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

naruto uzumaki | naruto

[thinhammer]

01. MUZZLE AND MUTE
[ Naruto is very confused, to put it mildly. He's not sure what's really going on even during the explanation of what's going on, and blinks at the community and his new other-worldly cohorts like he's waiting for someone to smack him on the shoulder and tell him it's all some elaborate prank. Naruto has never been anywhere but the shinobi world, has never seen anyone but shinobi he can identify by their head plates and civillians who respond to his. Here, though, he's like a small fish in an extremely large sea of people of varying species and types, none of them wearing headbands, none of them even remotely familiar-- was that a person made out of metal??? Was that a dog?? Was that a moving carpet????

He's staring around with such overwhelmed wonder, clutching his device to his chest and gaze flickering as though he's trying to take in everything that's happening around him all at once, that he doesn't notice someone walking a little slower than him on the path ahead, and so goes bumping pretty firmly into their back. He topples onto one leg, flails his arms to find balance and almost lets his communicator device smack the ground hard as he flings it up into the air in surprise-- but does an almost elegant wobbly stretch to catch it at the very last minute, finds his balance and pants as quietly as he possibly can as adrenaline rushes through him.

Then, he looks to the poor soul he'd bumped into, hands already trying to remember how to show messages on this thing; once he gets it he has to remember how to type on it. It's awkward, to say the least, the kind of rushed silence that transpires between him and his bumping victim, but can you blame him? This kid has never even seen a TV before. ]

oi why don't you watch where you're-- [ The little screen thing is transparent, right? So if the person he's 'talking' to can understand Japanese they might be able to get the gist of what he's about to 'say' before he deletes it, and replaces it with another more thought out message, which he holds up. Fingers crossed devices can translate Japanese, otherwise this will be difficult. ]

i'm sorry for bumping into you. i didn't see you ahead of me. are you new here too??

02a.THE MAN IN THE HAT - house #7
[ By the time Naruto has stopped wandering, there are already people finding homes in the rooms of House 7, and so for more than a handful of moments he kind of stands in the foyer looking awkward, glancing around at the doorways expectantly, possibly waiting for one of them to open and for his room to become clear. When it doesn't and he's still roomless, he peers through the line of the large room infront of him, toward a little deck positioned at the back of the house. It looks like it's made out of wood, seems uninhabited, and out of sheer curiosity he finds himself wandering toward it.

There are no sounds of nature when he steps out onto it, which is unsettling, but there is the smallest amount of wind.. He can't really hear it but he can feel it, and that comforts him just a bit. He looks up at the steadily darkening sky, firms his expression, and starts to lay out the blankets he picked up earlier on the deck. ]

02b. THE MAN IN THE HAT - party time
option one
[ The gift he gets is definitely a weird looking one to anyone who doesn't know him... Which is, well, everyone. It's a headband just like the one he's wearing, but the fabric is blue rather than black and the plate affixed to it has a slash through the symbol on the front. Naruto hadn't had this on him when he'd arrived here, he'd left it in Konoha before it had been obliterated, he'd been sure it had been destroyed along with his home--

Seeing it here, holding it in his hands and letting the weight of what this thing means to him rest uncomfortably somewhere between his ribs has his expression turning complicated; a twisted kind of look, like he's trying to figure out a particularly difficult puzzle but also like he's smelt something bad and is trying to be polite. ]

option two
[ The 'party' takes his mind off it, however. It might not be much, but Naruto is notoriously easy to impress so he approaches the idea of a party with more than enough enthusiasm. Only when they're all in one place like this does he really get a scope of how many people there are here, and rather than being overwhelmed this time he's excited by the prospect of getting to know everyone.

A party isn't really a party without music, but he understands why music might be a silly idea given the circumstances (even he's not that dumb) so he opts for the next best thing and collars the closest stranger to him by the elbow, shoving his communicator in their face with a message emblazoned on it. ]

hey! wanna play a party game with me???

03. SOUND EATERS
[ Naruto swallows, mouth pulled into a tight and uncertain line as he listens to the stories about the spooky entities stalking outside the perimeter. Despite his bravado and his larger than life personality, Naruto is still technically a child, and as a child who's spent most of his life relying on being as loud and brash as he possibly can... to be told that doing so would get you and possibly others killed is a very big culture shock. He knows now how wracking grief is, can see it in the lines of the natives' faces, in their eyes and in the way they hold each other and clutch one another like they're afraid they might be whisked away if they were to let go. ]

Hey, it's gonna be okay, y'know. We're all gonna do what we can to help ya, an' we're not gonna put any of you in danger, okay?

