quietplacememes | TDM #004

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test drive meme!

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:

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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(Neptune glances up from her phone, and feels her breath leave her; she's even more, in person. She's beautiful. She's glowing, smouldering gold in the quiet; Neptune glances back down at her phone and pretends what she's ignoring is the tiny, concerned tilt of her mouth. The tickle in the back of her throat is being ignored, too.)

Then stop with the fucking look on your face right now! My eyes still work!

(Do you know what requires no sound at all? Flipping somebody the bird.)

I said that I'm fine so I'm fine
Can we talk about something else. Like how I didn't expect you to look so different?? The devil really did all that?

[ for a moment, venus looks taken aback, and then something new crosses her face: indignation. she frowns, biting her cheek lightly to keep from saying anything and typing her response: ]

bullshit!!

[ VENUS DID IT
VENUS DID A WHOLE SWEAR ]

you're clearly not fine!
the last time i saw you were running clear
and now it just looks like someone tried to
i don't know, wring you out!

[ the thought that it might have been her that did it doesn't even cross her mind. why would it? neptune is the devil, and so is she. why would she hurt someone so important to her?

but a thought does finally sink in. neptune doesn't remember her like this, and she doesn't remember neptune like this. does that mean...? ]

neptune...
do you not remember the devil coming?
what her voice sounded like?

(FUCK DUDE, SHE SURE DID.

It's Neptune's turn to look bewildered, and then abruptly delighted. She has to press her free hand over her mouth immediately to quiet the chuckle that slips out. This is a much better look for Venus than her eyes and her wings and her wispy, halo light.)

Excuse me??

(They're messaging each other, but it's tempting to hold her device right up to Venus' eyes, make her read it that way instead. More in her face– but the next message that comes through gives her pause. Slowly, she backspaces and retypes, her brow furrowed.)

Haven't we already been through this? I don't know what you're *talking about*
It didn't sound like anything! Not a person just the
Tide. The water. The draining. It's hard to remember, okay? I couldn't talk

[ well, she sure said that. she starts to feel the brief flare of upset certainty fading away, and for a moment that's okay - and then neptune says her piece and the hurt sadness shows on every single one of venus's many eyes. her hand raises up, covers her mouth for just a moment-

and then venus steps forward, wrapping her arms around neptune and pulling her close. she is tall, a good two inches taller than venus, and venus is able to easily bury her face in the other girl's shoulder while her wing's eyes keep watch.

she is silent. it's only when she starts shaking, when the eyes in her feathers break away and begin to shut as well, that it becomes clear she's crying. ]

Edited 2018-04-19 05:18 (UTC)

(She feels Venus' distress before she sees it, but when she raises her head sharply Venus is already there, so close. Her arms encircle Neptune and lock around her tight and it feels familiar.

Neptune stiffens, but only for a moment, and then she sinks into the embrace like a tidal wave, like the crashing of the ocean. Venus has her face pressed against the curve of her shoulder and it's easy to turn her head, tuck against her and raise a hand to hold tight to the back of her shirt. She knows this embrace is born of pity for her and she hates that, but she can't hate Venus. Sometimes she really fucking wants to, but she knows she never could.

She can't disengage. She wants to stand here in silence and hold Venus to her but never speak of it. If neither of them speak it isn't real: it exists only in this quiet moment, and nobody ever has to know. Nobody but the two of them get to have it. Venus' tears are wetting the shoulder of her shirt. It feels like being watered... but she can only take so much, until she feels full.

Neptune has to tap lightly on her back with her fingers to get her attention, giving her a gentle nudge away.)

[ for a few moments, neptune feels almost whole again.

venus can feel the black patches on her, the mud and dried dirt where the water has long since stopped flowing. but she can also feel neptune in her, in the places where the river keeps running even through the drought, and it's reassuring like nothing else has been in this place. neptune's here. even if she's hurting and empty and drained, neptune is here.

she stays as long as she can, pouring all the emotions she has into her, and when neptune finally taps out she pulls herself away as gracefully as she can manage. she wipes at her eyes, opens her mouth to say something, and remembers to pull out the communicator just in time. ]

sorry
i should have asked, huh?

[ oh, venus. ]

Edited 2018-04-19 05:51 (UTC)

(Oh, Venus.

Neptune catches herself before she reaches out to thumb her tears away, busies herself with her phone instead. She feels like she wants to cry too. She's filled to the brim, too easy to spill. She takes a deep, slow breath until the water settles.)

Listen. You don't have to be so sorry all of the time, Venus.
If you wanted to hug me and I wanted to be hugged, nobody has to be sorry for anything.

right
i know

i guess that does work out, huh?

[ she's smiling in a way that looks like she might have tried to laugh anywhere else. emphasis on tried: her cheeks are blotchy and red and she still looks like there's a pain she can't quite get rid of. but it's an improvement.

she looks over neptune slowly, carefully, her eyes lingering on mottled flesh and taking in each sign of storm and light. finally, she types a response. ]

it was us, wasn't it?
me and jupiter.
you tried to let the devil flow and we forced it down.

