villagelogs | 062 » that moment of experience / part i

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062 » that moment of experience / part i

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!)

navigation | faq | locations | report updates

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

noise in the silence, listen as the storm is rolling in (♫)

Daisy's head is spinning from everything she's learned in the past... however long it's been. An hour? Time doesn't work the same way here, so she's been told, so it seems like there's no way to be certain just how much time passed since she woke up alone on the beach.

Not that she'd been alone for long. John Henry had immediately found her, putting a few dozen questions in her head before taking her to a Bucky Barnes who had only added to the mountain of unknowns. It was overwhelming, to put it lightly, though she'd tried her best not to let it show.

A few minutes is all she's allowing herself to regroup. Gather her thoughts, find her balance, then get back to work. She pauses outside a building with a sign reading Public Library, a blanket wrapped over her Quake suit. Another shiver passes through her, the chill in her bones proving as stubborn as the sand still clinging to her hair. She tugs the blanket a little tighter around her shoulders before continuing on her way, mapping the street as she wanders without direction.

Hours later and to anyone paying attention to the cowboy would notice he seemed nearly allergic to Phillips Drive when the sun was up, too eager to be anywhere than the walls that contained him at night. Even Harlan hadn't been this small, though to be fair, 'Harlan' covered Harlan county, not just the town because shit, that'd be crazy.

Mathis's by line.

But it meant he was left to wander the streets between his makeshift tasks which was suitable, since one of those tasks was 'Keep an eye out for Daisy'. A task he was sadly familiar with. One he was unfortunately unlucky at. So when he spotted the familiar head of long-bobbed brunette hair, it stopped him short.

No way. No way after as much searching as he'd done for her, this time, he just finds her here.

"Daisy?" He lifted his voice just enough to carry as he started her way, eyes narrowed in suspicion that he hoped was needless. But he'd doubted every face he saw for at least a half second since the Others.

Another unfamiliar voice calls her name and Daisy turns, hoping that she's wrong and it'll be someone from her team walking toward her, ready to tell her that this is all some kind of horrible joke. But it's not. The man coming toward her is a stranger and she suddenly feels so tired...

Not that she lets it show. Straightening up, she puts on her usual brave face to tackle this thing head-on.

"Hey," she replies as he gets closer, trying to offer a polite smile, though she's not sure how effective it is. And then, because it seems best to just rip off the bandaid, she continues, "I'm guessing you're another person who knew the Other Me that was here."

The Other Me. Raylan's eyes narrowed a little more, the crease in his forehead deepening into a more evident confusion. But he was a Marshal and a little extrapolation was not beyond him.

"That's.. a way to say it, sure." Going with the flow here. "You alright? I got this guy at this house up the road here told me to be keepin' an eye out for you." And there she was indeed, looking just as much like the refugee as he had the first night he'd met her.

"US Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens," he introduced with a little tip of his hat. "By the way." Just so they were on a little more even a footing. If nothing else, his first meeting with her would inform this one. Maybe he'd do better this time around.

He doesn't argue, which confirms that she's not the first person this has happened to. Whatever this is. The person who had been here before wasn't her, she knows that without a doubt, but there are still dozens of possibilities and seemingly no way of getting answers for any of her questions. Yet.

"Good to meet you, Marshal," she replies with a cordial nod, used to this part of things, at least. "Agent Daisy Johnson, though you already know that."

That's the part she's not entirely used to. Sure, people recognize her all the time and know bits and pieces of her story, either from SHIELD gossip or her old days of media coverage, but this is different. There's no telling what the people here know about her — or what might have been different between her and the Other Her.

"By the guy up the road, do you mean Bucky Barnes?"

Arguing was for court and marriages as far as Raylan was concerned; he'd learned long ago to not push his own ideas onto the world and that had needed some refinement here, but it was coming right along.

"I do," he answered as he came to a stop, thumbs propping into his pockets as he stood seemingly unevenly with the cock of his hips. Had she lost everything? Everything? The learning curve here was hard enough. Shame that she had to go through it again.

"I take it by you knowin' that you've already been by to see him. Good. Suppose we'll skip the shortform introduction to where you are, I'm sure he filled you in. You lookin' for anything specific out here or just gettin' a feel for the place?"

"Just trying to get my bearings," she answers, pulling the blanket a little tighter around her body. It's a more polite answer than elaborating that she'd been trying to get a moment to herself — now that he's here, she'd rather not run him off just yet.

Though she tries to hide it, her expression turns slightly uneasy as she asks her own question. "How well did you know the Other Me?"

Better to get all the information she can while people still feel like sharing.

He'd tell her good luck but that would be inviting trouble and terribly rude. He wasn't fresh out of the sea this time, he had more of his wits about him. And thank god he did. That was a heavy question on it's own and it required at least some grace to answer without breaking out into business that was none of his.

