to lose all my senses —

[happyheartsstaff]

THAT IS JUST SO TYPICALLY ME

It's not clear how many days it's been since you arrived in Wonderland. With it stuck in perpetual twilight, it could have been days, perhaps longer — everything starts to blur together, in this artificially joyful place. Maybe you've started to feel like you you're getting used to it, maybe not...

But eventually, something happens to break the monotony. Your ears begin to ring, and ring, and ring and then — stop. The lights become blinding, forcing you to squeeze your eyes shut and try to rub the afterimage of all that light from them — but when you open your eyes, you still can't see.

The staff don't understand when you ask them what's happened to you. "You've always been like this", they insist. They sign at you, or try to hand you papers written in braille — if you insist you've never signed in your life, or that you can't read braille, they laugh at your funny joke. You begin to wonder — have you always been this way? You were so sure... But everyone around you is equally sure of their truth, and their voices are so much louder.

As if that weren't enough, nothing in the hotel can be found in the same place twice. All the shops keep switching places, once you enter one area it's as though everything shifts in the minutes before you leave again. Getting back to your room is a struggle — where are the elevators? Finding food is nearly impossible — the Pig & Pepper was there, but now it's not. The staff are equally useless here — they have no idea what you mean about moving shops. Where would you want to move to when all your needs are accounted for right here?

What is going on?

SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL — 5/11

The day starts like any other has in the Hotel — unsure if a new day has started at all. Perpetual twilight and lack of clocks makes it difficult to tell time here in the Hotel, but on this particular day, something breaks up the monotony. It begins slowly — or else it happens all at once. Over the course of the day, all Oysters find themselves losing a sense. Staff don't understand their complaints — you've always been like this, they say, gentle, as though to a person in the middle of a break with reality.

Losing your temper won't help, either. Oysters who shout and yell will find staff remaining frustrating calm and compassionate, insisting that they cannot fix what has always been and murmuring about Mad March before taking their leave. Physical aggression may result in a spike of fear, but staff will quickly make their exit and may avoid that Oyster for a while.

If that wasn't enough, nothing in the Hotel is staying put.

IT'S LIKE A MAZE IN HERE — 5/11

The interior of the Hotel has ceased to remain stationary. Beginning at the same time as the loss of senses, the establishments of the Hotel begin to jump around, never staying in the same place twice. An Oyster may have entered the Pool of Tears from the lobby, but exit it into the middle of the casino. The Pig & Pepper Buffet is never in the same place twice, and always seems to move right when Oysters desperately need a meal.

Even as the old shops move, new establishments seem to be being added, but they aren't easy to find — Oysters will see a new sign across the building from where they are, only to see it's moved again by the time they get there. If you take your eyes off an establishment as you head toward it, it disappears and reappears elsewhere. Making it to the new establishments will take some time and dedication (or perhaps plain stubbornness), but there are rewards in it for any Oyster that can manage the feat!

Back To Rights — 5/15

A few days after the effects of the event begin, they just as suddenly end. Sight, hearing, speech — they all return in a rush, possibly overwhelmingly so, and when one tries to make their way to a shop, it stays exactly where it was when they first saw it, and they exit the exact same place they entered. Staff will react much the same way as they did when they were questioned after the loss of senses — you've always been like this.

You made it through, Oysters. You've completed your first event in the Hotel.

We hope you enjoy this first event, Oysters! If you have any questions, please leave them on the first comment to this page. Happy playing!

PREMISE RULES FAQ TAKEN RESERVES APPLICATION MOD CONTACT HIATUS & DROPS WORLD INFO NPCS CALENDAR AC REWARDS

© tessisamess

Comments

QUESTIONS

[happyheartsstaff]

Eddie Kaspbrak • ota

[riskanalyst]

see no evil, hear no evil

Quite frankly, Eddie Kaspbrak is only marginally convinced that this isn't yet another extension of It's fabricated realities meant, from what he can tell, to frighten and throw Its victims off their guard; moreover, to separate the Losers to keep them from being able to defeat It. Pennywise is a monster, but It's not a stupid monster. It knows too much and they hurt It once. It knows they can hurt It again if given half a chance to try.

The part that does have him convinced is the fact that it feels like it's been days since he and Richie stepped through the door labeled in drippy, red letters, Not Scary at All. Well, to its credit, this is, in fact, not scary at all. It is, however taking an incredibly long time for Pennywise to try to hurt him or kill him. He actually hasn't seen a single red balloon or any trace of a clown or leper, yet. If this is one of Its tricks...then why isn't It seizing on the opportunity to take him out of the game when he's alone and disoriented by the complete lack of daylight — by the way, Vitamin D deficiency is not a joke and he's going to give someone a piece of his mind about it if this isn't a hallucination, just wait — and new surroundings?

