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

Noctis Lucis Caelum | FFXV

[noctyourking]

arrival

[ There was no room for questions, there was no guidance other than that of survive and away he went. He didn’t know how long he had been standing there, staring down the long lane and off into the distance. All he knew was that he felt as if he’d just woken up and he was here; what looked like a sports store with the immediate items on display around him.

Noct picked a foot up and pushed it forward, after about ten steps he was beginning to feel a bit more aware of himself and his environment. It was cool in the store and there was a distant sound of music without words that played low to his ears. What he heard next was his own breathing and he took a few more steps further into (or was it out of) the center of the store. Thus far he hadn’t seen anyone here, rather, he moved forward toward the check out stand where he hoped to find someone to help him. ]

employee of the month

[ Employee of the month; which equated to King of The Dippin’ Dots, evidently. He told himself everything would be fine, so long as he played this role as expected. Which meant he scooped the ice cream and served it out to eager people with blank stares or those who shared the same expression he had worn when he had first woke up on that bed.

From there, he had come to this vendor in the mall as if he’d done it a hundred times before. Some innate push forward to this destination kept him on track. When he tried to deviate from it he suffered an unbearable pain that afflicted every inch of his skin and blurred his vision. Once he got back on the “path” he was free of that pain. So, in this, his role was to serve ice cream, evidently, to those in the mall. ]

learn from the mistakes of others

[ Noct was one of the foolish who went out of the mall, following a line of others. At first, when he was tightly sandwiched between two people, he thought they were the brave. Weathering the unknown to come back with answers. Five feet out into the mist and he was starting to feel confident, so had the person behind and in front of him as they both detached from walking close to him. His heart fluttered at the sudden chill that replaced their warm bodies as he faced the mist as an individual rather than a link to a tethered row of people. Another few feet and everyone started to go off in a different direction, and he too became mesmerized by the thickness of the mist. There was a smell to it, as well, something he was about to put a finger on before the smell changed vastly and a quick splash of warmth hit him across the left side of his body.

Behind him her heard the splat of something hitting what sounded like glass he surmised it was the door, the mall door. He slowly looked down to his hand which felt grainy and wet and through the light blue-grey of the mist he found himself clear on the color of the gore on his flesh. Red, speckled, blood with pieces of what looked like broken fragments of bone, clothing, and whatever else coated the left side of his body and he immediately began his ascend back toward the mall doors.

Through the mist he couldn’t see where it was he was going, but there was a red trail of horror to lead him back from where he’d come. Upon reaching the mall doors he found the item responsible of flight beside his body— the left half of a body, cut vertical like a gingerbread cookie. Save for, of course, everything sweet that came of the treat.

Yet, in the mist perhaps that’s how they were seen; a treat to be sliced, diced, and devoured?

Noct’s red-stained hand slammed flat against the door and if he had been pleading it was lost to his ears as nothing could be heard over the sound of his own heartbeat. Let me in.. let me in!! Whatever was happening out here he was ill-equipped to handle it. What he didn’t want to register, was that the left half of that body belonged to the person who was tight against his front on their journey out. Yet, his mind knew as a sinking threat echoed down his spine: you’re next in line … you’re next..

Gods, someone let him the hell in! ]

Mistakes

[myorders]

[ Peggy's seen blood before, and while it's hardly fun, she's not the type of woman who screams and faints at the sight of it.

Still, when Noct's bloodstained hand slams against the door, she can't help but jump before she recovers herself. Clearly there's a person outside in trouble, and she can't just let him die out there like that other poor unfortunate soul did. ]

Just a moment and I'll have this open!

[ She calls out, hoping he can hear her through the glass. Also, she hopes that by opening the door, it doesn't let danger in right behind him. That's the last thing she needs.

She fumbles with the door for a few frantic seconds, but finally her fingers latch onto something, and she pulls. ]

Come on, quickly!

sorry for the delay, thank you for the tag!! :D

[noctyourking]

[ He pushes himself inside. The gap which he squeezes in through feels as if its tight enough that even his heart was being squeezed as he wiggled between the door and frame. Once inside he steps behind her and pushes the door closed, with arms around her, and once its shut he turns from her backside to push his back against the door while he looks ahead into the mall. He can see others have come to watch with worried expressions but it’s not them he’s really looking at. Rather, he still sees the image of the split-body that flew past him and hears the whistle and thump as it struck the door.

