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

[tinstar]

"Until they set in a headache or attach themselves to our legs." It wouldn't be pretty for anyone who wasn't used to it, but the Marshal's would get more than a little satisfaction from watching those two dumbasses run themselves screaming into a wall. Something to consider when spirits were low, anyway.

How, exactly, they'd gotten to Tim being against the wall, Raylan wasn't sure but it didn't matter. Tim was the one that needed the solid resting spot more and the idea that Raylan should just take up a spot next to them and break the configuration they'd settled into was killed before it rose.

"Nothin' that won't heal," Raylan scoffed as he forced his hands to unclench so he could peel off his soaked flannel and the tshirt underneath, dropping them with a sickening splat on the ground. "Soon as we get back to Phillips Drive, you're lettin' someone take a look at you. My feet'll be fine, but it won't matter if we catch our death or freeze. C'mon," he said, wiping his face and sliding a hand through his hair to settle it back on his head. "We can't get rid of our pants but we can ditch the shirts, leave one for you to settle back against."

Wet clothes could just as well be the death of them as anything else.

[walkingtrigger]

"We'd have to find some bug spray," Tim agreed in a dry tone. His lips were quirked upwards at the mental image Raylan painted of Dewey and Dickie tryin' to attach themselves to the Marshals' legs.

It was a good thing that the idea of moving much more than what was involved in getting out of wet clothing was snuffed. Tim would have argued. He'd insist it was because he was trying to look out for the older marshal, but the truth was more along the lines of the sniper not wanting to get that far away.

"So they can what? See all the pretty colors? Those won't be at their full glory until tomorrow. Your feet on the other hand could become infected," he groused as he used Raylan's striptease to slid out of his own jacket and shirts. After considering the sodden clothing, he reached for Raylan's t-shirt and folded it up for a backrest. It was probably the driest bit of fabric between them.

Stripped to the waist Tim re-octopused himself around Raylan, gathering the older man close up against the relative warmth of his naked skin. After a moment's thought, he reached up and freed one long strand of salt and pepper hair from where the older man had slicked it back, letting it fall into Raylan's face.

"Always do like it when these strands get the better of you," he said softly. "Makes you look all dangerously sexy."

[tinstar]

"They'd just try to get high with it anyway," he scoffed. They all knew that both of those dimwits would be trying to huff whatever they could find in the General Store inside of two days, if that.

Raylan helped peel off Tim's shirts so he didn't have to stretch and pull that far, casting them off to the side too before he started rubbing a hand up Tim's arm as he glanced at the still raging storm outside. If it would just stop, he'd be hauling Tim to 1306 right now instead of explaining why that was the plan.

"So they can check and make sure you haven't broken any bones or got a punctured lung or ruptured spleen or internal bleeding.." His eyes drew upwards at the gentle flicking of his bangs back into his face and chuckled at the compliment, head ducking a fraction though he didn't break eye contact.

"I'm over here tryin' to worry about you, ya know," he teased. "Though if a little eyecandy makes you feel better," he granted with a bob of his head and a pull of his grin.

[walkingtrigger]

"Dewey Crowe and Dickie Bennett high as kites in Mathias," Tim mused on the thought and then smirked. "That is a sitcom I would pay to see."

The younger marshal made a pleased noise in response to the soft touch of Raylan's hand along his arm, shifting into the touches in a gesture that was almost needy. Actually there was no almost about it; it was needy.

"I am telling you, I have no broken bones, there is no blood coming out of my mouth so the lungs are bruised but intact and my abdomen is not distended," he smiled at his partner and reached to pull a few more strands of hair into Raylan's face. "I promise you, Handsome. I am going to ache for more than a few days, but I am alright."

Since they were down in the tunnels, alone, Tim took a liberty and pressed his lips against Raylan's temple. He left them there, so the older marshal could feel the smile against his chilly skin. "More than a few days I had to stay seated, with my lap under my desk for a bit, due to you presenting particularly enticing eyecandy."