He wakes up in the morning like he has the past several mornings and the only thing that feels strange is the lack of shoes. Why in God's name won't they give him shoes? There are a million reasons why walking around with no shoes on is dangerous and Eddie could go on for days — and likely will, if ever the opportunity presents itself — about why it's a terrible idea to keep doing it. And yet...if he stays in the room, he'll go stir crazy. He needs to find his way back to the Losers. He needs to get back there, kill that fucking clown, and get back to his wife and his life. That's what he needs to do.

It seems like a normal enough — although normal is relative now — day until he opens the door to leave the room and two unexpected things happen:

First, he opens the door and finds himself smack in the middle of the casino floor instead of having to wind down a hall to get there.

More concerning and second, the silence is deafening. He can see that lights are flashing on slot machines and people are laughing and drinking; everything looks the way the casino typically looks. ...but he can't hear the sound of a voice, not one bark of laughter, not a single motherfucking chime of a slot machine; nothing.

Immediately, worry sets in when he sees that no one else seems concerned for the lack of noise at all, which presumably means it's only affecting Eddie. He doesn't go into full-blown panic mode until he tries to ask a staff member what the fuck is going on and he can't even hear his voice in his own head. There is nothing. Instinctively, Eddie makes desperate grabs at his pockets for his inhaler and then remembers that he pitched it into the fire for Mike's fucking bullshit ritual that was never going to work to begin with. Suddenly, he realizes that this is the first time he's genuinely worried that he's still in the depths of the Well House since a couple of days into his arrival.

It's coming, I know it. I know It's coming for me now, he thinks wildly — or maybe he's saying it right out loud and he just doesn't realize it — gawking at the change of scenery when he turns abruptly to go back to his room only to see that the door is gone and replaced with a row of soundless coin slots. Fuck you, you fucking clown! he's thinking — or saying? — as he lumbers through the casino in search of the missing door from whence he came.

it's like a maze in here

Considering Eddie has a pretty great sense of direction, if he does say so himself, it's disconcerting — not to mention completely fucking frustrating — that he keeps getting lost as he moves through the hotel. Nothing is where he could've sworn he'd seen it before. Worse, he can't even ask for directions if it really is just that he's disoriented himself and not that, as he suspects, things are quite literally moving locations once they're out of his sight. That's crazy, though. Right? That's insane; that can't be real...

It'd be nice if he could solve literally either of his current issues, but he can't hear what anyone is saying to him. Directions, therefore, are a no go, and all he seems to glean from the staff is that they think he's nuts for some reason or another.

What starts out as simply being lost turns into a quest for a way back out. Somewhere in this fucking place, there is a door that says Not Scary At All on the outside of it and when Eddie finds it and walks back through it, Richie and the other Losers will be waiting on the other side—

if they're not already dead

—for him so that they can kill that motherfucking clown once and for all. He just...has to find it.

wildcard

(( oooor throw something else at him under "back to rights." you can reach out to me on plurk (~mistojen) or Discord (~mistojen8486) for plotting, or PM me, or just toss up a start and we'll see what happens! ))

[beepbeepboy]

Richie's been wandering around for at least half an hour by this point, yelling and shouting and being routinely ignored by staff. They probably all know that he punched someone by this point, so he can't exactly blame them, but it doesn't make things any easier. He can hear just fine, but his vision's gone totally white, as though he's walking through a thick cloud of smoke. He keeps one hand on the wall and the other outstretched, reaching, grabbing at passersby, begging for their aid, until --

...you fucking clown!

Eddie. That's Eddie's voice. Richie's heart seizes up and for a second he stills, shutting his mouth, trying to figure out which direction it came from.

"Eds?" he shouts, hoarse and panicky. "Eddie, is that you, man? Where the fuck are you?! What the fuck is going -- "

He's about to say more but he's suddenly grabbing someone by their... arm? It feels like an arm. He squeezes and doesn't let go, his unseeing eyes opened wide, his expression one of utter desperation.

Please let it be him.

[inlovewithmycar]

Couple of questions!

1: If Crowley were to mark the shifting architecture, would it take? Say for example, he marks a door frame with a little doodle of a smiley face, it vanishes and reappears elsewhere, would the mark still be there were he to pass the door again?

2: Can Aziraphale and Crowley still swap bodies or is that considered a power to be nerfed?

2.5: If they can, would they also wind up swapping what senses they've lost? Like if Crowley were to take over Aziraphale's body, would he end up blind like Aziraphale, or would he still be deaf?

Crowley ⛧ 3 open prompts +1 for Aziraphale

[inlovewithmycar]

I. SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL, STILL DEFINITELY EVIL [Open]

Crowley should have expected it. Oh, not to lose his hearing exactly, there was no way he could have predicted that; he's not some 17th century madwoman in a cottage with too much time on her hands. But the concept behind it. He was very familiar with power-plays, having had to make a few of his own just to remain relevant enough in the Lower-Downs' eyes and not be as disposable as poor bloody Eric. This was, as far as he could tell, a power play. It sent a message - we can do whatever we like with you, make you as powerless as we need, so play nice.

