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

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ He gave good harmless, at least when it suited him. At the moment, taking a read of the way she held her shoulders, the tension through the lines of her body, Will decided it was probably in everybody's best interest to keep himself as non-threatening as possible.

His own smile seemed to be painted on, something that he understood people had to do now and again, rather than any sort of genuine good humor. He glanced down at his glasses, then unfolded them and perched them onto his face.

The way they fit, seemed as if they were actually his and not just a random gift. He pulled them back off, then gave them a tilt and pointed at the lens, making a motion of angling them towards the light.

'Might help start a fire' and his accompanying shrug an unspoken 'best I can think of at the moment.' ]

[rockypath]

[Hey, she was fine with fake smiles. Most of hers were, after all. Even the genuine ones were an attempt to cover up for a lot of the darkness and guilt rattling around in her soul.

So, they were his glasses.

She let out a soundless laugh at his mime show, finally giving in and reaching for her texting device in her back pocket then showing it to him.] you can start a fire. while I can make everyone uncomfortable while i pretend that i really want to talk to them about their relationship with jesus?

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ When she withdrew her device, it reminded him that 'oh right, that was a form of communication' and he reached into his pocket to silently withdraw his own. Leaning down to set his jar of booze between his feet, Will read her comment and his lips twitched. He just managed to keep from chuckling ruefully.

Glancing up over the tops of his glasses, his quirk smile broadened before he typed back. ]

Not particularly good for warmth, but you could probably clear a room and have it to yourself pretty quickly?

[rockypath]

[Aha- yeah, she saw that! She almost made you laugh! Not that she wanted anyone to make noise, it felt good that he seemed to appreciate her humor. Joking like this was a nice distraction from actually thinking about their circumstances critically.

Faith waggled her eyebrows, sitting up as she typed back.]

Now you're on to something. Maybe I could get my whole house to myself if I really work at it.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

See. Now you're making me wish I had gotten a cross.

[ He responded, and his expression suggested he wasn't entirely joking. It wasn't that he had anything against his housemates, he really didn't know them. It was just having people in his personal space that grated. ]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that particular item does not have specific religious significance to you?

[rockypath]

[Faith wasn't nearly so reclusive. But some of her roommates were a little too friendly. And nice. It was disconcerting after being so used to prison where everyone wanted something out of you- be that to take your stuff, to fight you, or to screw you. She shook her head at his question.]

No. Not a religious significance. It's use for me was practical. [She looked him over. It was hard to say what he'd believe her. Some people here were from places that knew about the supernatural, some not.]

Vampires.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Before arriving in this place Will would have fallen firmly into the bucket of non-believer. But given that he had apparently survived a plunge off a cliff and ended up in an entirely different dimension for his efforts, his open mindedness had been broadened.

That said, his eyebrows did still arch upwards, before he looked down and typed. ]

Literally?

That's going to take some getting used too. My world the monsters are all too human.

[rockypath]

We have plenty of the human variety monster too, unfortunately. But, yes, literally. [Faith used to be one of those human monsters. Or, more accurately, she'd convinced herself she was and had tried her hardest to prove it.] I slay them. That's what I do. Like Van Helsing with tits.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ While he wasn't exactly a prude, and tended to take just about anything in stride, Will still pinked up on his cheeks at the term 'tits'. Look, his upbringing hadn't been conventional by any means but Papa Graham had been clear on the subject of being a gentleman.

Anyway, moving on!

He doesn't try to hide the expressions that go across his face as he obviously works to imagine and then reconcile what she's suggesting with reality. It takes him a minute, but eventually he types out what is the important part of this conversation. ]

That pay well?

[rockypath]

[He may find himself blushing a lot around Faith, then. She'd certainly never been trained on the ways of being a lady by her absent and frequently drugged out mother. His question caused her smile to fade ever so slightly. It might not have seemed like the most pertinent question but it did cut to the heart of the issue.]

Fuck no.

Don't get paid. I never really had much choice. I was called. Chosen.

[She scrunched her face up a bit in thought. How did it go again?]

'Into every generation there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer...'

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will could commiserate with the idea of being 'chosen'. Just maybe without the capital C. However, this conversation was about her, not him. ]

That doesn't seem nearly as much fun as you make it sound.

[ The text words came without inflection, but his expression was pure wry. ]

So chosen ... sorry, Chosen to fight vampires, suddenly dumped here in Hushknowswhere. How's that treating you?

[rockypath]

[She's not going to get into the fact that she's not the only Slayer. That Buffy died to call another, but was revived. Then very recently they used a spell to call all potential Slayers at once. There was no point to get into it now. Besides, maybe she wanted to feel special for a moment. Singular. Not compared to someone else for a change.]

It's fun in that I'm super strong and generally bad ass. But it comes with constant possibility of horrible death. Which is not as much fun. [Get that Will? Death isn't fun. Who knew?]

It's not great. Silence is not my virtue.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Wait. You're saying death and near death experiences aren't fun? He would never imagine. ]

I'm still back on trying to wrap my head around the idea of vampires. You need to ease me into the idea of someone being born and specifically designed to destroy them.

[ His lips twitched in a dry sort of smile. ]

Before this place I would have said that silence was right in my wheelhouse. But being here ... I never realized how much ambient noise there is in our lives, even without constant conversation.

[rockypath]

Imagine how it felt for me? Seventeen and some British weirdo comes up to me and tells me I'm destined to fight demons and shit? Thought she was a crack pot.

[She couldn't exactly prove what she was saying. Not unless a vampire showed up here. Damn. And that made her wish Angel was here. If anyone could be good at silence it would be him.]

Seriously. I can't even open a door without worrying it might creak. Sure as hell hope no one here as sleep apnea or we're all dead.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will blinked and then arched an eyebrow. ]

Now that's a thought that will keep me awake at night.

[ It also raised the question of how did these people manage to have children? Sex wasn't quiet, even if you didn't talk, moan or groan. He wondered about it, but didn't say so aloud; err so to not!speak. ]

[rockypath]

[Faith was apologetic for bringing it up.] Sorry about that. I'm guessing we just need to insulate the shit out of everything so that little sounds aren't going to be a problem.

But I'm no handyman. No idea how to do that.

[To be honest, Faith had wondered about sex the moment she'd arrived here. Sex was loud. Especially the kind of sex Faith enjoyed. How she would get around that here, she'd no idea. Maybe she'd have to just spend a lot of time to her own devices rather than seeking anyone else out.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

Lots of blankets.

[ Maybe not the most helpful of comments, but it's what he had off the top of his head for the moment. ]

Anyway, I didn't mean to disturb you. Good luck with running people off on the promise of bringing them religion.

[ He still had to grin a little at that idea. ]

[rockypath]

Thanks. I'll give you a status report later. What's your name anyway?

I'm Faith. [Her expression at the mention of her name is a clear, 'yeah, I know.' She has a cross. Her name's Faith. Shut up about it.]

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ He does raise his eyebrows because ... really?

But he won't actually type anything about it. ]

Will Graham, but I usually just go by Will.

[rockypath]

[She was grateful for his restraint.]

Nice to meet you, Will. I'm sure I'll see you around.

[ex_this_ismydesign36]

[ Will didn't try typing out any additional pleasantries. Instead, he gave her a quick half smile and nod of his head 'I'm sure we will see each other around' and then he leaned down to pick up his jar of booze.

Lifting it in a toast 'good luck' he glanced around at the crowd and proceeded to angle his retreat towards the location with the least amount of people. ]