[tinstar]

"Mm, waste of your cable bill, in my opinion." Not that Raylan Givens had a cable bill to speak of himself. The rubbing was for warmth (and both their comfort) but the way Tim leaned it to made him smile as he leaned in himself, body on the edge of a shiver that was only held at bay by the scant bit of heat they were generating.

"Then you won't mind lettin' someone look at you so I can know that too, hmm? It'll take all of ten minutes and a few pokes and it'll make me feel better," he argued behind the growing current of his hair. He was going to need to get it cut soon or risk looking like the shaggy beach bum the he's always wanted to be, however sexy Tim found his wayward bangs.

Raylan hummed shortly anyway at the press of lips against him, head leaning into it little and chuckled, his hand moving to run over and around Tim's shoulder before settling for a minute on his upper arm. "Consider it penance for bein' a pain in your ass. Since mosta the time I came in, trouble was either waitin' or followin'."

He was sure the Lexington office wasn't nearly exciting without him there. It wasn't completely a compliment.

[walkingtrigger]

"I do mind," Tim pushed back, gently but firmly. "I have my hang-ups, and having relative strangers poking at me when I'm feeling poor is one of them." Yep he was a lot of fun for doctors! "You're just gonna have to content yourself with other expressions of my compliance."

Like the fact that Tim had come to the conclusion that if and when they could get out of this tunnel without Mathias trying to kill them, they were going to head to 1306. Raylan needed Malcolm and Doc. It was going to be awkward as fuck for the sniper but he knew the older marshal would also be a little easier if Tim stayed under the same roof. Tim figured he was tired enough that he could ride a couch in the same house as Raylan's other two lovers, for one night at least.

"Why am I serving penance for you being a pain in my ass?" Tim quipped in return, helping Raylan settle in against him. His back was cold but his chest and core were starting to feel warmer. Tim could also feel some of his muscles start to give up the shivering they'd been doing to keep warm, and relax.

[tinstar]

Raylan clucked a little, a soft disapproving suck of his teeth as his jaw clenched a little. Tim was apparently gonna be one of those guys that never goes for those exact reason and dies too young of colon cancer or some shit. The cowboy was not reassured or contented.

Tim's plan post terror storm would mollify him a bit, however.

"My bein' eyecandy is the penance. Out here just tryin' to give you a little warm an' fuzzy in your pants to go home with. Not that I knew it. Don't hold it against me, I ain't battin' great anywhere, it sounds like."

[walkingtrigger]

"Oh trust me, you provide plenty of 'company' in my shower," Tim admitted, brushing a hand along Raylan's back in a pensive gesture. He heard the cluck, the soft disapproving suck of teeth; felt the clenching of the jaw.

"Raylan," he began. Paused for a moment, then took a cautious deep breath (yep lungs ain't happy) and let it out.

"I know you love him. I know he loves you. It gives both of you a different perspective on each other," he continued quietly. "I have been genuinely trying with Malcolm, but the minute he sees a vulnerability in me, he is digging at it like a pig on a root. I know you tell me that is just how it is with him and I am doing my best to make that allowance. But it hurts."

Another cautious breath, a light touch of his lips to salt and pepper hair.

"I ain't asking you for anything other than this one thing. Please do not make me expose more weakness to him. Let me lick my wounds in peace?"

[tinstar]

"Don't," he cautioned, knowing too well what it meant when people said his name like that. He hadn't argued further for a reason, he'd copped and gone the way of the struck banter. But Tim, being Tim, went ahead anyway.

"Mental vulnerability and physical contusions are two completely different things, and if you think I'd let him dig into anything while I'm standin' there, you got another thing comin'," he said before shaking his head again.

"Any shit goes weird or you start coughin' up blood, I'll knock you out and take you over there Tim, I swear to god."

[walkingtrigger]

Tim's brows knitted as he tried to think of how to explain the last conversation he'd had with Malcolm to Raylan. In the end the younger marshal decided to eighty six the idea entirely. It felt too much like asking him to referee a squabble and Tim did not want Raylan in that position. He'd made his point and Raylan appeared to respect the boundary, so Tim let the rest of it go.

