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

[bestfuneralever]

He nods his agreement with that statement. "Definitely, yeah. I mean-- he won't admit it, but... you guys are his people, too." Maybe he wouldn't go as far for them, if Klaus were the one on the line, but in general and for the most part, yeah. Five would do what he could for the men in 1306.

Maybe it's his age or the number of places he's traveled, people he's met, but Doc seems to always have a story in his pocket for any given situation at hand. Klaus is always kind of amazed by it, honestly. "Yeah... I get that. I- I try, you know? To be there for him. He hates talking. I can't stand being alone. We meet in the middle, most of the time if he's not out looking around for answers, he'll just work on whatever new equation he's created out of nowhere and listen to me talk about nothing, really." It wasn't a perfect system, and he knows that Five needs to be made to talk about things sometimes, but it worked. Sort of.

[thering]

Back where he'd come from they were sometimes wary of getting Doc started. Sometimes an old-timey rousing speech was necessary. But sometimes Doc was being a little extra. He doesn't have the shortest stories and he is prone to a touch of melodrama here, just the slightest exaggeration there. He even does the voices sometimes.

In another life, perhaps, he might have been very good with children.

"Sometimes when you are quiet, other people will rush in to fill it," Doc points out. "You can't always get a man to talk by smacking him and telling him he needs to talk." As easy as that might be. It's certainly easier than asking Klaus to be quiet and still, it seems. But a bit of self-restraint would go a long way with Five. It is much the same with Doc.

[bestfuneralever]

“Yeah, that’s me.” He scoffs softly. “I’m not good with silence. You’ve probably...noticed that, by now..” he takes another long drag from his cigarette. “You think I should just— let him come to me? Because, I’ll be honest, I think if I don’t badger him into it eventually, he’ll think I gave up. And that’ll just make it easier to keep avoiding everything and convincing himself it’s for the best to just keep it all to himself when—”

He pauses and sighs, “really I think it’s the opposite. I think- I think people need that... I dunno... release, you know? Just from... getting it out. Off your chest. Out of your head.” But he’s already learned that very few of the rest of the people in Mathias Township operate that way. Malcolm is his biggest proponent in that particular theory.

[thering]

Doc thinks it's probably like fishing, where you need to know when to give a lot of slack and when to reel it in and pull as hard as you can, except he hasn't really fished, so he doesn't really know how to give that analogy.

"It's a bit like driving, I suppose," is what he opts for instead. "You never really floor any of the pedals, you know? Sometimes they just need a little tap. Sometimes you ease up and just let her go. You can possibly still get to where you want to go by stomping on the pedals but it won't make for a smooth ride and you might break something in the process." Doc is asking for a little bit of discretion, a little bit of finesse. It sounds easy, like driving ought to be, but it takes a while to get used to it, and what works for one person is likely not going to for another.

"You may well be onto something, but you are his brother, and you are his keeper as much as he is yours. Whatever you think anyone might need to work out, don't be their punching bag. I suspect you are used to this, you may think this natural, because you are the only one whom the dearly departed can take anything out on. But it is not who or what you need to be."

[bestfuneralever]

Driving is... not actually the most relatable analogy for Klaus; he doesn't drive. But he gets the point all the same anyway, nods along to the explanation. "Yeah... I guess that makes sense." Doesn't mean he's good a subtle, or easing anyone into anything. But he could maybe...try.

There's a sad irony in the way people in this town almost seem to see the Hargreeves as some sort of package deal, each other's keeper, when the reality is they hadn't been together in years. They had been separated, estranged for closer to three-fourths of their lives by now than anything. It's why he can't stop the soft amused chuckle at that term. "You think I'm his keeper?" He shakes his head, scoffing again. "I don't think anyone can be Five's keeper."

He frowns a little at the last part, staring down at the concrete under his feet in consideration of it for a moment. "Actually... my siblings use me as a punching bag just as much, if not more than the dead ever bother to." He wants to make it a joke, twist the words into that too-high-pitched trill he does when he's casting a shadow of humor over a trauma to hide how much it really bothers him, but... it doesn't work. Instead, the words just come out soft and true.

