3.0 Test Drive Meme

[wellie]

3.0 Test Drive Meme

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Welcome to Well! Characters arrive a little differently this month (see the first prompt). Your character arrives this month in the middle of the formless desert with only a handful of memories, clad in old west style clothes of your choosing, with no items from home.

Anyone is free to play on the TDM, but you need an invite to apply. Feel free to use these prompts, and interact with the arrival or locations. NPCs are around, but only say a certain set of phrases. TDMs can be considered game canon.

This TDM takes place from the first week of August onward, and can happen concurrently with other events during August and September. This will be the only TDM for August, September, and October.

Applications are open July 26th until August 1st, and August 27th until September 1st. Invites are available for friends of current players.

A Little Lost

Content warnings: heat exhaustion, feelings of unreality

You wake up in a sea of sand. It’s hot, and dry, and it seems to go on forever. You don’t remember much about yourself except your name and a handful of memories that most likely aren’t useful right now.

The sand slip-slides under your feet with every step. Sun beats down heavy and hot on your neck and your head. You’re so thirsty. How did you get here? How long have you been walking? Where are you headed? You can’t know. You feel like you’ve been walking forever, but the sun stays high above you, like it’s always noon. It may have been hours, it may have been mere minutes. What are those things circling in the sky above you? Vultures? That can't mean anything good.

Eventually, you find someone else, another new arrival, maybe, or a resident of the town who may have wandered a little too far into the desert. Maybe they have some water on them? Either way, company is exactly what you need right now, because there sure isn’t anything else in this desolate place. Not a cactus, not an animal, not even hints of a town.

Once you’re together, it seems a little easier to move forward. Time starts to move, too. The sun dips in the sky, your feet tread through the sand, and together, eventually you find the town.

If you take too long after you find one another, and the sun sets, be careful. Cacti sprout up closer to town, and after the sun sets, the cacti start to move, and they seem hungry for blood.

tl;dr:

• This time, new arrivals wake up lost in the middle of a vast desert.
• There's too much sun, too much sand, vultures circling and too little water.
• Finding each other makes time start again, and lets you find the town.
• If you don't make it back to town before nightfall, vicious living cacti appear to attack you.

Face Your Fears

Content warnings: hallucinations, reality shifts

In this town, fear soaks the hot, dry air. It lurks in shadows and the corners of rooms, waiting for their moment. What is it that you fear? Monsters? Disappointing your parents? Maybe you’re afraid that everyone you love will leave you, or that you’ll end up alone. Whatever it is, right now, there’s a chance of becoming very real.

It happens suddenly. Your mind drifts. You lose focus on what you were doing, and when you look up again, the world around you has shifted. What was a nice lunch with a new friend or a fun visit to the saloon becomes a nightmare. What fear manifests is totally up to you, and it can be different every time. The person beside you could become a monster you think is trying to attack you, or you could be suddenly alone in a cold dark space, desolate and empty.

Whatever horror your mind conjures up for you, it will feel real in all ways and with all senses including, of course, your perception of pain. As far as you know, you’re trapped in a nightmare with no way out.

Except, of course, there is a way out: you just need to figure out that it isn’t real. Maybe you’re strong enough to do that on your own; maybe you’ll need help from a friend or a new pal, reaching through the illusion to pull you back. After all, these hallucinations are entirely in the mind of the beholder: to everyone around you, it sure just looks like you’re yelling at your pancakes!

tl;dr:

• You start hallucinating that the things you fear most are actually happening to you.
• These fears feel like real, concrete sensory experiences, even though they're only happening in your head.
• You can escape by recognizing that what's happening isn't real, either on your own or with help.

Bullrider

Content warnings: mild bovine coercion, alcohol

Come on, hot stuff. You know you want to.

Bet you can’t stay on for more than half a minute.

You don’t look too tough.

You think you can tame me?

In the saloon, you hear a voice in your head. It calls to you, the words seductive and enticing: you want to prove it wrong, you want to find out what it’s promising, you hate to lose. Whatever the motivation, you find yourself abandoning your drink and making your way to the new attraction at the back of the saloon: the bull.

It’s a big boy: a massive mechanical bull. Covered in spotted cowhide, with a bull head and big horns, this thing sits on a massive pedestal like a challenge. Around it is spread... relatively thin padding and a flimsy rope to keep the audience back an appropriate distance.

The compulsion keeps a hold on you until you’re on the bull. Maybe you’re on it with a friend, or a stranger, and it starts up with a mechanical buzzing. It starts to sway under you, and now you have just one job: stay on.

It starts easy, but gets harder as it goes along. It’s incredibly difficult to stay on for more than a minute. But during that minute, you feel amazing. You feel hot as hell, in whatever way that works for you: sexy, powerful, bold, in control.

Until he throws you off onto the padding or into the crowd! When you get thrown, there's a good chance you'll go flying into the crowd. Hopefully they're ready to catch you!

