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

[skyofreverie]

[There's so much Riku doesn't know yet - about this world, about the events that took place back home, about all of the years Sora was trapped in a white ship. This isn't the time to talk about all of that, though. He knows he'll have to eventually but would much rather wait until Riku was settled a little more.]

Your appearance kind of gives it away. I'm from further on. Yen Sid sent us to take our Mark of Mastery exams - to become Keyblade Masters. There's stuff I have to tell you about that. [Sora notices the aborted gesture and wonders if it's because of his reaction to being grabbed earlier. To make up for it, he leans in to bump his shoulder against Riku's arm.

A silent huff and if he could cross his arms over his chest and still be able to type, he would. Instead he just reaches out to tug on Riku's hair with his scarred fingers.]

Hey! I didn't drink the weird juice that made people all touchy! And if I'd known the snack was from the natives, I wouldn't have taken it either. [There's something wrong there - that trusting Sora would turn down anything given by people who seemed nice enough.]

I don't know if you noticed but the ability to summon weapons is somehow blocked after arriving here. I only regained it a little while ago but haven't found a keyhole yet.

[overashadow]

[ His appearance? Riku takes a brief second to look down at his clothes, his hands. There's a lock of pale hair that falls over his shoulder, some that fall into his eyes, and there's a soft breath that ruffles it, already hating this situation. He doesn't have any control over anything, and no matter what he does, Sora is always going to be a step ahead. Further on. How much? What sort of time does he have on him?

Rather than ask that, with the gentle way the other leans in, Riku drops an arm over his shoulders. Texting with one hand is even slower, but he manages it. ]

You can tell me about all that later. [ Those exams, whatever those drinks are that make people touchy... And with the attack of his hands, Riku tilts back and grabs at one of Sora's wrists in an effort to get him to ease up as if to say not so hard! He does give him the slightest smile in return. ]

I noticed. [ It's the first thing he'd tried. ] We'll keep looking for it. I'm here now, and two is always better than one. Maybe we can figure something out faster that way.

Where have you been staying?

[skyofreverie]

[Riku's appearance is very telling to him. Maybe because he's seen his best friend in so many different ways. With long hair, with short hair, with a blindfold, as Ansem. He thinks the natives would have let him keep the blindfold if Riku had shown up with it on. Or at least replaced it with a clean one. One day, they'll talk about everything that happened... or well, everything that happened back home. Sora still can't talk about everything he lived through in the Facility.

It's nice, the arm. Reminds him of the time they limped away from their fight with Xemnas towards the dark beach.]

Yeah, later. We can talk quietly in places that have been soundproofed. [So that they don't have to rely on the 'berries. Even though it's only been a month, Sora misses the sound of his friend's voice. He easily lets Riku grab his wrist only to look up at him innocently. Like he hadn't done anything wrong. The wrist in question is odd - stiff in Riku's grasp as are some of the fingers, scars don't exist on just the digits but also on his hand.]

Of course, there's got to be a way to get everyone home to their own worlds. [There's a hesitant pause.]

I've got a house. The natives gave it to me when I said I'd stay as a member of the community.

[overashadow]

[ Everything that Sora doesn't say feels telling in a different sort of way. It's something Riku should be able to put his finger on, but he's been bombarded with so much in such a short amount of time that it's difficult to get a solid grasp on all of it without feeling a bit overwhelmed. He masks it better, of course, but not the concern. That is very real, letting his fingers ease over Sora's in a gesture that's faintly uncertain. There's something there that's just out of reach, noticing how inflexible his grip is, how scarred and battered.

Rik's expression thins, recalls just short of actually speaking that he needs to be quiet, and instead, he mouths Sora's name. So soft, delicate almost. He feels pulled in a thousand different directions, and he doesn't like this, doesn't like the words blinking severely on the screen at him. ]

You can't

We can't stay here. What about getting back home? [ That's the goal, isn't it? That's always been the goal before... in the end. ]

[skyofreverie]

[He wants to be able to speak out loud, to tell Riku all of the things he's feeling and surely his friend wants to do the same. This is not a conversation they should be having through text because it's hard enough to put his thoughts and feelings into words - much less having to type them out.

