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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)
no subject
Winnie steps back, hands on her hips as she watches her...lover... make a fool of himself.] Men. You're so stubborn. Am I really so repulsive? I might be a little offended.
[So she would be if she had the capacity to be offended. But she knows the general idea of how to act as such and what situations require it.]
Should I get you a strip of leather to bite down on so you don't go biting your own tongue off?
no subject
[He wants to dig his heels in just for the sake of making a point, but when the agony in his gut quite literally brings him to his knees he decides that maybe, just maybe, he should give in. For now. One trembling arm reaches out toward Winnie in wordless beckoning, and as soon as his hand makes contact with her skirt he's going to pull her in and bury his face in her belly and think about how he's going to kill whoever set this thing up.
Unless she stays out of his reach, in which case he's just going to suffer some more instead. But still daydream about murder.]
no subject
For a moment Winnie isn't at all sure how to respond, wracking her brain for books and plays and poems that might help, but in the end the longer she spends not doing anything, the more a pain begins to build in her stomach. Right. Gotta play up the part.
It'd be easy for someone normal to just 'feel things out,' but Winnie's a bit lacking in that department. Still, she puts one hand on his head, stroking his hair in a loving sort of manner, while her arm drapes around him in a light embrace. It's a good thing she also can't actually feel the awkwardness of this, despite being aware that it should be there.]
There, there. [The pain disappears and she sighs a little] I know you're terribly stubborn about, er... public displays of affection and all, but isn't this nice? [Acting!! Though her head is bowed, her eyes scan the area to see if there's anyone she can pick out that might be watching, someone behind this, but there's nothing out of the ordinary. Her voice lowers so as not to be overheard]
If they're watching us for obedience, it's from somewhere out of our sights.
no subject
[Nice. Yeah, right. The only nice thing about the present moment is that his tremors are subsiding as quickly as they came on, and he can feel the sensation ebbing back into his face. But the whole thing with being rendered nothing more than a helpless child by forces beyond his control? Not a fan! Never was.
After a moment he slowly rises to his feet and takes a few deep breaths, rubbing the back of his hand across his mouth.]
Sure. It's almost enough to forget how shy I get around you.
[Ha. Contrary to his words, he encircles his arms around her shoulders in a firm hug and presses his lips to her temple. Counts as a kiss, right? Even if he is more preoccupied with peering out over the top of Winnie's head. Too bad it's hard to tell what would stand out in a place so unlike 16th century Japan.]
Or right in front of us. [His voice is barely more than a murmur with a sharp edge; how convenient that his mouth is so close to her ear, then.] Whatever those bastards did to me felt just like poison. Striking from the shadows like a serpent... how very like a ninja.
[...no listen, HE'S SERIOUS]
no subject
Er, literally, in a sense, since they're so close. In her mind she can hear her lady's maid squawking with alarm over it all, but it seems that so long as they're being rather romantic in some way, the actual content of their conversation doesn't really matter. It's the appearance that does. Typical.
She lets herself enjoy it anyhow, leaning against him a little as she casually watches the NPCs move around, disappearing around corners or behind pillars and not reappearing. Bizarre. With things like that happening, the idea of ninjas doesn't seem so far-fetched, but her voice is still colored with amusement when she speaks anyhow. She slides one arm around his waist comfortably and nods towards the benches by the indoor fountain (because what self-respecting mall DOESN'T have a fancy indoor fountain?)]
Shall we?
[It'll be easier to sit and talk and probably easier for him to recover too. She lowers her voice again] Ninja, though? Who one earth would employ ninjas to ensure their perverse romantic fantasy was played out the way they want? [The message when she'd woken up HAD mentioned something about an audience...]
no subject
Coming from whoever was crazy enough to set this thing up in the first place, it doesn't sound that far-fetched to me. But I'd love to hear your theory, darling.
[He releases her once they reach the bench so he can sit heavily and sling one arm over the back, still staring out at the mall-goers. If it's not ninja, that leaves Winnie herself - hence the handsiness. Yeah, he was mostly just feeling around for hidden weapons. It's perfectly fair to suspect her when he only started feeling sick after she waved a paper in his face, okay! It could have been laced with something for all he knows.]
no subject
She doesn't sit with him though, opting to stand in front of him instead, her arms crossed lightly over her chest as she thinks.]
I certainly can't think of anyone. [Pause.] ...Lord Byron from beyond the grave, maybe? [She smiles, but its short-lived as she shakes her head.] According to the information in the beginning, this is America somewhere in the year 2007, and so far I've seen nothing to convince me that that's a lie. Unfortunately. As insane as that may be, whoever's running this has obviously shown themselves strong enough to force--
[it must've been too long without a romantic moment, because she feels a sudden sharp pain through her head, the headache spiking as suddenly as it is dramatic. She staggers forward with a soft noise of pain, one hand going to her head, the other reaching out to grasp at his shoulder.]