[ He's talking to a young woman with a small child latched onto her clothes. He gives them a bright, reassuring smile that betrays none of his uncertainty or apprehension, and the effort seems to make them smile too. Once they nod to him and leave, Naruto gives it a few moments before he runs his hands through his hair, exhaling a long sign toward the sky. This is seriously heavy stuff.... ]

04. WILDCARD
feel free to mash something together or hit me up for something else, i'm open to anything!

02b. THE MAN IN THE HAT - party time | option 2

[xochipilli_cursed]

[Aaron's hopping around and trying to be social so when an excited guy grabs his elbow he plays along. Letting his gaze focus on the words on the device, he quickly snags his own and types a response.]

sure, so long as it's not spin the bottle. what do you have in mind?

[The grin on his face hopefully portrays that he's joking.]

[thinhammer]

[ The joke apparently goes unnoticed; the expression Naruto gives in response to that should let Aaron know how closeted a life Naruto has led up to this point, that spin the bottle definitely doesn't happen where he's from at the very least. Why would I wanna spin a bottle his expression asks silently, but he soon wafts the strange comment away - filing it under a section in his mind where all the strange things people brought here seem to say or do, a section that's quickly becoming full to bursting - and instead tugs his new victim friend over to where he'd been standing idly before, where he has a few strands of what look like dead twig lined up.

He puts his hands up like he's going to talk over his shoulder-- and manages to catch himself at just the last moment, flushes, and types out another message. ]

you ever played hashiken before??

3

[accessdata]

[ Friday had been taking her time to watch the reaction of others. It had seemed like the most important thing, figure out who was most likely to break under pressure or who was feeling less than sympathetic to the plights of the people who were begging for their cooperation. It was because of those observations that she noted the blond haired boy (because he wasn't anything more than that, how could there be so many children brought here?) who was reassuring a mother and another child about how everything would be okay.

She waits until the pair has walked away, until she sees that confidence temporarily break, before she goes to take a few cautious steps over. ]

That was sweet of you.

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto jumps just a little at the sound of her voice, and turns without attempting to cover up even the smallest bit of his surprise. Speech is starting to sound weird after so long in silence and Naruto isn't sure if that weirdness makes him want to talk more or less just yet. As it is, though, he'll never pass up an opportunity to talk to someone, so he shrugs. ]

Everyone needs a little reassurance sometimes, y'know. We might all be freakin' out about bein' in a world we don't know, but they're freakin' out too 'cos there are people they don't know here to maybe mess stuff up for 'em and make things messy. [ He stretches his arms up and puts them behind his head as he looks out into the crowd of very quiet natives. ] We're not the only ones who've got it bad.

01!

[imitationsoul]

[ It is definitely not hard to run into Miach, who herself is moving a little like she's sleepwalking. The experience of arrival hasn't left her as unmoved as she'd like to think. She doesn't fall when she's bumped into, but she has to take some pretty wide step in order to catch herself and prevent this worst case outcome.

She looks irritated for a moment, then her face smooths out and she takes out her own device to type back with ease. As it turns out, she also types Japanese. ]

You don't need to censor your anger.

[ This does not at all answer the actual question. ]

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto watches her type, notices that instead of switching from some other language to Japanese like it does when he 'talks' to the locals here, her text starts and finishes in Japanese. So she must speak it too. He's sure of it when she confirms it, and makes a grim face. Busteeeeeed. ]

i wasnt angry i was just

[ Pissed off? Irritated? He's not so dense that he doesn't know his emotions are super reactionary, that he acts and speaks before really thinking about what might happen.. so he can admit that while in the moment he might have been angry, it went as quickly as it came. ]

surprised...

[ That's a nice middle ground, and not technically a lie. ]

man in the hat, party time; option one

[pawper]

[She's giving the same kind of look to her own memento, the native that had pressed it into her (one and only) hand already long since vanished: a small carving of a wolf, teeth bared and head raised in mute defiance, its furry hide pierced through with dozens of arrows. A totem of some kind? Not a very cheery one, if so.

Weighed down with her own uncomfortable knowledge, she's about to pocket the thing and put it out of her mind for the time being when she happens to glance up and notice Naruto's expression. Lys hesitates, struck by how her own feelings seem to be mirrored on his stranger's face. Curious despite herself, despite everything, she edges closer (but not enough to be impolite, of course) to give him an innocently questioning look, bright blue eyes moving from his own to the....headgear? Piece of armor? That's her best guess.]

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto notices her feet step into his periphery and glances up at her; the moment he registers the look she's giving him the jumbled up expression on his face hastily drops, like a child whipping his hand away from the cookie jar after being caught dipping in, to be replaced by a similarly questioning look.

