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Well Mod ([personal profile] wellie) wrote in [community profile] wellcome2024-04-19 04:40 pm
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6.0 Test Drive Meme

6.0 Test Drive Meme

Welcome to Well! See the first prompt for how your characters arrive in Well. Your character arrives with only a handful of memories, clad in a mix of Old Western clothes and clothes that might fit in at a renaissance fair, and 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.

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 May, June, and July.

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

Arrival: Escape!
Content warnings: forced captivity, blood, eating eyes, drowning in sand, forced intimacy

The First Room

You wake up somewhere dark and damp. Maybe this is your first time waking up here, maybe it's your fourth, but the beginning is the same. You're in a small stone room. The only light comes from torches flicking on the walls. The room is bare except for a metal door. And you're not alone. You and someone (or someones) are here together, and you have to get out.

The door is locked, and to leave it you must just find one key. On the door is a note with a clue:

Freedom is hot!

The key is in fact in one of the torches! Depending on luck, you might find it on your first try, or your fourth. Find a way to extinguish the torches, and handle the hot, hot key to unlock the door.
After this, you find yourself in one of the following rooms. Choose one from the first set, then one from the second set, then one from the third set. You will always end in the final room. You must travel through five rooms to escape.

If you don't complete a task in five minutes, you will return to very first room and have to start again.

You can choose your own path, or comment below to have a random path set for you!

The Second Room

You find yourself in one of the following rooms:
1. There Ain't Room
2. Glitter Bomb
3. Riddles Three
1. There Ain't Room
In this room is a shooting game. There's a barrier with bebe guns attached to it, and at the far end are small cut outs of people. There's a sign on the far wall, in old-West style script, reading:

There Ain't Room

The cut outs look sort of familiar! There are cut outs of you and your compatriot(s), as well as some typical cowboy looking cut outs. Shoot your own cut out to escape! You each must shoot your own one, if you shoot each others', that person feels it as if they have been shot, and will start bleeding.

When you successfully hit all of your own cut outs, the floor under you opens up and you drop into the next room.

2. Glitter Bomb
As you walk through the doorway, you feel oddly.... sticky? Like your skin is covered in honey. Because it is! Yum.

In front of you is a room covered in glitter. There's so much glitter. You can't see a door, but you have to find a way out. Search the room to find the exit.

The exit is a trapped door in the floor. You'll need to make your way through the glitter, all the while it will stick to your very sticky skin. You'll need to dig a big enough path to get through, open the door and get into the next room! Too bad some glitter will come with you, and you'll still be sticky.

3. Riddles Three
A large hour glass in the middle of the room starts ticking down with sand as soon as you enter this room. One three of the walls are riddles engraved in the stone, and chalkboards in front of them. You must answer all three riddles correctly before the sand runs out to escape:
  • Where waves kiss sand and breezes blow, where tropic dreams grow, I'm where you want to go. What am I? Answer: Kokomo
  • With auburn locks and eyes of green, a rival, a threat, a beauty queen. Answer: Jolene
  • With cowboy hats and boots that stride, no one told me where my horse I ride. Answer: Old Town Road
Once you answer correctly, the hour glass disappears, leaving a hole in the floor that you must jump through to exit.

The Third Room

Next, you find yourself in one of the following rooms:
A. Cry For Me
B. Love Me
C. Hold Me
A. Cry For Me
This room is beautiful and shiny, the walls made of crystals. In the middle of the room is a crystal plinth with a small crystal cup on it. In flowing script around the cup it reads:

Collect five tears

You must collect five tears in the cup to escape. Once you do, an entry way opens in the crystal in front of you.

B. Love Me
This room is very plain, and on a piece of paper dangling from a string in the middle of the room is the instructions for this room:

Exchange five sincere compliments each. Don't break eye contact.

You must do this within the alloted five minutes to escape. If the compliments are less than sincere, you may try again, but if you don't reach the five each by the end of the five minutes or if you break eye contact even once, you will be returned to the first room.

C. Hold Me
This room looks a lot like the pub in town. The walls are wood paneled and there's jangling piano music coming from--somewhere?

In the middle of the room is a mechanical bull, with a sign reading:

Stay on the bull together for 45 seconds.

If you succeed within the five minutes, you're free to continue on!

The Fourth Room

Next, you find yourself in one of the following rooms:
I. Blood
II. Sweat
III. Tears
I. Blood
This room is very tall. There's a rope dangling down one wall. On the wall it reads:

Climb!

And that's what you have to do. The word "Climb" starts to bleed. And then the walls start to bleed. The room will fill up with blood within five minutes, so you better get climbing!