If by some miracle you manage to stay on for more than a minute and a half, the bartender slides you a bullrider special: a spicy whiskey cocktail with a hint of lime. Feel free to leave it up to pure chance, and have the mods roll a die for you to see whether you manage to stay on or not.


tl;dr:

• There's a mechanical bull in the back of the saloon!
• There's a strange deep voice in your head, coercing you into giving it a shot.
• It's hard to stay on, but when you're on it, you feel powerful, bold and in control.
• The padding's pretty thin and you'll get thrown hard when you do. You might hit someone!
• If you stay on for more than a minute and a half, you'll get a fun little drink as a reward.

Comments

kaeya alberich | genshin impact

[circuitice]

a little lost

[ he hates hot weather. that's the first real conscious thought he has to himself, as he takes in the surroundings, and even the carrion birds waiting for him to become their next meal. His next thought is a confused mess as he realizes that he's missed so many steps from his last memory.

he remembers being significantly smaller, actually. It's disconcerting. But he knows he shouldn't wait around to find out-- and so he walks.

And pleasantly greets the first person he sees, ]

Hello. I don't suppose you'd know where we are, would you...?

a little prickly

[ once in town, he's more skittish than anything. he takes steps to be friendly to anyone who tries to talk to him, but honestly, as soon as he can find a way to slip away, he does. Instinctively not trusting, that's the most he can tell about himself. The rest, is a mystery.

and so, it's by himself that he first realizes that he's getting lost in the black hole, and what had been a desert, quickly turns to a forest with rain. And he is truly all alone. he doesn't even dare call out or alert anyone to his presence as he wanders alone down a dirt road. ]

wildcard

[ surprise me! pm this journal to plot. ]

A little lost

[searingwing]

[There's a moment pause from the man staring out at the desert. Clad in dark browns and black, he looks at him. Then nods,] We should be not that far from town.

But, that's subjective here. [Yet the wind starts to blow at their backs and the sense of time moving seems to begin. Diluc adjusts his gloves and motions for him to follow. He's seen this man before.] I know you.

[No sense getting around that. Memories are all they have here.]

[circuitice]

Hmm~?

[ he says playfully, but at the same time, he looks to regard the man leading him. and he's not familiar at all. Kaeya simply draws a blank when it comes to the people he knows.

It could be true, but he'd have no way of verifying. ]

Well, that's certainly lucky for me.

[ he says, even though he feels more suspicion than luck. ]

[searingwing]

[The heat bears down on them. He takes a canteen from his belt. There's nothing in sight. But this is the start of a cycle.] That's debatable.

No one has their full memories here. [He spots something in the distance to the west. He shades his eyes. Then narrows them, taking them further east instead.]

[circuitice]

I see!

[ he says simply, considering the words. this man is closed off, but he isn't wrong. Amnesia is the second thing he noticed. Would Kaeya get anything from pretending otherwise?

he decides that he wouldn't. ]

Well, that would match with my experience so far.

And how do we know each other, again?

[searingwing]

[He looks to the west. As the sun is starting to set, cacti are gathering. He almost misses the question. Almost.] We grew up together. You stayed a knight. I didn't. That's the extent of my memories of you.

[But there's no recognition in Kaeya's eyes. No awareness of who he is. Or even nostalgia. He motions to the east where he can just make out the town. He looks west again. More damn cacti.] How fast can you run?

[circuitice]

[ he glances between the two locations that Diluc has motioned towards. The cacti elicit a response, and so he's quick to surmise that they must be a quirk of the location.

he's quick to distract from the original point of conversation, he notes to himself. Blunt, and to the point. ]

I should be able to keep pace.

[ he doesn't know for certain. but it's a feeling he has. ]

This way?

[ an incline of his head towards the east. ]

[searingwing]

This way. We will take two steps and then run for it.

[He could summon the sword. But he needs speed right now. Red threads of light weave over his fingers and around his arm. He takes two steps and breaks into a full sprint.

Just as an unholy-sounding rapid skittering comes from the west. The cacti rush across the sand like predators spotting prey.] Don't let them catch you. They drug their food.

[Food being them.]

[circuitice]

[ he watches him, listens to his warning, and then as soon as he sees him take off, Kaeya follows.

It turns out, he wasn't wrong about being able to keep pace. Running is something he is very good at. ]

Sounds pleasant.

[ he says by way of filling the space ]

[searingwing]

[He falls back a bit and sends a wave of fire ripping across the sand. The cacti in the lead catches fire.]

They're constant and more active at night. [The sun setting is a problem. He catches up. The town is rapidly approaching. It looks okay. But there are not that many people moving around. He points out the diner.]

We'll stop there. They don't go too far into town.

[circuitice]

[ he tracks the fire, and then glances behind him briefly. There's some distance that it's opened up. and so he looks ahead, and nods. ]

Alright.

[ if he was a knight, he should have something. but he doesn't really even have the memories of that, much less any powers. Best to be as unobtrusive as possible. ]

[searingwing]

[They reach the edge of town and pass by the ruins of a building. He glances at it as they pass by. The cacti fall back. He keeps going until they reach the diner.

He steps inside without a backward glance. He is comfortable here. It isn’t the bar, in town where he feels completely settled. It doesn’t have to be.]

I’ll start with two important facts. Memories do come back. We can’t force them to. If you try to force a memory, it doesn’t end well.

