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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There'd been earthquakes, Groundhog Rumblings aside, and along with the tunnels, they'd gained the gap. Raylan couldn't pin down the exact day that it had happened anymore, after the Town Hall meeting, he was sure but thinking about it only reminded him of all the faces that were here then and not here now.

"Gave me somethin' to do with myself," he excused with a shake of his head as he stepped back off the porch. Why he needed something to do with himself was a whole different story surrounded by bitter anxiety that if they didn't get a move on while the opening was there, it would go back to mocking him.

"I got the rocks, the rope, everythin' mostly set up. I figure we start now, we get across and have the day for it. I don't think we'll be let over again if we make it this time, but that's a chance I'm willin' to take. What'd'ya thinks over there? Any guesses?"

"I don’t know that we'll make it back," she tells him, frankly. She's not a kid; she doesn't need to be sheltered from the deadly truth of the world, whether it's this one or her own. "But I'll chance that, too."

If they die, it could be just for now, and it could be forever. But death is still forever in Ellie's mind. And she's not sure that they get to make it out of Mathias anyway. There isn't anyone who will be there to take bloody revenge the way Ellie still wants to, but maybe that's how it should be. She shoves away thoughts of home, because it's too much to bear for now. She thinks of Claire, her body down in the chasm, Doc telling her they can't get her back.

She doesn't think much about how she and/or Raylan could fall down there. If Raylan fell, she'd go after him. She has a feeling the same might be true in reverse, but it doesn't matter. They build a sturdy bridge, she already knows that. If they fall, it's because Mathias is Mathias.

But like she said, that's a chance she's fine taking.

"Let me grab my bag," she says, disappearing into the house for a minute to grab said bag. She wishes she had real weapons, not just her little knife, but that's just life in this bullshit town. They're not meant to fight back, so they have to be creative about it.

Once back outside with him, she answers his other question.

"I think that guy must be over there. The bad one, the...fucking shadow guy. But I dunno. Maybe he's not the only one. There has to be something worth finding, or it wouldn't be so hard to fucking get to. What do you think's over there? This lodge you saw?"

"We're not that lucky," he retorted with a dry lift of his eyebrows. There was no sunshine and rainbows in Raylan Givens life or outlook, but Mathis kept bringing them back. Or at least kept bringing him back. It was a fact he kept in mind when he considered the rules of this place.

And tried not to think about the fact that he's bringing someone so young into the jaws of his attempts but it was the only way to prove he wasn't here to coddle her when he objected to things. Work done now might make work done later easier. He nodded at her direction and waited where he was until she returned, turning them out onto the path that would get them where they were going.

"I know the lodge is on the other side, but it's about twenty minutes west of where we tend to stand. If she lets us over, it won't be to see that. Still, you're right - there's gotta be somethin' worth finding. More tunnels maybe, that's what I'm hopin'. More mapping of them - there's somethin' important down there too but I haven't gotten a chance to test the key I've got on any of the gates. Shit keeps happening. Maybe we'll get a door on the other side. Maybe we'll get the Jail I know has gotta be here, the courthouse. A record of the worst of 'em.. Unless they sacrificed the worst of them but I don't know how this god works."

If it was an honor, than maybe it was sacred enough to not be for just anyone, but maybe the god was hungry enough to take whatever blood was offered.

She follows, listening to him talk.

"Wait, you got a key? Like...a regular key or some creepy ass haunted horror film key? Where'd you find it?" She has more questions, but she'll give him a chance to answer that.

"I kept thinking that...I dunno. This knife I got is probably for some creepy fucking thing, too. It has some runes or some shit on it. And I found it in, like, a dream. There was this bowl that filled with blood. But...after all this time, I don't think it was a dream. There's something in the tunnels. I guess we all know that, but this stupid ass town won't let us find anything. So I dunno what we're gonna find over that gap, but I bet we're gonna have to fight for it."

She doesn't know about this god thing, but she lets that go. It's as good a guess as any, right?

"You think they really kept records? I bet they torched 'em all."

"Creepy ass horror film key. Skeleton key, more specifically. I didn't find it.. well, sorta but.. John Constantine found it. I think he found it in a drawer or a.. a closet or somethin', but I'm fairly sure it goes to one of these gates. Nothin' else fits the spooky lock side except them."

