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uploadedmeme2018-08-18 12:01 am
uploadedmods) wrote in uploadedmeme2018-08-18 12:01 am
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.
Applications will open Saturday, September 15 until Saturday, September 22
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.
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.
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.
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)
Chris Beck ⚕ The Martian ⚕ Open
⚕ the lovers
⚕ wildcard
⚕ ooc
Did someone say something about flirting? AKA the lovers
[ If ever she wanted to roll her eyes, it was now. Whatever he was playing at, it was hardly amusing to her. ]
Let me guess, you were put up to this, weren't you? And I'm meant to play the damsel in distress.
[ She eyes his hand warily, but she slowly takes it and gives it a shake before promptly letting go. ]
What's your name?
no subject
[ They had a part to play. Nicknames fell to the very bottom of what Chris thought was important. She was gorgeous but didn't seem in the mood for any real flirting. ] No, you don't. If it makes you feel any better I'll be the damsel in distress.
[ He didn't care. As long as they were on their way somewhere safe he'd take the role she clearly wanted nothing to do with. Chris gestures towards the back of the mall. There were plenty of places they could hole up in for a while. ]
Chris Beck. [ Later, he'd introduce himself properly. ] We've been married for years and you're the love of my life. You ready?
no subject
Doesn't it? But I suppose we can leave those for the moment.
[ She, on the other hand, never had any aspirations of being an actress, except for when going undercover was necessary. ] You, a damsel in distress?
[ She chuckles with a dry sort of amusement. ]
I don't believe that is part of the requirements for this little game. If it is a game.
[ She looks back towards where he's gestured. ] I suppose we ought to go, then. And I'm Peggy Carter, although for the purposes of this situation, I suppose that surname is no longer accurate.
[ She nods, resisting the urge to press her lips together into a thin line. That's not becoming for a married couple. And with that in mind, she links her arm with his, and attempts to bat her eyelashes. It feels ridiculous, and she can only begin to imagine how it must look. ]
I'm ready.
no subject
Not really. Unless you've got a preference for nicknames, baby.
[ He kept testing them out and none felt right. Probably cause he didn't know her. ]
They didn't say whether one of us needed to play that part. Just that we were madly in love and had to protect each other. [ Peggy Carter. Peggy Beck, for now. ] Well, Mrs. Beck.
[ Chris offers up an arm and pulls her to his side, smiling at her. He's amused with her attempts and that helps. ]
Suppose we should make ourselves a place to sleep.
no subject
[ She tilts her head to one side, reaches up to grab hold of a curled lock of hair, and smiles sweetly at him. ]
Oh, darling, you know how I love it when you call me that.
[ It feels unnatural and so very wrong, but if acting is required, then that is what she'll do. ]
I suppose we don't need any further casualties, so I can at least stand behind the protecting part.
[ She's quick to drop the overly sweet tone, but she doesn't protest when he pulls her in closer. ]
I suppose so. I believe I saw some clothing displays over there that we might be able to make use of. [ She points in the direction of Macy's. It's preferable to using their own clothes, after all. ]
lovers!
She fully intends to comply with these demands, as best she can, unless she sees an opportunity to rebel that is not suicidal.
For now... ] Does any such place exist? [ she sighs, but with a wry answering smile, knowing better than to taunt the fates. There's a moment's awkward hesitation before she complies to take his hand. It has been a long time since she's touched a mortal man, and it was not pleasant then, but she has nothing against them. His hand is warm and real. Hers is calloused, worn from working the garden, and it looks foreign to her that it is devoid of dirt and dye smudges.
She tries to recall some of what it was like with Glaucus, back at the very beginning, eons ago. Tries to recapture some of that feeling. Circe feels as if she fails miserably, but goes on, ] I'm relieved to have found you. It was fearful to wake up here alone. [ That much is very true. ]
no subject
Yeah, for a second there I didn't think I'd find you either.
[ He leans in to kiss her, those were the rules, but keeps it light and chaste. Nowhere did it say that they had to make out, just put a lot of affection into what they were doing. Which he tried to do. Chris gently squeezes her hand, tipping his head as he looks around them. ]
Don't worry, though. We're together now.
[ Was that laying it on too thick? His brows pinch and he frowns, then rolls his shoulders and blows out a light breath. ]
Any idea which way we should go?
no subject
It is not this man's fault. He is as much victim as she. And right now, she has no way to defend herself, besides... ]
I am unfamiliar with any location like this, but away from the exits seems wise, [ she answers, as levelly as she can. ] There is... a lurking monster, of some sort, around the grounds. It is a consumer of flesh, and I am in no state to challenge it. [ The practical necessity of this discussion soothes away her discomfort with acting as lovers do. That seems so impossibly long ago and far away from her, as something she is capable of now. ]
no subject
Yeah, I saw that. Couple of people went out and they're not coming back in.
[ He'd have tried to help them if he hadn't, well, seen the state they were in. They weren't alive, nobody could be after that. ]
We can look for a break room or a security office.
[ The latter might have answers. He tugs her hand playfully. If he were in a relationship with someone, he'd be affectionate and light. It might be new for her, considering they were strangers, but it'd help him stick to what they were doing. ]
no subject
She feels the same: she does not want it to be her that makes anyone suffer. She will play her part, however foreign to her. Circe feels like a fool for any shyness. It is not the time, and in any case, it's all a lie.