"Well enough to get a sense of you. You're from New York. Work with Phil Coulson. Care a lot about the people close to ya. You keep to yourself. Only just found out that you have any kinda of power and I'm still not sure what it is." He knew that it hurt her, for some reason but Daisy hadn't felt to him like she was comfortable talking to him about much of anything.

"Not much else."

"That's a pretty good snapshot," she comments quietly, glancing at the street around them. She wants to ask more questions, like how long he knew her, why he didn't know much else about her — but in the end, she doesn't need to know that. It's probably better that she doesn't, actually. That person wasn't her, and so long as that version hadn't destroyed the planet or murdered someone, then she can set aside her natural curiosity for her own sake.

Looking back at him, she decides to offer him something as thanks for the information.

"I can manipulate vibrations. The press called me Quake because it felt like an earthquake when I used my powers, and I can level buildings pretty easily."

She was a good person who Tried and that was a lot more than what some other people could say about the general state of their existence. Raylan respected her needing her distance for whatever reasons she had bore but he did hope to get to know her a little better than just a snapshot this time around.

He lifted his eyebrows in response, nodding softly. "This place has had a few of 'em. Not caused by you." His face scrunched. "Her. I'm- Sorry. Shit with tenses nowadays. But they happen. Hell, we just went through a week of 'em. Though I suppose you could argue it's all the same earthquake." Getting off track Givens.

"Is it like.. any vibration? Like.. sound vibration, could you manipulate that?" It was a damned interesting idea, but Raylan scoffed a smile and waved the question off. "You probably aren't interested in explorin' that kinda thought right now, my apologies."

Daisy has gone through many periods of her life where she's kept her distance from others, even those who were closest to her. She doesn't really want to be here long enough to make any sort of meaningful connections, but considering how no one has been able to find a way to leave, she might not really have a choice in the matter.

Besides, where would she even go? She's dead back home.

Shaking her head, there's a hint of a smile on her face as she gives a little shrug. "No, it's okay. Pretty much any vibration is fair game. I've been a human tuning fork before, so I know I can do some things with sound. Haven't tested it might beyond that, though."

He'd take a smile, however small.

"That's only a little bit ridiculous and completely awesome all at the same time." He wasn't quite sure where to land on it all. Magic, the supernatural - He accepted that it existed here, that people of all different types and variations could do nearly anything, but he was still a little wide eyed and fractionally terrified about it if he looked too closely. But the only thing he had to defend himself against regular people were his weapons; there was nothing he could do against people who were otherwise capable.

"I wouldn't suggest tryin' much of anythin' here though. Seems that Mathis.. fucks with it somehow. Little girl I know with a gift damned near blew a house off our map and she was as shocked as I was."

Ridiculous and awesome are much better words that what she's had thrown at her in the past. Abomination, weapon, monster... Humanity could be cruel when it was afraid of someone different.

His other words are what really catch her attention, though. She frowns and shifts her stance, her demeanor changing to that of an authoritative agent. This is something she wants more information on. Needs, really.

"What kind of gift?" And then, after a beat, "Is she human?"

"A bard. Like in D&D. The power of music, manifested. Don't know if.. that's somethin' I'm supposed to keep to myself or not but I know you're not gonna go try and shake her down for something." It was.. Not advisable, to say the least.

Authority didn't work on his authority, so it was all taken in stride.

"She's human. Only found one here at any point that wasn't. They're gone now too, so it's just us chickens out here in the Hen Pen." His chin lifted a little. "Are you? I got a feelin' asking how you got them is on the rude side, but I won't lie and say I ain't curious."

So not like her, then. That's disappointing, even though it really shouldn't be. There aren't many like her to begin with, not anymore, so for another of them to end up here...

"Mostly. My people call ourselves Inhumans," she answers without hesitation, the words flowing easily. She's given this explanation a hundred times to so many people that the familiarity is almost comforting. "We're part of a small percentage of the population with a dormant alien gene mixed into our DNA. There's a chemical compound that activates this gene, giving us unnatural abilities."

That made his head twist a little, forehead creasing again.

".. alien.. DNA. You couldn't'a just called it a gift and been done with it?" He looked amused - was, really. Everyone wanted out of the base level of humanity, himself included.

"Close enough for government work in my book, anyway. All I can do is shoot real well. Can I ask where you.. woke up? Washed.. washed in maybe?" Considering how many people washed up at the beach. Raylan was trying to keep a general track just to see if there was any pattern to it.

"Back on the beach," she confirms with a nod in the general direction of where she thinks she remembers the beach being. Her mental map of the place isn't as strong as it should be, which is something she intends to rectify as soon as the world stops spinning a hair too fast.

Daisy shifts her stance again, becoming slightly more relaxed but also a tad bit more... fidgety, but without actually fidgeting. Something he said doesn't fit quite right with her, because he only has part of the picture.

"What Inhumans have isn't just a gift," she says after a moment, her expression determined but also pained. "It's a birthright. The change we go through is terrifying and our powers can be beyond overwhelming, but it's part of who we are and who we were always meant to be."