Raylan's head tilted, eyes narrowing in a very interested look. "The blood doesn't surprise me, not after the other night. What knife? You still got it?" No, he wasn't going to elaborate on that, but it was the same night he lit the town hall on fire.

"I think they do. If not of that kinda shit, than the mundane kind that'll give us a snapshot of what the town was like in whole. Not just the individual families. Either way.."

"All this time and you still don't know where it goes? Shit, man. It has to go to something." That doesn't mean that it's anywhere they can actually get to, of course.

She pulls out her knife and hands it to him. "Of course I have it. Not like we have any other fucking weapons in this town, y'know?" She hasn't had any call to use it as a weapon, but she still feels better having one. "Wish it was a gun, but beggars can't be choosers I guess."

"Been busy," he offered with a shrug in his defense. "I don't wanna poke that particular bear when she's already takin' us for a ride. I'd rather wait til she's calm, like now." But now was being taken up by a much more important task. To hell with the key, the key'll be there. The fog pulling away from the chasm wasn't.

His eyes widened a little as he took the dagger and turned it over in his hands. "Shit."

"We both wish it was a gun, let's be real, but it ain't nothin'." He handed it back. "I think that'll be important too. Anything she lets us have."

"Yeah, fair enough," she says. It's not like she's out here playing explorer most of the time. She has her own internal shit to deal with and that often takes her attention away from the mystery of Mathias at large.

She grins a little at his reaction. At least someone could appreciate the stupid knife, right?

She takes it back and tucks it away again. It's in reach, of course, but they both know that there's not much chance of a knife actually fighting whatever they might find out there. In the end, a gun probably wouldn't either, but it would make her feel better.

"Now I wish I'd gotten the bowl, but...nah, that's too fuckin' creepy. The whole thing was pretty messed up. It wasn't until recently that I really started thinking it...I dunno. Had some connection to whatever the fuck happened here. Hopefully it's not some weird human sacrifice knife or some shit." If it is, that doesn't mean she's going to ditch her only weapon. She's taken weapons from dead bodies before; it's not that different. Just one more layer of weirdness for this town.

"I figure we got time. And if we don't, then we don't have to worry about what we haven't done, right?" It was easier that way. Less stressful and Mathis gave them plenty of that already. It would hold or they would die or they would be back home again.

Raylan scoffed and nodded in agreement. "No, you bring 'em together, someone in this town is gonna come back around to the idea." He glanced over. "So I'm guessin' I shouldn't tell you were I'm placing my preliminary bets."

Too much pointed in that direction. Almost everything they'd found, when all the pieces were placed near to each other.

"There were some bloody footprints in the tunnels a few days ago. Behind one of those gates. Coupled with this?" He would love for her to have another suggestion, he prayed for someone to have a better suggestion.

She nods at that. He's right, of course. She'd told Claire all we have is now. The future isn't really a thing she's ever had much luxury of thinking about. The only time she'd really started, the world had come back and shown her why that was fucking pointless. If they all die here, it doesn't matter what was unfinished.

She thinks of all the half-finished woodwork in Joel's now empty house. The shells of guitars he'll never put together. Wood still clamped in place, like he'll come back to it. That's what people leave behind. Maybe if they all die here, they won't leave anything, no trace, less than the people who must have been here before. Maybe they'll leave those undone tiny things, hints of who they were. She doesn't know. It's all the same in the end.

"I wonder if that's where I got that knife," she says, slowly. "Behind one of those gates in the tunnels. Everything was stone, like...weird fucking stone. This was way back like maybe a week after we all woke up here, so...we didn't know about tunnels or any of that shit. There was barely anything we could get to. But if we can go to sleep and wake up somewhere weird on accident, I dunno. Maybe one of those crazy magic types can do it on purpose." That sounds bananas, but it's no more bananas than the fact that she got the knife in the first place.

He lifted his eyebrows, bobbing his head to one side.

"I don't think those magic types can do much of anything on purpose here, shit seems to be messed up for them for some reason. But I won't say that it's not possible, considering - you're right, she's done it to us before. Stolen us away to another area."

Anything was possible here, he'd come to accept that.

"Have you been down there at all yet? Malcolm found some etching down under 1304 and the footprints were in the tunnels under the Library. The whole tunnel system seems to be that stone and I know mines. Stoneworks for the whole thing is.. dedicated."

