2.0 Test Drive Meme

[wellie]

2.0 Test Drive Meme

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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.

Comments

[toteninsel]

I'll wait here.

[ Ariane returns the smile, equally uncertain and also a little out of practice. The idea of heading up the stairs to one of their rooms sounds like a bit much, right now - Jaune is right about needing to rest, as much as she'd rather not admit it. She's been getting so tired so easily here, for reasons that she assumes are related to her long hair and bandages and body that looks older than she's used to.

She settles into her seat, showing that she can, actually, follow a compromise. (A promise? The idea nags; she dismisses it.) ]

Take care of yourself. I'll be fine.

[rustedknight]

Just don't run off on me.

[ There's a note in the underlying tone there even he doesn't expect, a little too serious for the joke he's attempting to make. He can't do anything about it except push past it by rising to his feet with a dutiful nod. ]

I'll be right back.

[ True to his word, it doesn't take long. Jaune is up and down the stairs in less than ten minutes, returning with freshly scrubbed hands, a pair of eyebrow tweezers and a clean towel to catch splinters and further blood with...as well as a cozy looking white and red robe slung over one arm and a mug of cool water in his other hand. ]

Thanks for waiting.

[ He busies himself laying most of his burdens out on a nearby low end table that he then casually lifts up whole to set beside her knee. The robe he puts on the other side of her lap, not really thinking they're in a 'helping her get into a robe' stage of their acquaintanceship, and the mug is positioned within easy reach beside the splinter removal tools he brought. Once it's all settled, he kneels down in front of her again, ready to offer her his hands when she asks for them. ]

The robe is in case you're cold, and the water is - well, in case you're thirsty. [ He laughs lightly at himself. ] Not much else water is for, right?

[toteninsel]

[ Ariane does a little wave as Jaune departs, then takes a moment to close her eyes. It's a little strange, resting in a place without the ambient noise and motion of a space shuttle, but relaxing, too. The time passes quickly, and when Jaune returns, Ariane is still here, just like she promised.

Jaune's carrying an awful lot, which Ariane notes but doesn't say anything about - he's not breaking any rules, so it's probably fine. She doesn't even track that the robe and mug is meant for her until Jaune says so, and she looks a little surprised, although not upset. ]

I suppose if water is for anything else, I don't remember it. [ She doesn't take the robe. The red in the robe will bring out the red in her eyes, and she remembers clearly what everyone used to say about her eyes. She does take a sip of the water though. It's nice and cool and doesn't have the dull taste of being recycled. ] Thank you.

[ She takes another sip, considering something. ]

Do you know how many memories you're missing?

[rustedknight]

[ The only thing Jaune has noticed about Ariane's eyes is that they're as delicately pretty as the rest of her. She was lovely out under the stars, but in the firelight's flattering glow that softens the stark hollows of her cheeks and puts colour back into her skin, she's so beautiful it makes Jaune almost feel like he shouldn't look at her at all.

For some reason, he thinks of a little white horned animal, shining like the inside of a seashell. He's trying to remember what it's called when she asks her question, and down on his knees Jaune ducks his head with an unexpected warmth in his cheeks. ]

You're welcome. [ He says, almost shy. ] And I'm afraid I don't. I know even know how I'd be able to know that...hundreds? Thousands? How many memories do people usually have?

[toteninsel]

[ How many memories do people usually have? Ariane considers Jaune's question as she stares into her mug of water. There's a faint reflection of someone she barely recognizes. ]

You're right. [ She says, not looking up yet. ] Dumb question. Sorry.

[ Jaune still has splinters all through his hands. They don't have time for this, nor do they have answers. Ariane looks up, finally, and wonders why Jaune is still kneeling. Isn't that uncomfortable? He doesn't have to be polite to Ariane; she's nobody. Ariane moves the robe over to the arm of the couch, picks up the tweezers, and gestures to the space beside her. ]

You don't have to stay down there. Come on, I'll take those splinters out.

[ And then they'll be even, and everything will make sense again. ]

[rustedknight]

It's not a dumb question. I want to know the answer too.

[ He tells her this earnestly, still kneeling, the rest of what she said not having quite caught up yet. When it does, he blinks, looking down at himself in his first conscious realization of the posture he adopted.

Why did he do that, anyway? The couch is right there, and she never asked him not to sit on it. She didn't ask for the robe or the water, either. He didn't think about any of it as he did it, the gesture so reflexive they required no thought.

Another thing that's good to know, he supposes. He presses up off the floor and settles into the space she cleared, holding his palms out for her attention. ]

I brought the towel so we can catch what you pull out. [ He explains, in lieu of addressing the kneeling (he doesn't know how; he wouldn't know where to start). ] I don't want to get more of your clothes dirty, or the couch.

You can go ahead.

cw: injury discussion

[toteninsel]

Thanks.

[ For what, Ariane couldn't say. The towel, maybe, or the water? For joining her? It just seems like the right thing to say, as Jaune gets situated, and it's rare that Ariane knows the right thing to say. She turns to face him, towel draped over one knee, and begins to work.

In her focus, Ariane actually seems to relax a little. She doesn't say much at first, but her slim hands are deft, steady, and precise. She's used to doing detail-oriented work, even if the details usually don't involve blood. The scrapes don't bother her, though. There's worse under her own bandages. At least Jaune knows how all this got there. ]

I'm missing years, I think. [ She says at last, by way of explaining her earlier question. ] I guess I was curious if I was the only one.

cw: injury discussion

[rustedknight]

[ 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.

cw: injury discussion

[toteninsel]

[ Together is a nice sentiment. It sounds better when Jaune says it than the propaganda posters Ariane remembers. Together, as in both of them helping each other, instead of one of them having to fall in line.

She's almost done, now focused in equal parts on mopping up the blood with freeing the last of the splinters. ]

I'm supposed to remember a promise. But I don't know who it's for, or what I'm supposed to do, or -

[ Ariane cuts herself off there, taking a deep breath. She needs to stay steady to work. ]

You reminded me of it, back there. But if we've never met before, then I suppose my promise isn't to you.

[rustedknight]

[ That's much better. Jaune wiggles his fingers when his palms are finally empty of bits of wood, and makes a mental note to find a better weapon next time, or to find a pair of gloves.

Which is a little like a kind of promise, or so it occurs to him when she speaks so unhappily of one she's forgotten. That gets him to lift his head, his brows coming together in consternation. It picks at something almost like the tweezers picked at particularly deep splinters, an odd, twisting ache that twists the corners of his mouth as he thinks. ]

I have a promise to keep too, I think. Or something like a promise.

[ Solidarity, again. It seems to be the first thing he reaches for when he's trying to comfort people. ]

I don't think mine is to you, either, but...that's why we have to figure this out, isn't it? So we can keep our promises.