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silentspringmods ([personal profile] silentspringmods) wrote in [community profile] silentspringmemes2023-12-01 05:18 pm

TDM NO. 1


TDM № 1 : December 2023
Part I; Chapter 1. Fires We Don't Put Out

premise & faq rules application invite requests activity NPCs calendar


Hey, neighbor, welcome to the very first TDM for Silent Spring, a semiprivate suburban 60s horrorgame based loosely on the likes of We're Still Here, Holly Heights, and similar. Characters wake up in the uncannily idyllic early 1960s suburbia of Sweetwater, Maryland, an integrated bedroom community of Washington, DC - in the same household as a complete stranger to whom they have apparently always been married, at least according to the eerily and unwaveringly chipper neighbors who seem to know a little more than they should. This TDM will give you a place to test out the setting and get some sample threads if you're going to apply for an invite. Right now there are at least 20 slots available to the general public.

This game and its world, including this TDM, heavily feature nuclear panic, the Red Scare, conformism, sexism and restrictive gender roles, heteronormativity/gender binarism as it relates to being forced into a 'nuclear family', surveillance, gaslighting, brainwashing/propaganda, disinformation, pollution/contamination, poisoning, loss of control, and uncanny valley. IC consequences can involve anything from social shunning to sleep deprivation torture, brainwashing, and nonconsensual administration of large doses of haloperidol. These are the crux of the game and cannot be opted out of — this game offers a very specific flavor of horror and it is up to players whether or not they want to engage. The atmosphere is a dystopia, and while people can certainly bond with each other in extreme circumstances, the point of this game is not an ingame domestic AU, found family, 'adopting' other characters, etc. Although this TDM has been opened for everyone to enjoy, I ask that you be respectful of the work I've put into cultivating a very specific environment. You have full permission to borrow this setting/premise for PSLs focusing on those things.

universe/setting information, role assignment, and FAQs

I. National Everyone-Smile-at-One-Anotherhood Week

Maybe you were on your deathbed, taking your last gasping breaths. Maybe you had just drifted off into sleep. Or maybe you were just in the middle of another ordinary day—but whatever the case may be, you now wake staring at an unfamiliar popcorn ceiling, dressed in a coordinating pajama set or nightgown straight out of the Sears catalog. A complete stranger lies asleep beside you. Perhaps a dog or a cat you don't recognize lies sleeping on a red tartan bed on the floor behind the mahogany footboard.

This is your house, but it’s not your house: on one of the twin dressers in the room, the morning light reflects off the cover glass on a framed photograph of the two of you standing side-by-side and smiling like figures in a Norman Rockwell painting, maybe with a third, also unrecognizable younger party in the foreground between you. A Civil Defense booklet titled ”Survival Under Atomic Attack” hangs halfway off the corner of the dresser, its pages and cover curling upwards with wear atop a dogeared Macy’s Christmas catalog. The other dresser hosts a watch box and a compact radio: yours, if you’re the one wearing the coordinating flannel shirt and pants, or your new husband’s, if you’re in a babydoll-style nightie.

It’s not immediately clear if you’ve found yourself in the fifties or the sixties, at least until you throw on the robe hanging on the back of the bedroom door and head out into the driveway at some point. There you find a rolled newspaper tossed onto the concrete beside a shiny new car, dated December 1, 1960.

Prompt Details:

— All characters wake in a normal human body with any disability aids (including glasses or contact lenses) converted to the most common form of them in the 60s unless a modern development like a sip/blow powerchair is needed for them to be playable. Although cutting edge technologies like myoelectric limbs were just starting to come around at the time, they were not common and readily accessible, and therefore are not allowed.
— Characters have no powers, and regains will not happen in this game. If they biologically need something to function that is fantasy in nature (ex: have to drink blood), that need is gone and replaced with only a normal human’s needs.
— Characters will find their belongings, up to 3 items from home, around the house in normal places for each item to be: a book on the shelf, a framed photo on a flat surface, etc. Items that don’t exist in the regular universe in 1960 may not be brought (ex: gameboy, pokeball, wizard’s staff).
— Characters may bring one normal, non-livestock pet, or may meet said pet for the first time when they wake up in Sweetwater. They can also be petless.
— No items or weapons from after 1960 are allowed, and no weapons more powerful than a hunting rifle or handgun can be brought with them. One weapon per character.