[thering]

"You take care of him. He takes care of you. You were both distraught at each other's loss. I would know - I was there on both occasions. Perhaps you had a different term in mind. But it seems to me a 'keeper' is fairly apt." He hasn't told Five much of anything about the state Klaus had been in when he thought he had lost him and likewise he hasn't told Klaus much of anything when Five had hovered around his grave.

"You deserve better. Not better siblings - you can't pick and choose those. Just-- to be treated better." It is something you have to fight for sometimes. Maybe Klaus isn't used to fighting for it. But there's only so much punching bag treatment one can take before snapping and breaking in irreversible, irreparable ways.

[bestfuneralever]

"Well, when you put it like that..." He scoffs softly and takes one last, long drag from his cigarette before discarding of the butt. He's quiet for a moment, mulling over that last part of what the older man was saying. He can't imagine it's any better of an experience for Five, than it was for him, to find him dead. Maybe worse... Klaus closes his arms around his middle, remember the way it felt when he was yanked backwards by his ribs with those awful, ripping claws.

He shrugs, "After thirty years, you just kinda get used to it." That's what he's resigned himself to, because it's what always happens. It's why he still, even a month or so into this place, still ends up surprised by people genuinely seeming to want him around. He hadn't had that with his father, nor his siblings, and certainly not anywhere he wandered after he left home.

It's a good feeling. Being wanted. He worries about getting too used to it, even among the trauma of this place. What happens if-when they ever get out, go home, and everything goes back to the way it always was. Having the better side of it to compare to will make the rest hurt that much worse when it comes.

[thering]

"After thirty years you could get used to anything. But it is okay for you to want more." Especially seeing as being wanted to be treated better is not something completely unreasonable. You can't always expect to get along with everyone but people should at least be willing to meet you halfway.

"You can always come here, if things get to be too much." Even if it is too much of a cold shoulder or too much quiet. There's rarely a dull moment here and while they go out plenty, they don't all just file back upstairs into their rooms like people might in the boarding house.

"Even if I'm not the kind of rambunctious company you might be after." There are always the New Yorkers.

[bestfuneralever]

“Maybe...” He smiles, something soft and sad just at the edges of his mouth. “But I never feel like I’m worth all that.”

All that trouble.
All that effort.
All that much.

The offer is an appreciative one, though and he nods, “Thanks.” 1306 has become his home away from home from the boarding house already, anyway. Knowing it’s an open-ended, long-standing sort of offer puts something in his chest just a little more at ease, though.

“Oh, I don’t doubt you could be plenty rambunctious, old man.” He grins, something half-flirtatious, half-mischievous, eyes shining bright for a moment.

[thering]

It would be nice for people to come to the house just for a social call. Kind of like Klaus, today, if it weren't for the traumatic recent events that had driven him here. If they weren't needing medical attention or dying or what have you. If they liked it here because of the company and not because they need that safety blanket it provides.

"Ooo, it's a little early for that kind of talk, isn't it? You would be quite a handful to handle, and I do mean that in the nicest possible way."

[bestfuneralever]

Klaus is absolutely the type to come trawling by for purely social calls, this just happens to have extenuating circumstances attached to it this particular time.

The comment only makes his grin beam brighter. "Ohhh, you have no idea." He teases, arching his eyebrows slightly.

[thering]

It's good to see a semblance of that old smile back. Something they haven't had much of in the past few days. It is the first step towards normalcy, or whatever passes for it here.

"Should we head back inside?" Doc's frequent self-imposed exile isn't doing anyone else any favours either. "We could get a little bit of food perhaps and see what the others are up to."

[bestfuneralever]

He nods a bit at that suggestion. “Yeah, sounds good to me.” He says, pushing himself up to his feet. He takes a second to stretch stiff muscles before he heads to the door leading back inside.

He pauses just inside the doorway, “Hey, Doc?” He glances back over his shoulder, the smile on his lips is soft and genuine. “Thanks.” He doesn’t bother specifying what for exactly, and disappears back into the house before the old man can say anything else.