Crowley scowled when he tried to get any kind of answer out of an employee who just signed at him that he had always been like this.

"We've never met before," he said a little too loudly. "How could you possibly know...?"

The employee looked bewildered for a moment before signing that of course they'd met, Crowley's been here ages.

Crowley nodded, as though to agree, or at least cut the conversation short because really, he just didn't want to deal with hitting his head against a brick wall. He couldn't exactly miracle the hapless human into a tank full of hungry sharks either, much as he'd like to.

Grumbling about wanting a drink, Crowley catches the employees lips moving out the corner of his eyes. Mad Marsh he thought, or more likely, Mad March if the Wonderland theme held. Really, when he got back, he was going to take every copy of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and - well, didn't know precisely what he'd do, it would definitely be something Aziraphale would deeply disapprove of.

For now though, he very nearly gave in to the temptation of getting a drink before remembering what a monumentally foolish thing that would be to do, and instead decided to check in with the other newcomers.

"Oi, mate," he called to someone else walking around without shoes, "Missing one of your senses too?"

II. MAZES AND MONSTERS [Open]

There are some people who would say Crowley has been lost since the day he questioned God's divine plan and took a long plunge into a quick sulfur bath for his trouble. These are also the kinds of people who suddenly discover their shoelaces have quite miraculously fused together once they've managed to pick themselves up off the linoleum.

Not that Crowley could do that here. No miracles for starters. No shoelaces either.

The point, however, is that Crowley isn't the sort to feel lost. Not like this anyway. Not like he's stuck in a strange place where the architecture keeps moving and shifting and changing.

He frowns as he glances over his shoulder at the door he just came from. It's gone, replaced by a long stretch of blank wall.

"Oh that's weird," he says, raising his sunglasses as if that would let him suss out the trick. "That's very, very weird. Don't like that at all."

He paces the length of the wall, patting it down. And then, glancing around surreptitiously (because there are rules in Hell about this and he's not entirely convinced they're not in some corner of it), he flicks his forked tongue, giving it a good lick.

III. BACK TO NOT-QUITE-RIGHTS [Open]

It starts with tinnitus and ends with a migraine, but at least he can hear again. Crowley can be found at the buffet, nursing his headache with a cup of hot water, honey and lemon, while pawing at the snake tattoo on his temple and looking quite wretched. Well, he's a demon, he's rather supposed to look as such, but Crowley isn't one to play into stereotypes.

SPA DAY [FOR AZIRAPHALE]

"Angel!"

After hours of searching he was able to finally find Aziraphale's door. It's been bothering him that he can't just hone in on Aziraphale's location like a rather particularly tuned carrier pigeon, but that's the least of his worries.

"Aziraphale, can you hear me?! For Satan's sake, open the door!"

He gives the handle an impatient rattle for good measure. Fuck, he misses just being able to go in and out the bookshop as he pleases; hotels with their autolocking doors are complete rubbish, how is he supposed to be a rather inconvenient nuisance to his best rival in the whole world now?

spa day spa day!

[lunchbreaks]

Aziraphale knocks several things over as he goes to get the door, fumbling for his glasses as his vision's suddenly very blurry. He tries to miracle them into his possession, but then quickly remembers that he's incapable of doing so. Bollocks. "I'll be right there!" he exclaims, as he takes the time to pick everything up and put it back on his table.

He stubs his toe on the corner of a wall and yelps, bracing himself for a minute before he finally manages to get to the door, opening it. "Crowley? Hello, I'm afraid I'm having an off morning, could you help me find my glasses?"

He squints. "Crowley, are you alright?" When an angel going blind can tell you look a bit harried, you're definitely having a bad day.

spa day is best day!

[inlovewithmycar]

Harried is a bit of an understatement; Crowley looks positively wrung out, and despite feeling the vibrations of Aziraphale approaching the door, he didn't calm down until he saw Aziraphale's face, squinting and puzzled, and oh no.

"They're messing with us, Aziraphale. Just like they did when we got here, cutting off our miracles and our - "

He stops, not even able to bring himself to say it. He'd had a complete fit about his clipped wings for a good three hours once he was tucked away in the privacy of his room.

"Anyway. You know how I can't really hear when I'm a snake? S'like that. You're losing something too, right?"

See No evil

[scaredofdogs]

Wei Wuxian had been severely thrown off when his sight had suddenly vanished. It happened so suddenly that he had tripped over the table in his room and landed so hard that he now had a rather nasty bruise on one leg that he can feel but unfortunately can't see.

