Test Drive

[uploadedmods]

TEST DRIVE 001


-TDM threads can be considered game canon if players involved agree & if it suits any roles you may decide to choose for the current plot.
-Any reserving player that does not submit an app by Saturday morning will be subject to challenging applicants.
-Participation in the Test Drive is worth a flat 10 points per month rather than per thread, and you must have a minimum of 5 comments in that month to qualify for it.
-This TDM is good for the duration of the Mist setting. A new TDM will go up before the next setting.

The NETWORK for this setting is a voice-only walkie talkie system that can be used to communicate between all locations. The default channel will be open to all walkie talkies, but characters can change to an unused channel for private conversation.
of note: There seems to be something strange about these walkie talkies, in that there is no static. The quality is disturbingly crystal clear, like the person you're speaking to is right next to you instead of miles away.

CONTENT WARNING: Some prompts contain gore, character death, and substance abuse.

Reserves will open on Saturday, September 8 until Saturday, September 15
Applications will open Saturday, September 15 until Saturday, September 22

General Prompts


The lights above you are a blindingly, pristine white. The walls around you curve up into the ceiling like the inside of an MRI machine. Your hands, feet, and midsection are strapped to a clinical table, and minutes seem to tick by, with no clear course for escape presenting itself to you.

The curved white space above you flickers with color, and a perfect square like a television screen expands before your eyes. It pans over what appears to be a town, something small and simply populated.

“Hello, and welcome to your first setting,” a neutrally cadenced feminine sounding voice begins, riding the line between human and machine. As she speaks, captions of the text type themselves in neat and perfect Arial font. “The location is loosely based off Bridgton, Maine, United States of America, Earth. The year is 2007. You have been selected to participate. Obedience ensures an enjoyable and immersive experience for our audience. If you have been granted a role, instructions will follow. Do not talk about the role. Do not attempt disobedience. If you have not been granted a role, your objective for this round is simple: survive.”

After that, the shackles may release promptly and allow your character to roam free. Or perhaps not — perhaps they've been given a role to play, and if so, further instructions will play out upon the screen. Once suitably briefed, characters will be released to their own devices. Beware the mist.

CHECK OUT THE CURRENT SETTING PAGE FOR DETAILS ABOUT THE LOCATION.

learn from the mistakes of others

A pair of unperturbed mall inhabitants decide to chance the mist. They're the first of a handful to trickle out the front doors, and they seem to get by just fine. About a minute ticks by, and they disappear completely into the dense fog that presses in from every direction. It's so anticlimactic that for a moment it almost seems stupid to feel uncomfortable by the sight of it.

Until precisely one half of a body is hurled abruptly and with great force from an indeterminate point in the obscurity. It's not a top half or a bottom half; no, it's a cleanly sliced left half, head to toe as though a neat line were cut down the middle. It slams into the transparent glass doors and crumples before them, still and obviously unmoving, slowly leaking.

After a few seconds, a dark tendril of something reaches out, curls around the jutting left ankle, and drags it with painstaking slowness back into the fog.

At least the rest of them probably made it, right?

Right?

Hopefully you weren't one of the others to follow their lead. If you were, that dark shape seems to be closing in awfully quick.

eff this, let's bounce

A pair of car keys can be found discarded or perhaps dropped in their owners' haste. Braving the mist when it's at its lightest and pressing the key fob will cause a car to beep politely, flashing lights to indicate its location in the fog. Take anyone willing to go with you and pile in. Try to get the hell out of dodge!

An excellent idea....

Within five miles of the car's journey the battery will die and the engine will stall. Consider yourselves effectively stranded and with no one but yourselves to blame. Perhaps help will come if you wait long enough? Hours, surely no more than a few days... Maybe you should consider braving the fog to get back? Five miles can feel like a hundred in conditions like these.

Either way, it seems like you're trapped in the car for about as long as R. Kelly got trapped in the closet during that one unfortunate CD.

radio chatter

Characters in the library and the church will be able to communicate via walkie talkie radio chatter immediately! Characters in the mall will not have this ability until later in the month, so any network style threads with a mall character will take place during Week Two of the October plot or later, after most people have already been fully introduced to the setting and given time to adapt.

Roles

Employee of the Month (Multiple)

Some characters will be printed wearing a designated kiosk uniform, their name sloppily stickered in slightly crooked letters onto a Dippin' Dots badge, or whatever store they may happen to be assigned to. The cool voice that introduces them to the mist will carry on to tell them that they'll be playing employee # _____ in this month's immersive experience. Their motivations and objectives are simple: go to work.

