065-071 » assign to oblivion / part iii

[villagemod]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: Mathias Township proper
WHEN: Days 065-071
WHAT: The residents of Mathias reunite under unnerving conditions.
WARNINGS: (PM this account to have a warning added!)
NOTES: Plotting post over here!

RECOMMENDED ♫ Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross "Outside"

DAY 065-071
ASSIGN TO OBLIVION
“No matter how much time passes, no matter what takes
place in the interim, there are some things we can never
assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away.”
— Haruki Murakami

Only two days have passed since the town was fractured, leaving residents cut off from those they'd come to know and even care for. A mere two days of wandering the new streets, uncovering more secrets that continue to make little sense of this strange place. Two days with sunrises, sunsets, and nights that seem like any other.

And yet.

When residents wake on this third day, they will find that much has changed. All around them, wherever they may be, there are signs that time has passed without them. Dust covers everything, indoors and out, even areas that were spotlessly clean seemingly hours ago. The residents themselves are covered as well, dust clinging to their hair, skin, and clothing—

Clothing that they may not have been wearing when they went to sleep. Each resident, regardless of the state they were in previously, is now clad in a pair of white pajamas, with long pants and button-up shirts. Those who thoroughly explored Baneberry Hall will easily recognize these articles as identical to those well-stocked in the decaying great house. On top of this, the clothes they wore from home have disappeared, along with anything else they may have brought with them when they arrived or items from home that have been found within the borders of Mathias.

There is no sign that anyone has entered their place of shelter, nor is there any sign of what may have been done with these items or how they came to be wearing these clothes. The dust all around them is undisturbed, almost as if they had been sleeping there for quite some time, though it seems impossible for such a thing to have occurred naturally.


THE NEW ARRIVALS
The newest arrivals to Mathias will wake up on the lawn of Town Hall, at the center of the little town square. They, too, are bereft of any items from home and clothed in the identical white pajamas. There are shops all around them, with houses just beyond, and at first glance, everything seems almost picturesque. Except for the silence that is at times so complete as to be maddening... Welcome to Mathias.

---

SUMMERTIME
— When summer arrives, so too does an outdoor stand in front of the General Store. Sporting a handpainted sign proclaiming Whateley Farm, the stand is overflowing with a variety of produce: berries, plums, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, green beans, leeks, onions, peppers, potatoes, zucchini, tomatoes, and garlic bulbs. These do not replace the produce offerings normally found inside the market, but they do behave strangely. The stand replenishes sporadically, sometimes every other day or every five days. There is no discernible pattern to when it replenishes, nor is there any sign of how it came to be there at all.

— With the now-complete reverse change of season, much of the autumn debris has cleared from around town. Only a few stray leaves and fallen branches remain, their crisp colors at odds with the warm summer days. The forest has also cleared of much of the fall detritus, making it easier to both follow the paths and potentially spy things that might be out of the ordinary.

---

CONDITIONS UPDATE

— THE WEATHER Summer has arrived in Mathias, bringing with it warm days that average 70°F and comfortably cool nights. The skies are clear throughout the week save for Day 68 when a light rain falls from a grey sky throughout the day.

— THE FOG has maintained its new boundaries.

— 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 from the western section of town entirely.
— 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 AND DEATHS continue! Max Guevara and Liz Brundy have disappeared, and now that everyone is back together, residents will notice that Yennefer, Number Five, and Tony Stark have also vanished.

— 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

— 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 My non-RP life is busy and chaotic and I continue to ask for your forgiveness and understanding as game things continue to be slower, as I cannot promise timely mod responses beyond weekends and even that is not wholly guaranteed.

— ITEMS FROM HOME All items from home that characters would normally possess have vanished for this log and will return in the next. This includes clothing and possessions they had when they arrived in Mathias, items that were found in the rain, and items that were found in Baneberry Hall and removed from the property. Items from home that were left behind by other characters no longer in the game have also vanished. (All other items and clothing still remain, it is only items from characters' homes that have disappeared.)

— BANEBERRY ITEMS The items from home that were not removed from Baneberry Hall in the last log have vanished from the property. These items will not reappear in the next log. (Please be sure to comment in the appropriate spot on those logs about the state of your character's item for inventory purposes, ie whether they were removed from the property or left behind.)

— ACTIVITY CHECK Beginning with June's AC (posted at the start of July), all tags that consist of only dialogue will count as 0.5 points, not just those that occur in an inbox thread — this applies to both AC and AP totals. This adjustment is an extension of what has been in place since the start of the game: that all dialogue-only inbox tags counted for a half-point. Since such tags have occurred regularly in log threads as well, the half-point status is simply being extended to all tags regardless of location in order to be fairer in point distribution. (Examples will be provided in the AC post to assist with proper counting.)

