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

Is this going to become their thing? Bucky Barnes walking Daisy Johnson home while trapped in a small town hellscape... Well, she could do a whole lot worse and not much better.

"No," she answers absently, her mind turning over what Neal had been doing. A cave near the lighthouse? After a moment, though, her thoughts catch up with her and she shakes her head. "I mean, yes, I was in the... the other place. But I don't know anything about a cave."

It's the lingering pause that gets him to look at her again, her tone off in a way that makes it easy to guess that even for all she's been through, death is yet another thing to add to the list of life experiences. How is that for irony?

"He didn't say much after that," Bucky says, shrugging his shoulders apologetically. He lets things go silent for a short bit before looking at her face. "Are you going to be okay?"

The question means more than just the words. There's a tone in his voice. One that knows that it's okay not to be, all the time.

It's true, she's used to other people dying, so dying herself is... new. She'll probably have nightmares about it for the rest of her life, but it'll just be added to the rotation with all the rest.

Daisy glances over at him, meeting his gaze for a moment before looking away. "Physically? Yeah. I've been through worse."

Emotionally, though? Psychologically? Probably not. After a few seconds, she shakes her head slightly. "I don't know about the other stuff."

No, it made sense that she wouldn't know. How could anyone? Those who do die, usually stay dead and the ones that come close, still end up losing part of themselves in the process. Everything that they had been is no more and a new version of themselves is born.

He knows a little about that.

"Yeah," Bucky gives a nod, conveying that he can understand very well what she means and Daisy doesn't need to say any more on the matter if she doesn't want to. In fact, if she needs to just be silent for the rest of the walk back to her place, he'll respect that.

She is quiet for a few minutes while they walk, Bucky's presence one she's comfortable enough with to not feel the need to force conversation. He's not a very chatty person himself, of course, so she's pretty sure he won't mind. It's honestly just nice having someone there with her.

But she does speak before long, the confession tumbling out almost of its own accord because who else could she tell something like this to? "I found my grave."

It doesn't take long for it to hit him how odd that sounds. She barely gets it out and Bucky is regarding her carefully, noting the distance in her voice and the words she uses and they will be words she hears herself say a lot from here on in. It's something he wishes she didn't have to deal with. Not on top of everything else.

"I hope you didn't go looking for it," he replies, tone lifting a little to convey that he wasn't quite sure why someone would do that. Bucky knows where she is, too, but he never thought he'd need to reveal that. "I would've buried you if I found you."

He hopes that doesn't sound insincere because he had been looking for her.

"Thank you," she tells him quietly, then shrugs, folding her arms a little tighter around herself. "I woke up near the graveyard. I could tell things were... fresh, so I looked. Whoever buried me left a marker."

Whoever buried me. The phrase is said with as much detachment as she feels. For anyone else, the prospect of their own body being buried while they're still standing in one just like it would probably be terrifying. Traumatic. Surreal. For her, it's kind of... normal, almost. Not that she's died herself, not yet, but with everything to do with Coulson... Well, of everything here, this part feels unfortunately familiar.

She wonders who did it. It's someone she knows, clearly, since there had been a flower there. But it wasn't Bucky, and so many others she knows had been in that other place with her. So who then? "Do you know who it was?"

It was a flower that marked her grave and without realizing it was her, Bucky remembers staring at it for what seemed like far longer than it really was. Then again, the whole day felt so much longer than it really was and that only cements the fact that Mathias was already proving to be a lot different than their world. Still, their world had been responsible for all the mental trauma they had been through up to that point. Whether that helps them here or not remains to be seen. But in the back of his head, there's concern that it will make it worse.

He listens closely but directs his gaze down at the ground as they walk, giving a little nod to let her know that he saw the flower marking. "No," His voice sounds apologetic. "But I'm sure someone will let you know it was them."

037-040 » the reason for time

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