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

[walkingtrigger]

Conversation done, Tim was going to head back to his project in the garage.

"Athena, if you want to kick me in the shins, or fight me for this shirt, it and I are going to the garage."

[citharede]

Athena looked between all three men for a moment. "That's it? That's fucking it? Oh, Tim killed himself, but that's cool, the blood's mostly gone and at least he doesn't have a fucking scar or some shit to show for it! He's still having nightmares about it, but that's fine!"

She doesn't know what she wants to do more. Hug Tim, hit him, or scream.

What she does is snap, "Fuck all of you," and slam her way out the front door.

[tinstar]

Raylan bobbed his head and nodded in agreement to Malcolm, already starting that way before Athena spoke up so strongly. Raylan paused, eyebrows lifting at her with a faint echo of surprise.

It wasn't 'cool', no, but it had been sorted between Raylan and Tim, and Malcolm would be fine with just knowing the truth. Any sympathies the profiler had, he knew better than to be throwing them around at the spikey wet cat that Tim could be sometimes.

But Athena had stormed out and Raylan looked at Tim. "One of us has to go after her, you know."

[abrightboy]

“And you’re the one that did it,” Malcolm added with blunt matter-of-factness to Tim, in favour of him being the one to make it right.

He understood why Raylan had withheld that tidbit. It wasn’t, strictly, his to tell. But it also made Raylan’s intense distress the following morning make sense. It put the whole situation - the way he bolted out of bed, the shoving match on the porch - into context. And he wasn’t alone with it anymore. Malcolm wanted to sit with him. Maybe that was selfish, but it was Tim that owed Athena the comfort, not Raylan.

[walkingtrigger]

Tim was already at the door that connected the house to the garage. He turned and gave Raylan a completely unrepentant look.

"I didn't want to say anything in the first place," he pointed out, eyebrows lifting in an unspoken someone went and insisted, so someone can go put his own damn shins at risk.

Malcolm weighing in like he did? That just dug the sniper's heels in further. He gave the profiler a flat look and disappeared into the garage.

[tinstar]

Raylan's jaw tensed at the flat look and the absconding of responsibility. Athena deserved more than lies and half ass excused from the partner that was trying to cover his partners ass - Malcolm's internal points were right, this wasn't Raylan's responsibility.

But Tim was gone and Athena was out the door and all Raylan could do was sigh out of his nose and rub at his forehead.

"What'd'ya think I should do," he asks, hand dropping down to prop on his hip as he looks at Malcom from under his eyebrows. "She's right to be pissed, even if we've already dealt with it. She hasn't."

[abrightboy]

“You should go talk to her,” Malcolm told him softly. “You’re good at bringing everything down to Earth and she trusts you.” He poked a finger towards the garage door. “But - for the record - that’s bullshit.”

Strong words from a man who rarely swore.

And since everyone had swanned off, he took the minor risk of setting a kiss on Raylan’s cheek and reaching out to squeeze his arm.

“I’ll keep some tea warm for you,” he promised.

And he would walk as far as 1306 with him as they headed out, before breaking off, lingering on the steps for a moment to watch Raylan go.

[tinstar]

It was a strong statement for Malcolm, that was for sure. Raylan glanced at the garage door before nodding a little, in a silent agreement he wouldn't voice. He was sure Tim had his reasons and regardless of if he didn't, Athena still needed them.

Raylan took the kiss with a soft smile, a sign that he took and would continue to take Malcolm's gentle reassurances.

"I was lookin' forward to that tea," he admitted as they walked out. Rubbing an offhand across Malcolm's arm in return as they broke away, Raylan headed towards town and the one house he knew Athena had posted up in before and hoped that's where she'd scrambled off too.

It help that she was short and he hadn't let her get much a head start - maybe he'd catch her before she got inside and started locking doors.

[citharede]

She was inside, but he was close behind—-close enough to hear the door slam behind her.