II. Death of a Salesman

You haven’t had much time to acclimate to your new life—maybe a day or two at the most—before there’s a knock on your door. When you open it, a man in a hat and a brown two-piece suit smiles at you, holding a briefcase in one hand and a brand new vacuum cleaner in the other.

“Hey there! My name’s Charlie and I’m here to tell you all about the latest in vacuum technology. Is the man of the house home?”

Regardless of what you say, Charlie the vacuum salesman finds a way to barge into your home and set up his briefcase and vacuum in the center of the living room. He insists that everyone in the family join him to watch, and then the demo begins as he tells the family how inadequate their current vacuum is and how the dirt it leaves behind will make you sick and make your wife look like she can’t keep up with running the house—but if she just buys this vacuum, she’ll be the envy of all of her friends, and isn’t it great timing that there’s a Christmas special on this very unit right now?

He tells the family he’ll give them ‘a moment to think on it’ while he fills up the water canister for the steamer function in the kitchen sink. Characters can hear the faucet running and then shutting off, but the salesman doesn’t emerge with a water tank—he emerges with a butcher’s knife.

“You took too long!” He announces. “I better get to the next house!”

With that, he charges, and begins to attempt to slice or stab whoever’s closest. You’re in luck, or at least it initially seems—it’s two or maybe even three against one. But once you attack him, you’ll notice something odd—the salesman doesn’t seem to react to being sliced at or stabbed, and if your character has a gun, gunshots don’t stop or even slow him. Shooting him in the head, cutting his jugular vein, or beating him on the back of the head are the only ways to kill him - good luck!

Should your household manage to kill him before he kills you, something even stranger happens. The moment he takes his last breath, lying in a pool of his own blood, there’s a knock on the door. If characters ignore it or say “one moment please!”, the knocks get more and more vehement until the hand is practically banging on the door. If they still ignore it, the neighbor strolls around to the window and looks in to see if they’re home, cupping her hands to the glass— but doesn’t react to the dead body. Instead she just smiles brightly, gives an enthusiastic little wave, and points to the door.

When characters finally open the door to let her in, they’ll notice that she’s holding a mop and bucket, smiling brightly.

“I thought you could use a little help cleaning up the mess!”, she says, barging past just like the salesman did before her. At no point does she stop smiling, or seem to register that it’s a dead body—she just starts mopping up the pool of blood, occasionally dunking her mop into the soapy pink water of the bucket, never referring to it as anything other than the vague “the spill”.

If characters ask her for help disposing of the body, she’ll bring in her husband, a similarly cardboard figure who assists the ‘man of the house’ with digging a grave-sized hole in the back yard and dropping the body in. The next day, the ground is undisturbed.




III. We'll become silhouettes

Whoa there, Neighbor! I hope you and your picturesque new family didn't get so comfortable you lost sight of the looming Red Menace. No, it's not just confined to the silver screen: the Communist threat is everywhere, maybe even in your own home—and the skies above. Around 1:15 PM on December 20th, they hear the sound: the air raid sirens clustered like bananas atop the tall poles dotting the city come to life like singing frogs on a bank, sending out long, drawn out calls in a chorus of overlapping pitches. The radios in every room crackle on as if by magic, and a man's transatlantic voice reads the announcement:

"Your attention please. This is Ron Chapman, one of your official civil defense broadcasters with a special message. Military authorities have advised us that an enemy attack by air is imminent. This is a red alert. You are advised to go to your nearest shelter area immediately. Find shelter. There is not time to leave the city.