So to kind of numb some of the ache in his leg, he tries to stumble his way down to the bar. He is at least a little used to not having his sight. He used to shoot down targets when they were practicing archery all the time while blind folded. So as he moves his way downstairs he slowly gains confidence even though he is walking in a world that he is not completely familiar with.

He can hear the sounds of people talking so he smiles victoriously as he assumes he has arrived at his intended destination, not realizing he has not even come close to finding a place to get a drink yet but instead has only made it to the lobby. And then he hears someone calling to him. He figures it might be pretty obvious as his hands are out and very clearly feeling their way along.

"That is definitely the case..." He reaches where he thinks the voice came from. "Apparently they thought it would be funny to take my sight."

[lunchbreaks]

"Oh yes, that's right," he says, about the whole not hearing when he's a snake thing. He remembers that quite clearly. "Yes, I've lost my glasses," he says, because that's clearly the problem. "Have you seen them? Could you help me find them?"

In case Crowley can't hear him, he tries something halfway between signing and charades. He makes a gesture towards glasses, making circles around his eyes and looking rather like Luna Lovegood.

Aziraphale reaches for Crowley's hand and attempts to drag him into the room. He feels like he needs to be direct.

[inlovewithmycar]

In any other circumstance, Crowley would be over the moon for Aziraphale to forcefully yank him into his bedroom. And he does stop to weigh his options about mentioning that he can read lips.

He decides that maybe, for now, he can keep that to himself.

"Sss'okay, Aziraphale," he says, and now that he can focus on calming Aziraphale's perpetual nervous energy, he can calm his own. "You can sign, or write letters in my palm. Are you going blind...?"

While wandering around looking for Aziraphale, he'd bumped into other guests, all with either a loss of hearing or loss of sight. It seemed if Aziraphale needed his glasses for anything besides looking smart, that his eyes were going.

[inlovewithmycar]

Crowley only catches the second half of that when Wei Wuxian turns around and Crowley can read his lips. He doesn't really like doing this so much anymore. It was a handy skill when he still took the shape of a snake, but he doesn't really do that kind of thing anymore.

"Right, you're facing me. Good. Ears aren't working, and the employees are being distinctly unhelpful. Might even go so far as to say less than useless. You got any idea what's going on? See- Heard anything out of the ordinary?"

[scaredofdogs]

"Not surprised about the employees. They don't really want us to know what is going on." So the other is apparently deaf. That will make things very interesting. Wei Wuxian tries to make sure he enunciates as best he can.

"I've already been made into a tiny person so I'm guessing this is just another game." Which means he has to endure until they find a cure or it wears off.

Wei Wuxian (novel) | OTA & Closed to River for Option 2

[scaredofdogs]

1. See No Evil, Hear no Evil

Being blind doesn't bother him. Being blind in a place he has very little knowledge of and apparently likes to keep changing..slightly more aggravating. It happened to him suddenly and he barely had time to realize it was going before it was gone and he found himself on the floor. He's not a clumsy person but when your sight suddenly disappears, sometimes those tables are not where you remember them being.

So now he is very cautiously making his way through the building, one hand running along the wall in an attempt to stay in a straight line. He's trying to make sure he doesn't run into any more things since that bruise on his knee from falling still throbs a little.

"Inconvenient but not that hard to deal with.." Now if only he can feel his way to the bar. Drinking is an activity he can figure out even without his sight.


2. It's like a maze in here - close to River
He suddenly realizes that getting around this place is probably better if you have a second pair of..well normally it would be eyes but even that doesn't seem completely plausible right about now. It took quite a bit of work to find the bar and even after carefully figuring out how many steps it took to get out of it..he still ended up in a different area completely then where he had intended. Something is definitely out of whack with this world right now.

As he turns to head back towards the bar, hoping to maybe start over and get it right this time, he accidentally runs into someone.

"Oh! Sorry about that. I'm having a few issues with seeing at the moment." Then he realized that this person might be one that can't hear and that could make this apology pointless.

Richie Tozier | ota

[beepbeepboy]

SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL [OPEN]

The first time Richie opened his eyes in this place he couldn't figure out why It would suddenly turn that stupid wellhouse into some huge, sprawling hotel-casino-thing - much less why It would stick Richie in there alone, despite the fact that he and Eddie had opened the Not Scary At All door together. After he'd wandered around for a while, he figured It just wanted to make him more afraid, so he'd be more delicious or some shit like that.

Well, Richie Tozier was never one to play by the rules. So he put on a show of accepting things as they were, no matter how weird it was to have hotel staff roaming around and every single need being met, with or without him asking. There was food, he had a huge room, and everything seemed strangely... normal. Well, except the whole no shoes thing. It seemed like everyone working in this place had them, but none of the guests did.

