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

Daisy Johnson | Agents of SHIELD

[morethan084]

ARRIVAL

[Daisy is among the others in silence, eyes darting between the person 'speaking to them' and the others that seem just as lost and in shock as she does. She recognizes that the woman is using sign language, but has no idea what she is saying. Until she looks down at the device given to her and it is translating her words in such a way that she can understand what she is saying. Her heart is racing in her chest and the urge to talk is growing, especially as she’s told she can’t.

Clutching the device tightly, Daisy looks over to the person next to her after they are asked whether or not they agree to these rules. That they must stay silent if they want to venture outside. Either way she’s risking the unknown, but Daisy knows if she doesn’t agree, it would bother her more. She needs to know what’s out there. To know where she is, and how she’s gotten here. Someone has to hold the answers.]

EXPLORING

[Over and over again recently, Daisy has been put into situations against her will. Walking along the sand path, as others are doing, it’s probably easy for them to spot that she is new here. The way she keeps looking around in confusion as others are busy using their devices to communicate with each other, or using sing language. Hand going to her neck when someone openly stares at it, Daisy can feel the gauze still there covering the healing wound from Fitz taking out her inhibitor.

Spotting someone by themselves, Daisy goes up to them and opens her mouth to ask a question before remembering the agreement. Waving her hand to get their attention, Daisy chews on the inside of her cheek in frustration as she is forced to use the device to communicate with them. Typing quickly she then holds her device out to them.]

How long do we have to keep this up for?

[Eventually she ends up in one of the houses, where there are others. She isn’t sure what to make of the house. A lot of the furniture doesn’t match, and it’s not much warmer in her than it is outside. Taking a step back in surprise when someone comes around the corner, and they seem just as startled, Daisy presses her lips together in slight frown after almost saying she’s sorry out loud again.]

Sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you.

How long have you been here?

[Once again she holds her device out for them to read, watching their face as she waits for them to reply.]

NETWORK

Username: johnson

This is a joke, right?

What happens if we sneeze? The ‘sound eaters’ come for us?

It’s not possible to be silent at all times.

DON’T FEED THE PEEPS AFTER MIDNIGHT

This whole place was weird, but somehow it got even weirder when these random eggs came out of nowhere. She comes across them just as they start to hatch in watches in surprise as a bunny appears from one of them.

That’s definitely not how it works back home.

Hand reaching out towards it carefully, Daisy feels safe enough to pick it up when it sniffs her hand but doesn’t try to bite her or move away. She tries to put it back down after a few minutes, but when she starts to walk away, she notices that it follows behind her. Afraid of it getting stepped on, Daisy picks it back up.

It’s not long until she realizes that others have come across these weird looking bunnies too.]

Any idea where they came from?

[Daisy asks after approaching someone also holding one.]

WILDCARD

[Have something in mind? Feel free to write something up, or PM/message me on punkchica321]

un: orchids

[blacksky]

Excellent observation. I think the soundproofed houses are keeping the death toll low. Either that or we're insanely lucky. Take your pick.

[morethan084]

I'm not sure how ending up here counts as lucky.

How do you make a place soundproof without making sound exactly?

[blacksky]

Great question! I haven't asked. I just moved into one so I could reap the benefits without the possibly deadly work.

un: socorro;

[warfares]

As jokes go it could do with a better punchline.

[morethan084]

You mean a better punchline than apparent death? Yeah. I agree.

I find it hard to believe that no one has been able to capture one of these things before.

[warfares]

I'm sure attempts have been made.

[ Not by the locals, who seem to have either resigned themselves to their collective fates and were in no rush to rock the boat, or were privy to details they'd yet to share ㅡthe more likely option, in his opinion, given the ease and frequency with which they lied. ]

The locals prefer to have the arrivals do their heavy lifting for them.

network / un: castiel

[dirtytrenchcoat]

The possibility isn't as unlikely as you think.

[morethan084]

Clearly you don't know me then.

[dirtytrenchcoat]

That much is obvious.
Given the opportunity between chatter and survival, though, I'd hope you'd choose the latter.

un: pupok

[sestrin]

These locals they want you to behave like dog.

Sit. Stay. Heel. Quiet.

I have not seen any of these monsters they tell of. Have you?

[morethan084]

Yeah. That's definitely what it sounds like.

No. I'm pretty sure if I did, I would be dead. According to them.

[sestrin]

SO then they do see.

If seen you die. If heard you die.

This sounds like ploy.

Peeps

[flyguy]

[Tony's doing his own investigation into the peeps. Which namely involves observing while F.R.I.D.A.Y. takes in data. But he looks up at the question. Not that he has his device out, but the text displays on the lenses of the glasses he's wearing all the same.]

Uh, Hell? Is that a valid answer?

[morethan084]

[Eyes going wide when she realizes she’s ‘talking’ to Tony Stark, Daisy almost forgets what they were even talking about. Even still, she drops the question she’s about to ask in favor of something else.]

You’re here too?

[As if he has any idea of who she is.]

[flyguy]

’Too’?

[A pause as he looks the young woman in front of him over. She's not familiar, but timelines are funny here. Also he's a celebrity. So... He signs some stuff and F.R.I.D.A.Y. instantly translates it to text on her device.]

Have we met or is it the whole Avenging thing/philanthropist/industry giant? You kind of have me at a disadvantage here.

[Never was there a man more humble than Tony Stark.]

un: semiurge

[assguardian]

i'm betting on this just being a mass hallucination, or an alternate universe where everything is true at face value.

uh, welcome? this place is weird.

[morethan084]

Never thought I would be gunning for this to be some sort of mass hallucination.

Yeah. I’ve kind of noticed that.

How long have you been here?

[assguardian]

i've only been here about a week or so, and it was a horrifying arrival too. i'm a little jealous, actually - you guys get cute bunnies and we got hordes of attackers coming out of a rainy storm.

un: mori

[setpoint]

I think they're overstating their abilities. They must be, or there must be something they're not telling us.
Shouldn't they be able to hear our breathing? Or our heartbeats?

[morethan084]

Exactly what I've been thinking. Especially our breathing.

[Which she's been acutely aware of ever since she and the others have been unable to talk.]

If they even exist at all.

un: ashla

[ahsokathegrey]

I don't think it's a joke. This place seems built around the concept of silence. And fear.

You're right though. It's not technically possible.

[morethan084]

Yeah. I've noticed.

I just want to know WHY we're here. Besides the obvious fact that we're hostages.

Peeps

[herpath]

[Yona had come across the bunnies in much the same way that Daisy had. Finding a small clutch of them and accidentally causing a small blue one to become imprinted on her. Still, she had no understanding of these little bunnies at all. Not that she didn't know bunnies, but multicolored bunnies, not so much.

Daisy's silent question comes at the same time she's trying to coax her peep from hiding itself in her hair and nesting in it.

Her mouth opens, and she takes in air, ready to answer. Then closes again. No sound, no noise, no talking.

She shakes her head, one hand still stabilizing the peep before she untangles it to reply.]

someone sed not to let them get wet.

[morethan084]

[Daisy has been making that mistake too often as well, and it's making her increasingly frustrated that she can't actually speak.

Looking down at her communicator, Daisy then looks back to the girl as her brows scrunch together.]

What? Why?