villagelogs | 036 » aftermath: the dead

Entry tags:

036 » aftermath: the dead

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Mathias Township...?
WHEN: Day 036
WHAT: What happens after death?
WARNINGS: Will update as necessary. PM this account to have a warning added!
NOTES: Plotting post over here! And a log for the living.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Kijo 鬼女"

DAY 036
RED SKY AT MORNING
But for the dead, morning does not come. They awake to a frozen world covered in darkness, the night sky above so clear that they make out the stars that are both familiar and strangely not. The moon is full, casting light that reflects upon the snow, but both are covered in a haze of red.

Everything is covered in red. The snow, the ocean, the night sky. It's as if they are seeing through colored glasses, but that filtered hue cannot be removed.

Those who were victims of the Hunt awake where they fell, surrounded by their own blood but curiously unharmed. In fact, their physical state is that of before the Hunt, and the only sign of their injuries are the wild splatters of blood all around them.

There is no sign of anyone in Mathias except for the dead, no matter how much they search. And there is quite a lot now to search — the fog has vanished from the town completely and all paths are clear to be wandered. Time is of the essence, though, for the dead will not remain so for long.

They have only six hours in this place that is Mathias but not.

SAILORS TAKE WARNING
At the fourth hour into their stay, a storm arrives. Perhaps difficult to see at first, before long the clouds can be noticed moving across the sky, at first blocking out only patches of those strange stars but then blotting them out entirely. The moon struggles in vain to shine through their darkness, eventually failing and leaving only artificial light to guide the dead in their journeys.

The storm begins with the fifth hour. The rumbling is like that of a thunderstorm but infinitely more ominous, signaling something approaching that is not meant for the world of man. Within a few minutes, they learn why as lightning arcs across the sky, the cracks of powerful energy echoing through the air. Those branching spikes at first remain in the sky, but then suddenly they crash down to meet the earth, striking the Town Hall. The sound of splintering wood fills the air, followed moments later by the roaring crackle of a fire raging into existence. Those cracks and crashes continue, but no others reach the ground.

The fire spreads with purpose, moving outward from the town's center but never touching the forest. It leaps from building to building, consuming everything in its path. It is a living, breathing thing driven by a need to devour. There is no stopping or controlling it.

As ash begins to fall from the sky like snow and the final hour begins, the earth rumbles like the sky. Like so many of them recently experienced, the ground shakes, sending burning buildings collapsing inward and residents tumbling to the ground. For a full minute, it seems as if the world is truly ending—

And then it stops. The world is silent. No rumbling of the sky, no crackles of fire. For a few moments, there is nothing.

The sound returns with a cacophonous rush, jarring and overwhelming. At first, it seems as if everything is normal, at least as normal as this nightmare world ever is. But residents will quickly begin to notice that the fire is receding, following the same path it took before. Back and back it goes, retreating through the street toward Town Hall. And if residents pay close attention, they will catch glimpses out of the corner of their eye of burned buildings suddenly repaired and standing as they had before the storm — just a glimpse, gone in a flash when faced fully, but enough to have anyone questioning what sanity they still have remaining.

When the sixth hour ends, so too do the dead. They will blink and in one moment be in this empty red hellscape of Mathias and in the next, awakening on Day 037, with only their memories to show for their harrowing experiences.

ABOUT THE FIRE
The fire that spreads through Mathias can be treated as an almost sentient entity. It does not necessarily behave as fire normally does — it can skip buildings, burn when there's nothing to fuel it, and may actively pursue residents. How it behaves in your character's encounter with it is up to you and does not need to match how others perceive it.

Characters may be injured and even killed by the fire. Both will incur sanity loss and may cause your character to gain a Madness (in addition to others they may gain from normal sanity loss).
— All who are injured by the fire lose one sanity point and will wake on day 037 with their burns.

— All who are killed by the fire lose two sanity points and gain the Madness pyrophobia for seven days. The degree of their pyrophobia is up to the individual player.

CONDITIONS UPDATE
— THE WEATHER starts off clear, with temperatures well below freezing. The storm begins to move inwards around three hours in, and takes full form an hour after that.

— THE FOG has vanished. The dead may wander the whole of Mathias at their leisure, though there is still a chasm in the earth between Hill Lane and Stine Road. The chasm spans from one side of town to the other, each end disappearing into the forest, and effectively blocks passage to the "northern" (actually western) part of town.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue. Eliot Waugh has now vanished as well. Though none of them will notice until tomorrow...

— THE GREY GULL now has a working bar! The selection is not quite what it once was.

