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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.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Find a partner and pretend they're your honey while keeping him or her safe? Seemed a simple enough thing. One she could do. After all it wasn't the worst thing in the world to find yourself forced to do.

Except finding that certain someone had proven to be harder than she anticipated. And after several minutes of trekking through the mall in search of a partner, Buffy's head started to hurt. The flash of words that instructed her to play the part seemed to drive home the fact she needed to find someone soon or the pain wouldn't stop. Which she was sure would be the case. That is until someone's voice announced he was excited to see his girlfriend.

"Sweetheart!" Buffy called out in greet and a bit of warning before she rushed over to the kid holding the bouquet of flowers and planted a kiss to his lips. Nothing deep, just a quick peck on the lips in hello. A kiss she had let linger a little longer than necessary to make sure the throb in her head actually subsided before she pulled back with a smile.

Peter had about fifteen seconds to realize what was happening before a very pretty girl about his age was kissing him. For some reason as determined as he was to find someone he hadn't actually thought it would happen. He had gone his entire life without finding someone so why would it change in just the few minutes he was here?

Clearly the answer was "because it will cause someone excruciating pain to someone if they don't" was the answer. Peter tried not to focus on that though and focus on the kiss. Which probably didn't help much because it was his first one and he had no idea what to do with his hands or mouth or body or raging teenage hormones that still seemed to exist even in horrible scenarios like this. By the time he was over being shocked she had pulled away.

"Hey. Baby. Babe?" he flinched a bit at the flash of pain and the act like you know each other message hit him. "I've been looking for you. I got you these. I didn't get a card so no... 'was thinking of you, love Peter' message."

She wanted to apologize to him about the sudden kiss, that she normally didn't do this, but couldn't and wouldn't risk the chance of getting on the bad side of these nightmarish higher ups by going out of character.

"Buffy." Actual names might help in a scenario like this. But, "Babe works too." She assured as a thumb reached up to wipe at the corners of her mouth out of instinct from smeared lip gloss or lipstick. None of that here, nope. This had to be a Hell dimension of some kind.

"Those are for me? Aw, what an sweet surprise!" Honestly surprised at how well he took the role Buffy still beamed at Peter and gathered the flowers from him and gave them a sniff. "Don't worry! I know who they're from." And to play it up extra cheesy, she offered a hand out for him to take. "I know they're from the cutest and best boyfriend in the world who missed me just the same as I missed him." They wanted them to play the roles? Well, she'd play the best fake girlfriend ever!

"I hope I didn't keep you waiting long?" If he had felt anything like she had Buffy really hoped it hadn't been too long.

It wasn't the most encouraging thing to see her wiping her mouth after kissing him but he guessed that he couldn't blame her. He was a total stranger. Did he have bad breath? Crap, he probably had bad breath. Sorry, fake girlfriend Buffy who really kissed him. Also, Buffy was probably a fake name? Should he have used a made up name? He was so bad at this fake boyfriend thing.

She did seem to genuinely appreciate the flowers though so that was something. He gave her the best genuine smile he could muster under the circumstances and reached out to take her hand.

"Don't worry, you're always worth waiting for," he told her, the grin spreading to something more genuine. He was really, really cheesy wasn't he? "So, where did you want to go again? I'd like to stop by, uh, the sporting goods store to stock up on some... protective gear? You know. For sports. Protective gear like... a baseball bat. Maybe a hunting axe..."

Buffy was not a fake name. Although she wouldn't hold it against him if he asked her if it were really her name. You don't make it through middle school and over half of high school with an unusual name and not know it. At least he had a name she wouldn't forget or mispronounce. Peter suited him. It was wholesome as he seemed. But she was still guarded though. This place sucked and as innocent as Peter appeared didn't mean it was necessarily true.

So either he was really good at acting or he was actually the corniest guy she'd met. "Well in this place it's probably not a good idea to leave someone waiting too long." She warned without revealing much of anything and gathered his hand in her free one, "Sporting goods store is perfect!" She agreed with a nod, fingers now laced through his. That was exactly where she had hoped they'd end up at some point today. "You can get the baseball bat and axe and I will see if they have anything with a trigger should we need to use the weapons from a distance." Protect him at all cost and while wielding an axe would be easy enough she wasn't sure her upper body strength would suffice in dishing out the force needed to do real damage.