Speaking of lies... perhaps she can hide her divinity -- which is never very obvious to anyone anyway; she is hardly powerful -- and some of her foreignness to this time and the world of men. Circe has grown protective with her secrets, and sees no reason to show her hand to anyone immediately. ]
As good as any, [ she agrees. ] I think you should lead. I wandered earlier but found nothing useful-- not even a simple knife.
no subject
You notice that some of the people are acting off? [ They start walking and he keeps close, voice lowered. ] There are those like us, you and me, who think we need to get to safety. Who know those people that died outside shouldn't have.
[ Then the others. The strange ones. ]
Look at them, around us. They keep doing what they'd normally do as if this isn't weird. If you talk to them, it all sounds rehearsed.
[ Another game, maybe? A part of the game. Actors? ]
no subject
[ People, not mortals. That is how humans talk. ]
And, [ she goes on with a sigh, ] it was a kinder, less gruesome thought than imagining their minds had been taken from them, though there is no reason it could not be so.
[ It was her own brother's favorite ploy, after all, to shape minds like they were clay for his hands, remake them in the form he wished them to be in. That Circe had escaped that fate marvels her sometimes-- and the rest of the time, she merely misses Aeëtes as she remembers him as a babe and a boy, a fierce love that has never diminished twinned with her present fear of him. It makes her thoughts on mind control a little more personal than might be expected. ]
no subject
Yeah, you're right. [ She was. ] It's nicer to imagine that they're choosing to do this. To act the way they are, same as we have been.
[ Less nice to think that they're robots, of a fashion. Used and controlled. That was something Chris didn't like very much. ]
I'm a practical man, which you know, so do me a favor. [ Another pause. ] Love. Don't let me turn out like them.
[ A favor, from one stranger to another. A kindness, that he can only hope she'd give him. ]
sorry for the wait!!
And this is a stronger favor to ask for than it would be possible for him to realize. Circe is not constrained to such limits as killing someone rather than letting them change. What power Aeëtes has... she might have herself, if she ever tried it. She hasn't tested her ability to control or prevent control of mortal minds, but there is that capability somewhere within her, with the right time, and preparation, and witchcraft.
It lends a subtle harshness to her rebuttal: ] It is no great favor to ask your lover to end you rather than see you made different. Such a promise can carry me farther than you may know. But certainly-- [ A small pause, as she decides there is no way her 'lover' would not know her as a witch at least, and her voice smooths to softer understanding. ] I would not let anyone remain a puppet if I could change that fate.
Perhaps, if you will assist me in locating spell ingredients, we may find another less violent solution.
robin sparkles wouldn't stand for this shit
It takes him a moment to realize that this isn't Bucky he's looking at, either. He looks similar enough that it's uncanny, but he can see differences in the way he moves and talks. Still, it's not the first time Steve's found a long-lost Bucky with a very different cadence and no memory of Steve and besides, Steve is invisible right now. ]
I'll probably go out there if anyone needs help, but I can help you gather supplies for now.
no subject
Yeah. Alright, Casper. [ Assumptions weren't the smart way to go but he had to make one. ] How're you going to do that when you have no hands or arms?
[ It was another voice over, right? Someone from the sidelines telling him what to do or making suggestions. ]
Unless that's something AIs can do now?
no subject
[ He can pick things up, though. Probably more than anyone else. ]
I woke up like this.
[ And he'll worry about it later. There are more pressing concerns. He grabs a discarded piece of clothing off of the ground in Chris' view just to prove it. The item floats up and then disappears. When Steve puts it down again, it reappears. ]
My name is Steve Rogers.
no subject
[ He woke up like this. Maybe another person going through what Chris was, albeit a lot differently given his lack of transparency. He squints, folds his arms over his chest. ]
That's not bad, Steve Rogers. I'm Chris Beck.
[ Glancing around, he tries to pinpoint Steve's exact location. He goes by the sound of his voice, the missing clothing, but there's nothing. No glimmer, no sign that anyone is there. ]
You're gonna have to talk while we do this.
no subject
[ He'd offer a handshake, even starts to move towards one, but the he realizes the other man can't see it anyone, so he just lowers his hand again. ]
Food and first aid supplies should be our first priority.
[ A pause. ]
And self-defense aids. I have a bad feeling about this.
robin sparkles wouldn't stand for this shit
What? Oh yeah. Um. First aid supplies would be good. Not that they would've helped that guy.
oh another doctor
Right. It's better if we find supplies now so that we're not wasting time later.
[ Especially if it meant the difference between life and death. ]
I'm Chris.
no subject
[He turns to the older man, considering.]
Most of these stores are going to have basic first aid kits for employees in the back, so I think we’re good on sterile bandages and antiseptic for a while. Same goes for defibrillators in case someone decides to have a coronary. We’re pretty fucked for everything else.
at the mall having fun is what it's all about
His gaze flicks over to the other man, studying him.]
The tents are that way. [Love offers, pointing the muzzle of the gun casually in the general direction of tents.]