"Over where, Raylan?" He said in a quiet tone. "My plan, once the town decides it has had enough of tearing itself apart trying to inconvenience us is to get you to 1306. Given that I know how you are I was going to hope that 1306 wouldn't be too out of sorts if I crashed on a couch for a few hours."

As he said the plan aloud Tim tried not to overthink being under 1306's roof. He felt it would be best to keep his dumbass stunt (he could already hear Malcolm reading him the riot act for endangering Raylan) and his bruises to himself.

"Maybe borrow a shower, if you have one with a lock on the door."

[tinstar]

The fraction of a turn his head had taken turned back towards the sniper, dark eyes trying to see what he could see in the darkness that was only illuminated by the random crack of lighting that filled the mouth of the tunnel they were hiding in with light.

"They will give a shit about you too, if you let them," he found himself saying. "If you take down even half a wall." Somehow, he doubted Tim was willing, but he could hope. He thought it might do the man some good. To figure out how to human with the Feeling creatures that Raylan had pulled into his orbit.

"But we got a shower with a lock. Clothes that'll fit you for once you're out. Fire to warm yourself by. I'll probably take my chair, nearby. Been a few weeks since I've slept in it." Sleeping in the living room meant sleeping in the center of the house, the first to sound an alarm if needed - where he belonged.

[walkingtrigger]

The darkness of the tunnel worked to his advantage when Tim cast a look of disbelief towards the other man. He figured the likelihood of Raylan sleeping in a chair was slim to none, but he was going to let Malcolm charge up that particular hill.

But first.

"I really wish someone would explain to me what these 'walls' are about. You're now the second person to accuse me of having up walls. I honestly do not understand what you're talking about?"

[tinstar]

Raylan gave him a look in return that was significantly less effective in the parley light granted and shook his head, sending a fresh splatter of water that was still waterlogging his salt and pepper hair. He had no skill for this kind of elaboration.

"Ignore the wall then." The sentiment stood, even if the metaphor didn't. Sow a seed, raise a garden. "I'll take your trying to make friends with Callisto as a progress. Who else accused you of bein' a human bein'? Should I punch them out?"

[walkingtrigger]

"Let's go back to these walls," Tim tried to guide the conversation back. "Malcolm said the same thing when we were talking in the kitchen last night. Now you're bringing it up so there is obviously some sort of measure I am not meeting."

[tinstar]

"Let's focus instead on the part of what I said that was important, the letting them care about you if you let them; it's got nothin' to do with imaginary measures to stack up against."

Raylan was trying very hard to keep this in the strict lines of concern. Tim wasn't doing something wrong, wasn't broken, he was just guarded for many good reasons.

"I-. There's no one for you to talk to at home, by and large and I get why. It's not the case here. You could have.. friends. Relationships with people that aren't your co-worker.. or your lover." Is that what he was? It felt better than Friends with Benefits.

[walkingtrigger]

Did Raylan hear the little fizzing sound of a fuse blowing in Tim's brain? Maybe smell the ozone as his brain went into overdrive and then threw a rod straight into the engine block.

He made a couple noises, half spoken words that were bitten off before all the syllables made it from his throat. His hold on Raylan never loosened but Tim went silent for more than a few minutes as his brain tried to process what he heard. It put him on unstable ground that felt like sand slipping out from under his feet, even as he tried to gain purchase to form a response.

It was too much, too fast. He could barely get his head around what it meant to have a relationship with Raylan, someone he knew and trusted. But was this Raylan's way of telling him that he needed to give the older man space? Every time Tim tried to unwind the knot of uncertainty suddenly stuck to the inside of his skull, it seemed to become all the more sticky.

Raylan probably felt him take a breath, try again to start in on words but again they died before they could even clear his throat.

[tinstar]

"Hey," he muttered, pulling his hand from Tim's arm to slip it along the sniper's jaw, pulling their faces to rest evenly together, side to side. They sat there for a long few moments before Raylan turned to press a kiss against his cheek.