Buffy didn't bother to wait for him to start moving before she led him by the hand towards the sporting goods store. "I'm good with weapons." There came a slight pang in her head once more in reminder for her to act as if they knew each other. "But you already knew that. I was simply reminding you that I'm skilled at using them. Which you are too." Oh god, she hoped he was or this was going to be a nightmare to get through. Not that it was going to be any kind of easy as it were. Still...anything to make it less horrible would be nice.

Double check on being the corniest guy she'd ever met. But if Peter was going to be a fake boyfriend he was going to be a good one. Or what he thought passed for a good boyfriend, it was hard to tell without ever having been one. Besides, maybe she was worth waiting for, who was he to judge that? Fake-boyfriend didn't really grant you any rights.

Peter let her sort of just lead him toward the sporting goods store. The fact that she was so comfortable with this whole situation was a little unnerving. Like... what kind of person was good with weapons while a teenager besides like.. Black Widow? Holy crap, was his fake-girlfriend like Black Widow? Man, Peter really wished he had taken time to learn how literal that code name was in case he ever fake dated someone that might have also been a Black Widow. His life was super weird.

"Yeah, I mean... I've used some in my time," he said. While Peter didn't have any of his powers at least he didn't go back to his super scrawny nerd body. Like... he was pretty sure he was in reasonably good shape for a teenage guy? "You know how much I prefer building stuff though. Tinkering with electronic and mechanical things. I could probably modify our weapons to make them more effective."

Read: I am a nerd and not a bad ass, please don't be too disappointed.

He was already being a good fake boyfriend by the flowers alone, but also letting Buffy take the reins and lead them where he suggested they go had him really in the winning for best fake boyfriend ever.

"Yes!" Buffy nearly jumped in excitement when Peter confirmed he had used weapons previously. Instead she abruptly stopped in her tracks, and possibly him in his, to turn and smile, genuinely, before her head tilted in curiosity. He built stuff? That was good to know. Although for a split second there she hoped Peter hadn't meant he built people from parts of other people. Wouldn't be the first time someone tried that out. See fake boyfriend, her life was weird too.

"Of course I know that!" She laughed after letting out a sigh of relief. "Because you're a nerd." That sounded harsh and by no means how she intended. "In a good way! In a sexy way!" She momentarily looked mortified. That too was not what she meant to say. "Not that I'm checking you out. I'm not. Like, at all." Her foot lived in her mouth if that wasn't evident yet. Except she had a role. So of course she kept on talking. "Because I have! Seeing as you're my boyfriend and obviously I would have to check you out with my eyes and my hands in order to be dating as we are, and yes to the tinkering. Please. To an extent? I mean I don't want laser beams shooting out of a crossbow or a gun, or a stake." Buffy continued. "That would probably make it a lightsaber of some kind if a stake had laser beams shooting through it. Right? Not that you could do that. Can you? I mean here. With probably shitty resources as far as equipment to work with goes."

She wouldn't mind him being a nerd if he didn't mind she talked a lot.

Peter was so ready to accept his award at the "Fake Boyfriends of the Year" ceremony later. If he was going to have to be stuck doing this then he might as well make it as nice for her as possible. Just... so long as he didn't forget that this was all fake. Because Buffy? Super adorable. Gorgeous, obviously, but people could be gorgeous without being adorable. The way she babbled though was kind of cute and he had to wonder if she was like this when she wasn't in such a weird situation.

"Right. Yes. If only I had a quarter for every time you told me how sexy a nerd I am," he said with a bit of a crooked grin. If that was the case he would only have a single quarter but whatever. Even if it was fake it was nice to hear. He couldn't help but blush though as she mentioned checking him out with her eyes and hands. Did that mean she'd be expected to do that from now on since she said that's what she did in their totally fake relationship?

"I- I don't think I could do a lightsaber but I could probably do some pretty good traps. If we can find a supply closet or an electronics store I can do a lot more," he said. His webbing and web shooters was mostly created with homemade equipment so he should be able to handle that.

