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

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Daisy's quiet for a moment as they walk, thinking over the implications of what Bucky has said — and what he hasn't. The idea of the town having a life of its own brings up far too many memories of Fitz making her watch horror movies like Paranormal Activity, which she's still regretting all these years later.

"You said things happen that can't be explained," she finally says, making her decision of which piece of the puzzle to approach first. "What kind of things?"

Bucky moves his gaze forward, mulling over how to tell Daisy about all the things they've dealt with in the last thirty days that he's been there. He knows a little about the things that have happened before that but not enough to properly explain.

"Time seems to move and feel different here. Slower, in a way. Before my fall, we went through a time loop," he starts, not knowing where in her timeline Daisy was now and not wanting to break too soon into Thanos or being snapped out of existence. "Avoid the fog, chances are it will either suffocate you or play with your mind."

He looks at her, letting her absorb that before continuing.

"I think the strangest thing I've been here for was a bunch of people were attacked and killed by some kind of animal. The ones who survived buried them, but they came back, even though their bodies were still here."

"Killer fog, killer wildlife, duplicate bodies..." She quietly notes the various big picture things he's mentioned, trying to shuffle them around into the puzzle that's already forming from this place. The next one gets a tired but resigned tone. "Time loops I can handle. I went through a hundred loops just a few days ago."

Maybe a couple hundred, it was impossible to tell when her memory reset whenever she'd died. Coulson had a better count than she did, but as he'd often lamented, she hadn't powered him up every time.

Lifting a hand to rub at her forehead, she winces slightly as her fingers contact one of the many scrapes from her fight with Malick.

"Do you know what happened to the Other Me while she was here? As far as weird town stuff goes."

Most saw Mathias as a town out of a horror novel, but they had dealt with everything that might have been seen in a science fiction movie. If Daisy had been dealing with time loops and some of the other things their world generally tossed at them, it won't be too hard to wrap her head around all the possibilities that could happen there.

At her question, Bucky pauses, likely projecting that there were some things.

"She was a part of the group that died," he begins. There was no reason to call the last version of her 'you' when she hadn't experienced what 'she' did. So, he spares her that complexity. "I only know through someone else who died with her that they went to another version of this place. One that was on fire."

He rather hopes she doesn't ask about who that person is. It would only make things harder.

Another version of this place that was on fire. Cool. That's cool. Just dying and waking up in an even worse place than this and then apparently coming back to this place. Totally normal everyday stuff, nothing to worry about whatsoever.

Everything he's saying both supports and conflicts with her idea of this being where she'd been brought after dying. That she is dead here. (She's still not sure where he and the others here fit into that, though.)

"Did the Other Me ever say what happened to her before she came here?" she asks absently, needing a few seconds before she can look over at him with trepidation in her eyes. That person might not be her, but there might be answers somewhere in all this information.

The place was going to test her in new ways from how she's been tested in their world. In the month or so he's been there, he has. And she was the only one that kept him grounded enough to get through the day. Bucky wouldn't admit right then how glad he was to see her back, even if she didn't remember him.

"Not specifically. But she did mention the day we met that she was from 2019." Bucky answers, bringing his focus back to her as they walk. He can see her need to know more. "She didn't know about Thanos."

A beat.

"Do you?"

"Just what he did a year ago," she says with a shake of her head, wondering what he might be referring to. The way he'd phrased it meant it was something big, but she can't picture anything bigger than getting rid of half of all life in the universe. "It was 2019 for me too."

Just barely. They hadn't been back in their original time long at all before they'd staged the fight to save the world. Again.

It's disappointing that he doesn't have more details about the Other Her. It would have been nice to know how much of their timelines were the same. Still, there might be some things she can piece together later.

He goes back to that first day again, recalling the conversation. There wasn't much in the way of when things happened to her, only the year in which they happened. But, he also is able to remember Daisy telling him about something else. Perhaps it will help.

