bequiet: (Default)
The Quiet Place Mods ([personal profile] bequiet) wrote in [community profile] quietplacememes2018-02-28 08:56 pm
Entry tags:

TDM #003



TEST DRIVE MEME

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.

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. 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. You're to settle into your new home.

Caught me unawares
Content Warnings: Confusion, disorientation
Themes: Survival, horror, it's like groundhog day

The ending of the floor has caught me unawares. This must be the reason why I’m falling down the stairs.

That night, when you fall asleep, you dream of your life before The Quiet Place. At first it's the happiest moments of your life played on repeat, over and over. Everything good and sweet and fun. The second night, it's much the same. You go to bed anticipating another restful and pleasant sleep. But on the third night it changes.

For everyone, it starts the same. There's a long hallway with a door at the end. You walk towards it with nowhere else to go. You twist the knob and when you step forward, the floor ends and you fall. Falling lasts for seconds, minutes, or hours and when you land, it's with a jolt and a cloud of red dust all around you. There's someone else next to you, stumbling, coughing and choking on that familiar dirt that coats your tongue and mouth. When your eyes meet, everything blurs and you're falling again - this time, when you land, it's inside that dream from the first night. Only you're not alone. They're with you. The only way out is to experience the dream together. And when you do wake up, for real, that same red dirt is on your hands.

Falling down the stairs
Content Warnings: Confusion, disorientation
Themes: Survival, horror, it's like groundhog day

The ending of the floor has caught me unawares. This must be the reason why I’m falling down the stairs.

That night, when you fall asleep, you dream of your life before The Quiet Place. At first it's the worst moments of your life played on repeat, over and over. Everything bad and sour and awful. The second night, it's much the same. You go to bed anticipating another restless and dreadful sleep. But on the third night it changes.

For everyone, it starts the same. There's a long hallway with a door at the end. You walk towards it with nowhere else to go. You twist the knob and when you step forward, the floor ends and you fall. Falling lasts for seconds, minutes, or hours and when you land, it's with a jolt and a cloud of red dust all around you. There's someone else next to you, stumbling, coughing and choking on that familiar dirt that coats your tongue and mouth. When your eyes meet, everything blurs and you're falling again - this time, when you land, it's inside that nightmare from the first night. Only you're not alone. They're with you. The only way out is to experience the nightmare together. And when you do wake up, for real, that same red dirt is on your hands.

OOC
From your mods:

Please remember to mark your content in your starters or subject lines as material comes up. The threads on this meme can be used as game canon. Feel free to thread out arrival style meetings as well! If you have questions, pp the mod account, use the faq or comment below. Have fun!

NAVIGATION



thechristmasnazi: (over shoulder)

[personal profile] thechristmasnazi 2018-03-08 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
Eleven.

[ She nods slowly. The response makes her believe that maybe Eleven was raised in that environment, given a number for a name. It makes Isabel a little angry because every child deserves more than that. Every child, even the special ones with oddities people want to study, deserves a loving home. Isabel smiles, albeit a little sadly. ]

It’s very nice to meet you.

[ Her smile fades when El asks her about her brother. It’s not a pleasant memory. She and the others like her had always had the fear that someone would take them, study them, maybe even kill them in the process, but they lived ordinary lives. Maybe on some level they didn’t really think it would happen. ]

Yes. He has the ability to heal people and a girl was hurt very badly. He saved her life, but the wrong people saw him do it. Eventually they took him.

[ She sighs. There’s a temptation to go into reasonable detail, share her story with the girl, but Isabel holds back a certain measure of the story. ]

They weren’t very nice to him. The rest of us had to find a way to get him out.
Edited 2018-03-08 01:28 (UTC)
rower: (Default)

arrival

[personal profile] rower 2018-03-08 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
[When he wakes, in a room full of people who are standing still and it's eerily quiet, his first thought is not to move. They're attracted to sound and movement. They'll hear him. See him. And, even though they don't know he's there yet, they will if he doesn't stay still. Rémi's chest grows tight from not breathing, his vision swims, and the red dust doesn't bother him - there are other things to worry about.

