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

[unshielding]

Steve walks with Bucky, falling into line easily until they reach the door. He lets Bucky deal with it and he stays where he is, pinned lightly in Bucky's grip more because he doesn't want to leave it than because he feels overpowered or trapped by the grip. After everything, having Bucky here is about his best case scenario for being trapped in a place like this.

It's not bright and clear like the mall, but it's something. Maybe they can find a phone or even a computer inside.

He starts to step inside, gently tugging Bucky along with him. He has a feeling they won't be finding any people in here.

"Did you wake up around anyone else?"

The idea of Bucky waking up in a tube by himself leaves another sinking feeling in his gut. It would be worse for Bucky, wouldn't it? Even with others around, it had to be worse.

He'd seemed so happy in Wakanda. Steve just wants him to have that. He deserves a break from everything.

[freightcars]

Barnes allows the door to swing as close to shut as it can behind them - never gonna be fully flush again, not after losing the knob, the bolt, the latch, but only a sparse inch of space lingers to minimize the influx of fog. Allows himself likewise to be lead away from it by an invisible pull on his arm like the world's weirdest leash, eyes searching through Steve in a way that's entirely goddamn bizarre.

"Couple people," He acknowledges, sounding wholly unconcerned with them. "Left before we could break bread."

Meaning he didn't get their names, their designations, where they were from or what they thought was happening. He'd seen them in the printers, seen them milling about the library, and had up and abandoned them without much of a second thought. He doesn't really do strangers, not after what he's been through and consequently not after waking up on a slab of medical equipment somewhere. Nothing personal to them, he's just not the leader type.

To their right is the front of an office, separated like in most courthouses by a thick panel of safety glass and only a few inches of space beneath it allotted to slide papers or small objects through. There's a landline phone on the other side, but-

"You see the door to get in there?"

All he's seeing on either direction is just wall.

[unshielding]

"There were a decent number of people back at the mall, but I didn't want to drag anyone out into this. Most of them seemed like civilians." And Steve hasn't felt like a civilian in a long time, not even when he's been off-duty or without an agency or government at all. It's just not who he is anymore, because he can't stop. He's not sure anything could make him, not even Bucky. He doesn't even remember how to stop.

He doesn't mind being tethered to Bucky like this. If anything, he's just as thankful for the physical reminder that Bucky is there. He's solid and real and Steve will know the moment anything happens to change that, because he's already watched Bucky crumble away once and even the distance across that clearing had felt like an entire world. I had been like watching Bucky fall all over again.

The thought interrupts his own movements and his grip tightens, as if he thinks that holding onto Bucky tighter will keep him there. Having Bucky back has only driven home just how much Steve needs him to be okay. It's a hell of a lot more important to Steve than his own well-being at this point. Bucky's been through so much and Steve just wants to see him happy. He'd give anything to protect that.

There's a pause while he collects himself and he's thankful that Bucky can't see his face, because he's never been a very good liar, no matter how much Natasha tries to teach him, and Bucky could probably see through it faster than anyone else, anyway.

"If we follow the wall, there has to be a door eventually."

[freightcars]

It's true, Steve's never been able to lie worth a damn - nor hid his emotions when he's particularly upset about something. The collective inscrutable powers of Bucky and Natasha combined probably wouldn't be enough to ever train him up on that particular ability. Probably for the best, the world can only tolerate so many apathetic looking soldiers.

He exhales a soft sound in agreement, shifts beneath Steve's grip, allows himself to be pulled down the length of the wall through a wood-paneled hallway. Gentle wafts of mist fill the room, just thick enough to obscure the linoleum.

From the end of the hall, a sound echoes forth. Barnes grinds them to a halt abruptly, listening.

It's a semi-irregular, almost muffled sounding clop-clop, clop-clop almost like-

"...Is that a horse?"

He can't see it, he can only hear it, and Christ he hopes he's not the only one.

[unshielding]

Walking through the mist feels like walking through a dream. He wonders if that's what this is after all, because everything really has been this side of surreal and he knows Bucky shouldn't even be able to be here, wherever here is. The thing is that Steve isn't ready to find out that this is a dream yet. He's not ready to lose Bucky again and that means that this place has to be real and escapable. For both of them.

He stops only a second after Bucky does, invisible feet planted firmly on the tiles. Even though he's invisible, he can see the mist swirling around his calves and he wonders if Bucky's noticed, too. It isn't enough for Steve to let go of his arm.

"It sure sounds like one." His voice is quiet when he answers, trying not to draw more attention or make it any harder for Bucky to listen for whatever that is. "You got any idea what to do with one if there is one?"

[freightcars]

As perceptive as he is, he hasn't actually noticed the way the mist swirls around Steve's legs, around his presence like it's creating some kind of ghostly aura for him. He's so caught up in what's not there he hasn't managed to take in what is -- if only because he can't handle looking at that ghostly absence for long enough to pick it up.

There's no avoiding the sound of hooves, though, and he manages not to shoot Not-Steve an incredulous glance. "I was in assassin training, not cowboy camp."

What the hell does he know about horses?

Clop-clop. Clop-clop. Clop-clop.

It inches slowly but surely closer, and around the middle of the hallway, Barnes can begin to see it. The barreled chest, the long muzzle, a shoulder, a leg, a-

"...Someone's riding it," He murmurs, voice dropping an octave to a soft mutter. His bicep flexes beneath Steve's hands like he's at the ready, like somehow on instinct he knows this is a warhorse and the thing atop it isn't likely to come in peace.

[unshielding]

Steve watches the form approach with a sinking feeling in his gut. There aren't a lot of good reasons to be riding a horse inside a foggy building in an oddly abandoned town like this.

"Get back against the wall." Bucky's hushed tone is matched as Steve starts to put himself between the horse and Bucky, like even if he's invisible he'll make sure anything that's going to hit Bucky will hit him first.

"They can't see me. Just get back."

Bucky probably won't, of course. Steve knows better than to think he's going to listen, but he has to try to keep Bucky safe because he's only just gotten him back.

Maybe the rider is friendly, but Steve isn't taking any chances until he gets a better look. Not with Bucky here. He wishes that his invisibility could extend to another person and not just clothes.