OOC NOTES
— FOOD will be restocked in some fashion in the next log, don't worry. We aren't going full survival mode yet.

— REWARD REDEPEMPTION is on hold for this log. Sorry, friends! It'll be back next round.

— HOUSEKEEPING Please be sure to have a look at this post in regards to sanity loss from the Hunt and what is being done with the corpses of the Hunt's victims.

— MOD STATUS What will become a regular reminder that it's mostly just Amy steering this ship for now, so things will probably be pretty slow for a while. Apologies in advance, and please don't feel shy about pinging me if you're stuck waiting for something.

navigation | faq | locations | report updates

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The chaos stilled at the sound of his own name echoing through the hall and Raylan dropped the legs of the most recent chair to suffer his wrath. Who was that? His heart jumped in his chest, both in hope and in fear - Did Klaus die with them?

"Klaus?" Raylan nearly sprinted to the door and almost tripped over some debris for his efforts as he stumbled into the door before tearing it open and taking in the sight of Klaus like the wonderful, terrible blessing he was.

"Fuck," he said, moving forward to wrap both his arms around the somehow equally narrow man, wild manic eyes searching his face. "How are you here? Did.." He couldn't form the words, swallowing tightly. Tell him Klaus didn't suffer what he did. What Neal and Negan did.

Out of everyone he'd met, Klaus was the softest of them all, even against all the shit that life had thrown at him. It wasn't fair. He'd been in Nam, hadn't he suffered enough?

There's a note in the cowboy's voice that just rips a piece of Klaus to shreds. So desperate. So hopeful. So raw and open, in ways... he really hasn't heard from the other man in their short-lived friendship thus far.

He's a little surprised by the sudden, almost voracious, way he's taken into the other man's arms. He doesn't hesitate to return the gesture, arms winding around his friend and squeezing, a solid reminder that he is here and whole and-- something not-quite-dead. "Thank fuck I found someone I know." he mutters into Raylan's shoulder. He won't be thankful that he's here-- it means he died, too-- but company in misery is better than misery in solitude.

"It got you, too- that thing? I don't even know what to call it- what it was. Some weird- fucked up- invisible animal thing."

Raylan was not nearly as soft on his face as every other man in 1306 but he cared about the people that had come to be comfortable under his roof, despite him knowing that it had very little to do with him directly. Doc and Malcolm had a way with people, a way that he never would but after the conversation they'd had in the kitchen and over dinners and what he understood of the kind of person Klaus was, it felt more acceptable somehow.

Klaus wrapping himself back around and squeezing like he was actually relieved to see the Marshal did little to dissuade that thought. He nodded against Klaus's head with an uneven breath before drawing back a little.

"Slipped on the goddamn snow before I could get to the trees.. It got Neal and Negan too. Doc and Malcolm were inside so I assume they're safe but.." Shit. Taking a deep breath, he looked what he could see of Klaus over, making sure he was just as 'repaired' as the rest of them had been.

"Where'd you come from? Nearby?" He assumed so, assumed that this was the closest familiar spot to where Klaus went down but he couldn't be sure. He wasn't sure of anything right now.

"Yeah, I- I found Negan earlier." He nods a bit as they step apart and for a long moment, it's everything he can do not to crumble and break. "Five- Five's not here... and I don't know if that's the better option or not." Which sounds cruel when the only way to get to this second Mathias was death, apparently, but.... six of one, half-dozen of the other, pick a trauma any trauma seems to be the motto of this place.

"It caught me right before I got to the boarding house." Even though he knows there are no injuries to speak of, he can't stop the subconscious reach toward his ribs where what he could only assume were wicked, razor-sharp claws, had dug in deep.

The shock of seeing Klaus wore off slowly, but the more Klaus spoke and the more he neared a fracture that threatened to crumble, the hot anger that hadn't dissipated by his appearance roiled around in Raylan's gut. It went further than just indignation, deeper than any self-preservation still working in high gear in the back of his head. His head tilted down, eyes dark and furious over the tension in his jaw.

"No. Better that he ain't. Doc and Malcolm aren't here either." Raylan's hands pulled back, one coming up to try and prop on the gun that wasn't there and it only pissed him off more.

"But if we're dead-" They must be right? He could still feel the separation of his guts from their proper place, the raw terror that encouraged him to turn the world over to get away if he had to. "Then we're going to get somethin' outta this place for it."

It was more than a threat. It was a promise and while Raylan would get one answer, the demand of his satisfaction wouldn't be confined to this second Mathis. God help the first human-type form the township should take.

