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memesville2020-10-25 11:03 pm
robbies) wrote in memesville2020-10-25 11:03 pm
Entry tags:
TDM - OCTOBER 2020
TEST DRIVE MEME - OCTOBER 2020
Everyone's entitled to one good scare.
CW: Violence, death, mouth trauma, vomiting, needles, razors
“Help me. Please, help me…”
A child’s voice, calling out for aid. There’s no rhyme or reason for when it comes to you. It’s so quiet, a whisper in the deepest, darkest corners of your mind. Were it not for the sharp, stabbing pain it pulls out of you, you could ignore it. You could even pretend it’s just your imagination.
It all happens so quickly and powerfully. Left in the dust, your brain struggles to process it all. Blacking out is the least it can do, but it’s also all it can do, and it does so before you even have a chance to fully register just how young the voice is, and how deeply, heartbreakingly lost it sounds.
When you finally awaken with your bare feet tangled in soft sheets, a layer of fuzzy fleece or slinky silk clinging to your body like another layer of skin, the sunlight pouring in from the window next to your bed momentarily blinding you, and the cries of happy children playing baseball outside of it carrying faintly, it all becomes very clear—
Something is horribly wrong.
A child’s voice, calling out for aid. There’s no rhyme or reason for when it comes to you. It’s so quiet, a whisper in the deepest, darkest corners of your mind. Were it not for the sharp, stabbing pain it pulls out of you, you could ignore it. You could even pretend it’s just your imagination.
It all happens so quickly and powerfully. Left in the dust, your brain struggles to process it all. Blacking out is the least it can do, but it’s also all it can do, and it does so before you even have a chance to fully register just how young the voice is, and how deeply, heartbreakingly lost it sounds.
When you finally awaken with your bare feet tangled in soft sheets, a layer of fuzzy fleece or slinky silk clinging to your body like another layer of skin, the sunlight pouring in from the window next to your bed momentarily blinding you, and the cries of happy children playing baseball outside of it carrying faintly, it all becomes very clear—
Something is horribly wrong.
OCTOBER 1st.
It becomes very clear very quickly that this isn’t a simple kidnapping.
By the time you make it down to the living room, you’ll notice that the television is on; someone must have forgotten to turn it off before they went to bed. On it, a cartoon pack of cigarettes and accompanying cigarette dancers prance around a black and white pumpkin patch, joined by dancing skeletons, ghosts and witches as a cheerful little earworm blares: ”Thirty days til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween, thirty days til Halloween—“ |
GETTING TO KNOW THE NEIGHBORS.
| As you get acclimated, you gradually begin to learn more about this strange new world you’ve found yourself in. You’re in a neighborhood on the east side of a town called Santa Rosita located… somewhere in California (wherever or whatever that might be). The year is 1961. If it wasn’t clear enough, your neighbors are more than willing to humor you if you ask. Even if you accost them with questions and demands. Sure, you and your family are a little kooky, and you have a very overactive imagination, but the key to any good joke is playing along! And how could something like “I’m from the future, from another world” be anything but a joke? A. AUNT MYRNA'S PARTY CHEESE SALAD.Over the course of the week, your neighbors will come by unannounced, each with a new homecooked meal to welcome you to their cozy little side of town. Meatloaf, potato salad, lamb chops. Gelatin molds — lots of gelatin molds.Someone even comes by to drop off a gelatinous yellow lump of pineapple, green peppers, celery and yellow cheese swimming in a soupy mixture of sour and whipped cream. “It’s my aunt Myrna’s recipe!” they gush once they drop the casserole tin into your hands, proceeding to rattle off every ingredient. Well, at least you won’t be starving anytime soon. When you bring it back in to your kitchen - and its cheery wallpaper and its floral patterned Pyrex dishware, you and your new...family(?) all stare at the cheese salad, the gelatin, the curiously frosted meatloaf spread. A smorgasbord courtesy of the insistent generosity! Who will take the first bite? |
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B. DON'T BE A SQUARE!
