wellie: (Default)
Well Mod ([personal profile] wellie) wrote in [community profile] wellcome2023-04-20 02:05 pm
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2.0 Test Drive Meme

2.0 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. This month, there is a strong possibility that those old west style clothes include a pair of jorts or daisy dukes.

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 April, May, and June.

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

All-Night Diner
Content warnings: feelings of euphoria and mild intoxication, exhaustion

There’s banner over the diner's doorway reading Welcome!, with colorful flags drooping in the heat. Inside, the waiter greets you with a wide smile and an announcement:

“Welcome to the Stardust Diner! Pie’s on the house today. Have a seat.”

During the day, the diner is just that: a diner. You can get anything on the very extensive menu, including prickly pear lemonade. The pie is free, and everything else is put on the tab for your room that will never come due, probably. It seems like a shame to eat that pie all alone! Accepting a piece of pie makes you feel like you should share this moment with someone. Luckily all the booths are plush and open, and it’s easy to plop down with a stranger to share this special moment.

At night, the mood shifts. The diner’s neon sign is a beacon against the thick darkness, beckoning you in with blinking lights and a line of text reading FORGET YOUR WORRIES. Inside, country-swing music rolls in time with throbbing red lights. The tables have been pushed aside to make room for a makeshift sticky dance floor, and the atmosphere is intoxicating.

It’s as easy as anything to be swept along with the vibes, the dancing, the intensity of it all. When you start dancing, you really do forget your worries. You forget that you don’t know how you got here and that you don’t may not even know the person beside you; you forget that you’re supposed to be anywhere else except here. Everything feels briefly perfect and beautiful, meant to be, no matter what else is happening to you.

When you stumble outside, it will be dawn, no matter how long you think you’ve been there, and you’ll be exhausted enough to simply curl up right there in the sand and fall asleep. Hope you made a friend kind enough to drag you home, or that someone wakes you up!

tl;dr:
  • The diner is open and the pie is free.
  • If you get a slice of pie, you feel compelled to share it with someone.
  • At night, the diner transforms into essentially a nightclub. The vibes are intoxicating and you can forget all your worries and dance the night away.
  • You can only leave at dawn, and your body will be exhausted. Better get help getting back to your room!

Something’s Coming
Content warnings: blood, blood-sucking, monsters

A few hours after dusk, strange creatures begin to scurry from shadow to shadow, chasing after anything that moves: chupacabras. Large ones. They’re big creatures, the size of large dogs with spikes down their spines and tails, dark and hairless with fearsome teeth. They are everywhere, and they are hungry.

They are indiscriminate in who they try to bite: the biggest among you is just as at risk as the smallest, but the bigger you are, the more of them might come for the fight. No matter where you are, there’s a risk: they seem adept at making their way into buildings. You might find one looming over your bed, resting on your chest, getting ready to bite; one might slip into the diner while you’re dancing and latch on when you’ve forgotten to be concerned.

If a chupacabra manages to bite you, it will suck your blood, and it won’t stop until you’re completely drained unless you do something about it. Having your blood sucked by one is not a pleasant experience, it’s excruciatingly painful and the creatures will do their best to keep you prone while eating their fill. The more they drink, the more exhausted you’ll get, until it’s very difficult to fight them off.

They can be killed or scared off, but the further they are into a fight or into their meal, the harder they are to get rid of. If a chupacabra has latched on to you, you’ll need help escaping!

tl;dr:
  • Chupacabras strike the town at dusk.
  • They want to suck your blood, and are indiscriminate in who they attack. They will try and drain you completely.
  • They can be fought or scared off. It's easier to get rid of them if you have a pal.



The Walls Have Eyes
Content warnings: eyes, trypophobia

There are eyes everywhere. They peer out of cracks in walls, the floor, the grout in your shower, an open cut in your skin. There are even eyes in the craters on the moon, staring down at you unblinking.

These eyes seem familiar, even if you don’t remember them. You feel like you do. You feel a heavy weight settle over you when you look at them, guilt curdling in the pit of your gut.

