GAME START!

[staymods]

Nightly Visitor

It hasn't been that long since your arrival to this island, and everything is still new. Each day brings new surprises and more questions than answers, and there seems to be no easy way to find out anything about this world. What little outside contact you get from the radio or your Friday visitors certainly isn't helpful in any meaningful way.

Unfortunately, the questions will only continue to pile up. Because eventually, after a week or so of being on the island, anyone who stays out late will start to hear strange sounds outside. They're almost animalistic, in a way, but they will not resemble the cries of any animal that you might be familiar with. This is Something Else.

They're not close to the Town Hall though, and the sounds seem to be coming from the North, but that is about all you can get without further investigation. And investigation may be necessary, as the noises will return night after night, starting right at sunset and tapering off as the sun starts to rise. Whatever is out there, it's nocturnal. And it sounds desperate.

What will you do? Will you talk to others and make a plan? Will you try to search for the source of the strange noises? Will you look at day, or during the night? Or will you use the radio to call for advice?

You can also use this space to play out any prompt from the test drive meme, or anything else you may want to do.

Everyone can do a search and get some plot information once per character. This can be done either solo or in pairs, so there can be some overlap to make sure everyone gets a shot at getting plot information. If A and B form a search party at night, then that will count as both A and B's searching. A could then help C make a radio call and get some information that way, but B and C could not then subsequently do another search (as B and C would have been involved in a search somehow already).

This post will be open to investigating until May 24th, 2021. At that point, no further mod responses will be given. Even characters who app in after game start can come in and investigate, so long as it is before May 24th.

Comments

[battling]

Punch it, shoot it, use an arrow. Unless you're too weak to deal with it?

[You do go face to face with monsters! That's a thing wizards do.]

I got a rifle.

[With a decent amount of bullets, even.]

[suddenlybees]

[ No!! He's too weak and too scared and too stubborn not to hold his hands out expectantly. ]

Gimme the rifle and you use your fists.

[ Mister I Punch Monsters For Fun ]

[battling]

[His expression immediately falls into a scowl.]

Hell no, this is mine. Ain't for sale or trade.

[His magical tool!]

'Sides ya didn't say yer comin'.

[suddenlybees]

You're not selling or trading it, just letting me borrow it for a bit! Don't be so stingy! You're gonna be right there watching me, anyways, so what's the big deal?

[ So, come on, grabby hands ]

If I let you go on your own and you die, I'd be an accomplice to murder. If we go together and we both die, nobody would be any wiser, it'd be nobody's fault.

[ Whoever goes is going to die, without question. ]

[battling]

Do ya even know how to use a rifle? Load? Aim? Complain all ya want, I ain't givin' this one to you.

[ This one's too important to him. ]

Why do you think either of us are dyin'? Besides, seen a court around here? Who's gonna convict you?

[suddenlybees]

Sure I do!

[ Not well- or, barely at all, but it's something he could figure out, because surely it can't be so complicated as not to be intuitive. ]

If there's monsters out there, we gotta think realistically, and dying is very real! There might not be a court, but there's people— people make assumptions and they blame and being an outcast in a place like this is a huuuuuuuuuuge no-no.

[battling]

Prove it.

Ugh. [He knows image is important if they're all supposed to be surviving on these islands together. It's not a sensibility that clicks well with him.] I ain't about to die to a monster. I've fought the basilisk and worse. Ya don't gotta come along.

[suddenlybees]

Prove it how? D'you want me to shoot you in the face?

[ Sounds counterproductive to the whole "we're not going to die" thing, but okay. He holds his hand out for the rifle again, and says nothing about not coming along. ]

[battling]

I'm not giving ya my magical tool.

[ Anyway he's heading off! Right now! ]

[suddenlybees]

[ what?? ]

I'm not asking for your magic tool, I'm asking for your gun! Hey!

[ He's going to trot on behind him, though he does shut up after because he knows better than to make a racket when there's Something out there. ]

[battling]

's the same thing.