Your state civil defense director has just issued the following instructions: Please remain calm. Every precaution will be taken for your protection. Keep your radio tuned to this place on the dial throughout the alert period for information. Telephone service to your home may be cut off to permit military and civil defense authorities to carry out vital operations. Do not attempt to join your family or children if they are now separated. They will be cared for where they are. Obey your civil defense warden and find shelter NOW. Take shelter in your basement or in your nearest shelter area. If you can plug in your radio in the basement, take it with you. Use a portable radio set if you have one. Otherwise turn up the volume of your radio so that you can hear it in the basement. Keep calm, don't lose your head. If you are at work, obey your civil defense authorities. Go quickly and calmly to their designated shelter. If your children are at school, they are being directed to shelter by their teachers. If you are in an automobile, pull over to the curb and then go immediately to the nearest shelter area. Do not leave your car where it will block traffic.

This station will continue to stay on the air throughout the alert period to bring you authentic information and official instructions. Stay tuned to 640 or 1240 kilocycles on your radio for official information. Refuse to listen to unauthorized rumors or broadcasts. This is your official civil defense broadcast . . . Your attention please. This is Ron Chapman, one of your official civil defense broadcasters with a special message . . ."


If characters are at the high school, teachers will usher them out of the classroom and down a single packed cement staircase in the direction of the basement, past a yellow and black sign on the wall over the hand railing that reads FALLOUT SHELTER. They don't visibly panic—but it's clear to almost everyone that the teachers are just as afraid as they are, if not moreso. They've simply been deliberately trained not to show it, though there is a quality to the eyes that training can never reach.

The portable emergency radios echo off of the cement floor and stacked barrels of drinking water lining the walls opposite unopened boxes of survival rations. Teachers call roll in strained voices, accounting for every student left in their care—and then, once everyone is in, the heavy metal door to the shelter is closed, shutting out the aboveground world as Principal Jones tells everyone to stay quiet so they can hear the portable radios.

Characters at home have the option of going into the basements of the homes they awoke in, which have some survival rations but hardly qualify as fully outfitted bunkers, or disregarding the civil defense office's commands and risking it to seek safety in the community fallout shelter beneath the Sweetwater Fire Department. It is up to each "couple" whether they split up or seek safety in numbers, whether they prioritize immediacy or amount of protection.

If characters decide to hunker down in the fallout shelter under the fire department, they will be joined by dozens of their terrified neighbors. Responses vary dramatically: some seem almost catatonic, as though unable to believe that the events before them are really unfolding; others weep with fear. A woman breaks free of her husband's arms, screaming that she has to get her son, but a firefighter keeps her from climbing back up the staircase more and more people stream down.

Regardless of where characters choose to shelter, they are trapped there for the next five hours, listening to the Maryland civil defense director's warning circulate over and over in the claustrophobic space. Now might be a good time to field any questions to Dick Clark, your town Civil Defense Officer and Police Chief.

—until at last, the message changes.

"Your attention please. This is Ron Chapman, one of your official civil defense broadcasters with a special message. Military authorities have advised us that the anticipated enemy attack has been diverted. You may now leave shelter and rejoin your families. This concludes the red alert. Your attention please . . ."

Uh oh. Hope you didn't say anything in the heat of the moment you might now regret.



IV. There's no place like (your new) home for the holidays

What a stressful week–even if the townspeople don’t seem too phased by it. In fact, they’re acting as if nothing’s happened at all, and will laugh off any suggestion that anything different might be the case. The neighborhood Christmas party at the grand neocolonial home of HOA president Marjorie Taylor proceeds as planned on the 22nd of the month–Characters’ wardrobes, of course, already contain some cocktail attire, but if it doesn’t suit their tastes, they can find all of the latest fashions on display in the completely normal department store.

Punch made by Marjorie herself is served in a tremendous green Tupperware bowl, though those who would prefer a simple cocktail will have no trouble finding one on any of the bar carts around the house. Mistletoe dangles from the arch leading to the secluded hallway lined with doors to the guest room and downstairs bathroom, out of the sight of those who might judge a character for stealing a kiss from someone other than their new spouse. Married couples dance in the living room while their friends perch on the couch like an overloaded liferaft to watch. The air of the room is bright, jovial, loud - the red threat looms in the dark unknown beyond the windows, but for the moment, all is well. Enjoy yourself, neighbor!