At the top of the room is a hatch that will let you escape through a hatch in the ceiling.

II. Sweat
When you enter this room, one of you finds that you are alone. You're standing at the edge of a pool, and that pool is full of sand. It's also searingly hot in here. On the wall, it reads:

Rescue your partner!

One person is chained at the bottom of a swimming pool full of sand. A counter on the wall counts down until they will suffocate. Better get swimming!

Once you've rescued your partner, a door on the other side of the pool will open up. Better move fast to get there!

III. Tears
This room is dark, very dark. You can just barely see, except for a glow-in-the-dark sign reading:

Eat some eyes!

And that's what you need to do! In the walls are eyes. They're watching you. You must each eat an eye to continue on. Once you do, a door cracks open in the far wall.

The Fifth Room

No matter the path you took to get here, the final room is the same:
The last room you end up in, even though you enter through the same door, you find yourselves separated by a wall. There is a door for each of you at the far side of the room. You can hear each other, but you can't see each other. Each of you have a plinth in front of you, which reads:

Who should escape?

In front of you are the names of yourself and your partner(s). You place the name of the person you believe should escape in a slot in the table.

Once everyone has made a selection, the names will light up:
  • If you all chose each other, your room lights up green.
  • If you all chose yourselves, your room lights up green.
  • If someone chose themselves, and someone else chose another person, the room of the person with the most "votes" lights up green. The others light up red.
If your room is green, when you open the final door, you've escaped! Welcome to Wellstone.

If your room is red, when you open the door, you find yourself back in the first room. Good luck!
When you escape, you step into the lobby of the Staywell. It's bright and airy with beautiful white stone. When you look behind you, it seems that you've stepped out of a supply closet. Weird!

The receptionist greets you as he always does, welcoming you home.

New characters arrive using this prompt. Characters can return from death from the previous cycle using this prompt. You can also just wake up and be in this prompt, so you can do this as many times as you like.

tl;dr:
  • You wake up in an escape room! You must finish (at least) five rooms to escape. You have five minutes to finish each room. If you fail, you'll be taken back to the beginning of the dungeon.

It's alive!
Content warnings: public shaming

When you shake off the glitter and the sand, it might be time to head on down into Wellstone town. The air is full of a shimmering warmth that might be familiar to some. It's like the sun has been baked into the very stones and is radiating back up at you. Run-down buildings lean against each other for support, made out of mostly weathered stone with a few old boards here and there to keep structures up. Desiccated, skeletal fingers of dried-out ivy climb them, waving occasionally as you pass. Waving, and… whispering? For more information about how the town has changed, check out this month's Wellstone Post or read the Locations Page.

The town is alive with sneering, whispering voices. It's unclear where exactly they're coming from, but they're everywhere. Step into the Cactus Pad Tavern and you might hear a decisive no manners! spat sharply from the doorway. Make your way to the steaming bathhouse to wash off that honey, but be careful when you're undressing: you might just hear rude snickering from the air around you. Wow, the walls might say, your toes are so long. What weird feet!

The voices might interrupt a conversation at breakfast to make fun of something you said. Your mirror and your wardrobe might question your outfit choices. They're loud enough to be heard by everyone in a public space and seem to delight in saying cutting things at the worst possible moment. You don't recognize the voices, exactly, but they seem just familiar enough to really hurt, and the voices seem to know you well enough. They might even call you out when you tell a little white lie, or let everyone know exactly how loud you snore.

There's no way, seemingly, to get them to shut up, so... may as well get used to it?

tl;dr:
  • The town is alive, and it is judging you. Your outfits, your words, your body, your habits: nothing is off-limits.
  • The voices sound just familiar enough to feel like voices you know, but aren't able to be pinpointed to a single person.

searingwing: (One more confession)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-04-22 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
[He moves his hair to the side. Bare skin, not a trace of distortion. He lets his hair fall back into place.]

…whatever it was that had us seemed to eat magic. But I got a message out and was killed early on.

[He looks at the two panels and walks over to stand behind the right one.] I think I need to put the key in then we sit or stand on these.
thinkfirst: (neutral | watching | ready)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-04-26 06:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Put me where you need me.

[ Flynn says softly, the consummate soldier in the face of his own racing thoughts. He trusts Diluc to take the lead for a little while at least until he has his own wits about him, until he's squared with the idea that Diluc hadn't made it, either. That they'd both died. That—

He swallows. Now isn't the time to ask, but the need to radiates off him in waves.

