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Well Mod ([personal profile] wellie) wrote in [community profile] wellcome2023-07-19 04:51 pm
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3.0 Test Drive Meme

3.0 Test Drive Meme

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.



aniketos: (Default)

[personal profile] aniketos 2023-08-30 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
[ Alright, that's still concerning - but it's slightly different from the other things Ruby has said. Pyrrha slows to a stop and pauses for a moment. Then she crouches down and carefully tips Ruby back onto her feet before straightening up again. ]

But you're not the one hurting them.

[ It isn't a question, because it doesn't need to be. Pyrrha can tell from the way Ruby speaks what she means. ]
guidemyway: (To be aimless?)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2023-08-30 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
[The words hit Ruby like a truck and she doesn't quite feel ready to be put on her feet after hearing them, but here she is and she's doing her best to stay on them.]

But I couldn't stop them from getting-

[It's only when she lifts her head up to give Pyrrha a defiant little glare that she realizes who she's talking to.

And she stops cold mid sentence as a pit forms in her gut. A realization hits her that person who had been trying to help her this whole time was someone who she had seen before.

Something wet hits her cheeks and her voice cracks when she speaks up. She doesn't quite realize how hard it's hitting right away.]


-I couldn't stop you from getting hurt.

[She couldn't stop her from dying before her eyes.]
aniketos: (ᴡʀᴀᴘ life in the brilliance of death)

[personal profile] aniketos 2023-09-11 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wait. What?

Pyrrha freezes when she sees the tears rolling down Ruby's cheeks, her own concerned expression freezing into one of shock and dismay. It would probably be less distressing if she had any idea of who Ruby is.

But... she does, doesn't she? Isn't there something kind of familiar about her? Something about the ombre of her hair and the silver of her eyes that tugs at the few memories Pyrrha can call her own? It's so vague Pyrrha doesn't want to pin any of her hopes on it but...

But...
]

Who are you...?
guidemyway: (nothing pulling me down)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2023-09-11 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ruby tries to pull herself together, but she can't stop the tears from flooding down her cheeks. The connection had been drawn and a current of emotions connecting this girl with the one who died in her memories, and the illusion of her that tormented her in another had been made.

The question hits her like a sack of bricks. It wasn't complicated but it was one that bothered Ruby since she had got here. Who was she? Who had she been? Who was she going to be? For the most part she had just wanted to crawl away and be nothing to no one, but that kept proving to be impossible.]


...I'm Ruby- And- I think I watched you die.
aniketos: (ᴛᴏ humble us all)

[personal profile] aniketos 2023-09-26 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ Oh.

There's not really a reaction she can have besides that, is there? Just - oh. No much there is she can do about that, is there.

... No, not quite. Pyrrha doesn't know who she is, either, but she thinks that person is pretty good at rolling with the punches. This, though? Her mind rebels at the thought. She's dead?
]

That's... that can't be possible. I'm right here.
guidemyway: (Watch it all)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2023-10-02 11:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ruby's had a few months to come to terms with this. That hasn't exactly made it easy but her memories had made it hard to come to any other conclusion. She also knows that this is a lot to dump on someone out of the blue, but here she is and she isn't quite ready to stop yet.

Because Pyrrha's next words hit her hard with what she's really been dealing with this whole time.]


Yeah. I am too.