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Well Mod ([personal profile] wellie) wrote in [community profile] wellcome2024-04-19 04:40 pm
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6.0 Test Drive Meme

6.0 Test Drive Meme

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.

thinkfirst: (smile | neutral | polite)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-22 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[ There's the expression Flynn was hoping for. He steps forward, light over the threshhold. Blood flakes off in little brown bits, scattering like dirt. They'll have to sweep after the bath, if any of the brooms he'd made are still around. It's an absent thought, the comforting domestic sort that settles something prickly and sour in him.

Or maybe that's the fact that he's taken Yuri's hand again, squeezed it tight.
]

Well, it wasn't really about your hair, anyway, but I do care about it. Just— don't try to pretend, alright?

[ And everything else, but that can still wait. His fingers are sticky. ]
vibing: (hip | soft | tired)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-04-22 04:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Is he pretending? He must be, but it doesn't feel like that. It feels like hiding a wound from a predator. It feels like if he doesn't, Flynn will find the edge of the cut and rip it open, leaving Yuri to bleed out.

Except this is Flynn. He would never do that intentionally. But the fear is still there.

Maybe he just needs to get better at hiding
]

...yeah, okay. I mean, it sucked. Of course it sucked. But you're alive.

[ And that's really the important thing here. ]
thinkfirst: (unsure | wonder | bad plan)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-22 04:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Flynn, itchy with inaction and drying blood, steps past Yuri to flick on the shower. It always starts cold, and he sort of likes that, the shock back to his senses that it gives him. Somehow, it feels right in an old kind of way. Something he got used to as a child, maybe. That's his leading theory.

He steps over the lip of the bath without hesitation, lets the cold pound his scalp, slowly warming, while the water around his feet pools and splashes into bright red rivers.
]

How long has it been since that was true?

[ Copper-tanged water runs into his mouth when he asks, too sweet. Little flecks of glitter flash around his feet. ]
vibing: (neutral | look | calm | skit)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-04-22 04:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Yuri slowly starts to undress outside of the shower. It might feel even more real to be up against Flynn's body, to hold him, and it feels sort of pathetic to need it, but that part he isn't shying away from. ]

A month. It was about this time last month that you...

[ That he and John had to take Flynn out. That he watched the last life leave Flynn's eyes.

He shoves his boots and pants off and steps into the shower after Flynn, reaching up to help rub some of the honey off his back.
]
thinkfirst: (skit | annoyed | no)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-22 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Yuri's hands on his back are perfect, relaxing, helping the water sluice away the itch, but— tension thrums through him all the same. ]

That thing wasn't me. Not even close.
vibing: (look | sus | tired)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-04-23 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
No. [ Yuri agrees quietly, watching as the honey and glitter wash away from Flynn's skin, the familiar shape of his back and curl of his hair over the nape of his neck ] It was only a few days that... whatever that was was around.
thinkfirst: (skit | annoyed | bad plan)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-23 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
I could see what it was doing.

[ Flynn says it to the rivers of red running down his body, to the murky shape of his feet beneath it all. ]

Do you remember those flowers? The ones that... made you walk around on autopilot for a while?
vibing: (look | tired | serious | pout)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-04-23 01:46 am (UTC)(link)
[ Yuri grunts to say, yeah, he remembers. He remembers too well. That... makes sense, at least. What happened to them. Something hijacking their bodies, taking them over. His fingers run down Flynn's spine, counting the bumps of his bones ]

What did it want?
thinkfirst: (hurt | upset | confused)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-26 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
[ Water chases Yuri's fingers, running pink-red on his pale skin. Flynn leans into the touch with a sigh of breath, lets himself relax, finally, into the safety of Yuri who has his back, Yuri who it's alright to touch now. Yuri, who made it. Thank the goddess. ]

It was hard to tell exactly what it wanted. To touch you. To... spread, I think. Obviously, I couldn't let that happen.

vibing: (smile | sad | dark)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-04-28 01:19 am (UTC)(link)
...right. [ He knew that, if not in so many words. He knew that it wanted to get him, to have him be a part of it. He didn't let it, and isn't sure if that was the right choice.

He's so fucking tired, and he wavers, trying to stand on his own feet, but he finds himself slumping against Flynn, leaning against his back with Yuri's face pressed into his shoulder. The water rushes over his hair, and he breaths in the steam, the familiar scent of Flynn, the sweet and tang of the honey and blood.

He's so tired. So tired from staying alive, from vigilance, from doing it on his own. He's tired and he can't admit that he was barely enough, barely got by, but with Flynn here, right here, he can't keep it in anymore, and his breath hitches, the fear and tension of the last month overpowering him
]
thinkfirst: (annoyed | glare | no)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-28 01:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ Flynn doesn't say a word.

Yuri doesn't like attention drawn to himself at the best of times, and least of all when he's fragile at the edges and scrambling to hold himself together. The hitch of breath breaks Flynn's heart clean in two but he bears up under it, lets the water and Yuri's hair and Yuri's breath run all together while he reaches back and fumbles with wet fingers for Yuri's hand. When he catches it, he squeezes tight.
]
vibing: (angry | sad | fight | hurt)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-04-28 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
[ Yuri squeezes his hand back, trying to get himself under control. He feels stupid, pathetic, to break like this, even as his breath is coming short and his face is hot. Why does he have to break down like this in front of Flynn? Why can't he stay strong when he needs to?