You can only avoid the cheer and the neighbors for so long, even as you sit inside enjoying all the amenities of your new home. The television can only turn its volume up to five, after all! One bright and sunny Saturday, the weather crisp and clear, news broadcasts and reruns of The Ed Sullivan Show are drowned out by the music in the neighborhood. Eventually it’s too much to bear — you simply must put on your shoes and go discover the source of that infernal racket.Why, it’s the block party! Haven’t you seen the invitation — with instructions — sitting in your mailbox, silly? Wear a badge so everyone on the block can know you’re new and welcome you to their extended family!
Well! Each neighbor was supposed to set up a table with snacks and drinks and entertainment on their front lawn. Carter Mayhew, one of your Robbie neighbors, has a whole ring toss obstacle course set up for boys to play with, and his wife is cheerfully and blandly instructing a group of girls on jump rope rhymes. Colorful streamers hang from every lamppost and mailbox, balloons and party favors galore. Like you, there are even a few newcomers to Santa Rosita that are caught just as unaware of this event — though others are being welcomed in by husbands and wives and children, caught in conversations about building decks and the upcoming Halloween festivities.
Before you can decide if returning home or joining the party is your choice, a plate with chips and dips and yes, more gelatin is shoved into your hands and a party hat snapped on to your head.
“The guest of honor has arrived! Come and meet your neighbors, neighbor!”
THROUGHOUT OCTOBER.
|
Life falls into a peaceful haze for the next several days. Dull, unassuming, tranquil. As the month drags on, the spirit of Halloween begins to manifest in Santa Rosita, from the pumpkins people start putting out on their doorsteps to the smiling faces of paper skeletons pressed against their windows. And then, towards the end of the month, something terrible happens. You hear it first through word of mouth, rippling through Santa Rosita like a wave, dark murmurs accompanied by sad sighs and downturned eyes. Soon, you start to read about it. Grim business, they say. A tragedy. How could something like this happen. People stop talking about it by the end of the week. Best just to forget about it. Every day, that cigarette commercial comes on. It’s impossible to escape it. And every day, the number of days in the song changes, counting down. ”Thirteen days till Halloween—” “Eight more days til Halloween—” “Three more days til Halloween, Halloween, Halloween…” |
HALLOWEEN.
CW: Violence, death, mouth trauma, vomiting, needles, razors
|
October 31st. It sneaks up on you whether you like it or not. When dawn breaks on Halloween day, things are as serene as they’ve ever been as men do yard work, raking leaves as their wives bake fresh pie and cookies in the house, the spicy scent of cinnamon, apple and pumpkin wafting through the neighborhood on chilly October wind. There’s a smile on every child’s face as they skip off the school bus in the afternoon, running into their houses to get their costumes ready. As it begins to get dark, the residents of Santa Rosita start lighting their jack-o-lanterns. One by one, little balls of light flicker to life on every porch and doorstep, jagged smiles grinning in the dark. For the entire night, nobody blows the candle inside their pumpkins out. It’s a tradition, a very old one, and traditions are just another way of saying rules. And Halloween in Santa Rosita, as it turns out, lives and dies by the rules. |
A. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR CANDY.
Halloween isn’t just for the kids, although they certainly make up the bulk of who you’ll see out and about on the streets. Walking through Santa Rosita, your neighbors are as generous with handing out treats as they are with handing out gelatin molds and pot roasts, and they don’t discriminate. Adults are received just as warmly as children; the worst one can expect is a quirked eyebrow if they show up to a house without a costume.Apples, packs of gum, homemade cookies. Chocolate bars, nickels, popcorn balls. Your neighbors hand out all sorts of treats, most of them homemade. The Robbies are no exception, and it’s their treats that seem a bit more high quality than most, some of the candy they hand out being obviously expensive, brand names. The good stuff. They drop each treat into your bag with those same pleasant, mild expressions and too-tight smiles you’ve grown used to in your short time here.
Eventually, as everyone winds up doing at some point in the night, you decide to start digging into your treat bag to sample some of your well-earned goods — maybe in the comfort of your home, maybe outside on the streets. And that’s when the fun begins.