Except the role seems to be bugged, because they can never not go to work. If they leave the five or six foot radius of their designated post they'll begin to experience consequences, which worsen in severity based on distance and duration. The role doesn't end at mall closing, it doesn't end on Saturdays, it simply doesn't end. Hopefully next month's code push will have a bug fix; we apologize for the inconvenience.

(If choosing to keep these threads as game canon, the role will wear off within the first in-game week)

Aggravated Assault

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing the role of a CONVICTED FELON having recently been released on parole. Your motivation for this month's immersive experience is frustration. Having undergone hard time, you'll find that we have increased your aggression and temper characteristics, and lowered your inhibitions. Your objective is to find and begin an altercation with Snuff the Rooster, who will be playing the role of the person who turned you in, NARK. Your altercation must take place in a public space with witnesses, and may not stop until Snuff the Rooster is unconscious, evicted from the mall, or someone intervenes.

Thank you for your participation!

Consequences for not completing the objective in this role can be moderate to severe.

Snuff the Rooster

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing the role of NARK. Formerly a close friend and ally of CONVICTED FELON from Aggravated Assault, you were quick to roll on them during police questioning in exchange for your freedom. Your motivation is to turn over a new leaf, and get your shit together. Your objective is to survive the altercation.

Thank you for your participation!

The Lovers (Duo Role)

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing one half of a partnership role! Please seek out (character 2). Your motivation this round is love, and the need to protect your partner from threats both inside and outside of the mall. Your objectives is to greet your lover with a kiss and place them above all others. Do not act like strangers.
Consequences for not completing the objective in this role or failing to present a convincing couple can be mild to moderate.

Pathological

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing a background character in our current setting. Your motivation is to tell lies; at least one third of what you say must be unarguably untrue. Your objective is to keep these lies from being discovered as false.
Consequences for not complying with this role can vary from mild to severe, with the compulsion to tell larger and larger lies growing as time goes on.

Scared Speechless

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing a background character in our current setting. You may choose one person, stranger or otherwise. This is the only person you may communicate with, either verbally or through writing.
Consequences for not complying with this role are severe.

Glitches

potency error

Someone seems to have miscalculated the relative strength of intoxicants; all inhibition-altering substances seem to have been cranked up to eleven. One shot has the strength of three, though the taste seems to stay exactly the same. One or two drinks will quickly creep up on you. One of the joints found discarded in the bathroom trashcans will easily green you out. God forbid you've got anything stronger.

greatest movie of all time

Settling in to the relatively nice theater found at the far end of the mall is a decent way to make the time go by. The projectors are automated, and there are six different theaters that show flicks at scheduled times.

Except that every single one of them is showing Spider-Man 3. Every single one, every single showing, no matter what is advertised, becomes Spider-Man 3. That's how you know this is a horror game. Hope you didn't wander in by mistake because the doors will shut behind you and leave you to watch the entire showing. Please keep your feet off of the seats.

please replace toner cartridge

It seems there was an error in printing someone this first time around; everything came through but the visuals somehow. Your character is flesh and blood, fully formed, wearing tangible clothes even, but are completely invisible. Donning additional clothing causes it to clip out and then promptly disappear. Taking clothes off will cause them to reappear. Hopefully this gets fixed in the next lite patch.

(If choosing to keep these threads as game canon, the glitch will wear off within the first in-game week)

code bases by tricklet

Comments

[singingwhilecrying]

[ Oh, no... There are very few things to say worse than that. Pearl's determination to keep up a smile drops into a look of pure horror. Whatever remnants of color could possibly be in Pearl's face drain at Midoriya's word, and she immediately crouches down.

Her expression is one of desperately trying, and spectacularly failing, at trying to withhold any panic. Worse yet, the unfortunate conclusion she draws is announced to anyone and everyone within shouting earshot of a very perturbed gem. ]

Are you saying they beat you if you don't work!? [ This is the final straw for Pearl. This is a case of pure, unchecked abuse. And she needs to pull this poor, miserable child away from this painful atmosphere. ]

Please remain calm! [ The way she's shouting, it's hard to tell if she's telling that to Midoriya or somehow trying to project her own obvious panic. ] There's no need to panic! I'm going to make sure this doesn't happen again. Come on, we need to get out of here. Now!

[ And now she starts pulling. All she knows is that she wants to get this poor boy away from the kiosk before whoever is watching it can intervene. ]

[middlechilde]

Diana had been trained to face a variety of evils. Give her a sword and she could take down a water-rose demon. Give her a pair of strappy sandals and she could flirt her way past the most unpleasant of bouncers.

