The Quiet Place Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bequiet) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
quietplacememes2018-02-28 08:56 pm
bequiet) wrote in 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!
I hate you a little rn.
The scent is so different that he doesn't realize who's in front of him until he looks past the device.
The only thing that saves him from the mouthed 'Goro!' being said out loud is the fact that he has no air in his lungs. His entire demeanor shifts, like a half-wilted flower bursting back into full bloom. Dull green eyes regain their sparkle as shock is followed by desperate relief, and joy, and love.
He feels more than a little guilty that he is so happy to see him here, in yet another terrible place, but he can't help it. They'd all lost each other at least once, and gotten so little time to be together before Kurama thought he lost them again...
Aside from the way he looks at the teen, there is almost no warning before he leans in and kisses Akechi tenderly.]
naaaaah
When Kurama looks up, he mouths a word— no... a... name? His given name? But that isn't possible, right?
He barely has time to process that, because this other man... is looking at him in a way that no one quite has, before. Not even his mother. It's— different, but it's... it's warm and full of light and happiness and joy and love. He's being looked at with so much love, and for a moment... he loses his breath, feeling somewhere between very confused and... overwhelmed? Just from the way he's being looked at.
That's why he doesn't react quite in time when the other moves forward, and their lips meet.
Every muscle in his body simultaneously tenses, his eyes widen, and pure anger floods him as his hands come up to bodily shove the red-head away. The look on his face is wild and livid, enraged eyes boring holes into the other.]
What the fu—
[Thank goodness there's a native nearby to jump to the rescue. Two of them, actually, one who puts a hand over Akechi's mouth and another that restrains him bodily. He struggles wildly for a moment, a muffled protest coming out behind the hand, while a third native quietly urges him with a finger to stay quiet...
And then makes a cut-throat motion with his hand. Ah.
That finally gets him to comply as he narrows his eyes at the other, then aggressively shoves off the other two who had loosened their grip. He glares at them, then turns his gaze on Kurama once more, still clearly angered.
He mouths three words in Japanese to him:]
You sick fuck.
Yes. Yes I do. H/noC
He remembers what they'd discovered; Akira and Goro came from two different timelines. They were talking over how to approach the version of Akira from Goro's timeline. Of course if there are at least two, there are almost certainly more.
Kurama hides his eyes behind his bangs as his expression shuts down, sharp and abrupt. Despite the forceful control of his face, his fingers shake a little bit as they work on the device before he holds it up.]
I apologize for my behavior, Akechi-san. I'd forgotten about alternate timelines.
[He'd forgotten and gods does he regret that now. Being alone only hurts more for the moment of thinking he wasn't.]
no subject
What the hell are you talking about? Who are you and how do you know who I am? Explain yourself!
[That's the only reason Akechi has yet to storm off in a rage, really. The way he'd looked at him... that wasn't typical of even the most devoted fan from his world. That was something else... something intimate and personal, which is all the more baffling. He'd even kissed him without hesitation...
He sneers, bringing up a hand and unnecessarily dragging it across his lips. There hadn't even been any saliva exchanged, really, but... it's more to express his displeasure at having his personal space so rudely violated by a complete stranger.
Perhaps, if he hadn't had such terrible experiences in the past of people taking advantage of him, if he wasn't so jaded and cynical, he'd be more accepting of the fact that Kurama had made a mistake. But for now? He looks at Kurama like he's a threat, like he's filth for what he'd just done...]
no subject
This is a Goro Akechi who has been through things Kurama has no idea about. And one that has never met him before now. His lips press thinly together as he looks at the device translation for a long moment.
It's easier than looking at the way Akechi is looking at him.
Slowly, the lines form on the screen as he gives the young man his explanation.]
This is the second time I've woken up in another world unexpectedly. I discovered only recently that even in terms of the same world, there are also different versions. Different timelines.
I met my Goro Akechi and Akira Kurusu in a mall where we and twelve other people were being held captive and encouraged to kill each other, our memories full of holes. We were there for almost a month. We grew close.
Perhaps if I'd had more time to get used to the idea of multiples of the same person... but that doesn't excuse my error.
[One of Kurama's hands slides up to swipe across his face, making sure the threatening tears don't fall. It can't be that hard to avoid one person in this settlement. Seeing Goro Akechi hate him... He doesn't think he can handle that.]
no subject
Another him? Another Kurusu? He's never heard such garbage in all his life.
And yet there are certain facts he cannot deny. He knows both their names. The way he looked at him, the way he kissed him... unless this guy was truly a sociopath and an expert at manipulating his masks of emotions... that was genuine. The love, the relief, the tenderness...
The despair, the guilt, the disappointment.
... and yet it cannot be true. It cannot. No one can love Goro Akechi, the flaming wreckage that he is. The complete mess, the cursed, who brought nothing but pain, pain, and more pain. He was cold, he pushed others away, and spat in their faces— even if they tried to help him, again and again and again.
There is nothing likable about him, let alone lovable.
So he signs:]
You really think I'll fall for that? To think I would ever let anyone get so close. Ridiculous.
[It has to be a trick. It has to. Maybe this guy's trying to emotionally manipulate him, because he's pathetic and can only assuage his own pain by taking advantage of others
No one can love him.]
What a flimsy sob story. I've heard more convincing tales told by children.
no subject
He takes a deep breath, more to calm himself than because he needs it. Kurama's expression shifts slightly as he lifts his face, eyes too bright, close to tears, but his face set and determined.
His fingers are a little quicker, a little steadier, as they dance over the screen.]
If I were trying to lie to you, I'd have a much better story. I spent as much time living a lie as you did, so I'm quite good at it.
You asked for an explanation and that was it. I don't expect anything from you, Akechi-san. I'm not one of your fans desperate for whatever scraps I can clutch at and I'm not someone who wants to use you like He did.
Don't bother pretending you don't know exactly who and what I'm talking about.
You're not my Goro. And I'm going to catch hell from him when I find my way home and he finds out about this little case of mistaken identity.
no subject
He's not... "his" Goro.
...haha, Akechi never knew it was possible to be jealous of yourself, and yet, here he is. Apparently some other fucking version of him... has someone willing to call him "theirs"? Well... the love and adoration in his eyes earlier already made it clear how he felt.
It can't be true. It can't be... and to see such lies offered up to him makes him so damn angry, all over again!
Again, his movements become sharp.]
Shut the hell up!
[Haha... why is he letting such obvious bullshit get to him? Maybe he knows, but that doesn't mean... no one can love...!]
I don't care who you are, or what the fuck you went through. Stay away from me.
["You're not my Goro". He never knew that the words of a complete stranger could somehow hurt quite this bad.]