6.0 Test Drive Meme

[wellie]

6.0 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 May onward, and can happen concurrently with other events during May and June. This will be the only TDM for May, June, and July.

Applications are open April 26th until May 1st, and May 27th until June 1st. Invites are available for friends of current players.

Arrival: Escape!

Content warnings: forced captivity, blood, eating eyes, drowning in sand, forced intimacy

The First Room

You wake up somewhere dark and damp. Maybe this is your first time waking up here, maybe it's your fourth, but the beginning is the same. You're in a small stone room. The only light comes from torches flicking on the walls. The room is bare except for a metal door. And you're not alone. You and someone (or someones) are here together, and you have to get out.

The door is locked, and to leave it you must just find one key. On the door is a note with a clue:

Freedom is hot!

The key is in fact in one of the torches! Depending on luck, you might find it on your first try, or your fourth. Find a way to extinguish the torches, and handle the hot, hot key to unlock the door.

After this, you find yourself in one of the following rooms. Choose one from the first set, then one from the second set, then one from the third set. You will always end in the final room. You must travel through five rooms to escape.

If you don't complete a task in five minutes, you will return to very first room and have to start again.

You can choose your own path, or comment below to have a random path set for you!

The Second Room

You find yourself in one of the following rooms:
1. There Ain't Room
2. Glitter Bomb
3. Riddles Three

1. There Ain't Room
In this room is a shooting game. There's a barrier with bebe guns attached to it, and at the far end are small cut outs of people. There's a sign on the far wall, in old-West style script, reading:

There Ain't Room

The cut outs look sort of familiar! There are cut outs of you and your compatriot(s), as well as some typical cowboy looking cut outs. Shoot your own cut out to escape! You each must shoot your own one, if you shoot each others', that person feels it as if they have been shot, and will start bleeding.

When you successfully hit all of your own cut outs, the floor under you opens up and you drop into the next room.

2. Glitter Bomb
As you walk through the doorway, you feel oddly.... sticky? Like your skin is covered in honey. Because it is! Yum.

In front of you is a room covered in glitter. There's so much glitter. You can't see a door, but you have to find a way out. Search the room to find the exit.

The exit is a trapped door in the floor. You'll need to make your way through the glitter, all the while it will stick to your very sticky skin. You'll need to dig a big enough path to get through, open the door and get into the next room! Too bad some glitter will come with you, and you'll still be sticky.

3. Riddles Three
A large hour glass in the middle of the room starts ticking down with sand as soon as you enter this room. One three of the walls are riddles engraved in the stone, and chalkboards in front of them. You must answer all three riddles correctly before the sand runs out to escape:

• Where waves kiss sand and breezes blow, where tropic dreams grow, I'm where you want to go. What am I? Answer: Kokomo
  
• With auburn locks and eyes of green, a rival, a threat, a beauty queen. Answer: Jolene
  
• With cowboy hats and boots that stride, no one told me where my horse I ride. Answer: Old Town Road

Once you answer correctly, the hour glass disappears, leaving a hole in the floor that you must jump through to exit.

The Third Room

Next, you find yourself in one of the following rooms:
A. Cry For Me
B. Love Me
C. Hold Me

A. Cry For Me
This room is beautiful and shiny, the walls made of crystals. In the middle of the room is a crystal plinth with a small crystal cup on it. In flowing script around the cup it reads:

Collect five tears

You must collect five tears in the cup to escape. Once you do, an entry way opens in the crystal in front of you.

B. Love Me
This room is very plain, and on a piece of paper dangling from a string in the middle of the room is the instructions for this room:

Exchange five sincere compliments each. Don't break eye contact.

You must do this within the alloted five minutes to escape. If the compliments are less than sincere, you may try again, but if you don't reach the five each by the end of the five minutes or if you break eye contact even once, you will be returned to the first room.

C. Hold Me
This room looks a lot like the pub in town. The walls are wood paneled and there's jangling piano music coming from--somewhere?

In the middle of the room is a mechanical bull, with a sign reading:

Stay on the bull together for 45 seconds.

