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

venus | we know the devil

[wingstosee]

[a]rrival // video -> text

[ the past twenty minutes are a blur in her mind. waking up somewhere new, getting stripped and dressed up... it's a little humiliating. it's a lot humiliating. but at least she's got a way to take cover - the large, many-eyed wing filling up the space that used to be her left arm. it just takes a bit of tearing to the arm of the jumpsuit - slowly, as quietly as she can, one agonizing stitch at a time - and she's able to hide her face between her feathers and eyes and just breathe.

it's okay. well... maybe it's not okay. but it will be. she'll be okay. she has something new, something important. something nobody can take away from her now.

but what she doesn't have, as she discovers once she's gotten herself evened out, is a left hand capable of using a phone in any real capacity. shit. well, that's... that's fine too. she didn't manage to get her right arm off in the cabin, after all. maybe that's a good thing?? urgh. she'll have to think about that later. she balances the phone in her right hand, turns on the video feed, and...

...oh god. oh god, she didn't think this through?? like, at all???? she stares at the phone for a few moments, mouthing words silently - mainly ummm and oh and what do i do - before giving up and switching back to text. OKAY. okay. so that's just out there now. better make the best of it! ]

un: aphrodite
hi there!
my name is venus.
i get that there's a lot of stuff to get used to here, so i'll try not to ask too many stupid questions.
not that other peoples' questions are stupid!
i just mean
you know

okay, everything is coming out wrong. i'll try to make it quick.
it looks like people mainly talk through sign language here
and, uh...
is that something you can do with just one hand?
i sent a video out just now (i think) so you can probably see the problem.

alternately, does anyone here have experience with wings and sign language?
maybe the...
you know, the flag language?
it used to be in those puzzle books for kids all the time.
do you think that's something that might work?

thanks either way!

[ BAM NAILED IT SHE'S DEFINITELY NOT DYING OF EMBARASSMENT RIGHT NOW ]

little [b]o peeps

[ okay, she's really not sure what she expected. they're easter eggs. right? they're definitely easter eggs. and either easter eggs have candy inside, put in it by a bunch of frustrated parents who are trying to get their kids excited about church for once, or they have. egg things. little easter chickens, maybe.

but easter bunnies? shouldn't they be easter mammals, at least? at leaster. oh god, that's awful. she covers her mouth with her free hand, giggling softly at the thought even, and the tiny lump under her wing - safely nestled away, safe and dry from the rain - thumps its foot appreciatively.

her hair is drenched and what little wind there is is getting her face dusty and it's cold and she doesn't even care. she's too busy watching the peep - one of those situations where having eyes all over a body part comes in super handy - and trying not die from a cute overload.

she doesn't even think to move or get out of the water. she just sits by the sandpath, totally zoning out in everyone's way.

god, what a weirdo. ]

wild[c]ard

[ if you want to tag in with something not written here, go ahead! i'm definitely okay with anything as long as it's clear what's happening. alternately, you can contact me at karijou and we can work something out! ]

arrival | un: wolverine

[danzan]

Device can translate flag language.

Nice wing, kid.

un: aphrodite

[wingstosee]

[ it takes her a bit to respond. there's a lot of ways to take that last bit, after all. but... it's easiest to just believe it. and it is a nice wing. ]

that's sweet. thank you :) i'm still getting used to it
but also, not...?
hm

i guess we have a fallback if i can't figure out something else.
even if it's a little slow

[danzan]

You just grow it or something? The wing, I mean.

I'm learning the sign language myself. Not everything needs two hands, but there're some. Figure it won't be too rough to work around.

[wingstosee]

about...
probably less than twelve hours ago?
it's a lot to take in, but...
it's also like
like i've been waiting for my entire life for it, and the only real problem is how long i waited.

that probably doesn't make much sense, but it's the only way i can really say it.

anyway
that's good to know!
you said the phone can translate, right?
but how are you supposed to use both hands and still record with it?
i didn't get a stand or anything
that seems like kind of an oversight.

[danzan]

Trust me, you make more sense than you think.

Other people's devices can pick up your movements. Only problem is that the sign language has to be real for it to work, so it can't just be gestures you make up.

Maybe some tech genius can fix those things in for you.

[wingstosee]

that's not something people say very often
but i'll take your word for it :)

oh, i didn't even think about other people recording.
i guess that makes sense...
that still sounds really advanced? to be picking up language like that, i mean
but weirder things have happened here.
probably. i wouldn't know.

[danzan]

Honestly, I just got here myself and it's already been fucking ridiculous.

It's advanced tech though, yeah. More than I can find out on my own. Most the natives here use their sign language, which is the only way I figured out the device translated things, so.

[wingstosee]

oh!
i'm sorry, i didn't realize you were new
i hope i'm not asking too many questions.

it's a whole lot to take in, either way.

un: crashkeys

[morphogeneticfield]

Oh! You're talking about [flag semaphore], right?
It's not really a language, since the signals are meant to represent letters of the Latin alphabet or Japanese syllabary, not words.
I'm not sure how useful it would be for you, though. You would have to signal every letter of every word you were trying to communicate.
In addition, you'd have to use both hands to signal the letters, you'd have to make sure your phone was positioned somewhere just right to capture your movements.
You'd probably be faster typing with the one hand you've got! ٩(◕‿◕｡)۶

un: aphrodite

[wingstosee]

right! semaphore, that was it
i guess it would be pretty slow, though...
hum.

texting isn't the worst option, at least?