He presses his face into Flynn's skin with a growl, trying to bite back the feeling, bite back the hot tears trying to escape his eyes.
]
thinkfirst: (neutral | watching | ready)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-28 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ He can't just leave Yuri this way, fighting against himself. He squeezes Yuri's hand harder and half-turns, just enough he can wrap an arm around Yuri's slick form and tug him closer. ]

You know,

[ he says, into the spray and the silence, over the hitch of Yuri's breath ]

I could see it all happening, but I wasn't as worried as I should have been.
vibing: (soft | sad | repede | hug)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-04-28 03:01 am (UTC)(link)
[ That doesn't make him feel better. It doesn't make him feel better that Flynn was in there, that he could see and not control, that he knew, saw, maybe even felt what Yuri had to do.

He presses against Flynn's body, giving in to the part that needs support, the part that can only let go around Flynn. At least the shower hides any tears
]

...why weren't you worried?
thinkfirst: (smile | sweet | trust)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-28 03:15 am (UTC)(link)
Because I knew you'd know it wasn't me. I knew you'd figure it out.

[ Flynn presses back against him, staring at the swirl of pink around his own feet. It might be the wrong thing to say, to let Yuri know how much he was relying on Yuri's skills, but that's what got him through it. ]
vibing: (sad | look | soft | giving up)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-04-28 03:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ Yuri's breath shudders, and he's glad for the shower running over them, blocking out the rest of the world, hiding them here ]

It wasn't you. I... I'll never leave you like that. [ No matter how hard it is, no matter how much it hurts, he will always do that for Flynn, always make sure he can be in control of himself, even if it means that Yuri has to take his life.

He swallows
]

I was... I didn't know if you were coming back.
thinkfirst: (look down | sad | trying)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-01 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ There's only so much space Flynn can give him, choked with guilt and worry as he is. He swallows around useless words— I'm sorry doesn't fix it, and I know means nothing— and turns, too sharp, spinning in Yuri's grip to drag him into a tight hug. ]
vibing: (soft | sad | look)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-05-01 02:22 am (UTC)(link)
[ He sucks in a breath and is stiff and still for a moment before he sinks into the embrace, wrapping his arms around Flynn's waist.

He's here, he's safe, he's alive and Yuri groans against him, feeling pathetic and weak, but he can't stop it, he can't help himself, and he collapses into Flynn, exhausted and drained and relieved. He can't remember the last time he broke down like this. To Cecelia, months and months ago, sure, but it didn't feel quite like this
]
thinkfirst: (neutral | sad | look down)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-01 02:58 am (UTC)(link)
[ There is a sort of cold shock to Yuri breaking down against him. Flynn doesn't get to see him like this: he doesn't get Yuri's ragged edges, no matter how much they tell each other in the quiet of night, no matter what fears nip at their heels. It hurts the way it hurts to open a wound: a clean, clear pain and a sense of purpose rushing into the gap. Flynn presses his face into Yuri's damp hair, spreads his palm wide between the wings of his shoulderblades and holds him there, bearing up under his weight so Yuri doesn't have to hold it up at all. There's nothing to say. Yuri won't appreciate words right now, not the state he's in, and Flynn doesn't have anything to offer except for himself and the shower spray. He pushes a kiss against Yuri's temple, lets it linger there. ]
vibing: (tired | annoyed)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-05-01 03:14 am (UTC)(link)
[ It feels cathartic, the way hitting something does, but never quite satisfies him. This feels like everything from the last month, the fear and pain, is washing away with tears down the drain, with Flynn's familiar strength under him. His breath hitches, and he breathes, and he leans into Flynn's body, and lets it all go.

He pulls himself together with a sniff and sucks in a breath, pulling back and not quite looking at him. He rubs his wrist against his face
]

Fuck, sorry. I was supposed... supposed to be helping you.
thinkfirst: (skit | sheepish | soft)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-01 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
You already did.

[ Flynn says, soft, and lets his hands run up along Yuri's bare arms to his shoulders to pull him forward until their foreheads nudge together. ]

It must have been awful. That month.
vibing: (tired | soft | sad)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-05-01 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
[ Yuri's breath shakes and he slowly lets himself meet Flynn's eyes. Flynn is still here--so far. He hasn't left, seeing Yuri break apart like this. He isn't leaving. ]

It... wasn't great.

[ Which is an understatement, but Flynn will get it. Deep breath. He squeezes Flynn's wrist ]
thinkfirst: (unsure | looking down | sad)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-03 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ Meaning, naturally, that it was one of the worst thing Yuri's experienced. Flynn's heart twists a little more, thuds so hard into his lungs that he has to suck in a breath and tug Yuri close again just to make sure he's here and alright.

He can't promise not to leave Yuri like that again.

That's the problem, isn't it? They have so little control that promises are pointless. There's nothing Flynn can say or do to prevent the same thing happening this month or next or the month after, and he hates that fact so fiercely and suddenly that he shakes with it, shoves his face into the side of Yuri's head again while it sweeps through him.
]
vibing: (smile | look | soft)

[personal profile] vibing 2024-05-03 08:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Having Flynn against him again settles the worry still churning in his gut. Having Flynn close and warm and alive is all he needs and he stays there until his hair is soaking wet and there's water in his nose and he laughs, tugging on Flynn's wrist ]

C'mon. Sulking in a shower isn't really a good look for me. Lemme get that honey out of your hair.