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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Callisto | Xena: Warrior Princess

[myfavoritemurder]

[plotting post]

Day 059

[myfavoritemurder]

A - THE CHASM; AFTERNOON; OTA

[The big crack in the earth is the newest, biggest thing that Callisto has found in days, and so naturally, she beelines to it - ready to investigate something that, in comparison to the rest of the town, feels almost normal and familiar. At first she just walks it from reachable end to reachable end, peering both across it and down into it, dropping stones at various points to try to get a rough idea of depth by counting how many seconds it takes for them to hit bottom. Occasionally, she'll even rest beside it, sitting on the ground and carelessly dangling her legs into its yawning maw.

Those are all fairly standard activities. Less standard, however, is what she does next. She figures there's a decent chance that this is Underworld-related, if not caused by Hades himself, an idea that makes her more angry than anything else. Maybe it's supposed to be some sort of sign or message, or maybe it's not meant for her at all - but either way, irritating the gods has been one of the few enjoyable pastimes she'd had in Tartarus, and she's not about to stop the habit now. And so she starts calling down into the chasm as she stalks its southern border, starting out with taunts but quickly building to frustrated yells and shrieks. She is, of course, speaking in Ancient Greek, but the tone of her voice needs no translation.

"Talk to me!" she shouts, staring furiously down into the chasm. "Hades! You think you can foil every plan I had to get back to the mortal realm and then send me here without a word? You think you can claim me as your own, tell me you'll never let me leave, and then cast me out? You think I've given you trouble--"

She leans over the chasm, far enough that she looks like she might be risking falling in.

"-- but you haven't even seen trouble from me!"]

hi there :3

[tinstar]

[He always came back here, to this tear in the land that swallowed up too much of his time and mental energy. He was almost surprised to see the fog had peeled back, teasing them with the prospect of getting over, and knew that if he was going to try and cross it, it would have to be within the next day. Otherwise the chance might be -

The screaming down the way was more than enough to get his attention, head swiveling over at a head of hair he didn't recognize, face twisting like a crumpled napkin in confusion at the sounds coming out of her mouth. It wasn't chanting, not enough steady rhythm but it was something. Displeasure if he had to take a guess.

Ambling over with an uneven looking walk that still left him moving in a very straight line, his causal pace busted into something a little more urgent as she starts bending over the edge.]

Hey lady, whoaa! [He hollered at her as he jogged up, gesturing away from the edge, off hand already coming out over the gap to scoop and toss if he had to.] That edge isn't stable. You're gonna end up in the pit you lean any further.

[The pit got a gesture with his finger as he referenced it, but he wasn't initially gesturing for her. He just.. talked with his hands.]

yooooo

[myfavoritemurder]

[The people here are ridiculous - always so concerned about her doing dangerous things, as if her life has meaning to them or to her or to anyone at all. The idea of jumping into the chasm out of pure spite briefly crosses her mind, damn the consequences to herself. If Malcolm is to be believed, the death probably wouldn't even stick.

Copying Raylan's pointing gesture, she asks:]

Death?

[Her tone is harsh and sarcastic.]

[tinstar]

Or worse, [No, it didn't trigger anything that that was the only word he got back but the gesturing prompted his own as he continued.] Broken bones.

[He slapped his forearms and mimed it breaking over his knee, equally sharp and sarcastic, before he gestured back at more solid ground. Was this charades?]

There's a girl twenty five feet that way -[he continued with a half lifted gesture back towards where he'd been ruminating. Oh yeah, he was totally down for an argument he didn't realize he was in the midst of having. His ending question came with a challenging kind of lift of his eyebrows.] - probably fell in the same way. You wanna see?

[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.]

this is terrible BUT I WANTED TO GET IT DONE

[conning]

[ Neal is out for a walk. He's thinking. And trying not to think. He's in a sort of borderline fugue state, the kind of mental space that makes him think he should go find Malcolm, but even that is just a kind of passing fancy.

Then he hears Hades screamed nearby, followed by a string of... is that Greek? It sounds like Greek, but also not quite, like everything has been shifted over by a letter. He can make out bits and pieces, but not much more than that.

When he sees Callisto leaning over the chasm, he breaks into a run, not wanting to call out and startle her into falling, not sure if he should do it anyway. He grabs her forearm lightly and tries to pull her back, away from the edge, speaking in the Greek he knows. Maybe some of it will translate. ]

You're going to fall if you do that. Hades isn't down there, no one can hear you. Or the ones that can, you don't want answering.

NOT TERRIBLE AT ALL

[myfavoritemurder]

[Huh. Callisto just stares at him, utterly baffled, too distracted to even bother yanking her arm away from his grip. This isn't Malcolm's broken but still understandable version of her Greek - this is is something spoken fluently, and something that sounds like it should be more familiar than it is. Some of the sounds are right, but not all of them; some of the words are recognizable, but not all of them.]

Where are you from?

[She finally asks. It must be some far-flung corner of Greece that she's never heard of, much less been to.]

[conning]

[Interesting. Once again, he can make out the sentence through similarity and context, but it's also very much not the Greek he knows. Not unfamiliar--but old.]

New York City, in America. [The words are very clearly not Greek, and very much not said with a Greek accent. He drops back into the language she can mostly understand without missing a beat. He tweaks his pronunciation to match hers. ] Where are you from?

[myfavoritemurder]

Hellás.

[So, Ancient Greece, basically.]

Is the language that everyone else speaks here the same language that you speak in New York City? You aren't all from there, are you? I'm really starting to feel left out.

[Her tone is droll here, not actually serious - but the language barrier issue is annoying.]

[conning]

[ He nods in understanding, taking a moment to parse what she just said. It's an imperfect mental translation, but he gets the gist--the little joke makes him smile. ]

Not all. Many are from America or places like it. [ He tries to figure out how to ask the next question in a way that makes sense. It probably won't either way. ]

What year, where you are from?