Maybe you bite into metal, the razor sharp end of a blade embedded into the apple or candy bar you’ve picked out burying itself in your gums, or splitting your tongue. Maybe it’s a needle, impaling itself straight through the roof of your mouth or a cheek. Or maybe it’s nothing that obvious. Maybe the realization that something is wrong comes moments after you’ve devoured that chocolate bar or cookie, the bitter aftertaste of rat poison hitting the back of your throat along with bile and the rest of the contents of your stomach as they rise up and out of your mouth.
Or maybe you’ll bite into plain, sweet chocolate or fresh fruit. That’s also part of the surprise. You really don’t know what you’ll get until you start eating.
B. ALWAYS RESPECT THE DEAD.
At ten o’clock, all the television sets in the neighborhood turn on, blaring to life right in the middle of that omnipresent cigarette commercial. The volume begins to rise of its own accord as your television starts to pick up interference, bursts of static squealing amidst the rising, screaming chorus of ”HAPPY HAPPY HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN!”Breaking through the static, garbled and tinny, a child’s voice cries out.
“Can’t— I can’t hold them— back— Pumpkin— don’t blow the— out—”
And just as quickly as it cut in, the voice cuts back out. Commercial jingle notwithstanding, you’re alone once more. But not for long.
The doorbell rings. You can see them outside from your window: costumed children. Their masks and clothes are grimy and ragged from the muddy, slimy water they’ve been decomposing in for over a week. When they come to your door, squelching wetly as they shamble up the porch steps, they ring the bell or knock, as all polite children do. If you don’t let them in, they’ll find their own way, always by force. And once they find you, all they can gurgle in their reedy, waterlogged voices is, ”Trick or treat.”
From there, they attack.
With superhuman strength and speed, they tear and rip at anything they can get their hands on — clothing, skin, muscle, face, eyes. Being short and small, despite their strength, they're at a distinct disadvantage. They can even be thrown off, with some effort. But they don’t stay down for long, and attempting to hurt or mortally wound them only stalls them for a few moments, if that. How can you kill something that’s already dead?
Some in the neighborhood are willing to try and find out.
The only houses they seem to ignore completely are the ones with lit jack-o-lanterns still outside. They’ll loiter outside these houses, staring straight ahead at your door or window like they can see exactly where you are. But sooner or later, they’ll pass by and move onto the next house.
As long as the candles in carved pumpkins stay lit.
OOC INFO
Hello, and welcome to We're Still Here's first TDM! Here's a few things we'd like you to keep in mind:
The TDM is canon. You can treat this as the game's first real event and pick and choose what threads you would like your character to remember when they enter the game. For characters who app into the game, the events of the TDM will be treated like a dream. Upon awakening from it, characters will find that time has jumped ahead to December 1st. You may also feel free to use similar reality and/or time distortions to explain why the family members your characters have in the TDM aren't the same as the ones they may be assigned to in the game proper.
If you would like to have Halloween content in your relaxed housing prompts, please feel free! You are not beholden to follow our prompts exactly so long as the spirit is maintained.
There is no Network prompt listed, but feel free to wildcard one for your characters anyway.
Although the TDM is canon in the sense that characters are free to remember its events when they app into the game, it does not count as an official plot heavy event, meaning that characters will not receive regains from participating in it.
With regards to the dead trick-or-treaters: you may NPC them however you'd like, but keep the details we've listed in their prompt in mind. They are supernaturally fast and strong, will ignore houses as long as they have a lit pumpkin on the porch outside, and will try to enter each house the moment the candle in the pumpkin goes out. Additionally, they can't be killed, but they can be momentarily stalled by injuring them. By November 1st, 6AM, they will disappear the moment the sun comes out.
The TDM is canon. You can treat this as the game's first real event and pick and choose what threads you would like your character to remember when they enter the game. For characters who app into the game, the events of the TDM will be treated like a dream. Upon awakening from it, characters will find that time has jumped ahead to December 1st. You may also feel free to use similar reality and/or time distortions to explain why the family members your characters have in the TDM aren't the same as the ones they may be assigned to in the game proper.
If you would like to have Halloween content in your relaxed housing prompts, please feel free! You are not beholden to follow our prompts exactly so long as the spirit is maintained.