He glances down at the little carving in her hand, then back at her face. He can understand why she's come over now, and digs in his overalls to fish out his communication device. ]

i'll tell ya about mine if you tell me about yours

[ He's curious, so he figures she must be. ]

party two party time

[ghostfluster]

[Rosa isn't used to someone to someone just taking her arm. her elbow, unseen under the jumpsuit, shifts a little oddly under his fingers, and she tugs it back with a silent squeak.

it could get super awkward, but then the message on his device actually registers. her smile on seeing it is genuine, and only a tiny bit wobbly at the edges.]

sorryyou starled me? but yes!

[please don't think she's rude, friendly stranger]

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto doesn't really react much to her squeak or the way she flinches away, but he does notice the weird feeling of her arm moving-but-not-moving inside her sleeve and gives her arm a quick, confused glance before her communicator screen is in his face. ]

yes!!! i found some rocks thatd be perfect for daruma otoshi, have you ever played before??

[ The communicator has a hard time translating the name of the game, so it just settles on the romaji, which isn't very helpful to Rosa, but when Naruto points to the five rocks he has piled up on a small mound of earth behind him, it... might become a little clearer? ]

2a

[gimmesometassel]

[Carpet has been flitting about trying to make sure the house is taken care of for most of the day now, and helping his housemates settle in as best he can. Most of the preparations seem par for the course--so it's a little surprising to see a boy laying out blankets on the deck. Surely that can't be a comfortable room to claim! Can it?

Carpet types out a quick message, then drifts out to watch (and show Naruto his device) with some measure of concern.]

Are you really going to sleep out here?

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto is just about ready to make a kind of bed-nest in the blankets, wrapping them around himself as he sits in the center, building up some walls with a few pillows he'd snagged... and then there's a light, the telltale shine from the screen of a communicator that he's fast becoming accustomed to looking out for. He looks up and then pushes himself backwards against the wall of the house behind him in surprise; it only lets out a soft doof as he bumps it with the flat of his back and shoulders, but hitting his head is a near miss. That could have been chancy. And painful.

But there are more important things on Naruto's mind now. Mainly this animate carpet, holding one of the little devices like it's trying to communicate with him.. and as Naruto blinks in utter confusion, he realises that the only explanation can be that it is trying to communicate with him, that this carpet must be.. alive somehow!

He can't decide if he's more confused or amazed, and leans forwards just the smallest bit to take a closer look. Man, if only he could speak. He's practically biting his tongue in two trying not to let any noises of wondrous excitement out. ]

you're a carpet?????

[ He quickly types and shows to his new companion, forgetting entirely that this carpet had asked him a question first. ]

01

[bowrettes]

[ there she was, minding her own business...




nah, jk, she'd actually totally been dragging her feet, and it makes total sense that naruto should walk right into her, considering she probably doesn't even register in his peripherals, despite standing right in front of him. now, his considerable height over her isn't the only thing working against them in this moment. his weight, too, and gravity and physics. tldr; she's knocked over like she weighs two pounds (and she might as well, for how petite and frail she is). she goes down with a sharp squeak of surprise, earning the sudden rancor of all the natives around them.

her cheeks flare red, and she directs that ire towards her assaulter, as if she could somehow transfer it through glares alone.

she types on her own device with a huff. ]

I saw what you wrote before. [ ergo, she doesn't believe his apology is sincere. hmph! ] It's not my fault you ran into me.

[ also did i mention her hand is a little scuffed from catching her as she fell? naruto, you monster. ]

[thinhammer]

[ He might have changed what he was about to say, reeling himself in from speaking - or rather, typing - without thinking first.. but now that she's called him out on it he figures there's no point in keeping it up and lets a scowl tarnish his face as he folds his arms and glares down at her huffy response. He gives a huff of his own before he responds. ]

yeah well it aint my fault you were walking so slow either
some people have got places to be yknow and if youre gonna go around taking up all the space then youre gonna get bumped into!!!

[ He's annoyed, yeah, but as he holds his hand out to show her the message his ire kind of... dies. He's a very reactionary guy, so arguing silently doesn't really have the same kind of loud and explosive fuel it normally does, leaving him with his own thoughts for a few awkward moments in which he considers the possibility that.. maybe he's overreacting again.

He retracts the device and taps out another message, looking away like he doesn't care as she reads it. ]

im sorry for making you fall
are you ok?

03

[infodumped]

[Tuan doesn't mean to overhear that snippet of conversation as she passes. All she'd meant to do was walk over towards the wall where she could lean on something solid for a little while. But she does overhear this bit of sentimentality and it gets her to pause and stare in veiled disbelief.]

"We?"

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto turns at the sound of a voice, a level expression on his face almost like he's daring whoever spoke up to repeat what they said. He's a shonen protag, don't challenge his morals. ]

Yeah. We.

[ He folds his arms. ]

Got a problem with that?