Nonetheless, he kept up that outer appearance of nonchalance, doing his best to hide the fact that he was totally freaked out by the apparent passage of time despite the sky not changing. On this particular day, he'd woken up with a plan to explore the furthest reaches of the building, to see if he couldn't find a way back - but when he opened his eyes, the only thing he saw was white.

Initially he figured it was just post-sleep bleariness, or maybe even the beginnings of a migraine (although he'd never had one before and it'd be weird as hell to start now, but hey, serial killer clowns can do whatever, right?), but after grabbing for his glasses and stumbling out of bed, he realized it wasn't going away. Within five minutes he was out in the hall, yelling for help, his arms outstretched in a feeble attempt to find his way around. By the time he heard a voice he was in full-on panic mode, his heart racing and all sense of reason gone from his mind. He was so freaked out that he ended up grabbing the poor staff member and shaking them violently; when another, apparently more senior, staffperson came over, he punched them in what felt like the jaw.

They both left him alone after that, hurrying off with fierce whispers about someone named Mad March. Richie couldn't care less. Going blind had been his biggest fear since childhood, despite what he'd said about clowns, and now the two have come together in the worst way possible.

He continues down the hall, yelling for help, making a lot of noise and no doubt knocking a few paintings off the walls as he tries like hell to find someone.


IT'S LIKE A MAZE IN HERE [OPEN]

As if being completely blind isn't bad enough, the entire building seems to be in on some big joke. As soon as Richie finds an open space with a multitude of voices, he's told he's in the pool area, and also why is he so upset, he's just like he's always been? Frustrated with the unhelpful staff and not wanting to accidentally fall into the pool and drown, Richie makes his way out the door, in the direction he'd come. It should lead him back towards his room, but as soon as he steps through the doorway his ears are assaulted with the sounds of slot machines and people laughing.

Somehow, he's ended up in the casino - a place he knows isn't supposed to be here. He's spent enough time in the goddamn place to remember how to get there. Yet again, though, the staff tell him this is how things have always been. They ask him to sit down, suggest that he have a drink or two, but instead he shouts at them and ignores their now-familiar whispering, stomping off.

He keeps one had along the side of the room to make sure he doesn't bump into someone, and each time he reaches a doorway he goes through it. It's a half-baked plan that Eddie would no doubt tear apart in seconds as completely idiotic, but it's the best he can do at the moment.

After a good hour of wandering, he finally stops, feeling completely lost. He can't see, and the fear in his chest is making him nauseous. In a fit of sheer anger, he lets out a loud, angry scream, something that would be audible - and probably alarming - to anyone nearby.


BACK TO RIGHTS [OPEN]

Richie's grown so used to the white cloud obscuring his vision that he doesn't initially notice when it starts to fade away. He's still scared, but he's exhausted from all the yelling and panicking; in fact, he's so tired he's just sitting on the ground, his back up against a wall, trying not to give in to the torture he's being put through.

He blinks once, twice, and with each flutter of his eyelashes a little more colour appears in his field of view. When he realizes what's happening he lets out a gasp, then rubs at his face, accidentally pressing his sweaty palms all over his glasses because he'd completely forgotten they were still on his nose. Taking them off, he tries again, and when he removes his palms everything is back to normal.

Unlike his yells and screams from earlier, he's actually fairly quiet when he lets out a surprised sound, one that conveys his utter relief. He doesn't realize that he's tearing up; he's simply shocked that he can see again.

Mikumo Guynemer | OTA

[stargazed]

[a: see no evil, hear no evil]

[It's been maybe half an hour and Mikumo already hates this.

As feelings go, it's not one she's unused to. She's worked in a lot of terrible conditions on battlefields or behind enemy lines, she's been confronted with plenty of things that are wrong or confronting enough for her to hate them. But this? This is a new flavour. Having people lying to her face about things she knows aren't true (because when you've held a specific purpose your whole life that you were engineered for, it takes a little more than weasel words to make you question it) and acting like it's for her own good is truly an unpleasant novelty.

She manages to hold her composure until after maybe the third group of staff members she asks, only to get the exact same response. The identically written "you've always been like this", delivered with the same sappy smile, is enough to finally trump her general stage-suited manner and deliver a remark that might be toned perfectly politely and given with a smile, but isn't remotely nice.]

I appreciate you confirming you're a pack of useless sycophants, but I was looking for information I didn't already know.

[She turns on her heel...and practically walks into another oyster, whether they came to ask questions or blindly followed her voice or something else.]

Ah--my, I really am letting this get to me, aren't I? [She sounds almost amused, but there's a grit to her teeth and a line under her eyes that says she's really not enjoying this experience.]

--

[b: like a maze]

[On one hand, Mikumo can see where she's going, which she considers lucky compared to some. On the other, it doesn't stop doors from ceasing to be where they were a moment ago and things rearranging themselves the moment she turns her back. It's getting incredibly annoying, and she's having trouble even finding other people with things as chaotic as they are.

