quietplacelogs | INTRO LOG #1

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INTRO LOG #1

INTRO LOG #1
Muzzle and Mute
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, a child hugging her leg, and 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.

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.

The Man in the Hat
Content Warnings: Heavy lifting, following the rules, alcoholism
Themes: Moving in, survival, exploration, horror

Once you’ve claimed a room for yourself, it’s time to acclimate to the community. Natives will ask what you need and take you along the sandpaths to different areas in the city to gather supplies - furniture and the like. Heavier items will require assistance and will take longer. Houses are mostly empty so if you and your housemates need something, you’ll have to carry it and put it inside the home. Do not make any noise or the natives will refuse to help you. Getting to know your housemates is key to a smooth transition. They are going through what you are right now; take the time to get to know them. Make house rules.

As the first day gives way to night, the natives can be seen moving at a faster pace outside. They’re hurried, though not frightened. Some even smile at you. When the sun sets behind the ruins of what was once picturesque Reims, your device will signal that it’s time to meet at the center of the community. There, natives will stop each person and give them a small gift - a trinket, a token to show that they are trying their best to make all the new arrivals feel at home. These are all items from the character’s home or from another character's home (they will not be anything that belongs to anyone else). Small, soundless and either something taken during the application process or something brand new. They will have no powers to speak of and are meant to be a momento. If asked, the natives found them the same way they found each of you.

Then the party starts. Sort of. A soundless, stitled kind of celebration. Fun is meant to be had, but it’s not an overly joyous occasion. The natives simply don’t know how to cut loose. There will be extra food in the form of one and two; Phillipa even brought some of her homemade bread. If you stumble across a man wearing a hat, the only man in town who does, and agree to go with him when he offers to show you his house - he’ll gift you with a jar of hooch; it’ll burn on the way down.

Sound Eaters
Content Warnings: Threat, danger
Themes: Survival, exploration, horror, game plot

It’s the second day of your stay, and the natives call for an emergency meeting at the Town Hall. Everyone is paired off (see below) and are asked to walk the perimeter looking for anything out of place and patching any areas that might have been affected by weather. Once finished, the same is done on the inside, and when the community leader is satisfied, the main hall is opened up so that everyone can congregate. Characters, during this time only, are allowed to make sound. This is so that the natives can explain why silence is so necessary...

The Sound Eaters.

In an effort not to frighten everyone, the natives won’t go into the history just yet, but they will warn that when someone makes a sound, it attracts them. They don’t know what they look like because they are so fast. If you’re too loud, then in the blink of an eye, you’ll go through a room reset. This is because either the natives ‘silenced’ you or the Sound Eaters have. They will explain that the room came at the same time the Sound Eaters did and that it doesn’t work for the natives. Sometimes, it doesn’t work on new arrivals. Death, for those born in this world, is permanent. If you attract them, you’ll get someone killed. Hence the need for no noise. During the meeting, the natives will tell each character of their own experiences. Their losses. The families they have left and how they’d do anything to keep them alive. They don’t know if you’ll be reset, but is that a risk you’re willing to take? The meeting will last a few hours and will end on a somber, ominous note - at the end of the month, they are taking everyone to meet them.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

MAN IN THE HAT (HOUSEMATES)

[ the garage is safe.

it reminds her of her suite back on the lornful light in a way - cool and dark. a little too big for her so there’s promise of making it home on her terms. the smell of faded oil and polish hangs in the air when she enters the room and surveys her surroundings. it'll do. there's a lot she wants to fill it up with but there are bigger things to focus on. like the house itself.

at the moment, she's focused on trying to get the house into acceptable living conditions by doing her best to wipe surfaces and floors down. when she's certain the garage is spick and span, or the closest to it, she begins to make her rounds around the house with whatever cloths or wipes she was able to gather earlier.

housemates beware - there's a risk of you tripping over a hunched over lorem as she tries to get a particular spot on the ground at some point. or a lorem trying to ask if you need any help in anything, anything at all. ]

MAN IN THE HAT (GENERAL, OPTION ONE)

[ a funeral program.

they gave her a funeral program for her father.

