wellie: (Default)
Well Mod ([personal profile] wellie) wrote in [community profile] wellcome2022-01-03 05:30 pm
Entry tags:

1.0 Test Drive Meme

1.0 Test Drive Meme

Welcome to Well! Characters arrive the same way every month. Your character arrives with only a handful of memories, clad in old west style clothes of your choosing, with 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.

Applications open on January 20th, and the game opens on February 1st. Invites are available for members of the mods' plurk lists.

Put on your dancing shoes
Content warning: Alcohol, intoxication, altered mental state

Something’s happening at the Cactus Pad Saloon. It’s lit up bright against the growing night, and music spills out onto the street. Seems like a fun time that you should check out. In fact, it’s hard not to check it out: the closer you get, the stronger the urge to join the fun. If you’ve been spending a lot of time alone, you’ll feel even more compelled to come get a drink.

The bartender serves up anything you can think of: from whiskey to apple juice to blood, if that’s your preference. She doesn’t blink an eye, no matter what’s ordered. The funny thing is, no matter what you order, once you take a sip, the world feels a little easier to deal with, your worries seem to melt away. You’re flush with sudden confidence.

If you strike up a conversation with the person next to you, conversation flows like you’re talking to an old friend. You feel a sense of kinship, deep and meaningful, good or bad, that bonds you together.

The old record player is playing a fun ditty, and the longer you stick around, the more you’re tempted to join, or start, the dancing. Whether you’re a great dancer or you have two left feet, you find that you feel capable of dancing like no one’s watching. No one knows you here, after all. You barely know yourself, so why not draw a partner into the fray? A party’s better together!

If you end up staying there til closing time, the bartender kicks you out with a gruff “come back tomorrow,” leaving you to stumble home with your new best friend. What was their name again?


Sand trap
Content warning: Quick sand, potential drowning in sand

You step through a door into a room you didn’t mean to enter. You were trying to head into the saloon, or your hotel room, or the bathroom, and instead you’re here: in a small, tight, windowless room in a white-washed building. The air here is old, stale, and thick. Hazy gold light bounces off the walls, but you can’t tell where it’s coming from, since there’s no visible ceiling. The walls just stretch up and up into bright nothingness.

Someone else is there, too, coming through an identical door on the opposite wall. Both doors snap shut, and won’t open again, no matter how hard you try. They won’t even break.

This might not be so bad, except that a sound starts to fill the space: sand, trickling down the walls. It’s just a dusting to start. It comes sprinkling down above, seeping through the cracks in the door. The longer you stand there, the faster it comes: sand flows down the walls in massive torrents, building up on the floor, shifting and thick, trapping you in place.

The only way out is up. When you look again at the walls, you’ll notice it: about 10 feet up the wall hangs a flimsy rope ladder, half-hidden by the waterfall of sand. You’ll have to work together to even reach it, or maybe let the ever-growing pile of shifting, slippery sand lift you up? Be careful, because even if you manage to reach the rope, you both have to get out of here, and the longer you’re here, the faster and harder the sand falls. The ladder seems to go on forever, tens of feet up an endless wall. The better you work together, the closer the top seems. No matter how well you collaborate, they're at least 50 feet high.

When you’ve fought your way through the sand and reached the top of the ladder, you finally see it: the sand is coming in through the open windows of a steeple. You can’t see where it’s from, not really. You can’t see much of anything, but it’s clear: the only way out is, well, out. You have to jump, trusting that yourself and your companion will be safe.

Once free, you land together outside of one of the buildings or rooms you were trying to enter, like nothing happened at all. It’s a calm day, after all.

Memories of the living
Content warning: Cemetery, contemplating mortality

Dusk settles purple over Wellstone. Early stars are out, the moon is thin, and you find yourself inexplicably drawn to the graveyard. You can resist, but the more days you do, the harder it gets. The graveyard is calling to you in a voice you can’t hear.