So she tries something else. Even if she can't hear right now, she still has her voice, and it's not as if it's hard to tell whether she's singing loudly enough for someone else to hear just by how much she's putting into it.

Those who've retained their hearing but lost their sight might hear a guiding "beacon" in the form of the first few lines of a song. It's acapella, but Mikumo is still perfectly on-key - she was literally engineered to sing, and lacking her hearing can only do so much to make it harder for her.]

If you've managed to glimpse that blip in the sky...if you've managed to hear my shaking voice...

[The words start off slowly, but pick up a faster beat quickly, speaking of nostalgia stained by combat and standing for something regardless of the danger. It's honestly kind of cathartic to sing even if she herself isn't hearing it - she can still feel it in her throat, and she'll keep singing for as long as it takes for someone to follow it to her location.]

--

[c: we're all mad here (closed to lan wangji)]

[The feeling of doing nothing in uncertain times has never sat right at all with Mikumo, one of those other things that was a very intentional factor wrapped into her when she was created. So once she gets more used to the fact that she's missing her hearing for the moment, she starts experimenting a little with the doors. Seeing if she can mark locations, seeing if there's any pattern or consistency to where one door will lead or where a particular establishment will end up. It's not bearing much in the way of fruit, but exploring this place feels better than doing nothing at all.

She steps through the door from the casino - and stops an inch short of walking into the back of an unfamiliar man when she's spat out another door in an entirely different part of the hotel.]

Not again. [A somewhat terse sigh as she steps to one side, observing this new face and quickly pulling her Empathy from her pocket to tap out a message, one that she holds up to show him at the same time she speaks the written words out loud to cover her bases.]

Which sense are you missing?

--

[d: wildcard]

[[Also open to alternate spins on these prompts or aftermath/"back to rights" stuff, just hit me up at reviseleviathan or via PM if you want to plot something out beforehand!]]

[riskanalyst]

Eddie's generally a pretty jumpy guy as of late, anyway. It doesn't take much to startle him if he's not paying attention on a good day. It certainly doesn't take much since going back to Derry. It's only that much worse when its compounded with the complete loss of hearing. The funny thing is, Eddie never really thought about it much. It never really occurred to him how heavily he leans on his sense of sound; he's never needed to think about it. As it turns out, he relies on it a lot more than he realized, to supplement his vision, both direct and peripheral.

So when he feels someone grabbing his arm and he doesn't expect the sensation because he doesn't see them in his periphery and he can't hear them coming up behind him, Eddie lets out a strangled yelp, wrenching his arm way and shuddering away from the source reflexively before whirling to face it, hands moving up to defend his face. Eddie's heart is thumping so hard in his chest that it actually manages to make his stomach upset, but he lets out a shuddering sigh of relief when he realizes who it is. "Jesus fucking Christ... Richie!" he says and he has no idea if he's speaking at an acceptable volume; he still can't hear his own voice in his head. He could be whispering or screaming for all he knows. Hopefully not the latter...

"I didn't hear you," he adds before pulling Richie into a hug that's probably a little too tight given how fucking relieved he is to see his friend. "Shit, I can't hear anything. I can't hear anything...you scared the everloving shit out of me, buddy. Fuck." After a moment, he pulls away and looks Richie over. "Holy shit, man, it's fucking good to see you." It should probably occur to him to be warier; that could be Pennywise fucking with him for all he knows. It turned into his fucking mom, once, when he was a kid. He's seen It turn Itself into Bev's dad. It could turn into Richie, too, but he's so goddamned relieved to see a friendly face that the thought is completely lost on him.

[happyheartsstaff]

Hello! Sorry for the delay in response.

1. The mark would take! Although he will be making some staff member's life harder once they have to clean it up, and surely he wouldn't want to do that?

2. That is a power to be nerfed, but in the case of future plots and power teas: should anyone with Crowley and Aziraphale's power sets swap bodies during an event like this, they will be subject to the effect of the body they've swapped into. In this case, that means that if Crowley were to take over Aziraphale's body, he would end up blind.

[beepbeepboy]

That yelp, while obviously a sign of distress, is so deeply familiar to Richie that it makes him want to cry. He's heard it a hundred thousand times before, since he was a kid, and even though he's forgotten a lot of things since coming here there's absolutely no way he can forget that.

Eddie's alive.

That fucking clown didn't get him - or, at least, It sent him to this weird nightmare world, too. When Eddie calls Richie by name it's further proof that it's really him, and despite the panic in his heart Richie can't help but grin so wide it makes his cheeks hurt.

He can't see Eddie, of course, and that fucking sucks, but he can hear him just fine. He seems weirdly loud, but Richie just assumes his hearing has improved due to his loss of vision - that's how it works in the movies, right?

