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

I

[levindicated]

[As Cid gains his bearings, he notices another man in the room with him. Where he is, or why he is here are both beyond him. But he watches the other man just casually reach into the fire of the torch and grab a white hot key.]

Holy shit!

[His legs carry him over without any type of plan. He hasn’t looked at the note yet, the shock of what he witnessed freezing him a few feet away from Barnabas, regarding the state of his hand.]

What the fuck?!

cw: burns

[odinpusrex]

[Barnabas hears the other man, but his focus is on the searing hot key that is cooking his flesh as he holds it, and what other burns the torch offered him despite his swiftness. The pain is, well, horrible, but he does not find himself reacting to it much. His emotions staying neutral and stoic as he ignores Cid and makes his way to the door with purpose. For all his hand seems to be healing from the burns as they happen, some blueish aura pulsing around it, it still reacts to the pain of it, making the process of unlocking the door difficult.

Finally he gets it, and the door opens, his arm falling limp at his side, his hand red from the heat slowly mending itself. With a glance cast Cid's way, he pauses a moment to stare at him. There was something familiar about that voice, though he could not place it, and even now as he takes in the sight of the other man, something pulls at him.

Yet, he does not know him.]

Do not be ungrateful, the door is open, is it not?

[levindicated]

Ungrateful- I’m just concerned!

[Though even as he says this, he can see the other man healing. It gives him pause. He takes a breath, brows scrunching as he regards the other and follows.]

…Do you not feel pain?

[odinpusrex]

Of course I do.

[He says plainly, stepping through the door. Should he have had more of a reaction to the pain? He isn't sure. It was an inconvenience, but it was simply a hurdle to cross to free themselves. A necessary cost.

As the room before them materializes into their view, it is that of a shooting range, not that Barnabas is aware of it. His brow furrows as he tries to make sense of it, of the guns, of the cut outs that is of the two of them.

He stops before one of the guns, casting an inquisitive look, before glancing to Cid, the gesture itself a silent question.]

[levindicated]

You could have fooled me.

[Cid follows his gaze to the objects around the room. To the targets, to the guns. They’re familiar in part, though not in whole. He is not totally lost as he picks it up. There is clearly a barrel. Things come out of barrels. He turns it over, he sees a compartment of some kind. Hinges. He fiddles with it until it opens and the gas canister comes out. He turns it around in his hand. It seems familiar, though he thinks he’s seen this but not made this sort of thing himself.]

[He manages to open the cartridge to find… Ball bearings. Huh. They sure don’t seem like they could cause much damage, lest they were thrown incredibly fast. But would they? ]

A weapon. Must be. Though how effective it is, I can’t be sure. It’s like a canon, to be precise, albeit its canon balls are just ball bearings… Might hurt a bit. Probably unpleasant to catch one in the eye or the teeth. You probably wouldn’t even flinch.

[He scrunches his brow. He doesn’t know why he knows this. He’s seen a cannon before but connecting why is a little hazy. He looks at the targets across the room. The other man’s visage is familiar, of course. He can see him. The other… His outfit is the same, clearly. Is that what he looks like? ]

Odd.

[He experiments with the object in his hands more, testing to see if he can take it further apart, though there are screws and he is without a screwdriver. He’s not aiming for anything in particular, simply not either of them. But he isn’t bracing for it properly at all. He experimentally squeezes the trigger only for his arm to be thrown a bit, unfamiliar as he is with compressed air. It hits Barnabas’ paper doppelgänger in the leg. ]

cw: bullet wound

[odinpusrex]

[Barnabas remains silent as he watches him examine the strange contraption. He hasn't a clue how it may work, wholly unfamiliar as it is to him, but there's something...almost nostalgic in watching him. He cannot place it, the feeling is muted and fleeting as it is, with nothing for it to connect to, and so it is smoke on the wind before too long.

As Cid takes aim with it, unfocused as it may be, he does not expect to feel a piercing sensation in his own leg once the trigger is pulled. That didn't make sense, the small cannon as the other man called it was not pointed at him, and yet his leg—

Barnabas' leg nearly buckles from the sudden hit, but he catches himself as he shifts his weight to his other leg, a discontented grunt leaving him as he looks down at the spot struck. There's blood, though the black fabric of his pants makes it hard to see.]

You struck me—how?

[He scowls, his teeth slightly bared in muted agitation as he brings a hand to the spot. He can feel his body mending itself, that strange regeneration at work. His dark eyes flick to the cut-out of himself, to the bullet hole in its leg at the same spot.

Ah.]

Do not shoot the portrait again.

