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

[tinstar]

"Might be a message, maybe. Even if they didn't have access through the gate, the bars themselves are wide enough for a hand to get through. Coulda at least cleaned up a few footprints if that was the case. Mathis bein' what she is, it sounds like a reminder."

Raylan frowned a little, head tilting curiously. "You got all that from some footprints? Mood and everything?"

[walkingtrigger]

Tim was going to follow Athena's example at this point. Particularly as Raylan was asking Malcolm questions and it was interesting listening to the small profiler work.

[abrightboy]

"People walk differently when they're rushed or when they're anxious or when they're scared. Their feet hit the ground differently. For more or less time, at different angles. There was so much blood on his shoes that you could see his footprints perfectly. I'd guess that the damage to the victim was done with a blade. You can kill someone by exsanguination with a projectile or even... manually. But for efficiency? You really can't bleed a person like you can with a knife or a razor or... something of that ilk," he assures them. "And I'd guess we're dealing with a cut artery for the blood to all be in one place. If someone was injured badly but bleeding out more slowly than that, they would try to escape. Crawl to the stairs. But, again, the footprints suggest pooling rather than a spread. That being said, arteries spray. The person doing the clean up... was thorough. We didn't find so much as a drop of spatter on our side of the gate."

[citharede]

Yeah she's just gonna keep listening for now.

[tinstar]

"Like anything hauntin' this place is hurried." Raylan rubbed his forehead with a heavy sigh. "Alright. How about y'all show us, while they're still there and we can check the ranks afterwards. I'm still pretty sure that we can blame Mathis for the clean up, we're still stuck in this... fuckin' loop, but we can look at, see what we can see. See what people say."

Since Tim was obviously not going to spare them from this. He looked over at Tim for his opinion on it, using their half telepathic tendencies to push Tim towards telling the truth. You're not really gonna let them go out looking, are you?

[walkingtrigger]

Tim knew that look. He could feel the half telepathic vibes coming his way and he knew what Raylan wanted and why. That didn't mean he wanted to acquiesce but he knew what his partner was asking and what was worse? He knew Raylan was right.

He shot a quick look back at the older marshal and then set his hands on his slender hips. Classic Southern stubborn.

"It was me," he said with simple directness. "I died down in that tunnel. It was my blood."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm's gaze on Tim turns assessing.

"...Who killed you?" Malcolm asks.

[citharede]

Athena looks back and forth between Raylan and Tim, another little piece clicking into place.

"You knew," she says to Raylan. On the one hand, she understands completely why they would keep this to themselves. On the other, it hurts to know that Tim died and she wasn't even aware enough to give him a one-and-done comforting hug. Her focus shifts to Tim. "Why didn't you say anything?"

cw: Self-harm, graphic depiction of cutting and blood, death

[walkingtrigger]

Glancing down at the toes of his boots, Tim took a deep breath and went to rip off the band-aid.

"I did," he said. "It wasn't intentional. I went down planning to see if anything happened if I offered the gate some blood. It was just supposed to be a little bit but once I started; there was this sense of approval and encouragement that I couldn't ignore."

Taking a deep breath he looked up, discreetly positioning himself so that his back was towards a wall and all three of them were in his line of sight.

"I kept cut deeper and eventually went for the arteries in my arm. It felt like I could never give enough."

He looked towards Athena and if anything he appeared apologetic. "It wasn't one of my better ideas," he acknowledged. "I regret that it happened."

[tinstar]

Ho-ly Shit. Someone check the temperature in hell. Raylan's eyebrows dropped approvingly with his chin as he glanced over at Malcolm and Athena to see how they'd take it. At Athena's soft accusation, Raylan nodded and let Tim tell his side of it.

"I talked to him before he left. Asked if he wanted company in whatever he was doing." He should have, should have questioned, should have pushed. "He said no, but.. an hour or so later, I hadn't seen him come back so I went lookin'. I found him. And the prints. I didn't say anythin' cause.." He looks over at Tim briefly before glancing at the floor.

"We got plenty of time to spare for it." Dying meant he needed time. Raylan too, frankly, considering he'd tried to pull Tim up from the pit before the morning rumbled in and stole him away from his task.

[abrightboy]

“That’s what you fought about. The pushing and shoving outside the house,” Malcolm surmises. He looks at Tim. “What gave you the idea of a blood sacrifice?”

[walkingtrigger]

All the disapproving looks in the world would not get Tim to admit the entire truth of his motivation. His expression remained neutral as he responded.

"What in this town wouldn't have given me the idea of a blood sacrifice?" It was true if you thought about it. "It turned out to be a fool's errand. The gate didn't open, about the only thing that came out of it was an encounter with a tall, masculine figure who was in silhouette the entire time."