While it seems small before you enter, once you start walking through the crumbling graves, it seems to stretch endlessly. You pass elaborate dust-covered crypts carved with strange angels; bleached wooden crosses overgrown with cacti; a crumbling old well, long gone dry; worn-down headstones jut at odd angles. Some graves have old offerings on them, brightly colored beads or candles or framed photos, sun-bleached beyond recognition.

You may have been walking for five minutes or fifty, but when you look around, you can’t see to find the exit. You hear howling, and see the flicker of lights from behind the graves, but you can never find their source, no matter how much you look. No matter how long you spend in the graveyard, the sun never seems to sink lower in the sky. An oppressive sense of being watched grows to the point that you whip around, expecting to find someone there until—

You do. You find each other. Others drawn here to the graveyard, walking among the crumbling stones, will end up by the same headstones. Exploring together eases the watchful feeling just a little, but it won’t help you get out. No, you’re looking for something. The exit? No, you’re sure there’s something more important than that.

If you follow your impulses, you may just find it: a gravestone, weathered, old, with a familiar name on it: yours. Your date of birth can be visible, but the date of death is too weathered to read. You may find an offering there, something small and meaningful to you, a small shiny coin or some bright beads.

Once you find your grave, when you look up, you’ll see the exit. You’re really not that far from it, after all, the rusted iron arch barely a stone's throw feet away. Your companion won’t see it yet. You can make a dash for it, get out of this awful place, or help your companion find their own gravestone. When your companion finds their stone, they will also be able to see the exit. Exiting together will alleviate the impulse to come back to this place. Leaving alone will only draw you back, making it more difficult to find your grave again.

You can take the offerings left on your grave if you want, but the sense of being watched will only grow greater until you’re compelled to return them, and leave another offering of your own.

simplefarmboy: (stay stay)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-04 02:35 am (UTC)(link)
[He's really going to have to learn his own strength here. He does brighten up a little as she gives him a task. This felt more familiar.]

Right- I'll ask at the desk first.

[And steps away briefly to ask only to be directed to the General Store. Clark returns and looks ready to hurry off.]

I'm going to have to go buy them- Just hold on- I wont keeping you waiting.

[And he steps out the door and rounds the corner. He starts to break off into a jog except he suddenly moves forward in a burst of speed and there's a sound of another crash about half a block away.

Clark can be heard shouting "I'm sorry!"]
unjedi: (25)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-04 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
[ oh boy. that does not sound good. but she'll wait patiently for now. it's not like she has anything else to do. ]
simplefarmboy: (And they pull you under.)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-05 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
[After the initial crash there's nothing else to be heard. He's just decided to walk- slowly to the general store so that he doesn't cause any more problems.

Not only does it take him forever to get back but he looks a little disappointed too.

He's managed to round up a pair of glasses, a glasses repair kit, and a multitool.]


This is all they had that looked like it could be of any use.
unjedi: (156)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-05 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
[ well, what can you do. ]

I can try but I don't think I'll get very far. Chances are it'll just fall off. Uh, again.

[ because that's totally what happened. ]
simplefarmboy: (somebody saave me)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-08 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
[Clark just stares with a thousand yard stare at where the door used to be. And says in a hushed voice.]

This is all they had...

[What happens if he breaks another door?]
unjedi: (161)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-08 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
Then you'll just have to be careful, won't you?
simplefarmboy: (stay)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-08 04:57 am (UTC)(link)
[Don't mind him. Just going to look around like a kid who just got caught taking a cookie from the cookie jar.]

Yeah.

Won't be pulling on any doors any time soon.

That's for sure.
unjedi: (235)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-08 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
[ . . . does he really think it's the door. ]

You haven't noticed anything else that's unusual?
simplefarmboy: (C'mon I've been waiting for you)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-08 05:07 am (UTC)(link)
[He is really trying to keep the focus off of himself at least. He tries not to look sheepish as he thinks back on what happened when he tried to run.]

Honestly? Still trying to figure out what's normal or what isn't here.
unjedi: (166)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-08 05:08 am (UTC)(link)
. . . What have you guessed so far?

