villagelogs | 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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah, alright." Tim agreed walking over and picking up a dish towel.

"Glad you enjoyed," he said as he picked up a pan and started to work on it. "You been settling alright? Well I mean as alright as anyone can given..." he motioned to suggest Mathias' everything.

"Yeah," he answers, like it's automatic. 'I'm fine' used as a reflex. Jeff throws another smile Tim's way, but it quickly falters as he catches himself, eyes darting back to the dish he's mindlessly soaping, even though it's already clean. "Okay, not so fine."

I'm scared. I feel helpless. I'm worried about my daughter, back home. Is she okay? Is she alone? What's going on? There's so much that's all fucked up and I'm so lost and confused and the Gift is buried in a haze of static and--

"I'm... I'm worried about Athena."

It's the only fear he can give voice to, if only because it's not all about himself.

Jeff made a good catch there because Tim was already shooting him a look from under his brows that said bullshit in response to the 'Yeah' answer. He nods and relaxes a little when the other man admits to not so fine, even up to the point that Tim decides not to call Jeff on his deflection towards Athena.

"She's been through some shit," he agrees, though he's not going to go into details. That would be for Athena to share in her own time. "She is also damn clever at taking care of herself." Which wasn't to suggest that a young lady her age should be taking care of herself, but at the same time he can't help thinking of Loretta McCready.

"She's a smart young lady. Drives me nuts, the way I suspect a younger sister would have ifn' I'd had one."

"Yeah..." he agrees, though it's a pretty subdued, a far cry from Jeff's usual levels of enthusiasm. Athena's clever, and resourceful, and she's a survivor, but she shouldn't have to be. It might serve her well here, in the long run, but what about when they find their way back home? How many more scars does the kid need before she's finally allowed to just be?

But he does smile fondly, passing a wet dish Tim's way when the marshal compares her to a younger sister.

"Only child, huh?" he asks teasingly, though hey, for all he knows, Tim could have an older sibling. Lightly, he adds: "She's more like a daughter to me, on account of: I'm soooo oooold."

"My parents figured why try to improve on perfection," Tim drawled back casually. It was nothing of the sort. Like Rachael he could project a facade of functional childhood but the truth was he had been a mistake, a break in the condom and his father never let him forget it.

He dried the dish and held his hand out for the next.

"Well I mean there is a lot of snow uptop there." Had Jeff expected Tim to offer some sort of naw we're not old comment? Nope. You look like Raylan Givens you are going to get some shit talk thrown at you.

He lets out an amused hum. "My parents stopped at three. I think they wanted more, buuuut... Three boys was enough to make 'em second guess."

It was a very, ah, rowdy household, growing up.

Jeff snorts, passing another dish Tim's way. Hey, he's used to shit talking; he spends most of his time surrounded by teenagers. "Snow makes it sound like I've got dandruff, dude. There's still a lot of pepper mixed in with this salt!"

Tim chuckled. He could imagine even if he hadn't grown up in that kind of household. Watching Art wrangling the Lexington office was a pretty good example of trying to handle rowdy!

He took the dish and pretended to make an inspection of the hair in question. "Eh, still a little heavy on the salt. Guessing that the joints resemble rice crispy cereal in the morning?"

He'd noticed Jeff's quiet. Noticed and did not blame the man one bit. There was a lot about this place, a lot about Athena's welfare to make a person feel the weight on their shoulders. Tim didn't know the man well enough to get into that kind of conversation with him and he also didn't want to upset Athena. So a bit of teasing seemed the best way to go.

He takes up a bowl and starts to give it a scrub, chuckling a little at the comment.

"You might be surprised how much clean living keeps that stuff at bay." He points a soapy finger at Tim. "I may not be fun at parties, but I've got the joints of a 35-year-old!"

And honestly, Jeff's grateful not to be called out. Keeping the conversation light, at least he can pretend, for a little bit, that they're not trapped in some terrifying place that he barely understands. That there's something out there that might have its sights set on Athena, the same way a certain something found him so many years ago.

(I'm your biggest fan...)

Fuck. Even teasing doesn't keep the words from clawing their way to the front of his mind for long. He clears his throat and tries to push the memories down again.

"So you, um... You're from the same place as Raylan. Right?"

"You realize I didn't mean blunts?" Shit talking was an avoidance language that Tim knew well.

The younger marshal was quiet but he was observant. Seeing the emotions move across Jeff's face was weird, because where Raylan would have been like reflective glass, Tim felt he could see the distress move through every line of Jeff's countenance. It was noted and then gently shelved for a conversation at a later date.

"Correct," he answered the question with a nod of his head. "A very vanilla version of Earth."

Apparently.

"It's all relative, right?" He shoots Tim a wry smile and passes the bowl over. "My world's pretty vanilla, too, far as I'm concerned. You know, like, magic? It's just..." He shrugs. "Normal, everyday stuff."

"Yeah," Tim drawled out, giving Jeff an uncertain look. "Not so normal, everyday stuff for my world. Unless you're talking about sleight of hand illusions, which I don't expect is what you mean when you talk magic."

"No... But I'm not exactly talking super powers, either. I mean..." His gaze moves down to the sink, like he's trying to figure out the right way to explain it. Talking with another Gifted person, he can go on and on forever, totally enthusiastic, his love of the Gift beaming through every word. With others, he treads a little more carefully, at least until he can suss out their general attitude about it. And now, meeting people who've never even heard of the Gift in their worlds, it's like a whole new thing to navigate.

"All that stage magic shit is way more impressive than what your average Gifted person will ever do."

Edited 2021-06-05 10:15 (UTC)

059-061 » the place where you stop the story

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