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3.0 Test Drive Meme
3.0 Test Drive Meme
Premise & Arrival ֍ FAQ ֍ Apply ֍ Navigation
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:
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:
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:
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.
so normal
Looks like it.
[ He can't feel or see more sand, and the water dripping off Keiichi's neck is only faintly pinkish. Alec turns off the tap and starts patting Keiichi dry with the washcloth. ]
Maybe I'm a king and a doctor. Doctor King Alec has a ring to it. Technically I should disinfect this, but we don't have anything for that, so just don't rub random garbage on your neck for a while, all right?
Now hold still while I rub some random jelly I found on you.
no subject
[Keiichi shoots a truly pathetic expression Alec's way. He's... weirdly good at it???]
And, hey, how come you get to do it? Ugh, truly, this is what I get for supporting the monarchy... my end to the fleshy, lubricated guillotines of your fingers were my inevitable fate...
[Despite his lamentation, he doesn't actually do anything to stop Alec. He does, in fact, tilt his head a bit to make his neck yet easier to access.]
no subject
Not that the other boy still seems to mind. It's only when Keiichi is going out of his way to not mind, in fact, that Alec realizes he could actually let Keiichi do this himself.
He doesn't want to let Keiichi do it himself. He wants more of this, whatever it is. The tube's cap comes off under Alec's thumb and he squirts the lukewarm, slightly greasy and split contents on the back of Keiichi's neck, right above the jut of one of his cervical vertebrae. ]
I get to do it because it's my jelly, twerp. [ He's running out of themed insults. ] And my regal and medical expertise. And because you stick your grubby peasant fingers in trash.
[ Once Alec starts rubbing the petroleum jelly in it mixes back together, more or less. He eyes the scratch marks under their new clear glistening coat, lips pursing slightly. ]
You really fucking went for it, huh?
1/2
Hey, I'll have you know that my peasant fingers are super clean usually. I wear gloves when I root through trash, probably.
2/2 CW: mention of bugs and the whole bugs in your body dealio
I seriously thought there were bugs in there, you know? [An awkward mix of defensive and knowing it's completely ridiculous to get defensive over such an obviously bad choice colors his tone. Red, Keiichi thinks.] It seemed like a good idea at the time.
cw: parasitism horrors, bug mentions, alec is gross
Be a pretty shitty hallucination effect if you didn't buy it. [ He smears jelly over the last of the scratches and wipes his fingers on the washcloth. ] Still. Takes a lot of...spunk to commit like that.
[ Alec would raise his eyebrows meaningfully if Keiichi was looking at him, but he still figures that will lighten the mood. Impulsively, he pats the back of Keiichi's head with his dry, unsticky hand. ]
All done.
[ He reaches into the sink and feels around for the discarded cap, reuniting it with the jelly tube. He drops it on the adjacent counter. ]
You probably don't need to cover this up, but don't pick at it. Rub more jelly on and wrap your neck when you sleep.
no subject
His eyes trail back to Alec.]
Guess it's too much to hope for a shitty hallucination, huh? [He rolls his head, testing how his neck feels.] Thanks, though. I guess if I have such an easy time with my own throat, I probably won't hesitate with somebody else's. Musta been all those orphans I killed, or something.
[He shrugs, shooting a lopsided grin Alec's way, and a gentle nudge at his shoulder to return the physical contact. Which, wow, he really wonders what it says about him that the brief pat raised his mood so quickly.]
Sorry, I... don't actually care that much, I promise. Guess I just don't want the first cool guy I've met to think I'm some kinda weirdo who'd claw out his own throat for no good reason. [The smirk revitalizes back into that cocksure, mischievous grin that has so frequently adorned Keiichi's face, an old friend making a surprise visit that isn't actually a surprise at all.] And thanks again! I'll keep your expert medical advice in mind, Doctor King Alec.
no subject
Of course Alec will take him up on it. This is the best time he's had in this entire kidnapping. ]
I'm the first cool guy you met? I guess everyone else in this town does suck. [ Alec chuckles and shoves Keiichi's shoulder back with an open palm, just barely hard enough to jostle him. ] Even if you were a throat-clawing maniac, at least you weren't a little bitch about it.
[ This is easy. It's like slotting into a groove he didn't know was there. Even though they're technically done, Alec's mission accomplished, he's not in a hurry to abandon that so readily. ]
Just don't do it again. You're the first person I've talked to who hasn't been a total pain in the neck. [ His smile twitches as he drops his eyes to Keiichi's throat and then back up again. ] For me, anyway. And who knows when I'll need some orphans offed?