059-061 » the place where you stop the story

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central/Southern Mathias
WHEN: Day 059-061
WHAT: Time returns to "normal" and Mathias grants a reprieve.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here! The next log will be posted the weekend of May 15th May 22nd.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Nathan Johnson "Foul Play"

DAY 059-061
A BRIEF REPRIEVE
“There is no real ending. It’s just
the place where you stop the story.”
— Frank Herbert
Residents awake to a peaceful morning with the sun shining and earth remaining still. There is no unsettling shaking to rouse them at dawn, and time has continued moving onward as they slept. Whatever state they were in the night before, they remain that way now, for good or for bad.

On the surface, there seems to be little lasting effect on the tiny town from that strange series of days, save for the memories of any traumatic experiences residents may have faced — but there are always consequences within Mathias. The perpetrators of acts against the town are tormented by nightmares of those acts being used against them, and those who did not raise a hand to stop those acts of destruction may yet face consequences of their own. For now, however, the unwilling townspeople should do their best to rest and recover from the disturbing ordeals of late, for this reprieve from the madness shall surely be shortlived.




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.

---

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— THE HISTORY MUSEUM has not fared well with the return of "normal" time. The once esteemed wooden building is now a charred ruin, the recent fire leaving behind little of the contents within for study. The structure is unstable and it is not wise to venture into the ruins for long.

— THE WEATHER conditions remain 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 has retreated from some areas!

— Residents may now wander the southern stretch of the forest surrounding Mathias Township — it is possible to leave the paths but potentially unwise to do so.
— The fog has also retreated farther into the western section of town, now stretching across town between Stine Road and Shelley Drive. This has revealed the Chasm in the earth that stretches from one side of town to the other between Stine and Hill Lane.
— Access to the northern section of the forest is still blocked 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.

— DEATHS & DISAPPEARANCES continue! Max Guevara has vanished into the fog. Claire Novak's body can be spotted on Day 059 facedown at the bottom of the Chasm between Hill and Stine, near Phillips Drive; by the morning of Day 060, her body will be gone. (Attempts may be made to reach her body but will likely not end well for those involved. Such attempts should be reported under Exploration.)

— ALCOHOL is still in Mathias! Just barely. (Supply is running very 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. (Alcohol does not replenish as food does.)

---

OOC NOTES

— PROJECT HELP Your mod needs help with some projects!

— FUTURE PLANNING If you haven't, please answer the questions here for future log planning. I will almost definitely need some of these answers for the log going up the weekend of May 15, so act quickly! Late submissions will not be considered for that log.

— 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 are going to be pretty slow for a while. Apologies in advance, and please don't feel shy about pestering me if you're stuck waiting for something.

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Comments

[myfavoritemurder]

[The perplexed look of concentration on her face will probably clue him in to the fact that she doesn't understand a good chunk of what he's saying - but she knows a question when she hears one, and she knows the word see, so it's not hard to figure out that he wants to show her something.]

Yes.

[Sure, she's game to see something, whatever that something is. She picks her way closer, giving those expressive hands of his a warning scowl.]

[tinstar]

[For a quick man, sometimes he was, in fact, terribly slow and his head cocks a little as he ends at the look on her face. But it turned into a tilt of his lean body as he and his three mile long legged stride made short work of the distance.

He didn't talk, didn't ask any questions, just led her to the lesson there for them to learn, if they were smart enough to pay attention.

Once there, he stopped, face dark and stormy, hazel eyes going dark as his jaw worked at the spread of chaotic blonde, legs askew and bent the wrong way. He didn't need to point either, Callisto had eyes, but he stopped and glowered at the body for a long second before looking over at the woman for her reaction. He didn't expect any flails, or screams and wailing, nor did he expect her to vomit - Not dressed like that. While he was looking, he could take in everything else about her that put her outside of a world that he was used to.]

[myfavoritemurder]

[He's right on the money in not expecting shock or horror - there's no evidence of that on Callisto's face or in her body language. Nor is there fear, or any inkling of sadness or concern for the strange woman that lies crumpled at the bottom of the chasm. She crouches down on her haunches, leaning forward (a little too far forward, again) to get a closer look, studying Claire's body as if it's just one more strange, unusual thing in a strange, unusual world - nothing more, and nothing less.]

Who?

[tinstar]

[Death was something that had been around and would be around in every world that got dropped here. Every ambassador for that reality. The only ensured common denominator.

