MOD EVENT POST

[bequiet]

All teams have decided to share their footage and/or findings during routine supplies missions. It was compiled in chronological order and posted to the Bulletin Board for everyone to see.



Arrival Footage:

All over the world - in the middle of busy streets, empty homes, department stores - red dirt blew in and fell haphazardly into centralized mounds. The dirt settled. The footage begins as someone gets as close as they dare, zooming in and out repeatedly, the camera shaking in their hand as they move. The Matured come first. They climb up and out as asphalt and tile no longer exist beneath the red dirt. The young and the shifting come next. A matured Sound Eater raises its hand and points. They attack. The device falls to the ground and the owner's scream is silenced.

Attack Footage:

In standard news report fashion, a series of videos were compiled by Wall Street Journal reporter Maria Fillian, and her voice can be heard describing what she's seeing. Starting with clips from BBC News, LA Times, USA Today, The Washington Post, and even Google, the footage shows the Sound Eaters attacking Paris, London, Los Angeles, New York, and other cities - both big and small. Police and military forces are brought in but are no match for the Sound Eaters. They attack anyone and everything, seemingly at random and with brutality, leaving nothing moving in their wake. What was supposed to be a fight becomes a rescue and survival mission, groups of people evacuating and heading for less populated areas.

As the footage comes to an end, Maria focuses in on a clip from Times of India. A group of Young Sound Eaters are swarming and killing in any way that they can, completely ignoring a young boy who stands in the middle of the crowd frozen in fear. He doesn't move and they don't attack him.

Look at the way they avoid the boy. Why are they leaving him alone? Is it because he's a child and not a threat? It's clear that the reporter isn't sure but believes it's important. Wait. There. Did you see that? Now what was once a crowd of over a thousand, is down to the boy, the Sound Eaters and a woman kneeling on the ground. She rewinds the footage and plays it back. The Sound Eaters stand there aimlessly, breathing heavily, waiting for something and then the woman yells for the child to run and all the Sound Eaters converge on her. Maria gasps. They can't see.

The footage ends.

Reset Room Footage:

The attacks have begun to spread out, giving some survivors the chance to group up in areas outside of the major cities. A woman, using the webcam on her laptop, is recording the inside of a Macy's. While her and her group were looking for supplies before heading to her family's cabin, they noticed the red dirt in the men's clothing department. The footage pans from left to right slowly, showing how the floors and walls of that corner of the store are completely covered. One member of their group sticks their hand down into the dirt and yells back that the floor is gone. Rather, that where they should be able to find tile it's just dirt. The battery dies before anything else is filmed.

Mass Grave Footage:

By this time, the 7.442 billion people in the world has been knocked down to less than a million, spread out and all in hiding. Some have come to realize that sound attracts the invaders and others have not. The recording starts out zoomed in way too close to a group of pigeons that were all (violently) killed. The footage pans out and the person recording follows a trail of dead that leads to a mass grave. Carefully, they hold the camera up so that it can film quickly - inside are people, animals, radios, wind chimes, and many other bits of tech and machinery. The footage ends abruptly.

Biologist Notes:

From a bunker, Hendricks has recorded notes and opinions on the Sound Eaters, Reset Room, and the apocalypse. The recordings are corrupt, but some has been cleaned up enough to be read and watched. It's clear from the beginning that Hendricks believed that the 'end' was inevitable and had made preparations for this. He has a French accent and there are notes describing how the Sound Eaters are attracted to noise and have built a nest at the Eiffel Tower. Since the recording cuts in and out, it's unclear as to why he makes all of his assumptions. The native who compiled everything for the Bulletin Board, has written out what he could (Hendricks questions and comments), and it plays across everyone's devices.

- The Sound Eaters and Reset Rooms came at the same time.
- Hendricks is alone and possibly unwell.
- The Matured are in charge but rarely come out or if they do, they are better at hiding.
- The shifting are grotesque.
- The young are violent and lash out at anything.
- The Sound Eaters kill and attack everything; animals, cars, people.
- If it makes noise, they go for it.
- Their methods have changed.
- What was once an all out attack has become more calculated as people have learned to hide and be quiet.
- People are coming out of the red dust.
- Everything has grown so quiet.
- Even the crickets are gone.
- I'm alone now.

