prelude

[singmod]

January 1st 2015

Do you remember yesterday? What is tomorrow?
How will you face this quiet apocalypse?
— Raphael van Lierop.

As the old year falls and the new year begins, the skies fill with light. An Aurora comes on the last day of December, and with it the usual signs of it: the ethereal noise, the cracks and pops in the air, the stuttering of electrics as they struggle to power on and then blare and flicker. It is, as Interlopers have come to know, business as usual — in terms of the Auroras within this world. However, something a little different happens this time.

Interlopers will fall asleep all over the town of Milton. Even the ones who fight sleep and try to stay up into the small hours of the night will find themselves drifting off for a short while — as if their eyes just feel too heavy to keep open, and their minds slip into a deep kind of quiet darkness without their realising. And at first, there is nothing — nothing but the quiet dark. Something peaceful, almost.

A dream comes.

The first thing you notice is blood in your mouth, the cold in your bones, the deafening din in your ears — as if you are caught in static and the sound of howling winds through pine trees. You are afraid. At first, you do not know why. You find yourself on your knees in the snow. The skies are filled with green light, the air is thick with smoke. And then the realisation comes:

This is the ending of all things.

You look up, to the sight before you: a huge, shapeless shadow. Towering above you, over you. A head peers down at you: a cluster of three wolf skulls, eye-sockets glowing green and terrible, and their three open maws, dripping with more green. The sound it makes is unnatural, you cannot put it into words. The darkness draws in, you are so cold, so tired.

This is the ending of all things.

It is so hungry. You are so tired. The world falls away, you cannot see the stars, the dark hiding them from view. Were they even there to begin with? Or did they go out? You have forgotten. And you know, you know—

This is the ending of all things.

The skies glimmer, licks of strange, colourful wisps curl above — a voice screams out your name, from the static and winds. Through the noise. A woman’s voice. You have heard this voice before, in the lights and noise. Do you see? What could be? What you could become?

Can you hold on? Please. A hand grips your shoulder, but as you turn — the dream ends.

For some, they snap into waking with a shout or cry. Some will shudder awake to find tears in their eyes. All over Milton, the Interlopers wake: shaken, unsure, afraid. They will awaken to the dark: the Aurora is gone — slowly fading from the night skies into an otherwise calm and clear night.

It is a new year.

Comments

[eighteenhalflives]

Tobi had almost expected company, when he'd come looking for the library mentioned on the message board. It only made sense, he thought, to scour every text available for information; even if he didn't find something pertinent to the strange goings-on in the town, the resource was invaluable. Any collection of books in readable condition was.

Finding it unguarded seemed unnatural, even reminding himself that the evidence suggested this place was in a time before the War. That books should be commonplace enough that people wouldn't think twice about them. But maybe that just meant he'd have more time to look through them without interference, so he tucked the feeling away in his mind and got to work.

The silence was a lead blanket, dragging time to a lazy crawl, until it wasn't. Dogmeat's low growl ripped Tobi from his thoughts as he trawled over the shelves, and a flash of reflex moved his hand to the switch on his pip-boy while his attention reeled to find the threat he hadn't sensed approaching.

Maybe Rorschach would catch a glimpse of the (haha) interlopers before the light clicked off and darkness flooded back; two bodies, considerably shorter than the monster from the dreams. A shepherd-shaped mutt and the back of a leather jacket with a coiled green serpent embroidered on. Newcomers he might have seen skulking between abandoned houses in the cold night, if he hadn't been at the feast to overhear the way the boy's questions for the locals seemed to almost follow a script.

[moralabsolutism]

He heard the dog's low growl and his own (metaphorical) hackles rose up in response. Rorschach did not like dogs. He saw them all as being dumb, vicious brutes who didn't know how to think for themselves and so only did what they were told. He saw the pair that was in there just for a moment before the light completely dimmed.

His eyes would take a moment to readjust to the darkness. As they did, he called out. "What are you doing in here?" It seemed like a stupid idea. Whoever was in here clearly was sneaking about and up to no good. Like they'd really be foolish enough to answer him out loud as to their motivations for coming into the library at this hour of the night.

He kept tight hold of the book. (Anna Karenina he'd seen in the dim gloom before the light had gone out.) A nice thick volume just in case whoever was in here either tried to attack or sic the big beast on him.

[eighteenhalflives]

Being caught off-guard wouldn't have been ideal even in the best situation, but as it was the darkness was oppressive - it was an advantage Tobi was used to having, being able to see while others fumbled around blindly, but something in the lights had messed with his eyes. Messed with more than that. He didn't like the way it left him vulnerable, dragged him back down to a level he'd thought he'd overcome.

