uploadedmeme | Test Drive

Entry tags:

Test Drive

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

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[The mess covering the boy's hand is black. No hint of red when the light hits it - no scent of rotting blood. No polychromatic sheen - it isn't oil. There's no telling whether the slop is organic or artificial.

But none of that matters.

It's strange. Impossible, and yet they're both marked with it.

Takasugi brushes his thumb over the substance on his leg, smearing it like ash across fabric.

Already fading... though he doubts the boy's pain has abated any, judging by the strain ever present in his voice.] Hmm- [An accusatory look, as if the boy only has himself to blame.]

Did anyone else, [anyone real] help themselves?

Uh, well. I broke my arm pretty badly a while ago... [By broke, he means shattered nearly every bone in his forearm. On more than one occassion. The doctor had said it looked like a firecracker had gone off inside his arm.]

So, when I leave, it kinda feels like it did when I broke it.

Heh.

You know how this is going to end.

Someone's going to end up cut to pieces. [Takasugi doesn't intend to be the body strewn in bits across a mall parking lot. He'd rather see blackened, rotting Amanto takoyaki smeared across the asphalt.

An endeavor he'll pursue alone without a second thought.

Gintoki can get involved, or continue to play pretend. It makes no difference to him.]

Tether, then. [He casually corrects his terminology.]

No belts, but this should work. [He's already raided the sporting goods store, and claimed a backpack he's stuffed with supplies. He unhooks a hundred feet of paracord from a loop and tosses the entire thing to the boy.]

Do you know how to tie a secure knot?

So it's painful, but if necessary you could push through it. Does the arm actually break and repair itself?

[Agitation is clear in the widened, icy eyes that regard him as if he's the anomaly here. That's a difficult accusation to sling, between an alien, a monster in the mist, and a man who has long denounced his humanity.

They're all outcasts, he supposes.

Not that he'll be casting his lot in with this paranoid creature.] I'm not planning on playing along, if that's what you mean.

They're looking for a horror story - you're doing a good job acting the part.

Niles seemed to ponder a moment, his hands placed out in front of him on his knees. He wasn't interested in touching anything in this cinema with anything that couldn't be steam cleaned, obviously. As he sat there for a moment, something seemed to spring up on him and he raised his hands and said, "Oh!"

Turning some in his seat, Niles completely wiped away the distance Winchester had gained in his maneuver to turn away.

"Oh, yes, you mean the pulp comic series that was informed heavily by Harry Steeger's The Spider, of course," he said, knowledgeably, and yet— "I don't know Spider-Man, no, but I suppose I know of the character in a way." Crane seemed pleased with that.

"My brother is a much bigger nerd than I am—" It's said like it's some scandalous descriptor (and it would be had Frasier arrived, too). "—so I'm sure he would know what you're talking about."

Who knew why that statement was allowed to exist, but there it was. The real tea.

That's very American, for sure. [Izuku is smiling, happy that seems to be coping well. Petunia seemed like a very adaptable person.]

If you have any questions about this time period, you can always ask me! Err, not that I was actually alive at this time, or in America...but a lot of the technology is at least familiar to me!

[He's eager to hear more of her perspective though. How often do you get to talk to someone who's seen the past first hand? Even if it was a different past than his.] What's been your favorite thing you've seen so far? If you don't mind me asking, that is!

He's going to fall over and hurt himself and at this point he probably deserves it for being so damn stubborn. He's trying at least, and she can be suitably impressed that he somehow manages not to fall over. That's just slightly terrifying, but at least they can't get outside to a car or anything yet. Maybe he won't actually kill someone.

She doesn't move from her spot, though, instead watching him move toward the counted with her arms crossed over her chest and a raised eyebrow, not really sure if she was hoping he'd fall over or not. It's probably politer to hope he won't, right?

"I suppose if I ask you can't actually explain what you're doing?"

[There's someone following him. Love hasn't gotten to be this old without at least some awareness of stalkers. But as long as no one actually attacks him, he's going to just ignore them.

The boy Shinichi's following is clearly not an NPC. He's tall for his age (middle school, or maybe a high school first year), with pastel blue eyes and matching hair. He's got too many earrings and bracelets and necklaces, black painted nails, and slightly smudged eyeliner, and for some reason is wearing a lab coat. He's also in the sporting goods store shoving a bunch of knives into a backpack he just grabbed.

When Shinichi's shoe squeaks against the floor, he doesn't put the knife in his hand down as he addresses the boy.]

Aren't you getting tired of following me?

Ah, that's...not wrong. [Everyone was pretty distracted with the mist and whatever lurked in it for the moment. But depending on how many people were here that were actually people, and how long they were expected to survive here...the supply of food wouldn't last forever, especially if there were people who weren't used to rationing in a disaster situation.

