MOD LOG #2

[bequiet]

MOD LOG #2
Now we're back to the beginning
Content Warnings: Death, apocalypse, a shit storm generally, pigeon death
Themes: Survival, plot

As noted on the ooc plotting post, this prompt is in the form of a Network Post via the native who runs the Bulletin Board. The post can be found here. Out of the five separate teams, all groups decided to share the footage they found. On the morning of the first, the footage will go live as a compilation in order of oldest to newest. Character's devices will update at the same time. The weather is overcast and sullen, befitting the news, and characters can talk to each other on the network post or play out their reactions on the log here.

Will you stay or will you go
Content Warnings: NONE
Themes: Survival, plot

On the morning of the second, the locals will call a meeting at town hall. All soundproofing and partnering rules apply - find a person and help soundproof the area. This is so that everyone can speak during the meeting. The found footage has unsettled the natives and after the community takes a seat, Constance will share some interesting backstory. As one of the oldest members of the community, Constance wasn't alive when the Sound Eaters first came but she heard stories from her great grandmother. The 'tales' have taken twists and turns over time, leaving the survivors with a watered down version of events that amounts to - they came and everyone had to be quiet.

An elderly native will come forward and admit that they arrived through the Reset Room when they were a teenager and have been living there ever since. They tried to get home and they could never find away. Most interestingly, to those that listen closely to his story, is that he came with a sibling who was killed by a Sound Eater and wasn't Reset. Yet, he's known people to come through the Reset Room, die, and come back. Piping up from the background, another local mentions that those born in the world they're in now (natives) aren't reset when they die. It's not something they have any real understanding of. Arrivals tend to disappear at random times, stay in the community, or leave; those that choose to depart and explore the world never make it very far. Whether this is from Sound Eaters alone or someone or something else, the natives don't know. It's obvious they are frightened and don't go beyond what they know is safe.

The natives will now ask the characters if they will stay as permanent members of the community. If they choose to, they will be given the option to take on an apartment that is completely soundproofed, furnished, and will be accepted completely by the natives. This can open up doors for characters to become important parts of the community. No character has to agree to become permanent members. If a character chooses not to, the arrangement they're in will stay the same until a few months from now when the natives ask again. Arrivals are given the chance to talk to one another so that they can decide and digest the new information. There is also a comment below to ask the natives questions 'in front of' the entire community.

ooc: Players have until apps close this upcoming round to comment to the housing page saying that their character chose to be permanent members and are taking an apartment. The apartment is located closer to the Reset Room and are either one or two bedrooms; please note which one your character is taking.

Therefore I lie with her
Content Warnings: NONE
Themes: Survival, plot

The native Constance, who hands out the devices, has decided to step back from a leadership role and has submitted the names of those that she believes could lead the group better than she has. Please vote responsibly. During dinner, a group meal prepared and served in the town hall, slips of paper will be passed around with a pencil for everyone to vote. They will be anonymous unless the person chooses to share out loud who they voted for. There won't be much time for campaigning, but candidates are allowed to do so if they'd like - either handwaved or through their own posts/top-levels.

THE CANDIDATES:

- Frank Castle
- Erik Lehnsherr
- Teddy Upsilon
- Richie Tozier
- Akira Kurusu
- Merlan O'Keefe

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! The OOC Plotting Post.

NAVIGATION

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Comments

lorem laurel; original character ; open.

[clarius]

i; back to the beginning. (for team one - 9S, teddy, and shouta)

[ when discovering she and the others came across the box of usbs, lorem had thought that they, at best, had found something useful for those who were interested in gadgets and machinery back in the town. usbs were rare where lorem is from, too expensive and costly to make for the average citizen. she perhaps had taken one or two for herself (after asking for permission!) for later use when the devices come up empty. those that have material in them - be it work or photos - lorem gently insists they give to the townsfolk. maybe some of these belong to the families.

and then the footage featuring the sound eaters is discovered.

when the clip finally stops playing, it’s clear to anyone there that lorem is upset by this revelation - lips drawn to a thin line, expression grave and trouble. a hand of hers is holding onto a fistful of her jumpsuit so hard that her knuckles are turning white from the pressure and stress.

finally lorem leans back and makes the motions of sighing. she can’t even trust herself to sigh in fear that it’ll be too loud after what she’s seen. she fumbles for her device, her message/opinion on the situation a firm one: ]

We need to tell them.