There is no Network prompt listed, but feel free to wildcard one for your characters anyway.
Although the TDM is canon in the sense that characters are free to remember its events when they app into the game, it does not count as an official plot heavy event, meaning that characters will not receive regains from participating in it.
With regards to the dead trick-or-treaters: you may NPC them however you'd like, but keep the details we've listed in their prompt in mind. They are supernaturally fast and strong, will ignore houses as long as they have a lit pumpkin on the porch outside, and will try to enter each house the moment the candle in the pumpkin goes out. Additionally, they can't be killed, but they can be momentarily stalled by injuring them. By November 1st, 6AM, they will disappear the moment the sun comes out.
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[Hurt? Sure? Both? It's hard to say. Her heart races away beneath her sternum, blood rushing through her ears. It's all new, all so much to process with no point of reference and she's lost, half anchored by the solid floor beneath her and half lost in her own head. She barely notices Erwin is there at first, only aware that he's not John. She was just with him and saying goodbye and then.
And then here. Where he doesn't seem to be, where nothing is as it was and. One step at a time. With a deep breath, she closes her eyes even as she reaches for this stranger's arm.]
I'm okay. Thanks.
[Just, you know, tangled in the sheets! Gah, fabric. She kicks it free with a frown.]
I'm guessing you're as new to this place as I am, huh?
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Yes.
[He tries to smile at her, but it comes out looking more like a grimace.]
This isn't where I was before. It's not for you, either?
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[In fact it seems about as far from there as one could get, in more ways than one. She rakes both hands through her hair, an odd expression flashing across her face for a moment, before her hands settle on her hips.]
Which begs the question of how either of us got here. Teleportation usually announces itself better than this. [And doesn't turn incorporeal hard light into what feels like an organic body. She frowns, puzzled.] I don't suppose you saw any lights where you last were? Touch any strange terminals?
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[Erwin has no idea what she's talking about. He doesn't think even Hange would be able to understand what this woman just said.]
I was riding my horse into battle. We were... we were going to get overrun.
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Horse? As in armed cavalry units? People haven't rode horses into battle for--
[Centuries. Her jaw shuts with an audible click, the first hint of a theory settling in. He saw nothing like the teleportation she's used to, and to be honest neither did she. Being that this man wasn't there where she was it stands to reason that they're not from the same place, but. Oh, if her thought is accurate, then.]
This might be a strange question, but what year was it where you were?
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[Erwin's brows draw down; he's thinking just as furiously as she is, trying to tie all the pieces together.]
850.
[Which he's going to assume is a long, long time and place from wherever she's from. He maintains eye contact, but gestures around the room, at their surroundings.]
Things aren't like this where I'm from.
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Or where I'm from. Things haven't looked anything like this for a...very long time.
[If at all. Her history's a bit rusty these days. With a gusty sigh she drops back down onto the bed she fell out of, blowing a sigh into her hands. Oh, those clever bastards. When she gets her hands on whomever--whatever--caused this, there's going to be a Talk.]
Which means we were just teleported through both time and space. That's. [Another sigh, and a grimace. Is this what a headache is supposed to feel like?] That's not supposed to be possible. Not without a slipspace drive...
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[Erwin sits on the bed next to her, making sure to give her enough space that she's not intimidated. What she's saying doesn't make any sense, but he's intrigued all the same.]
What you're suggesting is that we were both pulled here, through both time and space. Is such a thing possible in your world?
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[There's a thousand different ways this could play out, and it's honestly a little exciting. Having a puzzle to solve keeps her from thinking about how lost she feels, and she turns to Erwin only to stop cold. He doesn't know what any of this is.
Right. 850. Cavalry based warfare, not spaceships and slipspace drives. Despite his evident humanity, this may as well be first contact with a pre-spaceflight race and. Wow. That's new. She exhales, runs a hand through her hair, and gives him a sheepish smile.]
Sorry. The people in my reality already mastered spaceflight, so this is all pretty basic to me. I got ahead of myself. [A little. Turning, she extends a hand towards him. People...do use handshakes in his reality, right?] Cortana. It's nice to meet you, under the circumstances.