She didn't know what to do naked in the middle of a mall.

It was unnerving.

What would Artemis do? That was pretty much always the standard question for a situation like this. And Arty would...gather intel. She supposed. "Well," Diana said, scanning the area. "We know that this is apparently Maine. 2007." She pointed toward the food court. "And a mall. And we may have lost some time." Quite a lot of time, actually, if Peggy was fresh from the 1940s. "So who could manage that?"

Cainites. Or something worse...

[middlechilde]

She frowned a little. Spider-man's main girlfriend? But what about the redhead. The two of them seemed to have some kind of thing happening. She remembered the recaps on E! with that sexy upside-down kiss. It had left her feeling a little more hot and bothered than she cared to admit.

Well, maybe the story would get clearer as the movie went on.

Meanwhile, she gave the guy a smile, reaching over to offer her hand. He was kind of cute. In that way all guys had when they thought they were being super hip or something. "Diana," she said. "I'd say 'nice to meet you,' but the circumstances are a little less than groovy."

Mist. Monsters. Maine. Other scary words that began with M.

...mall.

[generalstudies]

[Don't worry, if he dies, he'll make sure there's a note or something along with the appropriate quest reward. Or maybe he'd show up as a ghost and lead him to a secret stash.]

[It's at least a bit more normal. If Gintoki showed any sign of panic, that would probably make it worse. At least with that reaction he can try and pull himself back into a state that can provide answers. He can try and think.]

N- No. It wasn't like this... then. [It was surprisingly fine coming out of the pod, aside from being disoriented and, you know, being kidnapped.]

They told me I had to work- [and just admitting that makes his lungs briefly feel like they're full of lead] but, like- the mall's closed, right? I should get to go- [he coughs and his hand is speckled with a strange, black substance]

Shouldn't I get to go home? Or- or, what, just back in the pod?! [ok not even the purest concentrated casualness can really stop that fit of nerves]

[vengaboy]

[Ohhh he absolutely finds it condescending.]

Pfft. Lady, please. You nag me any more about the basics and I might just mistake you for my second-in-command.

[Not really though. Nobody can replace Kojuro.

With another small grunt he slams the bench down in front of the doors, then steps back to evaluate his work. Doesn't cover much of the huge glass entrance, does it...]

A shame I haven't seen any swords in this place yet, either. Or armour, for that matter.

[officerzeppelin]

“You know, one of the best places to discuss is in the tea aisle. You ready lly must sample our autumn varietal!” At some point during that last sentence, Dean lost track of what he was even saying. He was just reading words off of signs and packaging, but it seemed to temporarily win the approval of the other staff and patrons. At the very least, the humongous guy manning a meat slicer stopped eyeballing them like they were that afternoon’s head cheese.

Dean walked Sam to the tea aisle. (WHY? How many kinds of tea could there even be?). It took Dean a solid ten seconds to mentally deal with just how many kinds if tea existed, but then he returned to the problem at hand. “So why are you here? Were you just going to casually shop for a salad in the... the Veggely Weggely?” Yeah, he smiled at that terrible joke. He could play it off as part of the customer service schtick, but he just thought Veggely Weggely sounded funny.

[singingwhilecrying]

Any other person would have immediately recognized the latent sarcasm and lack of genuine understanding from that mumble, but Pearl just continues to smile absentmindedly at the first point. "Yes, we have!" She comments with a small nod of her head, simply affirming that suspicion. Being surrounded by combat-ready gems on high alert will do that to you. She's so glad he understands!

Then comes the suggestion. Pearl's brow furrows as she looks over the man. A night light? A place to sleep? Well... These aren't unheard of requests. But usually, the requester is a little. Small. And less fully grown and supposedly independent. "You're in a mall," Pearl continues her streak of pointing out the obvious, "Have you not been able to find a night light in any store?"

Her lips tug downwards, somewhat put-off by the oddity of his request. Eventually, she just hesitantly lifts a finger to point vaguely down one of the halls, hoping that maybe this is just a very weird way to phrase for directions. "I believe Beyond The Bath has some, some scented with essential oils which help with easier sleep." There. She helped! Even though this is just affirming her perfectly justified fear of most humans.

[generalstudies]

[It was totally normal for classmates to look out for each other. Still, there's a little twinge of something- envy, maybe?]

"Ah, yeah, I get it." [He glances down at his lap, just sort of thinking.]

"Must be nice to have your classmates looking out for you."

