villagelogs | 065-071 » assign to oblivion / part iii

065-071 » assign to oblivion / part iii

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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The sound of feet in the sand behind him has him turning as she calls his name, face breaking into a soft smile that pinched into concern at the look on her face. He'd been worried about her but Jeff had belayed those concerns the day before. Coward. Maybe he was. Maybe he didn't want her to see him so fucked up and stretched thin. Maybe he wanted to keep her out of it.

"Sorry, Songbird, just.." His attempt at a small smile fell off his face with no anchor in anything to keep it in its place. "Seems Mathis decided to split us all up again." That's what she was talking about right?

He took a few steps forward, expecting a hug that wasn't going to come.

"Are you okay?"

She wants to hug him. Hell, she’d take fake-punching him at the moment. He asks if she’s okay and she just shakes her head, trying to wrap her thoughts around everything wanting to spill out.

Her own expression twists with concern when she gets a better look at him.

“What—-are you okay? Did you and Tim fight or something?”

It would make sense, as a reason for them not being home.

His expression pinched again and he held out a hand, opening an arm for her to tuck herself under if she wanted.

"It's.." He swallowed thickly, face contorting through pain and resistance and shame, before he shook his head. He could have pretended to be, made a joke of it offplayed it, blamed her age for the need to do it. But he'd promised her and he wasn't in the shape he once was. He didn't have it in him right now to be so flexible around his own word. "I can't. I'm fine."

He was not fine.

"Okay," she says softly, accepting that. I can't is better than a lie. "But you're not fine. I mean that's okay, but just as long as you know it."

She reaches out and brushes his fingertips with hers, her skin crawling at the brief contact, a little shudder rolling through her.

"I'm not fine either," Athena whispers. "There's something... You know how you said after you died, that Mathias, it did something to you? I didn't die or anything, nothing like that, but..."

She squeezes her eyes shut and lets her hand drop. "It did do something. It has to have done something."

He had to be fine. Some semblance of it otherwise he knew he'd try to vanish into a bottle. He was going to end up there, but for right now, he could try.

His brow pinched at the way she touched his fingers, the way she shuddered afterwards and he only let his hand drop once hers had. Shit.

"What's goin' on," he said, taking a few steps closer. He wasn't going to touch her, not without her permission and that had nothing to do with whatever Mathis was doing to her now. But he could be there. Him and his bruises. "What'd Mathis do?"

She forced herself not to back up, in spite of instincts screaming for her to do otherwise. Athena wasn't going to hurt him, if she could avoid it, not like that. But she felt like a live wire in human skin.

"I don't know," she says miserably. "I woke up like everyone else did, when things were all dusty, and I thought 'maybe it's just the dust' but we cleaned it up and I showered like twelve times and it wouldn't go away--"

She takes a breath. "I can't touch people. I can't touch them without wanting to claw my own skin off."

"Shit," he tsks, head bobbing in sympathy, hand half raising and then falling back down to fist at his side. Every impulse to comfort her was exactly the wrong thing to do right now and he didn't want to add the image of her screaming and scrambling away from him to his memory banks.

To help himself, he took a few steps back. Can't embrace her if she's not in arms reach.

"Give it some days. Mine.. Mine wore off.. Until I burned down the Town Hall. Now.." Now all he dreamed about was his houses going up with everyone he cared about in them.

"It's okay. Where did y'all go? I knew you were back yesterday but only cause I saw Jeff in the market place." He knew Jeff would take care of Athena. It let him let go of the worry he had. Jeff could handle anything.

"We were here. I mean like, some version of here. It was like everyone else disappeared, just a few of us left. I um, that weird asylum place had a bunch of drugs and I stole... I don't know if it's actually stealing, but I took a bunch for Malcolm, and some of those restraints, and..."

She bites her lip. "And I saw stuff. Other peoples' memories. And some people saw mine."

Raylan's brow furrowed. "You were here?"

He glanced uselessly towards the town, hating it a little more. Overlaying them in reality, is that what it was? The glare was turned back down to the sand for a long second before he nodded.

"Us too. All of 1306, Tim, Callisto, Miss Kitty, Eliot and Hardison."

He thought about offering up what his memory was. He opted not to.

"You okay with them knowin' whatever they know? They okay?" Did they have anything to worry about?

She rubs her arms, biting her lip. "I mean... Jeff knows. And--"

She stops, blinks a few times to keep her tears back. "And other people, whose memories I saw too. So I mean. That's not so bad."

Athena looks up at him, lip trembling again. "It was... my last night in New York. My girlfriend, Robbie, we were settling in our squat for the night and these two cops showed up. They had pills. Oxy. They were going to arrest us and say we had it, and we were old enough that having that much would get us charged as adults. My dad sent them. He s... He told them to tell me that if I wanted to eat pussy I should get used to being someone's bitch."

She looks skyward, making an annoyed noise at herself and rubbing her face with both sleeves. "I ran, but they caught Robbie. Hurt her. I just... let them. I just bolted and left her behind, and I left for Philadelphia the next day."