"There's gotta be a way to do some of this shit on purpose," she says. "Someone or something is doing it to us. If we knew how, obviously we could go home, but even if we only sort of knew how, maybe we could get to those places we keep waking up in." It's moon logic, really, just completely bonkers. She knows that. But this place doesn't play by reality rules, so why should she? It's taken her this long to even start to come around to thinking like magic is real, despite having seen it from pretty much the first week.

"Yeah, I've been in the ones under Town Hall and like...there's one under my house or whatever. I didn't find much. I wanted to try to map some of it, but that's not happening. There's some shit in the historical society about a system of natural caves, but...I'm not really sure if that means the tunnels or that shit out by the lighthouse or what."

"If you got any ideas," he offered, opening up the floor to whatever she might suggest. He was all ears. "I'm hoping that maybe we get more magicians. More types of 'em. Might give us a clue into the next step. Into where we oughta dig or poke or some spell for them to cast.."

Whatever it took.

"Gotta mean the shit out by the lighthouse, right? Haven't been there myself.. or the Historical Society.. But there's a gate at the end of that too. They had this place locked down. I bet half those keys are in the lodge itself."

Up ahead, the chasm came into view and the drag marks that marked where Raylan had dug the bridge. "Maybe us gettin' over will be enough to triggle somethin'."

She snorts a laugh. "No way, man, I don't know fuck all about magic. Go ask some wizard or something. Or...I dunno, maybe Yennefer has some answers." Yen can be cagey about answering questions, but maybe?

"Historical society is pretty boring, but I guess we found some...you know. History." It isn't that Ellie isn't interested in history; she very much is. She's just not that interested in Mathias history unless it tells them how to get the fuck out. So far, nothing has done that.

The chasm comes into view and her heart lurches for a moment, thinking of Claire at the bottom, unreachable. She hopes that isn't still the case. Bodies don't tend to stick around like normal here, but who knows? And she's aware, now, that Claire hasn't shown up again yet. Maybe she still will, but...well, it's better not to think about that right now. She isn't good at handling her own grief, so it's probably on her face for a moment until she manages to get that under control.

"We can only hope," she says. "So you wanna push this over and then we'll tightrope walk our way across?" Bad humour in grim situations is one of her strong suits.

"Mm, I met her once. Don't think I'm to her tastes." Not that hard to believe, considering how he Could Be. But he'd enjoyed the conversation, even if she quite hadn't.

He hummed a note in acknowledgement about the historical society building, still planning to go visit it when all of his back hairs weren't up. While he was primarily focused on Mathis's history, he'd take any history. Any piece he could shove into the wide frame.

Raylan was glad for the chasm coming into view, hands already itching to get the bridge moving. It was terrible but he didn't even give a thought to Claire. The only thought in his head was the Shadow Man. Getting across.

"Yeah. You got two options, based on how strong you think you are. Pushin' the bridge or holdin' the ropes. I figure we can get it about a third of the way across before the ropes are taken up. We can secure this side with rocks and walk over then. Which do you wanna take?"

Ellie's mouth twists up at that. "She's pretty cool, but I bet she's pretty choosy," she answers. Yennefer has always been kind to Ellie, but Ellie isn't a man, so it could be that.

She ignores the twist inside her as they get there, thinking of Claire. She can't do that now or this whole thing is fucked. She's gotten pretty good at bottling up feelings like that, though, even if it's not productive in the end. For now, it'll get her through. Later? Well, later is later.

She scoffs at his comment. "How strong I think I am? Shit. I may not be a big tough dude like you but I'm stronger than I look. I'll take pushing."

"Pretty women always should be," he returned good naturedly with a pull of his smile. That was the way of the world and being a man meant that sometimes he had to suffer it. It was the way it oughta be, considering how Men could be.

Raylan smirked at the way Ellie answered the jobs question and gestured at that end as he came and dipped down on either side to pull up the ropes. 'Bog Strong Dude' was not something he heard often.

"Go on and get in the middle of 'em, I can help with the first bit til it starts tiltin'. Trust me. This thing is heavy." He was covered in the sweat to prover it.

Ellie just rolls her eyes at that. But he's probably right. Men are...well, she's more wary of men than of women for a good reason. Yen is likely the same in that regard.

"Yeah, it looks fucking heavy. But we'll get it there."

Ellie is underweight thanks to grief, but she's used to having to be physically strong enough to fend for herself in a harsh world. She moves into position there in the middle and waits for him to join her for this first push.

"Okay. On three?"

