TDM #004

[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. The bulletin board feed lights up so you can read about the history. 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.

Take a peep
Content Warnings: Possible animal-thing death
Themes: Slice of life, it's like gremlins... kinda

On the first of April, small piles of dust with brightly colored eggs at the center will spring up over night. After a few hours the eggs will begin to hatch and out will come the smallest and brightest bunny-like creatures (the only notable differences from regular bunnies are the colors, size, and that they make no noise). They're friendly and immediately attach themselves (bond) to the first person to pick them up. One of the natives calls them "peeps" because they don't make a sound. All with unique personalities, the creatures can be found nibbling on the dust and needing no other form of food, and will shy away from any and all water sources.

If, however, any of them get wet - there will be a sudden and brief rain shower at noon - the creatures fur will turn black and they will begin attacking the others that didn't get wet. Stopping them is key, and the black creatures will either dash away from the community if given the chance or will need to be stopped.

OOC: All characters can keep a Peep! Any color! They are palm-sized and never grow larger than an adult hand.

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

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Comments

peeps

[justbeingknife]

Hey, looks like ya got a fan.

[ Frankly, Majima wasn't so sure about this Easter Bunny thing -- survey said that most of the unnatural wildlife around here was borderline dangerous. On the other hand: bunnies, what could possibly go wrong? ]

Gonna keep it?

[spideys]

[ Peter glances down at the little pink floof loyally following behind.

He lets out a (quiet) breath. ]

not sure i have a choice, do i?

[justbeingknife]

Not unless you ain't have a heart. I mean, look at that guy.

[ As part of the hunting team, Majima had trapped his share of rabbits, but even he didn't have the heart to take out a technicolored little munchkin like that one. ]

Might not match your jumpsuit, though.

[spideys]

man

you're right

he's (?? she?) awfully cute

guess i can't return it for a blue one can i

[justbeingknife]

Nah, too late now. Yer stuck with him. Her. Whichever.

[ I mean there was probably one way to tell if the bunny was a dude or a dudette but

far be it from Majima to suggest lifting a bunny rabbit's skirt here ]

Least it's better than the birds last month.

[spideys]

[ And far be it from Peter to actually go through and give it an inspection. Himherit will have to do for now. ]

whoa don't birds go against the whole silence policy??

last time i checked singing was their specialty

[justbeingknife]

Yeah, well. There ain't too many of 'em left, if any.

And calling 'em birds might be a bit...

[ Fuck it. Majima brought up a photo on his phone of something that... could be called a bird? Maybe. Except it had eyes all over the place and a weird beak and basically looked to be kin to no earthly bird Majima had ever heard of. ]

They're like this.

[spideys]

[ Peter gives the image a ... questioning, unenthusiastic look, shaking his shoulders as though to get rid of the sudden bout of jitters crawling up his spine.

All those eyes. ]

uh

yikes

okay

i definitely do not ever want to come face to face with one of those ... birds ...

[justbeingknife]

[ He flipped his phone back around. ]

You and me both. These guys are cuter.

But I guess that's life now. Waitin' around till the dust spits out more weird interdimensional shit that ain't have any business here.

[spideys]

yeah ...

sounds ... great

i mean someone must have tried to figure out how to get out of here right? or maybe stop whatever's keeping everyone silent?

[justbeingknife]

Yeah. There're people tryin', all right. Well, 'cept for the ones that decided to stay here. So far, though, no dice.

Got questions 'bout anything specific? I'll do my best to answer 'em.

[spideys]

uh yeah

big question

what do you mean 'decide to stay here'?

there are people who are totally okay with the whole silent-or-die policy here??

[justbeingknife]

That's what I said.

But yeah. Little while back, some of the locals asked if we wouldn't like to stay. Figure for some people, 'back home' was so bad it seemed like a better decision to stay here.

So they took the deal.

[spideys]

wow

yeah

i mean

it's gotta be right?

to prefer total silence and never speaking to going home

[justbeingknife]

Got that right.

Me, I can't wait to get my ass back to Tokyo. Eat some premium galbi, smoke a carton, [ beat up some punks, ] stay out all night playin' stupid video games and gamblin' my face off.

[spideys]

i've never been to tokyo

but honestly man, that sounds amazing

well

the eating and the video games part anyway

[justbeingknife]

Yeah? You should try it sometime. Crowded as hell, but there's all kindsa stuff to do. Hard to get bored.

I'd recommend some places, but I ain't sure what year you're from.