5.0 Test Drive Meme

[wellie]

5.0 Test Drive Meme

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Welcome to Well! See the first prompt for how your characters arrive in Well. Your character arrives with only a handful of memories, clad in a mix of Old Western clothes and clothes that might fit in at a renaissance fair, and 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 February onward, and can happen concurrently with other events during February and March. This will be the only TDM for February, March, and April.

Applications are open January 27th until February 1st, and February 24th until March 1st. Invites are available for friends of current players.

Arrival: Six Feet Under

Content warnings: graves, being buried alive

You wake up in the ground. The hole you're in fits your body nicely. Just as you wake up, dirt spatters onto your face, into your eyes and mouth. Maybe that's what woke you up. Before you've had a chance to clear it, more dirt drops onto your body from above, again and again, in a grim rhythm. Until you get out of there it won't stop.

Unfortunately, you're six feet deep. You might want a hand.

More unfortunately, you won't get one from the person with the shovel. The gravedigger, silhouetted in black against the sky above you, will continue to shovel dirt onto you while you try to escape. Once you're out, she loses all interest and moves on to the next grave. She doesn't acknowledge you in any way.

Above the grave is a headstone: your own. It says your name and it might have your birthdate. The death date is unreadable. There may be an epitaph about your life. It doesn't look new. In fact, it looks as old and worn as the rest of the graveyard. Other open graves are scattered around in this graveyard, and other people are climbing up out of them, too. Maybe you want to lend them a hand, or maybe you want to get out of here as fast as possible.

A mossy wrought-iron gate leads out into greenery.

Now that you're out, you need to find your way... somewhere. Not here.

For current players, you're welcome to have your character wake up for the cycle like this.

tl;dr:

• You wake up in your own grave! Someone's burying you alive! Better get out of there.

The only way out

Content warnings: being eaten alive, carnivorous flowers, intoxication

The graveyard is in the middle of the maze: a sprawling hedge maze on the outskirts of Wellstone town. The ground is soft with recent rain, and the hedges are just blooming green like it's early spring. Your shoes squelch in the muck.

It starts easily enough. As you make your way deeper, though, you'll start run into things that make the maze… harder. Gigantic flowers block the way down one path, and they titter together as you get close, swaying and moving in ways that flowers shouldn't. If you do get too close, a flower lurches forward and snaps its petals around you like jaws. Are those teeth?! They're like foot-long cactus spines, sharp and deadly. You might want to get out of there, and fast. The teeth hurt, and the inside of the flower isn't a cakewalk either. It hurts your skin, and if you're in there too long, your skin may start to burn off.

Down another path are more flowers. These are smaller, and oddly fleshy in color and scent. At the center of each flower is an eye. Some of them seem familiar, although you can't figure out why. As you pass, the eyes roll, following you closely. If you make eye contact and any of these flowers, you feel a chilling wave of fear that roots you to the spot. Your stuck in its gaze, staring back at it as it stares impassively at you. You have the horrible feeling that if you stay here, something awful will happen. It grows worse and worse, more acute, but no matter how strong that fear, you can't move your feet. Someone, or something, has to break your eye contact with the flower.

At a final turn in the maze, the sweet, soft scent of lilacs fills the air. You're sure that scent means you've found the end, and that you should follow it. Naturally, it doesn't. It leads to a dead end. Again. This one, at least, is beautiful: it's a little meadow surrounded by hedges, blooming in lilacs and lavender and little purple-headed poppies. The scent is heady and overwhelming. It fills you up. It settles into your head like a haze, making it hard to focus. It seems like an amazing idea to just… stay here. Lie down, maybe, among all those nice flowers. Just for a little while, you tell yourself.

Only, it may be more than a little while. The longer you sleep in this lovely little meadow, the more vines and flowers will grow over and around your body. Eventually, they'll make their way into your nose, your ears, your mouth and start to pull you down into the soft earth. Someone's going to have to wake you up and get those vines off unless you want to stay in this maze forever!