[Brad does go quieter now that they're traveling northward. At night.]

[suddenlybees]

[ Terrible. They're going to die. Kano tries to stick as close as he can, and keeps his voice to a whisper. ]

What's a magic gun do? Shoot lasers?

[battling]

[His voice is only slightly quieter, but he seems to be in high alert.]

It shoots bullets. I control their effects.

Stay alert.

[suddenlybees]

[ Super alert, yeah, with the way his eyes sort of wander while it's hard to determine whether he's really taking anything in. ]

So... like death or not death? We really only need the one setting here.

[ Keep it at death mode. Whatever's out there, if it's dangerous, it needs to be stopped. ]

[staymods]

[Being on high alert is a good idea, because the sounds to get louder the further they head North. But as they search the Northern part of the island, they will find that they can stand on the Northern beaches and still hear that hideous noise at a distance. It's louder than it was by Town Hall, but it's still distant, out beyond the sea nets.]

[battling]

Huh. Looks like it's further out than it sounded.

[It's not a great noise, but at least they aren't as close as he initially assumed.]

Think the nets'll keep it out? How sturdy are those?

[suddenlybees]

[ Oh he doesn't like this place. The northern part of the island is where the graveyard is? he doesn't like that. ]

No way... The nets'll keep out anything fishy, but if we can hear them like this, they're deeeeeefinitely not underwater.

[ If anything, any creature with claws would just take advantage of those nets to climb over them, so the only thing they could really hope for is that the creatures cannot swim and are stuck in whatever hell island is out there. Kano squints into the distance, but it's not like he can see that far, especially out at night, across the incredible distance of water... ]

...oceans are noisy. Even without buildings and stuff to dampen the noise, the fact that we can hear it from this far means it's either really really reaaaaaaaaaally big, or it's got a lotta friends.

[staymods]

[Yeah, he definitely can't see out that far at night, not without a good source of light. All he can see right now is the dark shoreline and a light amount of waves breaking at each sea net as the wind blows gently across the lake.

Still, both of them will get the feeling that something is out there on the opposite shoreline, even if they can't see it.]

[battling]

Already made it all the way out here... It'd be real uncool if we couldn't confirm how many of 'em are out there, yeah?

[He holds his rifle up and aims it out into the water, looking through the sight.]

Adnopotensum.

[Around his feet, a green magic circle begins to glow, along with his gun. A spell meant to enhance his eyesight enough see whatever is out there.]

[suddenlybees]

Eh?

[ Kano startles a little at the glow of light, scrambling away from it and making to grab Bradley's wrist to pull him out of it too because what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck-- ]

[staymods]

[Kano sure is about to try and interrupt Bradley, but in that moment before he does, Bradley will see...a lot of trees! And bushes!

And some blood smeared around the ground just in front of said bushes, with bloody drag marks leading into the forest.]

[battling]

[He's disgruntled, but it's not like the spell has worn off just because he's been jostled. It's hard to actually pull him unless he wants to move.

The glowing magic circle remains.]

The hell, kid?

Listen, there's blood on the ground on that other shore. Drag marks into the forest.

[suddenlybees]

[ It's fine, if he can't pull, he can cling to Bradley's arm and hang off it. ]

"The hell" is what I should be saying to you!

[ He gestures with his foot at the glowing circle, his hands being preoccupied, but blood? drag marks?? uh ]

...how much blood? Like a wounded animal, or a gutted one?

[ What are they dealing with here... AAAAAAAA either something hunting or something being hunted and neither are fun, but at least there's ocean between them. ]

[staymods]

[It is definitely more like a wounded animal than "something was murdered here".]

[battling]

I said my rifle was my magical tool. 'm a wizard.

[He looks back through the sights. He knows that answer. He wants to be doubly sure there isn't anything else he's currently missing on that shore.]

Looked way more like a wounded animal.