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

[dryeyes]

[His hands start to sign, instinctively now, but he realizes- someone new wasn't going to recognize the local's sign. His shoulders move in a silent sigh as he pulls the device from the pocket of his jumpsuit.]

You're new here, aren't you? [Possibly brand new, considering how they looked lost even in the residential are.a They could have just been dropped off at a house and were now wandering around. The person doesn't look distressed, though, just a familiar degree of grumpiness. So, he'll keep it brief.]

Did the locals tell you much?

[worlds]

[Ouni already hates communication here, when his only options are apparently a language through gestures he doesn't know or written language on an unfamiliar device when reading has never been his strong suit.

Slowly, he types out:]

nothing useful

[dryeyes]

[There's a small nod at that response, as if he expected as much. He holds the device out for as long as necessary, checking the others' eyes for pace of reading. He, at very least, doesn't seem impatient.]

The locals want us to stay. You can't trust everything they tell you anyways.

They're right about the need for silence. That part we've witnessed. [And most people who did really wish they hadn't.]

[worlds]

[Well, if there's one thing Ouni's learned about people from the outside world, it's that 95% of them apparently can't be trusted and are potentially lying liars. (So his pool of samples is a bit small, but still.) That the locals aren't being entirely truthful doesn't come as a surprise.]

what happened?

[dryeyes]

They took us to see them. The sound eaters.

[Some things in life because less scary when they were revealed. It wasn't the case, here. On top of that, seeing them so clearly then not seeing what picked off the stragglers that made too much noise.]

The threat they present is legitimate. If they find you, hear you, you'll die.

[worlds]

how?

[It's asked with the sort of calm determination of someone who's really wondering, can I fight them?]

[dryeyes]

[It's not the scared look of a civilian. He doesn't have enough experience to place new arrivals, not with the wide range of worlds that people were drawn from.]

Faster than the eye can see. There are all sorts of superhuman powers gathered here but none have killed one.

[He really wishes that weren't the case. If even one had been killed, if a body could be produced, he'd feel much more comfortable.]

[worlds]

[...]

there has to be some way. can't just live in fear forever

[dryeyes]

[Living in fear... it's what he'd thought of the people when he first arrived. He doesn't want to be a part of it, either, that said:]

We won't find that out by charging at them recklessly.

[worlds]

don't plan on dying. don't plan on just sitting around either

[dryeyes]

Well, it's not like it's my business whether you live or die.

[He says, even though if he had evidence that this person was going to throw himself into trouble with an utter disregard for his life he would entirely interfere. Heroes, by nature, were meddlers.]

Just be prepared.

[worlds]

[Ouni would very much prefer to keep it no one's business as to whether he lives or dies, seeing as how he'd (internally) scream if he had to be protected by someone else.]

hard to be prepared for an enemy you don't know. unless they're human

[dryeyes]

They're not. And that's why we haven't been able to act.

[As irritating as it is. The closet they looked to human was when they were- young. The image of the sound eater rising from a corpse, looking for all intents like a faceless human. There was no meaning in it, no click of discovery, more like the click of realizing a pit was much deeper than you'd imagined before jumping off.]

[worlds]

[The only true monster, of inhuman origins, that Ouni knows of is—well, himself. (And hell if he actually knows anything, really.) He's never cut down an enemy that wasn't a person, and though he still feels no real fear just yet, this does complicate things.]

so we just sit around all day?

[dryeyes]

[That doesn't even merit a "no" being signed out, his expression should convey it clearly enough. He pauses, typing into the device, longer than a normal response would be, before holding it up.]

• Find a safe way to investigate the sound eaters.
• Work on repairs and maintain the security of town.
• Search the outside reaches of the town, establish further borders.
• Train, maintain, and master your own skills.
• Assist in foraging, gardening, or otherwise providing food.

Choose whatever you're best at. Until we confront our enemies, we need to survive.