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:

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NAVIGATION

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Comments

elena gilbert | the vampire diaries (s72 crau)

[otrazhenie]

{ a r r i v a l }

[ This is the second time that Elena's woken somewhere strange, under even stranger circumstances. None of this would be all that difficult for her to cope with except — that silence isn't just outside, it's inside as well. Her head is devoid of the presence of the rest of the Nest, her broodmates not even distant flickers she can't reach. They're just gone, as if all five of them were...

She doesn't fight the hands that clean her up, her disorientation so pronounced that she's more worried about hurting someone with her vampire strength if she tries. It's not until she starts to be ushered outside that she protests, quickly typing out on her own device an explanation about her condition: if she encounters direct sunlight, she'll die. Thank goodness the woman takes her at her word; she's allowed to stay there until sunset, and it's only then that Elena ventures out into the community, following the posted signs and taking care with her steps. Enhanced vision helps her see the sand pathways with no trouble as darkness falls, and she'll do her best to make her way somewhere safe without incident. (Which would be so much easier if she wasn't hungry.) But if she finds someone else outside, perhaps having a far worse time than her — well, it's in Elena's nature to help anyone and everyone who needs it. ]

{ n e t w o r k }

un: elena

Has anyone here ever heard of Mystic Falls, Virginia?

{ p e e p s } cw: blood, animal death

[ Elena spots those strange eggs in the early morning and isn't at all as surprised as she should be when they begin to hatch. The bunnies are adorable, to be sure, the bright colors making her smile as she watches them from a window, safe from any stray rays of sunlight. She watches some of the others pick up the tiny creatures and for a moment she wishes... But the gnawing hunger she feels disgusts her. She's come a long way in coming to grips with being a vampire, but to look at something so sweet and innocent and wonder what it tastes like—

The run changes everything though. From that window she watches their colors and manner change, the black ones attacking the ones still retaining their color. Whatever the water had done to them, it was going to be a massacre if someone didn't do something about it. And she's so hungry.

Pulling at the sleeves of her jumpsuit to cover as much of herself as she can, she takes a deep breath, opens the front door, and uses her vampire speed to dash out across the open space, staying along the sand and reaching down to grab two of the black bunnies before they can attack a tiny green one. She ducks into the shade of a house, the skin on her face and hands red and close to blistering as she crouches low and, with a shifting of her facial features, sinks elongated teeth into the squirming creature and drinks. ]

[ OOC: Elena can't go out in daylight because of her (secret) vampire nature, but she can be active during daytime so long as she stays safely out of the sun. If anyone does learn her secret, she's likely to try to compel them into forgetting, so let me know if you're up for that! Feel free to hit me up via PM, over at taintedcrimson or on discord at taintedcrimson#0896 to chat things out! Anyone wanna get nommed on by a hungry baby vampire? ]

un: salvatore

[torridity]

You get kidnapped and that's the first thing you ask?

[otrazhenie]

Okay smart guy, what would YOUR first question have been?

[torridity]

where's the closest bar. Obviously.

[otrazhenie]

Well, at least your priorities haven't changed

[torridity]

That's not a real insult Elena.

[otrazhenie]

Sorry Damon, I'm a bit off my game these days. I'll do better next time

weeps????

[torridity]

it was our road-trip. You just decided I was clearly the better brother. Now you're madly in love with me.

shock awe.

asksjdhsja

[otrazhenie]

[ She's not responding to that. Oops, sorry, emergency, this number is busy please try again later. ]

[torridity]

[ An hour later, she'll get another message. ]

okay, I know you're not having any part in my feuds with Stefan. It was a joke. Besides we don't totally hate each other right now or something.

Did you settle in alright?

[otrazhenie]

[ She answers after a few minutes. ]

I know it was a joke.

I'm doing okay. It's not home, but it could be worse.

[torridity]

Oh. I was expecting some kind of denial. A "oooh noo I love Stefan and his brooding forehead and hero hair and could never."

[ . . . He can roll with no denial too though. ]

how could it be worse?

[ Well, okay, Damon has been in worse places too, he's being dramatic. ]

do you need help moving furniture around in the non-sexy way? I'm pretty good at both ways.

un: jeremy

[nonscene]

Mystic Falls, Virginia. Top 20 Places To Die. [ come on, elena. he's hilarious. ]

there was actual flailing when this appeared in my inbox

[otrazhenie]

Top 10, easy. Also, not funny.

i'm so rusty but the gilbert siblings ok, i am weak.

[nonscene]

What? That was bordering on hysterically accurate. Funny on two levels. [ they've been all over the spectrum in their relationship but when it comes down to it, they're family. ] This is going to sound messed up because of where we are, but I'm glad you're here.

un: c.forbes

[persevere]

oh. my. god. elena as in gilbert?

[She's had a coincidence like this before and been disappointed, but this one has to be real, right?]

[otrazhenie]

Caroline?! where are you?

[ It's just the kind of coincidence that usually plagues their lives that her best friend would end up here too. As in, not actually a coincidence and something horrible is behind all of this. But at least her best friend's here. ]

[persevere]

house 10! do you know where that is or do you want me to come find you?