"He wouldn't agree-" the argument, which isn't really one so much as an opposite truth, falls from his mouth without thought. "he'd rather it be him than me." Than any of his siblings, but as it stands thus far, they are the only two Hargreeves in town.

He hears that half-second hesitation at the end of that cut-off statement. He feels much the same, at this point. That has to be it, but then why are they here, and where are the ones that had died before them?

"What do you mean? How?" Confusion creases his forehead at that determined statement. If they were stuck here-- and for all they know, they are, forever now-- what good does them earning information do, if they're all stuck away from the others?

"Well, shit in one hand, wish in the other I guess." It wasn't nice or pretty but not much about Raylan was, to be honest.

"There's gotta be somethin' here that isn't there. Somethin' beyond the fuckin' drapes-" The creepyass red tint to everything that Raylan had pointedly ignored in his panic to find Neal and Negan, specifically. "-that's useful. Maybe somethin' about what brought us here." Or what killed them. Or how to stop it. Or how to do anything but stand still and breakdown in helpless grief. He could feel the fractional threat of it, one that was promptly burnt out by resilient fury.

"You see anythin' on your way here?" He assumes that Klaus kind of.. walked blindly here, no one was going to be too attentive fresh out of being turned into lawn art, but he couldn't help but ask.

His features shift in a facial shrug, but he doesn't comment any further on it; he supposes there's no point arguing it, is there?

Raylan is desperate for a reason, or purpose, or finding something, keeping his mind from stopping to catch up with the reality of everything, and it's a frenetic energy that Klaus can't currently match. He's gone the whole other direction, since his initial freak out with Negan earlier. Everything's muted, on the brink of shutting down, just to escape the endless waterfall of emotions he can barely contain.

He shakes his head, numb to the fire Raylan is trying to light under his own feet. "No, it looks the same." As much as he hadn't paid attention, what bits did float into his conscious awareness at the time seemed all the same to him. He wasn't really the observer type in the group, though.

In quiet, thoughtful times, Raylan wished he was more the type of man like John Henry. Infuriatingly calm, always having the right words to soothe and comfort the people around them. He wanted to be able to do that right now, to provide Klaus some reassurance but there was nothing to reassure. They didn't know if they were stuck here, or if they'd get back or if they'd get sent home or hell, if they'd get sucked up by a great Void.

Raylan simmered for a half second, visibly trying to pull himself back under his own control.

"That's alright. It's okay, we'll.. figure it out. I don't wanna leave you here. You wanna come with me or.." What were the other options? Raylan wasn't going to be able to stay in one spot, not without lashing out at a wall or something. Klaus didn't need that either, he was sure.

He shrugs, and nods, an odd amalgam of motion for the sake of answering even if he can't quite make his mouth work at the right second. "Yeah," he croaks out. "I'll just- I'll go with you." Wherever that may be, Klaus didn't really care. He definitely didn't want to be alone right now. That much he was sure of.

He waits for Raylan's lead, and follows behind him in whatever direction he might set off in. Usually the first to speak into a silence, Klaus is quiet, maybe more so than anyone around has ever heard him be. Something feels off, wrong in his head somehow, but he thinks maybe that's just because dying fucks you up. He keeps his arms wrapped protectively around himself, trying to blank out the thoughts in his mind.

"C'mon," he said a bit more gently, one hand gesturing to Klaus before he and his impossibly long stride took them back down the stairs. "I've already found Neal, Negan and Max. I'm sorry to be findin' you."

He lead them towards town, eyes sharp, head on a swivel as he kept an eye out for more people or something different. Anything different.

"Maybe now is a good time to be settin' the town hall on fire. See if we can't.. provoke a reaction."

He nods along with him, following him toward the center of town. He hasn't seen much difference, but he can't ignore that feeling of a pressure in his chest he can't get rid of. Like he's on the edge of a panic attack, but it isn't.... that, it's still different, too.

He's about to ask Raylan if he feels it, too, but he's saying that and it pushes a rough scoff out of him.

A beat passes.

His features melt and he stammers, "Wai- oh-- you're serious, aren't you?"

Oh, Raylan felt it, but the pressure was much like hopelessness in that Raylan didn't know what came in giving way to it and that was one fear too far to learn about today. Not ever having had a panic attack, Raylan assumed he was just.. tightly wound. Not unreasonable, considering.

The Town Hall would make a great release.

He didn't glance over at Klaus at the stutter, keeping the dangerously resolute face of his pointed forwards as he answers.

"What is it gonna do, kill us again? To hell with this place. That's the most central important buildin'. That and the library. Though I can't bring myself to burn books if I can avoid it. Lucky we don't know where the lodge is.. I'd burn that too. Maybe it'd get us home."

