quietplacelogs | MOD LOG #1

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[she's a direct soul! what can you do.

she hums a little to herself, biting her lip in concentration as she lines the boards up and gestures for Alex to hold them; he can see that she handles the hammer relatively carefully, like she's afraid of dropping it. maybe that's part of the problem she's having multitasking here.

with his help, though, the box is assembled pretty quickly and neatly, and she sits back grinning.]

Okay, now we're getting somewhere!

[ Perhaps he should be the one wielding the hammer, but she probably has a better idea of what should be built and he should instead leave it to the experts (in box design). ]

It's really smart of you to work here. I wouldn't have thought of it.

[ Said as he gets up, pressing a little against his back with one hand where he had bent over. ]

Which part next?

I asked around and I think they'll let us work in the Town Hall too, but this seems a bit less intrusive. Bit easier to maintain, too.

[she looks at the box with a little frown, then produces a roll of tape]

Now the fiddly bit. I'll need to put strips of tape on to mark the spacing...then put in the strings for a project, I guess.

[ With the size of the Town Hall, it'd be hard to get everyone else out too. Better a small room that reduces the risk of sound slippage and death. ]

I'll handle the tape, then.

[ His hands are slim, as befitting his frame - but Rosa would be able to see calluses in certain areas that imply a familiarity with detailed work. ]

Do you build often?

Nooooope.

[she admits it pretty cheerfully]

I've watched Jan at it, though. She's been doing most of the supervising here, I'm usually the thing-holder for her...but I can't always be watching, right? So I thought I'd try this one myself.

You said you did carpentry, right?

[ They're such cute friends. He ships it. ]

Yes, I did. I made some simple furniture back home, though nothing of this sort before. It's also new to me.

[ Their methods seem to be in line with carpenting principles, so he's never commented on it. ]

A lot of the wood here is pre-made. If we needed more and could soundproof things, I could make processed wood from trees.

Yeah, this is more like salvage, isn't it? Or...repurposing. I bet there's no working lumber mills anywhere near here anymore.

[she pauses at that thought briefly, hands tightening on the wood]

...that's handy, Alex. I bet--I don't know for sure, but my guess is the skillsets of the folks who were originally from here has been getting pretty limited, or will. They're doing fairly well for themselves, but I bet you anything not a ton of them are tradescraft experts.

[that seems to be leading up to something, but she's also clearly struggling to articulate what that something is]

[ He nods, closing his eyes and willing his own words to come: ]

It's a skill that they've lost. I'm torn - I want to teach them, but also, we have something else that needs addressing. If we don't do anything about the noise, the culture and life will be slowly crushed out of them.

[ It is already being crushed out of them, which unsettles him. ]

Why not both?

[it's not that simple, they both know it, and yet]

We can't be hunting Sound Eaters and their source twenty-four-seven either; we'll go mad.

[ If only things were simple; if only they worked the way people wanted them to; if only Alex did not need a goddess-granted blessing to even begin comprehending the nuances of people around him. It was never this simple. ]

Does making things take some pressure off, for you?

[ When he had needed time away, he had spent it in the wilderness. That won't be affordable here. ]

Well...yeah. It's always better to be doing something.

[she frowns, expression going briefly abstracted; faraway though not exactly sad]

I spent way more than enough time not knowing I could.

[ The feeling of not knowing, the feeling of powerlessness... it calls up a memory within his scant five years, trudging through blizzards and over highlands - fleeing, from torches that now burned at their back instead of welcoming them. Only the voice of the Mothercrystal had held him back from an abyss of hopelessness. ]

But, you know that now. I think that's more important. We can make some change, even if it's small.

[ He looks into his hands, an oddly faraway look in his good eye. ]

Someone said that to me, once. I try to think of it, should I feel too weak.

[she tilts her head a little bit, poised over the half-made loom]

Who told you? Sounds like you might've been having a bad time back then.

[ He closes his eyes, thinking back to the times where he had been drawn into the aetherial sea. Her presence was warm, comforting. ]

Someone who was like a mother to me. She took me in when I had naught to my name.

MOD LOG #1

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