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Days 065-067 {My soul is a little bit broken

[bestfuneralever]

{CWs: depression spiral, suicidal ideation, drinking & taking pills as a coping mechanism, & other similar/dark themes.

I. Day 065: Re-Arrival

{Boarding house, around town [OTA]

When he wakes up, it's not strange at first. Finding himself in the boarding house isn't strange because he lives there... But as he scrambles out of bed, he instantly recognizes the pajamas he suddenly finds himself in– they’re from Baneberry House, he remembers because he stood in the hallway while Elena fussed with them in that closet. Weird. He wonders how that happened.

As he starts looking around, he realizes there is a layer of dust in the room that doesn’t… add up to the two days he was stuck in the parallel version of Mathias. And further still, some of his personal things are missing. “Shit.” he mutters under his breath and makes a note to ask the others if they noticed anything of theirs missing.

He makes the rounds to check on his people, most of whom are in various houses on Phillips Drive. Perhaps he finds them in their homes; or he runs into someone on the way there?

He checks the general store and finds the new produce carts, and notes most everything looks like it’s otherwise in order there.

He spends a large majority of the day seeking his brother out; one might catch him roaming the streets, checking houses and buildings, calling out for, “Five? Five, this stopped being funny awhile ago!”

II. Day 066: Evening

{Phillips Drive #1306 [residents ONLY]

All day yesterday, he'd searched for his brother. All night, he’d waited up for him to pop back into the room with that weird ozone smell that always lingered behind his spacial portals. He passed out waiting, still in those all-white pajamas, and woke up to a still-empty, dusty room that looked and felt so wrong without the jumpy, snarky presence of his brother inside of it.

He tried again today, but every single corner he turned that didn’t reveal his brother was like another knife in his chest. No. No, he couldn’t be here alone. He couldn’t be. And the longer the day draws on, and the realization that Max is nowhere to be found too, the weight of it all just sits heavily on his shoulders, in his chest, acting like a lead anchor on his entire world.

[Only one (1) door answer thread please!]

When he arrives to #1306 that night, Klaus is wrung out, and his eyes are red from crying. He knocks on the door, the odd-patterned knock he always used that let people know it was him, but in a frenetic way, desperate

Once it’s determined that no one in the house has seen his brother, in any parallel places they may have been, or since they got back, it’s everything he can muster not to just curl in a ball on the floor right then and there. He opts for the couch in the living room instead, knees drawn up to his chest, looking like a slight wind might knock the breath right out of him.

III. Day 067: Afternoon

{Phillips Drive #1310, Boarding House Room #5 [Caitlin Snow trigeminalheadache]

Klaus has finally resigned himself to the idea that, apparently, his brother and one of his longest-standing friends in this stupid town are both just gone, like so many other people before them had just disappeared without a trace. He remembers the redhead that had stumbled onto the group meeting that day had said something about being a scientist, so he had an idea. It wasn’t a great one, probably. Five would definitely yell at him about it if he found out about it later, but that didn’t matter now, did it? Because he wasn’t here.

He goes over to the house he’s pretty sure he’s seen her go into before, and knocks on the door, waiting for her to answer; he doesn’t know her like he knows the men of 1306, which he sometimes wanders into at random, without a knock at all. He hadn’t last night, too worn out and exhausted. He still looks that way now as he waits for an answer.

IV. Day 067: Evening

{Phillips Drive #1305 [closed to Raylan Givens, with possible guest stars Jeff & Athena.]

The house is littered with an array of electronic pieces and parts he couldn't begin to guess what they went to before they were ripped out and taken down to their smallest pieces. He doesn't really care who or what they belonged to, either. He has a trashbag's worth of clothes, snacks, and knick-knacks he's collected over his handful of months in this godforsaken town— none that he had shown up here with, those things seemed to still all be gone; he feels the lack of the weight of Dave’s dog tags the most. A bottle of shine he'd squirreled away at one point and several packs of cigarettes, and... that's it. His entire life in this place fit in a small trashbag.

There's something so goddamn familiar about that, that it makes him laugh. It's an empty, hollow kind of thing, and it echoes in the house, empty except for him, with no other people to make noise inside it. He isn't sure if that's a good thing or not. But it doesn't matter, because that's the way it is. He could have stayed across the street again, he knows the guys wouldn't mind (Ainsley might, she doesn't exactly talk to him much and she gives him creepy vibes, so he has no qualms about avoiding her when he’s there), but it feels too much like placing yet another burden at the feet of the people who do the most for this town as a whole goddamn community. That's not something he can let himself do.