[morphogeneticfield]

It's *an* option, at least.
And sign language is definitely something you can do one handed!
It's not like no one's ever had to use sign language while holding something, right? Or no deaf people who've lost an arm?
I'm sure you'll do fine!

[wingstosee]

oh
i hadn't really thought about it like that...
you're definitely right, though.

hey, have you worked with this kind of thing before?
sign language, i mean.
you seem like you know a lot

[morphogeneticfield]

Oh! Well, I don't know all *that* much about sign language.
The lessons here is going to be completely new to me.
Think of me more as a "Queen of Random Knowledge"!
I know a lot about a lot of different topics. I'm pretty handy to have around on trivia night. (๑˃ᴗ˂)ﻭ

Buuuut... I have to say, I'm curious!
I've never met anyone with a wing before.
Is that common where you come from?

[please be a space alien please be a space alien please be a space alien]

[wingstosee]

haha. that's cute. i like it :)
i've never been any good with trivia. i just sort of blank out at the last second.
nobody ever wants me on their team, which actually makes a lot of sense.

[ that last part gives her some pause. is it common? well... no. it's not. people grow them all the time, but good people get rid of them quick.

but she's not "good." she doesn't have to worry about that anymore, does she? never again. ]

i guess it's less common than you'd think.
the devil only gets one chance, after all
and most people chase her away

not me.

[morphogeneticfield]

[dreams of meeting a real life space alien: DASHED]

So... you're telling me you met the devil?
And she tempted you or something, and now you're like this?

What was she like?
I've never spoken to someone who's encountered the devil before. w(°ｏ°)w

[akane will never pass up the chance to hear a story about weird paranormal shit. never.]

[wingstosee]

tempted us... i guess you could say that?
but it was my choice in the end.
it's more like...
she opened a door?
and i finally had a way to get out of the basement.

she's really something.
her voice is... so sweet?
so sweet. oh my god. it's like honey in your ears.
it's a lot nicer than god's, for sure.

arrival

[neritic]

(Everything is different and the same all at once. Neptune had come to be here in a rush of dark flood water and her skin is still mottled and stained where the devil had laid hands on her. Her hair is wet, her fingertips wrinkled. So it's familiar... and unfamiliar. She can't decide which.

At least, in spite of everything, Venus remains a constant.)

un: restingwitchface
Venus, I stg if you don't stop undercutting your own fucking messages I'm going to find you and slap your face for every stupid excuse that you give
Also for not posting to this network earlier?? Wtf
How long have you been here exactly

hell yea hel l yea; un: aphrodite

[wingstosee]

[ oh! she recognizes that name. and even if she hadn't totally looked over neptune's shoulder that one time, she'd recognize that tone anywhere. she holds back the urge to apologize, smiling as she types instead: ]

do you want me to apologize?
i can apologize if you want :)

[ hehe. she can already see neptune's frown. or her smirk when she realizes. it's gonna be great. ]

um... 10 minutes?
maybe 15
not very long.

i might have slept through things though.

:) !!!

[neritic]

Stopppp

(You know what? Neptune takes an extra long time to scowl at her phone precisely because Venus can't see her doing it. So there.)

Okay
I haven't been here very long either; hour or two, maybe

Venus what happened to your arm exactly

[wingstosee]

[ what... happened to her arm? ]

um
i pulled it off?
it was a lot easier than i expected. you just kind of... pull? and it pops right off

unless you mean "what happened to the arm," in which case... i guess it's still in the cabin?
haha. i probably should have picked it up. now i have to add "littering" to the list.

we didn't really have much time to clean though.

stumbles back in here a week later

[neritic]

Of course it does
It's really interesting, how you said that like any of it made sense out of context

(When in actual fact the context is still foreign to Neptune, who sees everything that happened in her mind's eye like it has a layer of cling-wrap over it: filmy, blurry.)

Let's be real: if anybody finds your actual fucking arm left over in the cabin, their last thought is gonna be that somebody 'littered'

Nope
I doubt anybody is actually going to go back there after... everything

slams back down, points at my eyes, points at yours

[wingstosee]

[ okay this is basically making no sense whatsoever. venus takes a good long look at the message, a frown crossing her face as she tries to parse just what neptune means.

in the end, she settles on four words. ]

do you not remember?

it's on 👍

[neritic]

(This is the crux of everything, isn't it. She stares at the screen of her phone for a long time, wiping her thumb against the display. Before she types anything back, she has to pause to cough roughly into her fist a few times.)

Venus, if I remembered I wouldn't sound like a complete fucking idiot right now

What are you talking about

[wingstosee]

oh, neptune...
:(

[ it might come across as pitying, but it's not meant to be - not even an ounce. that's not how she feels reading that. she feels... upset. angry. like she's being forced to watch someone humiliated on national television.

the next words are typed quickly, without thought or hesitation. ]

you were the devil
and i was too
and so was she

we all heard her together.