If you succeed within the five minutes, you're free to continue on!

The Fourth Room

Next, you find yourself in one of the following rooms:
I. Blood
II. Sweat
III. Tears

I. Blood
This room is very tall. There's a rope dangling down one wall. On the wall it reads:

Climb!

And that's what you have to do. The word "Climb" starts to bleed. And then the walls start to bleed. The room will fill up with blood within five minutes, so you better get climbing!

At the top of the room is a hatch that will let you escape through a hatch in the ceiling.

II. Sweat
When you enter this room, one of you finds that you are alone. You're standing at the edge of a pool, and that pool is full of sand. It's also searingly hot in here. On the wall, it reads:

Rescue your partner!

One person is chained at the bottom of a swimming pool full of sand. A counter on the wall counts down until they will suffocate. Better get swimming!

Once you've rescued your partner, a door on the other side of the pool will open up. Better move fast to get there!

III. Tears
This room is dark, very dark. You can just barely see, except for a glow-in-the-dark sign reading:

Eat some eyes!

And that's what you need to do! In the walls are eyes. They're watching you. You must each eat an eye to continue on. Once you do, a door cracks open in the far wall.

The Fifth Room

No matter the path you took to get here, the final room is the same:

The last room you end up in, even though you enter through the same door, you find yourselves separated by a wall. There is a door for each of you at the far side of the room. You can hear each other, but you can't see each other. Each of you have a plinth in front of you, which reads:

Who should escape?

In front of you are the names of yourself and your partner(s). You place the name of the person you believe should escape in a slot in the table.

Once everyone has made a selection, the names will light up:

• If you all chose each other, your room lights up green.
• If you all chose yourselves, your room lights up green.
• If someone chose themselves, and someone else chose another person, the room of the person with the most "votes" lights up green. The others light up red.

If your room is green, when you open the final door, you've escaped! Welcome to Wellstone.

If your room is red, when you open the door, you find yourself back in the first room. Good luck!

When you escape, you step into the lobby of the Staywell. It's bright and airy with beautiful white stone. When you look behind you, it seems that you've stepped out of a supply closet. Weird!

The receptionist greets you as he always does, welcoming you home.

New characters arrive using this prompt. Characters can return from death from the previous cycle using this prompt. You can also just wake up and be in this prompt, so you can do this as many times as you like.

tl;dr:

• You wake up in an escape room! You must finish (at least) five rooms to escape. You have five minutes to finish each room. If you fail, you'll be taken back to the beginning of the dungeon.

It's alive!

Content warnings: public shaming

When you shake off the glitter and the sand, it might be time to head on down into Wellstone town. The air is full of a shimmering warmth that might be familiar to some. It's like the sun has been baked into the very stones and is radiating back up at you. Run-down buildings lean against each other for support, made out of mostly weathered stone with a few old boards here and there to keep structures up. Desiccated, skeletal fingers of dried-out ivy climb them, waving occasionally as you pass. Waving, and… whispering? For more information about how the town has changed, check out this month's Wellstone Post or read the Locations Page.

The town is alive with sneering, whispering voices. It's unclear where exactly they're coming from, but they're everywhere. Step into the Cactus Pad Tavern and you might hear a decisive no manners! spat sharply from the doorway. Make your way to the steaming bathhouse to wash off that honey, but be careful when you're undressing: you might just hear rude snickering from the air around you. Wow, the walls might say, your toes are so long. What weird feet!

The voices might interrupt a conversation at breakfast to make fun of something you said. Your mirror and your wardrobe might question your outfit choices. They're loud enough to be heard by everyone in a public space and seem to delight in saying cutting things at the worst possible moment. You don't recognize the voices, exactly, but they seem just familiar enough to really hurt, and the voices seem to know you well enough. They might even call you out when you tell a little white lie, or let everyone know exactly how loud you snore.

There's no way, seemingly, to get them to shut up, so... may as well get used to it?

tl;dr:

• The town is alive, and it is judging you. Your outfits, your words, your body, your habits: nothing is off-limits.
• The voices sound just familiar enough to feel like voices you know, but aren't able to be pinpointed to a single person.