He knew this wasn't easy. People weren't easy and the situation here made it harder by a hundred fold. He knew from experience how hard it could be on their own, how important people were. Tim needed people when his person wasn't there, for whatever reason.

"I don't want you to be alone and sufferin' the weight when somethin' happens to me here. Tim-" Raylan's mouth turned and whispered into the sniper's ear, words just for him and no one else, ending the secret with "-and I don't want you to hurt more."

[walkingtrigger]

Despite his internal confusion, there was no resistance when Raylan drew him to rest cheek against cheek. If anything the sniper nuzzled as close as possible, seeking this physical comfort when so often he avoided even brief contact. The kiss earned one of those soft noises, before Tim went still as he listened.

It wasn't just the words shared with him that struck deep, but also the trust that came with them. Did Raylan feel a drip of wet against his cheek? It was just water out of Tim's hair, totally inconsequential that this drip was warm. Two cautiously deep, calming breaths moved through the younger marshal and he turned to lay his head against Raylan's broad shoulder.

"I was in the shit, before I was nineteen." He began softly, well aware that Raylan knew this but this would be the first time it came directly from Tim. "You had to build a persona; someone hard, capable, tough and that persona has to be impenetrable or you will not survive over there. I was over there for seven years, Raylan. Living in this persona for almost a decade. I'd only been home for two years by the time we met."

Ignore the drips of warm moisture, it's just ... water out of his hair that warmed by his skin.

"When I first arrived and we were squabbling, there are words I said to you that I regret. I am sorry that I hurt you," brief tangent that included a soft kiss to Raylan's shoulder before Tim continued. "I mentioned that there are areas of my PTSD that I haven't even begun to address because I don't feel ready. Trying to tear down that persona was one of those areas."

He was cold and shivering. Not coming down from a hard shock (falling) and cracking emotionally and shaking with tears.

"I've started with you because I ..." Raylan knew, Tim had already said it. "And I trust you to keep me safe while I work this shit out. It's like being a damn soft shell crab." Brief break for levity. "I am trying with others but it's a slow process. Maybe too slow for this place, I don't know but I am tryin'. Giving Malcolm things to do in the kitchen the other night, that was me tryin'."

It hadn't been received in the way he had intended it but he had genuinely been trying.

[tinstar]

The way Tim pressed against him, trusted him to hold him this close was part of the reason that Raylan was able to say what he had, part of the reason they'd gotten as far as they had. He didn't take this lightly, the way Tim had peeled back layers of himself for Raylan's acceptance, for Raylan's understanding and love and protection from the worst parts of his own head. An effective distraction, but no solution. That would only come from Tim himself.

Raylan spread his hands around Tim's shoulders, rubbing one hand up and down his back to beat off the chill that had settled there as the sniper took his moment to breathe. For a long second before Tim started talking, Raylan was afraid he was going to say that he couldn't do this. That Raylan and opening himself was too much, that it was a risk to high for him to take. Raylan wouldn't have blamed him.

Seven years. That was nearly half his life at that point. Far too early to be sending young men to war, but war and it's trauma's on young men were well documented throughout history. This wasn't anything new for their species, as terrible and tragic as it was. But Raylan's heart didn't have to worry about the countless war victims; just the one in his arms now.

Tim could cry if he wanted to. Raylan wouldn't judge him for it. Raylan's hand didn't stop rubbing as Tim came to an end and he turned his lips into Tim's hair.

"It did hurt," he admitted, soft against all the hard against them. "More than I thought it was going to." It devastated him in a way, to have everything he thought was true cut out from under him inside a few sharp words that left him throat tight.

"And I know you're tryin'. It's good that you are. Trust me when I say these people aren't gonna kick you around or judge you. Neal and Malcolm especially. For all the bite they can be capable of, the New Yorkers are the softest among us. The kindest too, by my bet. Doc's the most hospitable. I suppose I'm the most suspicious.." Considering.

"Alls that matters is that you're trying. There's no schedule or time limit on this. Don't you go thinkin' that. It's okay."

[walkingtrigger]

He was terrified.