Her leanings made his hand twitch but if he was doomed to watch someone else murder themselves then he wouldn't bear the weight for this one.]

Claire Novak. Only twenty. Young.

You gonna be stupid enough to join her? [His eyebrows lifted at her with the question, dark eyes glancing at the pit. If only he knew how well he was doing on accident.]

[myfavoritemurder]

[Callisto narrows her eyes at Raylan, fully not understanding the question and therefore leaning towards reacting pissily by default. She looks from him to the body, then back to him again - and then she mimes braiding something, holds out her hands at a distance from each other to indicate length, and points down at the body in the chasm.

"She's your friend," she says in Greek. "Why don't you make a rope and go get her?"

Acting out the rope-braiding again, she adds:]

This. Kálos. Understand?

[tinstar]

[Okay, definitely not chanting. A language. One that he was desperately far from.]

Braiding? [It was a grasp at best.] Rope? [He shook his head. He had his reasons, ones that weren't easily conveyed by grunting and hand gestures.] Tomorrow.

Who are you? New face. [He pointed at his chest.] Raylan.

[myfavoritemurder]

[That question, on the other hand, she's gotten very familiar with.]

Callisto. Tomorrow, you go--?

[She gestures again towards the bottom of the chasm.]

[tinstar]

[He nodded and looked down into the pit, jaw working again.]

Group effort. In case something goes wrong.

[He gestured her away from the edge before glancing at the gap.] You.. don't speak a whole lotta English, do you.

[myfavoritemurder]

["You're the one who speaks like a fool," she snaps in Greek - picking up one or two words that she recognizes, realizing that he must be saying something about her language capabilities, and reacting with hostility just on the off-chance that he's insulting her.]

From-- Hellás. Not from Mathias. I am from Hellás, and Tártaros.

[tinstar]

[Her hostility didn't bother in him the slightest. He wasn't unflappable, obvious by his reactions so far, but hostility rolled off the back of his casual cadence and tone like water off a duck.]

No one's from Mathis. Wish I could say where that was but makes me feel a little better that you ain't gonna know where I'm from.

[He glanced at the chasm again. He was going to cross it, goddamnit.]

Don't suppose askin' you what you're speakin' will help. Or who you were yellin' at.

[myfavoritemurder]

[She gives a theatrical shrug, then points at his hands. Act it out if you want her to understand, buddy.]

[tinstar]

[Dangerous precedent to set, a freedom in her ignorance, in his culpability in admitting anything he might want to.]

I was always shit at Charades, [He informed before taking a deep breath. Pointing back where he'd found her-] Over there, you [Obligatory finger in her direction before he cupped his hand around his mouth and fully maimed the act of yelling, though he didn't make any sound for it, ending it all with an air drawn question mark.

Did old languages even have punctuation? Had to have.... Right?] Who were you yellin' at?

[myfavoritemurder]

[Ah. That.

The question mark, unfortunately, goes completely over her head, but it ends up not really mattering; she can hear the questioning tone in his voice, and along with the miming, it's not hard to figure out what he's getting at.]

Háidēs.

[She says, pointing down into the pit.]

In Tártaros. The death place.

[tinstar]

[He frowned, the scars on the left side of his face that laced out like faint spiderwebs turning down with the expression.]

The death place. Hell? Hades? [A little backwards with his attempts at translations but it was something.]

Jesus, when the hell are you even from.. [It was murmured in a gentle confusion.] How the hell would I even ask that question? Would you even know?

[He doubted that too, and so scrubbed his face, hand pushing his hat back a few inches before he was taking a deep breath and readjusts the hat.]

You challenging him to a fight or something? [He gestured at her, bringing his hands up to faux bob and weave with his shoulders and head before nodding at chasm.]

[myfavoritemurder]

Hades, yes.

[She says, as if this is perfectly normal - which, to be perfectly fair, it is for her. A slow, sly smile spreads across her face at Raylan's miming.]

This is fight?

[What a useful word to know!]

Yes, I fight Hades.

[Technically, she never has, though not for lack of trying - Hades simply hadn't had the time or the patience to deal with her shenanigans. Her willingness to even want to challenge the god of the Underworld is what had originally attracted Ares' attention to her, however. The god of war is certainly interested in fights.]

[tinstar]

[He bobbed his head in a reluctant concession, expression belying the nuance that was not being shared.] Fight. Well, one way of fighting.

[But he couldn't help but squint and tilt his head a little bit. Fighting. An invisible god..]

