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

Jaune Arc | RWBY | Volume 9 Spoilers (Will Keep Minimal)

[rustedknight]

1. all day diner

[ A middle-aged man sits alone in one of the diner booths. His unevenly long blonde hair, streaked with white, is tied back with a length of ribbon, and he sports a fringed white buckskin coat embellished with small silver plates running along the middle of his chest. There's a dollop of whipped cream stuck in his beard on the right corner of his mouth.

He's giving a half-eaten slice of banana pie a look that's ping-ponging between confusion and suspicion at an oscillating rate. It stops when he hears anyone approach, his head coming up with an awkward smile plastered to it. ]

Uh - hey! Hello. [ He raises his hand in a jerky wave. ] I'm Jaune, probably, and you - you look like you're looking for a place to sit? Because if you are you could sit here. At my booth. I don't mind. Plenty of space, you know?

[ He is surrounded by empty booths. His awkward smile widens into an even more awkward grin as he tucks his hand behind his head and chuckles uncomfortably. ]

2. something's coming
[cw: violence against monstrous animals]

[ If you're out after dark, wandering the town for whatever reason, you may begin to notice the signs of being stalked. It's nothing you can pin down, but it persists despite that. Maybe it's the way the shadows move over the sand, or the whistle of the wind across something that shouldn't be there.

Until suddenly, something is. One or more of the chupacabra leap out at you in ambush, their terrible and thirsty jaws slavering -

- and a blond man in a white buckskin jacket charges past you to swing a sizable plank of wood at their head, batting the dog-like thing away with expert ease. ]

Stay behind me! [ He calls back to you, raising what looks suspiciously like a serving tray strapped to his forearm in front of himself as he pulls back his mighty plank for another swing. ] Don't worry! I've got this!

diner

[wormwithproblems]

[ Nona waves back, smiling. Hopefully, that puts this very nervous man at ease. ]

Hi, Jaune-Probably! [ She takes a seat at in the booth across from him, then sticks her chin in her hands as she gives Jaune-Probably a once-over. He's in dire need of a napkin. ]

Thank you. [ Nona says, because she's very polite, as well as friendly and easy to talk to. ] My name is Nona.

[rustedknight]

[ Oh, no. She actually sat down. ]

It's just Jaune. I think. I mean - not Just Jaune, no, I wouldn't say that about myself. That seems like the kind of thing other people have to say about you first, right? Right.

[ Fantastic. Great start. Jaune drops his hand and lets it fall out of sight behind the table. ]

Jaune. [ A significant and meaningful pause. ] That's my name.

[ Now, pop quiz: does he remember hers? ]

...hello, Nona. Do you, uh. Do you like pie?

Diner

[mediaphobic]

Hi, Jaune-Probably. My name is Shouta Aizawa. Or, sometimes, Eraserhead. Maybe.

[It was as amiable a greeting as any from the terse man that rivalled Jaune in his apparent raggedness. The only difference between the two of them was that Aizawa carried himself with more self confidence-- although he did regard Jaune with an arched brow at the question.

Silently, he wondered how obvious his prosthesis was under his jeans and boots. He also wondered if people really regarded him as someone in that dire need of assistance.

Sighing, he took a seat.]

I'm looking for coffee. Or, at least a cook that knows how to cook rice.

[rustedknight]

...just...just Jaune.

[ One thing he can rule out about himself: eloquent public speaker. Jaune sighs, dropping his arm and slumping back in his chair.

The truth is, Jaune hasn't noticed Aizawa's prothesis because it's not even something he knows to look for. People come in all kinds of shapes, sizes, materials, tensile strengths, levels of water absorbency, and general flammability. Jaune's the one who needs help. ]

And do I look like a guy who knows where you can get either of those things? Because I don't. I don't even know where to find me.

I was - going to ask if you like pie.

[mediaphobic]

Don't worry; none of us have those answers.

[He shrugged. There wasn't much else he could do for the moment, and it annoyed him.]

The closest that we have to solid information is that we're all staying in the Staywell hotel, and none of the work people seem to have much ability to change what they're doing. They say and do the same things day in and out.

Oh. Staywell was literally a wrecked pile of stone the other day. It was back to normal when we all came to.

[rustedknight]

...so...

[ ...

...

... ]

...that's a 'no' on the pie, or...?

[mediaphobic]

[...Was the pie seriously more important than knowing where he was at?]

You can have it, Jaune-Probably.

[rustedknight]

[ Not every rhetorical musing calls out for an answer! Especially for a guy who still has whipped cream on his face! ]

It felt like I was supposed to share it?