The eyes belong to someone, or someones, who you’ve hurt or let down. They belong to your greatest mistake, to someone who you left behind, to someone who you regret. The same eyes over and over again, or the eyes of many who you’ve hurt, watching you, judging you, pleading for you to save them or apologize or make up for the mistakes you may not even remember making. You just know that you made them. They eyes don't lie.

The more you ignore these eyes, the more they seem to encroach on you: appearing in the walls, following you around corners, in the creases of your knuckles, the fold of your sheets. They replace the eyes of the people around you, the same eyes staring at you from everywhere you look.

Your skin itches with the constant feeling of being watched. Your head feels tight, and your own eyes feel too full, like there’s too much of you inside your skin. You’d do anything to get away from this feeling.

Soon enough, the mounting pressure explodes: you have to confront them and your guilt and your mistakes, and beg for the forgiveness they’re asking of you. Even if you don’t remember what those mistakes were, or why you should feel guilty, you have to tell someone. If you don't, the feeling will only mount, until all you can see are eyes. Eyes, just eyes.

tl;dr:
  • The eyes of someone(s) who embodies your regret appear in the cracks of the world around you.
  • The more you ignore the eyes, the more of them appear, and the more you feel an intense, heavy sense of guilt.
  • The guilt you feel can be based on things you remember, or things you don't. If it's based on things you don't know, your head will also hurt.
  • The eyes will ease if you admit your guilt, to the best of your ability. Tell someone your guilt, and the eyes will recede.
  • If you don't, your whole world will become eyes.



toteninsel: (13)

[personal profile] toteninsel 2023-05-04 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
That's all right.

[ Ariane pulls out some dusty magazine -- a farmer's almanac, by the looks of it, although it's hard to believe anyone farms out here in the desert. But in terms of reading material, Ariane will take what she can get. ]

I can just read while you eat. That way you don't have to talk to me at all.
hollow_man: (sooo)

[personal profile] hollow_man 2023-05-04 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
~Vibes.~

[So doubtful. When Vic stops Jono tries to dismount gracefully and instead more or less falls to the ground. He gets up, dusting off his jeans.]

~Can't really argue that. You are the swole-est person I remember meeting. Granted, I don't remember much of anything right now.

Cheers for the assist.~
sighsheavily: (pic#14281460)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2023-05-04 12:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[she allows herself to be shepherded toward a seat, too busy being self-conscious to note the site's significance to their shared strife. gads, she kissed him!! sure, the compulsion was justified, but the absolute gall of her to--]

Forgive me, I-- [she shakes her head, embarrassed, sweeping her knuckles under an eye again.] I just didn't think...Rather, I haven't had the time to think that-- [she exhales, shaking her head.] Everything's changed so suddenly from one extreme to another, and now it's...it's like nothing happened at all?!
toteninsel: (07)

[personal profile] toteninsel 2023-05-04 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Perhaps. I've been wondering that, myself.

[ Ariane keeps the scritches coming. This is nice. This feels less confusing than most things here do. ]

Maybe I should go look for my ship. It's possible I crash-landed. But if I found my ship, I'd have to radio command, and I don't think I actually want to do that. Guess I'm a pretty bad soldier.

[ Ariane smiles, as if she's just made a joke. ]
Edited 2023-05-04 21:52 (UTC)
toteninsel: (01)

[personal profile] toteninsel 2023-05-04 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ariane holds the eye contact, which might as well be holding someone else's hand, for how much she's used to doing this. For the first time in a while, she wishes she could actually help, but she doesn't really know what's going on more than this person does. ]

It's not just you. [ Ariane takes a few steps closer. ] Mine kept telling me to remember my promise, but I couldn't tell you what that means. Is that what's happening to you?
rustedknight: (rusted - 001)

cw: injury discussion

[personal profile] rustedknight 2023-05-04 03:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Jaune never flinches or lets out a sound sharper than a slightly pronounced inhale while Ariane works. Even on the worst and largest of the splinters dug deep into the tender pad of flesh under his thumb only merit a fluttering twitch of the digit above as Ariane has to dig and wiggle to loosen them for removal.

It doesn't take too long to start seeing significant progress in scattered welling droplets of blood and a growing pile of splinters on the towel. Looking at them, watching and feeling Ariane's hands do theit work, a sense of contentment wells up in Jaune to match the rubies scattered across his palm. ]


I am, too. [ He says, softly, head bowed and hair a tousled mess around his face. ] You're not the only one.

