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

---

Comments

[voicelog]

[ let's be real, everyone looks kinda ridiculous wearing the jumpsuits. tony is definitely not a fan, but since it's what he has to work with, he's going to wear it with an indefensible amount of confidence.

the only thing he really takes issue with here is that the black jumpsuit isn't enough to dim out the r.t. node in his chest, so he's pretty much a walking nightlight at this point. not great for staying low-key.

as much as he doesn't mind the silence, he figures the least he can do is introduce himself. thankfully whatever is causing interference with his suit has not affected extremis (it's the main reason why he looks so unfazed now), so he has managed to effortlessly connect his brain to the network here — which may explain how he's sending the following message to frank without needing to pull out his device at all. ]

i'm tony, by the way. [ he extends his hand out to him. ]

[oorah]

[ if frank notices the glow, he doesn't mention it or allow his gaze to linger. it's clearly something the other man is self-conscious of so it's easy to skip over. what isn't easy to skip over is how he just did that... with his mind?? um. maybe he's one of the androids that would explain both things, he supposes. still weird. ]

hotdog. [ he almost offers his real name, but that's not really who he is here. what started out as a stupid joke has morphed into an identity. mayor hotdog, indeed. he doesn't hesitate to take tony's hand in a firm shake, nodding once he lets go. ] all i wanted when i first got here was coffee too

[voicelog]

[ hotdog.

he almost thinks it's a joke, but it doesn't seem to look that way. ]

at the risk of sounding insensitive, why "hotdog"?

[ he's not judging. he's genuinely curious. ]

please tell me we have a steady supply of it.

[oorah]

[ he's still working out how to answer the first question when tony asks the second. which he prioritizes because cOFFEE ]

wish i had a better answer for you but i'm working on it. it's not exactly a tropical climate so it's hard to grow much at a time. but somehow, the natives can get it for you if you're quiet enough. i don't pretend to know how that works. [ but he always has a steady supply, whether he harvests it himself or he's handed ground coffee inexplicably. there are some things that are just sacred. ]

[voicelog]

let me guess, they're not keen on telling you how they get it either.

[ also he's still waiting for his answer on the name, buddy. don't think he missed that. ]

[oorah]

they're not keen on telling anybody anything. but around the first of the month stuff will show up. i guess it's like a 'reward' for helping them out and/or not getting them killed horribly. whichever

[ but fine fine he'll circle back. if only because he can still feel the other man's anxiety and it's making frank jumpy. ]

hotdog is an old family name

[voicelog]

[ of course they would have a reward system. tony almost wishes that he was more shocked. ]

got any ideas why we've been brought here?
because i don't think this is as simple as just playing little helper or defender to the people here

[ can the natives even be trusted? ]

has anyone tried to venture outside of the community yet?

[ also when the fuck are they going to give him back his clothes?

that aside, he calls total bullshit on "hotdog" being a family name, but if that's the story the guy wants to stick to, then he can (kinda) respect it. ]

[oorah]

no clue. it seems random, except not. a lot of mutants and freaks and that kind of thing. superheroes... whatever.

[ frank just shrugs. ] furthest we've been is paris. a big community of sound eaters live there out in the open. by we i mean the people like me who have been here 3 months. the arrivals that live with the natives are just as unhelpful as the natives themselves.

[voicelog]

what information do we have on the reset room itself?

[ he may have just gotten here, but t already has a game plan and one of his main priorities is going to be cracking the mystery revolving around the reset room and the red dust within it — no matter how long it takes. ]

i'd like to come along for the next expedition out.

[ it's not a request, but it's not a demand either. just a simple statement. he wants to get as much intel as possible on this world. since his suit isn't fully functional right now, he can't fly over the landscape and scan the area like he wants to. it'll also be a good way to test if the interference extends outside of the community. ]

[oorah]

just what i have in here. download that if you want to. but it's basically nothing on the rooms. the natives claim to know the least about them out of any of it.

[ the "request" gets an easy nod. it's not the first time he's gotten that reply and it won't be the last. ]

i just got back from there a few weeks ago. i might run another trip but until then i can get you hooked up with someone who will take you. it's a 3 day hike.

[voicelog]

[ useful. he is already processing the texts as they speak. ]

thanks [ on both accounts. ]

so
would it be hoping too much to ask if this place got any doughnuts too?

[oorah]

[ he nods, it's nothing he wouldn't do for anyone here. but the question gives him pause, and he throws a weirded out look tony's way. ]

i'll work on it. sounds like a worthwhile endeavor. [ he really will. he made hot dogs for all the arrivals one month. tony can help him do doughnuts for may. ]