Comments

Flynn Scifo | already in the game | couple days after the start of May

[thinkfirst]

1. arrival // the escape room

[ Flynn wakes with a start, gasping air sharp enough back into his lungs to make a few of the torches on the walls around them flicker. There's nothing like breathing back into your own body already upright, especially when it's been a few days since your fingers were your own. For a second he just stands there, breathing hard despite the lack of exertion, curling his fingers up and down and up again because he can. There's nothing fighting him. He can taste the stale damp air on his tongue and feel it move along his nose as he breathes. One of the torches, closer to him, flickers with a faint sort of heat. ]

Thank the Goddess.

[ He breathes, half to himself, and then glances up with another startled little sound, bitten-off. ]

Oh— oh! You're here. That's— I really need to get back!

2. escape // the lobby // mostly for yuri

[ Flynn bursts through the door gasping, covered so thickly in glitter and blood that only the bright blue of his eyes marks who he is, and promptly freezes.

He's been running on frustrated adrenaline for the undetermined length of time that he's been in that dungeon, bent entirely on moving forward, getting out, getting to the other side. Focusing on a series of frustrating and deadly tasks is the perfect thing to stop you thinking about where you're aiming and what might be happening, and he'd gotten as far as maybe this will get me back into my body and stopped there, clinging to that desperate hope. Somewhere on the other side, he'd told himself again and again, repeated like a prayer, should be Yuri, hopefully unharmed and waiting out the end. Flynn can't leave him alone for it.

So, naturally, he wasn't even remotely expecting to be spat into the bright stone-washed lobby of the hotel. Not the manor, his mind supplies, half-shrill. The hotel, front desk and all, with the central fire and the low couches he'd huddled with Cecelia, without any rain or acid-eaten stone or sumptuous tapestries.

He's dripping blood onto the white floor. He doesn't notice. He's frozen in place, unable to figure out what exactly is going on. ]

[vibing]

[ Yuri isn't in a great place. Watching the world being swallowed up around him was the last thing he expected when he somehow managed to survive the month, somehow didn't get his mind taken over, wasn't made complacent and forced to die horrifically. No, he survived, until he didn't, and he made it through that awful set of rooms, and the world is somewhat back to how it was months ago, like some facsimile of what things were, and Flynn still isn't back. Flynn still isn't back.

He's pacing restlessly through the town, through the hotel, he can't concentrate on anything. he finds something to punch and that helps temporarily. He's just been back to his and Flynn's room to collect his sword, to work on destroying the bag of flour he was beating up on even more, when he steps into the lobby only yo see someone completely covered in glitter and blood and he doesn't care who it is at first, heading over to them to make sure it's okay when the stature strikes him and he starts running ]

Flynn!

[thinkfirst]

[ It's as automatic as the sun, the way Flynn's head snaps up, the way his entire body shifts and reorients toward the sound of Yuri's voice. It's muscle memory worked into him again and again, honed by years of fighting so that instead of opening himself up he braces, sure in some deep part of himself beyond thoughts that Yuri's going to pull that sword on him. His body moves and then he figures out why and then Yuri's here, sprinting at him, and Flynn manages to stumble back against the doorframe with a hand up to ward him off, blurting, panicked, ]

Wait, I'll stain your clothes—!

[vibing]

[ Logic leaves his mind as soon as Flynn's voice hits his ears and he's pulling Flynn in against him, heedless of his clothes and that blood and his breath stutters. Flynn might be injured, and he should check that, and he's being selfish right now but he was so scared, so, so scared and holding onto faith has been getting harder and harder. He holds onto Flynn, feeling him whole and here and maybe he shouldn't have been so fast to touch him but he doesn't fucking care anymore. ]

Fuck. Fuck! Are you okay? Is this your blood? Shit. [ He starts to pull back a little, his eyes red and he looks Flynn over as well as he can without letting go ]

[thinkfirst]

[ For a second all Flynn can do is stand there. He doesn't remember the last time Yuri did something like this in a public place. Not with so much desperation and naked worry, not with all that feeling welling up and spilling everywhere. He makes a startled little oof sort of noise, wraps his arms around Yuri out of reflex to keep them both up, and then drops them again with another little dismayed sound. ]

No, no! I don't know whose it is, you don't need to worry about it— Yuri, your shirt—

[ It is a MESS now ]

1 - dug up an old challenge set up. Let me know if this works.

