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.)

navigation | faq | locations | report updates

Comments

Ellie | The Last Of Us 2

[enduresurvive]

[ No plotting comment from me this round, but please hmu at boywonder if you'd like something specific! ]

DAY 65

[enduresurvive]

Ellie startles awake, though she can't name what it is that does it. She can't remember going to sleep, or what she was doing before. It's incredibly disorienting. And...what the fuck, is this dirt? No...dust. Everything is dusty.

She doesn't recognise the clothes she's wearing, and that freaks her out enough that she practically fights her way out of bed. Her clothes are gone. This is the room in 1304 Phillips where she's been staying since she got to Mathias, though it's blanketed in that dust now. But her clothes are gone and that feels pretty violating. She tears through the room.

The clothes she got at the store in town are still there. And Yennefer's charm is still there around her wrist, though Dina's bracelet isn't. She pulls on jeans and a shirt (though she can't find shoes, since she'd been wearing her shoes from home). She tears through the house next, looking for Yen. The sorceress isn't there, but that doesn't mean much.

She just leaves the house, no shoes and all, and looks around. It's...different. The weather is different.

"Fuck, please don't let me be the only one here," she says out loud.

A; closed to 1306 residents

Her first stop is 1306, where she bangs on the door pretty much nonstop until someone answers. She's visibly shaken, still a little dusty, and anxiously shifting from one foot to the other.

B; OTA

After that, catch her at the Gull, Town Hall, or just really wandering around town. She won't go very far out yet, waiting to see who or what else she can find. This is a really strange time for her, after all.

[conning]

Neal isn’t sure how to handle the waking-up-in-scrub-pajamas thing yet. His skin feels like it’s crawling under the dust that smears against him rather than coming off entirely. He’s keeping himself busy cleaning up the kitchen, scrubbing things down so he can make some kind of breakfast, when he hears pounding on the door.

He hasn’t been out to look for people yet. He’s too unsettled, too disoriented. But when he opens the front door and sees Ellie he immediately brightens, almost going for a hug before remembering who he’s talking to.

“Ellie! You’re back, we looked for you—-Doc is going to be so damn happy you’re okay.”

[enduresurvive]

She can finally let go of that breath she's holding when the door opens.

"Neal. Thank fuck," she says, breathless, relief washing over her. She isn't alone here. It's not just her. And he says Doc's name, so Doc is still okay. Something inside her untwists at that; her weird emotional projection onto Doc maybe isn't fair, but it is what it is. She's glad to see Neal, glad to hear Doc's name. Hopefully Raylan and Malcolm and Ainsley and everyone are okay too.

"I woke up, like, covered in fucking dust?" she says. "I don't remember going to sleep, I don't..."

She pauses, frustrated. "Wait, you...looked for me?"

There's something chilling about that. They looked for her. But as far as she knows, she never left the house.

"I didn't know I went anywhere. Shit. How long has it been?"

[conning]

It takes him a moment to sort out the numbers. Every day here feels either like an hour or a year.

"Three days," he says, and he wants to add not that long as thought it will be reassuring, but... if she doesn't know she was even gone, that won't be a comfort. His stomach twists at the remembrance of his own lost time. "Too long."

[exsto]

He's got a lot on his mind and Bucky is almost at the point of being too exhausted to sort it all out. So, as he spends endless hours walking after his conversation with Daisy, he starts shoving it all away, as far as he can. But it doesn't work as well as it used to. Everything happening here was only in addition to everything else that sat idle in his mind and it was starting to feel like too much.

Bucky stops at the edge of the water before his eyes drift over and up to the lighthouse. Or, specifically the rockface just under it and then the spot he'd landed. Staring at it makes him angry. More than he can honestly say he's felt since arriving in Mathias.

He turns quickly, hands shoving deep into his jeans pockets as he wanders to the Grey Gull, hoping to find something stiff to drink. When he arrives, he doesn't expect to see the girl; someone he recognizes in passing though never meeting officially.

Not knowing if she wants to be bothered, he glances up, vaguely gesturing towards the bar. The girl is there by herself. At least that's what it looks like. One can never be too sure.

"Just here for a drink. You waiting for someone?" he asks.

[enduresurvive]

Ellie is still a little bit disoriented from the weather change, all her things missing, whatever. She knows now that everyone didn't just randomly disappear, but she might have? It's unnerving, since she doesn't recall being anywhere else.

She came here to see if anyone else was around, though she knows better than to expect any fucking answers in Mathias. There are never really satisfactory answers in her experience.