If they got through this entire fiasco in one piece each she would throw Peter the ceremony herself and make him a little badge out of paper and a safety pin because that's as far as her artistic side could manage. Unless she could steal a trophy.

"You'd have an entire quarter." She laughed, giving his shoulder a bump with her own in show she was only teasing him. He was actually cute now that she was closer, able to catch the blush tinting his cheeks. Picking a fake boyfriend was turning out to be better than picking a real boyfriend. Which probably said a lot more about her when she thought about it. Except she was not going to do at the moment.

"I didn't think so. Only because lightsabers are crazy looking and seem like they'd require some sort of magic along with science or just magic, I don't know how that would work. And traps? Like bear traps?" Was he also a boy scout? Buffy wasn't going to judge him if he were. Not that he looked the type. No, that was a lie. He really looked the type. She was sure she looked a type, too.

Instead of tugging him along behind her Buffy fell in step with Peter, still leading him towards the sporting goods store, though and ever watchful of their surroundings. If she had to keep him safe it was for a reason. Were there things after him? Would there be things after him? "So sporting goods store so I can load up on weapons and you, too, and then we head to the electronics store so you can scavenge whatever you think will work to our benefit." Yes, she said our out of sheer reflex now and a hand squeeze at the word.

"They just require an overly large power source is all. Maybe an arc reactor would work but I'm not Mr. Stark so I probably couldn't build one of those out of the stuff in this place," Peter said, although that got him thinking. What could he build with the stuff in a mall? What store would have the best tools and things to build weapons and traps?

"Wait, no, not the electronics store," Peter said, a sudden flash of inspiration coming. He was thinking about this all wrong, only focusing on the part of the mall the people normally saw. All the really good stuff wouldn't be in a store. "We need to find the maintenance room. There should be a room here with all the stuff they use to fix things. That's what we need to find. I'm going to be honest I'm actually surprised I realized that. I don't really do my best thinking when around really attractive girls. Uh, which you know. Being my girlfriend. And being the most attractive girl. Like... ever. Which is not the only reason we're dating! Because you're also bad ass. And funny. And my first kiss. All super good reasons I'm dating you."

And he was rambling. A lot. Too much. When was something going to attack them and save Peter from himself?

An arc reactor? Yeah, that most definitely earned Peter a completely clueless look from Buffy. It sounded like something out of a post apocalyptic movie. Maybe in the center of a nuclear power plant or some Russian hideout. A general all around bad thing to want to build. Even if Peter made it seem like it wasn't. What sort of people did he hang around with where one of them was able to build something like it?

Still, "Right. An arc reactor that Mr. Stork built. I knew that." it was something she knew because they were dating.

Keeping her focus on Peter, Buffy's expression softened as she watched the figurative light bulb go off above his head. Alright. So he was the brains and she was the brawn here. Thank goodness! But the attractive and badass brawn? Oh boy. Buffy was also the very much blushing brawn who ducked her head shyly to hide the blush while pretending to look around for a possible mall directory that might list where they where in relation to where the maintenance room was.

No such luck. Instead Buffy turned back to Peter still red from his adorable rambling. "New plan then. Weapons then maintenance room. After that we find a nice quiet spot to - " Buffy paused mid sentence, mouth hanging open and eyes wide. She was processing a portion of his rambling just now with a paler and very horrified look. "First kiss?" Swallowing hard, "That-that was your first kiss?" Screw the horrible throb in her head, the punch to her gut that she essentially took Peter's first kiss from him without asking in this terrible place was painful enough. In no world, even one like this, was that alright.

Peter was kind of getting the vibe that she had no idea what he was talking about. Which was completely normal when people went all science nerd on most people. It kind of reminded her of Aunt May who just sort of looked at him fondly and pretended like she knew what he was talking about. In a weird way it made Peter feel a little more relaxed.

Her blush was also making him feel better. Not just because it was super cute but because it meant that it was at least somewhat weird for her too? And that she wasn't stuck up or anything about being so hot. Which was nice. Not that she seemed before like she was the type but it was just nice to not being the only slightly awkward one here.

