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
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NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ ... Is this legit. Is this really a response she's getting right now. She's gonna stare at Rei like she has two heads for a second. ]

it's not a literal statement

Ah, it is a figure of speech.

[That didn't help her immediately. She tried to think about the various vulgarities the Major had used, but drew a blank. Seriously, when she started railing and kicking things, Rei completely ignored her. She wasn't saying anything worth remembering most days anyway.]

What do you mean to say?

[ Fuck. How is she supposed to rephrase bullshit without using other words that mean exactly the same thing? She's clearly thinking about it, her forehead creasing and everything. ]

it's nonsense
crazy
ridiculous
unbelievable
this place is the worst
etc.?

[She looked at he for a moment before nodding. Yes, she understood what was being said now. Those eyes were dead, without life or emotion to them as the red orbs stared back overlong.]

You are referring to our current situation, then? It is unusual, yes. Why do you say it is unbelievable? Do you not trust your senses?

[ well. chloe is convinced she has to be a robot. because this is the only explanation, clearly. ]

i trust my senses just fine, but i also don't blindly just believe everything everyone tells me

[Maybe an android? She blinked, after all.]

Understandable. What do you not believe?

[Rei... really needed to work on filling in antecedents and prepositional phrases.]

[ tomato tomahto ok. she's gonna just... pinch the brim of her nose because holy shit. ]

i don't know, all of it seems fucking crazy
stay quiet or some mysterious shit will kill you???
that's like a video game or horror movie plot, not real life

[No reaction as she read the reply, other than what looked almost like what a shrug should have appeared, if you didn't actually move your shoulders. Rei was pretty blase to everything.]

It is unusual, but my life is unusual. I do not no what a horror looks like, or what normal does.

are you human

[ she means this as only a half-joke and is fully ready for her to take it seriously. ]

What does it mean to be human?

[Which, despite the fact that it was about as close to a no as you could get right then, was actually not a no.]

[ she's still taking it as a no, but just in case since this girl is weird; ]

do you mean that philosophically or literally

Is there a difference? Philosophically, I suppose.
Biologically, I suppose that I am.

[She definitely wasn't normal. And technically that was kind of a lie. There was, after all, Lillith though she was supposedly the progenitor of all Lillim, but how clearly she knew that was its own matter.]

well i mean scientifically speaking is always different than a philosophical reason
idk that i have an answer then

Is it? I suppose that some might think that way. But, may I ask why you ask?

[Color her curious about the curiosity.]

girl, so many reasons
but mostly because who the fuck has never seen a horror movie

I do not watch movies normally. Not all humans watch movies. But, I am told I am unusual.

*ever*?
what humans do you know??????
don't answer that it's rhetorical

[She almost answered it regardless.]

As I said, I am not like most people I have ever met.

fair enough i guess

so what's your name weirdo

Rei.

[Congratulations, Chloe. You're back to getting one word replies out of this one.]

[ At least she wasn't expecting a monologue. ]

chloe
do you know anything useful about this place?
like, for example, if they have cigarettes around?
or pot?
or booze?

There should be pots and pans in the kitchen of the house they assign you. Alcohol can be found in old stores. There are enough vacant convenience stores. I am not sure about cigarettes.

[...yes, she just said that first sentence seriously.]

[ oh no. there's a long pause before she can respond where she is clearly struggling not to laugh. being quiet is so fucking hard. ]

thanks. that helps a lot.

Edited 2018-03-09 18:21 (UTC)

[Yep, she just almost got Chloe killed there and had no idea about it.]

Feel free to contact me if you need anything further.

aye aye, rei
i'm sure i'll reach out eventually

(no subject)

lilithsoul - 2018-03-09 18:35 (UTC) - Expand