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

Falling down the stairs

[thechristmasnazi]

[ Seconds after she recovers, pushing herself up from lying flat on the ground, Isabel takes note of the man offering his hand to her. She puts her own hand in his, still dusty with the coppery red stuff, and pulls herself up. Sighing, she brushes some of the mysterious material off of her jumpsuit. Suddenly, this is making sense to her. This weird dream isn’t a product of her own subconscious, somehow she’s walked into someone else’s dream without meaning to. It’s quite possibly the scarier possibility. She might be losing control of herself in this place. ]

I’m sorry. [ Isabel apologizes in a smooth, low tone, glad that this is a dream if only because she can speak here. ] I didn’t…

[ She gives a shake of her head. It’s not often that Isabel Evans finds herself apologizing for her actions, but this place is terrifying enough already without her carelessly hopping into others’ dreams. ]

I didn’t mean to invade your dream.

[ What happened to keeping her origins completely secret? Isabel figures they went out the window the moment she wound up in this guy’s dream. People always seem to figure out something is off when they dream about her without meeting her first. It isn’t as if she can find another explanation, either. ]

[blessmefather]

Not your fault.

[ Matt shakes his head, eye pointed toward the ground. He draws in a slow breath. Inviting another person into his dream, is this supposed to be torture via peer judgement? Send an entire jury if you have to, he thinks. ]

I should be the one apologizing for what you might...

[ See? Now there's a question. His nightmare is made of memories all without sight. She might only hear or feel, though to what degree? Is she a passing witness free to listen with her own ears or will the dream force her to feel everything as intensely as he could with his enhanced senses? ]

Don't expect much of a view.

[thechristmasnazi]

[ Her lucky day. She mustn’t have been the only one to have paid his dreams a visit. If she’s fortunate, she’ll simply blend in and it’ll seem like any other experience.

Isabel’s mouth curves into a smile as he switches the apology around. He’s a nice guy. Polite. Too bad he’s a little old for her. She nods her head slowly. ]

I get that. I think people might be bothered somewhat by my dreams, too. Anyway… Don’t worry about me.

[ Her smile spread into a grin across her face. ]

I’ve got nerves of steel.

[ Don’t expect much of a view. Isabel finally realizes it. The man whose dream she’d so gracelessly dropped into was blind. It made sense. The actual dreamscape surrounding them was particularly devoid of details that one might find in a sighted person’s dream. Isabel had never walked into a blind person’s dream before, so she was a bit awe-struck. Everything was always more interesting the first time around. ]

Hmm… It’s interesting this way.

[blessmefather]

[ Nerves of steel hopefully includes staying calm at the scene of a murder. As they find themselves outside or what feels like outside during a chilly night police sirens draw near, and drown out all other sound. Matt lowers his head, wondering if he should bother explaining to her what this scene is or if this will be less stressful for both of them to act like she isn't there. The police cars pull up nearby and the officers silence their sirens. Immediately a child's sobs can be heard coming from near the ground. The boy calls to his father as he shakes his corpse, hoping he'll wake but the man is long gone. ]

[thechristmasnazi]

[ Isabel stills herself as she listens. These are sounds from a landscape far more urban than the one she is used to with the way they echo off of pavement and stone. She can’t suppress a frown as she hears the boy cry to his father. Nerves of steel, yes, and some people that know her back home would even claim that she has a heart of ice, but this scene bothers Isabel. She can’t fight her curiosity. ]

You dream about this? Is it something you… Encountered? Personally, I mean?

[blessmefather]

I've been having the same bad dream the last couple nights.

[ He tilts his head back. Nothing in this dream will be pleasant. None of it is something he enjoys talking about.

The scene changes and the chill of the night air disappears. Instead there's a low hum from florescent lights overhead and the sound of water running through pipes. The same child is present, breathing, letting out a gasp as an adult male crumples something in his hand. Your training is over, an old voice rasps. Then the old man turns and leaves, ascending up a flight of wooden stairs. The child's breath starts to speed up and quiver with emotion.

Matt doesn't turn toward her when he answers. ]

It's not something I usually talk about.