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

[youcantfixme]

[ The face in the crowd was out of place yet... familiar. Not that Luke had time to dwell on the thought. It was fight after fight in Seagate until the man he couldn't place was the only one standing with him. Before he could utter one word to him, the not so foreign stranger was again at his side as the switch was thrown and the pain was unbearable. All that Luke could gather from the sudden companion was the overwhelming need to stay quiet in the end.

Yet it wasn't the end that had a lasting effect on him. Reliving the moment that Jones had to put him down like a rabid dog, well that had stung more than the actual blow to the head. Luke hadn't remembered it the way he relived it. He wasn't sure what part the dream had gotten wrong or what part was Kilgrave's handiwork. The frustration was what carried Luke through the fight with... Frank Castle! He finally recognized the man.

The Punisher took the residual punishment inside of Luke after reliving Kilgrave's mind control. Guilt plagued the hero of Harlem, rushing to snatch up Frank and get out of Dodge before the monsters arrived. He couldn't help but believe the natives on his powers not being a match for the monsters that kept the city silent. Luke reached for Castle and suddenly found himself again at the fight in Seagate. ]

Not this again!

[oorah]

[ he wakes up on his feet this time, facing off against nameless, faceless minions of a time he knows luke would rather forget. but people like them don't have the luxury of forgetting. and for once in his life, frank castle stops fighting. he puts down his hands and lets the crowd consume him, getting in hit after hit after kick and slam. blood trickles freely from his mouth now, but he's content. he's in control for the first time since he stepped foot inside this place. ]

Wake up, Lucas. [ he had read the name on reva's papers. knowing that this man knows jessica is enough to place all of his trust in him. even if he'd seen what had gone down. frank had gone after her too, with his head full of that disgusting maggot. but he wasn't as strong as luke, jess only had to tie him up and not try to kill him. not like he would have blamed her for taking the easy way out, but she never does. they're alike in that way. ] It doesn't end until you admit it's a dream.

[ he laughs through the pain and the blood, because all of it is familiar to him. they beat him like he did something to them personally. and maybe he did. it's certainly possible with all of the carnage he's rained down on his little corner of the world. even in a place like seagate, the punisher could touch lives, and something about that is poetic. ]

[youcantfixme]

Luke! [ He corrected Castle as if that were of the utmost importance at the time. Luke held a confused scowl, wondering why now the Punisher opted to quit fighting. Harlem's Hero was getting winded. He couldn't fight them all alone and sure enough, they were on the table again with Frank a bloody mess. ] NO!

[ "It doesn't end until you admit it's a dream." That sounded like the truth. Why else would Frank Castle stop fighting or the ridiculous loop of time keep happening? But Luke remained confused as to why the man he never met before was thrown in his memories. What was the reason their consciousness were one? He peeled his gaze from and looked to the ceiling as the procedure counted down. ]

Always forward. Never back.
Always forward. Never back.
Always... forward.

[ The room had started to go out of focus. Luke looked toward Frank and finished waking himself with a quote that meant a lot to him. No more metal table or prison bars. There was the floor and familiar red dust that stuck to everything where he wouldn't immediately rub his eyes. He whispered, remembering vividly where he probably was. ]

Castle? Are you here?

[oorah]

[ he nods at the correction, even for as out of it as he is. how close to unconsciousness. he'll remember, it's a promise. and because of their shared experience on the table luke will know he isn't lying. that he sympathizes with the other man every step of the way. he starts repeating the words in a mumble. always forward, never back. as far as mantras go, it could be worse. somewhere along the way it morphs into his own though: one batch, two batch. penny and a dime... and that must be when luke figures out the test -- he blinks and they're in the reset room. it shouldn't be such a relief.

the red dust hits his senses with a wash of copper and something sharper, frank licks his lips expecting to taste blood but he doesn't. the other man's voice cuts through the noisy silence of the place and he looks over. castle. so many people here now who knew him -- or thought they did. in actuality, the people of reims knew him better than anyone in that courtroom back home, or who had watched him on the news. he lets out a long breath before reaching over, setting a heavy hand on the man's shoulder and squeezing. he's here. he's right here. ]