This area can be extremely dangerous. The cacti are the least problem.

[circuitice]

[ once the immediate danger has passed, he realizes he doesn't know what to do next. And his only answer is the one who led him out of the desert. And, there, he at least sees some semblance of him relaxing.

and so, he smiles pleasantly, inoffensive. ]

I see.

Shall I ask one by one, then?

[searingwing]

[He nods and slips back into the kitchen. He returns with two glasses of water and sets it on a table. He sits down on one side of the booth. He gestures for Kaeya to sit.]

I’m Diluc. I’ve been here for some time. I’ll answer what I can.

[circuitice]

A pleasure.

[ the name doesn't ring any bells for him, but he doesn't sit at Diluc's insistence, taking a longer look over the whole place, then at the water, before finally sitting. ]

What does it mean to "force" a memory?

[ as he picks up the water glass ]

[searingwing]

If you try to remember something, there will be a stinging pain. It’s a warning. We don’t know what or who is responsible. But their work is thorough.

It only starts with stinging pain. The more you try despite that, you will bleed. Then it will likely kill you.

[He folds his arms over his chest and leans back against the booth.]

[circuitice]

I see.

[ well, that gets a slightly annoyed look, but he takes a sip of the water, considering it. ]

And how do they "come back"? Time and rest?

[ he's being a brat about it but he doesn't really care ]

a little prickly

[thinkfirst]

[ It's becoming something like a ritual.

Flynn wakes with a gasp in his own bed, chased from sleep by buzzing and rumbling and everything he has come to know falling to pieces; he sucks in breath after breath, and pulls himself to his feet, and goes to look at the window at a town that should not be there, and then throws himself onto its streets because it is, anyway. He is ostensibly mapping changes, taking notes in an already-worn notebook.

More than that, though, he's touching buildings, looking out for new faces, grounding himself in a place that isn't home but is the best thing to it right now. He runs his fingers along old worn wood and stucco, traces familiar barrels that had been buried in sand, and spies, alone and wandering, a figure heading out into the desert.

That's new.

With a tiny frown, Flynn pulls his bandana up over his neck to ward off the sun and heads after the figure, calling out with concern clear in his voice, ]

You won't get far, going that way! It's just desert!

[circuitice]

[ he hears someone, and there's a moment of panic, because that wasn't the voice he was expecting. When he turns back and sees Flynn, he looks more like a shadow in the dark than anyone else. But Kaeya, in that moment, doesn't know what to do.

After all, he was told to stay there. Wandering wasn't even supposed to be an option. The air is wet and cold around him, as he doesn't quite respond to Flynn. Though, there is a thought occurring to him, to blend further into the shadows of the forest.

and so, that's the option he takes, rather than confront him ]

[thinkfirst]

[ That can't be good. Heat shimmers around them already, stifling at this time of day. The center of town is bad enough, but Flynn knows it only gets worse out past the borders, where cacti could turn violent at any moment.

He quickens his pace, his boots loud on packed earth. Is the figure ahead of him getting harder to see, even though Flynn's getting closer? ]

Wait, please! At least take some water with you—I know it's tempting to just leave, and it's not a bad idea, but you need to be prepared!

[circuitice]

[ "take some water", but it's raining isn't it? though, he frowns to himself, contemplating. that does stop his disappearance-- and he looks towards Flynn more carefully.

that would have made sense in the desert he just left, wouldn't it? to take water.

But it's so dark, it's hard to make sense of what the other is wearing. ]

[thinkfirst]

[ Oh, he's getting closer. That's a small triumph, swamped as it is by worry. The heat is only getting worse, stealing the moisture from Flynn's body even as he jogs. The moment he's close enough, he lifts the canteen he's taken to carrying at his hip—shaped incongruously like a little cactus with a blooming flower, from which the spout juts—and holds it out like he's working with a skittish horse. ]

This should help, if you really must leave! It's cactus water. It helps with the heat. But, again, I can't advise leaving town right now. The heat of the day is only going to get worse, and people have been getting lost. Please.

[circuitice]

[ and just like that-- the illusion shatters. He's too bright, too dry. He's not dressed for rain.

and honestly, Kaeya prefers that to the dark, lonely road. Where all he can hear are the sounds of the rain against much younger ears. Even the heat is welcome after that, and he exhales. ]

I was just exploring.

[ he says by way of explanation, lying as easily as breathing, ]

I've only just arrived after kindly being escorted by someone.

[thinkfirst]

[ It's like watching the light come back to his eyes, a little, or a heat haze lift from the ground. Flynn wants to ask what was happening, where he thought he was going, but... well, he's been given an answer, and more importantly, he stopped before running out into the endless scrubland, and that's the important part. ]

I wondered, when I didn't recognize your face. It's easy to start recognizing everyone in town, since there are so few of us. Did... you say you were escorted? Did you come in from the desert?

lost

[vibing]

[ Well, that's certainly a kinder reaction that he's gotten recently. Yuri can't help but smile back, on a nice walk in the desert (to get away, to be alone, to think, he needs to think). ]

Sure, man. The desert around Wellstone. You, uh... probably have never heard of it.