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
From your mods:

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NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Lorna's doing a rare maintenance check of the sand paths when the two litter critters blow past her in the street. She almost curses before she catches herself, instead craning her head in the other direction to see where they came from. It's not difficult to spot the guy on the porch and - temporarily abandoning her work - she makes her way over. Typing a message on her ever present device - with her hands instead of her powers. For now. ]

new? or just really into the jumpsuit look?

[ And...he's holding a massacre in a box. Interesting. ]

[He always knew he'd be a terrible parent. He carefully tucks a squirming Lenny into his jumpsuit so only her red fluffy head and ears are poking out, protecting her from the wet, and then runs a hand through his messy hair, eyes still filled with a look of wide-eyed disbelief. He tosses the crime scene to one side and shakes his head, fumbling his hands over his pockets until he finds the portable device the natives gave him, his response coming with rapid fire fingers for someone decidedly new to texting.]

Just got here. Hell of a welcome party. The party favors went a bit wild.

[He winces at his own words but smiles, crooked but genuine straight from his mouth to his eyes. Holding out a hand, his fingers still typing with the other.]

David. And I don't mind the jumpsuit look really. Not my personal style but I've lived that side of the glass before.

[He bounces back fast, rolling with the changes.]

[ The wide-eyed disbelief would seem like an act to her if he hadn't tucked the last living bunny into his collar first thing. That seems like enough to judge him someone she can duck onto the porch to stand with. Taking shelter from the rain while she reads his messages. ]

lorna

[ she'll take his hand to shake it, but she's still caught up in reading, then typing quickly with her free hand to respond before she lets go. ]

are you saying you were in prison?

[ her head cocks like an inquisitive bird's, intrigued. ]

Kind of. Well. No. Not really.

Maybe?

[He keeps a hand protectively holding the last bunny in place and frowns at his device before shaking his head.]

The kind of prison where there technically aren't bars but you can't leave and if you agree or disagree with anything they say, they up your dosage.

[ i'm not crazy.

it's her kneejerk reaction, something she manages to stifle, though the conflict might momentarily show on her face. yup, she's spent some time in that kind of prison too. before naturally upgrading to the real thing. ]

i'd say welcome to freedom except you're stuck in whatever the hell this place is with the rest of us
the quiet gets to be a lot.

especially if you're used to communal living like that.

[ that is...her contribution to potentially having done the same. once upon a time before she got here. ]

[David tilts his head, moving it in a slight nod as if he's about to speak, shrugging instead and typing. As a very vocal and active speaker, he has to actively remind himself not to talk. At least typing gives him something to do with his hands.]

Stuck is relative. You can be trapped without anything- any- you know. Physical complications. Or free to explore and create new worlds while stuck in a box with four walls.

[He shouldn't be so free with his abilities. There are people, most people probably, who wouldn't like having to face what he is, or would want to lock him up or kill him for what he could do, or thought he could do. He still isn't sure what is real and what isn't. Is this real? Is Summerland? Clockworks? His friends? Sydney? Lenny? He has no idea anymore.]

It's only quiet on the outside.

[If she doesn't resist it the music for Eleanor Rigby starts up n her mind with All the lonely people.]

[ it's a little hard for her not to fire off commentary when she's in conversation or observing others, so she'll sympathize. lots of silent hand gesturing, is how she manages.

lorna's reading his message, intrigued, when the follow-up comes and the music starts.

in her head. where do they all come from?

despite having recent mixed experiences with telepaths, her expression opens like a flower, delighted once she realizes what's happening. she steps forward to grab his arm excitedly, releasing him only to generate a wave of green energy from her palm that gently tugs the device from his fingers to hers. ]

you're a freak too
telepathy?

[Despite the terminology she takes it well, and he grins when her response comes, watching the energy with undisguised fascination. Another mutant like him, assuming she was real, that any of this was. For now he decides not to focus too strongly on that unending question of which reality is real.]

telepathy, telekinesis, some other things.

[He waves the end of his thought off, typing with just the hand his device is resting in and then opens his hand, letting it float in his hand for a moment before dropping back onto his palm. He gestures to her hand, his eyebrows lifted in a question. He can see the energy, but he isn't sure what she does with it.]

What's yours?

Edited (horrifying visuals with word choice sorry) 2018-04-12 04:38 (UTC)

TDM #004

after midnight

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lmk if this isn't okay.

no it's great i'm so pleased

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