062 » that moment of experience / part i

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone.
WHERE: Eastern/Central/Southern/Western Mathias
WHEN: Day 062
WHAT: A storm rains destruction upon the town.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here! Part II details are below.

RECOMMENDED ♫ Deadly Avenger "Creeper"

DAY 062
THAT MOMENT OF EXPERIENCE
“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one
chooses that moment of experience from which to
look back or from which to look ahead.”
— Graham Greene
The day begins like any other might. The clouds occasionally part to give glimpses of the sun, offering a bit of hope that the hours might pass without incident. It is a hope that is soon dashed, however, for midday brings with it a suddenly darkening sky. Those near the beach will be able to see the ocean churning as all light seems to be bled from the day, the sky darkening into a purplish-black more quickly than is natural, the process taking a mere ten minutes from start to finish.

And then it begins.

The rain is so heavy and pouring so fast that the ground cannot take it all in, sending rivers down streets and leaving lawns as lakes. The winds blow in gusts so strong that they could knock someone over, and the lightning that arcs brightly through the sky is immediately followed by thunder that shakes the town to its core, the tremors almost reminiscent of the earthquakes that plagued the town only days ago.

For some, the storm will be another nuisance of mother nature, forcing them to remain wherever they were before its sudden approach. But for others, it will be far more than that, for this storm is seeking revenge on those who sought to destroy the town. Destruction will rain down and it will not stop until its vengeance is satisfied.




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. If nothing else, the cowboys' homemade moonshine should do the trick.

---

ABOUT THE STORM
The storm will begin at midday and last until late into the night, only calming in the early hours of the morning. The heavy rain will flood the streets, though it will not be enough to flood the buildings themselves (except as noted below), and the winds and thunder will shake the town with such strength that it will almost seem as if the town is trying to tear itself apart.

But this is not a simple storm. For those residents who took part in any way in the destruction of the Town Hall, History Museum, or Stoker Park house, they will find the storm will destroy their shelter in some fashion. This can include broken windows, caved-in roofs, flooding from the rain, or even lightning striking the building. The details are up to player choice but something will be damaged by the storm.

— All damage to buildings will be repaired by the dawn of the following day as if it never happened at all. There is no way to witness this process taking place.
— If a resident is sheltering in a shared living space with others who did not take part in the destruction of the town, you may choose to have only your character's section of that location damaged. However...
— The storm's focus will follow the resident if they move to another area or location, meaning that the new location will also suffer damage in some way.
— Only those who took part in the town destruction in some way will be targeted by the storm, but innocent bystanders can be caught up in the situation as well.

---

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— 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.

— DISAPPEARANCES continue! Ellie has vanished while others have returned.

— ALCOHOL supplies have run dry, save for any dregs that have been squirreled away by individual residents. Moonshine can still be acquired by those in desperate need.

---

OOC NOTES

— NEW MAP Thanks so much to Scy for this amazing new map of Mathias!

— PROJECT HELP Your mod needs help with some projects!

— PART II The next part of the log series will be have characters divided up (by OOC choice, not IC) into groups, so be sure to sign up for one asap. Anyone who doesn't make the deadline will be automatically assigned to an available spot.

— 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. IC events are also helpful to know about in advance so they can be included in the log write-ups.

— 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. (All outstanding matters will be taken care of in the next few days!)

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Comments

[thering]

"Mister Barnes?" Doc answers automatically even though it sounds like a question. Her hostility, wariness and ambivalence has him recoiling a bit, uncertain about why she doesn't recognise him. Maybe she hasn't officially announced to the town that she is Bucky's woman, or maybe nobody says that anymore, but Doc has known Daisy for two months. Maybe he's a little vain. Maybe he thinks himself fairly hot shit, fairly unforgettable. But whatever the case, Doc is certainly not 'who the hell are you again?' territory.

He would have run his hand through her hair, checked for any head injuries, but there's only enough tools and spare parts in Mathias for one man to maintain his detachable metal arm, and Doc would quite like to keep his intact in its socket.

