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5.0 Test Drive Meme
5.0 Test Drive Meme
Premise & Arrival ֍ FAQ ֍ Apply ֍ Navigation
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 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:
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:
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:
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.
no subject
[No. Stay calm. These people have no reason to trust me yet, and from the sound of things, there's no rush. Better to make allies and assess the situation for now; ruffling feathers will only hamper me in the long run.]
Ideally, anyway. But I guess that would be pretty hard to set up without trained police in charge, and I'm no professional, so...
[Exhaling, he pastes on a smile.]
...Palamedes, huh? What's he like?
no subject
[ Endeared and not at all ruffled, Dax takes a handheld radio from its place on her waist, turns a switch and clacks down the input to say, ] Dax speaking. Palamedes, could you please meet me at the tavern? I have a new resident with me. We’re finding our way out of the graveyard. [ And after a moment and a confirmation, she says, ] Mhm. See you soon. [ And back to the belt the radio goes. ]
Watch where you walk. The ground can be a little inconsistent here.
Palamedes is a scientist. He’s always investigating something. [ And a necromancer, but she’s not sure she wants to throw genetically marked alien abilities at him while he’s still reeling. She turns a knowing smile on Light. ] He’s brilliant, but very stubborn — if you’re already planning to usurp him, I suggest phrasing your orders as suggestions. I have the most success when he thinks something was his idea all along.
no subject
Duly noted. If somebody else is already running things, I'm honestly relieved. I'm a student, not a shōgun. Usurping anybody isn't really my style.
[Is she interested in this guy romantically, or just a platonic admirer? Either way, she's clearly loyal...
Deep in thought, he follows Dax through the maze.]
no subject
[ As luck would have it, it doesn’t take much time at all to make it out of the maze, and Dax is relieved they don’t run into any vines with any darker intent than snaking near their ankles.
She leads him into town, past a collection of mostly abandoned buildings, and down a cobbled road to the tavern. Inside, it smells like coffee and bread, and a cover of Jolene featuring more lutes than is reasonable fills the air. Dax spots Palamedes immediately and heads go his booth. ]
Hey, you. This is Light Yagami. Light Yagami, this is Palamedes Sextus. [ And to Palamedes, with as much neutrality as she can manage in the unavoidably pointed comment: ] I found him just before I called you. We’re acclimating.
no subject
no subject
No trouble at all. She's an excellent guide.
[He knows damn well Palamedes wasn't asking him.]
no subject
Oh, it wasn't me. It was very calm today - and very straightforward to navigate. It hadn't moved since I'd gone in to check — at least not enough to turn us around. No captives held in the greenery today, I guess. [ Then, pushing a paper menu towards Light, ] There's no currency here. We just ask the waiter for anything on this, and he'll bring it.
[ And to Pal, ] What's the tea?
no subject
[He takes up the teapot] Early Grey. [Then, for Light’s sake] It’s made with oil from a particular kind of fruit, which makes it just a little bit tart, and surprisingly aromatic. Would you like some?
no subject
Yes, please. I'll never say no to tea. [Quickly, before the two of them can overlook his existence again:] Dax tells me you've been gathering information on how this place works. Would you mind giving me a general overview? As you said, I'm very new.
no subject
Yes — overview. That’s why I asked for you. Maybe we should make a pamphlet, but: do you want to start? Or should I?
[ Asking is a pleasantry. She’s already picking up her tea to drink again. ]
no subject
But in the meantime, you’ll have to contend with the oral version. As far as I have been able to gather, we are all trapped in a pocket universe created and maintained by a malevolent, unknown force. I can’t tell what that force wants from us, but circumstantial evidence has caused me to believe that they have been bringing people here from across the multiverse for some time. I’ve managed to contact entities that I believe were some of those previous captors, or fragments of them—I call them ghosts, though Dax here likes to quibble with my vocabulary—and have found then to be frightened shadows who offer what help they can. Unfortunately, it isn’t much.
Day to day, you’ll have a relatively safe place to stay and plenty of food and drink, but our captors play tricks on us—or conduct experiments, depending on your perspective. Sometimes, this takes the form of deadly creatures coming after us; other times, a plant, or a consumable, or a particular location will alter your mood in some way.