When at last you find your way out of the maze, past the treacherous flowers, you set your sights on Wellstone: a town in the first bloom of spring, a light mist making everything dewy and bright.

tl;dr:

• After you leave the cemetery, you find yourself in the maze. There are flowers that are obstacles along your way.
• There are large, flesh-eating flowers full of teeth that want to eat you.
• There are fleshy flowers with eyes in the middle that, if you meet their gaze, hold you with fear.
• There are lilacs that lull you and make you want to lie down and take a nap. If you do, vines will wrap you up, making it very difficult to get out.
• Once you make it through all the obstacles, you can make it out of the maze into Wellstone.

Scent of death

Content warnings: bad smells, potential for body horror

It isn't just the maze blooming with the coming of spring: Wellstone itself has burst into bloom. It seems that everywhere you look, flowers have invaded the town. Sweet snowdrops poke their heads up between cobblestones. Violets wink from shadowed corners. Morning glories climb walls and line windows. They all smell wonderful, good enough to make you want to bend down and take a good, long sniff.

Except for one. Blooming in the courtyard of the Staywell, just in front of the door in a little garden circle, is a corpse flower. The flower is massive: over three meters tall, giant stamen thrusting up to the sky with frilly red leaves around its base.

It's hard to avoid the flower: any time anyone opens the door to the courtyard, the scent enters the lobby, the parlor, the cafeteria. It seems to permeate the Staywell at random times. And the scent is strange: if you try to talk to anyone about it, they don't agree with you on how it smells. And they won't agree on how it affects you.

Smelling the corpse flower makes you feel a little... strange. Its effects vary by person, and even when a person smells it more than once, the effect might change. At first you feel a rush of disgust, then nausea, then--well.

When you smell the corpse flower, you might smell:

• The most delicious thing you can imagine. You're suddenly extremely hungry and feel compelled to eat as much as possible.
  
• The most wonderful, nostalgic scent. You feel compelled to proclaim your loyalty and friendship to the next person you see.
  
• The most relaxing thing. Your body feels loose and relaxed and you feel at peace. You want to spread the love and feel compelled to get everyone else around you to chill the fuck out.
  
• Sugary sweetness. You feel an intense draw of affection toward the people around you and feel compelled to compliment them in increasingly over the top ways.
  
• The scent of raw, rotting meat. Everything around you suddenly look strangely... meaty. Is that chair made of meat? That wall? You're very acutely aware that you are made of meat, and that everyone around you is made of meat.
  
• The smell of death. You feel a horrible, creeping sense of guilt and feel compelled to confess something awful you do or do not remember doing to the next person you see.

Comment below if you'd like a random smell (or feel free to select for yourself). Effects last anywhere from half an hour to an hour. Characters can experience different effects throughout the TDM. The corpse flower will be in bloom the first week of February and the first week of March, and closed the rest of the time.

tl;dr:

• There's a corpse flower blooming in the courtyard of the Staywell.
• When you smell its scent, you'll smell a scent that makes you do--something! Select from the list what you'd like to happen, or comment below for a random effect.

Comments

sakamoto ryouma | fate/grand order

[kaientai]

① SIX FEET UNDER

[ ryouma feels the sensation of warm earth underneath him and is aware of light somewhere above him even though his eyes are closed.

he's fallen asleep on the riverbank again, he's sure, but he's not sure why he thinks so. he doesn't even know where there's a river he might've napped beside at some point. in his mind's eye, a strangely familiar silhouette is standing above him before that unknown person throws sand in his face.

ryouma sits up, choking and sputtering on the soil he'd inhaled, just as another shovelful of earth comes down on his head. not a riverbank, actually, but a hole in the ground. a grave, an intrusive thought helpfully supplies. he is not typically a fearful person, but most people would be afraid of being buried alive, so the fact that he rejects every bit of this scenario with every fibre of his being isn't at all out of line. he wants out and jumps up to make a grab for the edge of the hole.

or... that's what he had intended to do, but there is far more power in that jump than he ever expected — the actions of someone who doesn't know their own strength. an average human can only jump so high, after all, even considering what someone might be able to accomplish with enough panic and adrenaline, and ryouma has no reason to assume he's anything but an average human. he overshoots the top of the grave by several feet before gravity kicks in, and he comes back down again, flailing and scrambling to grasp at clumps of grass and dirt along the edge of the hole so he doesn't slide back in again.

it's hardly his most graceful moment, but at least he'd (mostly) made it out of the grave. ]

