INTRO LOG #2

[bequiet]

INTRO LOG #2
Put a Sock in It
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 – with or without the help of those who have come before you.

The Place Inside
Content Warnings: Disorientation, hallucinations, body horror
Themes: Plot, exploration

Have you been to hell. And more importantly, have you been back. We all know this pain but are too scared to recall. This horror controls us, pulls at our strings to ensure how our life plays out. So, let me rephrase my question: have you been to Ile Lacrox. And more importantly, can you come back.

In the community, if you hear something you're not supposed to hear, you learn to look the other way. If you see something you're not supposed to see, you pretend it never happened. If you feel disappointed, you learn to never ask for more. So, through good times and bad, famine and feast, the natives held fast to their rules until one common day a sly wind blew in from the south...

That same red dust twists through the streets, curling up in faint, little plumes of familiarity. The farther south you go, the thicker it becomes. Those willing to explore far enough will find it coming from an island in the middle of the river. Once there, doting every available surface is the evidence of Sound Eater births, and the closer you are to the island, the harder it is to avoid being coated in red. Even if it's not rubbed into the skin, it doesn't take long for the effects to take over. Every sound is amplified. Your breaths are deafening, the slightest step echoes. But no Sound Eater attacks. Your vision blurs, and it's as if your mouth is sealing itself shut. Those you traveled with seem to be similarly affected, and you know you have to be quiet. Anyone who brought supplies with them might discover that a drink of water subdues the symptoms.

OOC: Only characters who entirely submerge themselves in water will be free of the dust effects. Just remember that noise will attract Sound Eaters.


Liplocked
Content Warnings: Violent tendencies, mind alteration
Themes: Love, romance, obsession, sex

The natives are of French origin, and with that comes a love of romance. Residents will find treats and valentines at their doors. That same night, there will be a small, red-glowing fire built near the fountain. There will be jars pressed into the dirt and filled with a sweet, red liquid. Some natives can be seen drinking it and being very affectionate with one another. Anyone who drinks this is inspired to show endearment or lust to others, and it will wear off after sleeping.

There's also the noticeable addition of a new arrival. They came through the Reset Room just like everybody else. They understand the rules and follow them to a tee. They are the perfect example of what the natives want in their residents. They are charming and captivating. They say nothing, and they don't have to. When your eyes meet, you feel seduced. There's a nervous flutter in your stomach. You can feel your heartbeat in your throat. Pounding, constricting. They smile and then turn away.

As they're walking, you notice you're not the only one looking at them, and in their expression, you see your own mirrored. What started as sweet infatuation and longing dissolves into a jealousy unlike any you've ever known. All you understand now is that to win their affections you have to come out on top—so you're the only one they see. Your actions are not your own, but they're still yours.

OOC: There are two ways to break the "spell". Your character fights it out with someone else who is feeling the same way OR they're approached and physically touched by someone who isn't affected by the newcomer. A third of the community will be completely unaffected (everyone else is affected unless the player is uncomfortable with playing out the scenarios). The newcomer can be of any gender the player wishes. For those partaking in drinking, the players can choose what effects it has; it can inspire feelings of lust or boost paternal/maternal instincts or devotion towards friends.

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

[iisupergirlii]

[ Kara shrugs. She gets it. She'd had her own private dorm. Granted, her worries had been that a roommate would see her sleep-float, but still. ]

Behind a closed door of your very own.

[list_maker]

[Arya's really not sure what to make of this woman. She can... fly. That's like nothing she's ever heard of. The only comparison that is even close is the dragonriders. She shakes her head.] Doors can be opened. Locks can be picked. I just want to sleep here.

[She dares a question that has nothing to do with Arya's sleeping arrangements.] You can fly. [Okay, so that's a statement. But the silent question how is pretty obvious here.]

[iisupergirlii]

Trees can be chopped down. [ okay, maybe not silently, but ugh! her head hurts, and this girl is out here in the open, and why doesn't anyone want to just stay safe? ]

[ she just nods at the next message and picks herself up in the air again, just a foot off the ground. Yeah, she can fly. ]

[list_maker]

[Arya gives him an incredulous look at that line of argument. Who's going to chop down her sleeping tree in the middle of the night? She's not convinced, Kara. You'll have to do better than that.

She sees her fly again and is nearly as startled again as when she'd first done it. But how? She posits a guess.] Are you a witch?

[iisupergirlii]

[ she shakes her head then and answers- ] I'm an alien.

[list_maker]

[Arya just looks confused and doesn't text back, nose wrinkling at that. Alien? Clearly, she doesn't understand. She's a foreigner? Aren't they all, technically?]

[iisupergirlii]

[she seems confused, so Kara points... up? Technically west, if she wants to get specific, but "up" tends to make more sense to people-native-to-Earth. which she assumes Arya is. Maybe?]

From outer space? I wasn't born on Earth.

