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

[solitarysoul]

"I don't know...but if he's like the god I meant I bet he thinks watching us all suffer here is great. I'd expect more blood, though."

[moralabsolutism]

"Still plenty of time for that," Rorschach growled out in a grim tone. If more people kept being brought in every other month, as he'd suspected the pattern would continue to go, that would provide a never-ending supply of victims for this god of destruction to watch with glee as they suffered.

[solitarysoul]

"...yeah. And I guess gods live?" was it living if they were a god? Whatever. "for a real long time so its probably been like no time for him. Since we got here. The wolves were probably connected to him.

[moralabsolutism]

"Where I am from, some say God created Earth in six days. A 'day' could be a very long time for a god. We might still be on day number seven right now." He sounded a bit philosophical despite the dire circumstances they all found themselves in at the moment.

"Time they've spent watching us might be no different than a TV show for most people." The usual half-hour ones he meant.

[solitarysoul]

"Yeah. So I guess how long we think its been doesn't really matter. But that also means whatever the dream was showing us might not happen for awhile. We have to make sure not to forget it and think we might be safe here."

[moralabsolutism]

"Told anyone else about this?" Rorschach felt info like that was imperative to get out to all the Interlopers as fast as they could. It might mean the difference between being able to live through whatever happened next and being eaten by some demonic demon dog god.

[solitarysoul]

"Yeah...I've talked with a few people. It seems like we've all had the same dream. I told them about Gro-goroth, but I'm not sure how seriously they took me." That mountie guy sure seemed like he blew just blew Levi off.

[moralabsolutism]

"More's their funeral if they don't." One didn't end up like Rorschach did without developing a few superstitions about how things worked and this idea of some god of destruction roaming around played perfectly into how his mindset worked. Now things were starting to come together in his mind, answering several questions he'd had for a long time now.

[solitarysoul]

"Yeah. We really have to just be paranoid here and assume the worst." Hope for the best, maybe, but he's far from optimistic.

[moralabsolutism]

"Look out for each other. They--" He made a gesture that encompassed all of the other Interlopers in Milton. "--Won't understand. Got to protect them."

[solitarysoul]

"They don't...I don't know how long we can keep hard, uncomfortable truths from them. Some don't deserve to need to worry about all that. But I'll try. I'll do everything I can to protect these people, this place."

He's not entirely certain when he decided that. He started just patrolling to keep an eye out for dangerous animals or whatever and to look for any sort of clue to what was going on and to give him something to do. But as he kept doing it he began to see it as his duty, just as it was in the military. To protect the people who were lucky enough to remain ignorant of how bad things really were.

[moralabsolutism]

"Can't do more than that," Rorschach said in agreement. They could do their best to protect the others in this small town, though there was only so much they could do against a god. Rorschach still was determined to save as many people as he was able to from whatever came at them next. He felt Levi could help with that.

There had been a little bit of a shift into how he viewed Levi. From something as just a competent kid who knew how handle a gun to now something more of the way he would have viewed a fellow mask, someone who was an ally he could depend on.

[solitarysoul]

He nods grimly. If he thought about it, the dream didn't really change all that much. They still needed to be paranoid hyper-villagent. It was more a reminder to not get complainant and think things were safe than anything dire.
Though see a real god (or so he thought) was involved did make him more unsettled than he had been.

"I should get back to my patrol. I'll let you know if I notice anything."

[moralabsolutism]

Rorschach nodded. He'd already trusted the kid a little and now that increased just a bit more. They all needed to work together if they were going to end up surviving whatever came at them next. "Keep in touch."