lorem stares at the innocuous pamphlet long and hard before she looks up at the townsperson who gave it to her. her incredulous expression softening when she notices the sheepish and apologetic look they’re wearing. it's not like they're doing this on purpose. this is what they could get for her and... she... she supposes its nice to know what's happening back on dust tumbles. morbid and upsetting and frustrating it is to learn her father died barely a year into her journey and she never knew about it-

so absorbed she is in her thoughts, lorem bumps into someone. she's surprised enough that her grip on the program slips and the program flutters down onto the floor before she can regain her composure.

oh no. oh no oh no oh no.

she reaches out to the closest person - most likely the one she had bump into in the first place, some part of her thinks - and taps their shoulder, hoping to get their attention if she hadn't already. ]

MAN IN THE HAT (GENERAL, OPTION TWO)

[ she doesn’t drink alcohol.

after seeing the way her mother got sloshed on the stuff for long as lore could remember, she’s developed a distinct disinterest in anything related to spirits and drinks. yet here she is, holding a jar of it in her hands after meeting a man wearing a hat.

maybe if her mother was here, she would be able to down it in one go so lorem was free to use the jar as she pleased. heck - her mom would probably even ask for the recipe and find ways to improve it. the idea of her mother of all people being here brings a fond smile on her face as she makes her way back to the centre.

lorem turns the jar in her hand, watching how any lights around her got caught in the liquid. when she finally looks up to make sure she doesn't hit anyone by accident, she finds herself accidentally staring someone down. out of reflex more than anything else, lorem hefts the jar up. it could either be interpreted as her about to throw it at them or a silent offering for them to try and stuff. its up for the person to decide. ]

SOUNDEATERS (FOR FAITH.)

[ okay. this is not what she had expected when hurrying over to the town hall. she had no real history or skill set

looking at faith with a friendly smile, she inclined her head in greeting and pulled out her device to type out a message for faith: ]

Hello. I’m Lorem Laurel. I’ll be your partner for the task.

For the sake of transparency, I should let you know I have the ability to generate shields but summoning them can be a hit or mess.

[ The pair of glasses in Lup's hands nearly fall to the floor, and she has to awkwardly juggle them a moment. She turns to look at lorem, eyebrow raised. ]

You okay there?

No.

[ she doesn't bother trying to stay quiet for this. she's more concerned about the funeral program and the idea of losing it so soon.

at the very least she tries to modulate her voice to a whisper, not wanting to upset the locals who might overhear her. ] I'm sorry but I-I dropped something. Did you see it?

[ Lup can barely manage staying quiet on a good day, so this town hall is a godsend. Having to whisper kind of sucks, but she'll take that over complete silence any day of the week. ]

I was a little busy juggling these nerd glasses to notice, but I can look. What did you drop?

A pamphlet for a funeral. [ might as well get it over with. if she felt less harried, she would try to word it in some better way but now's not the time. the most she'll do is not give away all the details. she just wants to find the program again.

she starts gesturing with her hands, showing how long and wide the item was. ] -with blue borders on a white background. Will have 'Richards Rellins' printed on the front. Along with a picture of a man.

[Faith liked to think she had a pretty useful skill set but with, at this point, no monster in front of her to fight- she was feeling pretty useless. But she put up a good front. She smiled back at Lorem, pulling out her own device to respond.]

Hi, Lorem. I'm Faith. Obviously. What kind of shields? How big? Strong?

For the record. I'm not exactly normal either. Super strength being the main thing. [She'd leave the higher level details for later.]

[ lorem’s face lights up at the mention of strength, relief clear on her expression because thank goodness. it isn’t difficult to tell that lorem is not built for fighting or heavy lifting despite her height. ]

That's good to hear. The strength I mean. It seems like everyone here in town needs all the help they can get.

T answer your questions about the shields - They’re big enough to cover me and whoever is by my side when they come up. From experience they’ve been able to fend off physical blows like punches and shots and the like. It's exhaustive to use however. I try to use them only in emergencies.

Edited (cleared out the subject title. apologies for that!) 2018-01-16 03:13 (UTC)

Got it. Only to be used if we need it. Not just for shits and giggles. [Faith winked after typing that, smiling. Just because they were in this weird ass place didn't mean they couldn't be a little lighthearted, right?] Want to get going and start our little sound proofing mission?

lorem laurel ; original character.

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Sound Eaters

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man in the hat - option one

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Housemates

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housemates;

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the man in the hat - option two;

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housemates

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