He doesn’t linger there long and he steps forward and turns his body again to face the door and the woman. He’s hardly caught his breath but he thanks her all the same. ]

Thank you… thank you… Thank you.. [ Desperation and fear linger through that gratitude. ]

you're welcome! 8D

[myorders]

[ She watches him pushing his way inside, doing her best not to hover too much, or to be too smothering, but her concern is clear. ]

Are you all right?

[ She waits to pose the question until it seems he's caught his breath. ]

No need to thank me. Any one of us here would have done the same.

[ Although she is well acquainted with the selfishness of others, at times she tends to opt for a more optimistic line of thought. ]

Do you need to sit down for a moment?

[noctyourking]

[ Oh, no, he’s far from alright. This was exactly not what he was expecting. What he was expecting was to be able to fight, respond with force, even warp away from danger—

none of his resources were available to him and he was frustrated, scared, and covered in gore from someone who.. who may have come from a world where they too could have fought to save their lives.

This isn’t right at all. Noct looked down to his hands and he began huffing and puffing again with distress. ]

Mistakes

[yorozuya]

[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.]

I'm sorry for the delay, I appreciate your tag! :3

[noctyourking]

[ Noct is gratefully pulled in, feeling like a breath inhaled after submerging from a long dive in a pool. His heart is bursting in his chest and the whites of his eyes are clear around his iris. Adrenaline courses through his body and even when he’s pulled into safety he lunges forward to get away from the door as quickly as possible.

Blood splatters and drips from him alongside chunks and specks of gore as he moves quickly. He turns to assess the situation and he thoughtlessly moves back toward the door to push it closed; even though the other had likely done so already. The gesture makes him feel in control, even if it was just a small moment of control, where he can physically put separation between himself and the danger.

He looks to his rescuer with a pale face, but rest assured, his insides are flaming red hot with striking cold fear that drains that color for the sake of his internal horror. He’s vibrating, fear evident in the look of him and the sound of him as he offers his gratitude. ]

Thank you! … Thank you!

Oh no worries!!

[yorozuya]

[After a bit of man-handling, the albino manages to pull the guy back into the relative safety of the mall. Though the door was only open for a few seconds, some of the mist slips into the door, and Gintoki inadvertently inhales some. Immediately his lungs feel as if they tense.

He pushes against the door to close it, and the door closes easily thanks to their combined effort. And yet even with the door closed, Gintoki clutches the handle as he attempts to catch his breath.

The run over here couldn't have winded him that much. No... that shit definitely had snaked its way into his lungs. His brows furrow before he lifts his gaze to exchange a look with the other.]

The hell did... you come from? You try to leave and turn back around, huh? [He asks, looking to avert his attention from the dull ache in his chest to a conversation. Any sort of conversation. He catches the other trembling and reaches over to slap a hand to his shoulder. He gives it a squeeze in hopes of reassuring the other in the wake of rushing adrenaline.]

[noctyourking]

[ Yes, very much the case. Noct thinks but he’s more than mess at the moment to clearly articulate his failed plans and poor execution. To have been out there and seen nothing yet be in clear danger and be able to do nothing about it was significantly messing with his identity.

He was a fighter, he could call on the powers of his old kings, of his lineage, of his birthright and fight! He could wield an arsenal of weaponry and he could warp to safety for further assessment of the situation if need be.

But he had nothing but his own two feet to lead him astray and turn him right back around in fear of his life. ]

I couldn’t… I couldn’t do anything!

[ A life was lost and in a way that was horrifyingly traumatic; and even with that thought he felt selfish for having considered that! Someone lost their life - probably a lot or all of the ones he walked out with did. But he was perturbed in the incredibly inconvenient terrorizing way in which half a body flew past him to coat him with gore. ]

I’m going to be sick..

