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

[353]

But did you actually though? [ Such a personal question but his innocence lets him get away with it. ] Or did you think you did? [ There's a difference, in Mike's opinion. ]

I wouldn't feel like I belonged anywhere if it wasn't for my friends. [ They made Hawkins home for him, even when there were monsters in it. ]

[oorah]

[ oh god, mike. way to hit him right where it hurts. and he doesn't mean in his big dumb purple face. frank hangs his head and wraps his arms tighter around himself. i point, you shoot. he can't think about agent orange or billy or any of it now. he should focus on the endearing follow-up. but he can't. not when his friends had betrayed him too. all except curtis, but he still owes that man a debt he can't ever repay. ]

I just thought I did, alright? That's how being grown up works. [ aka it sucks. frank swallows, he should say something positive. he would never say something like that to his own kids. but he's not a father anymore, is he? not a marine either. he's not really anyone. he doesn't belong anywhere. and as mike just pointed out: he never really did. ]

[353]

[ Well, Mike definitely said something wrong from the looks of it, upsetting Frank somehow. He's almost afraid to say anything else that might rub up Frank the wrong way, but - ]

Isn't it a good thing that you were wrong, maybe? There has to be nicer, happier places you'd wanna be... [ You know, not surrounded by so much death. ] Where's your happy place?

[oorah]

[ just when he thinks the knife can't go deeper, mike twists it. he actually makes a tiny noise, akin to a grunt, at that. jesus. it isn't his fault, he's just a curious kid. but where would he rather be? what's a happy place? his wife's arms, maybe? teaching lisa guitar? camping with frank jr.? well none of that shit will ever happen again. ]

Don't have any of those, kid. [ happy places. every single one has been tainted. ]

[353]

[ Ever the optimist: ]

You might not have one right now but you can still find it. [ To Mike, as long as you're alive, there's one out there for you. It's just a matter of locating it. Maybe for the third or fourth, sometimes, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. ] Doesn't matter how old you are.

[ Here's hoping the "ha you're old" joke makes him crack a smile, at least. ]

[oorah]

[ it's good that mike is positive. he would hate to see that leave him, but he's afraid it might in a place like this. frank nods, a smile nowhere in sight, not seeming to register the joke. he's thinking of the liebermans now, the picture in his pocket. he knows what it's going to take to prove to mike that he's okay, and maybe he owes him that much. they may not even know each other, but he knows he can't stay away. he needs to make sure he's safe now that he knows he's here. slowly, frank pulls the photograph out of his pocket, his trinket the natives had brought him. he traces all of their faces with reverence before passing it to mike so he can see. ]

This is as close as I've got. These are my friends. [ his voice is gravelly and low, still soft so no one can overhear. ]

[353]

[ Who knows, if this place doesn't suck all hope and optimism out of him, maybe he'll simply grow out of it. Maybe it'll take a huge loss in his life to change to a mentality like Frank's, a loss where there really is no way of that person coming back.

Mike gets a good look at the photo Frank shows him. They all seem to have such kind faces. ] They seem nice... How long have you known them for?

[oorah]

[ this conversation keeps finding new ways to wreck him. he wishes he had just kept his mouth shut. the heck, mike. ]

Not long. [ and he's going to find someway to fuck it up, so. thanks for reminding him. frank takes back the picture and stuffs it back into his jumpsuit defensively. he can't just leave it there, though, not with everything this family means to him. ] ...We saved each other.

[353]

[ Mike nods like he can relate to having a friendship like that, where you wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for them and vice versa. ]

Do you think friendships like that last forever?

[oorah]

[ frank would like to think they do, honestly. there's still some of the forward-looking soldier and family man in there somewhere. but when he's convinced just being around puts the liebermans in danger? the answer can't really be yes, can it? ]

Forever is a long time, kid.

[353]

...It's Mike. [ But Frank will probably keep calling him "kid", right? ]

[oorah]

[ actually... frank holds out his hand to shake, treating mike like a man. it's how he'd always taught his son. and how he treated the boy in the picture, too. ] Nice to meet you, Mike. I'm Frank.

[353]

[ ...Oh. This is new - being treated like an adult for a change. He takes the offered hand and shakes it with a smile. ]

I should go find my friend... but it's been cool meeting you, Frank. I'll see you around?

[oorah]

[ frank nods. it'd be kind of hard to shake him now, but it's easy to let mike go now. or if not easy, then necessary. ]