037-040 » the reason for time

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central Mathias
WHEN: Day 037-040
WHAT: The dead return and the living wake to changes within Mathias Township.
WARNINGS: Some explicit sexual content in threads. (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Kammarheit "Sleep after Toyle, Port after Stormie Seas"

DAY 037
THE DEAD RETURN
“The only reason for time is so that everything
doesn't happen at once.” —Albert Einstein
The dead return to Mathias forever changed by their experiences. Waking along the beach, near the tree line, or among the graves, they will find that their bodies are not as they remember them. They are whole again and not torn to shreds by the shadow creatures that cannot be described, but they are also not as they were before the Hunt. These residents will find, so strangely, that their bodies are in the physical state in which they first arrived in Mathias — any injuries or recovery they have made since their initial arrival no longer exists, as if their time in Mathias has simply been a horrible nightmare. Except they all now carry a last reminder of the Hunt with them: spiderweb-thin healed scars marking their injuries from the Hunt. Those who were injured by fire in the other realm also carry those burns with them.

The dead are not the only things that have returned to Mathias. Inexplicably, fall is back, with the temperature finally reaching above freezing and snow falling from trees to reveal beautiful autumnal colors. As the sun rises higher in the lightly cloudy sky and the day warms, the snow begins rapidly melting, puddles growing in the slowly revealed grass and little rivers forming in the streets. And with that snow comes the frozen blood from the deaths to the Hunt, tinting the street river on Phillips Drive a sickening shade of red.

Another oddity that residents will notice: houses with broken windows from the encounter with the fog on Day 015 have now been completely repaired, though any boards put in place are still there somehow. A small bit of good news, at least? And truly, how kind of Mathias to clean up its own mess.

Finally, alcohol is back. Enjoy in moderation, friends, for more will not be arriving the following morning.


THE NEW ARRIVALS
The newest arrivals to Mathias will wake up on the beach near The Grey Gull. It's quite chilly out with their wet clothes, but surely there's something to help warm them inside the restaurant. Indeed, their timing is perfect, for alcohol has finally returned to Mathias Township — and not just the cowboys' homemade moonshine.


DAY 038-039
THE CHANGE OF SEASON
The continued warm weather proves that the unseasonable shift of the previous day was not merely a fluke. Once again, the sun rises and brings with it a temperature that feels almost spring-like, save for the fact that each day there seem to be more and more leaves on the trees in hues of red and orange. For those who have been in Mathias for some time, this new type of weird may be almost normal at this point, but newer arrivals will likely find it quite odd.

The gently trickling river running along Phillips Drive is still somewhat pink in color as the snow continues to melt and refreeze each night. By Day 040, the bloody snow will finally be gone completely, though the relief will be... short-lived.

DAY 040
THE BLINDING WHITE
In the late morning of Day 040, when the sun is visible through patchy greyish clouds, the fog sweeps into town like a like a tidal wave. It moves in quickly and without warning, not from the waterfront but the forest, cascading through every street in a thick wave of white. Rather than a soft blanket enveloping the town, it is a heavy weight pressing down, blotting out the sky in a way that almost feels suffocating, for none can see further than their outstretch hand.

Those outside when it rolls in are left wandering blind, stumbling toward shelter as you're unable to even see your feet beneath you, let alone any obstacles in your path. Perhaps you call out for help, hoping for another voice to guide you toward shelter or simply another living soul. Or perhaps you were lucky enough to already be inside when the fog descended, quickly closing doors and windows to keep it from creeping in.

Unlike the last time the fog swept into the town, residents who encounter it are not immediately killed. Instead, they are simply disoriented, possibly losing their sense of time and place, and it is only after prolonged exposure that they will begin to feel off. A sense of being ill will cling to them if they are in the fog for too long, including dizziness, lightheadedness, or nausea — the time it takes to manifest varies from person to person, as does the duration it will last after leaving the fog.

By nightfall, the fog still has not dissipated.

---

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— THE WEATHER conditions are fairly typical for late fall: chilly "sweater weather" days and nights that can dip just below freezing. You don't want to be outside without a coat, but it won't kill anyone if they bundle up. Probably.

— THE FOG remains blocking the paths in the forest beginning a few dozen yards past the treeline, urging residents to stay huddled within the town proper, and it also now blocks the western section of town, beginning just past Hill Lane, before where residents know the chasm in the earth to be between Hill and Stine Road. Venturing into the fog blocking these areas is ill-advised.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue. Castiel and Sam Winchester have vanished, and Dean Winchester has not returned with the others after his death during the Hunt.

— THE GRAVEYARD has now seen around a dozen burials, both below and above ground. With the weather warming, though, something may need to be done about the handful of temporary graves aboveground...

