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

[oorah]

[ that gets under his skin. orphans always make him think of billy. someone he'd tried to take into his own family and gotten only pain as a result. but what ellie says hurts him in a different way, and he turns over his shoulder to catch her eye from where he's still on the ground with max. ] Because of the virus.

I was tortured, that's why I walk like that. [ he gets up suddenly after that revelation. he says it like he's discussing the weather, then makes a beeline for the fridge to find her something for her trouble. ] Hungry?

[antigene]

[Some things aren't worth pressing over no matter how curious she is. This is one of those things. She nods and ruffles Max's ears as she gets up to follow him to the fridge.]

Hey, I'm always hungry.

[She's scrawny for a fourteen year old. Food isn't something she's used to having on a regular basis. To see a fridge that works makes her stare. It feels surreal.]

Is this what it's like to have a home?

[The idea is so foreign to her it makes her skin crawl. She wants to be with Joel. This guy reminds her enough of him that it makes her ache.]

[oorah]

[ he pauses with a bowl in his hand -- leftover rabbit stew. feeding people is one of the ways he feels like he can take care of people here, since he can't fight those monsters for them. he would if he could, it's all he wants to do. it makes everything else he does feel like not enough even when put up against any person here he's been working his ass off to keep people safe.

is this what it's like to have a home? he swallows, gripping the bowl with both hands so he doesn't drop it, but it's a near thing anyway. he pushes out a shallow breath, then goes to the stove to heat up her food. ] I wouldn't know, sweetheart. [ it's gentler than he's spoken to her before. he burned down his house after he'd lost his family. but even before that... it hadn't really been his home. he never really belonged there. maria demanding of him, "is your home here with us or back there?" overseas. ]

There's, uh. There's juice in there too. Help yourself.

[antigene]

[Only Joel's ever called her something like sweetheart. Coming from a man like David, it's enough to make her sick. A man like Frank works hard to keep people safe. It's as obvious to her as the oddness in the way he walks and the way he's gripping the bowl now. He's strong enough to shatter it but he won't. He'll just cook the food inside. She can do it herself but she thinks he needs to do this. It helps him to take care of her this way.

She grabs the juice and holds it awkwardly in both hands.]

There's someone back home that's like family. You remind me of him. He used to have a daughter, so that's why he tolerates me. What about you, Princess? Why do you want to help me?

[She's still refusing to call him Hotdog but doesn't have any problem calling him Princess. Just like she did the first time they met.]

[oorah]

[ he puts the bowl directly on the burner and leaves it for a moment to get her a cup for her juice. he sets it down and leans against the opposite counter, once again careful to keep his distance. after the way she'd been hurt, he knows it isn't easy to be trust. especially not someone like him. but to hear that he reminds her of someone, another man who lost his family. it catches him in places he'd buried over long ago. frank takes a shuddering breath and moves back to the stove before he can lose it, stirring the soup as it begins to heat up. ]

I used to have a daughter too. [ it's barely audible now that the rain has really picked up outside, attacking the roof loudly. he's been careful not to tell anyone here about his family, or really even who he is - hotdog. princess. it's all the same. he lost his daughter, his son, his beautiful wife. even if he's let go, even if he had his revenge fantasy. it doesn't change anything. and he still wants to keep ellie and all the kids like her here safe. he can't help it. ]

[antigene]

[He's like Joel. A dad without a kid. She's a daughter without any parents. He's not her dad. Neither is Joel. The rain is loud and coming down like crazy. It reminds her of hiding out under a bridge with Joel until a storm passed. She had annoyed the hell out of him with her attempts to whistle. She won't do that to this guy now.]

So is that why you don't want anyone to know your real name?

[It dawns on her that might be the reason. She pours herself some of the juice and goes to find another cup for him. He takes care of so much here, she can get him some damn juice. Once she finds another cup and gets it poured she brings it to him. Here, tough guy. Drink up.]

You don't want to be yourself anymore when you lose what you love the most. I lost someone too. I couldn't protect her when I needed to the most. I get it.

[oorah]

[ he hangs his head telling over the rapidly heating soup. it isn't the whole story, but it's a big part of why he hides here. hides in fake names and grandiose actions for others. he's the fucking mayor of horrortown because he cares too much. billy would have never let him hear the end of it. but of course, billy isn't here. and most of the time he isn't sure if that's a mercy or not. ]

Frank. [ he isn't even saying it so she'll get the hotdog joke, he just thinks she should know his real name. he puts a hand around the tin of juice she sets down near him, and slowly turns to catch her eye. she's seen loss too, it only makes sense from what she'd told him. ] ...Sorry. [ it's lame and a little belated, but there's nothing else he can really say. ]

[antigene]

[This feels serious. He's telling her his name and she can't even make fun of it. He's also apologizing and Ellie isn't sure what for. It makes her uncomfortable. Adults don't apologize to kids. But hey, this one does. It's weird.]

Hey, it's close enough to Hotdog.

[It's as lame and belated as his apology. Neither of them are very good at this, are they? Time to ruin it completely.]

I can finish that, if you're about to cry.

[oorah]

That's why I picked it. [ he pulls the soup off the burner with a cloth wrapped around the bowl so he won't burn himself. he carts it and a spoon over to the table and gestures for her to sit and eat. ellie's dig causes a sudden and almost violent laugh up from his throat, the sound crackling roughly on the way out. rather than answer her, he sets down the juice she'd poured with the soup. she needs it more than he does anyway. ]