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

[lovesbitch]

[ spike can't just hang around either, he needs to do something. which is how he ends up wandering around at night, feet silent on and off the sandpath. though when he notices her going off he's curious. he's noticed when you use your device nearby someone else's it automatically flashes on their screen so he does some of that shit. ]

I wouldn't do that if I were you [ he's 100% fucking with her. he still has no idea if these sound eater things are even the real deal. ]

[bossily]

[Is that a threat? Clara stops where she's at and peers this way and that, before eventually spotting her new bff Spike. There's a roll of her eyes and a fond smile as she types out a response. She hates using the devices, but they could be worse.]

Look who finally wandered off the deck. What, are you afraid we'll be eaten by the big bad monsters if I do?

[He's not the only one that can 100% fuck around. She's good at it too! And is also wanting to test and see how real the sound eaters are.]

[lovesbitch]

[ he catches up to her in no time flat so clearly, nah. he's not that worried. ] I mean probably will, right? That seems about as lucky as showing up here in the first

[bossily]

Dunno. Between the two of us, I'm the more appetizing morsel. I think you'll be just fine.

[She laughs, the sound barely audible. Spike is fun, and she likes him. He's probably the first person here she met that she considers to be a friend, so she's able to tease him so easily. He's probably also the best person here who can take what she says and be able to come up with a retort. So she's not worried about offending him.

Come on, she motions with a nod of her head. Let's go. She starts to creep off the path, walking on her tiptoes thanks to how chilly the ground is this late at night.]

[lovesbitch]

[ he laughs too, a low chuckle that he cuts off abruptly. stop being so fun, clara, it's going to get them both eated. ]

Rude. I'm plenty nummy [ but he still follows after obediently. what the hell else was he gonna do tonight other than sulk? ]

[bossily]

[Well, at least if they get eaten they'll die together or some other weird bonding thing like that.]

Are you? Well, I'll be the judge of that.

[There's no harm in flirting with the friend you're exploring with, particularly one that follows along so readily. She leads the way off the path, creeping along slowly until he's at her side. It's easier for her to reach out with her free hand and grab hold of his arm, a way to keep herself steady as they go.

She's half expecting there to be a sound eater or something just out waiting for them. But the eerie thing is, it's utterly silent apart from the light gusts of wind here and there. It's almost unsettling.]

[lovesbitch]

[ his eyebrows shoot way up at that. oh she will, will she?? but he knows she's not serious... wait, is she serious?! ] Well good because I lied, I won't go down smooth at all. And I've been known to cause indigestion. [ spike stares at the hand wrapped around his arm for a moment, but decides not to comment on that either, just falling into step with her. this at least is familiar. exploring, patrolling, whatever you want to call it. ]

You have any idea where in the heck you're goin? [ just checking ]