He lets out a soft grunt as he's pulled into a hug; the motion is surprising, but not in a bad way. Even after they separate Richie keeps one hand curled around Eddie's upper arm, too scared to let go in case they lose each other again. He's so happy to be reunited that he doesn't quite catch that thing about hearing, and he starts to speak, completely unaware of poor Eddie's circumstances.

"What the fuck, man, where did you go? I thought It sent us to different illusion world things or something, holy shit, I'm so happy I found you -- "

Without realizing it, Richie's started to gaze in the direction of Eddie's lips rather than his eyes - that's where the sound's coming from, after all.

[riskanalyst]

Eddie's eyebrows lift as Richie goes on talking. He can see the other man's lips moving and he looks animated enough to suggest that he's especially excited or worked up about whatever the hell he's saying, but Eddie just shakes his head.

"Richie...Rich," he snaps, trying to interrupt and entirely uncertain whether he's being loud enough to do so or if the reason Richie's still talking is because he hadn't been loud enough either time. Eddie never would've thought how important hearing was to be able to speak, but now he supposes it makes sense that most deaf people don't talk. They can't hear themselves, so they can't judge whether the words are coming out right or what volume at which they're coming out. Jesus, he can't live like this... "I said I can't fucking hear you. I can't hear a goddamned thing. I can't even hear myself; I'm sorry if I'm yelling. Or...whispering, I don't even know what the fuck. I can see your lips moving but I have no fucking clue what you just said, man..." he confesses.

Then, he barrels on, "I thought this was some Pennywise bullshit and we got separated, holy shit, I'm so glad you found me, man!" Eddie grabs onto Richie's hands, needing to feel centered the way he had when Richie had been giving him that pep talk before they'd gone through the tunnel. He's braver than he thinks. "Shit, man, we gotta get back. We gotta get the fuck out of here, they need us."

[lunchbreaks]

"No!" he exclaims quickly, looking at Crowley suddenly, but missing his eyes and looking somewhere near his hair which is now a big blur. Actually, everything's getting a little bit darker, and he draws nearer, squeezing Crowley's hand. He's scared.

"Maybe," he adds, a little more quietly. Even if Crowley couldn't read lips, he could read Aziraphale's body language. "Crowley, I... let's go."

He takes Crowley's palm and writes, "fix?"

[beepbeepboy]

Richie's so worked up about everything that it really does take Eddie yelling to get him to shut up. His friend's tone is different than usual - even when he's freaking out, there's typically something funny about it, usually because it's obvious to Richie that Eddie's just being his usual hypochondriac self.

But this time it's different. What Eddie's telling him is too weird, too out there - he's stating it like a fact, not an assumption, the way he talks about diseases and allergies. He can't hear. He can't tell what Richie's saying. It's crazy, but as Eddie goes on Richie realizes that the other man's volume is all over the place - loud one moment, quiet the next, the emphasis of his words in all the wrong places. Richie is used to a certain kind of rhythm with Eddie, to the way his syllables ebb and flow, and right now it's all wrong.

"You can't hear me?" He says it out loud, frowning, before realizing that if it's true Eddie wouldn't have heard that, either. Despite his own fear and panic, he does his best to take a breath and calm down. If they're back together, their chances of finding a way out of this place are way higher than they'd be alone.

Slowly, he takes his hand off the wall and lifts it into the air between them, hopefully in the general vicinity of Eddie's face. He points to his own eyes, then mouths the word "no" while simultaneously shaking his head. Hopefully, that'll make things easier for Eds to understand - but Richie honestly has no idea how they'll communicate if one of them is blind and the other is deaf.

[riskanalyst]

Whatever it is Richie's saying, Eddie still can't hear it and his reflex is to shake his head. "I can't hear you, man...fuck, this is gonna get old really fucking fast," he complains.

But then Richie's trying to mime something at him and it takes Eddie's brain a couple of seconds to catch up with is eyes. And his expression deflates. "You can't see? What the fuck?" Well, this is going to be especially challenging, isn't it? One blind and one deaf, shit, and both dumb for it.

"All right...okay," Eddie says and he's trying to center himself. Richie can't see, so it doesn't really make a goddamned difference that Richie's the braver of the two; Eddie's going to have to step up. "Okay, look, here..." he says, reflexively asking Richie to look at something and then having to double back on it, instead just taking Richie's hand and bringing him closer to Eddie himself until he can sling Richie's arm around his shoulders. Eddie circles his arm around Richie's waist. "I got you, man. Come on, shit...I have no idea where we are; I swear to God, I opened my room's door to go out in the hall and ended up in the middle of the fucking casino, so I'm fuckin' lost, but I got you. Let's get somewhere...I don't know. Where's your room? Can you..."