[searingwing]

[In the time Flynn takes to adjust to being alive again. Diluc has placed himself between Flynn and the door. He waits for him to focus on him before he nods.]

We do. Take a look around. I think, this key goes into a lock in the floor.

[The first room is a wide square box with a gap between the door and the platform the torches are on. Two flat panels far enough apart that one person couldn’t push both are before the gap. A gap too long and wide to leap across. Between them is a keyhole. So at least Diluc is right about the key.]

[thinkfirst]

...Diluc.

[ Flynn breathes out, soft and relieved, feeling his way back into his own limbs. He rocks on his feet, into his boots, feels the wiggle of his toes and the air on his skin, and then shakes that off. He has to focus. They really do need to get out of here, and it doesn't look like it's going to be terribly easy. It's hard to see in the warm, flickering darkness, but Flynn surveys things with his head still full of cotton, makes himself focus on details. Torches, key, gap.

He glances at Diluc, shaking himself off like a dog, and straightens up. ]

We'll need both of us, I assume—are you alright? You're... um, yourself?

[searingwing]

[He moves his hair to the side. Bare skin, not a trace of distortion. He lets his hair fall back into place.]

…whatever it was that had us seemed to eat magic. But I got a message out and was killed early on.

[He looks at the two panels and walks over to stand behind the right one.] I think I need to put the key in then we sit or stand on these.

[thinkfirst]

Put me where you need me.

[ Flynn says softly, the consummate soldier in the face of his own racing thoughts. He trusts Diluc to take the lead for a little while at least until he has his own wits about him, until he's squared with the idea that Diluc hadn't made it, either. That they'd both died. That—

He swallows. Now isn't the time to ask, but the need to radiates off him in waves.

Instead, he moves toward the panel closer to him and looks at Diluc, all uncertainty, biting at his lip. ]

At, um. At the same time?

1

[paleradiance]

.. Flynn?!

[ Honestly, it's a surprise to hear anyone at all in here. Olympia has absolutely no idea where she has found herself, but the room felt so small and so dark that the girl was starting to assume she was alone in here.

It wasn't a great thing to assume, considering Olympia absolutely does not like being alone. Even less so after meeting a terrible end, and even less so after having spent most of the month before all by herself as well, trying to isolate herself from the infected.

It makes the sudden sound of his voice in the darkness startling, but it also feels like a relief. Like sinking down into a warm bath. Comfortable.

The relief quickly moves right into her voice as she speaks on. ]

Oh, Flynn, I'm so glad you're here..!

[thinkfirst]

Olympia!

[ There's no mistaking that voice or the flicker of flame on bright hair, visible to Flynn's slowly-adjusting eyes. Those torches sure aren't burning very brightly, high up on the walls as they are, and their pitchy scent is stifling in this small space.

He barely feels like himself, and Olympia— sweet Olympia, with relief enough in her voice to assure him that it's really her— is a balm to his jangling nerves. Carefully, Flynn stretches out his hands until his fingertips bump into her in the darkness. ]

Thank goodness— have you been in here long? Do you know how we got here?

[ Because Flynn remembers very clearly the last thing that happened to him, and it freezes his blood to think of Olympia dying, too. ]

[paleradiance]

[ There's a little noise from her - like a stifled yelp - and her fingertips withdraw from his like she just accidentally touched a stove. It's easy to assume that she's just startled because someone touched her in this incredibly low lighting, even though Olympia is much more worried about her power playing up. Even more so than the usual, given that this doesn't seem like the sort of situation where she could easily ask someone else for help if something was wrong with Flynn because of her.

And though the pale girl needs a moment to calm down her heart after that moment of panic, she still doesn't fully take a pause before answering him, like she's too worried about the sort of impression she might give off if she'd leave him hanging for too long after that yelp in the dark. ]

I, um-- I think everything reset again.