But that's all right. It's something we can all figure out together.
searingwing: (I'm on another broken avenue)

[personal profile] searingwing 2023-05-04 04:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, they all have that about them. I wonder...if the way the town reset has anything to do with it. [He says as he shuts his eyes. What...does it all mean?]

About that device my double used. I used it. I think it's only because I have its true counterpart that I didn't fall into the rage within it.

If there's a next time, I'm breaking it so none of you are subjected to the malevolence within.
sighsheavily: (pic#14667795)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2023-05-04 04:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[she looks up at him, searching his expression.]

The gem, you mean?
searingwing: (An empty mirror)

[personal profile] searingwing 2023-05-04 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[His expression is one of someone peering into the distance. His mind is somewhere else at this moment. He closes his eyes and flexes the same hand that his double had worn the device on.]

Yes. I...When my head felt like it wanted to split open. I think it's been in my possession before. How or why...

[He shakes his head. There is more.] My body moved. I knew exactly how to drive the raging fire to obey my will.
sighsheavily: (pic#14667794)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2023-05-04 06:44 pm (UTC)(link)
...

[Cecelia feels an unpleasant twinge - a gnawing discontent that she'll have better words for later. it's the fear that she's watching someone she cares for so strongly sink into deeper tides than she can reach - that the effort of trying would be moot and, not just that...wrong of her to try.

muted and muffled, some notion in her stings with nostalgia.

she's faced these kinds of fates before, somehow. perhaps not with him, but someone, somewhere. a dreadful sense of inevitability makes her shiver and hug her arms to herself once more.]


...Please don't use it again, Diluc. If it's going to hurt you, or imbue you with that kind of...rage. [her expression winces, face reddening.] I'm sure it's...childish to ask that, considering everything, but--

[but if he's not lost to that sea yet, can't she still reach?]

I only mean to...[inhale. little exhale.] To appeal for the you who wished to still hang onto the you that you are. Despite what comes to torment you. Past or present.

I hope you're still him, despite all of this.
searingwing: (pic#16378699)

[personal profile] searingwing 2023-05-04 07:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[He closes his eyes.

The battle flashes back to him in pieces like he's looking through cracked glass. Black chains. The rage. The howling of his soul as all the grief and fury finally had an outlet. He and his double had been two birds of fire tearing each other apart. The clash of their swords had been the voices of two people in pain.

They had known the chains would be stable enough to run on. It was as if there had been no limits in that moment. He closes his eyes and there it is again. The storm howled like a damned thing. The blood in his mouth. And the device in his hand, obeying his will as he ripped that power from the other.

'I will never be you!' He opens his eyes and says,]
It's not childish to ask. I made the decision as I killed him to never do it again. In the end, he was a broken man who was trying to turn back time.

We can't. There's only forward. I don't intend to abandon my heart or my friends. [He holds his hand out to her.] I swear to you no matter what comes, I will keep my heart. Even if it makes the way onward more difficult. The only way to do that is to not let evil powers put their roots into it.
sighsheavily: (pic#16420019)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2023-05-04 07:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[her downcast gaze is suddenly broken by the offered hand, and Cecelia feels her heart thump in double-time out of relief. well, if he can keep hold of himself despite what he'd endured, what excuse does she have besides weakness? that won't do.

so: if only to ensure he and the others remember themselves as she knows them, that's got to be reason enough to keep her head on straight and eyes forward. why bother writing if not that?

with a weird, simmering vindication in her, she unwraps her arms to close her hands around his, for a moment squeezing it as though doing so would cement something in her. perhaps it does.]


I'll remember that. I'll write it down, lest I ever forget.
hallucinogem: (is it any wonder that the joke's an iron)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2023-05-04 08:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, that's about the size of it. [she smiles, catching the protectiveness and trying to deflect it herself. she's not, like, a mean person, is she? probably not. she's just kind of going with what feels natural to her, no matter what questions it may bring.] Good to know it's not about me specifically.