— ALCOHOL has returned to Mathias! A small stock of beer and cheap wine may be found at the General Store, and some homes may have a small store of alcohol in the fridge or pantry. The Grey Gull has also been restocked with its lower-end offerings of a variety of alcohol types. Alcohol does not replenish in the same way as food.

— THE GREY GULL has been cleaned up and stocked with moonshine. Along with the newly restocked usual offerings, the place almost seems like an actual bar again.

— THE GENERAL STORE is in a bit of a state following the brutal slaughter of two residents during the Hunt. Cleanup on aisle 3, anyone?

---

OOC NOTES

— FOOD is now being mysteriously restocked as per usual, including inside homes and at the General Store. Alcohol is not being restocked. Use those rationing skills, friends.

— REWARD REDEPEMPTION is back and will soon have a new option for anyone looking to spend big AP and learn a bit more of the lore of the town.

— MADNESSES due to the Hunt have been earned by Klaus Hargreeves, Ellie, and Malcolm Bright and may now be claimed. Players may also claim additional sanity loss from the aftermath of the Hunt; only losses from the Hunt itself have been deducted from totals thus far.

— SANITY REGAIN is now available! Players will submit a form with some details of the progress their character has made and the mod will review and decide on the numbers of points that will be regained.

— MOD STATUS The usual 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.

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Comments

[exsto]

[ bucky shakes his head, sidestepping away and moving around one vertical shelf towards a more open space, though it was more an avoidance tactic that he seems to do more often than not. creating space gives him a chance to flee if it feels things are taking an intense turn. luckily, it's not that bad. ]

Not a very kind place.

[ he murmurs. a beat later, he's mulling over telling him about the last few days and finally decides that if tony doesn't hear it from him, he'll hear it from someone else. maybe that was better? maybe a simple ' i don't know' would be his ticket out there while the other man finds someone to explain some of the strangeness and horror that happens around mathias.

and yet, he starts telling him anyway. ]

A couple of nights ago, some people were attacked and killed by something. It was like it was hunting people. [ bucky shakes his head, clearly confused and troubled by it, though it's hard to tell by his expression alone. ] And then they came back this morning.

[ he looks tony dead in the eye. ]

After we buried some of their bodies.

[technologique]

[ knowing what he knows about tony, does bucky really believe that a simple 'i don't know' would be good enough for tony to leave him alone, for him to go in search of someone else? bucky has presumably been here longer than tony has, so 'i don't know' doesn't cut it. because he's likely to have even some scrap more of information than tony currently has. and that likelihood makes 'i don't know' an unacceptable answer.

tony wants whatever information that bucky has, even if it's something as innocuous seeming as the grass takes half a day longer to grow here in mathias than anywhere else. he can sort through on his own which information is important and which isn't.

so 'i don't know' is an unacceptable answer.

tony follows bucky when he moves around a shelf. the meanings of distance and personal space can sometimes be lost on him and this is one of those times. for bucky, in this moment, there will be no putting space between himself and tony. besides, it doesn't even occur to tony that bucky might be securing himself an escape route. it doesn't cross tony's mind that bucky might feel the need for one.

but when bucky mentions the return of the dead, tony takes a surprised step back, his own expression a mix of emotions, none of them particularly positive ] What do you mean they came back? The dead don't come back. There are a lot of things that I am absolutely sure about, and that is at the top of the list.

[exsto]

[ he doesn't. bucky knows very little about tony stark, the man. he knows the side he took where it came to the accords and the one who headed up the hunt after everyone believed that he was the one behind the bombing in vienna. so, no. he didn't need to know a lot about tony to see that the man was a force who didn't care too much for obstacles or anything left half-done. specifically where it came to answers to very pointed questions.

with bucky feeling his space getting smaller and smaller with each passing moment, it starts to show on his face and in his mannerisms and the way his breathing starts to pick up a little.

tony doesn't finish speaking before he's interjecting. ]

They do here. There was something ripping people apart and we all saw them - all nine bodies. We buried them. And then they came back yesterday.

[ bucky pauses, looking at the other man's face for a reaction. ]

Throw out everything you think you know, Stark. None of it matters here.