She pauses for just a moment, then more quietly adds, "Sorry, I didn't mean to... It's just a battle I've been fighting for a long time."

Raylan nodded. "Popular place." The most popular in fact, if the trend of what he already knew was anything to go by. He wondered why that was and knew that the wondering itself was useless. Another thing to be left unanswered, so better to not let the question fully form in the first place.

"Birthright," he echoed, eyes narrowing again a fraction as he tried to make that anything other than the connection he already had to the word. Lotta people had birthrights, but it seemed that Daisy wanted to be designated as Other. Not a problem he had doing, but with it came its own issues that he wasn't sure she fully understood. Not that it was his business in the first place.

"Labels can be hard," he finally settled on; a nice neutral path. "I'll call it whatever you want... What's the other side sayin? In this battle you've been fightin'." Was it that they weren't.. special enough? That would be a surprise; Raylan would think that people popping up with powers would land themselves in Government R&D as a subject.

Labels can be hard. She's not sure what to think of that. It seems a simple enough statement on the surface, but at its core...

Her back straightens again and something in her goes stiff, more on the defensive than she had been before. There's nothing relaxed about her now.

"There are a lot of other sides," she informs him, her tone lacking the casual element from earlier. "The Kree call us abominations, mistakes that should have been eradicated thousands of years ago when Kree scientists created the original Inhumans. Terrorist organizations agree that we shouldn't exist and have done everything to convince the public to see it that way too. The government has talked about trying to develop a cure because they see us as weapons, but even if that never happens, anyone with abilities has to register in a government database so we can be monitored and controlled."

It's very clear as she goes on that Daisy is not a fan of any of the aforementioned, the cure and registration in particular. She feels like she's preparing for another of those battles right now, which she knows isn't fair to Raylan, but after the day she's had...

Raylan raised both his hands in a sign of surrender. The change in her posture was hard to miss and while he doesn't understand the root of it, he wasn't looking to cause offence or dismiss anything. Clearly he had.

"Registration sounds a lot like Nazi Germany, if you ask me," he replied. "If the.. The Kree?" His face twisted, head pulling a little bit at how weird that name was but moving on- "Make a mistake, that's on them, but that's no reason for extermination. Everyone's got a right to live, as long as they're not murderin' other folks. Same rules for everyone, in my opinion."

Raylan was sure the law was going to be a more difficult subject, but he wasn't a lawyer and that was a matter for the courts.

"No one's here to tell you anythin' like that, I can promise you. I'm from Kentucky. We got part of the market on phobias, but I'm not one of the herd, in that regard."

Registration does sound a lot like that. Even the Index had been painfully reminiscent of that horrible period of human history, and Daisy hates all of it even after having years to get used to the idea. Inhumans and other enhanced individuals have a right to a normal life just like other humans; it's something she'll fight for to her dying breath if that's what it takes.

"Glad to hear it," she says softly with a nod, all the fire going out of her at those words. It didn't stand much of a chance anyway when she's so tired and so damn cold.

"So," she continues, opting for a change of subject, "any advice for the new girl in town?"

The threat of a wildfire now someone dim in the horizon, Raylan slowly lowered his hands back down to hang at his sides. If he knew the arguments and full context, he'd still land directly on her side of it all.

"Mainly? Don't stay out after dark, don't be alone if you can help it and if some spooky ass voice tells you to do something, do it. It's a real shit welcome card. You were headed that way, right?" He nodded in that direction and started to walk, willing to fall an easy, unhurried step with her.

"Gonna follow all that up with the weird ass question of, 'So, what year you comin' from'?"

The more she finds out about this place, the more she feels like she's been dropped into a horror movie. She hasn't heard of any ghosts yet, thankfully, but there are apparently monsters somewhere out there that killed the Other Her. That's a bit of history she hopes doesn't repeat itself...

"I was just traveling through time, so it's really not that weird," she counters easily, grateful for the casual pace as they walk. She's not eager to get anywhere in particular just yet. "But I came from 2019."

Raylan's eyebrows lifted almost comically. "Oh just.. A casual jaunt through time?" As he moved through the statement, so too did his eyebrows, ending in a confused pinch. "You wouldn't happen to have.. Big purple assholes snappin' people outta existence in your reality would you?"

A casual jaunt. She wishes. Sure, there had been a few fun moments early on, but as time had progressed (quite literally), things had gotten... bad. Really bad. It's his second question that leaves Daisy frowning, though.

"You mean Thanos. Yeah, that happened a year ago for me." Another thing she feels guilty for. If she'd stayed on Earth a little longer, maybe she could have done something to stop him.

"I'm guessing Bucky told you about it?" Unless there was someone else here from their universe.

Edited 2021-06-02 02:02 (UTC)

062 » that moment of experience / part i

— closed; for raylan

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Typo in the last tag - her posture change wasn't hard to miss

I didn't even notice!

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found this buried in my inbox

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