quietplacelogs | (no subject)

Entry tags:

the dark tower: jake chambers

(no subject)

Featuring: Max Mayfield + Open
What's Happening? Meeting people, exploring things, etc.
When: Feb. 19 - ?
Content Warnings: None so far.

[House 11 Spam]

[Staying in a house that is mostly completely silent around the clock is strange in a lot of ways. The silence itself is eerie and takes her a few days to get used to, considering she's used to living with Billy and Neil who are anything but quiet unless they're unconscious or not at home. She keeps expecting to wake up from a dead sleep to the sound of screaming down the hall, or something getting broken. Instead she lies awake at night, staring at the ceiling, hoping that no monster hears one of them breathing and Godzilla's the house and eats all of them.

The other thing that's strange is staying in a house full of boys and...a centaur. She feels an odd sense of belonging among them that's both a relief and also troubling. One thing that life's taught her over and over is not to get too attached to anyone. She doesn't want to get attached to anyone and yet she also wants the easy camaraderie that she sees with Bill and Eddie and Richie. The same kind she'd witnessed back in Hawkins with Lucas, Dustin, Will and Mike. She so desperately craves it, but she doesn't know how to make it happen, either.

After a mostly restless night of sleep, Max makes her way quietly through the house toward the kitchen, her stomach twisting with hunger. If any of the others are there, she'll lift a hand to wave at them.

She also sends the following message to everyone else who lives there, via the device:]

I think we should start soundproofing the house.

[Out and About]

[Max finishes her full time quiet maintenance work for the day and decides to check out the rest of the town. She carefully makes her way over the sandpaths, barefoot, and when she closes her eyes for a moment she can almost pretend she's at the beach. Almost. But not quiet.

She'll trek to as many places as possible, including the hospital, outside Town Hall, and finally to sit beside the fountain, wishing she had a pen and a notebook to write in.

Later she'll end up going through abandoned houses, looking for anything that might be useful to have at the house. Like a hairbrush since her hair is a mess, and while she's not a fussy person when it comes to her looks, it's driving her crazy.

She's also on a mission to find the library. The whole time she's out, she's keeping her eyes and ears peeled for monsters or people who look sketchy.]

[Open to People in House 9]

[Her last stop of the day is to swing by the house where Will and Mike live. She's there to see Will, so she shoots him a quick message (I'm outside on the porch of your house) but remains on said porch because she's not about to barge into someone else's house without an invite, and it's not like she can knock.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Actually, a comb'd be nice.

[ Majima had the type of hair that was naturally well-behaved, but if he didn't find something in that vein soon, he might have to think about cutting it short. ]

Soundproofing stuff, electronics... I was wonderin' if there might be some old newspapers around, maybe find some clues about what happened to this place.

[ He paused. ]

You meet Kamala yet? She might have one you could borrow. Brush, I mean.

[She nods slightly at his response. She wouldn't turn soundproofing stuff down either, especially after her talk with Bill earlier. But old newspapers...that hadn't actually occurred to her. She pauses, tiny frown furrowing her brow before she types out something else.]

Supposedly there's a library. Maybe there will be old newspapers there?

[She shakes her head at the mention of Kamala. It's not a name she's familiar with, and frankly, she hasn't seen a lot of girls around this place, in general.]

Yeah, I heard about that. But the guy I asked seemed kinda confused, like he ain't know what I was talking about.

[ Then again... said guy was an anthropomorphic carpet, somehow, so....... ]

She's about your age. Might be worth an ask.

[ He glanced up at one of the nearby houses. ]

Wanna give this one a shot? Go faster with two people.

[She looks at him thoughtfully before typing out another message.]

Might still be worth checking out.

[And she's been dying to go to the library anyway. She follows his gaze to the house he's looking at, and presses her lips together. On one hand, he's right; it'd probably be quicker with someone else searching the same place for useful things. On the other hand, he's still a stranger. Still. She doesn't get any danger vibes off him. After all the years living with Billy and Neil she'd like to think she can pick up on that sort of thing. So she nods, slightly.]

Yeah, let's go.

Edited 2018-02-20 17:18 (UTC)

[ Majima ducked into the house first, footsteps nearly soundless as he stepped inside. It'd obviously been worked over before -- there was a couch, its insides raided for the stuffing. A kitchen, partially picked over. There was a shattered CRT TV in the living room, but would that be of any use? ...eh, probably not.

There was also a shelf of novels, mostly old and yellowed. Majima, curious, ran his fingers along the spines of a few of these. Most of them were in French, but a few stuck out due to the cover art or something else about their design. There were also some slimmer volumes down at the bottom, scattered. Comic books.