( ooc note; hey teammates! feel free to tag each other in this prompt too! )

ii; will you stay or will you go. (open)

[ after all has been said and done, lorem is quick to make up her mind. she had been hesitant to say anything first. memories of what happened before her arrival here - the mutineers' last stand. the ship nearly imploding. radiance. - makes her want to say no, to say sorry but she's needed somewhere.

but then she hears in detail what they've been through all the time and her heart hurts by the end. it seems wrong to leave them. after all they've tried to do for them since their arrival, it seems only right to help in return.

so her mind is made up and lorem is curious. are the others as moved? are the others still determined to go home? lorem wants to ask the person next to her what their plans maybe but... she's suddenly now aware of the eyes that look over her way every now and then. the townsfolk, ever nervous and patient, trying to watch for their reactions or the movement of their lips.

wanting some measure of privacy, lorem pulls out her device and sends out her question: ]

Are you planning to stay?

ii; will you stay or will you go. (for alex)

[ when she’s certain of her choice and she’s spoken to some of the townsfolk of her tentative plans - trying to gauge their reactions to her proposal and so far, so good if the small smiles and murmurs of approval are anything to go by - lorem looks for somewhere quiet(er) for this particular conversation.

she pulls out her device and sends out a quick message, craning her neck around the hall all the while. just in case. ]

Alex! I haven’t seen you at all yet. Are you here?

iii; still starcrossed. (for richie)

[ lorem had expected a lot of things from this meeting. revelations. tough decisions. a lot of awkward staring in the world's most peculiar game of chicken. she was ready for that.

getting asked to help in the issues of the heart? not so much.

it- it happens so fast, really. one minute she's about to ask a boy if he's seen a friend of hers. the next a young woman, her eyes wide and full of tears, approaches them and begins to spill her woes about her beloved and needing to speak with them someway, somehow. and then she's just gone. taken away ber her unhappy mother before anything else can be done.

after lorem pinches her arm to make sure she isn't dreaming now, she looks at her new companion with a puzzled, wide-eyed look. ]

... Well now. That was- That was extraordinary, wasn't it?

iv;; wildcard!!!

[ want to do something else? use this prompt or hit me up via my hmd or my plurk, prognostic, if you want to plot specifics! ]

still starcrossed.

[beeped]

[Richie is sure he's never seen someone so desperate than this lady who asks for his and another's help. Maybe this other person would be good to help, but him? Did they even know him? Obviously not, otherwise they wouldn't have asked him in the first place!

The lady's ushered away from them both before Richie has a chance to react at all, and he's left with a dumbfounded expression. Once they leave, he looks up at the woman who's apparently now roped into this with him.

He mouths 'what the fuck' and begins furiously typing on his device. Look, it's difficult for him to avoid talking, this shit's impressive.] how are we supposed to help with that? was she high???????? 😕😖

[clarius]

[ she doesn't begrudge him for wanting to use the device. if anything its a smart move. she can see from her peripheral vision that the girl and the mother are still nearby. both of them look over their way whenever they think the other is distracted.

turning so she's fully facing him now, lorem does her best to give them a measure of some privacy in the hall with her low, measured voice and lack of gestures. ]

I don't think she's high. I think she's at the end of her rope when all she wants is a meeting with her other half. [ already lore feels pity and concern for the girl. she can easily recall the times she and her friends were frustrated by the lack of help or aid they could get from the adults when they were younger and way, way over their heads. ] People here in town are usually quiet. Keep to themselves.

