villagelogs | 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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Tai has no particular business being in her field of view, but he has no particular business being anywhere right now, save for wandering around to figure out more about where "here" is. So he's walking down the street, which seems fairly empty at the moment, except his senses tell him that isn't true. Someone is watching him?

Following that feeling, he looks up... and sure enough, there is someone up on top of the nearest roof, peering down at him.

"Oh, hello." His tone is more puzzled than anything else. He doesn't sense any ill intent, but he also hadn't expected someone to be quietly staring at him from a rooftop.

He's new, she recognizes immediately. The population of the town is small enough that she's generally able to recognize everyone by sight at this point, even if she hasn't spoken to them directly - but if this man isn't a fresh face, then he's been very reclusive over the past few weeks.

"What are you doing?" she asks, as if this is a perfectly reasonable question for someone stalking people from rooftops to have. "You are--"

A pause, as she figures out how to word this using her very limited English skills. "You are look?"

She holds out a palm and 'walks' two fingers around it in circles, trying to indicate aimless wandering.

He would admit he's a little baffled by someone sitting on a roof being baffled by his wandering. But he takes it in stride. The awkwardness of the question means he takes an extra second to process what she means, but he catches on quickly enough and nods.

"I'm learning where things are," he explains, a little bit slowly, not sure how much she can understand. He would guess this isn't her native language, though he wonders what is. Is it one that even exists in the extensive databases of some droids he's met? It's a strange thought.

"I'm new here."

"From here," she guesses, nodding towards the beach - the place where, as far as she knows, all newcomers show up. After considering him for another moment, she moves to stand, casually walks to the edge of the roof, and backflips off, landing on her feet in front of him. Sup, Tai. Ridiculous acrobatics are her forte.

"Here, you will be death," she informs him, because if anyone wants a tour of the town that isn't weird and morbid, they sure as hell shouldn't go to Callisto for it. "And you will live, again. You will be see magic. Mathias is weird; you understand this?"

Tai isn't too surprised by the acrobatics. He's spent the past several years of his life around Jedi, after all.

His eyebrows furrow at the assertion about death, though his expression relaxes into something a bit more wry as he replies, "It does seem weird." More than a little.

"What do you mean about death and then living again?"

"You understand death, yes?" she asks - trying to make sure that that word, at least, is coming across correctly. Just to be sure, she'll follow it up with a couple hand motions: sliding a finger across her throat, and miming stabbing a sword into her stomach. "This. If this, then after, you will live; you will living. The gods here make death gone. Really, it's something of a curse, if you think about it - it means there's no escape."

She does not, of course, expect him to understand that last bit, but she looks at him expectantly all the same, wanting to verify that everything that wasn't in Greek came across as she meant it.

He nods when she asks whether he understands death. That isn't the difficult part of this concept. He definitely does not understand the last bit, and replies with an appropriately confused look, followed by a brief moment of thoughtful silence. It's a disquieting idea, for more than one reason.

He almost doesn't want to ask. But he needs to ask. He hopes she'll understand the question. "Was anyone here dead already before they got here?"

Callisto pauses here for a moment, running the words through her head - picking out the familiar bits, puzzling over the unfamiliar bits, and trying to piece together the meaning.

"Yes," she says slowly - not completely positive that she's understood him correctly, but giving a stab at it anyway. "Yes, before here, I'm death. Dead; I was dead."

She understood correctly, from what he can tell. His brows raise and then furrow with that new information.

"You were." It's half question, half stunned confirmation. The fact that she says it so certainly is another thing to wonder at. For himself, it happened so suddenly that he can't be entirely certain... but he suspects, and this is only making that suspicion more likely to be true.

"Was everyone?" He can't help wondering now. That would change a lot of how he's thought about this place, if it's true. But if it is, then why is he the only one here from his world? Why not Hennix? Why not everyone who died in the fire?

"I was, I were--" she says, with an irritated wave of her hand; she thinks he's correcting her grammar, and assumes she missed some intricacy in how the tenses are used. "I were in Tártaros, the place for death. And you?"

His expression grows a bit quizzical at that response. It takes him a second to even piece together how she probably heard what he said, and then he's not sure how to correct that without just causing more problems. She also hadn't answered his question, but he'll figure out how to get back to that after he answers hers.

"I don't know," he admits. "I remember feeling pain, and losing consciousness." It occurs to him after he says it that he doesn't know if she'll know that word, but he's not really sure of a better way to rephrase it. "And I know someone was trying to kill me." Not Ben, but someone else. It had been so sudden that he's not even sure who, but he'd felt the intent clear as day in that moment.

065-071 » assign to oblivion / part iii

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