[There's a lot of different layers there. On one hand, he got the sinking suspicion none of his classmates from general studies would show up here. Everyone else he'd run into had been from the hero course. They were all special. He was an exception. He wanted to get there, though. He was willing to do whatever it took to get there. Actually experiencing something like this, though, it gave him doubts.]

[underachievements]

[Well now she's definitely listening, perking right up. It's not often Jessica Jones even does that, but he's pretty much said the magic words for her to do damn near anything. She just won't let him know that.]

Good. Normal stuff isn't that good. [Stronger than normal booze for a stronger than normal girl sounds good to her. Not that she feels like explaining that, but she's at least marginally thankful for strong whiskey.

So after a pause, she starts with the meatball and the bacon, adding the sauce, and then adds the sauce and cheese before opening the little toaster oven. She throws him a look.]

You don't skimp on the sauce and neither will I. Deal? [She isn't expecting the whole thing, but she's making him a damn sub. Feel lucky, Dippin' Dots Guy.]

[officerzeppelin]

Dean grinned. “I think that when things are at their worst, that’s when you have to appreciate the good stuff.” Okay, now that line definitely had worked in the past, but in those instances, Dean had known what was going on and had been the brave hero protecting the girl from ghosts, vampires, and in one case, a possessed ceramic pig. Today, though? He kind of wished some Tomb Raiding heroine-type would break through the wall and at least provide an explanation.

But none had, and no one was answering his questions, so it was he was watching a popcorn flick with no popcorn. But at least he was no longer alone. “So, Diana, what brings you to the movies?”

[shipyards]

[He looks around the small group of people that's started to form, but she's probably right. He's someone that pretty much thrives on chaos, but he knows she's probably right.]

Suppose a Vice Admiral knows how to handle that. Not sure what I could do-- [But if she has any ideas, he's at least open to hearing them. Last thing he wants is more people getting hurt.]

[belligerents]

She squinted back at him. Something was telling her to be accepting of him, but Raven Reyes both has problems opening up to people and letting them help her. So even if she's limping as she carries the tool box, she just looked back at him. But before she got to object, she handed it over.

Exhaling, she looked less pleased. "I'm looking to take a part the antitheft scanners. Maybe hit up the electrical store. I mean the tech here is dated, but I'm working with what I got," she told him. Like she always did.

[majormalfunction]

"Is it that strange?" Never met a cyborg, then. That's simultaneously good to know and highly concerning. Not that she really expects a that much after the lecture and the apparent year she's in now. That part she's just trying not to think too hard about. She's already trying to wrap her brain around...well. Everything else.

"It's a cleanroom environment. Looks about the same. Only the lecture is different, really."

[relieable]

Mission? Wait, have you fought monsters before?

[that's possible, right? maybe there is hope for them after all]

[outwear]

Sam's face screwed into an unpleasant expression and he silently repeated Veggely Weggely to himself with a good amount of disdain.

"Come on, Dean, you know I came here looking for you," he implored as he tucked a Don E’s Organic Healthfoods flyer a little deeper into the back pocket of his jeans. He honestly hadn't enjoyed the waking experience, but he'd already met a couple interesting people who were about as clearly confused as the rest of them even if they weren't talking about it.

Glancing at the wall of tea, Sam nodded, pointed, and reached out for the autumn varietal. The slight glance at Dean, a twinge of guilt at his interest, and the younger Winchester was doing what he could to compensate. "We've got to make this look real." Saying so a risk, he knew, but he also understood how much more complex tea blends got around the colder months and he thought he could use a cup of tea later, anyway.

[shipyards]

In the mall, trying to settle down. [It's been one hell of a day.]

MUST SEE TV

[156]

"—Well, excuse me if your policy doesn't specify false advertising as a reimbursement option, but this is not a theater, this is a cinema — also known colloquially, but accepted more specifically, as a movie theater — and if I have to sit here all day, I'll get my two hundred fifty-two dollars and seventy-four cents worth!"

The little man following the pedantic rant sat next to Dean, legs crossing as he carefully adjusted his slightly-too-large suit. Niles Crane had no idea what he was getting himself into.

He looked up at the screen, almost excited when he thought he recognized what he was seeing. "Oh, this is that Black Widow movie, isn't it?" he asked as he stuffed the fake Hamilton ticket into his suit's inner pocket. He should have known that deal had been too good to be true.

a ]

[looming_terror]

[Jumping a bit at the sound of a voice so close to him, he looks up before unconsciously scooting a couple cautious inches away as the stranger sits down beside him. Looking at her apprehensively, it takes a moment or two before he answers her.

There was something about the way she referred to the other people here as "humans" that seemed a bit off. But then again, he wasn't exactly an expert on people, so maybe they did just occasionally referred to each other that way.