He stops abruptly. No, Richie can't. Richie can't tell him where it is because Eddie can't fucking hear it anyway. And Richie can't show him because Richie can't see where the fuck he's going. This is the fucking worst. Honestly, he kind of wishes they'd just opened the Scary door. Next time, they'll open just plain Scary. "Fuck."

Sam Wilson | MCU | ota + closed prompts

[sizeofyourbaggage]

OPEN | SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL

[ It's not like Sam is completely inexperienced with not being able to hear what's going on around him - there'd been plenty of times on missions when he'd been flying so high and fast that everything was muffled, and the only sound was the rush of wind. But that was in the sky, and he'd had his commlink then, someone else's voice in his ear - first Riley, then Steve and Nat, then the other Avengers.

Being grounded in the silence is a hell of a lot different.

Even without the tattoos that appeared on their skin, or the lack of shoes, he kind of gets the feeling it's easier than usual to figure out who isn't from wherever the hell they are. They're the only ones acting like anything strange is going on.

And it's not like Sam has any idea what's going on better than anyone else right now, but as far as he's concerned, being along is the last thing any of them need right now. Which means when he spots someone on their own, he can't help but head over.

He knows better than to get up in people's personal spaces without warning - especially when they might not see him coming - so even though he can't hear what he's saying, he tries speaking first. ]

You mind if I join you?

CLOSED | FOR MIKUMO GUYNEMER

[ At first Sam thinks maybe it's some of his hypervigilance coming back out. It's the first place his mind goes to, when periods of quiet are interrupted by a perfectly normal noise that sounds far too loud in comparison. It takes him a little bit to realize he isn't hearing those noises louder than he should be - he's hearing other things much less than he should be. Or not at all, which happens in increasingly long stretches.

Even then, he's not sure - is it him, something wrong with his hearing, or has the place gone silent? Either one is unnerving as hell, but - all right, well, he ain't gonna find out what's going on in his room, so he steps out into the halls.

Still quiet.

What the fuck.

He moves closer to the first person he sees, holding a hand up to try to get her attention. ]

Can you hear anything?

CLOSED | FOR RICHIE TOZIER

[ The staff are officially of zero help. Really, Sam shouldn't be surprised - it's not like they were all that helpful to begin with, trying to figure out how they got here, but this new wave of fake compassion is taking it to another level.

He's... mostly managing to keep himself calm. Or at least the pretense of calm, though the set of his jaw and the tension in his shoulders probably gives his frustration away a little bit, to anyone who is in a space to notice.

Tense is a good way to describe this whole damn place right about now, and it doesn't surprise him a bit when he spots someone looking a little bit panicked. ]

Hey, man, can you hear me?

CLOSED | FOR WEI WUXIAN (drama)

[ Wei Wuxian is - something of a familiar face. You know, as familiar as someone can be when you've only chatted over some kind of social media and met in person once, but hey, he'll take it.

It's probably clear that he's a little bit on edge - he's definitely scanning his surroundings more often than he did the last time they met, trying to compensate for his lack of hearing, and his breathing is slower and more measured than would really be natural, but otherwise, he sidles up next to Wei Wuxian like he would if they weren't all losing their senses and the hotel wasn't turning into the worst version of a shitty corn maze. ]

You busy?

[ Not that he's sure the guy can hear him, but his response'll probably tell him if this is gonna be a one or two sided game of charades. ]

WILDCARD

[ If you want to play with the maze or aftermath prompts, or throw something else at me, I'm open to just about anything! You can hit me up here or over on plurk at brbsoulnomming if you want to plot/chat. ]

C.

[inquiryguqin]

[Hardly a week and it's already topsy-turvy in the hotel. The stores and well-known layout of the hotel switch places. The staff ignored him and told him that it's normal for him to be a mute, which he discovered with no explanation that he lost his voice. His best friend and companion went missing and he went in search of him.

He has seen the other residents are struggling with the same issue, of their senses being blocked. But he has no voice to lend his intention to help. The blind can't see him or hear him. The deaf has to text him.

The situation was grim indeed as he wanders from floor to floor. Searching for answers and exploring, and keep a note of the floors and doors where they should be and should not. The hotel is becoming a maze by itself, a labyrinth of halls and rooms and doors.

He came upon a different. It seems to be a bar for casual drinking? With bottles of wine and liquors on display. He's disappointed to see that Wei Wuxian isn't here. Drinking in that type of room was one of his past-time.

Seeing another resident from another world, as far he could tell because she has the Empathy device. He brought out and text back.]

Hello. I lost my voice. And yourself?

[inlovewithmycar]

"Yeah. Game. Really having a blast."

But if that's the case, it may not be permanent. He's glad of the stranger's blindness, as he's sure his clipped wings are so ruffled, they probably resemble a pair of black feather dusters attached to his back.

"Where you headed? I was off to get myself a drink."