lead is likely all but totally shot. ]

[warfares]

( it's almost cute that she thinks this is about her — well, it's a little about her, but it's really more about the storm and the rising anxiety coiling in the pit of his stomach. ordinarily, he'd take his chances and stick it out — those kinds of feelings, especially at that strength, don't just rise to the surface without something to provoke them and he has never been especially frightened of storms — but there's always the chance that he's being driven toward something.

which is not to say he plans to leave her there. rather, as he closes the distance he seizes hold of her elbow and drags her forward. )

[reydacted]

[ It's in her nature to protest, to lash out like a caged animal as she's dragged across the forest floor with no choice but to wrench herself to her feet. She throws her weight into trying to escape his grip but it's more performative than anything at this point.

If she wasn't so wrapped up in her own fear and anger that she wears so plainly across her face, she might be able to sense his-- or perhaps she just can't quite separate the jumble of senses that are being passed and amplified between them. ]

At least give me my saber back.

[warfares]

I don't have your karking saber!

( and it's a testament to just how irritated he is, how panicked, that he doesn't correct her about the saber's ownership. she's borrowing it, if anything. )

[reydacted]

[ Her head snaps to look at him confused. Glossing over the point of what-belongs-to-whom really hits her like an icy dose of water. Or perhaps that's just the rain starting to pick up.

Either way, it's a sobering enough moment to get her to actually pay attention to see how plainly his mask has shattered. Fear is one thing, but panic stricken on the edge of survival is a familiar feeling on Jakku but it looks odd on Kylo's face. Her breath shudders feeling as if some invisible specter is chasing them inland, and ultimately her anger at him means little if they're both dead. ]

That way then. [ Keen eyes used to running from the elements are helpful here, and she points at a path where the vegetation is trampled and the soil down just enough to look like other people have traveled it before. ] There might be shelter.

[ She hopes. ]

[warfares]

Maybe.

( but it feels like the shoreline is endless, the storm churning above them growing thicker and darker with every heartbeat. and something ㅡ something is chasing them.

glancing back over his shoulder, though, reveals nothing but gathering fog and shifting shadows that may or may not be more sleepers waking. how many others were there? )