Shrugging in the jacket that's about three sizes too big for him, he pulls it a little more tightly around himself.]

I don't know about them, [As he gestures with a little nod in the general direction of the other's milling around the fountain, his voice sounds just as unabashedly nervous as he looks.] but I'm just trying to stay away from the windows.

[After another pause he adds with a slight mutter,] And I thought there might be food or a way out here.

[ Seeing as he was still here and didn't seem to have any food on him, he was wrong on both accounts. But oddly enough, both his legs and one of his arms are soaked in water, as if he'd ended up in the fountain at some point. ]

majestic

[cowardice]

Give it up Ryo, Akira hasn't smiled in like an hour now. You've failed to protect his smile and your ideas are scaring him, you're a terrible mom friend.

"B-but...", Akira stammers, already fresh out of alternatives that don't run the risk of killing them both. "...I think we should wait it out, Ryo. Let's not do anything crazy unless we know we're really in danger. Can't we hold off just a little longer?"

...Except they are really in danger and Akira knows it, but until those nightmarish creatures are banging down their door, he'll refuse to believe it. Rather, he'd really prefer if he could just, you know, pretend they aren't totally fucked right now. Yeah.

[singingwhilecrying]

Before? [ Pearl lets out another hearty, airy laugh. One that lasts precisely as long as it takes for her head to throb and immediately remind her why she shouldn't be laughing. ]

Oh, that's not good. Ahem! I can't think of when I'm not fighting some sort of monster! I'm sure this is just another case of a scared, corrupted creature dealing unacceptable levels of bodily and structural harm.

[begrudge]

A terrible mother, but far from the worst. Give him some credit, he hasn't butchered Akira and cried over his corpse yet.

"It'd be best if we made preparations. Assuming that the door can be busted down and let in the mist, it's not out of the realm of possibility that we could be followed inside this place as well."

All of this rationalization without acknowledging the fridge horror that their minds might've fabricated this shit. (How much is real and how much is illusory? Can he even trust his own judgment when his grip on reality is a flimsy, dithering thing?) Ryo ducks down, one hand supplanted on Akira's shoulder amidst the motley pile they've collected.

"Do you want to drink together? To try and calm your nerves."

He'd intended to drain most of the liquor directly down the sink, but maybe mild intoxication would make Akira more amenable to aiding him. No one tell them that anything vaguely potent in nature is cranked up to extremes, though. Ryo's got no idea that it'll take less than three-fourths of a bottle between the two of them to get egregiously drunk.

[cowardice]

It's probably safe to suggest Ryo's judgment isn't to be trusted under any circumstances, just saying. Akira doesn't pick his friends that wisely, however, so you can bet he's going to trust Ryo anyway.

The fact that Ryo might be scared just as shitless as he is doesn't evade Akira's notice, though. That said? He can't imagine alcohol aiding them much, but Ryo's the one who has experience here. He'd certainly know, what with his penchant for doing literally anything edgy and bad for his own health.

"...If you think it'll help, we can give it a try." Yeah, getting gored to death's probably gonna hurt less if they're drunk off their asses. You're so smart, Ryo. This is why you're a professor in another universe. "You go first. I'll have whatever's left over."

[codominant]

[not a surprise that she's in the same situation as him; she's got more than one script to stuck to — but even with that similarity, there's where they differ. he's been told to "survive" too, and while he doesn't yet know the consequences of disobeying the other orders, he's not keen to find out with stakes this severe]

Sounds like you were kidnapped or something. But who goes through all that trouble just to drop you off in a mall? That doesn't make any sense.

[codominant]

You've been in the mall this long and we've missed each other? Hm... [NOT A GREAT START FOR JUNIOR HEROES]

We should regroup. By the fountain?

[begrudge]

That's because he's suppressing his terror, asphyxiating it until his fear's down to a manageable level, even while he's sweating buckets in his trenchcoat. In another lifetime, he's a chaotic evil marshmallow-egg, and in another he's a pining horse, but in this universe he's just a dumbass, glancing at the assembly of items like the gutted ingredients to a Molotov cocktail and hoisting up the bottle closest to them.

"Sure. Just steel yourself right before you take a sip. This is your first time, isn't it?"

Drinking and all. Akira's always been a goody-two-shoes who doesn't make a habit out of lacing crap with drugs. With no other reason to broker an argument, Ryo tips the base of the bottle up, chugging it down. He's only made it a fourth of the way through before he's clumsily handing it over to Akira, eyes too bright.

"Here."