[technologique]

[ tony has lived a privileged life. doors were always open for him, dating as far back as he can remember. people very rarely said no to him, whether in his professional life or personal life. obstacles, once upon a time, were little more than a foreign concept to him. now that they've started to pop up in his life more and more, the idea of doing as he pleases and getting what he wants has long since been too firmly implanted into his mind.

years ago, obstacles stopped being foreign, but it didn't mean they started to matter any.

tony narrows his eyes when bucky starts to speak before he's finished and folds his arms across his chest. at present, his expression reads as nothing good. he's annoyed. he's tired (has it already been a few days since he slept last?). he's done with this conversation, this day, this whole damn town. the biggest problem is that he doesn't know how to react to this information. he doesn't know what he's supposed to do with it.

but then bucky continues and everything sort of shifts. anger in place of annoyance and a panicked undertone replaces everything else. he takes a step toward bucky, his finger in the other man's face ] Everything matters! [ it's said more loudly than it was supposed to be, more forceful and snappish. but it's important that tony gets his point across.

see, if what he knows doesn't matter, then what else does he have? what chance does he have in a place like this, where something is ripping people apart? he's completely cut off from jarvis here. hell, he doesn't even know how jarvis is doing because apparently the ability to pick up the phone and call someone outside mathias is just too much for this place to handle. so he also doesn't know what's going on with the mark 42. so no jarvis and no armour and nothing here that would allow him to cobble something passable together, and, and-

the logical part of tony's mind tells him that none of that matters the way he thinks it does. there's a lot he can do here with what's available. and he has a vast array of knowledge is so many areas. even if some of it doesn't matter here, he still knows plenty about a lot of things. he's not left completely incapable simply because of some setbacks and some complications. setbacks and complications make things more interesting. and it means nothing that there's no apparent solution to dealing with the issues in mathias. he's an inventor. he thrives when there are no apparent solutions.

unfortunately, the logical part of tony's mind has checked out for the moment ]

[exsto]

[ that look on tony's face brings back a very vivid memory that bucky is sure he won't be able to forget, even if he tries and it gives him pause thinking this was it -- this was where tony stark remembers who he really is because that's what happens when someone is pointing a finger in their face, right? it suddenly clicks.

instinctively, bucky's cybernetic hand curls into a fist and he's ready to protect himself if things get violent, which doesn't feel like it will now. he looks at the other, blue eyes fixing on dark brown, so close that he can hear the anger-fueled tremble in his breathe after uttering the words that obviously point to them meaning more than he realizes. it causes his brow to pinch in curiosity wondering what exactly happened to tony stark in 2012. maybe it was having none of his comforts there -- nothing to connect to that isn't the lifeline that he made for himself.

no hero status.

bucky shakes his head and responds to that in a quiet voice. ]

This place will put that 'everything' into perspective for you.

[technologique]

[ there's no recognition here. less even than previously, when tony thought he recognized the name from something steve rogers related that his father had said one or twice (or a thousand times. tony lost track of how many times steve's name came up over the years). honestly, it's difficult to think beyond his current situation ]

This place-

[ what exactly happened to tony stark in 2012? a lot. too much. his worldview was challenge. a lot of what he thought he knew was, to some degree, wrong. tony is a man who wrapped himself in metal and wires, and decided to take on the world's problems as he saw them. and that worked just fine right up until it didn't. it worked right up until the human opponents he'd grown accustomed to became aliens. an entire alien army just waiting to destroy the world. it was something so far beyond his knowledge, so far beyond his control that it still keeps him up at night.

because what chance does he have against an enemy like that? what chance does he have to protect the few people in this world that he truly cares about, not to mention the world itself? he's good at what he does, but what if he isn't good enough? people could die because he isn't good enough. his people could die because he isn't good enough, because there's an enemy out there that he doesn't understand.

and not just that, but he had to face his own mortality. first with coulson, the perfectly ordinary man who was in over his head. sound familiar? while tony wouldn't consider himself perfectly ordinary, the things that set him apart are, well, perfectly human. he's not a god or an alien. he's not been enhanced in any way. he's just a man.

second? well, second was the wormhole. the wormhole he still sees every time he closes his eyes. the wormhole that still springs to mind every time there's a quiet moment. the wormhole where he came face to face with what should have been his own end. the wormhole where he came face to face with what may still end up being the end of everyone else. the wormhole filled with things beyond his comprehension. the wormhole-

tony breaks out in a cold sweat and he suddenly starts to feel like he can't breath, like the air has been sucked out of the building (doesn't this feel a lot like being just on the other side of the wormhole? there's no air in space, tony). he starts to take short, quick breaths, trying to get what little air he feels is available as his heart starts to pound in his chest ]

Oh god, not now.

[ he shoves bucky back away from him (even though he was the one crowding bucky in the first place) and turns to head for the door. he needs some air. if he can just get some air, that'll help. it has to. it has to do something. but it feels like it takes him ages to get to the door, having to stop every few feet to catch his breath (well...) before continuing on his monumental journey for the door and open air.

when he finally does make it there, he just pulls open the door and leans against the doorframe then slides to the ground with his face in his hands. he can't do this. not here and not now. hell, how about not ever? ]