[ Jaune drops his gaze back down to the pie, which continues to glisten innocently and appetizingly. ]

[mediaphobic]

[Heaving a sigh, Aizawa reached for the nearby fork and cut the tip off of the innocent looking explosion of cream that sat in a graham cracker crust that they called a pie... And popped the bite in his mouth. He chewed slowly, a look of utter exhaustion on his face while he tried not to visibly grimace over the bite.

The taste was okay, but the texture was bad.

After a ponderous moment of chewing, he swallowed.]

Okay, [He said with a distinct finality in his tone.] That's sharing.

I grant you permission with all of my authority as a teacher and whatever authority the name Eraserhead holds to keep the rest of the pie for yourself.

[Delicately, Aizawa set the fork down and passed Jaune-Probably a napkin. With the weight of the threat of impending doom on his tone, he added: ]

You'll be needing this.

[rustedknight]

[ Now no one is having a good time. Jaune wonders if the resignation he feels about that is typical for him. It definitely seems a little familiar.

He takes the napkin with a flush hidden under his beard and the loose fall of his hair, mopping his mouth clean. The vague and terrible sense of disappointing an authority figure almost feels familiar too. ]

...it was the pie's idea, not mine.

[ He mutters, sinking lower in the booth. ]

2

[vibing]

[ Yuri turned, ready to take on the monsters with a steak knife pilfered from the diner, when this man comes out of nowhere. His eyes go wide, watching the guy barrel at the creatures ]

...do you?

[ Yuri isn't going to heed that order, and steps up by him, knife at the ready, watching the circling creatures, heads low and growling. ]

Think that thing's enough to knock them out?

[rustedknight]

[ Well, the guy does have a knife. If he thinks he can handle it, Jaune's not opposed to some teamwork. ]

If you -

[ Another chupacabra leaps. Jaune brings his 'shield' up to turn its path, sending it careening off to the side Yuri isn't occupying, and follows through with a heavy downward blow on the creature's back. It yelp-snarls and skitters away, joining its fellows to regroup. ]

- hit hard enough -

[ He spins into his own momentum and readies for another attack, eyes gleaming with set, confident readiness. ]

- it seems to do the trick.

So. What's the plan? You want to get out of here, or you want to take these things down?

cw: hurting the monster guys

[vibing]

And leave these to someone else? Nah, man. [ A grin crosses his face, and he takes the opportunity the next time Jaune hits one of them to step in and kick it in the face, before bringing the knife down on one of its leg joints. It screams, and Yuri shoves it back with a foot, bringing the knife up again. It's still alive, but severely injured, limping back with a growl ]

I think we've got this. If you guys want some more.

[ He tosses the knife and catches it again, feeling the exhilaration of the fight coursing through him. ]

cw: hurting the monster guys

[rustedknight]

[ And the guy knows how to use the knife. Better and better.

(Yuri may be equipped to notice what Jaune does not: how smoothly Jaune cooperates with Yuri's lunge, clearing a path for him readily while taking up a position to cover his back.) ]

That's the spirit.

[ Jaune smiles tightly over the edge of his already cracking 'shield', never taking his eyes from their opponents. ]

I'll open them up, you take them down. We start at the left and work in.

Just say when.

[vibing]

Hell yeah, man. These things won't know what hit 'em.

[ His grin grows, glad that this guy is down. Well, it makes sense, since he came in so hot with that tray. A tray and a steak knife, the weapons of champions.

The creatures are pacing, even if the injured one looks like it doesn't want to be here anymore. Maybe it doesn't. That'll make this easier.

The other one crouches, ready to pounce, and Yuri watches it until it's ready and nearly leaping at him, when he yells: ]

When!

[rustedknight]

[ Jaune launches himself like a wrecking ball into the chupacabras. Without the need to follow through his blows, leaving that to Yuri, he's free to focus on battering them down into submission instead of balancing it with pushing them back.

The serving tray breaks completely on the next hit. Jaune muscles through it with a shoulder check to one of the beasts, and from that point on his grip switches to a two handed hold of the plank. He wields it with more grace than such an unwieldy weapon deserves, and if Yuri can keep up - and at this point, Jaune assumes he can - he thinks they can have this taken care of in two minutes or less. ]

[vibing]

[ This is fun, is the thing. Yuri follows after Jaune with a wide grin, wielding the knife like he was made for it. He's more comfortable with a sword, but a knife isn't completely foreign to him. It's sharp, it's metal, so what if it's a little short. He follows up Jaune's blows with punches of his own to put the chupacabras in the right place, and then take then out. He slits a throat, and stabs heart, going for the most sensitive areas of monsters like it's second nature to him. Maybe it is.

It really doesn't take that long. By the end, Yuri is panting, and the creatures are dead, and he holds up his free hand for a high five ]

That was awesome!

something's coming

[toteninsel]

[ No one will ever believe her, but Ariane is certain that the night sky looks much better from a planet's surface than it ever will in space.