"My... name is John Henry." There's a sinking feeling as he reintroduces himself, a tightening in his chest as he struggles with the dilemma of whether to tell her about how she was here, about Phil Coulson, Neal Caffrey, Bucky Barnes. The things she has been doing. In the end he decides that maybe all of that isn't important. He needs to get her someplace warm, and dry, and the rest of it can maybe come a little later.

"Do you mind telling me what was the last thing that happened to you, D-- ma'am?"

[chuju]

It's a damn good thing that Doc doesn't try to check her for a head injury. Nevermind that she probably does have one after the fight she'd just gone through, but he most certainly would have ended up with his own set of injuries when she quaked his ass for touching her uninvited.

Barnes. She doesn't know anyone personally by that name. In fact, the only person who comes to mind is Bucky Barnes, and no way is that who this guy is talking about. Even after (nearly?) dying in space, she would remember meeting the Howling Commando turned Winter Soldier.

"Well, John Henry," she starts, her tone evening out as her hands reach up to grasp the edges of his coat around her shoulders, "I was on a mission with SHIELD. In space. So if you have any idea how I ended up on this planet, I'm all ears."

If he's a cowboy, then this has to be Earth, right? It's the only thing that makes sense. Really, the only thing.

[thering]

He remembers her mentioning SHIELD but the space thing is new. Ellie would be absolutely thrilled and want to ask Daisy a hundred questions if she'd known.

"Nobody knows, I'm afraid." Doc glances up at the sky. He recognises those angry clouds. That smell in the air. It has him lowering his head and keeping his hands hanging around his belt loops, over the tops of his thighs as they walk. He would have walked more briskly but he keeps to her pace, hovering just a little close to and behind her.

"There are people here from all over." As evidenced by the girl from space meeting the cowboy from the Frontier.

"I am taking you to see Bucky. There is a storm coming. If you... if you'd rather not stay with him, I would take you somewhere else to shelter from the storm. But he was rather seriously injured, his left arm has been damaged, and he has been inquiring about you."

[chuju]

Nobody knows? How can nobody know how they got here? If there are people here from all over, like he said, then someone has to have some idea of...

The idea crosses her mind and she feels a different kind of chill in her veins. What if this is the Framework? Radcliffe's version had been shut down years ago, but Deke knew how to make his own and he wasn't always the most secure with his tech. What if whoever was behind this had gotten a scan of her brain and uploaded her to the system?

At least she's certain she's not an LMD. Her powers are still buzzing in her bones, thank goodness. But the relief is short-lived. Stopping suddenly, Daisy turns to Doc with an incredulous look on her face.

"Wait, you're saying that Bucky Barnes is here?" she asks him, fully confused and not handling it very well. "And he's been asking about me?"

She feels entirely off-balance, like the world is rotating too fast on its axis and she's going to go flying at any second. So, she turns to her old standby: humor. "I'd be flattered, but somehow I don't think he wants me to autograph a poster he's got on his wall."

[thering]

Oh. So she remembers Bucky but not Doc. He hadn't realised they are from the same place. Maybe he wouldn't feel so miffed if he'd known.

"Iiii... do not believe that 'signing posters' are what you two were doing in his bedroom." And that's as crass as Doc is going to get before clearing his throat and changing the subject.

"Bucky Barnes is here. And he is very eager to see you." And perhaps Doc is chickening out of explaining all the details but he'd like to also think that Bucky will end up doing a lot of explaining himself. It's not necessary to rehash the same topic twice.

"I had to tuck him into bed or he would have fallen on his face looking for you. Rest assured, he did look."

[chuju]

Sorry, Doc. Even if he wasn't being all secretive about his identity, his part of history wasn't her forte, so the chance of her recognizing Doc Holliday was next to zilch. Maybe if the SSR had existed during the Wild West, Coulson would have waxed poetic about Doc the same way he had Bucky and the other Howling Commandos.

It's a good thing that Daisy's comprehension and critical thinking skills are beginning to suffer from something like shock, because instead of short-circuiting at the idea of actually doing anything in Bucky Barnes' bedroom, her mind keeps skipping back to the fact that the legend of a man knows her at all.