"She asked me if we won," he begins to explain, furrowing his brow in thought. "She was in space I think."

Had to be. It almost seemed like she meant something else entirely when he told her that Steve and the rest of the Avengers travelled back in time to reverse the Snap.

"You must be further along then."

Daisy frowns, hugging the blanket tighter again. The thought of space had once been thrilling, and if not always that, then at least comfortable. Now, there's a combination of dread and grief in her heart when she thinks about being out among the stars, visiting new planets and encountering species she'd never even dreamed of.

"Well, I've been in space for most of the past year," she comments, looking at the buildings around them without really seeing any of them. "We were looking for someone, and when we found him, I came back to Earth. That was a few weeks ago, before the whole time travel mess started."

Bucky looks up to see the Gull ahead and the edge of the water on either side of it not far behind. He listens and remembers the smile she gave him just the morning before and it's hard to realize how much he misses seeing it after coming to the conclusion that it had been days since there wasn't much to smile about.

"That's what Steve and the rest of the Avengers had to do to get back the rest of humanity after Thanos snapped his fingers." Bucky shares. "I got the feeling you and your team were on a different mission though."

Daisy wishes she could smile. It feels like years since she and Sousa flirted on the quinjet, since he kissed her before she infiltrated the Chronicom ship to rescue Simmons (and Deke). Was that the last time she'd smiled? No, there had been that moment with May too, when the woman who was like a mother to her had actually initiated a hug between them.

"Yeah..." The word trails off and she's silent for a few moments afterward, thinking about the words Enoch had told them as he lay dying. That this would be their last mission together. She'd almost believed that he'd meant because Deke stayed behind, but now she knows it's because of her death. The team would go their separate ways and she would never see any of them again...

Clearing her throat quietly, she pulls herself away from those thoughts, not allowing herself to fall down that particular pit of despair until she's alone, and maybe not even then. "Yeah, we were. A race of alien robots was traveling through time trying to wipe out SHIELD so we wouldn't stand in their way in the present while they tried to take over the Earth as their new homeworld."

Clearly, word got out that Earth's population became that much easier to defeat. He can't even imagine all the different species of aliens thought that made it up for grabs. And watching this Daisy as she explains leaves him wanting to ask more questions but it was rather a moot point given where they were.

But he asks anyway.

"How did that go?" Bucky looks at her again, trying to read for the answer in her eyes and on her face.

She tries to keep the completely truthful answer tucked away out of sight, instead letting her expression fill with the exhaustion that only comes after a long battle is finally over. He'll understand that, surely.

"We won," she tells him with a ghost of a smile. "I'd just finished destroying their fleet of spaceships when I woke up here."

He doesn't need to know that she'd done it by blowing the ships up from the inside, or that she hadn't made it out. No one here needs to know that she'd died in the cold of space and that she can still feel that chill in her bones. All that matters is that they had won — the world is safe and so are the people she loves.

He does understand it and Bucky knows how he looked after arriving straight from a war that should have been lost. A miracle had happened and as much as he wants to be happy because of it, he's not entirely sure the cost to him was worth it.

Glancing up ahead, it occurs to him that her mission was still four years earlier than the war he fought alongside all the other heroes. He hears something in her voice besides exhaustion and his stomach bottoms out before a sick feeling moves up into his throat. It didn't take much to decide what she did to make sure that fleet stayed destroyed.

But he also doesn't want to push or force her to talk about something she's not ready to talk about, least of all with him. Someone this Daisy has never met before.

"Good," Bucky offers a small hint of a smile.

"Yeah well, it's not the first time my team has saved the world," she tosses out, forcing an easygoing smile that doesn't reach her eyes. "It's kind of what we do. This time, we just got to take the scenic route."

She glances out toward the water before firmly turning her back to it, steering them back the way they'd come. Any other time, she might find the waterfront calming, but right now it just brings up more questions.