V. Slip a sable under the tree

Three days after Marjorie's successful neighborhood Christmas party comes Christmas morning. When characters head down the stairs (or step into the living room on the same floor, if they're the 'child' of one of the newly introduced couples), they'll find the fully decorated Christmas tree that greeted them upon their arrival now has a few presents wrapped in metallic reds and silvers resting at its base, one for each party in the household, addressed simply with From: Santa.

The catch? The wrapping paper is impossible to open, the ribbons are impossible to tie and uncut, until everyone sits down as a family and opens them together in a true representation of an old-fashioned American Christmas morning.

Characters will receive 1 extra item from their homeworld abiding by the starting inventory guidelines—but the item has to be deeply personal, and something that they're uncomfortable with others seeing... which, judging by the similar reaction their new housemates have to their own presents, almost seems to be by design. It could be a compromising photo, a piece of subversive literature, a relic of who they were and things they'd rather remain hidden... but whatever it is, they've now been seen with it.



Players may keep TDM threads canon if both players are admitted, and TDMers are encouraged to play around with multiple possible family member matches. Have fun!
spaghettimonster: (HUMAN: RELIEF)

tfw the horrors of pressured conformity extend even into a bro's weird expectations

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-06 07:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yeah, there's still no shock or confusion to be had here, even the joking kind. Papyrus nods with a relieved and satisfied smile at that agreement, instead. It's the relief that might be the giveaway, to Sans's eyes - relief that he's not alone, in puzzling all of this out.

Sure, Papyrus himself had maybe backslid somewhat into uncertainty and nerves and following others' leads, those first most disoriented days. And, well, maybe he's still not seeking all that much responsibility just yet, more tired deep in his bones than he'd care to admit. More relieved that the people who'd been looking up to him... aren't here, needing him, than he'd ever care to admit either. But... He still accepted that responsibility, and needs to try to get back to them. That will surely be easier with both of them working together, even with the terrible antique technology!]


I doubt they're too unfamiliar... [He muses aloud instead of saying any of that, with a glance off towards the man who mentioned ICBMs.] Who fights a war without knowing, where their opponents are from? If they don't know... Can you really call that a war? I call that an ambush.
ribticklers: (136)

even more important to sans tbh

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-06 08:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[Alright, so they're going to the library together. A brotherly bonding exercise of research. This is so weird. Sans's mental notebook of things to remember about acting normal now has an entirely new section dedicated to handling Papyrus.]

Is it really that surprising? [That's a bit darker than he intends to be (and darker than Papyrus would expect, not that Sans realizes), especially around all these humans, but he hasn't been given a lot of reason to feel great about that sort of thing lately.]
Edited 2023-12-06 20:01 (UTC)
spaghettimonster: (HUMAN: SWEAT)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-07 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's surprising enough for Papyrus to shoot Sans a sidelong look, before he catches himself and directs it all around them to look for anyone else who might be close enough to listen in. It has been a unsettling couple of weeks... in which neither of them had known the other was, apparently, here.]

...Well. Maybe... maybe not. I guess it explains, a few things. If they're all like this to each other...

[Explains a few things like the war against monsters, back in the day, but also the more recent tragedies of the human that passed through. It's no wonder they had been so braced for violence, so sure they had to hurt others first as a way to protect themselves, if... this was the kind of world they came from. And maybe not a wonder that someone as occasionally prone to weird and bad decisions as Sans is, could get caught up in the mood too.]
ribticklers: (102)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-08 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
[Sans winces at that side-eye before he recognizes his face is moving on its own again and smooths it back over. Okay, no more jokes like that. This is what happens when he mostly only has himself to tell jokes to.]