When she seemed surprised at that being his first kiss Peter stopped for a moment. There was no way that couldn't be painful for her just then, to being out of character that much. He hadn't thought anything about it, he had just been rambling at the time and he should have been more careful. Reaching up he cupped her face in his hands so that she would focus on him and hoped that she didn't mind the touching.

"Hey, hey. You remember it, right? It was in a mall a lot like this one," he said. Which was technically true because the mall they were in was a lot like the mall that they were in. "And I had spent like... hours and hours over the years freaking out about what my first kiss would be like. But with you there wasn't any freaking out. Right? It was just over and done with and pretty great. Kind of couldn't ask for a better first kiss. It's part of the weird story of us."

Do not act like strangers! The flash in her head reminded with enough of a whammy to cause Buffy to screw her eyes shut tight and involuntary drop both the bouquet of flowers and Peter's hand in effort to grip the sides of her temple and fight off the excruciating pain. Man did she get the memo this time.

Except her hands were intercepted with Peter's own. Normally she would have pulled back but given their situation it was exactly what she needed. There wasn't a part of her that minded the gentle gesture. Cool fingers calmed her nerves and his words soft yet reaffirming.

"I have no idea how I forgot. How could I?" She nodded going along with it despite her voice being low with a slight tremble to it. "You were wearing that adorable t-shirt. The one with the science joke I didn't get." A pause as she considered her next words and took a deep breath. "The one I don't get even now and after all the times you've explained it me so far." The tension in her body eased as the pain slowly subsided, her hands coming to rest over Peter's in wanting to keep his hands against her face a little longer. Part for the comfort and part because it gave her something good to focus on; him. "It was great. Perfect almost. If not for the fact there were so many people around." Buffy smiled, chancing an eye open. "Did I ever tell you I'd been wanting you to kiss me for a long time leading up to it?" This was okay, now. She was okay. And Peter? Perfect fake boyfriend. "I really am the luckiest girl to have snagged such an amazing boyfriend." Both in false memory and here. Anyone else she was certain might have gone along to a point, pretending to care for the sake of the role only. Yet Peter seemed to genuinely care.

Peter was happy to keep his hands there, helping comfort and calm her down. He saw her relax a bit and hoped that meant the pain was going away. He didn't move though, especially when she rested her hands on his. Leaning forward a bit he pressed his forehead against hers as she talked more about their fake relationship. It was actually kind of nice that they were basing things off of what had actually happened today. That would make it a lot easier to remember later if it was necessary.

"I will never stop trying to explain the "You matter unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light... ...then you energy" shirt to you," Peter said with a bit of a grin. He totally loved that shirt and it made sense that was why he was wearing it now. "No, you never told me that before. That's pretty crazy. And you know that if you want or need any kisses I'm always happy to give them."

Peter hoped that was enough of a hint to let her know that if she needed to kiss him again or wanted him to kiss her then it wasn't a big deal. He wouldn't want her to hesitate to do that. Especially not if it would cause her pain to be reticent.

Buffy's eyes had darted down to Peter's chest out of sheer reflex when he described the shirt she'd vaguely referenced. She must have subconsciously spotted it and remembered it while on her way to him earlier. Clearly that explained it all. Still a wave of relief washed over her when she read the front of it, even as she tried to comprehend the humor to it. No, that wasn't going to happen. Way over her head. "I'm always going to blame too much of my California sun for why I just can't seem to wrap my head around that particular science joke." No ill side effects when sliding tidbits of information about herself into the conversation? Thank god.

"Well duh it's crazy, because I'm crazy about you." He wasn't the only one with jokes. Though as bad as her joke was Buffy couldn't help but grin a little. "I'm good now. Really. But I will take you up on the offer of kisses with warning if I can manage to give some." A promise. While she was going to take whatever she could here without hesitation she wasn't going to do the same when it came to Peter.

