uploadedmods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
uploadedmods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
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
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.
no subject
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.
no subject
"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.
no subject
"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."
no subject
"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."
no subject
"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.
no subject
"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.
no subject
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.
no subject
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 subject
"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.