[myfavoritemurder]

I don't know.

[She answers in Grek, furrowing her brow. Does she look like somebody who keeps track of that stuff, Neal?]

It was summer when I died, but there are no seasons in Tartarus.

[conning]

[ Neal's eyes promptly go wide.

She does not seem crazy, in the more-crazy-than-average sense that comes with Mathias. He has a lot easier of a time believing that she actually went to Tartarus than he would have a month ago. ]

Welcome back to the land of the living. [ A pause. His lips quirk into a tiny smile. ] Unless this is another part of the afterlife, but I am fairly certain I was alive when I got here.

Day 060

[myfavoritemurder]

[Wildcard me or contact me for a personalized starter!]

for Liz

[myfavoritemurder]

[Callisto has her moods where she's in-your-face aggressive to everyone she meets, regardless of who they are. But then, on the flip side of things, she has her quiet moods, too - times when she's not necessarily nicer or kinder, but when she simply doesn't have the energy to lash out or face the world with her usual bluster. She'd woken up this morning sunk deep into Mood Number Two, and so far, that hasn't changed.

It's mid-morning by the time she wanders into the boarding house, and though it's not her first visit to the place, it's the first time she does much more than raid the kitchen and immediately leave. She's parked herself on the living room floor, next to the box of clothes by the fireplace, and she's claimed an oversized sweater for herself, pulling it on directly over the leather armor that she wears every day. People walk through the room, and she ignores them, mostly - sometimes tracking them with her eyes, and other times keeping her gaze fixed blankly on the ceiling or a far wall, but never offering any sort of greeting or attempting to start a conversation. When Liz enters the room, she very nearly gets the same apathetic treatment. But then Callisto pauses, and furrows her brow - remembering how she'd seen this woman a day or two before, speaking with someone in hand signs just the way she herself has had to in order to be understood.

"You don't speak the language here?" she asks in Greek, pointing to her own mouth and raising a questioning eyebrow.]

This? No?

[silentretribution]

[It had been a bit easier of late, as there were volunteers willing to learn sign language. She really had only expected one or two, but a number seemed eager. With only one book in her possession, she had been making notes and drawings for others to follow and take home with them. It was a tedious and long project, but it was how she had taken to occupying herself in the living room of the boarding house. Most knew her, but there were always faces that she hadn't seen before. Given she kept to herself mostly, it was easy to overlook someone.

She regards the young woman, trying to decide if she was simply new or someone that she might have missed. But soon, she was trying to communicate with her, apparently aware that she couldn't speak. The only downside was that she couldn't understand what it was Callisto was saying. The language was unfamiliar and strange to a woman from the Old West.

She pulled out her notebook, quickly writing down:]

English?

[myfavoritemurder]

No.

[She says with a shake of her head, almost before Liz is even done writing. She's seen the letters in various places around town and recognizes them for what they are by this point, recognizes that others can read them, but she's never bothered to try to do more than memorize the numerals 0-9 for the purpose of finding specific houses. Like most uneducated Greeks of her time, she'd always gotten by without knowing how to read at home, and trying to learn how to read in a language she doesn't even really speak strikes her as both frustrating and pointless.]

I understand some. But this?

[She taps the page again.]

No.

[silentretribution]

[That's...a bit of a problem. It was difficult enough to communicate with others even with simple writing. Another language, she had no ideas. She fumbled, looking down at her pad of paper a bit helplessly, wishing that she had some thought about what to offer.

At least the woman understood "no" and a couple of words, but all the rest?

She touched her mouth and shook her head, trying to indicate that she couldn't speak.]

[myfavoritemurder]

[Callisto gives a languid shrug in response to Liz's uncertainty, clearly unperturbed by the situation. As far as she's concerned, this isn't really that much different from how she interacts with most of the other people that she's met here. She pulls out her own raggedy paper from her knife sheath, briefly showing it to Liz (it's filled with quick sketches of things like burning villages, dead bodies, people worshipping in front of an alter - you know, the usual) before tucking it away again.]

And you--

[She flutters her fingers in front of her in a nonsense imitation of sign. Drawing is one option, and if that doesn't work, Liz is obviously used to having to act things out (which is essentially what Callisto assumes ASL is at this point). So what's the problem?]

[silentretribution]

[Oh. That was a thought. She couldn't say that she was the best at sketching, but she could do it well enough to actually communicate with her. Though asking questions like 'when did you arrive' would be more difficult. Names also seemed like they would take time and patience.

She could at least try and write 'Name" and hope that was one of the words the woman knew. She added "Liz" and pointed to herself. Once again, she was left feeling slightly frustrated by her limitations and the fact that she couldn't communicate as easily as others, though that might not have helped this situation exactly.

ASL might not work, but there were some signs that were more general that Callisto might follow.]

[myfavoritemurder]

[Callisto barely even glances at the words written on the page, knowing that they'll mean nothing to her - it's the hand movements that catch her attention, and she narrows her eyes, trying to parse them. They don't look like they're meant to mime anything, which is the weird part, but then the woman points to herself, so--]

Person.

[Callisto throws out as a guess, copying the name sign.]

Woman.

[And yet... hmm. That she's a person and a woman seems obvious enough, so why would she bother pointing that out seemingly without reason? Maybe that's not what she's doing. Maybe she's introducing herself in the only way a woman who can't speak knows how. Callisto supposes it makes sense: perhaps she was born without speech, and her parents decided to name her using gestures, not words.

With this thought in mind, she points to herself, and says:]

Callisto.

[Then she points to Liz again, and repeats the name sign.]

Yes?

Day 061

[myfavoritemurder]

[Wildcard me or contact me for a personalized starter!]