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

[forgeabettertomorrow]

You do. Honestly, it's one of the things I love about you.

[He's watching her with a very smug expression while he polishes off that plate.]

Well...I'm feeling a bit better. You should show me that headstone of mine.

[sighsheavily]

[her stomach does a few somersaults at that, and despite the effort she's making to look unfazed, she is. y'know. fazed.

after a double-blink, she looks back, at the plate, at him.]

...Are you quite sure? It caused you tremendous grief the first time around.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

It doesn't feel right having this gap. If I don't face my own memories how can I face what's to come?

Besides, you'll be there with me. So...yeah. I'm sure.

[sighsheavily]

[her expression softens. she's still worried, but...relieved, in a way. it's the right decision - one she'd want to make for herself - but more than that, being trusted wholeheartedly is...scary as it is good.]

Then...do yourself a favor and clean up first. If you're set on feeling terrible, you may as well not smell it as well.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Oh...yeah, I uh.

I guess I'm a little ripe after a day and a half wandering through a desert.

I'll...meet you in your room after I've cleaned up?

[sighsheavily]

[she nods slightly, sitting back.]

I'll wait for you there. If you need a nap, take one; I've things to keep me busy while I wait.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

I can sleep once I've got my head on straight.

[He stands and helpfully brings his plates and glasswear to the counter, nodding his thanks to the waiter for dealing with...him. All of him.]

[Then heads out and back to the Staywell.]

[It takes him a couple of hours. He honestly just stood under the showerhead for half an hour so he could feel the water on his skin. Soak it in and let it rejuvenate him for a bit. He still had questions about the last week before the loop reset so he'd have to ask Cecelia what he could after he got another look at his tombstone.]

[Finally, he knocks on her door. His sunburned skin still feels weird in places so he's opting for a simple tanktop tucked into his bluejeans for now.]

[sighsheavily]

[it's one of the things i love about you.

the words loop in her head endlessly as she goes about her day - checking once more along the horizon for sign of anyone else (Mayoi? Noah? anyone...?), before retiring upstairs, back to the fourth floor.

she feels lighter, even with all the knots in her stomach. vindicated, even. for trusting, for believing in spite of everything. there's still something in her that fears a rebuke, a shoe drop, or something...but Darin's already proved he's up to the challenge. she can be too, can't she?

the stone is still propped up against a corner in her room. she'd found it staring back at her when she did her first checks around the place and, after a quick rubbing and some defiant footnotes, she'd gone and covered it with a shawl, unable to stand to look at it.

that's how it remains even now as she's set to laying out dusted and damaged notebooks out along her desk and windowsills when she hears his footfalls first, then the knock.]


You look better. [she smiles slightly, stepping back after opening the door to allow him entry.]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Not especially hard given how I looked when I staggered into town. I caught myself in the mirror and I'm shocked no one tried to throw me in jail.

[He steps in and glances around. The room really was like he remembered it. His own room seemed the same as well. He'd have to check to make sure his stockpile of scrap from the chasms was here too.]

Alright. Point me at this cryptic headstone then. Let's get this over with.

[sighsheavily]

Right...

[she sighs, closing the door. she gestures toward the draped shape in the corner.]

Sixty seconds. Memory recall is sixty seconds, give or take. Very painful. Perhaps you should sit. I can count it out with you.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Right. Sixty seconds. I can do that.

[Darin opts to kneel in front of the stone and carefully removes the shawl.]

[His eyes glaze over the epitaph and that flood of pain and recollection hits like a dam bursting. Memories flash; his brother, Diomuhr, his purpose. It's just as bad as it was last time even though he was steeling himself for it.]

[He clutches at his own head; it feels like a smithing hammer pounding repeatedly behind his eyes. He does his best to grit his teeth. To not cry out. He wobbles and grips the headstone for balance with one hand with muscles tense like steel cords.]

N-NGH!!! RGH!!!

[sighsheavily]

[even prepared for it, Cecelia finds herself immediately frightened and flooded with adrenaline. she bends and puts her hands on his shoulders, squeezing her own eyes shut.]