She must feel pretty desperate to approach us.

[beeped]

desperate sounds about right

[It's still confusing. He's at the point in his life to where he knows how to repeat crass jokes other kids say at the most inappropriate times. But matters of the heart? He doesn't understand that shit for himself. He doubts he can really offer much to this girl.

But the thought of not helping makes him feel bad, though he doesn't quite understand why.]

so we could just find the other person and keep everyone else away and that might be good enough?

[clarius]

Sounds like it. We just need to give this relationship a shove in the right direction and, hopefully, love takes its course.

[ or puppy love. or mere infatuation. she isn't sure how this could play for both parties in the long run but that's the most they could offer for now.

first things first - the mother.

lorem chances a look over her shoulder to where she had seen the girl and her mother. still somewhat closeby. though the mother seems to be trying her best to put distance between her and her child and her daughter's partner. ]

Do you think you're good at distracting people or getting them to follow you?

i; general address to the whole team too

[twoaffirmations]

[9S had done a large swath of sorting. After all, he was an android, and sorting through old digital information was something he could do faster than any human. His teammates were free to double check anything if they didn't trust him, and didn't mind him complaining.

Most of the information was curious or trivial, and he makes copies of it for himself, without letting his teammates know. When they finally find the footage of the Sound Eaters it leaves him shaken, but not out of fear for himself.]

...No, not yet. We should analyze it first. Just let me look at it for a little bit.

[clarius]

[ after thinking on about this for a few seconds, lorem decides to agree with the call for caution. better to have all the information they could get before raising alarms.

she takes out the usb and hands it over to 9s so he can get a better idea of what this is and what else it could contain. she hopes that it has good news, something balance out what they had found. ] What are you looking for?

[twoaffirmations]

I don't know. [9S admits, signing with one hand as he takes the device with the other.]

Something... There's a lot of information here, I just want to analyze it. It would be easier with Pod 153 here, but I'm still a Scanner. This is my specialty.

[clarius]

[ lorem wants to ask what a 'scanner' means or why pod 153 would be essential for this but those questions can be saved for a rainy day. ]

It's fine. Take your time and let us know if something comes up.

Is there anything we can do to help you in making this faster?

i

[dryeyes]

[It was almost equally unsettling to find the USB's so- normal. They were the kind of small, portable drives that he kept paperwork on back home. As if their presence was to reinforce that even if this wasn't happening in his world, it could happen just as easily. Technology wouldn't help. That dirt could show up anywhere and possibly lead to the same situation in any world.]

[... and he nods, after flicking his eyes over the message from Lorem's device. It was an important part of the puzzle they were trying to piece together. They weren't going to be any better off for not knowing.]

I remember- [he signs, briefly, eyes back on the screen where they'd gotten the video to play. He pauses, bites his lip, then goes for his own device. He wanted to use the specific words, not just get by with local sign.]

That red dust was in Paris, too. Had it taken over the ground, like that? Is that why they nested there? [He can't remember enough, too caught up in the image of that freshly born sound eater, of getting everyone out to safety, of the people who didn't get out to remember the details that had seemed mundane at the time.]

[clarius]

I don’t remember.

[ lorem can feel her cheeks burn in shame when she admits this. she should have taken notice of something like that. she should have. it’s what she used to do back on the lornful light, back when she had to take down notes and observations when on a planetary mission.

now all she can do is explain why she didn’t do something so important- ] After seeing the Sound Eaters, I froze up. If Lu Li hadn’t gotten me away from there in time, I think I would have been a goner then.

I wonder if that's another reason why sand is used to create pathways for travel. [ was it to block the occupation of the red dust on the ground? to keep it from making total contact…? ] Do you think anyone took samples of the dust before? Tried to analyse it?

[dryeyes]

[He can see the shame and almost reaches his hand out, like to offer some sort of solidarity. He was asking because he was in the same situation. Seeing the sound eaters en-masse, seeing that horrific birthing- And his expression softens a bit, at the mention of Lu Li. They had all, in that moment, regardless of their training, been a disorganized and scared mess.]