[Ignoring the mending of his flesh, he walks to the unattended gun, grabbing it, cocking it, and mimicking Cid's hold. He aims it at Cid's own cut-out, considering whether or not to pay him in kind...before he shoots one of the myriad faceless cowboy cut-outs.

Which does nothing. Strange.]

[levindicated]

[He recoils in shock from how that all unfolds. Though again, the man seems fine quickly. Is this normal? No. No way. But try as he might, he can’t recall what normal is meant to be. ]

How indeed.

[He frowns. The words fall from his mouth.]

…Magic, perhaps. You alright?

[He moseys over and falls to one knee to look at the torn fabric. He reaches out to touch it.]

[odinpusrex]

I am.

[Barnabas tries to ignore Cid as he approaches, aiming at his own cut-out as he considers if that might be the answer. He begins to squeeze the trigger—but stops when he feels Cid touching his leg.]

What are you hoping to achieve down there?

[He spares him a glance, while otherwise holding his form.]

[levindicated]

…I don’t know. I’m trying to understand what happened, exactly.

[But kneeling like this, before the other man, so close to him fills him with feelings that he isn’t ready for. He pats his leg and stands back up, stepping back to widen the distance between them again.]

So, what’s all this about, you think? See a note anywhere?

[He asks, gesturing with the gun.]

[odinpusrex]

[Barnabas stays still as Cid pats his leg and stands, though his gaze stays on him while he speaks and gestures with the gun. He narrows his eyes at the careless behavior.]

Do not wave it.

[With that order, he turns his attention back to his own target, aiming for the heart.]

I do not. Though, it would seem we are meant to strike something.

[He fires, shooting his paper-self in the chest. He pauses a moment, waits for pain to blossom in his own bosom.

It does not.]

Fascinating.

[levindicated]

[Cid feels panic rush in his heart as he watches that unfold. He was so certain the other man would just drop dead with such a shot.]

…Nice aim.

[His eyes go to the other man’s cleavage, lingering.]

…You think I’m meant to…?

[He points at his own cutout, barrel to the chest before he thinks a little better of it and shoots at the outside of his own cut out’s leg. He misses, a reward for his cowardice. He tries again, hitting it properly. He braces for the pain.]

[odinpusrex]

[His precision feels natural, even if using the gun is anything but. Still, what difficulty was there to this, when it is essentially pointing and shooting. Barnabas waits to see what comes of Cid's own firing, and no wound follows, though his aim seems to be lacking.

Or was it courage? Either way.

After a moment, Barnabas aims at the others possessed of his likeness, cocking the gun and firing at them. Once more, no pain.

So again, he cocks, aims, fires. Neck, head, heart, belly—all hurting him not. There are only a couple left, and Cid's besides, but little do they know they have but seconds to complete the task...]

[levindicated]

[Cid screws together his courage. Alright. Everything was fine. He points and shoots as well as he can, though with neither context nor knowledge, it is an awkward affair.]

[Before he knows it, his vision jumps. Or did he blink? ]


[Either way they’re back in the damp room.]

…What in bloody hell?

[The gun is no longer in his hands either.]

[odinpusrex]

[Just as Barnabas took aim to shoot the last of his, a blink sets him back in the chilling and damp room they began in. The crackling of the burning torches greets them, and Barnabas lowers his arms which no longer hold the gun.

He looks confused, brows pinched, as he looks to Cid.]

We failed, perhaps?

[He frowns, looking to the torches again. Well, at least he knows this one. As he approaches one, he speaks:]

I know not what sorcery binds us, but it would seem we must needs try once more.

[levindicated]

What are you doing? You said that hurt, didn’t you? Come on, I can snuff the flame, there’s no need for all that, eh?

[Plus it was rather disturbing to witness, though it did make him crave something he had not the name for. The juxtaposition of the craving disturbs him, though. His hands go to his clothes, to his jacket. He pulls off his leather duster, sliding it down his shoulders and wrapping his arm with it. He swipes at a torch flame. Nothing. He turns to another to repeat the process, sending a hot key skittering across the stone floor. He shakes out his jacket, freeing embers from it. The coat is singed, of course, but intact. He pinches it up in his coat, smelling the leather start to burn, the white hot loop branding it as he handles it.]

See? Really no need to go through all that.

[odinpusrex]

Hm.

[It isn't that Barnabas was aching to feel the burn again, but it did simply solve the issue with minimal harm. However, if this man wishes to burn his own clothing to achieve the same effect, he would not stop him. So, Barnabas waits and watches, subdued curiosity in his eyes as he does so.

With the key obtained, he follows him to the door, wondering if they were wrong with their approach, or if they were too slow..? It's hard to know.]

Shall we attempt the same tactic as before?