After sliding her hands off of his, Buffy made a move to duck down and gather back up the flowers from the ground. "We should probably keep moving. There's at least one something or another outside that sliced a person in half like he or she were made of butter. I really don't want to encounter something like that without being as well equipped as I could be. Especially since I'm not running on full strength as I normally would if I were not here." It wasn't an outright declaration of what she was capable of but a hint she wasn't exactly normal outside of this setting.

"And it's just the New Yorker in me that is too stubborn to give up," Peter said with a squeeze of his hand. That was really clever of her to slip in where she was from like that. Kind of funny that they were from opposite coasts and were supposedly dating. Did the game or whatever do that on purpose to make it more challenging? Probably.

"Yeah, I- I do not want to be around here when that thing shows up. I'm not exactly... up to full speed either," Peter admitted. What he wouldn't give to be able to throw a bus at something or climb up a wall right about now. He could just web-sling he and Buffy to safety. Instead he was just going to have to do his best with what he had. Apparently she was a superhero too or something? Which... what were the odds? He would have so many questions for her when this was over. "But whatever happens, I promise we'll get through this. Together. Because there's no one I'd rather be with than you."

"You are very much a stubborn New Yorker from New York!" Phew, but also, so far from California. How people actually managed to make being together long distance work was beyond Buffy. But they were going to act like they knew from experience how it worked.

"Did you see the thing? I didn't actually see it so I couldn't properly identify what nasty it is. Only the guy...or half of the guy when he hit the glass. None of which was pleasant to witness." And yet she was seemingly unfazed. Which she was. She also picked up on Peter's little hint too and smiled wider. Knowing Peter wasn't normal was a comfort even if he didn't have his powers here. Worrying about someone freaking out on her about blood and guts and monsters would have been an issue she'd deal with when she came to that bridge. Now it was looking like she wasn't going to have to cross it. Seriously though, what were the chances that two teenagers usually with powers were stuck inside a mall far from home and made to pretend they were lovers?

Also, ew. What kind of higher power how to be perverted in their control over them to do such a thing?

"You and me. Together. Like it always is." She agreed giving his hand another squeeze and pulling him into the sporting goods store once they made it there. "We should also get some rain gear, maybe jackets or ponchos and lighters and fuel, or camp fire fuel if there's such a thing."

Peter was a little more fazed than Buffy was about the body. Just because he was a superhero didn't mean he was used to stuff like that. In fact, seeing something like that had really shaken him. He had just resolved to work that much harder to make sure everyone was kept safe. Especially Buffy. Not just because she was his fake girlfriend but because he really liked her.

"Rain gear?" Peter said, giving her a puzzled look as he followed her into the camping section. The other stuff he could understand but he wasn't entirely sure about why they'd want to get any rain gear. He was pretty sure that they weren't going to be in the rain much.

"Oh, hey. They have crossbows here!" he said, pointing at one of the weapons on display in the sporting goods section. "Crossbows are good right? Because they're all quiet?"

Because a good, real boyfriend would know if their girlfriend knew how to use a crossbow and maybe preferred one so he couldn't straight up ask. Clearly they would have had that super important conversation in their relationship.

It's not like she wants to be unfazed. She would much rather be startled and shook up instead of used to it all. Also, her brain is assuming the dead guy was like the so-called people roaming about deeper inside the mall. Holographs, droids, robots? Whatever. It helps lessen the worry some.

"Yeah, rain gear." She confirmed with a half-assed shrug while snatching a duffel bag off a shelf as they passed an endcap. Sure her train of thought didn't always flow in a straight path and derailed more often than not, but it always came back to where it was headed. "What it we find ourselves out there and it ends up raining on top of the mist?" She reasoned, "Or if we set a fire ball or fire something off inside of this place and the sprinklers go off?" It's happened to her before. Only less with a fire ball and more rocket launcher.

Turning her attention to the crossbow Peter pointed out Buffy's face lit up. "Perfect!" She just about squealed before reaching up and placing a quick kiss to the side of his cheek in appreciation, dropping his hand to take off for the display. "Crossbows are a really good and quiet weapon!" She called back already pulling the weapon from off its display unit. "I love when you remember that crossbows are one of my favorite weapons." Not because she was a psycho, but because she was using it as an opening to work what else she liked into the conversation in hopes he'd throw some right back at her in regards to what he liked.