[ He stumbled forward and began to dry heave. ]

joining the mistakes bandwagon

[cheffeur]

[ He knows, logically, that there should be far more thought put into this. He's seen the madness spawned forth from the mist, the way it entrances and ensnares peoples minds, pulls them out the doors and out into the dim fog, only for them to be rendered apart into pieces. He knows it's very unlikely that Noctis is even here-- After all, he feel completely cut off from the Armiger, from his ability to draw from the Crystal's power through the young royal... and that means that either someone has found a way to negate the ability entirely, or that Noctis simply isn't here, on this plane, this 'Earth'.

But even if the odds are impossibly slim of it actually being Noctis that he sees there, stepping out into the fog, and not some other dark-haired, dark-clad youth... it's still a chance. And Ignis will never let himself not try, if his (friend, brother, leige) king is in danger.

He'd been on the upper level when he first caught a glimpse of the maybe-Noctis cautiously stepping out of the doors, and immediately finds the closest stairs to begin bolting down. (Maybe this is why they keep stepping out and getting themselves killed. Perhaps the fog is already inside their minds, picking apart the faces and forms they know will have people throwing themselves out into it for. It would make them such easy prey.

He doesn't care.)

He's halfway down the staircase when Noctis returns to the blood-streaked doors, panicked and pounding against them, and deftly places one gloved hand on the railing and vaults over the side of it to get to the bottom floor faster, immediately springing from the landing to make a mad dash for the doors.]

Noct! I'm here!

[There's every chance that throwing open the doors could kill them all. That this was all some sort of trick, illusion. That a fog beast is close enough to shove and force its way in, that their tenuous sanctuary will be broken because of him.

He doesn't care. Not when Noctis needs his help.

There's no hesitancy as the door is thrown wide and his wrist his grabbed, pulling the young royal back onto the tiles. There's blood streaking in behind them from the puddle outside, but even after the doors are closed, he doesn't loosen his grip on Noctis's arm, looking over him desperately.]

Are you hurt? What were you doing?!

Yaaay! I'm happy you did, I apologize for the delay! Thanks for the tag!!

[noctyourking]

[ He could scarcely breathe when the familiar face came against the glass. He had been fixated on the reflection of the mist on the glass panel that he hadn’t realized there was someone coming up from within the building to answer his call. Suddenly the face of his friend was there and he knew - he just knew - the other was going to make everything all right again. It was always how it was. Whenever Noct went off and did something stupid, messed something up, forgot something, faced negative consequences, Ignis was always there to set things right again.

In that very moment, his friend’s face was like a ray of hope shimmering over the horizon and all he needed was a few more kicks before he breached the surface of the water.

Once he was pulled in Noct inhales a breath and when the door closes behind him he exhales before he grips his savior’s shirt. His eyes pour into the other’s as if all the worry, concern, and terror could be lifted from him by this silent exchange of sight on each other.

He was covered in the spray of gore from the half-body that was flung beside him, the blood was not his own. The only wounds he had from this escapade was what he brought back with him mentally. The terrifying hopelessness that significantly reduced him and all the power he’s known before down to size. He was insignificant here and pointless.

Yet, with Ignis here with him he began to feel something again that was more like himself. His friendship with Ignis gave him purpose again, it gave him a strong remnant of his identity. ]

Ig.. Ignis!

NO WORRIES i'll be slow this week, due to travelling, derp

[cheffeur]

[Even without walking out into the fog himself, the sheer terror of it is almost palpably contagious. His stomach tightens and knots at the helpless look Noctis gives him, even once they're pull free, away from the door and out of the fog. Even if the most immediate danger is passed, their hearts are still slamming in their chests, minds still reeling to take it all in.

And so, as always, he focuses on what has to happen. They need to get back from the doors, he needs to make sure Noctis is uninjured, make sure he has the means to cope. (After all, isn't this worryingly similar to the daemon attack Noctis had endured, so many years ago? Though, thankfully, he appears unharmed now.)]

I'm here, [His voice lowers, instantly falling into that well-familiar role of caretaker. He'd always looked after Noctis, after all-- always wanted to be able to be relied upon. And so, once he's certain the other man is unharmed, slowly places a hand to his shoulder, reassuringly grips it.] I'm here, Noct...

