INTRO LOG #3

[bequiet]

INTRO LOG #3
Put a Sock in It
Content Warnings: Disorientation, memory loss, confusion
Themes: Arrival, survival, exploration, horror

You wake, standing. A thick, muddy red dust coats your skin and clothes - it sticks to your tongue and blocks your vision. Inhale and it chokes you, exhale and your breath puffs out in front of your face in a transparent maroon cloud. It tastes of copper, tangy and harsh. Movement is difficult, every limb tingles and aches. Look to your left, your right. Evenly spaced in each direction stands another person indistinguishable in every way from the next. You're disoriented and lethargic, unable to grasp onto a single thought. A pinprick of light blooms ahead and grows steadily larger; a door has opened.

Hands grip your wrists, push at the small of your back and guide you out of the darkness into a room with four walls and a thin, sagging ceiling. The plaster is peeling, the air is musty, and the floor is slick. White plastic piping juts up from the center and curves into multiple spouts, clean water flowing in uneven streams. Those hands pull your clothes off and clear the dust from your body, redress you in handsewn jumpsuits. By the time they’re through, you will have begun to come back to yourself.

A finger is pressed to your lips. Kind eyes meet your own and a single word is whispered - hush.

Led out of the room in a line, you’re taken down a short hallway and into another, much larger room. There’s a woman waiting for you there, Constance, with a child hugging her leg - a cloth bag in her hands. She reaches in and pulls out a device, passes one to each of you. Once finished, she begins to move both hands in graceful gestures, a language. One of the people who helped you lifts their device and the screen lights up, tracks the woman’s hands. Letters appear on the screen and you understand the device’s purpose. She tells you what she knows and it’s not much.

This world is haunted. Noise attracts them, so it is not allowed. Communication is through body language, soundless writing, and the device. She tells you that your feet must be light and your mouth never used. There is a community outside these doors, where you can survive together, but only if you agree to one thing: complete and total silence. You'll have time to talk it over. You may ask one question and receive one answer. There are others like you in the room, those who'd come earlier. They're there to help.

Acceptance allows you to journey outside. The ground is marked in pathways of sand, lining the paths to each building and everywhere in-between. You notice that the locals hold their devices always, aloft and glance to it often. It will not vibrate or make a sound to signal a message. Notices appear. Rules. Guidelines. Feet on the sand and never anywhere else. To open a door you brush your fingers along the hinges - oiled and you may enter. If not, take the brush from the can sitting nearby and coat the metal with the dark liquid.

Now, you're to settle into your new home – with or without the help of those who have come before you.

In Freakish Flight
Content Warnings: Threat to safety, death, weird creatures
Themes: Plot, survival

This is the tale that was told to me by the man with the crystal eye,
As I smoked my pipe in the camp-fire light, and the Glories swept the sky;
As the Northlights gleamed and curved and streamed, and the bottle of "hooch" was dry.

The new arrivals are here, like clockwork it seems. A strange occurrence that the natives haven't missed. They don't have answers but following support and encouragement from some of the older arrivals, they have been looking into it. If they notice anything odd, they post it to the bulletin board and they're working as hard as ever to help. Settling in is easier this time around, smoother, as everyone is more prepared than before. The first few days go well, one of the natives finds a patch of wild berries and makes fresh jam - serves it with breakfast until it runs out. There's a nice breeze that night, not too hot and not too cold. The stars twinkle and the moon is full, a pleasant atmosphere rolls through the community as everyone falls asleep.

Everyone wakes to the soft sounds of birds chirping. There's a light fog, windows misted over, and abruptly, it goes quiet. The only way to see outside is to open the door and those curious brave enough will find, covered in red dust, a handful of individually unique creatures scattered around the fountain at the center of the community. There's about fourteen of them - each one focused on the door of the main residences and two have scurried off towards the others, quiet now but watching. After the first door opens, they move, stopping only when they're right in front of each of the houses and then the sounds start again. Louder.

OOC: Removing the threat, these creatures, is possible in a few ways. They have a weakness for water, which slows them down and shuts them up. They can be killed, the same as any normal animal might. Or they can be captured, something tied around their bills to silence them. Unfortunately, only a few will survive being caught alive ( we randomized out of the twelve houses - 5, 1, 2, 12, and Private Housing (Sora) and the Permanent Apartments ) and can be kept for study. The players in each house can decide what they want to do with them or use the comment below if they want to hand it over. As a side note, the dead ones can be kept too.

Alone or Together
Content Warnings: Poisoning
Themes: Plot

Up until now everything around here has been, well, pleasant. Recently certain things have become unpleasant. Now, it seems to me that the first thing we have to do is to separate out the things that are pleasant from the things that are unpleasant.