[She's selfishly relieved that Elena is here because that means freaking KLAUS isn't the only person here she knows. Other people are fine but...it's just not the same.

At least they're both selfishly happy about it.]

peeps | cw animal death, discussion of past canon death, blood

[revvedup]

[ max isn't actually much of a hunter, in spite of her history. she can do it, and do it very well; it was part of her training. but it's never something she'd enjoyed having to do, especially after the prisoner back at manticore, and especially after what had happened with ben. maybe that's part of why she'd mainly stuck to cities after escaping. they're easier to hide in and even after the pulse, easier to find whatever you needed to survive. things have changed here, obviously, but she can adapt. she can hunt.

she's doing that when elena comes out, already having disposed of a few of the transformed creatures, trying not to think of how easily their necks had snapped underneath her fingers, trying not to think of ben. and then she spots elena, running at a speed that shouldn't be possible if you're a regular human ( but is, incidentally, possible for her ) and grabbing two of the black bunnies. she follows at her own speed, careful to stay on the sand, and her first thought is another transgenic, but then she comes upon the other girl feeding on one of the rabbits she caught.

well. not another transgenic. ]

[otrazhenie]

[ She's so lost in sating that eternal thirst that it takes a few moments for Elena to realize that she's been followed. That someone is watching her feed. Lifting her head, a bit of blood trickles out the left side of her mouth and down her chin, the deep red matching the hue that's taken over the white of her eyes. The darkened veins beneath her eyes fade back to normal as she looks like an eighteen-year-old girl again, one with sudden fear etched into the lines of her face.

Her grip unconsciously loosens on that second black bunny and the thing wriggles loose, immediately darting toward the other woman the instant it's free. ]

[revvedup]

[ max isn't a stranger to unusual physiology - her own is pretty out of the ordinary, and she's seen plenty over the past few months that don't look like they belong in nature ( because they don't ). this, what the other girl is doing, is something else entirely, and she can't help but to watch in stunned silence for a few moments. it reminds her of how marrow had had a group of kids tricked into feeding on him, but she is very clearly a more literal type of vampire.

movement distracts her, and max snaps out of it to spot one of the turned bunnies darting towards her. she looks into the other woman's eyes, which are suddenly looking a lot more human, and holds contact for a moment before moving at top speed to catch it.

she makes quick work of capturing it, pressing and turning once she has the squirming, angry thing in her hands, feeling it snap more than hearing it. once she's sure it's dead, she moves back over to where she's presumably still waiting, holding the now dead animal out to her, kind of like a peace offering. a show of mutual, if tentative and temporary, trust. ]

[otrazhenie]

[ The woman turns to catch the escaped creature and the seconds pass like glaciers, Elena finally remembering that she could compel her to never speak of this, to forget they'd met at all. But she's only used that ability once before, and Damon had been there to help her, make sure she did it right. If something went wrong now... Which doesn't even matter, since as far as she knows, compulsion requires speaking, and she's already taken too many risks as it is.

Her lip trembles slightly as she reaches out to take the offering, though now that she's come to her senses, she can't bring herself to want to continue feeding. Hunger still gnaws at her, but the disgust at what she's done is enough to temper it down to a manageable level. For now, at least.

With her hands full and one now smeared with blood, she can't retrieve the device from her pocket, so instead she stands, walks over to the edge of the shadow cast by the building, and gestures across the way to the house she'd come from. If she wants to come with, they can... talk. Inside. Or something. ]

[revvedup]

[ max glances towards the building the other woman is indicating and takes a moment to consider the possible consequences of following her. she's a vampire, for lack of a better term and in spite of anything that makes sense (which is really just the status quo, both here and in her day to day life), and it's possible bunnies won't be enough to satisfy her, but even if they're not she's made no move to attack her. and what she'd seen hadn't looked like a midday snack, it had looked desperate. like it had been her first meal in days.

maybe that makes it more dangerous.

but then she remembers the fear in her eyes, and she's reminded again of her brother, of the expression in his eyes when they'd heard manticore closing in, and her stomach twists sickly. she swallows against the sudden tightness in her throat, looks into her eyes again, and nods.

whatever this girl is, she knows something about being afraid of what she is. and the sound eaters are just as much of a threat to her as everyone else. so if nothing else, they share an enemy. ]

[otrazhenie]

[ Right. Okay. Elena nods to herself before visibly taking a deep breath. She adjusts her grip on the poor dead creatures and-- Her skin reddens and sizzles as she dashes out across the open space, bits of sunlight reaching her even through her vampire speed. Her sprint ends at the edge of the porch and she takes care as she quickly climbs the steps to shelter.

With her human teeth grit against the pain, she shifts the creatures to one arm and reaches out to carefully open the door -- there's no squeaking, thank goodness. It's only when she's completed the task that she turns back to see if the other woman has actually followed her. ]

[revvedup]

[ max follows after a moment, caught off guard by the way the woman's skin starts to blister and burn when it hits the sunlight. so an actual vampire, then. not that the feeding on an animal hadn't been enough of a clue, but sometimes witnessing things helps to confirm that they're real.

they reach the shelter of the building before too long, max standing a few feet behind elena as she opens the door. ]