She spends as little time inside as possible, even though she doesn't tend to make it very far from the hotel. Tonight, she's sitting on a bench outside the general store, and it does not occur to her that she is unnervingly still.

That is, until something jumps out at her. Ariane ducks, knowing she's not fast enough to outrun it, bracing for certain - ]

S̷T̸I̴R̴B̵
[ - and there is someone in front of her, holding a...shield? No, that isn't right. ]

No! No, you've got to run!

[rustedknight]

[ The sum total of Jaune's life experiences amounts to very little. He's taken that in stride. Very few things have felt strange, except for the most obvious of them.

This is one of those very few. The world shifts in a way it never has before, discordant and off -

- and when it comes back in, it does so with teeth and a woman crying out behind him. ]

Not - [ he grits out, backhanding the chupacabra with a burst of unexpected anger ] - a chance -

[ It's a bad hit. It doesn't push the creature back far enough, and following through on impulse Jaune grabs the other end of his plank and thrusts it sideways into the monster's mouth. ]

[toteninsel]

[ The stranger keeps fighting. He could die for her, so that Ariane might live, and if that makes her angry, it only upsets her the usual amount. (Right?)

Ariane knows she's not nearly as strong as this person, nor does she have a weapon, as makeshift as his might be. But she can't just let this person go it alone, and besides, she probably can't run away fast enough.

What she can do, though, is scramble behind the bench for cover, pick up some rocks, and start pelting them at the creature. Her throw isn't good enough to do any real damage, but hopefully she can distract it a little, and then maybe the stranger can finish it off. ]

Fine! Knock it out, and then run!

cw: monster violence

[rustedknight]

[ Some fights, there's room to talk. Jaune knows this without knowing how he does, the same way he knows this isn't one of them. The chupacabra is determined in a way he hasn't seen before, slavering for a chance at weak prey.

It draws something out of him, a something whose shadow fell across lightly him in the diner. It isn't light now. The kick he delivers to the monster's ribs is vicious and punishing, and when he wrenches the plank out of the monster's mouth it comes away with a tooth embedded in it. It howls furiously, wheeling around to coil its flanks and lunge again - and yelps at a rock glancing off its eye.

Jaune lifts the plank. He brings it down. The cracking of wood echoes through the night.

He drops the broken plank, his breath coming harsh and rapid. (There's blood on his palms, splinters sunk into them. He doesn't notice.) When he turns to Ariane, his eyes are incongruously wide and uncomprehending. ]

It's okay. [ His voice sounds strange to him. ] It's over.

[ He comes around the bench and stoops down to her, looping his arms under her shoulders and knees without stopping to ask permission. She weighs almost nothing, light as paper. ]

It's not safe out here.

[ That sounds more like him. Gentler, less distant. He turns towards the hotel and walks quickly, just short of a run. ]

cw: monster violence

[toteninsel]

[ Ariane still has memories of school. Of avoiding classes when she could, and more importantly, avoiding people. She'd much rather learn from forbidden books instead. This is what they taught her:

There are heroes, in other worlds. Heroes are strong, and they are courageous, and they have fine weapons and finer armor. There are also monsters, which are disgusting and ugly and threatening. You should be afraid of them.

Ariane hears the howl. Then, the crack. Then a voice, and she is being picked up, and the creature does not move. Ariane shifts into position easily, like she's been held like this before, and when she looks into the stranger's eyes, she is afraid.

There is something else she is supposed to remember. It's in the way that she is being held, in the way he tells her it's over. It's a promise, she has to remember her promise - ]

I'm sorry. Do I know you?

[rustedknight]

[ Even through his jacket, Jaune's heart pounds so hard the faint echoes of it can theoretically be felt. The heaving of his breath certainly can. It's - embarrassing, is the word he lands on, in lieu of anything better. ]

No. [ He offers her a shaken smile. ] At least, not that I remember.

I'm Jaune Arc. I'm - glad I showed up.

[ Showed up in time, before anything could happen to this improbably fragile seeming woman. It's not worth thinking about the alternative outcomes. He works on not picturing them. ]

Are you all right?

cw: internalized ableism

[toteninsel]

[ That, actually, is more of a relief than getting her away from the monster was. Ariane relaxes a little, the fear draining out of her expression, and she matches his shaken smile. ]

Ariane Yeong.

[ A name for a name. She reaches up to her nose, and finds only a little bit of blood, which she's grateful for. If Jaune is embarrassed, it's nothing compared to being able to do nothing but hide when the monster comes, and then have a little nosebleed about it afterwards. ]

Well, I'm still missing years of memories, unfortunately, so I guess getting nearly killed doesn't make them come back. But I'm all right, thank you.