The natives have been up front about those that came through the Reset Room before. Some left, some didn't survive, and a few now call themselves natives. The above message lights up everyone's devices ( username - lamar ) but all ways to respond are disabled. A follow up message comes from Constance, explaining that they don't know how the message has been sent due to the fact that Lamar has been dead for over a decade. That night at dinner, the set up in town hall, the natives are abuzz talking about the mysterious message. Food is passed out. Drinks are had.

Before the first person leaves the hall, a plume of red dust sprays out from an old vent near the floor boards and fills the room. Quickly, all color is leached from the world. Every person is now color blind, seeing everything in varying shades of black, white, and grey as they cough and choke, trying to clear the dust from their faces and mouths. Was this Lamar? Was this the person who rigged up the noise machine in Verdel Square? What did the message mean?

OOC: The effects will fade after twenty four hours. All arrivals, new and old, plus all natives will be effected. For each character, one person will still be in color. Players can decide who this is. A friend, lover, enemy, one of the natives.

OOC
From your mods:

Please be mindful of content - if something triggery comes up or if it goes up a rating to say, something sexy, mark your threads in the subject line. We're very flexible and allow any material; we just want our players to be respectful of each other. If you have questions, pp the mod account, use the faq or comment to the appropriate post below. Have fun!

NAVIGATION

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Comments

[rockypath]

[Faith dusts the sand off her jeans and stands upright to get a better look at the girl. She doesn't notice the blush, but only because it's hard to differentiate with the current lack of color palate. Stepping over the sand bags, she starts her way over to her. She seems to be staring at Faith's shirt. Or is it her rack? Wouldn't be the first time she'd caught someone staring at it. All the same, she pulls out her device.] Everything alright?

[ex_tagartist520]

[ Both? Probably both. She glances over her shoulder like maybe Faith is coming towards someone not her and she had done that stupid 'I thought I was being waved at and waved back' thing she's done... on more than one occasion, she'd embarrassingly admit only to herself, but the device being pulled out when she gets to her makes that abundantly clear.

Right.

She nods at first, but it's hesitant, and she went to dig out her own device shortly after. ]

ur shirt is red
like real red

[rockypath]

[Faith looks down at herself and then back at Chloe a couple times before answering back.] I had wondered. Was pretty sure the blue one was dirty. But it was all just shades of grey this morning.

You miss the dust, shit? You can see normally? [Well, color her jealous!]

[ex_tagartist520]

[ She shook her head quickly 'cause well that... was kind of the point, she guessed. She looked around to make sure there were no other bursts of color, seeing the rest of the world still gray toned, and then back to her. All color. Reds and browns and denim. ]

it's like schindler's list and ur the girl in the red coat

[ ........ 'Cause everyone has seen that movie clearly. ]

[rockypath]

[Faith just looks baffled by that reference. Sorry, Chloe, Faith's not up that particular Spielberg classic.] If you say so. [But she's able to translate her meaning well enough eventually through powers of deduction.] You can only see me in color? That's fucking weird.

[She wonders if that's supposed to mean something?]

[ex_tagartist520]

[ For shame. She sighs silently, figuring she may as well get used to that look. There haven't been a buttload of people who have gotten her references thus far, why start now.

There's a slow nod of agreement at it all being weird though. If she believed in signs, she'd think this was meant to show her something. But she's not sure she's ever been a big on shit like that. ]

maybe whatever's causing the colorblindness is just starting to dissipate
is anyone in color for u????

[rockypath]

[If it's a sign, Faith can't say what it's a sign of. She shakes her head, hands going up in the air.] No, I'm still seeing everything in black and white, sorry.

You got a name? I'm Faith.

[ex_tagartist520]

[ Fuuuuck that just makes it weirder. She makes a note to ask more people if they're getting the same thing. ]

it's w/e

i'm chloe

[rockypath]

[Faith is smirking, certainly sensing the awkwardness of this situation.] Maybe it's just because I'm so damn awesome? [She winks, having to fight the urge to laugh.] You a new arrival?

[ex_tagartist520]

[ Just a hot girl winking at her nbd, this is fine, she can handle this. (Spoiler: she can't handle this). She nods in agreement - to both. Because both statements are equally correct. ]

i'd buy it
it's that obvious, huh?

[rockypath]

[She holds her thumb and index finger close together in 'a little bit' gesture. Chloe's cute, but obviously a little young for her, but Faith can't really help but exude flirtation at all times. It's a reflex, really. Like breathing.] It was also just a guess. I've been here two months, figure I would have seen you before if you weren't. [Not that she's met everyone in person, but she recognizes most of the people here if only in passing.]

