MOD LOG #1

[bequiet]

MOD LOG #1
Packing Up
Content Warnings: General tension
Themes: Survival, exploration, heavy-lifting

At the end of the month, the natives send out a mass message informing everyone of the upcoming trip to 'meet' the Sound Eaters. Preparing for the trip is simple, though labor intensive, and begins with making certain that everyone packs food, water, clothes, gear, and a twenty-pound package of sand. When it's time for the journey to begin, those tasked with watching the sandpaths, will lead the party on the journey towards the Eiffel Tower. It's a slow trip, a careful one. Natives will take breaks every few hours and when the sun sets, help everyone to set up their bed rolls around a few lanterns. The natives will unveil the star mapping feature, with constellations named and general history attached, on the devices. They will encourage those to tell stories, get out food and water, and 'talk' amongst the group before everyone settles into sleep. Out, under the night sky, the silence is more noticeable - there are no crickets or frogs. This process will repeat for two days until the group reaches the end of their destination at midday.

Sound Eaters
Content Warnings: Disorientation, confusion, character and native death, Sound Eater birth and death, body horror
Themes: Survival, exploration, horror, death

On the third day, characters will finally reach the Eiffel Tower, where the Sound Eaters in this area of France have set up their 'home'. Stopping far enough out to allow for communication, the natives will gesture to the ruins of the structure that appears to be altered. Structures are built up and around the metal frame, closing off different sections with a dark material that glints an oily-green in the light. After explaining that the Sound Eaters are influenced by the weather, rain being an issue for them, they'll take everyone closer. Silence is key here. The natives are visibly wary, tense, and uncomfortable but they believe that showing the arrivals what they're so afraid of will inspire them to be more cautious.

Now, as close to the Sound Eaters as they dare to go (less than a half mile), the natives will have everyone crouch down behind various cars and debris. The devices will say only one word, watch. As the sun begins to set and clouds darken overhead, the tower will open up, the Sound Eaters spilling out. They are split up, as the natives refer to it, into classes - the young, the shifting and the matured. The young are extremely sensitive to sound, volatile and aggressive, humanesque in form with features in various state of change. The shifting are grotesque, splitting and reforming, changing from young to matured in a shift that is punctuated by pained screams and the breaking of bones, splitting of flesh. The matured are in control. They command and guide their kind into a circle, where they all bend down, kneeling as something different than the rest comes out of the tower to stand at the center. The wind catches, dusting up red ash from it and blowing the ash towards the group - there's no way to move and it tastes familiar, coats your skin in red. They all grow quiet and a wrapped form, in the shape of a body, is placed at the Sound Eaters' feet. It crumbles, breaks apart and sprays out over the wrapped figured to completely cover it.

The shards of the Sound Eater bubble up and fuse together, creating a shell. Rain begins to fall. Light, but enough to cause the Sound Eaters to begin to move, pushing against one another but not leaving the circle. There's a shrill sound, an offbeat whistle, air escaping a tight space, a desperate inhale, and then the shell at the center splits apart. A Sound Eater died to create a new life. Smaller than the other young, the 'child' climbs up and out, but it's not the same as the others. It's form is generally human. Dark hair, androgynous features. No eyes. No mouth. Standing, it angles its head towards the matured and they move, as if on command, and surround it as it walks into the tower.

( If anyone makes noise at this point, in any way, the coming bad weather and what just occurred, will result in the Sound Eaters only attacking that person - rather than the whole group. They'll drag that person into the tower and out of sight. The character will be reset. )

The natives are upset. Spooked. They've never seen anything like that and they're quick to tell everyone this, followed by a hasty message to leave. As they're moving, the rain begins to beat down and the ground grows slippery. Making it back to the supplies is troublesome and just as the group gets close, one of the natives slips and tumbles down broken concrete, twisting and smacking against the hard surface until they come to a stop at the bottom. Anyone that goes to help will find that the native has hurt themselves and there's nothing that can be done, despite best efforts. The natives will take the time to wrap their friend up, relaying that the Sound Eaters don't attack now that the rain is heavy, and will begin the slow trek back to the community. They'll camp each night, the same as the trip up, but with an uncomfortable tension that no amount of story telling can break.

