quietplacememes | 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:

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NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Sleep has been evading Zero in this world more often than he'd like, even if it's for good reason. It's been a couple of weeks, but he's still extremely unsettled. Normally he's the very definition of composure and calm, even under chaotic situations— that goes to show just how bad the situation is, here. Although that's not to say he's never able to relax. Even just having Yuuki in the same room as him is easing. Having her beside him, and the same in turn, makes all of this a little more tolerable.

Still, it's another night where he's left his designated house to go for a walk, out of not having much else to do. He's become more familiar with the streets of Reims, but the pure silence is still maddening at times. He's certainly not the only one out and about right now.

—However, there still is something that catches his attention. His senses have been a little skewed since arriving. A brand new world, along with an even more varied population. At home it's simple. There are humans (hunters among them), and vampires. Here? Who knows. What he does pick up on, though, leans more to the familiar side than not: the presence is definitely that of a vampire, but not what he's used to. What he doesn't feel is any animosity coming from them (thirst is an entirely different matter).

Either way, he'll approach easily, and not focus on those other parts for the moment. After typing something, he'll show her.]

Would you like to find somewhere to sit down for a bit? I know this is pretty disorienting.

[ The more minutes that stretch on as Elena slowly, carefully explores her new surroundings, the more she begins to wonder how this will effect her senses. With everything so heightened from becoming a vampire, will she start to be able to more easily pick up on the sounds humans can't usually hear? She's already found that if she really concentrates, she can hear the heartbeat of someone nearby. What about the people a block or two over? Will she be able to hear the slight shifting of sand as people walk along these paths?

That ease hasn't come just yet though, so she doesn't notice the young man until he gets closer and she can see him. After reading his message, she nods and types out her own. ]

Yes, please. Thank you.

[Ah, that's true, being able to hear the pulse of those around him. Although he's now been a vampire for longer than he had been a human, so it's one of a number of things which he's learned how to tune out. Otherwise it's deafening. It still can come in handy. Being able to pick out the presence of those he's familiar with is helpful in a place where it's unfamiliar and easy to get lost.

He simply nods in turn, then gestures for her to follow him. Eventually they'll reach the library. After double checking that the door's hinges are oiled, Zero will let the both of them inside.]

TDM #003

arrival (lmk if this is okay! ..sorry for the novel)

a-okay, and novels are my fave

no subject