[ex_tagartist520]

[ Two months. She's not the first person to give that length of time to her and that somehow settles worse than if she was. Her mom worried when she wasn't home before curfew. Rachel wasn't going to be able to even know if everything went okay or if she found her mom.

Uuuuugh, guilt. ] fuck dude that's a long time to be stuck in this place

[rockypath]

Yuuuup. But there's only so much complaining I can do before it gets old, you know? [She shrugs, absently reaching into her front packet to pull out one of the packs of cigarettes she'd found on her doorstep a couple weeks back. She gestures to Chloe that she means to light one up and is checking that's it cool with her.] You mind?

[ex_tagartist520]

[ She was gonna type out a response to the first part but she sees the cigarettes and any message she had was forgotten. The nicotine headache she already has is terrible and maybe this is why she can see that her shirt is red because this is the best thing she's seen since arriving. ]

go ahead
if i pull the It's Actually My Birthday card, can i bum one?

[rockypath]

Probably would have worked better if you didn't pretty much tell me up front that that's a blatant lie, but... [She really shouldn't be giving some teenager a cigarette should she? But shit, Faith's been smoking since she was in middle school, she's really got no room to judge or place boundaries.] Just don't tell anyone or else every withdrawal having asshole is going to be knocking down my door. [She hands over the pack and the lighter after she's lit her own and takes a drag.]

[ex_tagartist520]

[ Chloe’s got an undeniable look of gratitude on her face as she takes the pack, tucking her books under her arm before pulling a cigarette from it and quickly lighting it. There’s a clear sigh of relief, silent as it might be, as she exhales the smoke and hands the pack back to her. ]

i actually wasn’t lying, so thanks for the present.

[rockypath]

[Oh. Faith looks apologetic for not believing her, then opens her mouth in a silent laugh.] Sorry, it's hard to distinguish bullshit from truth via text.

Happy Birthday.

Tell you what, you keep the rest of the pack too. I've got a few more back at my place anyway. Since it's a special occasion. What the hell, I'm feeling generous.

What's this one then? What are you turning?

[ex_tagartist520]

[ There was a brief Are you serious? look on her face, but before she could change her mind on the generosity, she is absolutely pocketing the pack. Like hell she's gonna give it up now. ]

no worries, i'd've thought it was bullshit too [ who else would have the luck to wake up here on their birthday, like seriously. ] thanks again

17. i think?
it's weird, it was may back home, so idk how it's my birthday now or what to count it as

[rockypath]

Welcome. Just return the favor sometime, yeah?

It was the summer when I left home. But when I showed up here? Middle of January. But its some time travel dimensional nonsense, so trying to make any kind of sense of it is probably just going to give you a headache.

[ex_tagartist520]

[ She nods, both in response to the favor and the explanation on why time is all messed up. She's sure she probably read something in a book once that explained that kind of nonsense, but she's also not particularly in the mood to try and wrack her brain for it. Or to, you know, reveal was a lame science nerd she is in front of someone as cool as she thinks Faith is. Woops. ]

well with that knowledge, sticking with 17 then
final answer

[rockypath]

[Faith's not exactly bright when it came to any sort of sciencey related stuff, but she won't fault Chloe for showing a little smarts if she chose too.]

Alright. So long as you're sure. [She teases gently, before returning to her own cigarette.] So, you settling in alright? Got a place, all the furniture you need, know the deal about the sandpaths, blah, blah, etc?

[ex_tagartist520]

[ She shrugs her shoulders, because she's gotten the whole welcome packet. Furniture is... iffy, but that's mostly her own choice thus far. Books, blankets, pillows - she was okay sleeping on the floor when it came down to it. ]

yeah, they're pretty good at making sure you get all the info you need pretty quick [ Took quick, maybe? It was all a little overwhelming to hear at once, but it was necessary, she guessed. ] still trying to let it all sink in

[rockypath]

Yeah, it's a trip. But at least people have started sound insulating a bunch of the houses and we can make sound and actually talk in them. If we could never talk... pretty sure I'd lose my mind. [There's also the matter of other things Faith likes doing that cause noise. But she's not going to get into that with a teenager. She may be a flirt, but she's not quite that shameless.]

[ex_tagartist520]

[ f a i r. There's a slight look of relief at the idea of having the ability to still talk sometimes, because even though she's gotten used to being completely silent back home, she'd like it to be an option alright. ]

that's pretty cool. do u kno who it is doing that stuff? [ So she can figure out who to ask if she can help. ]

[rockypath]

Uh, yeah. I'm pretty sure that's Hotdog doing it. Our new Mayor? [And she feels ridiculous using that name. But it's the one Frank's the most known by.]