It's Raining Me- Rain. It's Just Water.
Content Warnings: None
Themes: Survival, fun, noise-making

After everyone is back in Reims, the natives will split off to bury their dead - they will not allow anyone to accompany them. Everyone is encouraged to head back to the community to get a break from the bad weather and to unload their supplies. The following day, the natives can be heard outside. Splashing and making noise, fixing houses, and what might have been a somber event will quickly turn into something a little more upbeat as rain beats down on the city. Children will play and occasionally laugh, stunted in their ability to enjoy themselves but willing to learn from the arrivals. Bigger items will be moved and natives will encourage everyone to do the 'noisier' things that they need to do. When the rain ends, work will resume as usual and soundproofing will be a lot more difficult - the water washed away sandpaths and damaged some areas. Cleaning up will take time but the natives aren't as unhappy with the situation as they just had a moment's respite from the normal tension of their everyday lives.

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! The OOC Plotting Post.

NAVIGATION

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Comments

[underachievement]

[ Holy outfits, Batman! If Kara didn't perspire sunshine instead of sweat, announcing herself with the impenetrable bubble of optimism that surrounds her, those pajamas will sure do the trick. Jess has a hard time looking directly at it but that likely has more to do with the woman inside who's being puppeted about on purple strings. Jess turns to take in the house behind her -- not hers, just has a porch for her to park her ass one -- and then resumes looking not quite at Kara. Who is clearly Kara, she's just wearing different clothes. ]

I'm good. [ Best to let her think this is her house and misinform Kilgrave of her discovery. Jess is going to drink now. Correction: Jess is going to chug now. ]

[iisupergirlii]

[Kara takes the clear invitation and sits down on the steps beside her, holding her hand out for the whiskey. fine, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

not that whiskey will work for her at all, but hey, it's the thought that counts.]

Well, that's great.

[underachievement]

[ Literally anyone else, okay except Faith, the audacity of the request would cause her to get up and leave. Kara is the one person in Reims so needs to get drunk more than she does, though, so she relinquishes the whiskey, albeit while grinding her teeth behind her frown. ]

Keep it.

[iisupergirlii]

Thanks.

[she takes a long swallow. it burns going down, but it evaporates before she can absorb anything from it. of course. even on a different, Earth-like planet, the booze still doesn't work. her hope was small, but it was there.

they sit in silence for as long as Kara can take it before she's about to explode. she's a talker. it's what she does.]

How do you do it? How do you not cope with everything that happened?

[and the veil between Kara and Supergirl gets thinner and thinner...]

How do you die and not want anyone to comfort you?

[and there it is. This is Kara. I know: you're shocked.]

[underachievement]

[ Fuuuuckaroo. Jess definitely should have walked away after giving her the whiskey. Kara looks like a lightweight and acts like one too, but Jess doubts one swig is to blame for Kara's invitation to overshare. Jess sighs silently, a habit now, then does it again, loudly and purposefully. It has the same effect on her as taking a deep breath would a yogi. Without a bottle to occupy her hands, she interlaces her fingers together and stares at her palms. ]

It's not about what I want. [ She may be immune to Kilgrave's virus -- he still affects her. Nothing she does or doesn't do is going to be enough for everybody, she's reminded of that constantly. What she's doing right now is coping: Focusing on what is right in front of her. Jesus Christ, who. Of course Jess was full of shit, telling Frank she doesn't owe anyone jack. She owes Kara a lot more than half a bottle of liquor and a shot of selective honesty.

She owes Faith, so she stays away, because she thinks that's how Faith wants it. ]

I'm sorry you saw what happened. The other night.

[iisupergirlii]

[Kara deliberately takes another swig then. She's not going to cry about Jessica dying for a third day in a row, especially not in front of the person who died. So, she chases away the burgeoning lump in her throat with the burn of whiskey. At least it has one purpose.]