So he doesn't respond. Merely twists his arm to grab Riku by the wrist and leads the taller teen to a house, letting them both in and not saying anything until the door behind them closes.]

I'm sorry. [Sora needed those to be the first actual words out of his mouth. For the choice he made here on his own, for things Riku can't remember worlds ago. For a long moment, he doesn't turn back around - leaving Riku to look at his back and the determined set of his shoulders.]

How could I leave these people here to live like this? Maybe I won't be able to do much to help, maybe my powers will be useless in stopping the Sound Eaters but I can help in other ways.

[Now he turns back around.] So much has happened. I don't how to tell you everything.[A pause.] My memories of what happened don't match up with yours. I've been to other worlds like this one, trapped in them with no way out. This is world five, year five.

[overashadow]

[ He follows because... because what else is he supposed to do? Once again, he's at the mercy of strangers, of people he doesn't know, and Riku has never been as ridiculously trusting as Sora. There's always a deeper doubt lurking in the back of his mind, of something worse that will come because that is the true nature of people. Most are kind, good. Sora is – and Kairi, too – proof of that, but there are others who are not so kind, who would rather walk down a much darker path like the one he'd dragged himself away from. He hadn't done it on his own, though Riku feels this is a lot more complicated than that, and it's not even seconds before Sora actually says something that Riku just... knows.

It's the same kind of argument they'd used to have as kids, that had been a lot more recent than he's willing to admit. He feels they've evolved beyond that, which is why he doesn't say anything at first.

And how could he? With that kind of knowledge just thrown at him after showing up on a world he'd never heard of or ever even glimpsed... It's like swallowing a bitter dose of reality, and Riku's fingers curl at his sides, blunt nails digging into the skin of his palms. He opens his mouth, conscious of the heavy way he breathes and just how loud it is. It'd be easier to ignore all of this in favor of something else, anything else, but Riku doesn't want to run from it. He doesn't want to be a coward. ]

How... [ It gets tangled up in the doubt and disbelief that curl through his chest, and Riku only meets Sora's eyes once before letting them fall to the floor. Is any of this even real? ] You know what that sounds like, right? Sora – I don't know anything about this world. I don't know anything about what you're trying to tell me. [ world five, year five Riku's heart skips a beat. ] Maybe you should start from the beginning.

[ Except he honestly doesn't know if he could listen to all of it right now. ]

[skyofreverie]

[Throughout everything, Sora has tried desperately to keep his light. To not fall into darkness, to be the good person he knows he can be. Sometimess it was the hardest thing he's ever had to do - harder than saving Kairi and Riku and all those worlds, harder than defeating Maleficent or Xehanort in any form. There were times he almost couldn't but in the end he pulled through. But he knows he isn't that same kid, anymore. Everything he's been through has changed him to the point where he's not like the real Sora almost completely.

And yet he is. Or he likes to believe he is still Sora at his core. That underneath all of the pain and scars he carries, there is stil that kid who believes in the impossible, who finds strength in his friends. That he's just more experienced in the tougher side of life.

He sighs and ruffles his hair. This isn't the kind of thing he likes to start with, doesn't like to pile it all on at once - the whole new world and his previous experience with this sort of thing. But if anyone can catch on quickly to the way a world works, it's Riku. Someone who's traveled to a whole lot of different worlds like he has.]

C'mon. Let's sit down first. [There aren't any chairs in the living spaces yet but he has a bunkbed in his room and that's where Sora goes. He sits down on the bottom bunk, disturbing an orange tabby cat who mewls before going to lay on the pillow.

Sora will... give him the abridged version.]

Right so, this isn't the first world I got stuck in like this. Four years ago I ended up on this ship that was called the Facility. My last memory had been when we were about to go fight Xemnas. There were other people there, from different worlds. It was pretty bad. I was there almost two years before I went home to finish the fight. When I got back, I couldn't remember anything that happened in the Facility. It was almost like I'd never been there at all, only remembering when I came back after we got home to Destiny Islands.