But then the door opens up. He almost falls to his knees in startled relief. They're ushered out, cleaned (the dried blood on his face and shoulder takes more effort), he's given a phone, and ushered out after they explain the world he's in. It's not very different than the one he'd come from.

Rémi sees a flash of dirty blond hair out of the corner of his eye.

Mama.

It's not. The woman doesn't look anything like his mother. Her hair isn't even the right shade. Lower lip trembling, which he quickly bites down on, he follows her anyway. And will continue to do so until she says something. Sorry, Isabel. There's a scared thirteen year old boy not following you.]
beyourzoomer: (troubled to the right)

[personal profile] beyourzoomer 2018-03-08 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
[The nod of affirmation makes her grin involuntarily. She's been dying to meet this girl since the day Lucas filled her in on things, and she wasn't really sure it would ever happen. Lucas hadn't known what had happened to her. He's speculated she might even be dead. Max hadn't thought so, though. She'd really hoped not. For one, the girl was her age, and kids weren't supposed to die. She wasn't naive enough to think they didn't, but some part of her had refused to believe a girl she hadn't even met had just died after saving the boys, and basically the entire town.

But the frown that furrows the other girl's brow makes her smile slip a little even as she helps Eleven to her feet and looks at the message she'd typed, and Max hesitates a second, smile slipping a bit more because no, she really wasn't. Mike didn't like her, didn't want anything to do with her, and she's pretty sure he wishes she'd never moved to Hawkins at all. And if Mike didn't like her, did that blow her chances of being friends with Eleven, too? Obviously there was some kind of serious connection between them when Mike's the first person Eleven was asking for.

She chews her lower lip as she responds in a message of her own.]


i just know him. he lives with will here.

[She motions for Eleven to follow her as she starts down the sand path - in the direction the other girl had been running.]
thechristmasnazi: (jacket smile)

[personal profile] thechristmasnazi 2018-03-08 01:48 am (UTC)(link)
[ The sand path is remarkable at stopping the sound of footsteps. It’s a while before Isabel realizes that someone is following her. She turns and eyes the child, eyebrows wrinkled. What exactly does one do when a child, separated from his parents, has chosen to follow you? Her expertise with children generally begins and ends with organizing her town’s Christmas pageant, but she can try to think quickly.

She smiles at the child, waving hello and then putting a finger to her lips as if to say hush. Isabel pulls out her device and then points at it and taps it to suggest he take his out, too. Typing quickly, she tries to get to the bottom of this, the weirdest of weird situations. ]


Hello! I’m Isabel. Do you know where your mommy or daddy are?

[ Ace move, Iz. You’ve got this handled. ]
thechristmasnazi: (jacket smile)

[personal profile] thechristmasnazi 2018-03-08 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
Well, at least it won't be as boring as Small Town, New Mexico.
lovesbitch: relent sweet hermia (☾ 179)

[personal profile] lovesbitch 2018-03-08 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
[ his eyes light up and he tugs at his stupid yellow one. seriously, he wants his coat back. this is bullshit. ]

I say we jump those guys and take our shit back
that's just downright undecent - asking for help after stealing from us
isherarmor: (pic#10322990)

[personal profile] isherarmor 2018-03-08 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
[She blinks, stunned by several things - by the idea they'd been together again, that they'd found Jon and he was somehow away from the Wall and wait. He had died there, he'd told her so when he'd returned to Clock, when they'd met in the crypts. It doesn't make sense unless it's a different way that the events had played out. Unless he'd returned to he Wall after his time at Winterfell? That doesn't sound right, either. Had Daenerys betrayed him? She'd met the girl three lifetimes ago and found her ultimately trustworthy and kind, and had been in her debt as Dany had saved her father's leg. And Rickon, what about Rickon? She'd not seen him in Anatole either - but he'd been a baby, then.]

