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:

Please remember to mark your content in your starters or subject lines as material comes up. The threads on this meme can be used as game canon. Feel free to thread out arrival style meetings as well! If you have questions, pp the mod account, use the faq or comment below. Have fun!

NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ he nods. ] yeah but there's a clinic. it's soundproof so you can be gross in peace.

[ feel better about this yet?? ]

most things are at least 50x more annoying than they have to be, but other than that... might as well be vacation [ not ]

[ not at all. she gives him a look. she doesn't usually order her trips with a side of horror movie so; ]

vacay ala four stupid kids in a remote cabin

[ he tips his head to concede her point. an apt comparison really. ]

you're not wrong, but we can't change it right now. so [ don't shoot the messenger etc etc ]

[ she nods. at least she's used to not being able to do anything about the shitty circumstances she finds herself in. this still all feels... surreal. like a bad dream she just needs to wake up from. ]

have you been here long

[ at least that's all he has to say about that. he's not sure what 'long' means anymore. when he got here, even being here another day seemed unfathomable. now he thinks he'll be here years before it starts feeling weird again. ]

two months. this happens every month, the new arrivals. or now we're 3/3 anyway

[ well that's not comforting. so much for getting home without missing anything big. she thinks about rachel, alone in the hospital, no answers about her mother and no sign of chloe anywhere. she feels... sick. she stares at his answer for a while, leg bouncing on the ball of her foot a few times. fidgeting when she doesn't like an answer ruins any chance at a poker face. ]

well this place is getting the worst yelp review i can think of if i can get the internet to work

[ he feels for her, but he's not the type of guy to say it. and she doesn't seem like the kind of girl to accept, so... ]

no internet. shame about those cat videos. there are a few cool things it can do though. all of them are connected on a network but be careful what you post on there.

so just shit post old memes and save the real talks for private conversations? sounds a lot like the internet to me.

[ that gets the closest approximation of a smile she's likely to get out of him. she'll be fine. ]

what'd i say? you've got your finger on the pulse of this place already.

[ she'll consider that a win. ]

i'm a quick learner i guess

[ he nods, you had to be to survive here. ]

when you go into the menu it will let you search for a user. look up hotdog or micro if you need help.

[ even if she's likely to brush him off, he tries to stress with his eyeballs that he's serious. serious carole king vibes ]

[ okay but how is she supposed to take the stress of seriousness when he just typed look up hotdog in association with asking for help. there's a tightening at her lips, one that only comes when you're trying really hard not to laugh, as she gives him a look over.

micro was his friend he'd mentioned earlier, which means he's hotdog. and she can think of a couple reasons as to why that would be a name someone would have a network, starting with the obvious (she knows a frank, she gets the joke), but working on to something more fun.

her stomach growls. oh no. ]

i hope you have that nickname for a reason related to actually cooking a lot of hotdogs

[ the noise of her tummy rumbling has hotdog's eyes flying open wide, glancing around nervously and ready to shelter her with his body. but then... nothing happens. it either wasn't loud enough or the sound eaters weren't close enough -- or whatever other bullshit monster stuff they've yet to uncover. he breathes a silent breath in relief and nods, always willing to feed people. especially snarky girls. ]

i did actually cook a bunch of hotdogs for all the new arrivals last month. [ he hesitates over inviting her to his house. he's never sure if that's skeevy okay?? he just wants to feed you. uh. ] i have stuff back at my house. if you're that hungry.

[ she saw that reaction; there's something about the fact that an involuntary noise as quiet as a stomach growl is enough to get people freaked that leaves her grumpy. or maybe it's fear that makes her that way. she's never handled that kind of discomfort without getting a little anger mixed in.

still, when he relaxes, and offers food, she's hesitant for a moment - it's not like she hasn't gotten the whole 'don't go home with strangers' talk since she was a kid, but this is a unique situation, right?

hmmm. ]

are you like the Resident Dad in these parts or something

[ guys just being nice make her uneasy to begin with ok ]

[ wow she just... got right to the root of that, didn't she? she really does pick up quick. ]

don't make a thing out of it. i just go where i'm needed

[ like a fuckoff scary brick of a man who would also do anything for you or puppies. IT'S NOT A BIG DEAL CHLOE ]

[ who else but a dad would cook hotdogs FOR LITERALLY EVERYONE. it's something her dad would've done okay. ]

whatever you say old man

[ that gets another slim smile and he shakes his head, pulling up the map feature on his device. he finds his house on the map and turns around the screen to show her. ] how about this? if you're still hungry later stop by. or don't. offer's there

[ he flashes his OK symbol again. they cool? ]

[ open ended offer for food with no creepiness she can decipher attached. and she's gotten pretty good at reading when people are creepy at this point.

she takes a minute before she gives him an OK symbol right back. with only like half the amount of sass she would normally have put into such an old gesture. ]

[ yeah... he's annoying that way?! sorry about it. he'll just nod and move along, off to help an actually hapless arrival. as much as he wants to hang around everyone, there are people who probably actually need something instead of just company. maybe he should make feeding the new arrivals tradition so he doesn't have to feel so guilty moving on... it's only as he's heading back to the info booth he mans with his brother and his dog that he realized he never asked for her name. ]

TDM #003

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