His hand was on the knife in his jacket when the voice called out, stupidly reassuring—someone asking questions instead of attacking immediately. He indulged in a scowl before answering, crouching to tug Dogmeat by the scruff back away from whoever was at the end of the shelves.

"I was reading. The fuck else do you do in a library?"

Not the most diplomatic way to phrase his answer, but it was honest, and part of him still anticipated the need to defend himself.

[moralabsolutism]

Uh-huh. 'Reading.' Right. He really didn't believe that was the truth and honestly didn't expect whoever was in here to tell him what their actual plans for being in this place in the middle of the night.

His eyes began to adjust to the darkness and he crept forward on silent feet. It really was pitch black in the room, the only light being shone right now coming in being the moonlight and the fading lights of the Aurora far overhead. "Little late for reading hours," he pointed out.

Whoever it was in here, he was going to lump them a good one with the book and his little dog too.

[eighteenhalflives]

"So?" He couldn't retreat much further before he'd hit a wall, he knew that. Knew it was a risk to keep talking, too, because it just meant giving the guy a solid bead on his location if this was turning into a fight...but Tobi never lacked for confidence, and he wasn't keen on making enemies of the whole town just yet. "It's not like there's a sign that says 'closed after 6pm'—"

It'll be open anytime for you to use. Those were Rorschach's words. Interesting if he's gone back on them already.

"—Look, man, I don't know what you want from me, but if you touch me I'll fucking gut you. So how about we don't do this in here with all these nice clean books."

That was the warning shot. If whoever it was didn't back down, he'd consider himself fully justified in following through with it.

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach shifted his position, moving forward. But the he stopped again at hearing this stranger's reason for coming in. "First place you go after a nightmare is a library?" He asked skeptically. Look, so had he, but he ran the place! There was a big difference!

Although the more he thought about it, a library wasn't the worst place in the world to seek out info on whatever monsters had appeared in that horrible dream. At least it had to be better than swapping theories with the other Interlopers like he'd been. It just seemed strange for someone to be in what Rorschach considered to be his territory in the middle of the night.

[eighteenhalflives]

Stupid question, but Tobi decided he'd take it gratefully if it meant getting out of here with all his teeth. A brief, uncomfortable pause as he calculated the remaining threat before he answered in a more solemn tone: "Well, not the first place, but yeah. When it's a nightmare being inflicted on a number of people by what seems to be some kind of spirit with a connection to the surrounding area."

Something that felt natural and unnatural all at once; it wasn't the only reason Tobi was interested in the library, but a thing like that couldn't have gone entirely unnoticed if it was a local fixture. Even barring that, understanding the culture of the settlement could uncover more clues.

He wondered if the stranger in the dark understood that. If he cared enough to question the ending of all things.

"The kind of books people keep tell you a lot about them."

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach began to think he understood what Tobi meant. "Knowledge is power." That idea made a lot more sense to him than he'd first thought upon realizing there was someone in there in the middle of the night. He still wasn't sure if he could trust this guy and wasn't putting the heavy book down anytime soon but at least he was no longer in 'Attack! Attack! Attack!' mode as he so often was.

"Got a name?" Now that they didn't seem on the verge of killing one another, he wanted to know just who he was dealing with here. He'd had a dog with him. Rorschach thought through his memories, trying to figure out which Interlopers he'd seen with dogs. There had been a least a few in the entire time he'd been here, not to mention that creepy black mutt who may or may not have been a demon/ghost/some type of spirit.

[eighteenhalflives]

"Mine for yours, yeah?" It was only fair, which was about as much as Tobi was willing to contribute to any negotiation as long as he didn't have a reason to change that. "You can call me Tobi."

He hadn't seen the stranger before he'd switched off his Pip-boy's auxiliary light, relying on Dogmeat's judgment of the situation first with as much as he'd been off his game lately. The dog was still tense, watchful, but when he felt it shift to sit beside him he let go of the knife and instead reached for his shades.

A question for the voice in the dark:

"Are we gonna be cool with each other if I turn this light back on?"

[moralabsolutism]

After a pause, the vigilante answered. "Rorschach," he said by way of introducing himself. A fitting name for him given the way his mask worked. Even in the complete dark, the black blobs continued to move around on his face even when the rest of him stood stock-still.

"Won't attack," Rorschach said, assuring Tobi that he wasn't about to immediately give him a concussion with the book if they were able to see one another. "Make sure the dog doesn't either." He didn't like dogs even at the best of times and this was far from being one of those.