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

[agereversal]

[A messy-haired human wandering in circles and muttering to himself is... well, honestly it's kind of nostalgic. But the boy isn't Kokonose, and it's foolish to make any judgements without data.

He waves the question off with a friendly smile. He's sitting on the counter now, right next to the cash register, letting his legs swing in front of him. How he's sitting, his scuffed black combat boots don't quite touch the floor.]

That's all right. I said, do you think there's a reason we aren't permitted to leave?

[mightyboy]

[Oh. Oh.

So this guy was like him. A worker. He seems pretty casual about the whole thing, which is...oddly soothing, in a way. Grounding, at least.]

I don't know why... [His gaze wanders to his scattered papers--the question was something he had already been try to parse through.]

Right now, I'm just trying to see how far I can get away without repercussions. Which is why, uh-- [There's a sheepish smile as he rubs the back of his neck] --I was walking around so much...

[agereversal]

I've been able to get between five and five and a half feet away from the perimeter of my booth before experiencing physical discomfort. [He's understating the consequences a bit, and not translating from imperial to metric units, but it isn't that important.]

What have you been able to determine about our situation? [Love would much rather collect data than share his conclusions.]

[mightyboy]

Hm. That seems about the same to what I've experienced, so perhaps the consequences are the same for everyone in this role... [He walks back to his notes, jotting down the stranger's observation. More things to compare, more things to consider.]

I haven't been able to figure out much, honestly. [A sigh.] It's hard, when you're stuck in one place, but I've been trying to talk to people as they pass by to get their input.

[He turns back to his new...kioskmate. At least with someone with the same role so close by, he can try to draw some hypothesis.] Do you mind me asking what kind of repercussions you have? You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but I wanted to know if we all have the same kinds...

[agereversal]

[The paper notes are quaint, something Love has rarely had occasion to use in his long lifespan. He'll have to borrow them later.]

People haven't been very willing [able] to tell me what's going on.

As for the punishment for abandoning my role... I have a preexisting medical condition that returns if I try to leave. [Painful disintegration into a puddle of bioengineered clone goop, essentially.] What about you?

[mightyboy]

[Ah! That was interesting information. There's a furious scribble as Izuku is eager to get his thoughts down.]

Mine is also based on a preexisting condition--or at least, an old injury. [Several old injuries, to be exact.] It seems to stop when I return to my kiosk, but I still have a bruise from testing my limits...

[But at least no broken bones, which was really a miracle for Izuku.]

[agereversal]

Oh? What kind of injury? [It might be relevant, or it might not, but there's no harm in asking. Especially because they're stuck together for an unknown amount of time.]

[mightyboy]

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.

[agereversal]

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

[mightyboy]

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.

[agereversal]

[He hops down off his counter and takes a few purposeful steps towards Izuku's kiosk, stopping just before he triggers a consequence for leaving his job.]

Does it just look bruised, or are you still in pain? Do you have full strength and range of motion in the affected digit? [He has at least one medical degree, and assessing an injury is easy enough.]

[mightyboy]

[Izuku walks closer as well--right up to his limit--so the other man can get a better look.]

I have full range of movement still. It doesn't hurt when I move, but the skin is a little tender, so closing it into a fist hurts for that reason. [He gives the finger a little squeeze.] Mostly, it looks a lot worse than it feels.

/casually researches spacing of mall kiosks for this thread

[agereversal]

[The kiosks are far enough apart that even with both of them at the edge of their limit there's still a good ten feet of dead space between them, but that's fine.]

Why don't you try coming over here? We aren't going to be able to collect data on the consequences unless one of us breaks the rules.

doing the lord's work

[mightyboy]

[Izuku incredulous look bridges the gap between them.]

I'm not really trying to shatter my arm here...at least, not without more information on the nature of this place.

[He was impulsive--but not that impulsive. Especially since he didn't know if his arm would recover if it did break.]

[agereversal]

We've been here for how long? [He asks, not because he cares but because he's trying to prompt the boy into some kind of action.] What information have you gathered on the nature of this place?

[mightyboy]

[Not long enough to break my arm is the answer he wants to give. Instead, he walks back to his kiosk, looking over his notes.]

Not being able to leave makes it a little hard to gather information, but I have been talking to people as they walk by. Real people, not the projections of people that mostly fill up the place. [He's going through receipt paper, worrying his lip.] It's less than I would like, since we're working with a lot of unknowns, but from all I can tell it seems like whoever put us here is wanting us to drive the narrative ourselves.

[agereversal]

Which is why we've been given these roles. [He says, as he sits down cross legged at the edge of his designated area. He's not asking questions or giving answers, just providing bits of information to lead the boy to a conclusion.]

Remember, the introduction to this experience stated: "Obedience ensures an enjoyable and immersive experience for our audience."

[mightyboy]

That makes sense... [How far the roles went, and how many there were still eludes Izuku.] But what audience are they referring to? What kind of show do they want?

[Was this a comedy? Tragedy?]

Do we have any executive function in the narrative?

[agereversal]

I doubt it. [That's an answer to that last question, as Izuku ponders their fate.] If that was the intent, they would have given us a little bit more free reign. We're probably just extras in a horror movie.

[mightyboy]

[That is a very depressing and real thought--that there was no choice but to suffer in this game.

However, the why didn't change his goals. Izuku was determined to struggle against it no matter the reason.]

That seems like a big production, when they could've just put on a show with these AI they've created. All that power to bring all these people here, just for a show?

[agereversal]

[He's reminded all over again how young people are, not that he ever really forgets.]

Sometimes people would rather watch sentient things struggle than watch pre-programed actions. For that matter, we don't know what we are. It's more likely that we're all just more advanced AIs set up with complicated backstories than real people somehow brought here.

[mightyboy]

[That...is an interesting concept that Izuku never considered.]

So you're saying our true consciousness could have no bearing on this body, but rather the building blocks of our character could have been put into a completely different set of AI? That's...very complicated. [And honestly hurt his head trying to wrap around.]