He picked up a few of these, then slipped several into his bag. ]

French people love comics.

[She follows him as quietly as possible, glancing around and making her way into the kitchen. She searches through the cabinets but doesn't find anything useful food-wise. Some empty, discarded cans of food on the counters. She opens the drawers slowly and carefully so they don't make noise, but doesn't find anything useful there, either.

She moves down the hallway, methodically searching the bathroom and grinning when she finds a couple of large bath towels. She latches onto them immediately, and continues on, smirking at the mention of comics on her device.]

Who doesn't?

[Okay, so maybe she's got a little bit of the nerd gene, too.]

[ Majima smiled to himself, then opened what turned out to be a junk drawer. That was a landmine if he'd ever seen one -- clusters of little knickknacks, spare parts that couldn't be identified. All of which could easily give someone away if they weren't careful.

Parts of old toys? Leftover bits from assembling the furniture? He did manage to fish out a half-used ballpoint pen, though, as well as a few old rubber bands. Not really what he wanted.

Aha. He held his hand palm out to reveal a small number of elastic bands. Hair ties, perfect -- he'd only arrived with the one. Majima motioned to his ponytail, which served to keep his own hair out of the way, then indicated Max. ]

Want any?

[She glances over at him and grins when she sees his smile, then moves across the room to check other drawers. A popsicle stick, a glue stick - she thinks maybe that could come in handy so she stuffs it into her pocket, and a large school eraser which she grabs immediately, thinking of Will. She slides it into her pocket, too, tucking wayward hair behind her ear as she looks through the rest of the contents of the drawer.

A couple of cotton balls, a pill of some kind (nope, not touching that when she has no idea what it is), and a potholder. She contemplates the latter, then pulls it out the drawer. She glances over at Majima when he motions, arching her eyebrows and letting her gaze travel to the items in his hand. Her eyes widen, and she nods instantly.]

Thank you. [She mouths, moving to his side and taking two of them. She slides them around her wrist. She might not find a hairbrush, but at least she can tie her unruly hair back when she needs to.]

[ He gave her a thumbs up, then slipped the remaining bands into his pocket. A successful trip, after all!

As he made his way up to the second floor, Majima was struck by the way the sunlight cast long yellow bars across the faded wooden floor. If not for the unusual silence, he might have considered it peaceful -- pretty, even. As it was, it felt a little eerie. The closet in the first bedroom had been pretty much emptied of clothes, save for one of the ugliest navy blue sweaters he'd ever seen; it made him feel itchy just looking at it.

On a whim, he looked under the bed, and paused. Tucked under one of the wooden slats was a small book. He pulled it out. ]

Think I found a journal.

[ He flipped it open. The childish handwriting inside was French, accompanied occasionally by scribbles or blotches of ink. Toward the end, the entries simply ended, leaving the rest of the book blank -- as if the writer had simply finished their last entry and never returned. ]

Wonder what happened to 'em...

[She moves on to the second bedroom, finding it depressingly void of blankets or pillow. The mattress is torn to shreds like the couch, all the stuffing pulled out. She stares at it for a long moment, thinking. She wonders if people are using it to help soundproof places. It would certainly help, but the materials would be scarce for sure. Plus, she likes having an actual bed to sleep in.

Max heads for the dresser, searching through what's left - a sock, a cough drop without its wrapper (ew), and a picture of a couple she's never seen before. It gives her pause, and she wonders if it's of the people who lived here at one time. And if it was, had they left in such a hurry they hadn't had a chance to take it with them? Or had they just vanished into thin air, the opposite way that people show up here?

She glances at her device when he texts.]

I found a picture of a couple.

[She wonders what happened to them too. She's not sure she wants to know.]

[ Majima made his way over, but only after carefully replacing the book back under the bed. ]

They look like nice folks.

[ he typed, after glancing at the photo. ]

If the other houses are like this, there won't be much left. Maybe more luck along the path Rosa made -- it's newer.

[ He did, however, brandish a small item: an old USB drive he'd found in the laundry room. Maybe someone had run it through the wash by accident. ]

For that guy who's into junk.

Yeah.

[It's dumb, but she's tempted to keep the picture. She doesn't. She slides it back into the drawer.]

Rosa? Who's Rosa?

[That idea sounds promising and she's not at all opposed at exploring farther down this new path. Max stares at the object in his hand. It's some kind of electronic thing, she knows, can tell that much by looking at it. It's also entirely foreign to her.]

What is it?