[list_maker]

[Arya looks up, confusion solidifying even further. She's from the sky. Perhaps she's sent by the Seven? The Old Gods? The many-faced god? She blinks, considering Kara again with something like aw. It's an expression that hasn't graced the girl's face in some time. She's been through so much, been hardened to the world.] How did you get here? If you're from up there?

[iisupergirlii]

[Kara shrugs helplessly.]

I've traveled to different worlds before. I was flying and this - [she pauses from typing, glancing up at Arya again with a frown. Arya's definitely not from her world, not from her time. She can't be. So how can she explain Cisco's breaches to her?]

- this hole opened up in the sky, and usually when that happens, it's one of my friends who need my help! So I thought that's what this was, and I flew through the hole and... wound up here!

What about you? How did you get here? Do you remember?

[list_maker]

[Arya is still confused, but she doesn't think further explanation will really help, so she just listens instead. Takes it in. Perhaps she'll ask Tony about Kara. About what aliens were. If they were some kind of messenger of the gods. Another thing for the older Stark to mock her for, no doubt.]

[She shrugs.] I was asleep. Then I was not. There wasn't any hole.

[iisupergirlii]

[that had to be jarring, to just wake up somewhere new. Kara gives her what she hopes is a sympathetic look, given the headache that's not getting any better the longer she's on her feet.]

Where are you from?

[list_maker]

Westeros. [She doesn't expect Kara will know where that is. No else has so far.] My father was lord of Winterfell. A castle in the North.

[iisupergirlii]

[Kara doesn't, and she wishes she could Google it. Maybe that would answer some questions. But there's no Google here, so she's out of luck that way.]

North... America? So he was a king? [so maybe not America then, if Kara remembers her Earth history correctly.]

[list_maker]

[She shakes her head at the mention of America. It seems quite a few people here are from there, but the name doesn't mean anything to her. Other than having heard it from them.] The North of Westeros. He wasn't a king. Warden of the North. The Targaryens conquered the seven kingdoms a long time ago, and no one could be called king but whomever sat at King's Landing.

Until the war anyway. Now my brother, Jon, he's King in the North.

[iisupergirlii]

[all of that sounds super complicated, but Kara nods along, trying to keep up.]

Good for your brother! Would he... want you outside sleeping in a tree?

[list_maker]

[Good for her brother. Except for what it cost to get it. Arya shrugs at the question.] I haven't seen Jon in years. And I've done worse and more unsafe things than sleeping in a tree. Things he'd be far more concerned about.

[iisupergirlii]

[Kara raises an eyebrow at that. That's curious. That's another one on the list of new arrivals who's admitted to doing bad things before waking up here. Weird. She can't stop herself from asking...]

Like what?

[list_maker]

[She just smiles at Kara and shrugs.] I wouldn't even know where to begin. Maybe I should make a list. [Arya leaves it at that, her own silent personal joke. Yeah, she thinks she's hilarious.]

He's got other things to worry about than me outside, anyway. The Dead are coming.

[iisupergirlii]

[Maybe... maybe they're not bad things! Maybe she just means... perilous things. Which, on the one hand, Kara is impressed by because this girl is tiny and that's badass. maybe she's just climbed really tall trees or... or whatever.

Kara's going to ask, to clarify, "haha, well, you haven't killed anyone, right?" but then she sends a new message and... what?]

The... Dead...? Like, zombies? I'm not sure the Sound Eaters are zombies.

[list_maker]

[It's a good thing she doesn't ask that question. Because it's likely Arya would have been honest and Kara horrified.]

Not here. At home. I don't know what zombies are. But the walkers are dead men. Who walk again under the command of the Night King. And they're marching to the Wall and may breach it. And my people need to be prepared. Or we'll all join them.

[iisupergirlii]

[o... kay. holy crap.]

That sounds terrible. I'm sorry. Are you SURE they're dead,
though? Or WERE dead?

[she has to be young, right? Kara's terrible at guessing humans' ages since the year cycle is so different on Krypton, but she has to be young-ish? Maybe that's just what someone told her war was like, a story they tell all the children.]

[list_maker]

I haven't seen them in person. I only know what Jon has said in his raven's and the stories Old Nan used to tell us growing up. But we're preparing. Readying the people. Winter is here and the North needs to be ready.

Except now I'm here. And I can't help them. [This is clearly of great frustration to her, if her scowl is anything to go by.]

[iisupergirlii]

[so maybe they are just stories, or are normal human soldiers.

still, Kara gives her a grim, sympathetic smile.]

We're going to find out how to get home soon enough.

[list_maker]

I hope you're right. I have things I need to do. Staying here is keeping from that. [She had to kill Cersei. And the Mountain.]

[And she needs to see Jon.]

[iisupergirlii]

For now, while you're here, you need to keep yourself safe.
And that includes locking down at night, not sleeping in trees.

[thx for that segue, Arya. now Kara can mother u some more ISN'T IT GREAT?]