Clutching the borrowed coat more tightly around her shivering body, she tries to force herself to walk faster, though she only manages a slightly slower than brisk pace. She can already feel the stiffness from after the fight setting in, and it occurs to her again to wonder about this place.

"So this is Earth then?"

She doesn't remember hearing about Barnes leaving the planet, and that sort of thing definitely would have triggered one of her dozens of automatic SHIELD searches.

[thering]

"...I think so." No one has suggested and attempted to convince him otherwise. "I know of no other place. We are somewhere in New England, or so the theories go. Time is-... a little abormal here, but we might be somewhen in the tail end of the 20th century."

There is a lot more he can explain to her about the town, but it is mostly what buildings are there, and some of the do's and don'ts that have gotten some of them through surviving Mathias this far.

"There are no native townsfolk here. I arrived on the beach myself, several moons ago." He keeps the 'several' deliberately vague. "There was no one here and we have had to make our way and figure things out on our own."

[chuju]

Wonky time, huh? Well, at least that's something she's more than a little familiar with now. After traveling decades into the past and future, getting stuck in a time loop for who knows how long, and creating a parallel universe, messed up time is just another Tuesday for Daisy Johnson. It's almost comforting, even.

Well, that's what she's going to tell herself. In reality, she's suddenly missing Fitz, of all people; he knows more about how time works than anyone.

"So it's a weird ghost town," she surmises, noting how quiet it is. Even with her powers, she can barely feel any kinetic energy in the immediate area, just the normal vibration of stationary objects. "And, I'm guessing, since you've been here so long, that no one has been able to leave?"

Her powers of observation might be dulled from her recent ordeal, but she's not completely hopeless yet.

[thering]

"Something like that. We are all visitors." Or victims. Or bait. Hard to tell, still. "Even the dogs and the crickets got caught up in whatever rapture happened here." That's one of the nicer thoughts Doc has had. That everyone who had been living here had been taken someplace else to shelter from the oncoming storm, and whatever higher power that might have been capable of such a deed brought these nonbelievers and unrepentants here in this life-sized dollhouse to endure the end of days.

Nicer than the thought of everyone and everything just dying out one day somehow, anyway.

"A few people have-... gone." He doesn't believe that the people who have died here have actually died. It's just some kind of-... resetting. The way the day kept resetting just last week, the way the buildings reset, shattered glass unbreaking, fire unburning, and all the rest of it. Maybe the people who are gone have actually died, or maybe they've made it home somehow, or maybe whatever happened to the original townsfolk happened to them too. Well, what does Doc know anyway? He is elbow-deep in the minutiae of daily life in this town and his hands are full as it is without getting involved in the mysteries of Mathias.

"A man by the name of Phil Coulson was here. He is no longer." Does that bring Daisy closure? Doc doesn't know. He at least gives her that one name, in case it means anything to her. After all, he had learnt of Phil through her, the first day they met. Maybe she can assume that the cowboy had learnt of Daisy through Phil. He won't correct her.

"I would like to think he managed to leave, but I do not know."

[chuju]

Thoughts are tumbling through Daisy's mind as Doc speaks, each word bringing a dozen new questions that collide into each other and spur even more questions into existence. It all comes crashing to a screeching halt when he says that name, though, and the look on her face is nothing short of alarmed.

"Coulson was here?" she repeats, not wanting to face all the possibilities of what that might mean but also ultimately unable to turn away from them. "But I just saw him."

Had it somehow been her Coulson that was here? The Coulson who was still struggling with his new existence as an LMD with Chronicom technology, who would outlive all the people he ever loved. Or had it been the Coulson from before, the human one who had risked everything time and again for the world and for her? Was this where he'd come when he died? Even just the thought of it makes her stomach roll.

[thering]

That seems to be a recurring motif of Mathias, to be honest. One half-not-really-answer leads to only a dozen more questions.

"The mother of our ten-day old daughter said the same thing when she showed up," he hears himself say without letting the words really sink in. He has always known that a happy ending was never, ever going to be in the cards for him. But man. This gut punch had been particularly vicious. "I'd been here two months but. She said I didn't miss a thing."