If asked directly, about opening himself up to Raylan, allowing himself to reach for this, he would admit that he was scared to death. Perhaps he was even still trying to brace himself for the pain that could come out of all of this.

But he wasn't retreating. He wasn't running for cover, even when his instincts told him it would be the wise choice. Tim couldn't, not given the strength of his emotions now that they had been given permission to come to the surface.

"You don't ..." Tim began before he appeared to deflate. "I don't want you caught in the middle of this. Malcolm loves you and he is very protective of you."

[tinstar]

Raylan took a deep uneven breath and broached something that he'd been avoiding for the past week of them taking up together. Tim had already trusted him so much but Raylan couldn't avoid the responsibilities he felt to Malcolm and Henry. Henry, for his part, likely wouldn't care, as long as Raylan was willing to spend time with him. Their porch drinking sessions were like church at this point, and their stolen afternoons were just that. Theirs and stolen and bittersweet for them.

"It's too late for that. I'm already in the middle of this... I'm going to have to tell him. About you. About this. About us. Just like I had to do with Henry. He might not love me after that. He might hate me. Might not be right for a man to love three men at once. Who could blame him.. But it's not right for me to not say anything. To either of you. He hasta know."

[walkingtrigger]

In truth Tim could understand why Raylan had been trying to avoid that particular conversation. Nothing was sure and it was a hell of a risk. Tim did not worry so much about Doc. There was a practicality to the man what the young sniper respected. Malcolm was ... well Raylan had already said it, Malcolm was softer. He felt things more powerfully.

Tim couldn't entirely help himself and he physically held on to Raylan all that much tighter as he spoke.

"Do you wa ..." he began, then altered that last word. "Do you need 'us' to stop?" He asked softly. "Raylan ... I can't lay in your arms and tell you I love you, without wanting you to be happy. There is so much stress in this godforsaken town, you deserve respite, Handsome. Not more complications."

[tinstar]

"Maybe that's what makes me so terrible," he admitted into Tim's ear. "That I still find my respite despite those complications. That I'm not.. That I don't love any of you enough to shove off the others. I'm-.. It's wrong of me and I know it but I can't help but be greedy here. With all it's horrors, I'm greedy for that respite, for being needed, for being helpful, for being useful by exiting nearby."

Raylan wrapped his arms tighter around the sniper, pressing kisses onto his shoulder before leaning his head against his. It was so much harder after their admissions, to wade into the administrative parts of their set up in Mathis.

"No, I don't need or want us to stop. Malcolm knows I'm not exclusive, I just don't know that he imagined you'd be in the mix. But I know him knowin' is gonna be hard for you. I can't tell him without tellin' you first. So you got time to.. prepare yourself... I am happy, you know. With all of ya, whenever I'm graced with the blessin' of gettin' to hold you." All of them.

Raylan felt both terrible and terribly blessed, guilty and elated all at once and there seemed no level for it.

[walkingtrigger]

"You're not terrible," Tim said softly but with fierce conviction. "You're a man who has a lot of love in his heart, who has rarely had the chance to share it."

He pressed a lingering kiss against the older man's temple and even when he began to speak, his lips remained against salt and pepper hair.

"Tell him. Tell both of them what you need to tell them, Raylan." Tim said with soft encouragement, his voice charged with emotion. "I'm here, and I have your back. I won't leave you, Raylan. Not unless you tell me to go."

[tinstar]

Raylan hummed shortly. He didn't believe that. The whole thing felt wrong, against the rules, like he wasn't playing the game of Life about it all. Everything he'd been raised with, everything he'd been taught told him otherwise.

"Then remember that I've got yours and it's not contingent on what I'm doing with Malcolm or Henry. I want to be able to do that for Malcolm too and I'm not tellin' anyone to leave.. I.. I promised I'd be honest. And I haven't been since that morning." Tim could guess which one.

"I don't want it bein' a surprise or betrayal to you either. Want you to be ready for what follows after." Chaos. Anger. Heartbreak. It was coming, just like the storm still beating outside of the tunnel. "They'll know the truth of you, persona or not."