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

Not all right

[sanephiroth]

[From one guy in an out-of-place outfit to another:]

A futile endeavor.

[If that creature out there wanted to break the glass doors, it easily could. It may be better if he said that instead of sounding absolutely snide and smug about it.]

[avengeme]

If they had met soon after the invasion of New York, maybe things would have been different. He might even have held fear for Loki.

Right now? He's at peace. And after a moment, he lowers the book he's reading, face down and open at the page he's at. He lifts his only hand to tug down at the collar of his shirt. On the left side of his chest where the scar from Loki's scepter sits, an ugly blackened criss-crossing patch of dead cells stem from it, creeping right at his collar bone.

"Get in line."

[pharmaka]

"Ah, I see. Thank you." It's not common for gods to thank anyone, but Circe has never been a very good goddess.

She carefully switches the channel to a different number-- not that she recognizes this script, but she understands the principle-- and speaks. "Is there anyone listening?" Circe releases the button, then adds to Tex, "This is a marvelous invention. I would think it divinely made if you were not so underwhelmed by it."

[pharmaka]

She's not sure what they're thinking either, but Circe has never been good at understanding what goes through the minds of others, god or mortal. It seems hopelessly reckless, or desperate, to charge out like that, when the fact is things are very strange but not all that very dire.

"I agree. It is all... very strange to me here. As you would know." How awkward, this acting is. Playing the role of the villainess has become second nature to her, but the time she was last a lover was so very long ago. It is stilted, however sincerely she tries. "It would do good to get our bearings--" A short hesitation, before she concludes no real lover of hers would ever remain ignorant of her withcraft. "And it would be even more fortunate if I could locate growing plants, or dyes, or something of the like, so I may see if there is a spell I can fashion."

It is not a strong hope in her, given how she is totally without her stores or her kitchen, much less her garden and her island. But Circe is unwilling not to try. And being a witch is no great secret; even mortals may be witches.

[a_shadow]

All right then. I'll be the blonde in the leather jacket, just so you know.

[ She clicks the radio off then, not giving any kind of farewell— because she's coming, not going, of course. She'll be there. At some point.

In the end it's nearly half an hour before she arrives at the food court, but she makes it. She looks around for a moment, then calls out in a raised tone: ]

Hey! Who's the kid who was talking to me on the radio?

It was no time at all, it's fine

[a_shadow]

Tex raises an eyebrow at her.

"You're going to go to the effort of stealing something and you pick turtlenecks? No no no. Let me show you where the cashmere is."

She jerks her head in that direction and starts walking there.

"I really wouldn't expect I need to teach a thief about getting the best value."

There's one major problem with the tack Tex has taken: the increasing nausea and headache that grows worse with every step. She lays an arm across her stomach, trying to ignore it, but when they're about two-thirds of the way to the cashmere rack, she gags and her vision goes white with the pain.

Tex gives a light growl, grimacing. "Sorry, I—"

One more step— and Tex goes to her knees.

Lavellan do you like punches to the nose

[a_shadow]

Tex had been heading toward the food court, finding that she'd been neglecting this physical body for too long. She believes she's experiencing hunger, and she intends to do something about it. Consequently, though, she's feeling a bit off, a bit faint.

When Lavellan addresses her, she is immediately on guard. She doesn't like being addressed by name by someone she doesn't know, especially when she's never been in a body like this one before. She frowns at him, brows drawn together.

"Who the hell are you? Why do you know who I am?"

[a_shadow]

Keep running!

[ Tex has slowed enough to match his speed, having noted that when she glanced back at him, she saw a shadow tentacle through the mist, seemingly ready to wrap around him. What she wouldn't do right now for some kind of weapon, a staff or even one of those plasma swords the aliens are famous for carrying.

She slows a slight bit more, considering grabbing a tentacle and trying to throw the creature attached to it—but it occurs to her that she has no idea how big the owner is. So she just keeps pace once more, jamming her finger against the fob button once again. She can see the shape of the car now whenever the lights flash. They're getting close. ]

Go ahead of me!

Work

[fuckingpassw0rd]

"Two things I never thought I'd been seeing here, especially together. Bibles and Androids."

Hank was trying to ease the tension considering the first things he had heard and spotted exploring the damn place was someone going "shit" and the yellow LED told him that something had to be wrong. His smile is bittersweet as he gives the other a small greeting.