Home? The three of us back in Winterfell?? But not Rickon? Are the Boltons and the Freys gone from it, then?

No, not anyone. There would have been nothing left of me my first week there if that had been so. Lady showed up all on her own after I prayed for her. But we'd gone somewhere dangerous and she was badly injured. I gave it up then.

I was nineteen, but now I'm ...I lost at least two years. I don't really know. I don't know if it even matters.

But Daenerys. Daenerys Targaryen is coming back with Jon? For what reason?


[WHAT EVEN. It's her turn to look utterly confused.]
rower: (12)

[personal profile] rower 2018-03-08 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
[He stops when she stops. Rémi takes a step back. She isn't like them but everything here is happening so fast. He trusted people before, complete strangers, and look what that had cost him? He takes out his phone. He could have had one of his own back home in a few years, when he was old enough and had a job.]

They're dead.

[Rémi lowers his eyes. Guilt has his shoulders tense. Regret and grief scrunch his face, making him look older and younger than he is all at the same time.]

We can't stay out here. Won't they come for us?

[Won't the changed see them standing there and hunt them down.]
Edited 2018-03-08 02:03 (UTC)
lovesbitch: the worst that may befall (☾ 122)

[personal profile] lovesbitch 2018-03-08 02:05 am (UTC)(link)
how else would I talk to them?

[ his first ever serious ask here. enjoy. ]

I'll bring someone along with me to watch me eat it. That'll be plenty educational :)
voidmage: (for me it's so hard to be normal)

[personal profile] voidmage 2018-03-08 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
Friends call me El.

[That is her own way of saying that Isabel could call her that too, if she wants. Growing up she'd only ever been called Eleven by papa and it was tattooed on his skin, hidden beneath the sleeve of her jumpsuit. It was Mike - her first friend - who gave her the nickname.

El returns the smile a little, one corner of her lips turning up slightly.]


Same.

[As quick as it came, the smile disappears. She listens intently to the story Isabel has to share about her brother. There aren't many like her in their world so to hear about others is a new experience, to hear they were treated the same way is horrible though.]

I was always with papa. Listening to people far away and letting papa listen too.

[El was a spy, spying on the Russians even if she couldn't understand what they said.]

I found the monster by listening. They live in the Upside Down. I opened the Gate that let it in and ran away from papa and the bad men.
voidmage: (for me it's so hard to be normal)

[personal profile] voidmage 2018-03-08 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
[Hopper kept telling her that she couldn't contact Mike, couldn't talk to him even though she listened to him every night when he talked to her. That they would all be safer that way. Mike never believed that she was dead. Maybe because she was outside of his house once and he saw her. Since then El was in hiding, unable to tell them that hadn't died. There's so much they don't know yet.

If El wasn't going to like Max it would be because of her own feelings. She isn't entirely sure what to do with them at the moment, especially considering she doesn't even know why she feels this way. Right now, Max seems nice enough so she'll hold off. Hopefully Mike's own feelings won't have too much of an influence on her.

Oh. They aren't friends. It hadn't looked like that from where she stood.]


why not friends

[She follows after Max easily enough, more than ready to see the boys. Like with Mike, there are mixed feelings about knowing Will's here too. It'll be nice to meet him properly and not just in her mind.]
beyourzoomer: (here we go)

[personal profile] beyourzoomer 2018-03-08 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
[Max glances at her device as she walks, sighing inaudibly. Why not friends? Well, she's been trying to figure that out for weeks now, Eleven. Mike doesn't think she fits, and maybe he's right. It's not like it matters that much here anyway. Not when Lucas and Dustin aren't here. ]

he just doesn't like me.

[She shrugs a little, giving her a faint smile and a shoulder shrug.]

he'll be really happy to see you though.
sizeofyourbaggage: (did i miss something)

[personal profile] sizeofyourbaggage 2018-03-08 02:50 am (UTC)(link)
[ This is just how things are now, apparently.

