villagelogs | 037-040 » the reason for time

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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This town is impossible. All this food will replenish on its own, inexplicably. [This was not the case a few days prior but Doc doesn't mention it in case the new folks start panicking and hoarding and turn against the existing community. Just as he won't mention that a whole bunch of them were recently murdered by some kind of invisible animal capable of eviscerating people like tearing through paper.] None of the clocks can agree what time it is. Winter turned into fall. You will have days of sunshine or days of darkness, and a fog that has some kind of choking gas interspersed within it. [Don't be an idiot and go into the fog, Tony.

At the mention of mechanical engineer, Doc's interest is piqued. Any slight intended or unintended about being a 167 year old gunslinger slips to the wayside. He straightens up a bit, leaning forward in his seat.] A mechanical engineer. As in, you are acquainted with Miss Siri and you can work with electronic devices?

[ tony somehow manages to stop himself from making a snide comment about the existence of overnight delivery trucks. it's needlessly argumentative. even he realizes that. the man sat down with him and is telling him what he knows. whether it's all true or total bullshit or a mix of the two? well, tony can sort through all of that later. good information and bad information, it's all useful in its own way but it's hard to keep from being argumentative and antagonistic when everything almost seems more out in left field than the last. tony rubs his eyes and sighs... maybe a little more over-dramatically than he initially intended ] Maybe it's the skeptical newbie in me but I gotta say, man, I'm not buying it. But that's not on you, that's on me. You're just the messenger. I get that. But you've gotta know how utterly ridiculous this all sounds. Especially to a guy who's been here for, like, five seconds and has no evidence of anything you've said so far. I mysteriously woke up on a beach, which... It happens. And then I walked here. There's very little that says this is any different than any other ghost town in the country.

[ unfortunately no promises on the fog ]

That's right. [ tony's whole demeanor shifts as doc continues. this is a subject that he knows well, possibly even better than he knows himself. it's something that doesn't come with the outrageous unknowns of mathias ] Oh, I am intimately acquainted with Miss Siri. Unfortunately, she just wasn't the sort of quality girl I'd hoped for, so we had to part ways. [ basically, he took an uninvited look at siri's programming once and wasn't terribly impressed ]

Yes, I can work with electronic devices, and I do. Almost exclusively. Designing and building them, that sort of thing.

[If Tony's going to go out in the fog and die, Doc's not going to stop him. He has been warned. He can reap what he sows. The last stubborn man Doc had tried to convince not to do something is now gone and the last thing they had done was argued. As far as the endless list of things that weigh heavily on his mind, he doesn't try to let it come too far into the forefront.]

I have oft had a night of far too much whiskey and women where I wake up on a beach or elsewhere I have no recollection of going. I can assure you that this is not one of those nights. [Tony is also welcome to sit there and watch the shelves replenish. Doc has done that too. He has come to accept that these are rites of passage for people. There is a kind of inevitability where people will come back to him for a second round of more questions once their minds are more open and he has come to accept this.]

I would find her more charming were she... a little more patient. [He is used to getting reprimanded by Siri. She can be a very critical woman.]

I'm afraid she might have drowned when I washed up ashore myself. Mister Bright advised putting my device in a bowl of rice but by the time I had met him she had already perished for nearly two weeks. It was too late. [He'd left his phone in the bowl of rice for several weeks after, but then, you know, they had to cook and eat the rice, because of the food shortage.] We do not have a means of communication here beyond a notice board in the town hall and telephones inside the buildings. Should you find yourself needing to embark on a project here to keep your hands busy, it would be of great benefit if you could build something a little more... portable. [He's not suggesting an iPhone. Or even a Nokia 3310. Just a clunky walkie-talkie that's a little more reliable than two cans on a string would have saved them a lot of grief.]

[ tony's been doing a lot of reaping in recent years (still having metal shards from one of his own weapons around his heart feels like proof enough of that). unfortunately, it's been the best way to open his eyes to what's going on around him. while it's not the best or brightest way to go about things, it has resulted in him being a much better person than he used to be. so maybe going out into the fog could have a positive result too, despite... everything. however, tony doesn't yet know the full extent of the consequences of going into the fog. he can surmise the fact that it isn't good, considering what doc said about the gas potentially spread throughout it, but the full severity isn't yet clear.

and that makes seeing it for himself dangerously tempting ]

So how did it happen, then? How did we all end up in Middle of Nothing, USA? Because there are only a small handful of explanations that make even a lick of sense, and they all follow a very similar theme. [ he probably will stick around to watch if the shelves replenish. of the things that doc listed, it's probably the quickest and easiest to prove true or false. see, it's not that he's entirely unwilling to believe what he's being told, given the kinds of things that are out there in the world nowadays, he just needs some kind of proof.

once he gets that, he'll happily come crawling back to doc for more information ]

Siri's impatience can definitely leave a lot to be desired. Bit of a design flaw. If they'd only thought to consult with me, she really would have been better off for it. [ siri can be a cruel, critical mistress.

tony actually laughs a little despite himself, despite... everything? when doc talks about the untimely demise of poor siri ] While it was a very valiant and noble effort on your part, by the two week mark she was already long gone. Time of death should have been called after only a few days, max. Rest assured though that after her surprise beach day, she would have gone peacefully in her sleep. [ now though, it's tony's turn to lean forward, his own interest piqued ] I could whip up a rudimentary comm system in my sleep. It's a pretty simple process. As long as the town has what I need.

Speaking of which, is Siri still kicking around? I could have a look at her, see what I can do. And if she's beyond even my help, she can go on to serve the greater good as a part of something bigger.

Nobody has answers to those big questions. How did we get here, why are we here, where did they take our weapons, what happened to the people who were here before us, and so on. All I understand is that we are somewhere in New England in the tail end of the twentieth century. [They can apparently tell by the tech. Doc's paperweight that had been Siri's vessel seems light years ahead of these VCR players but due to the last hundred and thirty-odd years of his incarceration, he knows better how to work a smartphone than he would know what to do with a VHS cassette. He can only surmise this information about 'old tech' (or what is old to them, anyway) from others.]

So far there has not been any means of escape, either. Hence the suggestion to keep yourself busy. [Of course if Tony would rather work on building a car instead, he shouldn't let a nineteenth century cowboy tell him that a few radio transmitters are more important.]

I can bring her to you. [Doc has given up hope that he would receive any communications or be able to make any outbound ones to Wynonna, or Waverly, or anyone else he wanted to. The phone is as dead and useless to him as Siri's nagging.

Honestly, he would have invited Tony over, except he's pretty sure that Tony will annoy the shit out of everyone else living in that house. Bad puppies get the less hospitable treatment until they can prove that they are able to behave.] And if you could write down a list of the tools and materials you would need, I will help you procure them.

037-040 » the reason for time

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