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It's fine. [He accepts her hand, a little awkwardly, with his left one, and shakes it.] Erwin Smith. A pleasure to meet you as well, Cortana.
[He smiles at her.]
You're going to have to forgive me, because I'm going to have so many questions for you.
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Doesn't have to face the idea that he didn't come with her.
So instead she rocks her legs up to sit cross-legged and facing Erwin, completely at ease with the idea of what will probably amount to a friendly interrogation.]
If you want forgiveness, you'll need to do something that warrants needing it first. [Yes, she's teasing. And grinning.] Ask away.
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Tell me about space travel. How far out have humans gone? What kinds of worlds are out there? Is there any other intelligent life?
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[Yeah, she likes him a bit, too. It's been too long since she's seen anyone with that sort of unbridled curiosity, the desire to learn for the sake of learning, not for surviving some other horrible thing being thrown at them. It's nice to see that humanity's drive exists even in other realities.]
Well, let me think. In my reality humanity had encountered nine other forms of sapient life, so yes there's lots of intelligent life out there besides us. Every one of those life forms lived on a world that was entirely different from ours, so any kind of world you can imagine is probably out there, and as for how far...[A brief pause as she considers how to say this, then adds:] Well, we'd barely left our galactic city, as it were. We still had the whole of the continent left to explore, and they were definitely getting there.
[Humanity hadn't spread past the Orion Spur, after all; who knew what else could still be out there! Hopefully, in either his reality or hers, they get to see the rest of it someday. She won't, but the look in her eyes grows fond all the same.]
That's the thing with humanity. Give them time and a target, and they'll get it done. Even if it's thousands of light years away.
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[Erwin is as bright-eyed and fascinated as a small child listening to all this. If what she says is true, and he has no reason to believe she's lying, then there are entire worlds out there still to discover.]
To think that humans are capable of so much, and reaching so far...
[The whole thing is making him a little more emotional than he thought it would, and his voice catches. Erwin clears his throat, embarrassed.]
Excuse me. People in my world lived behind walls, where everything was settled and established and known. To find out there's so much else out there... it's hard to comprehend.
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[She has to laugh, a wry little chuckle. If the circumstances hadn't been so fraught, maybe discovering the first Halo would have been monumental for a different reason, or even encountering the Covenant! First contact, learning about the galaxy at large...it's a lot. Her expression goes a bit softer for him.]
But you're still taking this pretty well. I don't think many people could handle finding out about different worlds and alternate humanities as well as you have.
[Most would get caught up in the particulars, the misunderstandings. He just wants to learn. It's refreshing, honestly.]
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[For as long as he can remember, Erwin has wanted there to be something else out there. He wanted something beyond the walls, something more than their constrained little world. To find out that it's true, and it's beyond his wildest dreams... his father was right. His father was right the whole time, in ways greater than anyone else thought, and an ancient hurt in Erwin's chest lessens, just a little.]
Having you confirm it makes... certain decisions I made a little easier to bear.
[He smiles at her.]
Thank you for telling me about it. I'd ask you more, but then we'd be here all day.
[He stands, and offers her his hand.]
Would you like to explore this house a little further?
no subject
She can't put the inevitable off forever. Besides, there's a chance--however slim--that he is out there somewhere. Isn't that worth the risk?
Yes. It is. She takes Erwin's hand as she stands up.]
It'd be a good idea. Get some sense of what we're dealing with before anything happens. [An amused snort.] They already broke all the rules of time and space, so who knows what else is up this place's sleeves.
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Who knows, indeed?
[No better place to start than in the very room they're in. Erwin wanders over towards the bureau, hoping to find something a little more substantial than the pajamas he's wearing, and he stops cold when he sees a portrait--a remarkably detailed portrait, the artists in this world are incredibly talented--in a little frame on top of it.]
Cortana?
[His voice is shaking around the edges.]
You should come see this.
no subject
A picture of them in fancy, formal attire, smiling for the camera and showing off matching bands on their left ring fingers. It's a bit of a surprise, both because it's obvious neither of them was there for that, and for another. Well, he's just not her type.
Huh. That's...interesting.