02b - option one

[musubitori]

[ Houou has a jar of peaches and a bottle of rudimentary liquor tucked into the crook of his arm, under the shelter of his new robe and honestly feels better for consuming half of both. He's on a cloudy feeling meander through the gathering - patrolling out of sheer habit - but the sudden flash of silver catches his eye. In a see of jumpsuits and unfamiliar faces it has his entire attention to notice something familiar.

The symbol is not one he's seen, but Houou would know a hitai-ate anywhere and he sidles up to the person holding it, out of hopeful curiosity if nothing else. ]

I did not expect to find a fellow Shinobi so far from home..

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto is caught up in staring at the plate in his hands for a long time, so even when Houou stands before him Naruto doesn't really pay much attention until the glare of the device is turned to him, and he blinks up at it like he momentarily forgot where he was--

He reads, then looks up at the stranger with raised eyebrows and a slightly open mouth. Houou doesn't look like any shinobi Naruto has ever seen... but then, he supposes there must be shinobi out there in the world that he's never come into contact with... But if this one recognised the forehead protector, then...

Naruto's mouth opens a little more, a kind of ah- sound escaping him in his excitement as he automatically goes to speak-- then he promptly shuts his mouth with a click of his teeth, grumbles in frustration, and gets out his own device. ]

youre a shinobi too?? [ Duh, Naruto, he already said that. ] are ya from the same world as me????

2a Man in the Hat (house 7)

[gotyourselfapilot]

[ Poe had been so busy helping with housemates that he didn't get to really explore the rest of the house until much later. Plus he wanted to relax a little after that party. He didn't even know there was a deck but when he sees someone out there with a blankets. The man goes back to his room to grab any extra pillows he may have picked up. He only really needed one for himself.

As he knocks quietly on the sliding door to not be too rude, he steps out handing out two pillows for Naruto to take in one hand. He's still in his reddish orange but more orange jumpsuit. Poe looks a bit exhausted from everything but he starts typing on the device before showing the other it. ]

Are you going to be alright sleeping out here? It doesn't seem to bad. I didn't even realize this house had a deck so big.

[ If every house was like this a bunch of people had places to sleep. But it would still be a room for them. He would at least treat it as such. ]

[thinhammer]

[ The last thing Naruto expects is for someone to come outside offering him pillows. Generosity still takes Naruto by surprise even now, so his automatic reaction is to look at the offering uncertainly before reaching out to accept it with a great deal of care, like he's afraid the pillows will explode or be whipped away from him at the last moment as part of some big joke. ]

yeah

[ Naruto figures he should just leave it at that, but.. something tells him such a simple answer probably won't do. ]

im used to sleepin outside. usually it's in a tree or a cave or something so this is actually kind of better than what im used to.
and i didnt wanna make anyone else sleep out here if theyd rather take the rooms yknow

[ It's then that he notices Poe's jumpsuit and his expression turns outraged, mouth opening and closing in a visible struggle over not being able to voice what he's feeling. He types another message. ]

wHhH where did you get that outfit?!

option two

[hoaxer]

[Ah. She didn't expect someone to actually approach her in such a forward manner. Right away, Lu Li turns her "face" away, as if that would help hide her features, even as she raises her device to show her response.]

YOU STARTLED ME...

[thinhammer]

[ Woah, he didn't really look at who he was grabbing until after he grabbed, and now he's forgotten all about the game he was intending to play and is instead standing in awe of the giant in front of him. Not only does she tower almost a full foot above him, but she's also made out of metal??? Naruto's experience with technology is very limited - even the devices in their hands kind of confuse him - so the fact that he's talking to a robot?? who's responding to him?? is kind of blowing his mind right now. Give him a few seconds to snap out of it. ]

uuuh, sorry!! i didnt mean to i just
man you look cool
is that yoú or is that like a suit or somethin

[ Does that sound insulting? He doesn't mean for it to be, he just has basically no filter whatsoever. ]

03

[rou_gui]

[ She's frowning at the boy. She doesn't know what it is about his attempts to soothe the natives that irritates her so deeply. Maybe it reminds her of her brothers, their stupid kind little hearts -- so precious she had hardly been allowed to see them.
She snatches Naruto's arm as he and the woman part ways, ]

Don't make promises you can't keep.

[ A very ominous warning indeed. ]

[thinhammer]

[ Naruto looks at the stranger like.. well, like she'd just grabbed his arm and called him out on something he hadn't even done. He's understandably upset about it, because he both doesn't appreciate being grabbed like he's a misbehaving child, and also really does not like it when people piss on his hero-ing. It rings too familiar, and it leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. ]

I don't.

[ He wrenches his arm out of her hold. ]

What about that made ya think I was lyin' huh?