He didn't mean to dump that on Daisy, but. He can't exactly talk about it to said mother of their daughter. Or the boys (and girl) of 1306. And just as easy as he lets some of that crushing anguish blow out of a partially open valve, he clams right back up again, seeing Bucky and Daisy's house come into view as they round a corner.

"I know you didn't ask for and probably don't want any advice from some old man come out of nowhere in some backwater town you ain't wanna be part of, but. Just roll with these punches. It's easier." He forces a smile he doesn't have in him as he gestures at the house.

"Mister Barnes is just up ahead, ma'am."

[chuju]

Once again, Doc's words leave Daisy reeling, though this time it's for something he could never have guessed. There no way he could know how deeply the story of parents being pulled away from their infant daughter would resonate with her. He couldn't have any idea that she'd lost her own mother again just the day before.

Rolling with the punches. That's the only way she's survived this long.

Reaching out, she wraps her hand around his, pained sympathy etched into her expression. Her fingers are colder than they should be, a biting chill running bonedeep, but she only holds on long enough to give a brief squeeze that she hopes will provide even just an ounce of comfort.

"We'll get you both back to your daughter soon. I promise." She doesn't care what rules of time and space they have to break to do it. Letting go of his hand, she takes a step toward where she can see a man sitting on a front porch in the distance. "Thanks for showing me the way."

[thering]

He wasn't expecting that kind gesture from her. It leaves him struggling with the lump in his throat, trying to keep that poker face on and focus on the immediate task of getting her back to where she needs to be. Thankfully they have arrived where she needs to be. Just in time for him to not try to convince her that everyone still stuck here has already tried to get home without getting anywhere fast.

"Keep the coat," he offers. "I will return for it another time." Conveniently giving himself the excuse to revisit her. "Should you decide not to stay, there is a boarding house, the roof of which you can see just peeking up over there," he gestures. Maybe it would jog her memory? He's not very hopeful seeing as she doesn't remember this familiar walk back to her house, but you never know.

"Storms and other bad weather around here shouldn't be weathered alone." And he's not just talking about the strictest interpretation of bad weather.

[chuju]

Sometimes it's what someone's expression doesn't say that speaks the loudest. She can see it in his eyes, that there's a battle being fought beneath that mask, and though she doesn't know all the details, she understands. The battles fought when no one can see are sometimes the worst of all.

At the mention of the coat, Daisy looks down, having forgotten that she was even wearing it. That's so unlike her, proving again just how off-balance she is right now. But she does notice the way he says he'll return for it, and the specific mention of the boarding house, which she glances at. And she understands his last message too, all too well.

Slipping the coat off her shoulders, she folds it neatly before moving to his side, reaching out to take his hand and set the coat in his grasp. She offers him a soft smile and gently tells him, "Come see me when you feel up to talking about things. I'll tell you about my dad and everything he did to get back to me."

It's a story she doesn't tell many people, though it follows her around like every other piece of her history since joining SHIELD. But maybe it will help him somehow — that possibility alone is worth the effort it will take. And he doesn't need a coat as an excuse to visit her.

[thering]

He takes the coat from her quietly and nods wordlessly, making furtive, fleeting eye contact before averting his gaze. He doesn't want to talk - not about that and, well. Not right now, it seems.

"I'm sure-- you know. He woulda tried his damnedest." That's all Doc is willing to say about any of that, at this juncture. He doesn't know the man, can't say more than that, beyond glazing over the assumption that most men are somewhat decent and most decent men would have fought like hell for the one good thing that would have happened to them.

"Hope things go well in there," he offers with a smile that is almost painful to force. Though he might swing back around this way just to be sure she doesn't end up wandering around on her own - or catch anyone else doing that - he's not going to stick around right now to make things potentially awkward with Bucky.

[chuju]

Cal did, in fact, try his damnedest. He'd spent two and a half decades searching for her, losing his mind a little more with each passing day. When he'd finally found her... She can still remember the horror and revulsion she'd felt at learning what her father had become.

But that's not a story for today.

"Thanks," she tells him with a nod and her own ghost of a smile before turning to head down the street. Later, when she sees him again, she'll make sure he knows how grateful she was to be met by a friendly face that day. It feels important that he knows.