[levindicated]

We may as well. Maybe we're meant to do it properly, without any mistakes. Had it been me wounded, I likely wouldn't have recovered. I don't feel like finding out if that's true either.

Yet... how this reset is beyond my understanding. Is this a dream? It feels real enough.

[He unlocks the door, and they pass through to indeed see the room back to how it was. No holes in anything. No blood on the floor. Cid approaches and takes up a gun. He hops over the wall and shoots his cut outs at point blank. Unsportsmanlike, but fast and certain. He gives little thought to where he places each bullet hole. ]

[odinpusrex]

[With a silent nod, he follows. Making his way to the unattended gun, lifting it once more and taking aim. Swiftly, like a machine in movement and precision, he shoots each one—right between the eyes.

When the last of both of theirs are struck, suddenly the floor opens beneath them and they fall into what seems like an abyss—but then they find themselves in a very plain room. Nothing remarkable about it, save for the note hanging in the middle.

Barnabas looks at his empty hands, then to Cid, before approaching the note with caution.]

Eye contact and flattery? Very well.

[levindicated]

Is that so? Alright...

[Cid approaches him, looking over the note as well before boldly looking into this stranger's eyes. This stranger he's meant to compliment.]

You're quite the strapping man, ah- Right. Ah.

I'm Cid, by the way. What's your name?

[odinpusrex]

[The name strikes him, his mind supplying him with Cidolfus, but is that merely a coincidence? The thought of that man leaves him with a sense of loss, the memory that this Cidolfus is exactly that: gone. Though he cannot name the nature of this absence. He can only sense it.]

You cut a handsome figure, Cid.

[He says this while maintaining eye contact, just as instructed.]

I am King Barnabas Tharmr.

[Right, he's a king.]

[levindicated]

[Barnabas. The one in danger from the supernatural? Wait, why does he think that- Surely it must be the right Barnabas. How many Barnabases could there even be in the world? He does a double take.]


[Fuck.]

Fuck.

[There they were, back in that first room. ]

Shit, sorry. I just wasn't expecting you to say that. I... I think I know you, maybe. Even though I can't seem to remember anything at all.

[odinpusrex]

[Barnabas' expression shifts from the pleasant neutral it was, to suppressed disappointment as they end up in the first room again. He stares unblinkingly at Cid, his brow furrowing.]

You know of me?

[A thoughtful pause.]

Would Cid happen to be short for Cidolfus, then?

[levindicated]

I know of you, but I can't say I know a damn thing about you. Not really. King of what, by the way?

[He chews his cheek, the urge to do something boiling in his blood. But what? He pats himself down finding nothing.]

[He eyes Barnabas with something akin to suspicion. He knew something would befall this man. Or had already befell this man?Something supernatural. Well, this was pretty supernatural, wasn't it?]

It is short for Cidolfus. Cidolfus Telamon. What do you know about me?

[odinpusrex]

I do not know.

[He admits freely, sounding somewhat perplexed. He knows he's a king, is confident of it, yet...

The confirmation that he is indeed Cidolfus leaves him feeling conflicted, his otherwise limited emotions stirring slightly, as something lightly grips him. Would he name it hurt? No, perhaps an ache, though it feels distant, more a foregone discomfort than anything so immediately painful.

Th question leaves him silent for a moment, contemplating what he knows, but as he thinks on the nature of their supposed closeness, his mind begins to hurt.

How curious.]

Only that I knew you for a time, and there was a departure of some nature. The rest is blank.

[He does not know the nature of their previous closeness, or their relation to each other. If he is a king, would this man be...an advisor? No, he did not seem the type.]

It would seem what scarce fragments of memory we share proves our familiarity. Wanting though it is in detail.

[levindicated]

[He pokes his cheek with his tongue. Cid only has three thoughts in his head about this. This man was his king. He is Odin, whatever that means. And he is under some supernatural influence. But the problem is that none of that made very much sense to him.]

I think I know a few things about you, but they don’t make any sense to me.

[The other man was certainly unusual, but was he dangerous? He absolutely seemed to have some kind of supernatural influence, though he'd already been surprised by his quick healing. He shakes his head. They could be caught in here forever, and information was in short supply.]

Does the name Odin mean anything to you?

[He sighs and he paces a bit. He can easily connect the apparent fact that he departed with the knowledge that this man is no longer his king. He thinks about his moniker. Not very flattering.]

A departure on my part… I wish I knew what that meant. We must have hit our heads. Though… something tells me that would permanently injure you.

Dammit, but we can figure it out if we can get out of here. We must be friends of some sort, or we may as well act like it.

[He shakes his head.]

Alright, focus. Focus. That room with the eye contact and the compliments means business. We should rehearse, perhaps. I'm going to get sick of all of this before long.