[But they don't need to stay anywhere near these doors. How simple panes of glass had divided them from whatever had caused such carnage, he's not sure-- and he's sure he'll think about later, once they have the time. But as always, Noctis takes priority.]

Come along... Let's find somewhere to rest. [And, hopefully, get the man cleaned up. No one needed to look like such a gory mess-- especially when it would likely just remind him of what had transpired. Gently, he takes a few steps backwards, keeping his eyes on Noct and the young royal's reactions.]

We can catch up once we're farther in, hmm?

Be safe!! Also, I'm a terrible prose at heart in bracket form... :( I always fail the tenses up ;3;

[noctyourking]

[ Noct feels uneasy in the extreme distress kind of way. Once he gets sight and smell of himself he turns his head and crunches his body with a significant moment of dry heaving. Nothing’s come up, but tears from the emotional and physical shock he’s processing through currently. His whole body aches now.

He composes himself enough to focus back to his friend and there’s a familiar expression on his face that reads the same as times they’ve shared before. It speaks clearly of inadequacy and insecurity, of self-loathing and hopelessness. He’s been down like this before—

yet even before, during those times, he still could rely on his power. His birthright, his warp even to safety. Here he had nothing but his feet to carry him and not so much as a stick to beat off whatever would (or did) come for him out there. The feeling of uselessness paled his skin and left him grey in contrast to the various hue of crimson and pink which dripped from his body.

He followed Ignis with full consent, no matter how dire, hopeless, useless, or insignificant he felt, Ignis was always his core, his foundation. Soon thoughts of gratitude flooded over his body and his eyes glistened with a painful warmth of tears and he reached out to his friend to grip onto while they moved further into the mall. ]

ice crem

[whoracle]

[Always the same flavors, and none he likes. Not that the flavors are too full, so to speak. It's as if everything is muted here, cast in a shadow, not quite complete. For what one finds lacking, Ardyn sustains himself with the more vibrant people rather than environment which they reside in.

Such as Noctis. Ardyn is here again at the ice cream shop, and as always he has a large smile for the young man.]

Good afternoon! My what weather we are having, mm? So unpredictable.

[Which is a macabre joke, because the weather is always the same outside the mall.]

you can get the hell out, sir, ba-bye, ❤ jk, ilu bb

[noctyourking]

[ His whole body tensed as soon as he saw that familiar swagger. If there was a good time to break his role, it would be now, and the thought of reaching over the counter to throttle the other sent him mixed signals of both pleasure and pain. Pain, for various reasons but at the foremost the reason was because he had broke character before and had been punished with an incredibly violent physical response. The other reasons for pain was just what Ardyn had meant to him, what he had done in his messed up orchestra of tragedy.

It left a grimace on his face. ]

Get away from me. [ Wrong response, the pain originated at his head and it felt like his brain swelled instantly and shot throbbing discomfort down his face and made his body curl into the cash register. ] What can I get you… [ He managed through clenched teeth and just like that, the pain dissipated and he could breathe. ]

8]

[whoracle]

[Ardyn keeps his gracious smile, watching with interest as the former prince is brought so low so easily with pain. Ardyn lifts his brows and his smile grows larger, warmer, as Noctis decides to slip back into his role. Well done, you, he thinks with a mix of patronizing pride and disdain.]

Oh dear me, bit of a stomach flu, is it? Perhaps your boss will let you off a bit early if you give him puppy dog eyes with those big blues of yours.

[He leans one hand on the counter, pretending to look over the menu of ice cream treats overhead. Ardyn has now been here so many times he knows it by heart of course but he's had practicing living in normalcy for so long, well, it sort of comes naturally to him even in this place.]

Something chocolately today, I think.

[noctyourking]

[ Every fiber of his being feels ignited in flames; then Noct even scolds himself with the thought because of how dramatic and ridiculous did that sound? He hated how Ardyn made him feel, that was the worst. Ardyn had this gross ability to bring such doubt to Noctis and with his insecurities already well in place the prince could hardly stand it.