(Neptune lifts her head to look right back as Venus looks her over even though she hates it, even though she wants to sit and pick all the dirt out, rinse herself clean. This calm appraisal is infuriating to her, because she knows that it's making Venus upset.)

Yeah. You hit me with your fucking radios and knocked the devil out of me like you were supposed to. Just like you were taught
You weren't doing anything wrong.

(If they hadn't, Neptune would have sunk her fingers into them one at a time and ruined them, peeled them neatly open and put what was revealed on display. So it's probably for the best that what happened happened.)

[ of course it's making venus upset. how could it not? she's the reason neptune's like this. her eyes flicker away for a moment; she stares into the distance above neptune's shoulder. but it passes, and venus is still wearing that thin smile that means she's trying so very, very hard to not be angry. ]

maybe not...
but i still hate it anyway.
it's not fair to you.
it's not fair to us.
it's not

[ something snaps in her. she shuts every one of her eyes, squeezes them so hard she sees lights behind her eyelids, and when she opens her eyes she is frowning, deep and frustrated. ]

i take it back
it IS wrong
it's wrong and it's stupid that god would ever make us do that.

[ she nearly leaves it at that. but a smile creeps back onto her lips, and she types as an afterthought: ]

god can suck it, basically

[ that should get a smile out of neptune, at least. ]

(Seeing the snap, the quick change in Venus makes Neptune smirk all of a sudden, pleased as she scrunches all her eyes shut. This is the version of Venus she likes most, when she lets that cool, calculated irritation rise to the surface. She says what she wants to say, and it's satisfying to hear.)

*Life* isn't fair, Venus.

(This is part of her pushing, as usual. She gets a glimpse of that secret darkness at the heart of Venus and she can't help but want more.)

We all have to do shit we don't want to do, that's just the way the fucking world works.
Nobody is going to stop making people do bad things just because you've figured out the secret to it all.

But fuck god and the horse he rode in on, seriously.

then let's tear it down.

[ she knows neptune is pushing. it's kind of incredibly obvious? and it makes her want to back off, a little, and do her usual apologize-and-defuse routine. but this is a neptune that never ran clear, this is a neptune that was beaten until the blackness hid again in her skin and lungs and thoughts, and venus can't afford to stay quiet to her. ]

you, me, and jupiter
let's tear this whole world down and build it up again.
i mean, it takes a whole camp to worry about the devil
what do you think it'll take to stop three?

(Hell yeah. This? What Venus is saying right now? She is speaking Neptune's language. Neptune cannot help but be contrary in her reply but she's still smirking at her screen even as she types it out.)

DON'T patronise me.
But I hope you know that I'm going to hold you to that.

(This place is different, though. It is far outside the realm of something as simple as summer camp. Neptune doesn't doubt the power of the three of them, but there's still a small part of her that knows actively calling out the devil makes it come down hard and fast. It is quick to come, when called. Maybe it's stupid, to still be a little afraid.)

Do you think that it's here? The devil, I mean

i'd be really disappointed if you didn't.

[ "do you think that it's here?" venus honestly doesn't know how to answer that. she hasn't heard a thing of her whispers; she hasn't seen the lights in the trees. and there's literally no way they could get together a radio in a place like this - not without getting mauled to death, at least. so if the devil is here, she can't reach them.

but the first devil, with her lonely and beautiful voice that smells like incense and tastes like honey, isn't the only devil around anymore. she doesn't have to be alone either. so venus closes her eyes, and she spreads her wing wide - wide, nearly a full seven feet out from her body. each of the eyes on it rolls towards neptune. she is glowing. she is golden.

she is the devil. ]

WE'RE here.

[ also, she's totally not even looking at her phone with her face-eyes. showoff. ]

(There is a certain nervousness that comes with not having a radio to hold. Neptune isn't sure if she misses it because it keeps her from listening to god, or contacting the devil. Perhaps she needn't worry about the latter. Not when Venus' wing stretches and splays and Neptune nearly drops her phone, so intent she is to watch, a thousand words welling like water on the tip of her tongue. She puts a hand over her mouth to remind herself not to speak them.

The devil is here. And she is beautiful.)

Showoff.

(The words have evaporated, leaving her speechless. Venus' eyes are watching her watching.)

You said that it was all three of us. All three of us are the devil, together
What does it look like? What do I look like

is that a problem?
should i apologize ;)

[ she's got that grin on her face that means she knows exactly what she's saying. and she knows neptune is going to laugh, and the tension will ease at least a little, and the moment will be broken just like that.

so she doesn't let it. she pockets her phone and steps forward, bringing her wing back to her side as her hand reaches out to gently touch the back of neptune's hand. "beautiful," she wants to say, it looks beautiful when the three of them are together, and she mouths the word without voicing it. beautiful.

she traces up, letting her fingers come to rest on a patch of blackened skin, and after some thought she taps it gently- then draws back and wiggles her fingers, moving down through the air. run. clean., she mouths, before finally digging out her phone and switching to it. ]

you're like... a river?
and there's a lot of things people have thrown at it
but come on? it's a river?
once you let it flow there's no stopping it.
something as small as that COULDN'T stop it.