Hording supplies...it makes sense, but it also makes him uneasy. It seemed like the opposite of helping people--but you couldn't save anyone if you were also starving. A bad position to be in.] We should at least leave plenty for other people to have a chance to get supplies. People being hungry wouldn't help us either. [Todoroki wasn't the type of person to refuse someone help if they asked, so Izuku isn't too worried about it.]

[He pushes away his discomfort to give a small smile.] How is it out there, though? Any changes in the mist? [A nervous fidgeting of his fingers.] I can't leave this spot at all, so I'm curious on how things are going. I've been taking notes, but there's not much to see in this spot.

[The creatures teeming within an endless veil of fog aren't shuddering against the doors, true. Only because people have been venturing beyond their threshold, offerings of meat for the beast that consumes indiscriminately.

When it stops being fed, it will hunt.

Thin panes of glass won't stop the hunger those monsters possess.

The door can barely stop damp humidity from filtering in.

Takasugi lets himself be manhandled, shoulders squaring against the brash assault. He doesn't stumble when released, maintaining the exact distance - too close - that the youth had jerked him into.] I'm not going to let that monster kill me.

[Not giving up.]

But I'm not going to hide here and pretend things won't get worse.

Things like food, water blankets, clothes...we don't know how long it will be until this mist clears up, so it would be good to be prepared to have to wait for a bit. [That was the lucky part of being at a mall--plenty of stores.]

I think I should be able to. [That is, if it's only the arm that would break. The fact that it's working up old injuries makes him worry for his legs...but his right arm had always been the worse off.]

I haven't actually walked far enough to test if my arm will actually break, it just feels very similar to when I broke it. [Izuku is looking at the arm in question, flexing his fingers.] It's possible that the break would repair if I came back, but I want to get more information before I test something that risky out. The pain goes away when I come back, but-- [He holds out his hand, the pinky purple and bruised] --my finger still looks like this, so at least some physical repercussions remain.

[oh. food. that'd......... probably be a good thing to have! he's right]

O-okay, yeah. I'll look for some food. There's gotta be some sort of kitchen in here, right? [a pause as he looks behind him at some of the other people] I know we've got candles, but no electricity.

[The odd thump against the door had almost become normal. A punctuation of warning to anyone who dared to leave their forced captivity. The monsters outside seemed to throw these lumps of what was once living flesh around, toying with their food before devouring it.

But this pounding on the door draws Gintoki's attention. It's erratic and continuous nature causes his blood to run cold. If he looked up, would he see that the monsters were finally trying to break in?

After a brief moment of terror, the albino's eyes glance upward to see the figure of a young man desperately knocking to be let in. Gintoki's eyes widen and his body begins to move before he can process anymore information. Boots fall heavy on tiled floor and he reaches to unsecure the latch.

His eyes are transfixed on the lock as he flips it, unaware.... unable to focus on the possibility of a dark shape or movement in the fog behind this poor bastard. He simply wanted to reach out and save this stranger.

After a span of seconds that feels like minutes, the albino cracks the door and reaches to grab at the other - with every intention of pulling him inside so he can shove the door back shut. He offers no words in this exchange, far too focused on the situation to initially interact.]

[Shinso is feeling the blame. At the same time, what else could he have done? If he had left right away would this have happened? Why did he just do what he was told?]

[He takes another couple of shaky breaths, thinking back.]

There- ... a girl. [He talked to another normal person, a pretty nice normal person. The idea that she could be suffering right now is just about the only thing that could make him feel shittier. It's not like he really knew her. Still, the idea that he had offered her food and she might be in a situation like this-]

Hey- [he reaches out, grabbing at the other's clothes. There's another smudged stain of black. He doesn't really care about the state of someone's clothes right now.]

You didn't see anyone else like this, right?! No one else spitting up their- [hrrk]

[For all the energy he had in grabbing at the other, he does quickly turn away and end up spewing out another stomachful of black goop. It hits the floor with a sort of heavier sounding smack than a liquid should. As much as it's drying up on his hands, there's now a fresh lining of blackness to his lips. Gross.]

[It isn't the knife itself that's useless. A blade, no matter how small, can still slip between ribs or skewer flesh. Different sizes for different uses. But the boy betrays his ignorance in how obvious he thinks his answer is.

As if there's any need for canned rations with a god damned food court. As if bandages have any use when people are being torn limb from limb.

Still, preparing for the worst is something Takasugi hasn't caught many others doing. At least this guy has made it past the stage of caustic optimism. He'd gamble most of their ranks will die with those beliefs cradled in their dismembered arms.]

Cut a path. [That's what machetes are usually used for - hacking through jungle brush. The vines here have a life, a hunger, of their own, but it isn't so different.