They seem to need us, but they don't want us.

Comments

[justbeingknife]

Best case? Maybe the closest 'world' to this one is the one them monsters are from, and we're just a bonus.

Like when ya get two prizes in a UFO catcher.

[twoaffirmations]

What's a UFO catcher?

Anyway, I guess that would explain how we got here, but I don't know... Something still bothers me. Why do the young ones look like humans?

[justbeingknife]

It's a...

[ wow, okay. mental 180. ]

It ain't important. It's a game they got back home. You control a crane, and try to get it to reach down and grab a toy and carry it to the dispenser.

...I think they were humans.

[twoaffirmations]

[Why not just grab the toy yourself? What's the point? All these questions and more go unasked, as Majima aligns with the theory 9S himself had been dreading to hear. He hoped, maybe, he would hear a different answer.]

The things they turn into aren't human.

[justbeingknife]

[ These questions and more, later! Maybe. ]

No, but...

Maybe it's like a caterpillar turning into a moth. Or some kinda disease. Or maybe it's like that one flick, where this thing used human bodies to turn into somethin' else.

[ It definitely wasn't any part of the normal human life cycle, at least not on his world. ]

[twoaffirmations]

[Knowing 9S, probably.]

What's a flick?

There's no way they're human. They're just grotesque imitations. If it was a disease, wouldn't it have already transmitted to everyone here? The natives and everyone who's arrived since are perfectly normal.

[justbeingknife]

Y'know, a movie. A motion picture.

Anyway, you can't really say that for sure, can ya? Not like we've exactly got state-of-the-art medical technology around here, and that's assuming it's not some magical curse bullshit. We don't actually know what sets off the changes.

[twoaffirmations]

But if it's a movie, why did you call it a flick?

Whatever those creatures are, it can't be magic.

[justbeingknife]

'Cause there's more than one name for the same thing.

Movie, flick, motion picture, film....

[twoaffirmations]

But...why? Wouldn't one suffice?

[justbeingknife]

Why have more'n one way to say one thing? I dunno, language is messy.

People wanna add some color or talk about somethin' just a little different, they're gonna invent some new words.

[twoaffirmations]

Hmmm. So it's like inflection, but with an entire word. I've read about a man who once made up so many different ways to say things, it became regarded as its own language. They called it Shakesperean.

[justbeingknife]

Uh... that's a new one on me. Anyway, sometimes people just don't wanna say the whole word, either. Like satsu.

[twoaffirmations]

[His trivia has gone to waste...]

Uh-huh... And "satsu" is short for what exactly?

[justbeingknife]

[ can't win 'em all man ]

Keisatsu. The police.

You gotta say it all the time, though, you naturally wanna keep it short.

[twoaffirmations]

Oh! Japanese. My language settings are tuned to English right now, sorry. I could switch if you want.

[justbeingknife]

You can do that? Huh. So if you're talkin' to someone from Earth, you don't even need the device to translate for ya.

[ Should 9S make the switch, it would become abundantly clear why the device translated his speech the way it did: he spoke (and typed) with a distinct Kansai accent. ]

[twoaffirmations]

[Regional accents are pretty lost on 9S. He realizes it's not standard Japanese at best.]

Only if it's Old World English or Japanese. Unfortunately, that's all I have installed. I could download more language options if they were available.

[justbeingknife]

[ boooo kansai accent best accent!! ]

What, really? You made in Japan or somethin'?

[twoaffirmations]

Not exactly. Technically, we YoRHa were manufactured in space, buuut... We orbit and operate in Japan.

[justbeingknife]

Yeah? Can't imagine it's just 'cause ya like the weather.

[ Roasting in the summer, super rainy sometimes, and then... sometimes really nice, though. ]

[twoaffirmations]

My Earth's in a tidal lock, sooo... It's mostly just sunny.

[justbeingknife]

Uh... what the hell's a tidal lock?

[ Look what you've done 9S ]

[twoaffirmations]

It's when the Earth's rotational speed matches its orbital speed around the sun.

[justbeingknife]

Oh, you mean so there's always the one side facin' toward the sun? How the hell did that happen?