Uh-huh. [It wasn't patronization. While Raylan hadn't even begun to really wrap his head around the woman in front of him, some questions didn't actually gain him anything.] Well, I hope that skill continues around here. We might have a demi-god to get rid of... somehow..

Why fight him? To fight death?

[myfavoritemurder]

[Because she's angry. Because she wants out of Tartarus so she can go back to fighting Xena, or failing that, she wants Xena to end up in Tartarus with her. Because--

"The gods have never done anything for me," she snaps in Greek, knowing he won't be able to understand but wanting to say it out loud regardless. "Why should I meekly accept their control over me? Because they're more powerful than me? No. I won't."

She punctuates this by spitting into the chasm, showing Hades what she thinks of him.]

I fight everybody. I fight Tim, Malcolm, Parker - I fight you.

[She has not, in actual fact, fought all these people, but she'd certainly be willing to.]

[tinstar]

[The words were lost on him but the tone and the twist of her face as she spits the words before spitting properly made her position fairly clear.]

I don't fight.. [He looked her up and down with a little gesture.] Not women. If I can help it. Very rude.

[But what was rudeness to ancient Greeks? He should have paid attention in history class more.]

[myfavoritemurder]

[This is another one she's going to have to guess at - he doesn't fight her specifically? Doesn't fight Greeks? Doesn't fight women, or people who wear leather armor, or blondes?

Only one of those really seems likely, and she sneers, not at all unused to that attitude but not a fan of it all the same.]

Women fight you.

[She taunts. And if he doesn't fight back, that just gives them the advantage.]

[tinstar]

[His chin lowered a little, eyes darkening with the set of his features. Oh no, he could guess why she sneered.]

No. Better they don't. [Firm. Meant to be inarguable. He could be goaded into a fight, into throwing his fists by nearly any asshole, as long as that asshole didn't come with a vagina. No, as soon as he gave into that, Raylan feared it'd get into his blood. Turn him into Arlo and even the thought of it had his jaw tensing.

He pointed at the chasm without breaking eye contact with her, for the moment far more like a dog with his back hairs up, unwilling to take his eyes off a possible threat.]

I don't do that death, if I can.

[myfavoritemurder]

I do.

[She spits, her body language tense and threatening even though her tone leans more petulant. She starts to circle him, hands balling into fists.]

I do. And you do.

[He's big, and he looks strong and athletic. None of those things happen by accident. He's clearly a fighter, and in her world, fighters are killers.]

[tinstar]

[Shit. He wasn't worried about the fight, only that she seemed dead set on it for some reason. Probably his own fault for trying to have a preference with someone from a culture and time that did not afford that to them so easily.

Instead of circling with her, Raylan shrugged off his jacket and dropped it around him, opting to keep his hat where it was. If she insisted on doing this, knocking it off would be a victory for her and if he could get out of this with it still on his head, he'd call the win for himself. He kept his hands loose at his side, and his head tilting as she circled to keep her in view and the blind spot directly behind him was solved with a half step that allowed him to see it with his own turn.

He danced this dance a little differently.]

Not on women. Not unless you make me. Callisto. Stop this.

[No, he didn't particularly expect her to stop. If she was telling gods to go fuck themselves, he was pretty sure that automatically extended to the lower forms beneath them.]

[myfavoritemurder]

[Callisto isn't angry at Raylan. She has nothing against him in a personal level. But she, too, is easy to goad into fights, either by another person, by herself, or - as in this particular case - by a complete whim.]

Yes.

[She says, with a vicious smile. And then she charges, fists raised and ready to collide with something.]

Let me know if this doesn't work!

[tinstar]

[Runners were easy - don't let them get their hands around you and redirect all that delicious forward momentum. He takes a half step back for it, intent on using his rightmost leg as soon as he's got his hands on her, wrists or shoulders, whatever he needed to turn her and turn with her to sweep her closest leg, sending her back downwards.]

Stop it.

[Teeth half bared, the words were pushed through them with a tone that most people tended to listen to. He didn't have to hit her to fight.]

totally fine!

[myfavoritemurder]

[Most people have respect for themselves, if not for others. Callisto has neither, and fear of disapproval or retaliation is not a deterrent here. He catches her and turns her, sending her tumbling - but she turns that tumble into a flip, arching through the air and landing on her feet again. After that, she wastes no time before striking out with both a hand and a foot, aiming to chop his arm with the former at the same time as she aims for his kneecap with the latter.]