TDM #003

[bequiet]

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
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NAVIGATION

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Comments

[deadlight]

[ it's like being in that bathroom, slick with blood, all over again. because for a second all bev can see is red as she lashes out, again and again. her pulse is roaring in her ears, drowning out the sounds of what she's doing. it takes jess' hand on her shoulder to pull her back to herself - and to recognize the twisted thing as 'no longer a threat.'

breathing hard, she gives a little nod, still looking slightly dazed. the harshness isn't anything she isn't used to from adults, and she's more concerned with something else, anyway. ]

You... You saw IT?

[ of course, she's not thinking about how it sounds - 'you saw it?' bev could really be asking about any part of the dream, but in her experience - adults were blind to the evil in their town. so it's the evil clown monster she's currently focused on. ]

[underachievement]

[ Unfortunately, Jess can understand the rage taking hold of Beverly. Now isn't the time to advise against it, especially when Jess doubts she's been able to express a fraction of it before. ]

I think this is a dream. [ So it's real, in a sense, but not sentient. Jess still doesn't take her eyes off it. There's a pervading stench of wrongness coming off it that goes well beyond the creepy crown baseline. ] Or a memory. I'm seeing what you see.

[deadlight]

Oh fuck.

[ oh fuck. bev's used to the waves of wrongness that are prevalent in derry, because of IT. so it's not the evil presence that gives her chills so much as the idea that there's someone else who's able to see it. nevertheless, her eyes are laser-focused on the heap IT makes as she takes a step backward, further away from it. not close to jess, but not avoiding her either.

bev's deeply grateful for her presence, even if she doesn't know how to show it. ]

I thought I was going crazy...

[ that time, with all the blood in the bathroom. her father couldn't see it. she had to pretend she'd seen a spider, and he yelled at her for making a fuss. ]

[underachievement]

My dreams make me feel that way too.

[ Bev is keeping a beat on the clown so Jess checks up and down the sewer, barely minding the smell. It reminds her a little of home, actually. The haze surrounding them is inscrutable to Jess. She can't make out the faces in it either, if there are any, yet she feels surrounded. Her gaze falls back to Bev, whose hair sticks out brightly even in the darkness that seeps into the vibrant costume and hair of the clown; they blend in seamlessly with the shit around them.

Jess takes a step towards her, as a precaution in case the environment starts to fall away and they're separated. Seems like the kinda trick this place would pull, dumping them both into Bev's hell and ripping them apart as soon as they've finally gotten their footing. ]

You're Beverly? I'm Jessica.

[deadlight]

[ this is all more than bev's prepared to deal with, but fortunately the other woman just seems to get it. her wordless understanding just adds to the otherworldly nature of the place. it's something bev could imagine being manifested out of her consciousness before she ever encountered it in real life.

so she's not one hundred percent sure jessica's real, when she introduces herself.

but for now, she'll take it. ]

Hi, Jessica.

[ welcome to hell? she wouldn't feel so sheepish if it wasn't so overtly personal. bev gives a look around the dank space, giving the dead clown a cursory kick just to make sure he's dead. ]

I think this happened. Differently.

[ but there's something about it that's not entirely made up. more memory than dream. ]

[underachievement]

[ It's excruciatingly personal and Jess isn't wont to draw any more attention to it than she thinks Bev would like. If she's trapped in Reims now, there are better listeners around for her when she wakes up. ]

Come on, let's move. [ If they can. Jess gives Bev's shoulder a guiding tap of her fingers and takes off in one of two equally dank directions. Her senses are keyed up despite her suspicion that anything that wants to creep up on her is going to, no matter what she does. The mental fog is pervasive; the more she walks, the more she questions if they've gotten anywhere at all. The vertigo starts to build suddenly and peak all at once, with Jess reaching for the wall to keep from falling. ]

[deadlight]

[ fortunately bev's young enough that pretending something doesn't exist is close to it not existing, so she's not looking for a shoulder to cry on. actually, she highly prefers jess' hands off and take-charge attitude, stumbling after her with a nod. ]

Sure.

[ she wipes her eyes and nose, shaking out her shoulders. she can be brave, like jess.

she's so focused on the other woman that she doesn't noticed their surroundings becoming even less distinct. the tunnels under derry, pennywise's layer, the sewer. she reaches out to grab for jess, or maybe to warn her. ]

Look out - !

[ it's like the ground can't be trusted, all of a sudden. are they falling again? ]

[underachievement]

[ Jess knows she's waking up for real because the sick sensation is no longer confined to her head. Her stomach aches from falling asleep unfed and her nostrils burn from the red dust that pillowed their fall. Jess pushes herself to a sitting position, sand grinding between the cogs of her brain as they whirl back up to normal speed. It's much less confusing and less comforting than being reset, though she doesn't know how else she could have ended up here. There are no gaps in her memory. It's actually too full.

It's a crazy urge to look behind her for the redheaded girl from her nightmare but Jess has had to entertain crazier urges here. Sure enough, Beverly is there and coming to consciousness, and before another thought can cut in front of it, Jess reaches over to cover her mouth. She puts a finger to her own lips to communicate the necessity for silence. ]

[deadlight]

[ grit, in her nose and eyes, coating her lips. bev might've coughed if it wasn't for the hand over her mouth, and her eyes fly open, realizing -

they're back. not home, but derry is a hellpit anyway. bev's never really had a home, so she doesn't have any emotional attachment to where she comes from or even reims for that matter. nevertheless, there's some relief, compounded when she sees who's covered her mouth. jessica. they were together in the dream, and now they're here. which means she might want to ask about, oh, any of the myriad horrors they just experienced. she feels around in her pockets until coming up with her device, typing rapidly. ]

thanks

[ for what, it doesn't matter. it's fine, they can move on. ]

[underachievement]

[ Once she lets go of Bev, her hand immediately balls into a fist to stave off the rage shakes. She gets to her feet, wiping her hands on the cleanest patch of her jeans. At least they didn't jam her into another jumpsuit. Beverly's indicates she's a relatively new arrival. She's adapting very well for someone of her age but abused girls usually are. As uncomfortable as she is knowing what she does about Bev, she knows the precise degree to which it is worse for her than it is for Jess.

Her father can't possibly be here and that's all that matters.

After taking in their surroundings, Jess acknowledges Bev's message with a nod. Sort of acknowledges. It comes off as dismissive since she doesn't take thank you's well regardless of the source. Then she takes out her own device. ]

I'll walk you to your house

[deadlight]

[ one day, bev will work up the courage to casually ask jessica 'hey, so did you see me kill my dad?' but right now it doesn't seem like the most important loose end to tie up. not referencing what just happened ever again is the strategy that seems best to her right now, and jessica's dismissive nod just further emphasizes that. it's not hurtful so much as it gives bev the emotional cues she needs to know how to handle this situation. it's a lead for her to follow.

she'll have to shake off the natural instinct to thank jess again when she offers to walk her to the house, though. ]

cool
it's house 11

[ she takes a numb sort of pride in her ability to survive and adapt. the jumpsuit, the new surroundings, whether they were dead or alive... there's an acceptance there that probably isn't normal. but it's useful in situations like this one. ]