[ and then, with a fair bit of hesitation - because this isn't the neptune she watched run clean, the neptune that held jupiter and patiently let a dozen different hands run through her hair, but it's still unquestionably neptune - she adds: ]

it's beautiful.

(She nearly does laugh, but bites the insides of her cheeks, until the sound dissolves. Her shoulders shake regardless as Venus draws closer to her, nervous laughter dancing in her eyes. This is too much. Venus is overwhelming. The sheen coming off her wing makes Neptune squint.

Her touch is warmer than she thought it would be. She watches Venus' fingers trail up her arm. Underneath the glow of her skin, Neptune's water-logged skin doesn't look quite so muddied. She misses 'beautiful', so carefully does she watch Venus' nails tap her skin, but lifts her head to follow the wriggle of her fingers. Her brow furrows. She remembers something like that. Of becoming a flood, of becoming wild and unstoppable, a torrent of every bad and wicked thought.)

It was more than that. I was an ocean. I was the flood.
It's hard to explain.
All I wanted was to be bad, Venus. I wasn't going to let anybody make me be good, and all you had to do was join me
But you didn't

(It felt like a betrayal, of sorts. To know somewhere in another time she is the devil, and so is Jupiter, and so is Venus, and that it is beautiful... she's not sure how to resolve that in her mind right now.)

an ocean...
that sounds right. you were an ocean.

[ she reads neptune's next words carefully, letting each sink in, feeling the weight of every letter. the eyes on her face finally open, bit by bit, and she gazes directly into neptune's.

there are a lot of things in her eyes. an anger she's stopped holding back, one she's grabbed and taken control of. a sadness shaking down to her core, even if she's standing up straight and trying to let it pass until neptune's safe. a kind smile, bleeding up from her lips into her gaze. affection, pure and warm. ]

i'm sorry.
and i think... you don't get to tell me i can't apologize for that.
i'm so, so sorry, and i understand if you feel like you want to scream and scream until something finds us
because i feel a little like that, too?

but
i'm here now.
and i can promise you, and i really mean that,
nobody can make you be good anymore.

if you want to be bad, then let's both be bad
it's not too late.

[ her right hand drops down again, and from this distance it's not hard to brush forward against neptune's fingertips. if the other girl wants to grab it, they're right there - and if she doesn't, then that's fine too. neptune's at least a little easier to deal with like that, even if it means her hand might get slapped. ]

(Now it's both too much to look at Venus, and at her kind words. Neptune stutters between wanting to interrupt her typing and looking up from her phone altogether to watch the emotion flow unfiltered through Venus' eyes in a way she has never seen before. She'd always accused Venus of hiding things, but she didn't know that it was like this. That it was this much.

Her many gazes are piercing. Neptune can hardly look away for wanting.)

I want to be bad. I hate this. I hate feeling like this and I hate that I don't know what I'm supposed to do. All I know is what I want

(And what she's not supposed to want. That venn diagram is more like a circle than anything.)

Venus
I want to, but not without Jupiter.
We need to find her first because I won't go without her, just like I wouldn't go without you.
She doesn't deserve that.

(Venus' hand is there, so close. Neptune can't quite make her hand extend all that way, but she does brush her fingers against Venus' knuckles, a questioning touch, like asking permission.)

[ at this point, she's watching neptune type rather than look on her own phone. it's rude, but what else can she do? her hand is busy - catching that tiny brush of neptune's fingers, and reaching down to catch them with her own. so when neptune types that "but," she can't help the slight flash of surprise in her eyes.

...but that's gone quickly, and in its place is a sort of relief. of course she won't go without jupiter. who is she kidding? she doesn't even know if jupiter's gone yet. if neptune let in the devil without convincing jupiter first, they'd be so lonely - for way too long of a time, too. venus squeezes neptune's fingers (the two of them linked in her own, at least) and nods with a smile.

of course. ]

(In any other circumstance Neptune knows she would hate this, the eyes following her every movement. It would make the skin crawl on the back of her neck, make her arms erupt in goosebumps. She's accustomed to this, to being watched carefully, monitored, regulated.

Venus' gaze isn't like that; it comes from a different place. The way her hand twists to hold Neptune's fingers is different.)

If we don't take her with us she'll stay here, and that isn't the way it fucking works
It's all of us, or none of us

(She's not sure who she's tying to; Venus put her phone away. It doesn't matter. It's nothing Venus doesn't already know. Neptune stows her phone into her pocket and links her hand in Venus' like an anchor, holding her tight like a tether, and then she gives her a little pull away from the fountain with a cursory roll of her eyes. They'll go to find Jupiter, bring her home to them.

Come on.)

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TDM #004

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