No one else is here yet and she's about to leave when Bucky comes in.

She has that same vague sense of recognition; she's seen him before, but doesn't know his name or any of that.

"Oh. Uh...no, I was just...looking around? I woke up and it was kind of fucking horrible. I...thought maybe I was the last one left. Stupid, huh?"

sorry for the delay - rl kicked my butt

[exsto]

Bucky shakes his head, pausing his visual search of whatever might be under the counter to look at the young girl as she speaks. It then registers what she says and he narrows his eyes, clearly curious about what she means by that.

"Nah, I don't think so. That's kind of how I wake up all the time," he says, giving a light shrug of one shoulder. "Is this where you were when you woke up after the new locations appeared?"

He doesn't think she was in his group. Then again, he wasn't really looking out for people, let alone new faces.

no worries!

[enduresurvive]

Ellie mostly just watches him, a little bit wary the way she is of most people she doesn't know. She raises an eyebrow at his answer, though.

"Man, that must be a pain in the ass, feeling like that all the time," she says, almost impressed at his admission. It does sound awful, though.

She shakes her head, slowly. "New locations? No, I just...woke up in my house like always, except I was covered in fucking dust or some shit? My clothes were gone but I still had these ones that I got since I came here. What new locations?"

[exsto]

If she's watching, it shouldn't take her too long for her to spot the black and gold hand peeking under the sleeve of his light grey hoodie after he grabs the bottle of moonshine and sets it down on top of the bar.

He doesn't answer that it does. But for a split second, Bucky's face conveys a sad but certain acceptance about being alone.

A glass is pulled over and some clear liquid poured into it. "Yeah, few new houses. The biggest one seems to be some sort of asylum. The other is a bed and breakfast. There's an old church and the chasm is gone now, too."

He drinks a mouthful.

"What's the last thing you remember happening in town?" Bucky asks to get a good idea how long the girl has been gone for.

[sharker]

"You're not the only one."

But the real question's going to be, is being here with Parker really an improvement over finding herself alone? She's still wearing her white pajamas as she moves towards Ellie curiously. Someone new? Or just someone she hasn't yet met?

She looks Ellie over, almost jealously. The white pajamas aren't terrible. At least she can move in them But they're not good, either. Too loose. Too easy to get caught on things. And the color means she's way too easily spotted.

"Where'd you find real clothes?"

[enduresurvive]

Parker's voice makes Ellie start a little. She's keyed up after that whole disorienting ordeal of waking up and all that. But it's just another regular resident, a woman she doesn't recognise. She tries to relax but doesn't quite get there.

She looks down at herself, her clothes that don't actually fit that well.

"Huh? Oh. Uh...I got this shirt from the house I stay in here, like, weeks ago. Jeans from the store. My regular clothes are fucking missing, though, like...stuff from home. You too, huh?"

Actually, that's almost reassuring, that it's not some weird punishment Mathias baked up just for Ellie. Whatever it means, though, can't be good. Nothing here is ever good, especially if it's weirder than usual.

[sharker]

"The store," Parker repeats, looking at Ellie's jeans with new interest. "Sounds...like a good place to buy things. With money."

Or whatever. You know. She nods, her expression sobering as she meets Ellie's eyes again. "Everything's gone. Or maybe..." She leans closer. "It's still there and we're not. You know? The town where we were, all our stuff's still there. And we're somewhere else."

[enduresurvive]

Confusion passes over Ellie's face for a moment. Money? Is that a thing? She has no idea. She's seen money, sure, but no one uses it for anything. It's just some relic of the world before to her.

"Buy? What, from who? No way, we just took what we fucking needed. No one was using anything in the store or whatever." At least no one was using the kid size clothes. She's a full grown adult, but she's underweight and not very tall, so kids stuff still fits her better. "I just got lucky."

She just stares through that whole creepy bit, but...then she remembers something Raylan told her, about dying and waking up in some other version of the town. Is that what this is? Fuck.

"Wait, did we...did we die? I thought I'd remember if I died."

[sharker]

Parker's face clears immediately. Good, she doesn't have to pretend.

"Oh." She looks at Ellie with new respect. "That works too."

But she looks troubled again at Ellie's question, taking a moment to consider it before shaking her head.

"I don't think so. I don't remember it either. If we didn't die the first time we came here...I don't think we died this time either."

[skladka]

It's unfortunate that he's also clad in white pajamas, and while it ultimately makes no difference in the grand scheme of things, it's certainly a nuisance. Irritation is a familiar feeling to the Darkling when it comes to the small town of Mathias, something that ripples through him far more often than he'd care to admit since arriving, and this gets added to the ever growing list.