[She's not as perturbed as he is, and instead of staring she picks up the frame. It takes a bit of doing, being that she's unused to this sort of data container, but she manages to pry off the back and work the picture free. Shiny paper slips beneath her fingers, a smudge of blue ink in the white border around the edge.]
Wedding day, 19...[She has to squint, but the rest of the year's been smudged out. The ink must not have been dry when it was put in the frame. 19. 20th Century?] Okay. That explains the shared bedroom. Whoever brought us here wanted us to think we were married, but why?
[Rhetorical! And hardly worth freaking out over, really. They know the truth. That's what matters.]
no subject
I have no idea.
[He reaches out to take the paper, turning it over in his hand and rubbing the surface with his fingertips.]
This isn't a portrait.
[Definitely not a painting, which is the only way he knows to get something like this, and he looks to Cortana for help.]
Please tell me you know of a way to capture images like this without having to sit for a portrait session.
no subject
[She stops herself mid-sentence, blinking. 850. 9th century had absolutely zero idea what a camera was, hence the use of portraiture for capturing images. Cameras themselves wouldn't come around until the 19th century so. Hm. She crosses her arms, rocking back pensively. How to put this...]
It's an advancement in how portraits were made. You didn't have to sit around for hours being painted, someone would use light to make a copy of what they saw and it'd be ready in a few seconds. [She shrugs up to her ears.] It's not really anything to be worried about.
[Though his reaction to it might be. The 20th century has a lot of things that are much more advanced than the 9th. First contact culture shock? Oh boy.]
no subject
So you mean to tell me you can record an image, using light, in just a few seconds?
[Any shakiness from a few minutes ago is gone, replaced by pure fascination at this new technology. Space travel, while awesome, is also hypothetical around here. These photographs? This is something Erwin could actually experience himself, and he's enthralled.]
I want to learn how to do it.
[If they're going to make photos of him, then he's going to make photos of them.]
no subject
[And that was just 20th century tech. 26th...well. Maybe take things one step at a time. It's actually a bit endearing to watch Erwin puzzle all of this out, something so new but so innocently achievable. Was that what humanity was like back then? Back when they named their rovers things like Curiosity and Discovery? Maybe there's hope for them yet.]
All you'll need is a camera and some time. Should be easy enough to find in a place like this. [For the first time, she looks out the window nearby. It's a beautiful day, the sky clear and trees gorgeous colors in what appears to be morning sunlight. It's peaceful enough, but she can't shake the feeling that something's. Off about it.
Or maybe that's just her experience with strange places talking. She doesn't let it douse her smile, raising an eyebrow.]
Though I get the feeling that you'll have a lot of things you'll want to learn by the time we get our bearings straight. Might want to keep a list.
no subject
[Erwin tries the word out a few times, to make sure he remembers it. Then he carefully sets the portrait--the photo--back on the nightstand and follows her gaze out the window.]
It looks to be a nice day, at least. If we've been pulled through time and space to get here, whoever did it made sure the weather was pleasant for our arrival.
[He is absolutely keeping a mental list. Cortana should just resign herself to getting stopped every few minutes to explain each and every new piece of technology.]
Let's see what else they have around here.
[Erwin heads out of the room and into the hallway.]
no subject
Experience and habit have her scanning the area as they go; it's a modest house, "their" room at the end of the hall with three other doors just outside. The entire area shows signs of being lived in, but it's still all very clean and well-kept at the same time. Nothing like the sterility of the ships she was used to, and no metal walls in sight.
Just as well, since you could hardly hang picture frames on metal walls the way they've been hung here! Her stride slows as they pass a scattering of picture frames hanging from studs or nails, and she reaches for one. Huh. That's. Interesting.]
Erwin, just out of curiosity, how old are you? [Should he turn to ask why, she'll turn the frame in her hands towards him to show the photo. Them, same matching bands, but with two other people. Judging by the pose "they" all took for the shot, there's something familial being implied there.] Because I think whoever, or whatever, decided to bring us here also decided to give us a family.
[And she doesn't know about him, but she's just a little too young to be having kids! Huh. Marriage, house, two kids. Why is that ringing a bell...]
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