villagelogs | 051-058 » the past increases, the future recedes

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central Mathias
WHEN: Day 051-058
WHAT: Time is a funny thing. It likes to repeat itself.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here! The next log will be posted the weekend of May 8th.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Marco Beltrami "The Dinner Table"

DAY 051-058
THE REPEATING
“Unfortunately, the clock is ticking, the hours are going by.
The past increases, the future recedes.”
— Haruki Murakami
With the dawn of this new day comes an unsettling experience that many longer-term residents will find unfortunately familiar. As the sun begins to rise over the ocean's horizon, an earthquake arrives with it. The vibrations are strong enough to shake buildings but not damage them; items may be broken and nerves will certainly be rattled, but after a full minute of wondering when it will decide to finally end, calm will return to Mathias.

This first day will seem otherwise like any other. The rain has stopped but the skies remain a gloomy grey, providing no sense of escape from the horrible situation they've all found themselves in. And as the day stretches on, each of them going about the lives the routines they have made for themselves here, they will each of them have a feeling of being stuck, as if in the end today has been no different than yesterday.

But when tomorrow becomes today, they will find that it truly is no different than yesterday.

The earthquake arrives again as the sun rises, and they are in the exact places they were the day before. Any broken items they may have cleaned up will break again. Their clothes are the same as the day before, the food they prepared will be unmade, and the only certainty that they are not crazy will be found in the knowledge that everyone else is experiencing the same thing as well.

Memories are the only things that remain intact as the day resets. Again again, residents will relive the same day, every physical thing resetting to the state it was in at dawn. Patience will be tried as these days stretch onward, and the most enterprising of the group will use this as the opportunity it is to experiment without consequence.

(But all things have consequences in Mathias.)

THE NEW ARRIVALS
The newest arrivals to Mathias will wake up on the beach near The Grey Gull. It's a bit chilly out with their wet clothes, but surely there's something to help warm them inside the restaurant. They may even find some alcohol within — and not just the cowboys' homemade moonshine.

ABOUT THE RESETS
— The earthquake happens again each morning at sunrise, signaling the day resetting and beginning again.

— Everything physical resets to how it was at the beginning of Day 051. Food will be uncooked with no leftovers in the fridge from the day before. Items that were broken or moved will be returned to their original locations. Anything that was built or modified will be undone and returned to its original state.

— Everything resets except for the memories of residents, which remain intact from one day to the next.

— It doesn't matter if your character tries to stay awake in order to watch the reset. Exhaustion will overtake them just before the earthquake happens at dawn, and when they wake, they will be in the exact same location and in the exact same physical condition as on the morning of Day 051. Their clothes, their health, the state of disarray of their hair — all of it will be exactly the same. This includes new arrivals waking again on the beach each day.

— Resets includes the death of any character. The new day will reset their body just like on any other, and for this log only there will be no corpses left behind. Sanity may still be lost depending on the nature of their deaths.

— If a resident has wanted to burn down a building or take other drastic measures to test the limits of what Mathias Township will allow, now is the time. Everything will be returned to as it was the day before... Though there may still be consequences. The resets will cease after Day 058, so anything done on that day will remain in effect in the next log.

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— THE WEATHER conditions are fairly typical for early fall: warm days and cool nights. It feels almost like spring arriving except that there fewer red and orange leaves on the ground and more of them oddly returning to the trees and slowly fading to green. It's like watching one of those nature documentaries that have a timelapse of the seasons, only it's going in reverse.

— THE FOG continues to block the paths in the forest. Beginning a few dozen yards past the treeline, this section of fog will urge residents to stay huddled within the town proper by inducing a physical reaction of panic and fear. This type of fog also blocks the western section of town, beginning just past Hill Lane, shortly 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; residents who enter it will be gripped by a panic so strong that they must retreat the way they came.

— DISAPPEARANCES are occurring again, with Helen Magnus and Alex Millar vanishing. Thankfully, a few residents have also returned. Welcome back!

— ALCOHOL is still in Mathias! Maybe. (Supply is definitely running low after recent town events.) 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 was also restocked with its lower-end offerings of a variety of alcohol types. For this log only, alcohol is replenishing in the same way food does due to the time resets.

OOC NOTES

— BIG CHANGES If your character is planning on making any big changes to the town (ie setting something on fire or other major destruction of property), please comment below ASAP and plan for these changes to take place in the second half of the log so that everyone is able to react to them in their own threads.

— THE GIFTS Before the next log, please comment over here with details of what your character did with their "gift" from the last log, if they found one of their personal items out in the rain. This information may be used for future logs.

— UPDATES Don't forget to report updates as they come up! Changes to locations (like toppling a few bookshelves in the library), big plots you have coming up that will affect the game (parties, major property destruction, etc), or exciting discoveries that may tie into the game's mythology (even the things provided by the mod) are very helpful to have in one place so relevant page updates can be made.

— MOD STATUS The usual reminder that it's just Amy steering this ship, 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

[She scoffs lightly, under her breath, and goes quiet for a moment as she pokes at the fire with a stick.]

Do you know how to send me back?

[He shakes his head apologetically.]

Nobody knows.

But do you want to find out how to go back yourselves? Are you trying? Do you care?

We care. But there are no answers here.

You've given up on leaving, then?

No. And if you choose to not die, maybe you can help.

You missed the boat on that one; I'm already dead.

[But. But.]

I want to go back to Tartarus, because I know Xena's going to land herself there eventually; it's just a matter of time. Or I want to go back to the mortal world and fight her there. If your plans will help with that, then I'll help you.

We want to leave. If you want to leave, we can all work together.

Fine.

[Sadly, this does not preclude her being a pain in the ass, but he at least has her attention.]

But I'm still not going inside.

My house is one three zero six. That road. [He points.] If you need supplies or help. Or friends.

What makes you so sure you'd want someone like me as a friend?

[But speaking of the houses and their names... she pulls a few folded squares of thin cardboard out from where she'd tucked them into her belt, shuffling them around until she finds one in particular, which she holds out for Malcolm to see. Tapping the numbers 1308, she asks:]

These are numbers too?

One Three Zero Eight. That house belongs our friends too.

You know Tim, then.

Yes. I know him.

[They’re not friendly, but they have a mutual... acquaintance.]

Yes, well - he tried to tell me to move into a house, too. In a way.

[The drawings and hand signals had actually been decently helpful; she's been doing her best to remember some of the vocabulary she'd picked up from him.]

How annoyingly insistent are you all going to be about this?

Before you get dead with poison fog? Not a lot. More after.

[She thinks back to the warning symbol Tim had drawn for her. So that had been fog after all. Good to know.]

You should be careful.

[She says mildly.]

I don't like annoying people. What happens when a girl who's already dead gets even deader here? Maybe I'd just go back to Tartarus.