Athena fixes her focus on Raylan again, vision blurred. "So yeah, that's a thing that like four people saw, so that's great. What about... what about you? Did people see your shit?"

God it hurts to see her cry and know that he couldn't do the most basic thing about it. Life just kept dealin' them blows, huh?

His face got darker the longer she went on until he had to point it back at the ground. He was gonna need to get her father's name and information, go meet the man back home and find a reason to bury him alive. It didn't matter if the man didn't know why.. Raylan would teach him a lesson.

He cleared his throat, half glancing up as he scratched at his forehead.

"Yeah they.. found a copy of this book I like. It.." His hand found it's hope propped on his hip. "They got to see the night that Winona served me our divorce papers. I'd gone down to Miami to look for a house and I know I was slackin' a little bit, but I had work and-" That didn't matter. "She decided to leave me for the realtor. I was notified of that fact by bein' served. It wasn't my best night as a calm rational person. Nothin' compared to.. to that."

Nothing, clearly.

"Nothin' compared to most of what everyone else had to share. It wasn't pretty." He took a deep breath. "I'm just glad you're back. You and Jeff both. If I had known earlier, I'd have said something. Left a.. a note when I left that first morning."

She sees his face change, and she smiles a little, though it's a half-broken expression. "Jeff won't even call him my dad. He just calls him 'That Man,' and I'm pretty okay with that."

Athena hugs herself in lieu of his being able to do it. "God... They just picked whatever we'd fucking hate most for people to see, huh."

She can't help thinking of Kirigan (the Darkling), of Jeff's own memory, of the nightmares in the interim.

Athena bites her lip. She promised Kirigan. She did. But it's Raylan, and if she can arm him against possible future attack...

"Kirigan hates regular people. I mean... I don't know if that's true any more, his memory, he said it was from hundreds of years ago, but..." She takes a deep breath. "I promised I wouldn't say what it was, but Raylan, if he doesn't have a reason to help people against the Shadow Man and Mathias... he won't."

She scrubs her hands through her hair. "And I understand why he won't," she adds softly. "But that doesn't mean I don't want to."

"Sperm donor," Raylan offered with a dry lift of his lips, only wishing that he could claim the same detachment from his own father. Harlan didn't afford him that luxury. "Our personal worst moments maybe. Most twisted out of context highlight reel I ever seen," he sighed, scratching at his forehead. "But you're strong. We're strong."

They could weather it.

She had a look on her face. Raylan tilted his head curiously and kept his mouth shut for a second to let her get to what she was getting to. Kirigan hates regular people. They'd brushed past something like this before, but never that directly. As much as he wanted to know what, specifically, that memory was, he wouldn't ask and force her to consider breaking that promise.

"We did something to him, didn't we." That tended to be how it went. "You don't.. have to answer that," he assured with a lift of his hand before sighing heavily again. "Alright. That's okay. Lotta men like that out in the world. Just.. not so many that are so dangerous. And nothin' good comes from rilin' that kinda man up. Right now, he's against this place and like it or not, any death or blood that Mathis gets work against his goal, our goal, of letting this place have her way with us. She'll break him down, I'm not worried about that. Let's give him the chance to have some humanity be shaken outta him. No use condemin' him for somethin' he hasn't done yet. Then we're gettin' into the scope of thought crimes and that's a tragedy."

He nodded again. "Thank you for tellin' me. That's valuable information." He wasn't going to use it against Kirigan directly either, as such, but it put another plane of perspective on the man.

Athena nods, relieved for some reason that Raylan isn't writing Kirigan off as a loss or an out-and-out enemy.

She takes a deep breath, dragging her hands through her hair, trying to get herself together when she's about ready to vibrate out of her skin for so many goddamn fucking reasons.

"I really wish I could hug you," she says quietly. "The... compulsion or whatever, how long did it last for you?"

Writing Kirigan off would have been childish and short sighted. It also would have been unfair to paint him in such black and whites, even if it did fit the aesthetic. Raylan wasn't that kind of man. The world was not black and white. It was even less so here.

He would, eventually, extend that to anyone who came upon him in this place. Until they gave him reason otherwise.

"About a calendar week," he answered sympathetically. "When it's over, you've got a free pass to as many hugs as you can handle. In the meantime," he said, pausing to half turn and gesture at his pile of rocks as he continues. "You wanna throw rocks at Mathis? Technically it's called skipping but it's this or we start taking apart the houses in the new area and frankly, I need a break. You can scream while you do it, I won't tell anyone. We could write our feelings about her on them."

She brightens at the suggestion, glad for the chance to do something with him regardless of what it is. "Are we aiming for the houses or the water, because I know I've got a preference but we might actually need one of them later."

They needed to do more regular ass things together here.

"Considerin' we can't count on Mathis to clean up the glass, why don't we beat on the water a little bit," he replied with a grin as he broke away to pick up a couple of rocks and hand her one. "You go first."

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065-071 » assign to oblivion / part iii

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