[ It's the only likely explanation to her, though usually it doesn't start like this. Not that she can remember, anyway. Did that infection break something about this place..? ]

Though I don't know at all where we are right now.. I was only here for a little bit until I realised you were here too.

[thinkfirst]

[ Luckily for Olympia, Flynn is entirely too distracted by the relative bombshell that is the fact that it's been a whole month. He makes a startled sound, bites down on a stronger reaction until he can steady himself, and peers at her in the darkness, working through that.

A whole month. The town reset, again. Yuri went through that alone. ]

I see. We're trying to get back, then, aren't we?

[ Steady, Flynn. You can do this. ]

I suppose that needs to be our first priority. Getting out of this room, and back to town, and then— if you made it, I'd like to hear... how things ended.

1

[andreadallover]

Back where?

[Perhaps the more appropriate question would have been are you sure you're alright? The boy seems rather overeager, which Młynar is inclined to view as a liability in terms of "successful dungeon escape."

But Młynar also has absolutely no idea what landed them in said dungeon, or who put them there, or even where in the country he was before waking up with a terrible headache that gets worse the more he tries to remember that. Which is also a liability in terms of "successful dungeon escape." So if the boy has some idea of where they are...that will give them a better starting point, at least.]

[thinkfirst]

To Y— [ Flynn bites off the name with a rough, embarrassed sort of noise and pivots to a sheepish, ] ...Wellstone. The town.

[ But then, this is an unfamiliar face and an even less familiar voice, Flynn points out to himself. He shifts closer in the flickering torchlight, tense, looking from the sign to the door and back to the sign and then to his companion. His new companion. His new, unrecognizable companion.

A theory flares up. Flynn bites it back and straightens. ]

That name doesn't sound familiar to you, does it?

[andreadallover]

[Młynar frowns slightly, considering the question. Wellstone? That doesn't even sound Kazimieran, let alone like a place he's been. The name seems more Victorian.

...What does that mean? He's suddenly unsure of whether "Victorian" refers to a country, a language, or both. But no, it can't be a country, because he wouldn't be there. He's never left Kazimierz. ...Has he?

The headache gets worse the more he tries to pin down definite facts. Not knowing how he got here casts doubt on certainties like 'I have never left Kazimierz.' He doesn't even recognize his clothes. Did he suffer a particularly nasty blow to the head before being tossed in here, or while being tossed in here? But an injury severe enough to affect his memory would surely have other effects beyond that and the headache. Difficulty focusing his eyes, vertigo, trouble speaking - things of that nature. But the rest of him seems...fine?

The frown deepens, though it's directed to some point on the stone wall rather than at the younger man. Who at least does seem to have settled down into more situationally appropriate wariness.]

I can't recall it.

1.

[hellonspectacles]

[Palamedes wakes from a fitful, dreamless sleep — all his sleep has been fitful, dreamless, and unsettling since Wellstone returned to its standard form, give or take a few details — to find himself lying on damp, cold stone in shadowy darkness. He blinks sleepily as the room comes into focus, wearing the old fashioned grey nightshirt he fell asleep in, though thankfully his spectacles are on his nose. It takes a few moments for his eyes to adjust, but once they do, he scrambles to his feet.]

Flynn! Oh, thank goodness. It is awfully good to see you.

[thinkfirst]

Palamedes!

[ Flynn is there to help him in a heartbeat.

He crashes into Palamedes a little bit like a foaming wave, unsteady on his own feet and so glad to see him that for a moment he forgets his own well-learned social graces and simply clings to him, palms to elbows and wrists until Palamedes is on his feet. Nervous energy radiates off him in waves; Flynn remembers too late to tamp it back, to swallow back his own worry and take a step back out of Palamedes' space.

If there is anyone in this town who can tell Flynn what's going on—whether he's died, what's happened, how much time has passed, where they are—it's him, Flynn thinks. He doesn't step back far at all, his anxious eyes flickering over the firelit contours of Palamedes' face like he's a mirage, maybe. There are a hundred thing he wants to ask but what he comes out with is a soft, ]

I'm so glad you're alive.

