villagelogs | 059-061 » the place where you stop the story

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059-061 » the place where you stop the story

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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Raylan didn't stop her from her snatching, though he could have, and he laughed at the way she wrinkled her nose and shoved it back.

"So no drink?" Almost to prove a point, Raylan took a deep draft, hissing behind bared teeth as he swallowed and set it back on the floor. "Moonshine," he clarified. "Better than games," he said with a thumb jerked towards the inside.

She waves a hand, dismissing it all.

"My fighters--"

She points to the bottle; to the people playing their game on the other side of the window. The soldiers in her army had been into all this, but it's not for her.

"Your fighters? Solider? For who? For yourself?"

Was she a.. a war lord?

"Me," she says, holding a hand up above her head. She'd been the leader. Lowering it a few inches, she adds, "Theodorus." Her second in command. Then she lowers it several more inches still, and moves her index finger around in a circle, copying the gesture Tim had used to mean everyone. "Fighters. We make death."

Raylan pointed at her. "Leader." Followed with the symbol he took as 'everyone' considering the context, "Army. But for who? For What? For you? To make death and-" Raylan reached out like he was going to snatch her sandwich before snapping his hand back, "Steal?"

Callisto had correctly identified him as a hero type at the chasm the day before last, and if one followed traditional storytelling, people out for revenge often took that revenge out on everyone in front of them. I'll fight you, Tim, Malcolm, Parker whoever that was - He was looking for anything that suggested a different perspective.

"Yes," she says with a shrug, the lack of enthusiasm in her tone and body language perhaps suggesting that theft was not her primary goal. "Make death on everyone. Fighting Xena."

Hurting Xena, by slaughtering innocents in her name.

"Everyone?" The question came with a furrow of his brow, head turning to the side faintly with his squint.

"Not just everyone with Xena, but everyone, like," he glanced back into the house before back at her. "Everyone?"

"Everyone," she says firmly, pointing directly at the crowded house behind them. "Everybody. Public. All."

Just grabbing a few more of Tim's words, in case the first one isn't clear enough.

Raylan scoffed but it wasn't amusement, it was utter bafflement. Having already tested reverse psychology on her, the first words that came to mind, Lady, you stay away from my people, where kept where they belonged.

"Useless. Why? Xena is not everyone. Xena is.. Is Xena like you or like me? Man or woman?"

"Woman. Xena is--" She pauses for a moment, thinking, honestly doing her best to try to explain here.

"Xena make death - murder, killing. But--"

She pauses again, and then abruptly hops up, holding the sandwich in her hands but letting the plate clatter to the porch floor. "Where is Malcolm?"

Getting this across is important. Malcolm speaks passable Greek, and can translate.

Woman. Okay. That at least gave him some additional verbal pronouns.

Raylan's attention stuttered as she say's 'Malcolm'. "Wait, Malcolm?"

None of his questions would be answerable by Callisto so Raylan got up, setting his plate on the little porch table with a finger held up at her. Two seconds.

A minute or so later, Raylan was striding back out to the porch with Malcolm in tow and he gestures at Callisto. "I dunno why but she says we need you for translation; can you understand her? What the hell is she speaking?"

“Callisto! Yes. Um. That’s ancient Greek, which is super wild to hear conversationally. I’m used to, like, Herodotus.” He looks between them, then settles his gaze on Callisto, though physically, he lingers near Raylan.

“What are you trying to speak?” he asks her.

Good luck with this, Malcolm, because she launches into it immediately. Usually when she talks with him, she makes some attempt to modify her speech to make it more understandable - speaking more slowly than usual, enunciating more clearly, throwing in the occasional extra synonym in case he doesn't recognize the first word used - but there's absolutely none of that in evidence here.

"Xena was the most fearsome warrior in the land," she says, starting to pace agitatedly back and forth across the deck, sandwich still in hand. "I grew up hearing stories about her; about the destruction she would leave in her wake. Everybody hated her; everybody was terrified of her. She turned my village into ASH!"