"We started in 1931," she tells him. "I got to tell off a police officer for being a male chauvinist pig."

Bucky can't help but question exactly how many branches of SHIELD were out saving the world, traveling through time when Steve and his team were working in quantum realm's and moving back and forth collecting Infinty Stones to bring back him and all the others back who got dusted. He was of the understanding that time travel wasn't a well known thing. But she was telling him that's what her and her team were doing.

"Bet he wasn't sure how to take that," he casually notes, knowing well enough how men were back then.

Blue eyes glance over the water, taking in the change of the sky above it and how it didn't quite look right and rather than turn and join Daisy in the walk back, Bucky distractedly laughs, but doesn't follow.

"I threatened to punch him in front of a crowd of people and he backed off," she explains with a bit of pride in her voice, even a hint of levity, before turning back to him. She's only a few steps away but it feels like miles. The distance is too much and yet nowhere near enough.

"Hey, I'm gonna walk back on my own," she tells him. "Sort some stuff out in my head. But I'll meet you at the house in a little while?"

It occurs to her that she doesn't know if he lives there. He'd been hanging out on the porch, so it's a reasonable assumption, but still. There's just a part of her that needs to know she can count on him being there — he might be the only connection she has to home now.

Daisy's words make his eyes snap back towards her and he offers a small nod in concession, but really, he doesn't want her to leave. Bucky also knows that he might not be dealing with things as well as he should be. Only he doesn't exactly know how to treat someone he likes and cares about the same way as someone who doesn't know him past what everyone else knows about him.

"Sure," he answers with a nod, trying to school his face into a neutral expression that won't give away what he's thinking, though he's pretty sure it's pointless by that point. "I'll see you in a bit."

He'll watch her walk off before turning his attention back to the skies, distracted, but knowing something was coming their way.

After a quick stop at the boarding house to change his shirt and check in on a couple of people, he heads back over to the house.

The rain starts as Daisy hits the block a little while later. She'd seen part of the town, met Raylan, and decided those dark clouds suddenly swooping in weren't something she wanted to deal with on top of everything else. When the downpour strikes, she sprints forward, lifting the blanket a bit in a futile attempt to not be half-drowned on the way.

Her hair is plastered to her head when she reaches the porch, stopping at the door with a hand raised to knock. He'd said the Other Her lived there... After another second of indecision, she turns the handle instead, stepping inside as lightning arcs across the sky. She shoves the door closed against the gusting wind just as a rumble of thunder rolls over the town, then stands there dripping all over the floor.

This day really sucks.

Bucky is there when she arrives, but only just. He'd only arrived a few minutes prior and was off in the room he'd spent all his time recovering in, changing his shirt yet again because the distance between the boarding house and Stoker Park was enough to have him soaking by the time he lands on the porch.

He's watching things from the French doors when he hears the door open and sees her step in.

"I'll get you a towel," Bucky tells her, heading upstairs to the bathroom where there were several clean ones folded in a cupboard. When he returns, he has two and holds them out for her to take.

His eyes avert to her bedroom.

"I can get you some clothes if you want. Or, you can go up and find them yourself."

The last thing he wants to do is force her to confront everything that belonged to the last version of her that was there. But he also doesn't want to keep any of it from her if she does.

Daisy tries to keep her dripping contained to one area while she waits for Bucky to return, at which point she gratefully accepts both towels. One is immediately put to work drying off her suit as much as she can manage with a few quick swipes before focusing on her hair. It occurs to her that she probably looks terrible, soaked through and with who knows what kind of bruising, but she tries hard not to think about it. The fact that he's also sporting a few multicolored bruises definitely helps.

"Yeah, no, I can go if you don't mi..." Her voice trails off as her eyes catch on something on the island in the kitchen. No one else would ever notice the little objects on the edge of the countertop, but once she sees them, she can't look away, not even when she asks him in a hesitant voice, "What are those?"

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062 » that moment of experience / part i

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