② SCENT OF DEATH

[ ryouma eventually finds his way out of the maze only to end up in front of the corpse flower. he has no idea the plant bears such an ominous name, or he might wonder why it smells the way it does. he can't quite put his finger on exactly what it smells like, either. the right words to identify the scent always feel like they're hovering just at the tip of his tongue, but he can never reach them.

there's something warm and pleasant and comforting he feels in his chest when he breathes in the flower's scent, something he recognises as a sense of nostalgia even though he recognises how strange it is to feel deeply nostalgic for something you can't remember.

he ends up sitting down near the massive flower, still covered in dirt and mud, hardly moving until another person appears. as soon as he sets his sights on them, he gets up and goes bounding over like a large dog — entirely too close and very friendly in an innocent way. so extremely happy to see you!! ]

Hey! It's so funny; I feel like I've been waiting for you to show up...!

[ whatever influence the plant has over him, the eager brightness in his expression is all him. no one ever has to force him to be friendly with people, but he'd probably be somewhat less forward if he weren't compelled. ]

Our spirits must be linked somehow because I can tell you and I are already good friends!

③ WILDCARD

[ ooc; want something else? throw me a starter or hmu @ koutenko to plot something out! ]

2

[thinkfirst]

Oh—!

[ It's a shame, really, that they're meeting this way, because under ordinary circumstances Flynn's proverbial tail would be wagging right back. That sort of friendly enthusiasm is par for the course for him, and best when reciprocated.

So it's really too bad that the cold spring air smells like death and Flynn, having stopped in the courtyard after his own harrowing adventure in the maze, is choking down guilt so strong it feels like it might burst through his skin. He takes a half-step back, his face stricken. ]

I'm not sure that I'm a good choice for something like that. Hardly a worthy friend— just a few minutes ago, I spilled a cup full of tea in the tavern.

[kaientai]

Oh, yeah? Well, so what? Everyone is a little clumsy sometimes.

[ ryouma, with all his energy to spare, gives his new friend a winning smile of encouragement. ]

You shouldn't be too hard on yourself — I woke up in a grave earlier and can't remember how I got there.

[ which is to say things could always be worse? ]

[thinkfirst]

But I'm—

[ Flynn starts, and then thinks about his words for a second. He feels awful. Like he's the scum of the earth, like he deserves to smell the awful smell wafting through the air, like so much rotting meat. Like he couldn't possibly deserve friendship.

Over spilled tea?

His brows draw together. ]

Well— no, I... you're right, I... think. Um— you shouldn't worry too much about how you got there. None of us remember that part. Getting here. The important part is that you did, and relatively unscathed? Please accept my apologies that I wasn't there to help earlier. I try to be.

[kaientai]

No one does? And that happens at least often enough that you'd planned on showing up, huh?

[ that's definitely weird, but obviously, there's nothing he can do about it. he's Just a Guy, after all. you don't choose how you're born into the world, and apparently, the same thing applies to waking up in weird new places as an adult. after a moment or two to consider this, ryouma simply shrugs and shoves his hands in his pockets. ]

Well, I guess it can't be helped, right? The stone was pretty flattering, anyway.

[ his headstone, he means. ]

It said Sakamoto Ryouma— [ he pulls a hand out of his pocket to raise it, sketching out the shapes of characters in the air in front of him as he says the words. ] —Dragon of the Restoration! And that's me, you know? 'Ryo' means 'dragon'.

[ what does the rest mean? who knows! he's content with the recognition he'd received. ]

HE'S SO CUTE....

[thinkfirst]

What a title!

[ Guilt squirms unhappily in Flynn's belly, baseless. He tries to swallow around it. It bites back, and he frowns, shifting back like the closeness is the cause. It doesn't help, really, but it's hard to feel awful in the face of such energy, especially when he can't really pinpoint the source. ]

Do you have any idea what it means? Oh— it's perfectly alright if you don't; most of us really have no context for... most of our lives. That's normal.

he's in his himbo period

[kaientai]

Well, I remember that I was gonna make my living with my sword. Maybe I travelled all over helping people out and bringing them together...

[ it's the kind of dream a child would aspire to, but he's never outgrown that. he remembers bits and pieces of his former life — he was a samurai from a place called tosa — but none of those memories ever have people in them. he doesn't know what sort of place it was, so he has no idea what might've needed a restoration. ]

And I guess it means I figured out something to do with myself. Right now, I'm not so sure; I can't remember anything, so there's no point in rushing.

