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

[sighsheavily]

[being planted in place by the hands keeps her from wobbling, but boy her knees feel weak in the face of all this. she clears her throat, face tomato-red, as she lifts a hand and awkwardly pat-pats at one of the hands.]

Indeed I am, yes. Well-- well, thank you. It's...relieving to be missed. [her eyes winced.] Though, one oughtn't want to be cause for heartbreak, all things considered...

[and while she knows the anguish of loss well enough thanks to what befell Flynn, it's...kind of nice??? to be met with this intense of a reaction? girl, that can't be anything but absurd.]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Darin similarly feels it in his knees, but the sensation is altogether different. It's relief. And he lets Cecelia go only to tumble and fall backwards flat on his back. He sprawls out and stares up at the ceiling with a bemused, wistful smile.]

Seriously, you have no idea...

I can't remember ever being this happy!

[sighsheavily]

[now set free to waver on her own, Cecelia brings her hands to her face, fussing at hair for lack of things for them to do.

peppered with a scoff:] Such hyperbole...! Enough, you've praised my existence enough, thank you. Spare the rest until I've done something commendable beyond breathing, I beg you.

[she presses the back of a hand against her cheek, finding no relief from the warmth. gads. embarrassing.]

Who was it, again? Did you say? Who you were screaming at moments ago.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

No, I literally can't remember being this happy.

Get it?

[He's being cute.]

[But he shrugs regardless.]

Oh, I'unno. No one in particular, really. I've been seeing eyes everywhere and it felt like I was being watched constantly and it made me feel...really self-conscious.

[sighsheavily]

...

[stop that. you stop that right now.

she sighs, combing hair behind her ears.]

The animals, you mean?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Animals?

No, I mean like actual eyes. You haven't seen them?

[sighsheavily]

[she hesitates, then looks around. there's no clean place to sit, is there? gads. she'll stand, then.]

I thought them creatures. Are you saying you've seen eyes without a face for them to rest? More than one?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Yeah, dozens. In the cracks, in the knotholes in the wood. Everywhere.

They're...gone now though and wow, saying that out loud makes me think I'm crazy.

...I'm not hallucinating you, right?

[sighsheavily]

...

[she lightly nudges his leg with the toe of her shoe.]

You had better not be; I'll be very put out if I'm just a figment of a man's imagination.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[He sits up a bit.]

...Did you just tell a joke?

[This really was the best day.]

[sighsheavily]

[she makes a face.]

Joke or not, it is true; don't you dare manifest ghosts of me to appease your guilt! We've had quite enough of facsimiles.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Whoa! Hey! I'm not gonna have weird guilt fantasies about you or anything! Geez!

[He feels his cheeks start to burn. Does even Darin have shame about something?]

[sighsheavily]

Gads. [HUFF!! what is this atmosphere! how old is she?? she doesn't know, but surely too old for this.]

Are you quite done rolling in the dirt as well? It's dark, and likely unsafe to remain here.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

[Seriously, what was with this atmosphere? Were those eyes back? Because Darin suddenly feels a little bashful and self-conscious.]

[But he kicks up and gets his feet under him to stand, then dusts himself off.]

Yeah, yeah. I'm good. Hey, wanna go get something to eat at the diner with me? We should probably exchange info.

[Just like that, he shrugs it off like water rolling down his broad back. He gives her a hopeful and sincere look with the slightest hint of a crooked smile.]

[sighsheavily]

[she looks away quickly, glaring at the dimly-lit accents of the remaining buildings nearby. now she's got the itchy feeling of being perceived...and judged. engh.]

Yes, I think that would be wise. If there's some gap in time, it needs noting.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Then let's get out of here!

[He stretches his arms high above his head and puffs out his barrel chest.]

I could go for a sandwich anyway.

Oh yeah, we should probably make notes if anything is different about the town now. Especially the graveyard.

[sighsheavily]

And headcount. [since he was mostly convinced she was not part of it...and she hasn't seen Roxas since the storms started rolling in.

she strikes ahead toward the neon glow of the diner, patting at her skirt to confirm she's got a notepad on her.]

And inventory... I found a fair number of my notebooks in my room, but not all of them. It's strange.

[forgeabettertomorrow]

I still haven't really gone through everything in my room, so I'll be sure to do that when we finish up at the diner.

Shall we?

[He holds the door to the building open for her. Y'know, like a gentleman.]

[sighsheavily]

[she murmurs a thank-you, heading in and...stopping rather abruptly in confusion.]

What on earth...?

[everything's changed here. and the music is waaaay louder than normal - almost painfully so.

oh gads. it's dancing. more dancing?! what is it with this town and dancing???]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

...Huh.

Okay, well this is new! Can't say I dislike it though!

[He's already tapping his foot to the beat. Either Cecelia gets them out of there now or they're not leaving anytime soon.]

[sighsheavily]

[she's not escaping fast enough for that: when something's changed, after everything reset to seemingly normal, this is cause for investigation.]

Are any of these people ghosts? Like last time? [she should probably be more concerned about that, but she's finding it hard to be.]

[forgeabettertomorrow]

Ghosts??

[He looks confused.]

I...don't think I ever encountered ghosts here before...

[sighsheavily]

Because they were in the courtyard last time. It still stands to reason that-- [a sick country guitar solo cuts into her train of thought and makes her wince a little, after which she exhales in a huff, stuffing her pen and notebook into a dress pocket.

...

wait.]

...What was I here for, again?

[forgeabettertomorrow]

...I think we were here to relax. I mean, we all kinda went through literal hell.

Let's enjoy ourselves for a bit! I think we've earned it!

[sighsheavily]

I...I suppose, but-- [but that doesn't really sound like her. relaxing, that is.

she taps at her chin as she looks more at the perimeter of pushed-aside furniture. how does one relax with nowhere to sit and everyone's flailing about as they are?]