Even here, at this stupid ice cream vendor, Ardyn challenged him in ways he was not eqquiped to handle. It was like Ardyn always knew what Noct’s limitations were and played off of them! ]

Fine, how much.

mistakes

[cesspit]

[ The door suddenly falls open and a hand moves to catch his collar to haul him inside. ]

[noctyourking]

[ Noct lurches forward with a gasp and he slides into the mall with an easy glide with gore covered boots to cause the slippery traction. ]

mistakes combo breaker I apologize for this jerk

[sanephiroth]

[Sephiroth watched impassively as the half of the body is yanked back into the mist. And now one of the fools is trying to be let back in. He arched an eyebrow, then reached out to grab the handle, and held the door shut.

Maybe he could catch a glimpse of the creature this close. See what they were dealing with.]

jerkiroph ;3

[noctyourking]

[ Noctis, in the hysterical state he was in, hadn’t realized he was being denied entry. It took a few more tugs of the handle, on his end, before he realized the steady and firm hand keeping him from entering the building.

His eyes looked up to the passive expression of the man and he found himself filling with even more terror as he thought this man mean to watch him be devoured by the best in plain sight. ]

lmao I should have picked that as the username

[sanephiroth]

[He seems to be reveling in the terror in Noctis's eyes. As the seconds tick by and the others within the mall notice what Sephiroth is doing, only the scream of someone inside indicates the approach of the same (another?) dark tendril, seeking to drag Noctis back into the deep fog.

Sephiroth finds himself shoved aside soon enough and he holds both hands up in mock surrender as the braver ones among them quickly open the door and drag Noctis in just as the tendril comes in contact with his ankle.]

feed me ice cream

[mercurio]

[what would be the most awkward way to meet your best friend, after he pushed you off a moving train and you thought you were left for dead? clearly... it is meeting him at an ice cream parlor in the mall of some unknown location.]

[prompto all but glances awkwardly at noctis, eyes wide and aimless at best, as if trying to figure out if this is real or not.]

[he wishes to say -- so much, but instead what escapes him is casual banter, almost amused; as if he were seeing an old friend after a whole summer break.]

Trying out what it's like as a pleb? [the amusement melts into a small smile] ...hey, Noct.

u got it! :3

[noctyourking]

[ The sight of his friend instantly brought him to fidget behind the counter, he would have hopped over it if it weren't for that ball and chain keeping him in place. Figuratively speaking, but with real physical consequences as he has tried to deviate but was pushed back in line by the ramifications of "not playing his role".

However, the smile that spread on his face after seeing Prompto was not forced, fake, or "a role". ]

Prompt! This isn't my first time walking the pleb path.. but.. [ He pulls in a breath and holds it before he shakes his head and exhales. ] This is my first time being in... this situation. [ Speaking of, Prompto was in this shit-situation as well and he wasn't all too comfortable knowing that whatever they had to "survive" meant Prompto was going to have endure that as well. His smile faded with that thought and his eyes softened. ]

So... we're.. here.. together. [ He was definitely happy to see his friend, but again, it was an awkward joy, a selfish joy. ]

[mercurio]

[it does feel awkward, because the last prompto saw of noctis--it wasn't great. whatever he was fed in the deluxe torture chamber in zegnautus did nothing but drill in the idea that noctis hates him, doesn't care about him, wouldn't mind him dead. a part of prompto knows better, but another part of him...]

[...never stopped thinking that the prince and his retinue would be better off without him.]

[except noctis is smiling at him--and the thoughts of hatred and disdain towards himself melt away almost too quickly.]

...yeah. [prompto wants to say so much. he looks down at the choice of ice cream on the other side of the glass, but he can't really focus much on it. the bruises on his face and arms are noticeable, where he was bound and hurt. he still feels this -- uncanny hunger for comfort food, but it's like a thought in the back of his head.] Well, I ran into Iggy, actually.

[raising his eyes, he glances up again at noctis.]

We've been looking for you.

[...carefully,] ...were you -- looking for me?

[ignis isn't blind. ignis doesn't know altissia. does noctis know? does noctis-- know about gralea? the train? all the things he said to him, angry and threatening, a sword materializing to cut at him, forearm against his throat, blaming him for everything.]