[ he wouldn't even know where to start with a world like this. the flowers had teeth?? ryouma would prefer not to think about that, and he's sure his new buddy is more interesting anyway. ]

What do you do around here?

[thinkfirst]

[ It's the sort of gold-edged dream that Flynn himself holds deep in his own heart, the sort that quickens his breath for a moment with the giddy burst of fellow-feeling. Someone who understands, he thinks, and it makes the ambient baseless guilt fade enough that he can smile, brighter and more true. ]

Travel the town, help people. Bring them together. Well— not precisely, but that's certainly what I'm trying to do! Mostly we try to keep ourselves together around everything that happens, and figure out why we're here. Fill in the spaces between those things together.

[ It's mostly space-filling, he thinks, and inclines his head toward the Staywell's ornate front door. ]

Would you like to try the tea inside? Usually at this time, something has changed, and it's helpful to catalog precisely what.

[kaientai]

Really?!

[ DID WE JUST BECOME BEST FRIENDS?! ]

Then you can count me in!

[ ryouma has no idea where he is or what he could help with, but the important thing is that he's willing and offering. as much as there is a part of him that wants to take it easy and figure it out as he goes along, there's a louder part that feels like he needs to be doing something, and that's the part he's listening to at the moment. ]

Tea sounds good, too. I guess if I'm gonna be stuck here for a while, it'd probably help to learn what to do whenever something changes again, right?

1

[snackin]

[ Astarion had just managed to pull himself the last of the way out of his own grave, and that annoying gravedigger had stopped hitting him in the face with dirt when a whole entire man smacks into him instead. He makes an unseemly screech, and finds himself under a pile of flailing limbs.

On instinct, he shoves his feet into the person, kicking them back off of him as he stumbles to his feet, eyes blazing bright ]

Another one! Another one wants to have at me! Come, face me, then. I'll bleed you dry before you can take another step.

[kaientai]

What if I just lay here? Do I get to keep all my blood in that case?

[ ryouma could've gotten up and put up a fight, but that's a lot of effort over something he's fairly sure doesn't need to be a problem. he won't even mention the funny noise astarion had made when he landed on him.

also, ryouma is a little winded between getting kicked and surprising himself when he'd launched himself out of a hole in the ground, so staying put while he tries to get his bearings feels the better option right now. he does roll over onto his side though, leaning on his elbow and propping his head up. since he's down here, he might as well get comfortable. ]

I didn't realise anyone else was here, seeing as I was busy almost getting buried alive.

[snackin]

[ Astarion dusts himself off, pulling himself upright as he glares down at Ryouma with fierce eyes. After a moment, they soften somewhat and he lets out a short breath, like a huff ]

I suppose if we are in the same predicament, you may keep your blood. If you're so attached to it.

[ He doesn't offer a hand to Ryouma, even though that would be the polite thing to do, and looks out across the graveyard ]

I was also buried alive. Or, there was an attempt.

[kaientai]

Mm, just a little attached. [ he grins. ] I might be willing to spill it for the right cause.

[ ryouma doesn't mind that he's not offered a hand, but the trade-off is that he takes his time getting up and dusting off. ]

Do you remember how you got here? Otherwise, that sure is a weird place to end up for a nap because I'm pretty sure I'm not dead.

[ not that he knows what being dead would feel like right now. ]

[snackin]

[ It's a throwaway comment, but it gives Astarion pause. He's quite sure that he might be dead. Only, not dead-dead. Just a little bit dead. There's no heartbeat in his chest, no breath in his body unless he chooses to to speak. ]

No. I woke up, same as you, with that awful creature attempting to cover up the evidence of her crimes.

[ He wants to go after her and tear her throat out. He sees her, several graves over, burying some other ill-fated person. ]

Is being buried alive not just cause? Shall we allow that crime to go unpunished?

[kaientai]

Just cause?

[ it takes him a moment or two to realise what's actually being suggested here. oh. curiously, ryouma is not entirely surprised by that escalation, but he doesn't feel a need to go there himself. he waves a hand dismissively and shrugs. ]

Gravediggers gotta eat, too, right? She was only doing her job. In my opinion, you'd be better off saving that enthusiasm for figuring out how we got here, but who am I to tell anybody how to act when they feel insulted?