[and yet. the questions it brings are kind of hard to ignore. she stops for a moment, holding her fork and looking down at her plate, then looks back over at jaune.]

Do you, um. Do you have... these weird gaps in your memory too? Or did I just win the jackpot here.
rustedknight: (rusted - 010)

[personal profile] rustedknight 2023-05-04 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[ There's no need for Emerald to worry. Jaune's protectiveness extends indiscriminately to everyone, as he'll prove when he winces lightly at her question, then turns apologetic. ]

I do. So does everyone I've talked to. There's nothing happening to you that isn't happening to everyone else. [ His tone is serious, but still gentle and calm. ] Anything strange you're thinking, or feeling, or seeing, there's a good chance it's happening to someone else too. So you can always talk about it, ask any question you want. No one is going to think it's weird.

[ He half-turns in the booth to face her better, resting his hand on the table's edge. ]

Everyone is missing most of their memories. We're all here in a town called Well. There are the people who were here when the first people like us arrived, like the receptionist, and then there's - well, us. The newcomers who don't remember how he got here, or much of anything else.

That's the first part. Are you following so far?
thinkfirst: (talking | neutral | worried)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2023-05-05 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
[ There is a strange smell in the air, but Flynn is too focused on figuring out the most polite way to bully this large person into shelter, somehow. The diner doesn't seem like the right choice, given that's clearly where he came from, although—he really does look better already. Maybe just waking up and standing up was helpful?

Well, Flynn offers up his water regardless, wondering at how fresh the air is this morning.
]

It's really no trouble. I'd hate for you to get heat stroke! The first month we were here, no one really knew how to handle the sun, and there were a lot of injuries. Once you've drunk that—you have a room, don't you? At the hotel?
thinkfirst: (skit | annoyed | no)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2023-05-05 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ Later, he'll have the good sense to be embarrassed about it, and remind himself to reign his emotions in. It won't work, but he'll certainly try, because the spill of naked feeling over his face at that question is embarrassing, too much. He looks away, swallows hard. His back is rigid. ]

It will not sound like the truth, but— one killed me. Just last week. I shouldn't be... Their lethal intent was clear. This is not a safe place.
hasapoint: a steady level gaze (I cannot strive nor have I heart for str)

[personal profile] hasapoint 2023-05-05 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
[Need has withdrawn her hand so she can clasp both behind her back, as best she can with shoulders that protest the motion. She studies the boy, taking in his face, his body language.]

Hmm. No, I believe you. These aren't normal circumstances. I imagine the typical rules for what is and isn't possible have been suspended, or are malleable. Have others died and returned? Were you so unfortunate so as to discover this, yourself?

[She is dead herself, and has been for a long time, but sees no reason to tell this to an overwrought child at the moment. There's... oh, how annoying, the sense of things she can't consciously recall is very strong.]
guidemyway: (You were born to)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2023-05-05 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
[Ruby let's out a little yelp as the arm grabs a hold of her and stops her from plummeting down the stairs. There's a moment where she pulls and tries to resist, but there's a lack of force and commitment to it.

It takes her a moment to flail her legs and get them steady back under her, but she manages. And then glances back to Flynn with a bit of a defeated look. The number of eyes she sees on the walls around him and on him puts a sinking feeling into her gut.]


...Why don't you just let me go?
hallucinogem: (i'm after rebellion)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2023-05-05 01:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[emerald doesn't move; maybe she's too scared to do it, or maybe meeting somebody else in the same position as her is having the opposite effect. maybe it's making it easier to handle. misery loves company, right?]

I don't know what that means either. [she shakes her head, and there's just a hint of regret to it. as she works herself up to tell this person what the eyes are telling her, she can feel tension rise in her chest and an ache growing inside her skull.] They keep telling me "it's your fault she's dead", but... but I've never killed anyone. I don't know what they're talking about. I just want it to stop.
hallucinogem: (i'll settle for lies)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2023-05-05 03:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[emerald nods along, and there's part of her that is calmed by this idea. the idea that she's in the same boat as everybody else, that she's not being singled out. she has no idea why that's a comfort, but she doesn't know enough about what's going on inside her own head to question it, either. it's... a weird sort of conflict to have to live with. but she's trying very hard to avoid thinking about it too much, and the pie is helping.]