"What the fuck, they gave you a name tag too?"

good_old_fashioned_LOVERS_boy.mp3

[redclown]

Honestly? Wade had been pretty much resigned to facing The Consequences (tee-em) of insubordination, given the role he’s been assigned. He may have a “YES” list in his permissions post longer than your average CVS receipt, but straight non-conning some rando is not on it. Eat him, assholes, cuz he would do anything for love but he won’t do that.

(For those you you taking notes at home, though, eating him? Not a hard no.)

And he had been planning on riding out said Consequences (tee-em), even manifesting as they are in the uptick in paranoia; the gnawing, awful feeling growing in his mind insisting that, as usual, the few people he gives a damn about are going to pay dearly for his refusal to play nice; the intrusive scenarios that are becoming more pressing, more violent, more realistic by the minute... It’s getting bad enough that he barely notices the incredibly disgruntled dude stalking in his direction, instincts only belatedly kicking in when he’s whirled around by the strong hand on his shoulder and unceremoniously headbutted in the mouth by another mouth.

A damn nice looking mouth, he realizes as he dumbly blinks masked eyes at who he’s assuming is his shiny new government-mandated bf. He could do a lot worse, but still. DAMN YOU, YOU COMMIE FUCKS.

He’s only handicapped for another heartbeat, though, and never one to be upstaged he leans over as the guy yells at a cloud, wrapping an arm around his waist and laying his free hand against his chest.

“Good morning yourself, sweetie-pie,” he coos, somehow managing to convey a coy fluttering of eyelashes even with an entirely covered face. “I was wondering where you’d run off to; it’s not nice to leave a lady to wake up alone, you know...”

He taps a gloved finger against the guy’s chest admonishingly. Remember pal, you started it.

“How you gonna make it up to me?”

[holistic_detective]

Hiding under the bed sounded like the best suggestion Dirk had heard all day. But, his instincts told him that hiding wasn't the best decision he could make. Of course, heading outside was even more of a bad decision.

"Very good suggestion, Mr. uh..."

His voice trailed off as he took in the man's clothing and demeanor. There was something about him that just screamed 'secret-government-agency'. Like most things in Dirk's life, he couldn't explain how someone could look as though they'd be most comfortable wearing dark glasses and thin black tie. There didn't appear to be any real explanation other than 'if you've seen one secret government agent, then you've seen them all.' Plus, it took away from the desire to stare at the man's missing arm. Rude, Dirk. Very rude.

He held out his hand to the man before he slowly began to drop it, beginning to doubt his original assessment of his surroundings. "Tell me, you're not from Blackwing... are you?"

[paenumbra]

"Maybe I want them to get the wrong idea," Matt chuckled, glancing over at the man who was poking at his chair.

"The more you poke at it, the angrier it will get. I don't think the chair likes that. Like every good relationship, you have to give a little to get a little."

What’s behind door number A??

[redclown]

Okay, so maybe any other time Wade would have been more or less content to let Leather Daddy over there have his fun, let the thrashing play out as it will because shit, he don’t know that other guy... But, well, he’s been trying, okay, and the WWWD (What Would Webs Do) mindset is proving hard to shake even without his bestie nearby. God damn goody two-shoes rubbing his morals all over Deadpool’s comfortably neutral alignment...! He’s definitely gonna stay out of it. Totes. It’s not his problem, seriously, he has better things to do, like hog the magic fingers for the next eternity—

...Sigh. Here he goes, doing the Spidey thing. One friendly neighborhood helper-outer, coming right up.

“I didn’t hear the magic word,” he starts, stepping closer and assessing the situation properly. Hey, at least there’s someone here dressed more bizarrely than he is! At that fun little observation, he cocks his hip and gestures at Angry Guy’s outfit, adding “...Also, 2002 called and it super wants its bondage-chic look back.”

Says the guy dressed head to toe in an ungodly mix of gaudy spandex and leather; if anyone looks like Condoms Galore jizzed its entire ‘apparel’ selection all over them, it’s really, really not sir-threats-alot.

[generalstudies]

[Oh, come on.]

It's not like I actually possess people. [As if the easiest thing to respond to was the commentary on his quirk rather than anything else about it.]

So, there's something out there you can't blow up naturally. What the hell is it? Where is it? You didn't lead it back here, right?

[agereversal]

Unlikely. [The bigger question is, why isn't this man tethered to one spot?]

Did you?

[agereversal]

[Love scoots out of the way so he doesn't get run over by the stranger.]

Don't break anything. [He... really doesn't care if the guy steals ice cream or trashes the stall.]