[ ryouma figures he can appeal to reason, but he also recognises that he's in no position to stop anyone from doing a murder even if he wanted to. ]

cw: violent ideation

[snackin]

[ Astarion's eyes narrow as he glares at the gravedigger ]

I would think that a basic part of her job is to ensure that her charges are no longer moving.

[ His fingers flex, and he wonders how it would feel, to crush her throat in his fist. It would be satisfying. But also it isn't necessarily important, seeing as she's moved along and no longer seems to want to bury him.

He turns back to look at the gravestone above the grave he was in and is displeased to see his name on it ]

Yes, perhaps it would be best to see who brought us here, and went through the effort to carve headstones.

i'm sorry he's like this

[kaientai]

If it makes you feel any better, I'm not sure she even noticed.

[ he's just grateful that things don't seem to be escalating any further (for now?). at the mention of headstones, ryouma can't help but look over at the stone marking the grave he'd come out of, but he bites his lip once he's read what's written on it. ]

Okay, but Dragon of the Restoration is pretty cool, ya gotta say.

[ it does little to disguise the proud, dumb smile on his face, though. he feels Seen! ]

I dunno what that means exactly, but whoever did this recognises a dragon when they see one.

[ he hurries over to the big stone and points at the first character in his name — the 'ryo' (龍) in ryouma. who cares if it's on a gravestone? focus on the positive! ]

"Ryo" means "dragon", you know? And that's me: Sakamoto Ryouma!

[ ta da! ]

2

[sighsheavily]

Oh, gads-- [the sudden rushing form into her space throws her off her pace, and she finds she has to get her hands up and on the body in her way to keep from walking right into it, or falling outright.] Some space, if you please! What was that about spirits, now? Are--

Wait.

Who are you, exactly?

[kaientai]

Sakamoto Ryouma! Nice to meet you!

[ he has at least acknowledged the request for a bit more space, but mostly so that he has room to hold his hand out for a nice proper handshake. he has no idea why, but he feels like there's some novelty in getting to greet people that way. ]

I woke up in a grave inside the maze a little bit ago.

[ and he sounds way less concerned about that than he probably ought to be. ]

[sighsheavily]

[Cecelia's hand hangs limply in that shake, too busy trying to place this face and name to focus on that particular nicety. nothing connects, save for his starting point, prompting her to frown.

once her hand is freed, it withdraws to herself.]

Right...as did I and others. I see. So, unless I find your name already present in the registry, you're one of the new ones...

[kaientai]

Oh? Is that so...

[ that probably means something important, but he's not exactly connecting the dots right at this moment. he idly picks at the fringe on his outfit for lack of anything else to do with his hands. ]

I don't remember how I ended up out there, but yeah, I'm pretty sure I've never been here before.

It's kinda weird, too, since this big flower smells so familiar.

[sighsheavily]

[she shoots a look at the big, ugly flower, trying to keep her expression in check.]

Missing memory is something of a feature in this place, unfortunately... That thing is new, I'm fairly certain. Though...I'll need to review some notes to be completely sure.

Sakamoto Ryouma...I'll note it down.

[kaientai]

I've gotta say that's a pretty weird feature to have, but I guess it's kind of a relief it's not just me.

[ he can blame everything weird on where he is in that case. ]

So, are you like... the head lady around here?

[ she seems to know a lot and has mentioned notes and registries. that sounds like very person-in-charge stuff to be on top of, especially for a guy who tries not to be on top of anything like that. ]

[sighsheavily]

Hardly. [she'll nip that notion right in the bud while combing flyaway hair behind her ears. they'll find their way back to flying away in short order.] That would imply I have control over how things happen, and that is far from true. We are all of us still beholden to the whims of...something.

We're working on it. We, most all of us are, that is.

[beat.

...]

...But...I do have the archive key. Where we store all of our records of the circumstances we've been experiencing. [so she has to concede being a head of something.]

[kaientai]

Oh, so just the head archive lady, then. [ noted. ] Sounds like a headache, so it's good that you've got people to help you out.

[ he'd rather be out experiencing the circumstances than keeping track of them. ]

Well, I dunno much of anything, but if you need help, you just ask! I know my way around a sword, at least.