[He pauses to sip his tea.] I imagine you don’t remember much about who you are. This may change—you may wake up some mornings with a memory you didn’t have the night before, or you may find that some piece of knowledge you had is suddenly gone. That’s why I recommend writing down as much as possible. I hate to say it, but our minds are fallible here.
no subject
I see. That's a lot to take in, but it does clarify some things. I'll be careful about how far I wander alone. [He takes a sip of tea.] Regardless of whether its intent is to torment us or simply experiment, it stands to reason that an entity capable of hiding or revealing our memories at will could also tamper with them. Is there any way to tell if what we do remember is real?
[This is a purely academic question, naturally.]
no subject
[ Dax sends a glance towards Palamedes, communicating her concern in the minute tension of her brows before she splays her palms to Light. ]
I think it's more complicated than that. We just don't have any way to test it yet. But the things we do remember definitely seem... selective, that's for sure. I know it might be pointless to suggest, but try not to worry too much. [ Great advice to the new boy with amnesia, Ezri. She hears it as soon as it comes out of her mouth. ] You'll get a better picture of yourself in time than you have right now. I mean, I couldn't even remember my own name when I first set foot here.
[ Palamedes, save her. ]
no subject
[He exchanges a smile with Dax] And what are we, if not what we remember? Even if some memories are not entirely accurate, they still shape us.
no subject
I won't worry about it, then. Not trusting the world around me is one thing, but I've got to at least trust myself. Right?
[To Palamedes:] How about the other people trapped here, then? There are plenty of cowards and rotten people out there, and even good people can panic when things get desperate. How far can I trust everybody here?
no subject
Cowards and rotten people is unsettling, but he's new. He just crawled out of a grave, so she resists the urge to glance at Palamedes the way she really wants to. She gives him a break, takes another sip of tea, and just braces for impact on Palamedes taking the opportunity to warn the newcomer on John.
Not that she feels inclined to stop him. ]
no subject
For the most part, we have been lucky. The majority of the people here are trustworthy. Perhaps there are some I with whom I would not have allied myself in other circumstances, but we all want to stay safe, and in a community as small as this, that means keeping each other safe.
[He hesitates.] There are exceptions, of course. As there are to any trend.
no subject
I'm sorry; I shouldn't have put you on the spot. I don't want to start trouble or spread gossip. As long as nobody's going to put me back in that grave, that's all I wanted to know.
no subject
[ Now her not-looking at Palamedes is pointed, somehow. This is the closest she's gotten to acknowledging magic as magic. She sips her tea, takes a little breath. When she speaks, she's very matter-of-fact. ]
John Gaius has... frightening control of organic compounds, including the human body, and a temper. He can't fully control either, and there has been collateral.
no subject
Well, the good news is that any trip you take to the grave will include a return journey. When people die…they come back. [this time he does share a look with Dax.] At least, that’s the case thus far. I wouldn’t recommend testing it, but it does provide a certain peace of mind.
[He hesitates.]
Dax is right about Gaius. He and I are from the same world and we have similar capabilities, but his far outstrip mine. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for his self-control.
no subject
[Palamedes has it backwards. Being dead doesn't scare him. Only dying.
He wraps both hands around his teacup and sighs.]
You're both being very patient with me. Thank you.
no subject
[ Dax very kindly does not point out that a concern over the supernatural had been among Light's first vocalized considerations, or that his understanding of 'evolutionary' is painfully pre-first-contact human. She'll give Palamedes these thoughts later in private, obviously - but Light just woke up. She'll have a little tact, even if it takes all of her self control. ]
No thanks required. Like Palamedes said - we help each other as much as we can. It's about the only solace we have here.
How's this: after we eat, we'll find your room and get you a chance of clothes, and then show you to the bathhouse?
no subject
Instead, he shares a look with Dax and offers a firm nod.] Excellent idea. The baths are a remarkable bright spot in what can sometimes be a rather disturbing place.
no subject
Sounds like a plan to me. You've been polite about it, but I'd prefer not to be covered in grave dirt when I meet anyone else.