Nevermind, what do I know? I'm kind of a bonehead. [That's a thing humans say too so he can annoy (and distract, hopefully) Papyrus with the pun without being obvious about it.]
spaghettimonster: (THANK YOU SANS (INSINCERE))

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-09 06:05 am (UTC)(link)
Ugh. [The tone is that of a deeply, horribly, affectionately annoyed Papyrus. If he had any lingering doubts about whether or not this is really Sans, or someone pretending... Well, they're not completely completely gone, but wow. That negative self-talk deflection disguised as a pun is his brother, all over.]

Please, don't feel pressured to contribute that kind of joke. Your captive audience thanks you. [A wry tone, scrounged up from somewhere, as Papyrus glances up at the ceiling.]
ribticklers: (143)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-10 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[The fondness hits Sans in a wave he didn't expect; a tsunami caused by his brother's mild annoyance. He missed Papyrus. Sans missed him like crazy, and he hasn't let himself think about it at all. There's a strange mix of emotions on Sans's face--the probably expected delight mixed with a lonely desperation. He sweeps it all away again.] Aw, and here I was thinkin' this would be a great time to work on my stand-up routine.
spaghettimonster: (HUMAN: EYEROLL)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-11 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
Must I repeat... how captive this audience is? You know bad jokes make people want to leave. [And by people, he generally means Papyrus. And the captive audience beyond just himself is more captive than usual, given the way people trying to leave are being kept in here. For their safety, the radio's drone insists, but...]

...But, maybe some of the people around here... could use a distraction. Even if it's a terrible one. [He says this reluctantly. Not the 'terrible' label, he's sticking to that with regard to the skeleton jokes so old they're yellowing with declared mercy. But the idea of splitting up to go encouraging people, when they've only just realized the other is here... Well, it sits uneasily.]
ribticklers: (132)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-15 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
[Sans eyes the crowd again. There are still people trying to get out and find children or husbands or wives. A symphony of screaming and crying and muttering in the artificial lighting of the shelter. Strange to see humans like this; it's a fun house mirror of home. Easier to look away from again, even if it doesn't sit quite right either. He looks back at Papyrus.]

Dunno, looking at it again, I'm pretty sure this is what anyone'd call a tough crowd. [Sans doesn't want to stand out in a small space he can't escape from, not that he'll admit to that. He doesn't want to wander off away from Papyrus either. He treats the suggestion like a joke, but it's strange that he can only decide it's probably a joke and not definitely one. If Sans is doing paperwork and research who knows what else he might be up to?] Looks like I'll have to keep practicing on you.
spaghettimonster: (BROTHERLY SUPPORT)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-15 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
No, you very don't have to do that! I'm the toughest crowd. You know this! [Or, Sans should know this. But probably he perfectly well does know this, and is just being annoying on purpose. Talk about nostalgic.

Papyrus gives another exaggerated eyeroll to hide the fondness, throwing his hands in the air for good measure, and takes mercy on the (more openly) scared people around them.]
How about, instead, you can tell me what you've been up to! For instance, have you been in a car yet?
ribticklers: (143)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-15 06:39 am (UTC)(link)
Aw, c'mon, you know you're my favorite crowd. [Okay, and now Sans has veered from too dark into too sappy, although just a touch. Still, it's enough that he notices it, recognizes that the desperation with which he missed Papyrus is trying to sneak out of his mouth, and keeps talking like he didn't say anything weird at all.] I went up and down the road once. The magazines make it seem way easier than it is. [Of course, Sans does mean he literally tried it once. He'd probably have made more progress if he tried a second time, or even a third.] How 'bout you?
spaghettimonster: (LET'S GO!)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-15 07:03 am (UTC)(link)
[The sappiness is noted, especially given how brusquely it's whisked away in favor of a status update. It's no wonder that it's a relief to be reunited with him, Papyrus figures readily enough. It's unclear whether the relief's being exaggerated as... what, some kind of buttering up to lead either into a terrible prank or an obnoxious request? But he can take the implied compliment regardless of what it might be prelude to, and try not to worry what else it might indicate about Sans's whole state of affairs. Surely three weeks alone in this... pleasant, if offputting, town isn't enough to put him in a bad way.]