Athena didn’t lock it. She thought about it. But in that quiet little place she didn’t admit that she had, buried under all the anger and independence, she hoped someone would come.

So she left it unlocked and went to the piano, barely starting on the first chords of Lady Gaga’s Always Remember Us This Way, before she heard the door open again. She didn’t turn around, not yet, instead focusing on the song and the singing.

[tinstar]

Raylan didn't hurry, but he didn't take his time either, keeping a steady pace and letting Athena retreat to her would be sanctuary. He wasn't going to let her try to parse all this out by herself; it was horrific enough for him to deal with and he'd gotten to punch it out.

He closed the door softly behind him and came to lean on the doorframe behind Athena, arms folded over his chest and letting her play and sing until she felt like stopping. He could handle a few bars and chords.

When she finally stopped, he spoke up, starting softly. "I'm sorry you had to find out like that, Athena."

[citharede]

For the first time since getting here, she was disappointed to hear Raylan’s voice. She rolled her eyes skyward, annoyed with herself for caring that it wasn’t Tim, blinking back tears as best she could. She didn’t turn around, electing instead to start one of Chopin’s nocturnes.

“You guys weren’t going to say anything. How the fuck else was I going to find out.”

[tinstar]

Tim was the one that should be here and Raylan knew it. He knew he was a disappointing second, but he'd rather be that than her be here by herself.

"It wasn't my secret to tell," he admitted, the only defense that he had. "And Tim shoulda admitted to it from the start of that conversation. But.. he suffered it all too. Ain't exactly easy to admit to, especially to someone he's supposed to be settin' an example for. Someone he knew it'd hurt."

It was all, honestly, speculation that thrust Tim into a better light than he was casting on himself - Maybe Raylan should have gone to the garage and dragged him out by his ear to come along. The last thing Raylan wanted to do more of was fight. But either way, he wasn't going to not defend Tim, to some level. Fairly so. He deserved that too.

[citharede]

She stops playing after a moment, staring at the keys, staring at where her fingers rest against them.

Raylan, she can forgive. He’s right—-he had no place telling her something like that. Not without Tim’s permission.

He suffered it all too.

Athena bites her lip, hard, trying to force the tears back and knowing it’s not going to work. She gives a little growl of frustration and wipes her eyes instead.

“He’s a coward.” Her heart folds in on itself a little at the words, the guilt of them sharp. He’s not. She knows he’s not.

But it hurts, that he doesn’t care enough to come himself. Maybe that’s not the truth, but it’s how it feels.

She moves her fingers over the keys, not pressing hard enough to make a sound. Athena tries to put her thoughts in order, but her head is a mess.

“He went down there by himself. He knew it was stupid or he wouldn’t have gone alone.” She ghosts her fingers up one way and down the other, silently continuing to play the nocturne. “He went down there by himself. Yeah I’m a fucking hypocrite being mad I guess, but I didn’t go down there and try to do a fucking blood sacrifice.”

Her hands still again. “He went down there by himself. He wanted to be alone, he wanted to bleed alone. You don’t do shit like that unless y…”

She tilts her whole face toward the ceiling this time. “I don’t fucking know.”

[tinstar]

"He didn't want to be caught. 'S the reason he told me not to come.. I shoulda pushed him harder on it," Raylan granted easily, pinched face turning to the floor to nod gently. He could have stopped Tim, if he had. If he'd done his part, if he hadn't thought the sniper needed some room.

"It was a test. To see what Mathis would do. You heard him, he didn't intend for it to go that far. He didn't mean to do what he did. Mathis did this too. She deserves some of the blame. For your nightmares, for his, for mine.."

Stepping forward, Raylan ambled up to her side but kept his hands to himself, opting to be a steady presence next to her instead.

"It's alright to be mad at him about it. I was. Punched him square in the face a couple times for it the next morning too. I tried to bring him back up but the day was already resetting. Better that he did this when he did, hmm?" Tim was only 'gone' for about two and a half hours.

