quietplacememes | TDM #004

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
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NAVIGATION

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[Jake hugs her, and it's such a relief that Mako just clings back. All of the stress and fear and confusion of the last few weeks is threatening to boil over, and suddenly all she can think is that he doesn't know. He doesn't know that his father died to seal the breach, and if he does, it must still be so fresh that it won't make a difference. Mako's chest constricts, and despite her best efforts, she can't manage to hold back her tears. It's a wonder that she even manages to choke back a sob. She's been trying to control her grief as she knows Sensei would have wanted her to, but she can't keep a stoic face around Jake.]

[ there's an immediate rush of relief that jake also feels as soon as he gets his arms around her. this isn't drifting, this isn't some memory taking over, some kind of distant echo of mako that he's clung on to out of loss and pain. what he gets his arms around and what he hugs close is mako, solid and real, and yeah - okay - it makes no sense at all.

but she's here.

her body shakes against his, and jake feels his own tears start to break through, holding his eyes closed as tightly as he can to try and avoid it and feeling his control slip. but that is when he's reminded of the talk, about silence, and he jerks back away from her - tears in his eyes and hands on her shoulders, looking for somewhere to go. a building, an enclosed space, anything. and once he finds one, he's starting off in that direction, taking her hand and tugging her along with him quickly.

he's not going to talk to her through a device. he refuses. ]

[He pulls back, and she realizes he's crying, too. That must mean he knows, right? No matter how strained his relationship with his father was, Mako knows Jake cared for him. But before she can fully react, he's dragging her along. It's only once they're safely inside that she dares to speak up, voice quiet.]

Are you alright? Do you... Did someone tell you?

[ can they not talk about why he's crying? or why he feels like he's thirteen years old, running to his big sister because of reasons x, y, and z? can they maybe not, right now, in the midst of some bad horror plot that he's not totally convinced isn't some kind of accidental drug trip brought on by faulty wiring and someone messing around with the suits?

once they're inside, jake is turning back to her, looking at her all over again like he had outside. the urge to just ignore every warning sign and hug her again is very strong, and very there, but she speaks up before he can act on it. ]

What? [ sorry, give him a second. ] I mean- yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Are you alright? [ obviously the more important question, before jake just huffs out a sound of disbelief. ] Mako, you look...amazing. Young. Like really young. What- [ except that where he almost starts off in some kind of nervous rambling, mako asks that, and he blinks. ]

You mean about the monsters attracted by sound?

[This is overwhelming in a million and one ways, and all she can do is shake her head, struggling to understand. So he doesn't know? Were they even successful? She assumed so, when she found herself in the escape pod, but—

Deep breath, Mako. Control.]

What do you mean, young? You look... much different than I remember.

["Older" is what she means, but it feels odd to say. She saw him only a year ago. Teenage boys hit growth spurts, certainly, but this isn't that. But what's the alternative? Nothing else makes sense.]

[ he doesn't even know what it is he's supposed to know at this point, which is why his mind goes to the weird amount of information they'd all received upon showing up.

except that, you know, mako doesn't seem to agree. ]

You know- { he motions around with one of his hands. ] Young. Younger. Good! Not that you looked back, but I haven't seen you with the color in years. It's a little dated, to be totally honest, but you did always pull it off.

[Mako opens her mouth, not quite sure how to react to that. Talk about whiplash. She's torn between the joy of seeing him, the confusion of this entire situation, and... honestly, being slightly offended by that comment.]

Dated?

[She shakes her head, a little more indignantly than she wants to.]

You're not making any sense.

Yeah! I mean, you rocked it when we were kids but. [ s h r u g. ] Not that you're not rocking it now, it's just you already did it, yeah?

[ so it sounds just about on par with every time they have interacted for the last few years, to him. except that this time he doesn't have to beg big sis to get him out of jail. ]

You know what, don't worry about it. It's not important.

[Mako frowns in that stubborn way she has, but she doesn't continue that thread of conversation about her hair. Instead, she switches gears.]

But you said I look younger, and you look much different than I remember you. Something is strange, and you aren't being honest with me.

TDM #004

SUFFER LIKE I AM

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