[she only just met jaune, but he really does seem like a nice person. she appreciates, in her heart, that he's taking the time to treat her like an equal and give her some guidance. and she doesn't know why that's so important, either, but... maybe she doesn't need an answer for that yet.]


Okay, so none of us know much about who we are, and the town's small enough that everyone gets hit by the same stuff. I'm with you so far. What's part two?
rustedknight: (rusted - 011)

[personal profile] rustedknight 2023-05-05 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[ All the things that comfort Emerald in Jaune's explanation are there because he's felt the same way, and he still does. This is how he wants to be spoken to when he doesn't know anything, and it feels only natural to make that his guide for how he speaks to others. ]

We don't know how to leave. [ He raises a finger from the table, forestalling concern. ] Yet. There hasn't been much tried besides walking into the desert, which - is definitely an idea, but it didn't work, so please don't do that.

[ He'd have to go out there and get her, and it would be a whole thing. She looks smarter than that, but you never know. ]

That's one of the mysteries. As far as I know, everything else is also part of the mysteries, but I'm sure there are people who have figured out more than I have.

Besides that? It's not so bad here. The food is all free, you don't have to pay for the hotel, and you can take anything you want from the general store. The people have been nice, and most of them are helpful. If you stay inside at night, avoid the monsters and the cacti, you'll be all right until we find our way out of here.

[ Let's see...anything else... ]

Oh, right! And the whole town collapsed earlier, I think. Or exploded, and then collapsed? Either way, it put itself back together, and most people were fine. So that's probably not something to worry about for the time being.
victim: (pic#16435985)

[personal profile] victim 2023-05-05 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ makoto wipes away the blood on his hand with a napkin and dabs at his nose while diluc disappears from the table. when the man returns, he shakily takes the glass placed in front of him and drinks. it's cool and sweet, not overly so, and makoto finds the taste calming... despite his mind and body feeling like they were on the verge of a freakout.

after a few more swallows, he moves the glass to press it to his cheek and the side of his head. the chill was grounding, but nothing could fully convince him that this was reality while he listened to diluc—

especially not after the appearance of the small, controllable fire.

no that... wasn't possible. it wasn't possible, or the man was an expert circus performer or magician. maybe that was his Ultimate? was this whole experience some sort of screening for Hope's Peak before he even arrived at the school?

the ache in his head starts to return, and makoto is forced to shake the thoughts away. this wasn't fair... and made no sense... how could he not know, and why did it hurt to remember? ]


I-I'm sorry, but... this can't be real. It's... none of it makes sense. [ he stares at the fire in the man's hand and nods towards it ] Especially that! And worlds? Knights?... I-I have to be dreaming.
victim: (pic#7539349)

[personal profile] victim 2023-05-05 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Makoto takes an uncertain step backwards when he's approached, and it does look as if he's going to fall—but he catches himself before it becomes more than just a slight stumble. If the walls didn't keep blinking at him—an eye appearing here, an eye disappearing there—he would have used it to steady himself, but he didn't want to get much closer to them.

"I can't," he says, shaking his head and looking... honestly, pretty defeated. He was exhausted and didn't know what was going on—hadn't known what was going on since he'd arrived. And now this... how was he supposed to deal with something this surreal? "It's... there were..." Eyes. There were eyes in the water he'd tried to drink earlier, staring up at him translucently. But if he acknowledged the eyes, they'd be real—and this was a dream... it was a dream...

He closes his own eyes for a moment and lets his head droop forward. "I just... need to rest."
searingwing: (pic#14902149)

[personal profile] searingwing 2023-05-05 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I’ll sign it if you want me to. Do you wish to keep that version or have the formal one?

[There’s a spark in his eye again. He is clearly joking but who can tell how far he’d go with it.]
sighsheavily: (pic#16416823)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2023-05-05 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[finally, a smile blooms on her face, small but sincere. she breathes out a vague laugh as she ducks her head.]

Notarized, hmh? Maybe there's something to that.

[after a beat, she relaxes her grip on his hand - he's free if he wishes.]

If...this really isn't a dream, I'm grateful you're still here, Diluc.

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