[hellonspectacles]

I could say the same, Flynn. [He’d clung to his friend just as hard, more relieved than he knows how to say to see him whole and himself. As soon as they can get out of here, they’ll need to find Yuri, he thinks. Yuri has done his best to pretend he isn’t worried, but Pal thinks he knows him well enough by now to see through the facade.]

We were all sure you would come back once the town reset, and when you didn’t, well— [He shakes his head.] One can never tell what sort of trick this place is playing, can one?

Speaking of tricks: I’m pleased to say that I’m familiar with this one. I can get you out and home in no time at all.

Arrival

[guidemyway]

[Don't mind Ruby. She's just wandering around the room trying to figure out what's going on here. She hadn't realized Flynn in there with her when he first wakes up.

So she gives a little jump when he first speaks up.]

Woah!

[And after a second she rubs at the back of her head.]

Yeah. That's great-

I have no idea how to get us back.

[thinkfirst]

[ Flynn aims a grim little smile Ruby's way, lit by torchlight. He already feels more confident with Ruby here. ]

Between the two of us, I'm certain we can figure it out. There's even a hint, I think. Look at that sign.

[guidemyway]

Really? There is?

[Ruby shifts her glance over to the sign and blinks in surprise.]

Huh. So there is. That's handy.

[She looks over it for a second and tilts her head.]

Freedom is hot?

Uh. I mean I've never really thought about it like that. But I guess it is pretty attractive.

1

[icecrown]

Take it easy. If you're as shaky as I was a few minutes ago, you'll wish you didn't have an audience.

[ It's at least an attempt at a joke. The voice is unfamiliar, belonging to the large man presently peering down at Flynn with eyes that glow with a pale blue light. This world has replaced his usual armour with the local fashion, but it has at least stuck to his aesthetic by dressing him all in black, a heavy cape edged in fringe draped over his shoulders.

He sounds a lot livelier than he looks; the warmth of the torchlight can only do so much to brighten up a grey pallor only the dead can achieve. He extends a hand whose fingertips have darkened as if they were frostbitten at some point, offering to help Flynn to his feet. Should he accept it, Flynn would find the grip strong but gentle despite how cold Arthas' skin is to the touch. ]

Does that mean you know where we are?

[thinkfirst]

Ah...

[ Flynn blinks. The pale figure swims in his still-adjusting vision, stained orange at the edges by flickering torchlight. It makes him look painted, sort of. He's extending a hand, so he must be real. Flynn needs to pull himself together, focus and stop thinking about things inside him and death—

Focus, he tells himself, and forces awareness into his own limbs. This is a person like any other, not a spirit or— well, even if he is a spirit, he's a spirit in need of answers that Flynn, despite his confusion, can probably provide. He'll do his best, anyway, and claw his way back to normal ground somehow.

First things first is to accept the hand up, as much for the look of the thing as the fact that his legs are still, admittedly, quite shaky. The shock of death, maybe, and coming back.

The hand is cold, and that's a shock in itself, but Flynn swallows back any hint of it and pastes on a somewhat shaky smile as he's hauled to his feet. ]

Thank you.

[ Polite and sincere, at the very least. Flynn can manage that much. ]

I—

[ A quick second glance around as he pulls his fingers free, just to confirm. Flynn's frowning when he looks back at his companion. ]

...not precisely. I'm certain I have a better idea than you do at the moment. If I'm right, we're aiming for the town of Wellstone. That doesn't sound familiar at all?

[icecrown]

Don't mention it.

[ Arthas looks at his own hand for a moment longer once Flynn lets go, not surprised to see the state of it exactly, but it's as if he's only really looked at it now for the first time.

People might've mistaken him and this stranger for brothers once, but somehow he can't remember something as important as how he ended up like this... ]

'Wellstone'? Never heard of it. But my memory is a little... unreliable at the moment, honestly.

[ Yes, that's how he'll put it. He needn't elaborate on how bad it is right now. ]