Forty...

[she attempts a healing spell, unsure if that would even matter in this case. maybe it'll just ease the sunburn instead?]</small. Twenty. Almost. Just a little longer. Breathe--

[forgeabettertomorrow]

D...Damn...!

[He's the reincarnation of a god. Well...half of one, anyway. And his purpose was to bring about the end of his world. He's a harbinger of destruction and...]

[Everything his double had said makes sense. And the source of his powers? If he really was a god of destruction then that certainly put all of that into perspective.]

[The pain starts to ebb and he brings a hand up to his face to wipe the sweat away.]

That...That really doesn't get easier a second time...Gods I thought my brain was going to melt...

[sighsheavily]

[once he's started to lose some of the tension in his back, Cecelia sags down, winding her arms around his neck to lightly hug him, resting her head against the back of his.]

It's dreadful every time, yes. But the time is the same.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

You've got it down to a science, haven't you...

[He's subdued. Processing. His reaction isn't as visceral as before...maybe because it's filling in a gap rather than crashing down on him. It's not a revelation this time just...a reminder.]

Now I remember everything from that day...

...Thank you for taking such good care of this, Cecelia. I don't know if a rubbing would have had the same effect.

[sighsheavily]

[at 'thank you,' Cecelia squeezes a little.

quietly:] Admittedly...I didn't do much to protect it. It just stayed there. Even if I wanted to break it, that's not something I can do, you know.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

You kept it safe.

...You trusted me enough to handle the truth.

[He reaches up to place a hand over her arms crossed over front of his neck.]

So you're just going to have to go ahead and stop being so modest for once.

[sighsheavily]

Hm.

[but she really did just let it sit in her room, Darin.

fine. she lets him have it. she just hugs him for a bit before relaxing her hold.]

I'm sorry. Remembering it again. I know it's a burden.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Don't be. It...wasn't as bad this time. Maybe because I remembered it was something bad but I just didn't know what. The feeling without the context.

And...yeah, it's a burden. But power always is. As long as I know what to do with it, then I don't need to worry so much about being the worst version of myself.

[He turns to her and smiles a bit.]

And I know if I start to go astray then I have my lovely guide to help me get back on track.

[sighsheavily]

[she flashes a smile, shaking her head.]

Only to yell your ear off, I'd say. But I'm good at that. [she leans forward to kiss his cheek.] I'm proud of you.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[His smile spreads into a grin.]

Hey, what can I say? You've become very good at motivating me.

[He leaves the implication open for her own imagination to fill. Surely, he wasn't just speaking of her yelling and nagging at him.]

[But he pushes himself to his feet and stretches. Heat exhaustion was still present in his body but he could feel his strength flowing back gradually. Another day or so and he should be back in top form.]

So...what's on the docket then? I'm sure you've got at least a few things you want to look into or confirm. Where do we start, partner?

[sighsheavily]

[she sits back on her knees for a beat before climbing to her feet.]

Mm. You're not the only one who found themselves trapped in the desert; a few others wobbled in today, as well. I think it'd be wise to sit somewhere with a view to watch for others in need, yes? Other things can wait.

We'll also want to see if the headstones reset.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

I need to check on that and I need to see if my stock of scrap and resources managed to make it through. If they did, once I'm sturdy again I'm going to see about reinforcing the Staywell. I have some theories on that.

...But I'll come with you to look out for more survivors. I've got some questions about the state of the hotel in the week I missed.

[sighsheavily]

[she nods, heading out of the room.]

I'm sure I made it to the last moments, so I should be able to answer at least a little bit.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Right...but, before that. There's something I forgot to do.

[He turns to her, places his hands on her shoulders, and reels her in for a real, honest to goodness, proper kiss. One that he'll hold for the few necessary seconds he's sure she'll need to actually snap her brain back to reality long enough to potentially reciprocate.]

[When he does break the kiss, he offers a bashful smile.]

I'm glad you're alright...