INTRO LOG #1

[bequiet]

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

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Comments

[oorah]

[ he startles, but only briefly, recognizing her from his brief trip to the house. a house they now share with a bunch of other assholes, apparently. frank looks away sharply, glancing down into his jar though he sets it aside a second later. it's only been hours and yet her voice sounds harsh and almost jarring to his ears. he shrugs a shoulder, feeling tired all of the sudden. if this were another place, another time; whether he knew her or not he'd forfeit the garage in a heartbeat. but it isn't and they're not so he just shakes his head and makes a hell no gesture by cutting the air with his hand and then pointing to himself with a tiny frown. the message is clear: mine. ]

[toomuchridgewood]

[ She blinks, surprised at the implication. Though not offended. None of them know each other, or what sort of place they are coming from. She shakes her head and opens her jar of pickles. When she speaks again it's much quieter. ]

I don't want it. I like the big windows I have. I just wish there weren't windows between my room and that big one inside.

[She tries a pickle. It is so salty. Her eyes fly wide as she struggles not to spit it out. ]

[oorah]

[ he relaxes when she lowers her volume, though he's still glancing around to see if any natives are about to tackle her. they seem safe for the moment. frank nods when he looks back at her face, then immediately grins at her reaction to the pickle. he picks back up his jar and offers her a peach instead. ]

[toomuchridgewood]

[ Aloy takes a swig out of the jar the man in the hat gave her.

She thought it was water. The smell of the spirits stings her nose just a moment before she feels, more than tastes, the burn in her throat. She coughs, but manages not to spit. Much.

She gives him, and the peaches, a wary look. He could be trying to help, or just giving her something else awful because it's funny. Still giving him a wary look, she takes the jar of peaches and fishes out a slice.

It feels weird and squishy and slimy. Like a big slug. The syrup coats her fingers and drips down her palm, making her entire hand sticky. Still, she figures it can't be worse than the pickle.

She shoves the entire thing in her mouth. Which is then coated in the same incredibly sweet syrup that now coated her hand. The texture of the peach was just as slimy and squishy as it felt in her hand. She chews and swallows slowly, her brow furrowing and her expression growing more and more pinched.

She swallows and shakes her head.

With sticky fingers, she slowly manages to type on her device. ]

this food is weird

[oorah]

[ he opens his mouth in a soundless laugh, though something like a snicker makes it out. okay he is going to have fun messing with you, forget what he didn't say before. frank just nods to show he agrees. it is weird, but it's better than being starved on top of prison camp, right? ]

[toomuchridgewood]

[ Aloy almost chokes as she swallows the thing, and then presses her palm to her mouth to keep herself quiet, shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. She just shakes her head and takes another swig of moonshine and coughs as it goes down.

She sighs. This is awful. But she looks at Frank with a warm look. Together, we'll all make it through. ]

[oorah]

[ what frank gets out of the look is less warmth and more indigestion, but he's taking it as a sign of good faith either way. okay housemate let's be civil etc etc. he holds up an OK sign with his fingers, which has more or less been his universal symbol for "we're cool" since he got here ]

[toomuchridgewood]

[ Her lips purse slightly as she looks at the gesture he makes. It's not one she recognizes. She tilts her head to try to look through the loop his fingers make, as if he's sighting something. But there's nothing she can see worth looking at.

She leans back to meet his eye again, shrugs and shakes her head in an unspoken apology. ]

[oorah]

[ he bites his lips against a laugh, what a weird girl. he scoots over closer so he can show her his hand and points to the loop with his other- ] Oh. [ a whisper, only for her and barely there anyway. he points to his other three fingers next. ] Kay. Okay.

[toomuchridgewood]

[ She tilts her head and looks at him, one eyebrow raised, lips pressed together slightly. She knows what the individual letters "o" and "k" are. But what he's trying to convey by naming them is a mystery.

She just shrugs and shakes her head a little in apology. ]

[oorah]

[ well that was all he had so he just shrugs and pops another peach slice into his mouth. u are a weirdo but you it's not like he can judge. ]

[toomuchridgewood]

[ As no more explanation is forthcoming, Aloy files it away to ask somebody else. She's not sure who, exactly, might be able to answer but somebody must know what the phrase means.

She fishes another pickle out of her jar and nibbles it. It's not so bad now that she knows what to expect, and she's not eating the entire thing at once. She'll need something more substantial soon, but she can hold out another day or two before it becomes critical.

But for now she just finds some comfort in the easy companionship, and is content to watch the other partygoers navigate their strange, quiet new home. ]