Rosa-chan -- she's one of my housemates. Blonde hair, real nice. She put out a bulletin about how she was setting up a sand path across one of the bridges.

[ Majima handed her the drive to inspect. ]

It's somethin' called a USB drive. Like a floppy disk, but smaller. And with more space for storing stuff.

[ WHAT WAS THIS ALIEN MOON TECHNOLOGY ]

Oh.

[She definitely hasn't met her, given that description.

Max takes the drive when he holds it out, turning it over in her hand. Her forehead wrinkles as she stares at it, arching her eyebrows when he compares it to a floppy disk. She knows what that is, but -- this is weird.]

I guess it's easier to carry around than a floppy disk.

[Why the hell is it called a USB drive? That's such a weird name. What even is the future.]

Seems like everything in the future's just smaller. I was talkin' to someone from 2017; he said aside from the phones everyone has now, it's basically the same as the 80s.

[ yeah put that in your pipe and smoke it, where were the flying cars!! ]

But I promised Tony I'd look out for this kinda thing. Dunno what he's gonna do with it.

[She hands it back over to him, shaking her head a little. The future is weird. Portable phones and tiny floppy disks that are called weird things.]

Sounds kind of boring.

[She's right there with you on the flying cars. Or maybe teleportation devices. Or both.]

Who's Tony?

[There's a lot of people she obviously does not know yet in this place.]

Yeah. Total letdown. Ain't even have any aliens.

[ He pocketed the USB drive, then glanced outside. There was an old tree, still mostly bare; the remains of an old birdhouse hung from one of its branches. ]

He runs some electronics classes on Sundays. 'Bout this tall, goatee, kind of a weirdo.

[ Majima measured off a height a few inches shorter than himself. Perhaps this wasn't the best description of Tony. But for Majima 'weirdo' was a big umbrella, encompassing everyone from crabby old eccentrics super into leftover junk (which Tony struck him as) to yakuza patriarchs who liked to get arrested so they could sleep securely behind bars. ]

[She almost laughs at that, and she quickly bites it back, nodding. Who knows, though. They're in a whole new world here, at least. Aliens could show up. Hell, maybe the Sound Eaters are aliens.]

Don't think I've met him yet.

[She's a little intrigued, though. She kind of likes the device, and she definitely likes electronic things like arcade games and Atari. Maybe she'll pop into one of the classes and see if anything catches her interest.]

[ Majima was about to type out a reply when he caught a hint of movement out of the corner of his eye. He motioned to the window.

Outside, a plump little bird had landed on one of the tree branches. Majima took the opportunity to switch to the phone's camera and snap a picture. It wasn't the best -- the camera had limited zoom functionality -- but the bird's red feathers made it stand out against the sky behind it. ]

[She looks over when he gestures to the window and she sees the little bird that's landed in the tree. It dawns on her that since she's been here she hasn't really seen many birds. Or animals, for that matter. A frown tugs at her mouth and she reaches for her device again.]

Do you think the Sound Eaters go after animals, too? Is that why there aren't many?

[ He saved the picture, then returned to the messaging app. ]

That's what I'm wonderin', too. Seen a rabbit or two eating weeds, but they're quiet, anyhow.

And towns have crows and ducks and so on, right? But I haven't heard one since I got here, even with the river.

[She chews her lower lip, looking back at the bird again. She wonders if it knows that if it sings, it'll die. If that's why it's quiet. A cold chill runs down her spine and she looks back at Majima, nodding.]

I also haven't seen any bugs, come to think of it.

[And that's possibly as disturbing as anything, somehow. Sinister.]

...There're an awful lot of bugs in the world. Or at least there were.

[ I mean, if he thought about it too hard... ]

I gotta wonder, though. What coulda caused all this? Seems like everyone was sittin' pretty until the Sound Eaters came. There's solar panels and phones and traces of modern technology, so it's not like one of them worlds with magic, right?

[ the 'm' word still felt a little dirty, he wasn't sure how he felt about spells and flying carpets. ]

Yeah exactly.

[She glances up at him with troubled eyes. What he's saying makes sense. Would a world full of magic need that kind of stuff? She's so unfamiliar with both since magic, as far as she know, doesn't exist in her world, and the level of technology this place seems to be loaded with.]

I don't know what to think.

[She's creeped out though.]

[ Majima considered this. They could discuss possibilities until they were blue in the face, but... ]

I'm wonderin' right now if that library ain't a good idea after all. Not sure what's lying around that other people haven't found already, but I'd be interested in any news stories leadin' up to everything going up in smoke.