Neither of them willing to budge beyond a superficial answer, Takasugi moves in a different way. Departing from his deliberation for the moment, he crosses the aisle to look over the boy's shoulder. Pluck a knife from the shelf.

Flip it open, and turn the weapon over in his hand. As if testing the weight-] Do you think you can hide out until this all blows over? [That tent is just really rustling his jimmies, apparently.]

[Gintoki has taken to carrying the six-pack of beer he'd swiped from the package outlet earlier. Granted, its more of a four-pack now for those keeping score - but hell if the man was paying that much attention to his rate of ingestion. Instead he wrestles another can out from the netting as he approaches the bench Hawks is sitting at. He takes a seat on the opposite edge of the seat and places the three remaining beers between them.

He pops open the tab... and pretends as if he's not glancing over at the guy looking so dour over a feather. Definitely not going to acknowledge that he's glanced over once, twice... three times now trying to get a read on the situation.

He takes a swig before he finally breaks the silence.]

You in molting season or something? That what it's called? [Sakata Gintoki, king of small-talk.]

Do you have a plan if you get outside?

[A non-answer to a non-answer. Izuku didn't think--knew--that he would not win in a fight alone with this man. The air around him was someone confident--experienced. Izuku didn't have a lot of experience, and he didn't have a quirk to rely on here. He was physically strong, but...

...it didn't matter. If this man wanted to go outside again, Izuku would do his best to stop him. He couldn't forgive himself if he let someone walk to their death without trying to prevent it.

The man could be strong--but there was no way he was stronger than the powers that had put them here. The powers that had created whatever lurked in the mist. Or else they wouldn't be in the same boat with the rest of them.]

[Even from just USJ the whispers were going around, that class 1-A was going to be something special. That drew a huge crowd to the sports festival, a crowd he definitely tried to take advantage of in order to show himself off. He wanted to show his classmates, the local pros, and that special class themselves that he could do it, too.]

[And, well, he hadn't made it all the way, yet. So, there's a sort of bitter reaction in his stomach where he can't tell if Izuku's acceptance made him feel better or worse.]

"And I'm looking out for you."

[He says it, a little stubbornly, even if he couldn't leave his station. There was still that underlying feeling that he was the one who needed extra attention from people like Izuku, even people like Bakugou, when he'd really much rather meet them on equal footing.]

"So don't break any more bones or anything, got it? We don't need Recovery Girl mad at you when we get back."

[It's "we" and they would get back. He says it with all the quiet confidence he can.]

[The ice cream... of the future?

The idea has brought stars to Gintoki's eyes. He's never given a damn about technological advancements or anything like that, but that was before now. That was before he realized that even something so precious as ice cream could be updated....

Ah. But was it really an improvement? Or did they hinder it...? Oh, now he simply had to try it first hand. So he's saddling up to the kiosk, ready with at least 20 questions.]

Oi, oi! Is this really the future's ice cream? What did they change? Is it still good? Does it really beat a classic parfait?

[... And there were 4 of them, blurted out almost at once. The albino samurai crosses his arms as he waits for a response from the Edgiest Kid to Ever Work an Ice Cream Stand.... but maybe he had a good heart. Hell, he must've had a good heart if he was devoting his life to ice cream...!

... Well, unless this futuristic ice cream sucked. Then he'd have to question that assumption.]

A kitchen would be good! [He thinks churches have kitchens, right?] It would be good to secure some matches or a lighter in a place that they couldn't get wet or ruined if something were to happen too.

[Izuku would make this guy a whole survival plan if he had to--it was reassuring to have something in place, so maybe it would alleviate some worries.]

[Shinso's entirely expecting Bakugou to kick back. He doesn't miss a beat when it happened. You don't poke a stick in a tiger's cage without expecting a snarl or two. Getting the snarl he expected at least puts a little smirk on his lips.]

[That smirk will widen to show a little hint of teeth when Bakugou peers around the corner. It does look a lot like Aizawa's smile, doesn't it. He'd probably find that way of remembering him a lot nicer than the others. The idea he's related to Eraserhead is actually a pretty big compliment.]

I wish I could be as surprised to see you. [In both the sense that he heard Bakugou way before seeing him and it was almost expected for people from Class 1-A to be in the epicenter of trouble.]

Is it really satisfying, swearing at people that barely even react?

[now Osomatsu's getting up to look for that kitchen. he's taking his walkie-talkie with him, because this guy he's been talking to is very knowledgeable, and pretty calm, so he's keeping Osomatsu calm]

Oh, right. I'll see if I can find a good place.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 38 of 79

Test Drive

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1c

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Mistakes

no subject

no subject

a

no subject

no subject

Employee of the Month

no subject

no subject

no subject