Sam's only just barely found himself left to talk it over, too, and he'd mostly listened - but it was hard with a gaping emptiness in his mind where the Nest and all his connections are supposed to be. He'd slammed his walls up as hard as he can, hoping that maybe it won't feel quite as disorienting if he pretends like he's doing it on purpose -

But it's not working all that well. When he feels Shepard's presence it's not that his mind opens back up so much as they're just suddenly there, back in the places they belong. It's almost dizzying, but it doesn't stop him from grabbing hold. ]


( You think we'd get used to what we had in mind not mattering. ) [ He's already moving to find her, seeking out where her mental presence is strongest. ]
earthborn: (where she has taken no precautions)

[personal profile] earthborn 2018-03-08 03:02 am (UTC)(link)
[If she had the presence of mind to compare it to anything, Shepard would call it something like a gravity-shear, that sick sensation of having "down" be one direction over half your body, and another over the rest. Just like a shear, this was the world abruptly both reorienting and resisting a change in orientation. So too, also this was violent, and whiplash fast, and painful-- but unlike any gravity shear Shepard has ever felt, it is good.

Holy shit, is it good to get out of the metaphorical hellscape of agoraphobia that is suddenly being left alone in her own head. You don't know what you've got till it's gone.
]

( If I ever get used to that. Please, shoot me. )

[She's not serious. But she is seriously tracking his movements, triangulating by staying still while he moves-- there.]

Sam. Sam.
earthborn: (they multiply as they are seized)

[personal profile] earthborn 2018-03-08 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
Depends on how and why they hurt somebody. Lots of ways to not die.

But who decides? Are we.... forming a public set of agreed-upon rules? And then dedicating time and energy to enforcing them on each other? But look, this is approaching the level of colony charters and infrastructure. Seriously, what progress is there on getting the hell out of this?
ibiza: (tiny smile)

[personal profile] ibiza 2018-03-08 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
[ Margo smiles up at Seth. She really is glad that he’s here with her. The way he seemed to sweep into her world like a whirlwind still amazes her, but it all feels so natural, like he belongs there just as much as Eliot or Quentin. If she was to show him another world, she would have preferred to show him Fillory instead of this place, but since she can’t pick this will work just the same. Maybe it’s a little corny, but she believes because they’re together they’ll fare better, here.

She leans against him as they walk, her body seeming to fit so naturally against his just like two puzzle pieces that complement each other perfectly. Her chest rises and falls silently as she lets out a noiseless sigh. It’s going to take some practice to do everything quietly, but so far she’s been doing great.

Eventually the houses come into view and Margo slows to a gradual stop. She pulls out her device to type. ]


Is it the one with the bay windows? Cute house.

[ She tilts her head up and smiles at Seth. They’ve been together for a while, now, but Margo never imagined them reaching the shopping-for-houses state. That all seemed a little domestic for the two of them. Yet, here they are, moving into a house, albeit one already occupied by other people. ]
Edited 2018-03-08 03:17 (UTC)
thechristmasnazi: (red and contemplative)

[personal profile] thechristmasnazi 2018-03-08 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
[ Isabel stills herself as she listens. These are sounds from a landscape far more urban than the one she is used to with the way they echo off of pavement and stone. She can’t suppress a frown as she hears the boy cry to his father. Nerves of steel, yes, and some people that know her back home would even claim that she has a heart of ice, but this scene bothers Isabel. She can’t fight her curiosity. ]

You dream about this? Is it something you… Encountered? Personally, I mean?
voidmage: (I can see you in my mind)

[personal profile] voidmage 2018-03-08 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
[She knows what it feels like - to be the odd man out when it came to the Party. There was once a time when Lucas really didn't like her even though Mike kept pressing. It doesn't take much for her to remember how they fought and El "pushed" Lucas away so hard that he was unconscious for a while.