He blinks and stares for a long beat at the cowboy.

Oh.

Oh. He recognizes this. This is Diego, full-stop, too determined and tunnel-visioned to see literally anything else in the entire goddamn universe except the one thing that has his entire fucking focus.

Klaus doesn't like this look on Raylan.

"Raylan, wait!" He isn't thinking anymore, and he isn't wrapped in his own head with anxieties and depression trying to crush him. He's only acting; which means he grabs the other man's wrist and yanks, not enough to necessarily hurt, but a decent tug, an attention-grabber. Something to make him pause a step and at least whirl back around toward Klaus. Whether to tell him, all the more resolutely, about how he's doing this, and Klaus isn't stopping him.... or to simply hear him out, who knows. " Maybe we don't get to go back with the others. What if we are stuck here? On- on some stupid mirror island copy or whatever?"

It was a look Raylan bore quite a few number of times, the same terrible 'about to wage a world of hell down on you' kind of unstoppable determination that was the last face many men saw before bleeding out.

The hand was enough to stop him, for a minute, and Raylan turned his head carefully, schooling his expression into something fake and causal to match his normal cadence, the one he used to tell stories about his life as often as he did like he was talking about what kind of bourbon he drank. Eyebrows lifted - he was considering everything you said Klaus, yeah.

"Then what will we have lost by losin' the town hall? There's nothin' in there worth the paper it's printed. What if we're stuck here? Then we're in the same position as before just dead once over for it. Maybe it'll bring somethin' out, somethin' we can blame for all this shit." And, in the end, that's what Raylan was looking for. Something to fight. Something to blame, something to take out his fury upon. If not offered than forced into the light of whatever kind of fucked up 'day' this was.

"Maybe nothing. Maybe the whole fucking town because a fire that big is gonna be insanely hard to keep in check once it gets started. There's nothing in all the world to say we can't die again in this place, Raylan, is that really a risk you wanna take?"

Oh, but it doesn't stop there. If there's one thing Klaus is good at, it's panicked babbling.

He's shaking his head by the end of what the other man has said. "Look, speaking as someone who has someone and something to blame for every fucked up thing in my head, it doesn't help. My dad fucked me up royally, Raylan, and I have blamed him for it all for my whole life. And I thought that, you know, if it weren't for him, I could get my shit together. But he died and nothing changed. Actually, he died and everything changed, but not in the way I thought it would, not for better. Because the fucking Apocalypse happened instead!" He throws his hands in the air. "'Cuz fuck it, why not, right? And it was my sister that caused it. Because Dad never let her play with us as kids...basically." He waves one hand dismissively. Everything with Vanya is so much more complicated than that, but in the easiest-digestible nutshell.... that was kind of the thing.

"My point is, as great as having something to throw blame at sounds, it doesn't fucking fix anything! " Still in that sort of no-thoughts-only-action movement, he reaches up to frame Raylan's face between his hands, "And neither will razing the whole town to the ground."

For some reason, Raylan hadn't really expected Klaus to start going off with actual reasons - he fully endorsed it, regardless, he just hadn't been sure there was a line that would make Klaus snap out of either his quiet withdrawn reprieve or the casual trauma lighthearted mix that was uniquely him. Klaus was still something of a mystery to him. No one had really tangled with Raylan here, spoken up against him, over him. It was a refreshing change of pace.

Even if he might not totally agree.

Without the forward movement, all of Raylan's impotent fury coiled in his jaw, he stayed quiet, letting Klaus say his peace, eyes dark enough to be black in the poor lighting. He blamed his father too and he couldn't wait for Arlo to find his way in the ground; he couldn't ever imagine not feeling better with Arlo dead and in the ground. But he wasn't a junkie trying to stay off smack or whatever Klaus's poison was. One day he'd ask.

There was a lot to unpack there and now wasn't the time, not that he could with Klaus stepping in to cup his face. It shifted something in his face, the touch taking off the edge to some of the uncompromising anger in his face. It helped that Klaus wasn't wrong in everything else.

It took him a half second to answer. "I can't sit down and let this place break me." He couldn't, physically unable to stop without the resignation of it all to weigh on him. He was too close to his death to be resigned about anything. "What else do you suggest I do besides hurt this place as badly." As badly as they'd been hurt. He wanted to make it suffer like he had, like they had.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

036 » aftermath: the dead

Re: Run rabbit

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Talk some sense into him Klaus, you can turn this boat of disaster away from this

brb gonna panic his way outta this~

no subject

no subject

no subject