Here her voice rises into a near-shriek.

"I saw my family burn to death in front of me! I heard their dying screams! And now Xena thinks she gets to leave all that behind and start her life anew? She thinks she gets to forget, because she wants to-- to what? To be a hero now? To be celebrated and adored? Well, I won't let her."

She turns on her heel to face Raylan now, though she's still speaking Greek, and therefore still clearly speaking to Malcolm.

"Tell him my army destroyed villages using Xena's name. Tell him I did it so that no one would ever forget what she really is, and what she's done. Tell him that it feels like a knife to the gut to have your family's killer escape ANY sort of justice, to go on to be happy and loved--"

Her breath hitches, and she throws her half-eaten sandwich on the floor.

"Tell him that's why I'll never stop."

That’s a lot to unpack.

He watches her carefully, listening without interruption, then looks at Raylan.

“So apparently when she was a child, she saw her family burn to death when her village was attacked by a warlord named Xena. Carrying around a whole suitcase of the sort of trauma that the ancient world tended to prescribe the ‘suck it up’ treatment for, she learned to kill. In the intervening time, this Xena person started protecting people instead of slaughtering them and is regaled as a hero, so Callisto and her mini vigilante army goes around destroying villages and slaughtering innocents in Xena’s name. Callisto’s goal is to destroy Xena’s reputation, kill everyone she cares about and then kill her. She’s an extremely dangerous vengeance killer who hasn’t killed here yet because so far there’s nothing to gain by doing so. I’ve been trying to work her through a little talk therapy, testing her boundaries, that sort of thing. Her image of being heartless and remorseless is extremely important to her. She might consider integrating to the group but don’t ever actually let your guard down,” Malcolm explains, his tone remaining pleasantly matter of fact the whole time.

You people are noisy.

Tim was just in the door frame. How long had he been there? Oh who knows, he's very good at making sure people don't notice him until he speaks.

"Being heartless, remorseless, an asshole it's a shield over the pain." He said quietly, looking at Callisto. "It's a shield that can allow you to function, even if you hate who you are, and giving it up is ... terrifying."

Callisto's eyes flick from man to man as they talk, picking up on very little of what's being said but watching for reactions all the same.

"Ancient Greek??" came the echo of surprise from Raylan, brows staying tightly furrowed as his attention moved directly over to Callisto launching into her tirade. He didn't understand the words, but tone told him a lot. A lot of rage, a lot of heartbreak and likely a feeling of being helpless over it all to drive her forward.

The hitch of her breath told him something too. For his part, Raylan took it stoically, eyes following her as she paced back and forth, unflinching as she stepped up to yell at him specifically. Even as Malcolm translated, Raylan didn't look away, gears already turning in his head.

As Tim spoke up, Raylan turned his head a fraction, a silent acknowledgement of him knowing Tim was there at all. Oh, Raylan knew about that particular shield. The older marshal was brimming with opinions, but 98 percent of them was kept like sand in the back of his craw.

"So she is a warlord. She and I talked about this a little other day, I know about her family, their death, Xena's responsibility for it. Hell if she shows up, I say we let them finish it, not our place to get in the way. But this ain't Greece. Or whatever landmass she's actually from." No one was asking her to give up any of her shields.

"Nor are we those people. She starts puttin that sufferin' on us, we're gonna have to have a conversation," he continued evenly.

Shit, he'd just wanted a few minutes to eat some food; this was not supposed to be that serious.

"Don't suppose she understands that she's turned into the thing that hurt her in the first place. Shame to think about how many other little girls were robbed of their family. Don't suppose it matters, its not like we're here to litigate historical murders, fuckin' everyone was murdered terribly for the most part... But this is Mathis. Rules are different."

Sucking his teeth for a second, Raylan stepped forwards and picked up the sandwich she'd spiked and dropped it back on his still mostly full plate.