You absolutely don't owe me an apology. I should have saved you. I'm sorry.

[underachievement]

[ It's not the strength or the flight that makes marks Kara as something other than human, it's her well of kindness. It gives Jess all the comfort of a cosmic horror, the depth of it driving onlooking mortals to madness. She carries on not looking at Kara, as pathetic as that is. Jess wants Kara's blame; she wants it to mitigate the shame she's feeling. It that won't work, she'll try to chip away at the dread. ]

I can't save you but I can put you down, if he tells you to hurt anyone. [ Okay, she can try. Nothing of value lost if she resets in the process (aside from more of Kara's innocence) and it might buy anyone else in danger a necessary sliver of time. ] Just say yes or no.

[iisupergirlii]

[that deserves another drink, Kara downing a good amount of the bottle. it's a perk to not have to breathe nearly as often as a human.

she glances at Jessica then looks away, biting her lip.]

Yes. But I doubt you can.

[there's nothing here that can kill her. no kryptonite, and this Reims is still lit by a yellow sun, so she can't just lose her powers. what does Jessica think she can do?

still, an option is an option. she has no idea what Kilgrave will ask her to do one day, but given what she read from his conversation with Faith, he can't be trusted to keep his word that he won't get revenge and that no one will get hurt.]

[underachievement]

[ Yeah well that's probably for the best. If she doesn't consider Jess an explicit threat, maybe she can avoid telling Kilgrave about this little chat for a while. He can't have accounted for the rain and the freedom it would allow them to speak to each other but she can't imagine he was so specific about how she communicate that they could do much with a loophole. ]

Anything you can tell me, do it now.

[iisupergirlii]

[luckily for Jess, the worst commands haven't happened yet.]

About what? [Kara stretches herself back, resting her elbows back on the porch. she shakes wet hair out of her face.] I mean, you probably already know I can't tell you anything about Kilgrave.

[she chews on her lip.] If you need any help, though, I'm your girl.

[Kilgrave said to offer Jessica her help, to get in good with her. So, that's what she's doing. If it's vague, then, well, Kara's just doing what she's told!]

[underachievement]

Help me kill you, then. [ She can keep a calm head, just gathering the data. Actually doing it? Whole other story. That's future Jess's problem. ] There's got to be something you're vulnerable to besides him.

[iisupergirlii]

[her dying is starting to come up with a regularity that Kara isn't fond of. Holy toledo, she doesn't want to die!

she'd rather die than kill anyone else, though. in an instant.

Faith had said to keep quiet about the kryptonite, but, well... weren't they both intimately familiar with Kilgrave? All of them were in kind of the same boat? Kara sighs, wastes time downing some more of the whiskey.]

A few things, but I don't think any of it's here. Red sunlight would take away my powers, and enough kryptonite in my system will... will kill me.

I don't know where you're going to get any of that stuff here, though!

[underachievement]

[ Jess hears what she says and almost cringes from the shittiness but to Kara's credit, she doesn't waste any time being hurt. Other than to drink and she can expect to be doing a lot of that in the future, why sugarcoat it. Jess takes out her device to take down what Kara said or else she's going to forget. She can hardly recite the table of elements that exists on her version of Earth. ]

Good. [ Neither will he. And if she doesn't need any of it, if the Sound Eaters are capable of taking her out, great. It's looking more and more like a first resort all the time.

She sighs, wrist going limp. This is the part she really sucks at but Kara deserves an attempt to assuage the guilt that's going to get worse. What did she tell Hope a few minutes before she killed her parents? So she can keep it buried. ] Nothing he does to you or makes you do is your fault. Blame him. Blame me. [ Blame this nightmare hushbox hellhole. ] That's how you can help.

[iisupergirlii]

[Kara sits up fast, a literal blur of movement, and stares at Jessica, her brow furrowed, confused and concerned.]

Why the crap would I blame you? No way. Absolutely not.