But he couldn't go back to the boarding house, either. That was why he had taken Caitlin to copy all of Five's equations down. It had taken awhile, but with the two of them working on it together, it cut the time down some. Klaus didn't understand any of it, but maybe she could. Or if Five came back, they would have copies of it all before someone or the town itself got rid of it all...

He isn't sure he wants Five to come back; it's better if he's not here. Better he's there to stop their Apocalypse back home and set everything to rights again.

He drops the bag next to the couch and crumbles into a heap on top of it, dragging his knees up to hug them to his chest. He hates this town so goddamn much. The longer he lays there, the harder it becomes to ignore those old, familiar thoughts, and a few new ones, too.

Just do it.

They won't miss you.

They won't even notice you're gone.

Those pills and that shine would make it so easy...

You add nothing of value to this town.

Pathetic Number Four, once and always.

It would lessen their burdens.

Maybe you'll even stay dead, this time.

He reaches for the bag and pulls it closer, leaning half over the couch to dig through it, finally producing his over-stuffed pill bottle and shine. A slow, pleased smile pulls over his lips.

He swings to a sitting position, and sets the booze bottle between his legs while he pops the cap from the pills and spills a handful of them out. He plucks four of the small, round yellow ones, Xanax or an offbrand, he thinks, and shoves them all into mouth.

He dumps the extra pills back into the container and buries the bottle back into his bag.

That bottle of shine will be well into half-gone, and a few more of those pills taken, by the time anyone might find him. He’s sprawled on the couch, staring blankly at the ceiling, taking periodic drags from a cigarette or sips from the bottle in his hand.

II - Day 066: Evening

[conning]

Neal hears the knock from the kitchen, where he's sitting with a notebook, staring at the pencil next to it, staring at his right hand trembling over it. It snaps him out of whatever fugue he was descending into, and he's grateful for that.

He opens the door, starts to greet Klaus, but then sees the look on his face and stops cold. At once, he circles an arm around the other man, drawing him inside and shutting the door.

He's tired, he's so damn tired after the last two days, but that doesn't--he's not the only one who's been in pain, clearly.

"What happened?" There's no are you all right to follow.

[bestfuneralever]

He leans into that gesture and follows Neal inside. "Five's gone." he says, his voice a broken whisper. The threat of a fresh crop of tears creeps back into his words and he shoves both hands through his hair.

"He's gone." He paces as he says it again, like that might make anything feel less surreal than it does right now. It doesn't. "It's been two days, and he- he hasn't been back to the boarding house, I-" He shakes his head, pausing in his pace. "I can't be alone. I can't do it."

[conning]

Neal steps in front of him, taking his shoulders lightly. "Hey. You're not alone. Look at me."

He lifts one hand to Klaus's cheek trying to get the other man to focus on him. "And he might not be gone. I disappeared for a week."

[bestfuneralever]

He does look at him, but he can't bring himself to cling to the hope in that idea. Because... Because nothing in this place matters at all. Everyone dies or disappears. Nothing lasts, and he's going to be alone by the time it's over, he can feel it down into his bones.

Neal isn't wrong to try a tactile method with Klaus, though. He response to touch easily. Leans into the hand at his cheek. "I can't hope for that... it hurts... hope always just hurts."

[conning]

It hits so close to home that he mentally doubles over, taking a moment to gather himself again before he says anything else. Neal gently brushes his thumb back and forth over Klaus's cheek. "All right. You don't have to. But you're not alone. Not right now."

[bestfuneralever]

He focuses on the feeling of Neal's thumb against his cheek and tries to breathe. It's hard because his chest is tight, a vice clamped tight and panic still trying to swirl through his veins.

"I know... you're right, I just–" He nods a little and takes Neal's hand in his and moves over to crumble onto the couch. He just needs to take time to think and breathe and it will be so much easier to do with someone right there to ground him.

"Don't leave?" he asks softly, looking up at him with pleading eyes. He has no reason to think he was going anywhere, but... it feels somehow necessary to be sure.

[conning]

Neal wraps his arms around Klaus, grateful for the first time that the barriers he set up around his personal space have largely come down. He holds the other man against him.

"I'm not going anywhere. I promise. Not right now."