She really wanted to know more about who and what Peter was outside of this place. Waiting until later was not going to happen with her. She wanted to focus on the positive and figure out their strengths to better situate them in this mess. "I also love how you know I love stakes and tranquilizer guns and holy water and crosses. All in order to do what I do best. Which is kill vampires and demons. Almost like what other people do." Not naming names seemed to help with no pain. This was also okay.

Peter wasn't so sure about it actually raining in the mall but she clearly had more experience with this sort of thing than he did and her point about the first was a good one. Plus there was no telling what other people might do so rain gear was a good plan. Besides, most ponchos and stuff bundled up all nice and small.

When her face lit up at the mention of how much she loved crossbows Peter felt a sort of butterflies-in-our-stomach feeling. Was he crushing on his fake girlfriend? Oh man, he was definitely crushing on his fake girlfriend and that was really going to make things awkward. He definitely needed to get control of himself and focus on not dying.

When she dropped the "hunting vampires and demons" bomb that definitely did not help him focus on not dying. Because how else could you react to that other than with complete shock. His eyes went wide and the reminded to act like they knew each other flashed through his head as well as a stab of pain. He managed to keep his expression to just a wince though because he didn't want her to feel bad at surprising him. She was doing a really good job at letting him know more about her all stealthily.

"And I love how you know how proud I am of you for being so totally bad ass. And that I totally understand because you know how I like to dress up in a red and blue costume and swing around the city fighting crime," Peter said. So yeah, totally outing his secret identity probably but whatever.

Peter will thank her later when there's water from above raining down on them from somewhere. Either outside or inside. For some reason she's sure of it happening.

Just as she was sure he was in pain. How much pain he was in she wasn't aware of. All she could do was jump the gun and assume it was a lot. And while Peter did his best at covering it up, Buffy noticed the wince in just enough time. She replayed all she said within the last two to three minutes to figure out what triggered it. "Shit!" It didn't take long, or much, to connect the dots.

"I am so sorry!" She outright apologized, crossbow carefully lowered, though still in her possession she rushed back to him. "I didn't mean to..." Afraid to say 'surprise you with that news' and cause him more pain she gently rested her hand against the left side of his face. Her heart felt as if it sunk into the pit of her stomach with the thought of causing him any sort of pain because she messed up in how she was trying to cheat the system.

Even if she wasn't forced to protect him, the idea of Peter in pain actually bothered Buffy more than she expected. This was probably going to end up bad for the both of them, somehow and someway.

"Right!" She agreed before Peter's admittance settled completely. She was not going to attempt to process his confession entirely. It would just cause pain for her and possibly him, too. Instead if she agreed immediately and absorbed it then she should be okay? "You wear a costume like a clo-oh-not a clown. But a superhero who uses rope to swing around New York to stop crime." Ropes were all people swung on, so it made sense he'd use one, right? "Because you're you...which is you know... and I know." As best as she was at trying to look and pretend like she knew who Peter was, and with no ill effects, Buffy has zero idea who he is because Spider-Man doesn't exist in her world.

"I love that you aren't afraid of heights and can easily fight off the bad guys with your fists and rope, like Wonder Woman's rope." She should probably keep her mouth shut before either of them found themselves in anymore trouble.

"No, no, it's fine. It's totally fine. Everything is fine," Peter reassured her, even as he leaned into her touch just a bit. Was it messed up to take advantage of any sort of comfort she offered just because she was trying to be a real!fake!girlfriend? Peter wasn't sure but it seemed like her concern was genuine so he figured it was okay to take some comfort in that. Plus it had REALLY hurt so a bit of comfort was nice.

"And yeah, you know how much heights don't bother me and I love fighting bad guys," Peter said, hoping that she would kind of pick up on what he was agreeing with and what he wasn't. He was pretty sure that if a real boyfriend and girlfriend talked like this people would think they were incredibly stupid or concussed or something. "We're, you know, a pretty awesome couple."

The last was meant as a bit of a joke but he thought they really did make a good team. At least on paper. Which they weren't on because this was real life. Sort of.

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