It was a shit silver lining but. Tim wasn't in the ground. Raylan would be glad for that fact alone.

[citharede]

“Maybe.” Maybe he didn’t want to get caught, but why? Maybe he just wanted to test it, but the odds of it going badly are too high in her mind to ignore, and it did. It went terribly.

She shifts on the bench, swinging her legs around so she can get up and press her face against Raylan’s chest. She doesn’t hug him, just tucks her arms in close along her chest and stands there, voice slightly muffled against his shirt.

“Why didn’t he come?” She swallows tears. “I want my turn to fucking punch him.”

[tinstar]

If he didn't know how much it hurt, he'd find the way she stood and smooshed her face into his chest utterly adorable, but it only made his heart hurt for her. He settled his hands loosely on the outer edge of her shoulders.

"I think he's a little ashamed. Malcolm called him out on it too and he doesn't like that." Tim didn't want to hear the rabble of his mistakes echoed back at him again, Raylan was sure, but that was the price to be paid for caring about people. For being cared about by people. You get yelled at sometimes.

"You want me to go get him? Tell me and I'll put that bony ass of his over my shoulder if I have to."

[citharede]

She shakes her head a little and goes quiet for a moment.

"I want him to want to come," she mumbles, feeling stupid.

[tinstar]

"I know," he murmurs, hands moving around hug her properly. "He'll come, just.. give him a little to prepare himself for it. He might pretend he doesn't care if you care but.. he does."

[citharede]

She relaxes into the hug, still teary, but at least calmer now. Still angry, but not impulsively furious. She still has her face in Raylan’s shirt.

“I think maybe I’ll stay at the Gull tonight.” It’s still a mumble. “Or here, if Jeff will stay with me. It’s creepy to be in a whole house alone.”

[tinstar]

"Yeah," came the reply, sympathetically and with the knowledge that he'd be posting up outside the Gull late that night unless.. "You call 1306 and let them know where you are. Or me, if I'm there, but.. I ain't gonna be able to go to sleep tonight without knowin' that you're inside and safe."

[citharede]

"I will. I promise I will. I'm sure Jeff will stay here with me."

She shifts just enough to hug Raylan properly, her voice going even quieter. "Thank you for coming after me."

[tinstar]

"You let me know," he whispered intently towards her hair, shifting the little bit he needed to let her wrap around him so he could squeeze her without feeling like he was being intrusive on her space. He needed to know.

"Couldn't let you storm off after all that by yourself, darlin'.." He loved her. He didn't know when it happened, this parental attachment, but he couldn't bear to see her in pain and not feel it himself. "I.. I know it ain't the same, comin' from me but.. it's gonna be okay. You know we love you, right? Is that weird to say? That's weird to say. Sorry."

[citharede]

She bites her lip, a real smile--albeit a watery one--appearing on her face for the first time since before she went into that tunnel with Malcolm. She hugs Raylan a little tighter herself.

"It's not weird." She's always gotten attached fast, wary as she is. And Raylan--Raylan has been safe from day one. He was kind, and funny, and called her songbird. He brought her home from the Gull and gave her a chair to wedge up underneath the master bedroom door without any prompting or judgement.

She turns her head so her cheek rests against his chest, her voice more audible. "I love you too."

[tinstar]

It's not weird. I love you too.

He could have burst. It wasn't weird. She didn't think he was weird for admitting it. Loretta would have hit him with a fist and told him he was right, but that she loved him anyway.

"Then we're in agreement. You can't anything go and happen to you now, you know that."

[citharede]

"Yessir, Mr Marshal sir." She shouldn't feel safe in a place like this. That's the last thing she should feel and she knows it. It's dangerous, to feel any kind of secure when things could go wildly wrong at the drop of a hat.

She still does, though. She knows he'll come and get her if things go bad, just like with the tunnels. She knows he'll do the same for Jeff.

Athena wipes her eyes against with the cuff of her sweatshirt. "You'd better not let anything happen to you either."