quietplacememes | TDM #003

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test drive meme!

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
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NAVIGATION

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[Hey, hoarding food is what they do. I'm surprised they haven't turned into massive hoarders tbqh. Facility often puts you through the worst kinds of things and leaves you with odd coping mechanisms.]

Refreshing to know that some things never change. No hint that this is the Doctors with a new environment, is there? ...Noted. So just the free stuff then. Any way for us to reasonably get the not-free stuff? We might have to, just in case. [Not that Lavi tended to go into one at the same time, but it'd be nice to have just in case.

Lavi reaches out and gently squeezes Sora's shoulder again.] Hey, you did what you needed to do, that's okay. Maybe one day we'll stop.

[So true. Especially after the poisoned food debacle back in the cities. Sora's supply of food helped a lot of people in C3. In a world like this one, keeping food was probably a good habit to have.]

Not that I've seen. I doubt they'd let an experiment run two months long - not even the F3 trips lasted that much time. There's some footage I gotta show you about what happened here.

Just the free stuff. I fish the river myself and that's fine. These people deal in trade, mostly. And reward us for being quiet.

I'll get them started on it. Won't mention you're name. Let's see if they already know who it's for without me saying. [A good way to test the knowledge of the natives on the people who get brought here.

Nods his head.] I know. It's fine if a few people know I'm a clone if it'll help in the future. Me and you weren't prone to clone sickness all of the time but what if Allen showed up? He was comatose a lot more than both of us. I don't want us to have to worry about our bodies failing just because the doctors messed up.

Who knows, it was supposed to be new doctors at some point after they dismantled Val. Maybe this is all them... [But at the same time, if words had a way to sound unsure of themselves, these do.]

I'll have to go fishing with you then and learn how to do it quietly. It'll be nice to actually catch something for a change. You mean see if they'll build it to my lanky height? [He can't help the grin that crosses his face from the comment.]

Not to mention I don't recall it ever really happening while we were in the Cities. But it could happen here... You think Allen might show up? [ngl, he's hopeful.]

I don't know. This seems too elaborate for them. Especially considering how many time they tried to terminate us. [It's just not the same. It doesn't have the same feel of being scrutinized at every turn.]

We mostly have to wait for rainy days to go fishing so as to muffle the sound of lines or nets.

Exactly! That's what you get for being too tall. [Grinning right back.]

Yeah, it was better when we were in the Cities, but then it was just you, me and Tyki from the Facility. I'd like to FIX the problem rather than just DEAL with it forever.

[A silent sigh.]

I hope so. There's a lot of people I hope show up here. This world isn't great but it's got real sunlight, real plants and the natives are pretty welcoming to people who decide to stay here. [AKA he's one of those people who's staying.]

True enough. They'd probably just want to start completely over like they said instead of sticking with...version 3.6 of me and...whatever your barcode reads now. That works for me. Rain and fishing, things I didn't think I would miss from home. Hey, not like I could help how tall the original grew. Hopefully he doesn't follow as well. I'm tired. [He's tired of having to fight the Noah on space.]

...So we can choose to stay here if we want?

Yeah, fresh start. Though everyone else so far is pretty new to the whole thing. Maybe we're just supposed to "share our experience" with the newbies or something. It doesn't say anything now. Back when I died for Riku in the Cities, it was warped by the monster that killed me.

Right? It's been a long time since I fished. Dino Island, I think.

I wish my original would grow more.

We've got enough to worry about without adding Noah to the mix too.

I said I'd stay when they asked. They gave me a house and even soundproofed most of it.

No one else travelers like us, then? At least so far? I'm not sure how much of our experiences are going to be useful. Anything I shared in the past was just answered with "why would you tell me that." ...I'm not going to try dying here to see if it changes. [He's tired of that too.]

God... I think that was the first place I traveled to. The dinosaurs were not the best first greeters I had. I think I broke my arm there. There's still time. Maybe. If you go comatose maybe he'll grow and it'll transfer to you. ...I don't think anybody asked me that. I'll have to ask around.

Not that I've heard of so far in this world. But if we're both here there's always the chance someone is or will come in like we have. Since it's pretty new everyone's still eager to find answers and a way to leave, they liste when I tell them stuff. Then again I don't suggest we might be clones either. [Because no one sees what happens to people here when they die (at least not people like them), their bodies just appear in the reset room and that's pretty similar to how things were done in the Facility.]

It was my first in the Facility too. My T-Rex is a lot better than those ones. There was a lot of people injured - Sephiroth had made Cloud level the Welcome Center where everyone was staying.

No thanks. We're already weird enough to not need more weird things happening. [Though being the guinea pig, Sora will suffer from random effects.]

It was during a town meeting. They asked everyone if they would want to stay.

It's probably better if there aren't anymore worlds, it means more people taken from their homes. There's no need. [A nod, he's not going to tell that secret too lightly. Who knows what might be done with the knowledge.]

Yeah, think that's where I broke it actually. I don't think I met this Sephiroth guy though, or that Cloud. Growth spurts would be like going home for a short time though, wouldn't it? [Or are they stuck like they are for forever now? It was Lavi's turn to be the guinea pig in the Cities. That was horrible enough doing all those jumps.

Another nod.] I'll see if I can find who I have to speak to.