[bestfuneralever]

Klaus curls into him easily; personal space was never something he cared much about, but it's nice to have people in this place that don't mind it, either. It's the biggest sort of comfort he can seek here, with everything else so limited.

He'll lay there clinging to Neal as long as the other man will allow, reluctantly let him go when he needs to, and probably just... casually pass out on the couch for awhile.

Day 65

[twowaypath]

Tai, likewise, has been roaming the streets, but with a bit less purpose. He just wants to get a better sense of the town and where everything is. The panicked yelling is hard not to notice, and he makes his way to the source. Maybe there's something he can do.

"Looking for someone?" He's really not sure how much help he can be in that department, considering how few people he's met so far, but he can try.

[bestfuneralever]

"Uh-" He blinks, that's a new voice. He spins to look at the stranger. "Yeah, my brother. He's uh- about yea tall––" He holds a hand at about chest-height. "Teenager. Probably looks like an angry wet cat." Five would kill him for calling him a teenager, but it's so much easier than explaining the truth for someone just trying to offer help.

He sticks a hand out in introduction. "I'm Klaus, by the way. Welcome to our shitty town."

[twowaypath]

He takes the offered hand. "I'm Tai."

And he probably only makes it worse for the not-present Five as he considers that description, frowns slightly, and comes up with, "I don't think I've seen anyone that young."

[bestfuneralever]

"Eh, I'm sure he's around." he mutters, folding his arms across his chest. "He'll pop up at some point later tonight and mock me for worrying about him." he scoffs softly, shaking his head. "He's a brat like that." But he says it fondly.

"So did you just get here then?"

[twowaypath]

He hopes it's as simple as that and they find each other again sooner than later. If he ends up seeing the teenage boy around, he'll tell him his brother was looking for him.

The question gets a slight nod. "Yeah, a couple days ago."

[bestfuneralever]

"Oh, man–" he groans. "Did you get here when like... nearly everybody was gone and shit? That sucks!" This place was bad enough on its own, nevermind having the isolation doubled-down on you. And he wouldn't even have known that, unless whoever he was stuck with told him.

[twowaypath]

He nods. "There was barely anyone here the first couple of days." Not that there are all that many now, but there are certainly more. The Jedi school never had all that many people, so Tai isn't used to being somewhere populated, but he is used to knowing everyone. It's been more difficult, being a complete stranger in such a strange place. (It's worse, knowing that even if he were to return home now, there would also be very little there to go back to.)

[bestfuneralever]

"It's weird, man. This place–" he lifts a hand and drops it back down to his side. "I dunno. I don't know if we're some kind of twisted experiment or if there's some angry eldritch horror god taking its ire on this town in particular or what." He shakes his head a little.

"Have you found a place to stay yet? I mean– there's the boarding house, it's pretty empty at this point, plenty of rooms left. Or people just claim houses, too."

[tinstar]

The past few days had been impossibly long. Raylan felt like his heart and soul had been taken outside and beaten worse than his face which sported a few bruises that were starting to darken nicely. But he'd been allowed to come back home and that was something. He had to keep an eye on those silver linings before he forgot what they looked like again.

He was walking down Phillips idly, checking Ellie's house to make sure she hadn't come back while he wasn't looking and one door let to the next to the next to the next. How many people had come and gone and lived in these houses? He could almost hear Dean asking him what the hell he was doing and if he'd checked on the prison wine. Eventually, he made it to 1305's door and it wasn't hard to spot Klaus sprawled out on the couch. That didn't look like a.. a healthy sprawl.

Raylan didn't bother to knock, he just cracked the door and poked his head in, no hat to worry about knocking around.

"Hey," he started, eyeing the trash bag with a frown and inviting himself in more. "Decide to take a break in a booze and snatch?"

No shame or judgement, they'd all snatched and raided these houses and more people would do behind them and the moonshine was a community commodity at this point; he and Doc weren't keeping track, so long as they got the bottles back.

[bestfuneralever]

Klaus is feeling awfully floaty by now. It's the kind of thing he used to feel all the time, but he hasn't in. God. How long, now? Three... months. Maybe. Years. He can't remember. He can't remember and god, it's nice. He doesn't have the tolerance he'd clung to so tightly for so long anymore, he maybe shouldn't have taken so many of the pills. Maybe they weren't Xanax, after all.

He hears the shuffling around the house and he's clumsily clamoring to sit up. "Heeyyy–" he pauses and leans over the back of the couch, cigarette tucked between two fingers. "No hat means Jeff!" he declares it confidently, but the words are slurred around the edges in a way that isn't just attributed to the typical sound of having a little too much moonshine. There's also a blessed rasp Klaus doesn't remember the last time he heard in his own voice. It feels and sounds more like him when it's there, though.