Several months passed before I went home again, this time to take the Mark of Mastery exam. Once more I forgot everything that happened in the Facility while I was back home. After spending a few more months there, I somehow managed to escape. Maybe I got pulled in by another world. Except I still couldn't get home on my own but I remembered everything this time.

[A small shrug of his shoulders.] Since I left the Facility, I've been uncontrollably bouncing around different worlds until I ended up here last month.

[overashadow]

[ He keeps his composure when they wander through the house, taking care to stay quiet despite being in an area he assumes is safe. Or as safe as this place is going to get, apparently. What had Sora called those... things? Sound Eaters? It doesn't take a genius to figure out what they might do, given everything else in this place, but he isn't sure he wants to broach that subject just yet, walking into Sora's room and remaining standing when his friend takes a seat. He notices the cat, Sora's posture when he tells him things that... both make sense and don't. It's easier to swallow it that way if he compartmentalizes it, trying to put the pieces together, and his conclusion is this: he's not telling him everything. He isn't explaining what had happened while he'd been there or the rest of it, really, and it's frustrating to see that, to hear it in Sora's voice like he wouldn't be able to handle it.

Of course, Riku has his own secrets too. He just thought Sora would never keep things from him when it mattered most.

He sighs to himself, crossing his arms and staring down at the floor as if it's much more interesting than anything else in the room. The basics had been answered, and as annoyed as he is, he also knows Sora. When he wants to tell him, he'll do it on his own terms and probably all at once the same way he's done since they'd been kids. Riku would just have to try to be proactive about keeping them both together and on the same page until they resolved this world's problems and could go home. (He's not even going to start with what Sora had said about wanting to stay.) Just the thought of all this makes him feel sick, but he's beginning to catch on, which means there's something important he needs to ask about. ]

And you're stuck here like those other places. [ It's not a question, just an obvious statement. ] What you said about not remembering... Was I there with you? Have I been here before?

[skyofreverie]

[There's just a lot. This isn't like he woke up in a world and couldn't leave a couple of months ago, Sora is talking years here. All the things Sora's been in those four years are pretty horrible even if it was sprinkled with good things. So many times he thought he'd break - that the weight of it would smother his light. Eventually he'll tell Riku about his time in the Facility and then in the Cities. Those were the two that really got him, the ones that settled heavily on his shoulders. And he probably won't mention everything. Sora has one secret he can't bring himself to share. Even to Riku.

But his friend only arrived to this world today and he doesn't want to dump it all on the taller boy immediately.

While Riku takes everything and processes what he said, Sora is silent. Waiting for the other to give him a cue to continue. Pulls his feet up on the bed and crosses his legs before wrapping his fingers around the spot his legs connect. Looking mostly casual but there's a tension in his back and shoulders. Already Sora knows he's said a few things that his friend doesn't like. For a year, Riku looked after him while he slept and put him back together. To even think of being unable to help Sora is probably not a good feeling. But for it have been four years is the worst thing.

He fixes his gaze on Riku's face when the other starts talking again.] Yep, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to look for a Keyhole so other people can go home if they want.

[There is absolutely nothing that would stop Sora from trying to help where ever he can - not when he can.

A small frown at the question and he chews his bottom lip before replying.] You were there. Twice, actually. You didn't remember the first time when you came back the second. When you came back the second time, it was about six months after I'd gotten there and you were there the next two and half years with me. A lot of other people from home were there too. Kairi, Roxas - I don't know how, Axel, Namine, Xion, Leon, even your Replica - we called him Mera, Terra and Ventus and Demyx, Marluxia and Zexion. The king was there for a week and other faces from different worlds. Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, Sephiroth, Cid, Yuna, Rikku - with two ks, Aerith and a whole lot of others.

[His eyes look down at the ground.] Almost everyone left before we did. When I got to the next world one of my friends was already there and they said we left the Facility at the same time. And you were in that world too - two of you, actually. Really you and not the Replica. It was like seeing younger and older versions of you. But neither of them remembered our time in the Facility. And the same was true in the world after that. It was just your Replica in the world after that.

[A sigh and he lifts a hand to rub his forehead.]

If you've been here before, I don't know about it. This is the third month that people have shown up but apparently there have been other times years and years ago.