Though depending on the world, this one might actually be better. It's definitely nicer than the Facility. We've just got the one monster and no weekly experiments. [Even when they were back in the Facility, they didn't put down that they were clones in the general "welcome" Shika had typed up for everyone. At least not directly.]

A lot of people got hurt then. Komui, Ping, Ritsuka. [Ritsuka was the first person Sora had failed to save. It stayed with him.] There were versions of Sephiroth and Cloud in my world.

We can't go home like other people, though. [Because they're clones of the real thing.] But I don't see why we wouldn't grow eventually. Though I dunno if you need to grow anymore, you're already too tall.

[Says Shorty McShorterson but sticks his tongue out playfully.]

In the meantime, you can stay with me. I've got extra bedrooms and access to my Dream Eaters so we won't have nightmares. Plus Mittens.

And the natives don't seem to want to kill us or get rid of us. Already a bunch of points to this place. Quiet time aside. I remember Roxas mentioning that you guys visited Wonderland when we showed up there... I suppose Alice was a thing along with the White Rabbit? They might have put a halt on things like that like they did with pregnancy. [Because there was never a pregnant clone.] But our hair and nails still grow so I'm not sure what they stopped and what they didn't.

[Sticks his tongue out in return.]

So long as it's not too much trouble. Though it'll be good to see Mittens again, and a few of your Dream Eaters.

Not like the ones in the Cities, anyway. Or the Doctors.

Yeah, it was one of the first worlds I can remember visiting. Not sure if Roxas actually got to meet her but I tried to save Alice from having her head chopped off by the Queen. And the White Rabbit was there. So was Cheshire. The one we knew didn't look like the one we visited during our Fac days, though.

Or maybe no one was pregnant because of Tsunade's scary speech. I remember her yelling about practicing safe sex early on. [But who knows. Mittens certainly got pregnant.] I got a little bit taller.

It's not any trouble. Honestly, I don't like living alone anymore. Oh, I had to switch Nami out for one of my others. Since she has bells and everything.

I'd hope not, that Wonderland was a bit more... Creative than what the story seemed to me.

Problem with that is, how often did she give that talk. I don't remember hearing about it past the one time. [Animals might be different?

] Yeah, I'm kind of over living alone too. Got too used to hearing other bodies about and breathing. We'll still probably get along, whomever you traded Nami out for. [For a moment he was confused, Nami the kitten and Nami the Dream Eater?]

Probably some alternate version of the one I know and the one you know about. Read about? [Since Lavi is a big reader, that makes sense that there's a story about Alice out there.]

Just the once that I saw. And I doubt some of the experiments let people think about protection. [Maybe they were all fixed or just not capable of it because their bodies aren't perfect.] It'll be quieter here but with soundproofing we don't have to be completely. Just mostly quiet. [He nods.] Xi is kind of more like a dog. [There's a theme in his naming system.]

Yeah, I'm hoping I never wound up in one of Rhode's little Dreamscapes that took after Wonderland. I don't think she'd have the patience to read them to be honest. [Thankfully. But give him time and he'll write it down for you or find it in the library!]

Nothing to worry about now at least. I don't think either of us is going to need to worry about it either. [What with both of them having their preferences and issues.] I'll still probably stick to this or signing, still not sure of my words some days. [A nod.]

Probably not from what little I know about her. The story you know probably doesn't include some guy and his two friends showing up and trying to proof Alice's innocence. [It'll be an interesting read, if Sora ever has time for that.]

Yeah, not really. [More the issues in Sora's case. He did once like Kairi.] I've been attending the weekly signing lessons so I can teach you what I know.

...Yeah, I think I missed that version. [Yeah, boys don't plan for their downtime, do they?

Lavi still appreciates ladies, he just...realizes he's super broken and doesn't want to put that on anyone.] Thanks, Sora. At least you won't have to sign things more than once. Then I can pay attention to the same teachers as you.

Not sure it exists in a book. [Nope, he'd rather not have any downtime.

Sora's problem is that he's usually faced with the real versions of people. Or thinks he is.] You'll be my best student ever. Then I'll probably be learning from you.

So, is there anywhere in particular you wanna go? They've got a library even though it's seen better days.

I'll have to write it for you, if you want to tell it to me. [Same.]

Nah, not from me. I'm a horrible teacher, don't have the patience for it.

For now, I kind of want to just settle in.

Sure, it could give me something to do when I have nothing else to do. [At least reading about Alice would keep his mind off things.]

C'mon you wouldn't even teach me? Make a game out of it or something?

Okay, let's go home then. [Because without a doubt in his mind Sora's home is also Lavi's. Not that either of them think a building is home.]

A way for both of us to fall asleep, comparing what to me were children's stories and fairy tales.

I don't know. I don't really have the patience for it. I think I know how the old man might've felt trying to teach little me.

[Home sounds good.]

Yeah, it'll be entertaining bedtime stories.

I think it's because you're just a troublesome thing in general. Even at this age you still cause a lot of headaches.

[Playfully grinning and he gently knocks his elbow against Lavi's.]

"At this age?" Ha! We've got years to go, my friend, I'll get worse yet.

[Responds in kind as they reach the house and go in! Scene end.]

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TDM #003

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/DRAGS THIS BACK UP BC WE NEED THE IMPORTANT INFO

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