[tinstar]

Shit. It was in the way Klaus moved, the way his lips didn't seem to quite be working right - his eyes sure weren't and whatever hesitations Raylan had about what was going on here were suddenly much more narrowed down. Thank god for long legs that get him over to Klaus's side quickly, where he kneels and encourages Klaus to lay back with one hand on his shoulder.

"Apparently I'm person nongrata, huh?" He could work a small smile onto his face but it didn't stick as he glanced at the bottle. "This isn't just shine.." Worried hazel eyes came back to Klaus's face. "Klaus. Darlin'. Focus now. What else you take? Where's whatever else you took?"

He was calm and soft, despite the worry because yelling and getting anything kicked up at Klaus directly was going to be pointless at this exact moment in time. First things first - find out what he took and then go from there.

[bestfuneralever]

He frowns in an almost comical sort of way as the other man seemed to cross the room in five steps. "Mmmnnnot Jeff. Voice's'all wrong." Then, he brightens. "Raylan! Heeeyy, where's your hat?" He taps a finger to his head; he's long-since forgotten about the home-items not being around.

He flops back down onto the couch, unconcerned, despite the very obvious worry he saw in Raylan's eyes. He leans against the arm of the couch and drags his knees up to give the hat-less cowboy space to sit with him on the couch if he decides to. "Mmmnn I dunno." is all the answer he gives at first, taking a long drag from his cigarette.

As he tries to think back to when he took the pills, he blows out the smoke. "I dunno," his voice is nearly a song now. "They were small and yellow...xanax I thought, but maybe valium. I dunno, but I feel better than I have in mmmmonths." He laughs, and it's somehow equal parts genuine and hollow all at once, and reaches for the ashtray to stub out his cigarette.

"C'mere," he reaches one hand up toward the older man, fingers flexing. "C'mere. Hey. Hey, what happened?" Whatever track he'd first been on is abandoned as he sees the bruises on Raylan's face.

[tinstar]

It was a smooth rise and turn that got Raylan sitting on the couch next to Klaus, one hand propped on the back of the couch as he tilts his body towards the younger man, like he was almost going to wrap the man up into a straighter sitting position.

"I lost it. My boots and jacket too-" His tone suggested it didn't matter. It sort of did but it was so small, it became unimportant in the light of everything else. They'd all learn to identify him some other way.

"They in there?" Raylan was in the middle of reaching towards the bag when Klaus's hand intercedes and Raylan pauses before hooking it and dragging it close. He'd let Klaus examine him if he needed to, but shook his head to start.

"Fell down a couple of flight of stairs into some doorknobs. It's okay. When's the last time you ate somethin'? How long you been here?" Considering how the first answers had gone, Raylan wasn't sure Klaus would be able to say.

[bestfuneralever]

There's a lopsided little smirk on his face as Raylan does join him on the couch. Like he'd really won a prize or something. Absolutely pleased as punch to have a couch buddy.

The tone casting it aside as unimportant means it's discarded almost instantly for Klaus. He can barely thread a conversation together at the moment, so he won't hold onto anything that's deemed unnecessary.

"Did you try to wear my mom's heels?" He snorts, he knows he's told Raylan that story. "Ate? Uhhh..." his utterance trails off into a laugh. That's answer enough, isn't it? "Here, like- on this couch? In this house? Just– earlier. Today, I mean. Just...yeah. Today. I was at your house last night. You weren't there. Were you? I don't think so."

[tinstar]

"I was upstairs, yeah," he confirmed softly, glancing at the door again. Okay, he'd eaten and he wasn't activly throwing up but.. Raylan couldn't help but feel a little lost as to what the next step was. No more shine, that was step one.

It didn't matter what had happened to Raylan's face. It would heal and Klaus's inability to argue with him about how it should be classified was embraced.

"Darlin', you got any idea how many of these little things you took? I-- Might have to go find someone who knows a little more about this, I ain't comfortable with you sitting here like this."

[bestfuneralever]

"I don't-" He laughs and shakes his head. "What're you talkin'bout? I'm fiiiiine." He sits up, just barely inches from Raylan's face with the force of how fast he'd come up. "Ray-Ray," he presses a hand flat against Raylan's chest. "I'm fine. Seriously." he turns that hand back to himself and slaps his own chest. His voice drops down into a very loud stage-whisper. "I'm an expert."