[He pulls his hand back, close to his body, as he types out messages.]

It's fine.

We're just brainstorming.

[As for everything else...]

Someone might have. I can check the network back-archives to see if anyone posted about it, then. I don't think it's stopped by the sand but there has to be some reason it's contained to the reset room here.

[clarius]

[ she smiles a bit when she sees the attempt of reassurance, surprised but grateful for the try all the same.

she gives a brief nod at his direction, a way to acknowledge it, before she types out her message. ]

Hopefully we get something. I'm curious to learn what we can about the dust now.

If it has some connection to the Sound Eaters, an important connection at that, maybe we can use it against them.

ii - un: qetziah

[rou_gui]

Are you?

[ As if Qetzi could ever just respond, could ever just admit to her own desires. ]

[clarius]

[ lorem seems unfazed by getting a question in return for her question.

if anything, it's a bit of relief to say her thoughts 'aloud' at long last: ] Of course. I'll stay with them for long as I can.

[rou_gui]

What is it you think is going to draw you away?

[clarius]

[ oh-

she looks startled by the comment, eyes wide. ]

What do you mean by that?

will you stay or will you go (un: pipedreams)

[laytheghost]

[that's what everyone's talking about, isn't it? Jan stares unseeingly at her phone until the question blurs in front of her eyes. of course she's sympathetic to the people here to a point, but they're not her people. this isn't her town, or the life she'd started to build for herself. and even more to the point: they want her to stay here and do what? continue perpetuating this shithole of an existence? no. whether she stays or goes, she can't accept this. won't accept this.]

nto a chance.

[clarius]

Understandable.

[ lorem is thankful for the frank honest and the fact she got an answer at all. there's something comforting in seeing the certainty in the words. perhaps its the determination she's getting from it? that someone here is planning to return to where they came from. ] Are you worried about them?

[ she's probably not referring to the townsfolk who surround and continue to speak in low, hushed voices. ]

[laytheghost]

do u mean people at home or the people here??
im worried about all of it
this whoel thing is fucked

[she sighs, trying to think of how to put ideas that have been felt more than expressed up to this point into words. when something like this happens, you should at least try to dig into the whys and hows of it-- right? if the natives are being honest with them, they've been scared into living in ignorance.]

i miss my dad but NO one should be ok w/this as status quo
dig in &live quiet &die if u laugh out loud???
no thanks

[clarius]

People at home, I mean. I'm sure our loved ones are just as worried as we are for them if time is continuing back where they are too.

[ well... maybe not her loved ones, specifically. she misses them but considering how she left and how that last meeting with laura had gone down-

hm. focus on something else, lore. ]

Hopefully during our time here, we can make some differences. So this doesn't have to be the case. I have a feeling there are those from here who would like it to be changed as well.

YELLS LOUDLY I THOUGHT I TAGGED THIS, I AM SO SORRY

[priwen]

[ Alex had sat down for the time being, but he rises to his feet once he receives her message - his blond hair poking up through the crowd of assembled people. ]

I picked a corner to sit in. I can come.

absolutely fine \ o /

[clarius]

[ there he is!

lore is quick to start moving her way through the crowd - politely getting past others quick as she can without ruffling feathers. the air is still thick with tension, crackling with suspense as everyone tried to get their bearings. ]

No. I see you. Heading your way right now so I'll be there in a bit.

[priwen]

[ He stays in place until he can see her, his quiet expression resolving into a smile when she comes closer. Out of habit, he gives her an once-over to check for any injuries. No? Good.

In his hands is a pre-written message: ]

What's up?

[clarius]

A lot. Feeling pretty nervous so I wanted to make sure you were fine.

I'm a little worried. Things are kind of tense right now, don't you think? [ she looks around the room, noting how the townsfolk were keeping to themselves and seem to be... avoiding the ones who were brought into the town. hm. ]