[tinstar]

Raylan's face stayed stony, jaw on the left side of tense and his eyes finally dropped to the floor for a second.

"We've circled around Mathis wantin' more than our fear and terror before," Raylan finally said, eyes coming back up to bounce between Malcolm and Athena. "Cults and blood tend to go hand in hand. I'm a little pissed off about the attempt but the root of it wasn't a bad idea."

[abrightboy]

“Intellectually, maybe, but it’s a moot idea. We’re not about to start sacrificing people,” Malcolm said reasonably. “Especially if it’s what Mathias wants.”

[citharede]

"It was a fucking stupid idea," Athena snaps, practically on Malcolm's heels. "Especially doing it by by-your-fucking-self."

She's not going to cry--not yet. She's too angry for it at the moment. She does turn away from all three men, pacing back toward the front door, ruffling her own hair a little in agitation.

[walkingtrigger]

Tim stood almost at parade rest but silent as he soaked up the recriminations. He didn't try to make excuses, or to offer some sort of 'it made sense at the time' explanation for his actions.

He suspected Malcolm was annoyed because he recognized that the sniper's actions had hurt Raylan. Athena ... there was nothing he could say that wouldn't sound like a weak attempt to justify his actions so he held his tongue.

[tinstar]

Raylan bobbed his head but didn't say anything as he slid a sidelong gaze over towards Tim to check in. Another young man, taking his lashing.

"Mathis is to blame. She urged it all on. But it doesn't matter, either way. It's done and over with, and we aren't gonna be havin' any more of those kinda incidents. Told us somethin' as small as it was, especially with your nightmares," he said with a nod towards Athena. No one was ganging up and Raylan wanted to make sure that feeling stayed the way it was.

"He's fine now. In one piece. No real harm done." Well, that wasn't true. Harm was done. But as far as Athena was concerned, things were going to be okay. They were okay.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm wasn’t annoyed. That was Tim’s assumption, but it wasn’t correct. He only wanted to be clear that they wouldn’t be bowing any further to the town’s thirst for blood.

And he was interested, intellectually, in what would lead someone to that choice.

“Where did the Shadow Man approach you from?” It was obvious where he left to.

[walkingtrigger]

"I couldn't tell," Tim began glancing aside briefly as he pulled up his memories of that night. "It was just before I lost consciousness, I heard him approach. Saw him when he crouched down over me but only in silhouette, no face or distinguishing features. I still have nightmares of him watching me, but despite my attempts I can never bring him into focus."

The younger marshal paused, picking through any additional impressions to share. "There was also the confirmation that we are being watched, by something beyond comprehension. It's what makes me curious about that three lobed eye figure we've been finding. But at the time it was that sense of observation, interest and encouragement that urged me to continue cutting."

[citharede]

Athena keeps her back to all of them, crossing her arms tightly, staring into space. Thinking about those shoe prints on the other side of the gate. Thinking about how much blood there had to have been. Thinking about the fact that Tim might not have come back. Yeah, things kept snapping back into place over night. But what if they hadn't.

She bites her lip. "We are being watched," she says without turning around. "I wasn't sure, not at first, but... There was something following me. The whole time we were stuck in that loop. I couldn't see it, but I know it was there. It wasn't just in my head."

Athena looks at Malcolm when she says the last part, brows knit. "Then when the loop stopped it just. Went away."

[tinstar]

"It was him," Raylan asserted with a glance between all of them, a worried gaze landing on Athena last. "The shadow man. I don't know if he's his own, or if he's part of Mathis now, part of her power, part of her manifestation but.. I agree. We are bein' watched.. Some of us more than others."

Tim and Athena, specifically. He had a feeling Malcolm's paranoias were spurred on by the profiler's own issues, but he wasn't ruling anything out.

"We can't be goin' down there alone anymore, hmm? Any of us?" Group agreement? Buddy System? C'mon guys.

[abrightboy]

“I already promised you I wouldn’t,” Malcolm told him. “And I haven’t.” And he never did anything as crazy as these two had down there.

[walkingtrigger]

"Unless circumstances dictate elsewise, I promise." He hadn't put the qualifier on there to be difficult, or an asshole. He was a first responder, like Raylan ... hell like Malcolm. Sometimes that meant you ran towards the dangerous area. But he was promising that unless it was an extreme situation, he would not go down alone.

[citharede]

"I promise too," Athena says quietly. She rubs her arms. "Even though I... kind of went down there by myself before I found the. Footprints."

She almost said the blood, but somehow knowing it's Tim's makes that harder.

[tinstar]

Raylan nodded. "Good. You-" he started, pointing at Athena, "Hug him. You," he continued, pointing at Malcolm, features softening a little. "We okay? Can I get you a cup of something? Leave Athena to kick Tim in the shin until he cries mercy?"