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.

navigation | faq | locations | report updates

Comments

[abrightboy]

Malcolm sat down beside her, his own feet dangling. It was definitely Claire down there.

“Why do you want to kill anyone? Nobody here harms you.”

[myfavoritemurder]

"No," she agrees, eyes on the body. "You're all... nice." She says the word with a wrinkle of her nose, bewildered and perhaps a bit repelled.

"Nobody's ever asked me that before."

[abrightboy]

“Maybe they never lived long enough. Conversations last more if both people be alive.”

[myfavoritemurder]

Okay, that was kind of funny - or at least she thinks so, because her lips twitch.

"Maybe not."

But the almost-smile fades as quickly as it had come, and she turns stony again.

"I'm miserable every minute of every day. Why shouldn't the rest of you feel the same? Why should you get to be happy and alive?"

[abrightboy]

“You... think we’re happy?”

Does... that word mean what he thinks it means?

“What makes you think that? We are all in prison here.”

[myfavoritemurder]

"You're happy with something," she insists stubbornly. "You have to be. Your friends here, or the lives you had back home."

[abrightboy]

He’s happy with some of his friends here that the idea of going home hurts.

“I do have good friends. You can too.”

[myfavoritemurder]

"I had a family once. Do you really think friends could ever be a suitable replacement for that?"

[abrightboy]

“The correct ones will,” he tells her. “If you permit.”

[myfavoritemurder]

"Well, I won't," she snarls. "I don't want replacements; I don't want someone else."

[abrightboy]

“What was your family like?”

[myfavoritemurder]

"Nice. Caring. Hardworking." She flexes her fingers, digging her nails into the skin on her thigh. "Innocent. Good. My parents were wonderful parents. Thalia was a wonderful sister. And Xena massacred them, and she got to live on to turn her life around and play hero."

[abrightboy]

“I’m very sorry. I understand, now, why your mission is so important for you.”

[myfavoritemurder]

"You see what I mean? Nice." But unlike when she'd applied the word to her family, it doesn't sound like she means it as a compliment here. "Are you saying that because you hope it'll make me be nice to you in exchange?"

[abrightboy]

“No,” he answers, smiling down into the hole. “You don’t do that,” he says, looking at her with a more sober expression. “But now I know why.”

[myfavoritemurder]

"Good. You can blame Xena for that - for all of it."

A pause.

"But don't go pitying me."

She may recognize herself as fully broken, may spend all her time wallowing in misery and grief and rage that she wants everybody to hear about and recognize, but pity is something all together different.

[abrightboy]

“I don’t do that.”

He knows what pity feels like in a wound so deep it will never close. He never offers it.

“My father’s fault.”

[myfavoritemurder]

Why? What did your father do?

[abrightboy]

“Death. Lots of death.”

[myfavoritemurder]

"He was a soldier? A warlord?" She asks this with complete seriousness; she has no idea what kind of world he's from, and where she's from, warlords are common enough.

[abrightboy]

“He was a healer. He made death for pleasure,” Malcolm tells her grimly.

[myfavoritemurder]

Well, that's bizarre. Clearly he should have quit his healing job and run off to be a warlord.

"Did he try killing you?"

[abrightboy]

“He should have,” Malcolm says darkly.

[myfavoritemurder]

Well, that's an interesting response. Callisto likes people with strange, morbid, unhealthy thoughts about death - she's one of them herself, after all.

"Because then your pain and suffering would be over?"

[abrightboy]

“No. His. I told the... guard what he did,” he finally settled on, trying to find a word for police. “They took to prison. He will stay for his whole life there.”