He liked her fortitude, smirking as he wrapped the rope around his wrists and got his fingers up under his side of the bridge.

"On three." Ellie counted it out and they shoved, their feet pushing muddy grass up behind them as they pressed forwards, but the more that hung off the edge of the chasm, the easier it got. "Alright, there you go," he grunted as he let go to leverage his weight against the falling edge, the rope digging into his palms as they worked it over.

The further it got, something started to happen. The wood creaked and warped, darkening and opening up with rot as the ropes that helped hold it up crinkled and frayed themselves. It only made the weight worse, the waterweight of the rot pulling on him and tugging him one step forwards.

"Ellie," he half growled, eyes wide as he stared. "Are you seein' this? Wha-"

The thing is heavy. In her head she commends Raylan for getting it out here in the first place. They'd built it to be able to move, but it also had to stretch across and support their weight. It's going well enough, though she does have to strain to push it. She doesn't mind that.

But something is wrong. She isn't looking at it until Raylan says her name, and then she looks again.

"What the entire fucking fuck," she says. She falters, losing her grip a bit because it's so bizarre.

"No. No no no no," she says. After all the work they did, and the waiting, and all of it, and it just...is rotting as they watch? This can't be happening.

Raylan didn't have the time to be disappointed right now; as soon a Ellie dropped her grip, the weight of rot started creeping forwards along the wood towards them.

"Move, move, you gotta move," he said, waiting for her to get out from in front of him before grimacing and smoothly uncoiling the rope from his hands with a turn. The ropes were let go together, and just in time as the bridge flipped and fell into the chasm. If he hadn't let go, there was a chance he could have been drug in with it.

Still, he stormed up to the edge and glared down into the chasm before glaring across it, jaw impossibly tight.

"This is bullshit. YOU'RE BULLSHIT," he yelled at the fog beyond, his vowels stretching out his accent for the volume. Rubbing at his face, he finally turns and looks back at Ellie. "Sorry darlin'. Looks like Mathis is keepin' us over here for a little longer."

She's moving as he tells her, getting away from the rotting structure. She has no idea if it would spread to them, but she comes from a world where people get taken over by fungus and turn into rotting, shambling, fungal structures. She's not keen to find out about this, thanks.

"Fuck," she says. She kicks a rock there at the edge so it spirals down into the chasm.

Raylan yelling fires her up enough to join him.

"TOTAL BULLSHIT!" she adds. It doesn't do anything, but it's a way to let off some steam.

"I hate this fucking town, Raylan," she says. "Who the fuck ever heard of anything like this? I feel like I'm crazy watching shit like that."

Ellie yelling with him makes him feel better for some reason. See kid? Being a full grown adult didn't always mean not showing your ass and saying 'Fuck the man'. Even if Raylan, technically, worked for said Man. He stuck it to him just as much as he got stuck by it.

"Do you think we are? Like.. Collective insanity? Shared hallucinations? If.. If we didn't know-" Raylan stopped himself, eyes dropping back into the depths in front of them.

"No. We gotta be careful with that kinda shit. Seed of an idea sowed in ill ground only sprouts more chaos." He shook his head and took a deep breath, suddenly very tired.

"You had breakfast yet? I could eat a horse."

She just glares angrily out at the chasm, still inaccessible, still something stopping them from moving forward. There’s nothing they can do, but that knowledge does nothing for her simmering anger.

“No. I don’t actually think we’re having a mass fucking hallucination. It’s just all the weird shit is a lot, you know? That whole fucking bridge just…ugh.”

She shoves her hands in her pockets, wound tight with nowhere to direct everything she feels. This place really gets to you, she thinks. She’s sure Raylan feels the same.

“I could eat, I guess.”

It was getting to them. To him. He could feel it crawling around in the back of his mind, every time he settled too long, every time he glanced in a mirror and thought he saw something. Every time he was in a house by himself and he heard something in the other room.

"Better to find something to do with ourselves. Breakfast is just as good an excuse as any - that can't get too weird, right? It's just eggs and bacon. And coffee. You drink coffee?"

He wasn't going to suggest trying again; they needed a break after taking a loss. Time to re-circle the wagons and see if anything else came up in the idea pool.

I think this is a good ending place!

enduresurvive - 2021-07-19 18:40 (UTC) - Expand

I agree!

tinstar - 2021-07-19 21:06 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

059-061 » the place where you stop the story

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I think this is a good ending place!

I agree!