Nyeh heh heh. Well! It just so happens, I was driving when all the radios went off. And not for the first time! And now... It's sitting on a curb, waiting for me. [Further onto the curb than some of his earlier swerving had put it.] Or, it better be.
ribticklers: (147)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-15 07:07 am (UTC)(link)
So you can give me a ride back after all this, right? [And Sans won't have to walk. But also, he'll get to soak up more of Papyrus's presence and enjoy him enjoying having a car like he always wanted. Never mind there's no way to know when or if they'll be getting out of this bunker; it's completely natural to just let that fact sit and keep talking anyway. Everyone in the Underground did that.]
spaghettimonster: (HUMAN: COOL)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-15 07:22 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, that's exactly the takeaway to take away here. Now I'm the shortcut home. [Which he says a little carefully, with a glance around for eavesdroppers. It's not obviously a reference to magic, not a blatant implication to how it isn't working, but... Well, that's probably a topic better saved for in the car in question.] And you can show me your new house! And we can compare cars. [He hopes he has the cooler one.]
ribticklers: (127)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-15 07:27 am (UTC)(link)
[Sans sags exaggeratedly.] Everything's farther away here. [Which is his joking but serious way of saying he misses his shortcuts. It still feels like it takes forever to get anywhere. It's not always a problem, but being forced to take the scenic route every time is.] Dunno if the house'll look much different from yours. They've really got a specific style around here. But hey, look around all you want, it's no skin off my nose. [And immediately Sans goes from that sag to a wider grin, because he's been wishing he could use that one on someone who could appreciate it for weeks.]
spaghettimonster: (HUMAN: CRYING LAUGHING)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-15 07:42 am (UTC)(link)
[It must be from the seemingly endless drone of the radio, or the underground confinement, or maybe the unfortunate familiarity of people weeping nearby. Something that's putting him into some great and terrible strain. Whatever the cause, Papyrus laughs before he can help it.] Oh my god. Really? I'm not surprised, but... Finally, you have so many new things to make those awful jokes about.
Edited (504 gateway to snooze tag) 2023-12-15 07:46 (UTC)
ribticklers: (147)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-16 05:34 am (UTC)(link)
[Sans does love making his brother laugh, startling it out of him from stress or not, and the way Sans's grin perks into something more genuine is very obvious on his now-human face.] I dunno, I think you actually liked that one.
spaghettimonster: (HUMAN: EYEROLL)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-16 06:51 pm (UTC)(link)
I-- I conditionally liked it. [Yeah, the openness of that expression takes Papyrus by surprise for a second there. But he shoves the surprise out of mind to process later, and pushes a puffed up contrariness to fore instead.]

Because it's new! Unfamiliar! But I can already tell... You're going to get just as much use out of it, a-as certain other wordplays ever did. And then, I know, I dread... It will be just as old and tired! [As Sans, he helpfully doesn't add.]
ribticklers: (127)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-16 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh, that setup is perfect. Sans can't resist, not that he tries hard. Or at all.] Well, that's no skin off my nose.
spaghettimonster: (BROTHER BOTHERING)

[personal profile] spaghettimonster 2023-12-16 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
NO! [Papyrus's wordless howl of outrage is too loud for the space they're in, and several people manage to shake off their woes long enough to shush them for it. With less and less space to escape to, he stays put but drags his hands down his face. Strange as the sensations of cheeks squishing and drooping under the pressure of fingers is... Really, the distortions to his face probably really convey his feelings here.] Sans. Oh my god. I'm glad you're here, so... stop making me reconsider that gladness already!
ribticklers: (126)

[personal profile] ribticklers 2023-12-16 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[The shouting, the drama, Sans aches deep in his ribcage with how much he missed it. This is so much better than coming home to silence.] I'm glad you're here too, bro. [It's better than the only other alternative he can see.]