Catherine Chun | SOMA

[arkproject]

    > GREATEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME TIME TIME

Catherine can be found in the movie theatre, squinting in puzzlement at the particular screening of Spider-Man she manages to catch, something like horror layered deeply beneath.

"Is this... What year was this filmed? Did I get sent to the past?" That's not even supposed to be possible by the rules of quantum physics. Also, if Simon ever finds out, it would make him absolutely insufferable. Unless it's a simulated environment... That wouldn't jump so quickly to her mind if she didn't make so many of them, and if the people inhabiting the mall weren't so, well, one-dimensional and scripted.

In the meantime, there is one (1) displaced android talking at normal volume in the middle of a movie that, to her tastes, is both incredibly fake and incredibly overacted. Wow. "Maybe I should go back to the mysterious mist monsters," she announces. That definitely seems more her speed.

    > RADIO

Hello? [ Catherine's clear, crisp voice rings across the channel. ] My name is Catherine Chun. If anyone's seen any working computers, or, heck, I'll take any non-working computers, can you let me know? I'd really appreciate it.

[ She finishes with a suddenly perky, ] Thanks!

[sanephiroth]

"If such is the state of the world in 2000 years, it's in no place to judge." Sephiroth scoffs, eyeing as Wade steps close. "And neither do you."

The poor sod gets a reminder shove against the door, nudging the door slightly open in a manner that's probably uncomfortable to everyone here.

[avengeme]

It's hard to say. We're here, aren't we?

[He peers at the selection of flavors]

Any recommendations?

[agereversal]

Banana split is popular. [He didn't exactly try it, he just sort of... poured some of all the flavors into a cup and stirred them together.]

[avengeme]

"I was on a beach in the Bahamas." He pulled out the pockets of his pants, showing how empty they were. "I've got nothing to give." He settled into the angrily beeping chair. "Guess there won't be magic fingers for me," he sighed dramatically.

[avengeme]

[Dude, gross.]

I'll have that then.

Any thoughts on our puppet masters out there?

[Not the ones in here because apparently you don't talk about fight club.]

D — The Lovers (Duo Role)

[a_man_out_of_time]

It's difficult enough for Steve to understand what's going on — the smooth, curved ceiling, the flickering image that turns into a welcome video, the thought that he's somehow been moved back in time by a year — it all feels wrong. But in addition to the regular introduction, additional instructions follow, and Steve's brows narrow in shock when he sees:

"Congratulations, participant! You will be playing one half of a partnership role! Please seek out DIANA ABEL. Your motivation this round is love, and the need to protect your partner from threats both inside and outside of the mall. Your objective is to greet your lover with a kiss and place them above all others. Do not act like strangers."

Then the shackles click open.

---

Getting clothes was a top priority. The first person he'd run into, thankfully for Steve, was a man. But as soon as he understood that there would be many people here — including whoever Diana was — Steve's upbringing took over and before anything else, he desperately needed to be clothed. He wishes, also desperately, that he didn't need to just take the clothes, so after he manages to pull on the first shirt and pair of jeans he finds, Steve starts looking around for an employee of some kind.

Maybe he could work something out.

This place ... did have employees, right?

[symbioticbeat]

Honestly, locking everyone inside sounds pretty ominous too, but their options are limited until they know more about what's outside.

"I'm gonna wager a guess that you don't have any of your gadgets from home here." Or else those would surely be part of the equation. Iron Man would stand a better chance than a lot of them if he had his armor, since he doesn't need powers to work it. Gwen not having her powers means that she's about as easy to squish as her hero namesake. "I don't have anything from home either."

She's going to count that as a lie, since she still has the symbiote. Alien or not, they now share a home.

"Do you think this place has a basement?"

[middlechilde]

As it happened, Diana was of a similar mindset. She'd pulled a purple, paisley dress, one that hung off of her like she was some sort of forest sprite. It was a little like being in the sixties again, running around in clingy fabric, without shoes or a bra. But she wasn't feeling sentimental.

She felt more like a thief.

Which really, really wasn't Diana's way. She lied. She smuggled. She occasionally fought. But stealing?

Not exactly something one of Oprah's donors did.

"Hello?" she called, gliding between the stacks, looking one way and the other. "Does anyone work here?" Not that she knew what she'd do if she found someone. She didn't have any money. Money went in wallets. Wallets lived in pockets. Pockets lived in her clothes. Which were probably back in Phoenix somewhere.

One sharp turn of a corner and Diana's breath caught in her throat. She stared up at one of the most exquisite examples of manliness she had ever seen. With blue eyes to boot.