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
From your mods:

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NAVIGATION

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Comments

[monomachy]

[As more questions pour from the girl's mouth, Diana realizes that she does not have the answers she's searching for. All she can do is take a moment to collect her thoughts, to think on what she might do herself in such a situation. She'd never known her father, as Zeus had died shortly after she'd been born. And her mother... Diana knows Hippolyta had kept her daughter's true nature from her out of love, but she still isn't quite sure how to feel about it. Would things have been different if she'd known earlier? Could she have saved the people of Veld?

Would Steve still be alive?

Her own questions are too much to think on right now, especially in the midst of a memory she loves so much, so she instead focuses on her companion's worries.]

Then you must live with your decisions, and fight to make them the right ones.

[Amazons had always been a practical people, and Diana is hardly ever an exception. It is a cruel truth, perhaps, but a truth all the same. There is a slight bit of empathy in her eyes, wondering what this girl has been through for her to ask such questions, to seek such reassurance. But it is not her place to ask, as she realizes now that the girl is not just a creation of her own mind. Diana has answered these questions for herself, would not dream to ask them again. She had left Themyscira, had been warned she might never return. She's made peace with that decision, even if a part of her heart is still broken for it.]

[list_maker]

I don't regret any decisions I've made. Only that I wasn't stronger sooner. To help save my mother... and brothers and father. But I'm making sure those who did it will pay. [Revenge runs deep through her heart. It's all she thinks about, nearly all the time. Completing her list. Getting to Cersei Lannister and Gregor Clegane. But she'd had a choice at the Crossroads. To go to King's Landing to kill them or go to Winterfell and see those who still remained of her family. To see Sansa, Bran, and Jon. She'd chosen family. But the list isn't forgotten. She still plans to see it through.]

[monomachy]

[Revenge is a strong motivator--Diana knows this well. She had nearly given into it, had almost let it envelop her and help her do the unthinkable. Ares' offer had seemed so appealing in that moment, when he'd goaded her with the opportunity to kill Maru. We could return this world to the paradise it was before them. She'd hated men in that moment, had been prepared to end them all for her grief. But love had been stronger in her heart, had helped her make the decision she'd known to be right.

But a whisper in her mind tells Diana that sharing this will the girl will not help her. There's something in her voice, in her eyes, that says she is bound to this path by her own choice, and that nothing will deter her.

It is as admirable as it is tragic.

Her gaze wanders, briefly, to the Amazons training in the distance. She longs to be back with them, to return to the days before her powers had awoken. Before she had known she had to leave the island. Before so many things had happened. But there is no going back for her, just as she feels there is no going back for this girl. She looks back to her companion, to her small stature and fiery eyes. This only leaves her with one response, and she feels as if Antiope would agree with it.]

Then you must be properly trained to do so.

[list_maker]

[Arya's eyes widen in wonder and a level of giddiness she hasn't felt in some time. She's been so hardened by her training with the Faceless Men, it's been some time since she's been so open as this. Is this woman saying what she suspects she is? Perhaps this is some sort of dream after all. She's been training for a while, yes, but Diana would teach her much. She's certain of it. Her eyes look from the warriors around them and then back to her.]

Would you... train me?

[monomachy]

I would.

[There is no hesitation in the answer. Diana doesn't know what this girl's mission is or where it will take her, but she will not stand to see her unprepared. Righteousness and grit can only take someone so far without the hard skill to back them up. Diana has never trained anyone before, but she had been under Antiope's wing for thousands of years. She is certain she can handle it.

She steps forward, beginning to examine the girl with a critical eye, as her general had to her so many times. Find each strength, weed out each weakness. Cover them with tenacity and competence. Embrace those you cannot mend, and turn them into strength.]

What is your name?

[list_maker]

Arya Stark. [It's said with a great amount of pride. She fought hard to be herself. She's proud of her name. Of her House. She meets the woman's gaze head on not shying from it.] What is your name?

[monomachy]

[The way she doesn't back down is promising. Diana stops her inspection, breaking into a wide smile. This is her dream, her memory--she doesn't have to hide who she is, the way Steve had told her to after she'd left the island. She matches Arya's pride with plenty of her own.]

Well met, Arya Stark. I am Diana, Princess of Themyscira.

[list_maker]

You're a princess? [Arya's eyes go wide at this.] So am I... I think. But I don't care to be. [She's technically a princess now that Jon is King in the North. But she's never thought of herself in those terms. It sounded too confining, too many expectations to be placed on her, and how she's meant to act.]

[monomachy]

[Diana never wanted to be a princess, either. But as a child, she'd had no choice but to follow her mother's wishes--at least until Antiope had intervened. And then she had taken up the mantle of warrior along with that of royalty, and had balanced both better than Hippolyta could have imagined.]

It is just a title. [One that could lift a person up or chain them down. It just depended on how they tackled it.] It does not define who you are. Only you can do that.