[ like. ahsoka is the best example already of what's not normal. ]
simplefarmboy: (I don't care how you do it)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-10 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
[Clark has to take moment to consider how to answer this. There's a nagging feeling that he shouldn't say anything. But- Anything strange about him certainly didn't stand out as much as Ahsoka did in general.

...So he let's his guard down just a little.]


Well- Aside from the shoddy work on the door. I think there needs to be speed limits posted up.

There was an accident outside- Still trying to figure out how to avoid that happening again.
unjedi: (159)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-10 05:05 am (UTC)(link)
[ as gently as she can. ]

You don't think it might have something to do with your . . . powers?
simplefarmboy: (somebody saave me)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-11 01:31 am (UTC)(link)
[There's a pause and Clark knows battles briefly on whether he should go more into detail about that or not.

He finally settles on.]


I don't think I'm supposed to talk about them.

It's one of the few things I remember.
unjedi: (52)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-11 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ yes. she held a similar feeling too, when she gave up her lightsaber. calling herself ahsoka . . . didn't feel right. it felt like a warning. ]

I don't think the situation at . . . home is the same here.
simplefarmboy: (C'mon I've been waiting for you)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-11 03:20 am (UTC)(link)
[He considered that briefly and eventually gave a bit of a shrug.]

You're right.

But it might not be a bad idea to air on the side of caution until I know a little bit more-

[There's a pause and he lightens up a little.]

Since you know and everything though- I guess there's no harm in telling you.
unjedi: (109)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-11 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
I'm honoured. And you're right, it's best to play it safe. I'll keep it to myself.

Besides, you're not the only one with powers.
simplefarmboy: (just stay stay)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-13 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
I'd appreciate it. I'm not exactly sure why it might be the case. But it's one of the few things sticking out from my memories.

Along with the fact that my home town was apparently known as creamed corned capital of world at one point? I feel like one of those things is more important than the other.

[He blinks in surprise.]

Wait- You too?
unjedi: (220)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-13 02:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ ahsoka nods. she raises her hand and the door starts floating a few feet above the ground. ]

I can also . . . sense things about people. Their feelings, mostly.
simplefarmboy: (Break right through it)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-14 03:46 am (UTC)(link)
[Clark tilts his head and just watches as the door starts to hover off the ground.

He looks to Ahsoka, then back to the door and finally back to her.]


Well- Okay. Yeah. That's pretty impressive.

[There's a pause and then he adds in.]

I'm guessing you had a pretty good feeling about how awkward this whole door thing has been?
unjedi: (156)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-14 04:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ oh, buddy. ]

I don't think I needed special powers to realize it wasn't about the door.
simplefarmboy: (stay)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-15 02:03 am (UTC)(link)
[Well.]

In my defense. I did not know I could do that to the door when I did it.
unjedi: (06)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-15 02:13 am (UTC)(link)
That's fair. I don't think anyone would have expected it.
simplefarmboy: (C'mon I've been waiting for you)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-16 01:04 am (UTC)(link)
Hopefully that wont happen again.

[There is a pause as he suddenly gets an idea.]

I might have an idea for the whole door thing.

[He moves to collect the broken and bent screws that he had ripped off the frame. He looks around to make sure no one else is looking and just makes more of an effort to try and bend them back into proper shape without stabbing himself with them.

Not that he knows that it wouldn't go down like that.]
unjedi: (220)

[personal profile] unjedi 2023-01-16 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
[ she watches him curiously. ]

Not bad.
simplefarmboy: (I feel my wings have broken)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy 2023-01-16 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
Well if we have to make do- we have to make do.

[He manages to fix just over half of them. The others were were broken a little beyond repair and he hands them to her.]

Do you think you can do a little bit more with those?

(no subject)

[personal profile] unjedi - 2023-01-16 01:27 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy - 2023-01-22 04:20 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] unjedi - 2023-01-22 08:42 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] simplefarmboy - 2023-01-25 02:25 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

[personal profile] unjedi - 2023-01-25 02:27 (UTC) - Expand