"You understand?" Callisto breaks in, still looking back and forth between Raylan and Tim. Then, to Malcolm, she adds in Greek:

"You told them everything I said, and you didn't lie? I was serious before, you know; if I find out you lied about any of it, I'll burn this entire house down with all your friends still inside."

You know, exactly like what was done to her. She has more than a bit of a preoccupation with it.

Malcolm looks over at Tim. "Exactly. And she's holding on to that security blanket."

He turns to Raylan, whom he's still standing closest to. "She knows what she is and she became it on purpose. She sees destroying Xena by becoming her as her... mission in life. I'm pretty sure she has no idea at all what she's going to do when that mission is complete."

He turns to Callisto when she addresses him again. "Why lie? It's good for them to know how you're dangerous," he tells her plainly. "I am your friend, but I would never fail my... these friends by making them think they can believe you are safe for them. I know you will kill me if you want to."

"You are not my friend," she says stubbornly, because really, Malcolm, how many times does she have to tell you.

"What are they saying now? Did you tell Raylan I was imprisoned before, and that I broke out? Tell him I say that all prisons can crumble if you hit them hard enough."

This is important, apparently; it's related to a conversation they'd had earlier.

“YOU are not MY friend,” he reminds her. She can rely on him. Trust him, even, if she wants. He knows it’s not mutual. “They are telling each other what they learn by your stories when they tried to speak before here.

He looks at Raylan. “She says if I lie to you about what she says...” he holds his hands up, “and please don’t go off; it’s not an idle threat but I won’t make her go through with it. She says she’ll burn my house down with my friends inside. Which I think is her standard punishment for betrayal. Anyway, she wants me to convey to you, specifically, that she has broken out of prison before and any prison can crumble if you hit it hard enough.”

There had been more than a few times at home where Tim had quietly placed himself in a position to physically intervene between danger and Raylan. Sometimes it had been to protect Raylan, other times it had been to protect Raylan from himself.

As Malcolm spoke Tim was already internally wincing. There was so much bad in that threat for so many reasons. Tim moved silently up closer to the older marshal's shoulder, both as support, safety net, and if he had to physical restrain someone from someone. His blue eyes fell on Callisto's face and there was no anger or judgement in his expression; just a quiet sort of resignation.

Tim at his shoulder made Raylan feel better about the situation, especially with the swell of instinctual defense against the very real threat. Raylan didn't think Callisto knew the meaning of the word bluff, even if it had a Greek counterpart, and threats like that weren't meant to be left unanswered.

His eyes hadn't left Callisto since picking up the sandwich, a similar look to the one he'd given her in the days before, the guarded battle patience that waited for her to strike. "Somehow, I think the reinforced steel we use outside'a the bronze age begs to differ."

His jaw worked tightly for a half second as he chewed over a deliberate, translatable answer. "Tell her there aren't any prisons here. She murders one of the people livin' in either of these houses, shit's gonna get real dark. We dug several graves today. I'm happy to give one to her if she asks for it. We do not need this bullshit. Mathis is enough of an enemy." Something in his eyes got darker, a tenseness across his face that would be hard to specifically pin down.

"She'll learn. Mathis'll teach her, like it teaches all of us." Neither him, nor Tim, nor anyone had to do anything for that lesson to be metered out.

Edited 2021-05-21 15:23 (UTC)

Callisto may not be able to understand Raylan's words, but she knows that look, and it prompts a bright, vicious smile from her.

"Oh, I like him," she says in Greek, as much to herself as to Malcolm. "Did he say he'd be willing to kill me if he needed to? He said that before, too. Let's keep him around."

“Yes. We keep him around,” Malcolm tells her firmly. “He’s a protector. Of everyone trapped here. You, too, if you need. He says you will see what this place does. This place will teach you. But if you harm anyone in these houses,” he explains, gesturing, “he will teach you himself.”

Malcolm looks at Raylan. “She likes you. She believes you will kill her if you have to and she respects that.”

Edited 2021-05-21 22:05 (UTC)

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