It's the lack of control: that someone has the ability to do this to him, of all people, without his knowledge or consent. If his thoughts drift to that--and they had when he woke up, moments before he'd checked to see if Alina was there--then his annoyance turns counterproductive.

He heads out of his house on Phillips and is only vaguely surprised to see someone else in the same questioning state as he is, although she voices her thoughts first. A smaller girl, young. Just as irritated as him. The Darkling allows his lips to quirk into a very thin, strained smile, eyes regarding her cooly. She's not wearing any shoes.

"You are not," he says evenly, approaching her in his own white clothing. His kefta is nowhere to be found, causing a strange sense of uneasiness in him if he thinks about it for too long.

[enduresurvive]

She doesn't recognise the Darkling, of course, which makes her wary. She's wary of men she doesn't know. Well, people she doesn't know, but especially men. He's got that same pj look she woke up with, though, so that's...

Is this a whole town thing? It could be. It's still disconcerting at best. It doesn't give her a sense of dread or foreboding, but she still has that feeling of violation. Her clothes, Dina's bracelet, they're gone. And it seems like a long time passed. What happened while they were unconscious?

She shakes off those lingering questions and focuses on the man in front of her for now.

"Thank fuck," she says. "I dunno if I could handle this nightmare town alone. Did you...just wake up here?"

[skladka]

The Darkling waits patiently, surprisingly calm given the circumstances. Or perhaps he's better at hiding it than most--regardless, his hands are clasped in front of him as Ellie speaks, nodding in affirmation.

"I've been a part of this place for a bit longer--but most of my time has been spent with only a few others. Were you sectioned off as well?" Like rats. An experiment of some sort.

He tries not to let that annoy him as much as it does.

[enduresurvive]

He does certainly seem calm, but that doesn't reassure Ellie at all. People deal with things differently, and sometimes men who are super calm in terrible situations are also pieces of shit. She's inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt, though, if only because everyone she's met in Mathias has been pretty cool. Even that vampire guy doesn't seem bad?

"I've been here...I don't fucking know. Some of us were the first ones, I guess. Me and Raylan and Henry and Five. I think we're the only ones left who have been here that long."

Saying it out loud is a terrible feeling, thinking of those that are gone now.

She doesn't know about Five yet.

"Sectioned off? No, what–what do you mean?"

[skladka]

Ah. Raylan. Ellie is young, then, but one of the more experienced of them. He makes note of the information, nodding politely. He wonders if her and Raylan are close, and, after a split second as his eyes move over Ellie, taking her in completely. After making some sort of assessment, he continues.

"You're braver than most," The Darkling says simply, all too familiar with how weathering time is nothing short of excruciating when there are circumstances beyond your control. A compliment to ease the conversation somewhat. He's done this before.

"Within a few days of my arrival, I found myself only able to interact with a smaller group of people--roughly 10. That wasn't the case for you?"

[abrightboy]

After hearing Ellie was back, Malcolm went looking for her, just to see her for himself. The first place he looked was the Gull and there she was.

"Ellie!" He wasn't sure how she would respond to a hug, so he kind of stopped short and awkwardly in front of her. "I'm so glad you're back."

[enduresurvive]

Ellie is glad to see Malcolm, and despite her general reticence, she's the hugging type in times like these. So she'll hug him if he lets her, and awkwardness be damned.

"Jesus, Malcolm, it's good to see you," she says. "I didn't even know I was gone until Neal told me." This fucking town, man.

[abrightboy]

He gladly wraps her up, holding her tight for a moment.

"Yeah, Doc makes a point of checking on you and you've been gone for days." His hands still on her shoulders, he steps back to look her over. "Are you okay?"

[enduresurvive]

"Neal said some of you looked for me," she answers. She doesn't really step far back away from him when he lets her go.

She makes a mental note to find Doc. She doesn't like the idea of being gone, not remembering. But if it were reversed, she'd want to see him to know he was real.

For now, though, she really is relieved to see Malcolm, especially since it's been a minute.

"I'm fine. I mean, I guess? I woke up with some weird shit on and everything was all covered in dust. Last thing I remember doing is me and Raylan tried to get across the chasm. We couldn't. What the fuck happened?"

[abrightboy]

“The chasm disappeared,” Malcolm informs her. “It’s gone. There’s a whole neighbourhood back there.” A beat. “Wanna go see?”