Damn it all. So sorry, do pardon me for the forwardness-- [Hey Masamune just gonna. Sit in your lap here, it's fine. Winnie keeps her head bowed as the lingering pain begins to fade.]
...They take this quite seriously, don't they. How aggravating.
no subject
Whoa, okay, slow down there, lady.
[A sharp pain pierces through his stomach as a warning, and he squirms a little to get more comfortable beneath her.]
If it is somebody with the power to bring us all the way out here, maybe it is some lord... -Say, darling, why don't you tell me about yourself? Your name, your bloodline, any family members who may have their eye on Date territory or alliances... Come on, let's break the ice a little.
no subject
I'm not sure you would've heard anything of my family, but alright. My name is Winnifred Prismall, from Britain, but please, do just call me 'Winnie.' Winnifred sounds so stuffy. I'm the marchioness of Kent, a hereditary title passed down from my mother and technically making me outrank my father.
[She's pretty sure Asia doesn't follow this same title system and she has no idea what Japan has beyond an emperor and such, so--]
The ranks go as follows: THere's the king and queen, of course, and the princess and princesses. Then duke and duchess, marquess and marchioness, earl and countess, viscount and viscountess, baron and baroness. And then everything else sort of falls in line below that, so on and so on.
[Winnie hums thoughtfully, idly playing with his hair to keep an show of affection up.] There's only myself and my father, and my aunt's family, but I highly doubt they would care nor would they want your territories or anything like that. My aunt is too busy trying to get at my inheritances.
[Her eyes alight with mischief, her tone becomes teasing] But surely your armies could handle one grumpy old lady with a rolling pin, couldn't they? It's alright if you need my help for it.
no subject
Still! The interest on his face is a lot more genuine than any of the other affection he's been forced to demonstrate so far, and he listens politely and intently. One of his arms drapes loosely around her waist, and he flashes a bit of a grin. What? He's like a barrel of gunpowder when there's even the slightest spark of mischief or other such troublemaking.]
Ha! Trust me, I'm plenty used to dealing with relatives grabbing at what they only wish was theirs. [Man, fuck his mom's entire side of the family honestly.] So, Marchioness Winnie... It seems to me like that's an impressive title, but it's no match for a Queen. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that is the title of the wife of the king?
[He knows of kings, at least. He's pretty sure there's some kind of religious figurehead that outranks even royalty, but he won't worry about that right now. He's having a grand old time watching all these other pieces fall into place in a way he thinks will give him a clear, solid image.]
I just so happen to be what you would call the Dragon King of Oshu... and soon enough, the entire Land of the Rising Sun. With such a charming husband on top of all of that, a marriage would benefit you plenty.
[He gazes at her for a second, then curls his arm more snugly around her waist and leans in a little, grinning like a little shit all the while.]
But this is about love, not politics! That's why I am instead granting you the position of concubine.
no subject
But then he keeps going and she looks impressed-- Land of the Rising Sun meant Japan, as she'd expected, so that's no surprise, but then he follows up by saying she'd be a concubine, and she throws her head back with a shocked, delighted laugh.]
So if it was about politics I could be a legal wife? A queen? WHo needs love, then? I could settle for a political arrangement! [She laughs again and leans in a little herself, grinning brightly]
Are you really a dragon? What if I promise you to bring a very special and unique treasure for your horde? Can I be a queen then?
no subject
Sorry, Sweetheart, but I'm not even gonna think about sharing what I've got until I've secured the whole set.
[And even then, only if he wants to expand his domain into Europe a little... Which sounds just cool enough for him to mentally file the thought away for consideration instead of tossing it right out. Incredible.]
Why, do you think you have something to offer that'll change my mind?
no subject
What could be more special and unique than myself? I'm the only one of me that exists in the world, after all!
[This is the best argument okay, 10/10. She, at lest, seems terribly pleased with herself for it.]
no subject
Well, well, you really are one hell of a treasure. [He leans back against the bench and looks her over again, reaching up to toy with a lock of golden hair.] But it's just bad manners to try to gift me what our mysterious host has so graciously given me already. Sooo close.
no subject
[She lets him play with her hair, but her eyes half-lid as she watches him, calculating but amused and still looking like she's very much in control.]
You could be gifted something equally as exotic and dangerous--a tiger, perhaps. But it won't be yours' and hardly even let you pet it if it doesn't consider you worthy enough of its time. And taming me won't be nearly as easy as a tiger without some kind of give on your side.
no subject
[His grin only widens, eye glancing away at nothing in particular - a memory, perhaps - and he lets his head fall back over the backrest.]
I'd be outright disappointed if it just curled up at my feet. All of the fun's in the struggle to tame a wild soul like that... Sorry, Lady, but no matter how feisty you think you are there's no way you'd ever come close to thrilling me like thaaat--
[And then he hisses loudly through his teeth and clutches his stomach as he's hit with the consequences for being unable to shut up about his weird stupid crush for TWO SECONDS, GOD, MASAMUNE. And suddenly his patience for this game is back to zero. Lower than zero. Shit.]