Maybe El can ask Mike why. And maybe that knowing that will explain her own feelings.]


lucas didnt like me

[Perhaps they can find solidarity to being the outcast of the outcasts.]

ill be happy to see him too
thechristmasnazi: (red and contemplative)

[personal profile] thechristmasnazi 2018-03-08 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
[ Her lips curve into a frown. Apparently she’s asked the wrong question. Isabel knows what it’s like to be wandering in a strange place with no parents, no idea where to go, but at least when she was in that situation she had her brother’s hand to hold. This child has no one. She stoops down on one knee, not caring about getting a little sand on her clothing, and tries to look at the little boy in the eye. Tentatively, she offers a sympathetic smile. She types another message. ]

They won’t come for us if we’re really quiet, but if it makes you feel better I can walk with you to a building we can stay inside. Would you like that?

[ She tips her head slightly so that she can see his face better. The poor guy looks distressed and understandably so. This is a scary place and Isabel imagines that it’s even scarier for a small child. ]
earthborn: (disingenuous assertions)

Arrival

[personal profile] earthborn 2018-03-08 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
Shut up, this isn't hell.

[Shepard is a ginger woman in an ill-fitting jumpsuit sewn together from what looks like three different colors of curtain, with sleeves rolled to make them fit. It's not a great look-- red hair and gingham orange do not compliment.]

You're not dead, drama queen. We've just been... kidnapped or something.

[Again, says the angry resignation in her tone. All of five foot two and she looks just about ready to start throwing punches.]
beyourzoomer: (didn't see that coming)

[personal profile] beyourzoomer 2018-03-08 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
[Lucas had definitely left that part out of the story and for a moment she just stops in her tracks, eyes wider than before as she looks at Eleven.]

lucas? really? because he misses you a lot.

[Apparently there are still things she doesn't really know yet, but she can't imagine Lucas not liking Eleven. Hell, Max likes her already and they just met. Boys. She shakes her head a little and starts walking again.]

I'm Max, by the way.

[Because it suddenly dawns on her that she hadn't told Eleven that much yet.]
voidmage: (I can see you in my mind)

[personal profile] voidmage 2018-03-08 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
[There were probably more important things to tell besides how they had issues in the group. When Max stops, so does she.]

i tried to stop them but did it wrong
friends dont lie


[She'd done it to protect them from the bad men and the demogorgon but things escalated because El wouldn't tell them why. Though Lucas hadn't wanted her around from the start and she made matters worse. El had broken the most important rule of friendship.

Once again, El follows along silently. At the name she tries to mouth it silently. It would be much better if she could say it outloud.]


eleven

[Even if Max already knew that, she'll introduce herself.]
sizeofyourbaggage: (hmmm)

[personal profile] sizeofyourbaggage 2018-03-08 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
Fair enough. This probably seems normal to them, it's all they know.

Anyone figured out what they do when people do want to take risks to find answers?
deadboywalking: ([:o] que?)

[personal profile] deadboywalking 2018-03-08 04:18 am (UTC)(link)
[Will is completely oblivious, so he doesn't get the significance, except that maybe she likes clowns?]

that's one of the monsters someone here has in their world. i don't think it's here, but it's important we know about it in case it shows up.
beyourzoomer: (faint smile to the side)

[personal profile] beyourzoomer 2018-03-08 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
[It was definitely a long story. Hell, Max hadn't even believed Lucas at first. It sounded way too much like a novel he'd read. But then she'd come face to face with a baby demogorgon and well. It's hard to discount much of anything when you see your first monster.

Her eyebrows furrow a little at Eleven's message that she tried to stop them and did it wrong. The rest of the message she understands, because Lucas had said that exact phrase back home. Still, she can't help but ask.]


did what wrong?

[She smiles at the confirmation of her name and she nods, wishing they could actually talk instead of use the devices. She's glad for Eleven's sake that Mike and Will's new house is soundproof at least. She'll be able to talk there.]