Instead, he moves toward the panel closer to him and looks at Diluc, all uncertainty, biting at his lip.
]

At, um. At the same time?
searingwing: (I'm on another broken avenue)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-05-01 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, I think that’s what they want. [He stuffs his feelings about what happened away. Flynn is looki g off balance. He wants to be that shoulder he can lean on. He nods once,]

On three. [When they step on it together, a bridge slowly lifts into place. It will take a few minutes to get up there.]

…I can’t tell if the first among us infected were picked or if it was random. I can’t help but lean towards the later. All the same, I’m sorry.
thinkfirst: (determined | justice | ready)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-03 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ Flynn flashes him a look full of fire over that gap, straightening up all at once. ]

Don't you dare apologize to me, Diluc. I won't hear it. You weren't at fault.
searingwing: (pic#16378706)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-05-03 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
[Maybe it's because he's had a lot to think about while trapped in his head. But instead of arguing, he nods. The bridge clicks into place. He holds up a hand, listening.

Nothing comes across to kill them. Metal slides under the bridge. There is a resounding clang of some kind of bolts sliding into place. Diluc waits then he steps off his platform. The bridge stays in place.]
Then we'll have to draw up this place's tab. I've got a lot of charges it has to pay for.
thinkfirst: (glare | ready | don't)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-07 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
It certainly owes us a great deal.

[ Flynn says softly. He's slower to step off his switch, wary of it coming back up under his feet, but... no. It stays in place, and he steps forward on careful feet, aiming for the bridge and, ideally, freedom. Flynn's trying to focus on the goal ahead of them so the horror of what happened doesn't consume him. ]

If I have the chance to ask for payment, I think I'll call in what it owes to Yuri first.
searingwing: (I'll wreck this if I have to)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-05-09 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[Diluc nods. He can't argue with that. He steps onto the bridge and a nagging sensation tugs at his mind.

It's like something's eyes are upon him. He looks to the side. The walls are covered in staring eyes.]
...Flynn.

[Unknown to him the other wall is opening wide. Black chains shift in the darkness like vipers poised to strike. There is a faint flash of red behind them.]
thinkfirst: (watching | neutral | unsure)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-14 02:01 am (UTC)(link)
I see them.

[ Flynn says, hushed and ready, listening to the faint slithering shift of metal. He reaches out, touches Diluc's elbow in silence, and inclines his head toward the maw of the wall. ]
searingwing: (pic#14902150)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-05-15 05:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[His feet shift, adjusting his positioning on the walkway. If they need to run he is ready. The chains slither and shift, parting like a giant pair of hands pull them apart. Standing on an identical walkway in what looks like a mirror of theirs is a Diluc with his hair pulled back and clad in the vestments of knighthood. His coat is marked by a coat of arms that can't be made out.

He looks perfect, the finest example of a knight commander one could see and Diluc's hackles raise. An inner bit of guilt stabs at him as he turns away from the eyes to stare him down. The knight nods stiffly, but a judgment is being cast. Diluc is being found to be a disgrace in the eyes of the knight. Diluc gives him one last hard look and turns away, walking down the walkway. The knight does the same. Words engrave themselves into the stone over the doorway.

'Who are you when all obligations are gone?']
thinkfirst: (glare | uncertain | worry)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-21 02:08 am (UTC)(link)
Diluc—

[ Flynn hisses, small and soft, but he can't get out the be careful before Diluc starts walking toward— himself? An illusion?

He doesn't know. He hates how much he doesn't know, but Flynn is full of a vibrating sort of tension, and he can't just let Diluc face this alone. Carefully, with his hands clutching for a sword that is not there, Flynn comes after him, hurrying onto the walkway without thinking about the yawning depth somewhere away beneath it.
]

searingwing: (pic#17186451)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-05-21 03:16 am (UTC)(link)
[Diluc keeps walking, trusting Flynn is with his back.

Words carve themselves into the walls around them.

‘We’ll change them from within.’

‘Visions are a light in the sea of darkness that surrounds those who have lost their way. But for those who have faith, they are little more than badges of conviction.’

More statements etch themselves in stone and Diluc’s head aches. Some of them feel familiar. He can taste the shape of them in his mouth.

Once again the sentence appears above the door at the end. ‘Who are you when all obligations are gone?’ At last Diluc stops and puts a hand on the handle, but doesn’t turn it. He looks at Flynn.]
I have no idea what the hell is about to happen. I don’t like this.

…if there’s a version of me. There’s likely to be one of you. Are you ready?
thinkfirst: (glare | uncertain | worry)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-05-24 10:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Ready.

[ He isn't, really. Flynn is swordless. Without a weapon, the best he can offer Diluc is healing magic, and that's unlikely to be fast enough if something goes very wrong.

Being ready, in this case, just means he's prepared for that, the words already called to his mind, every nerve in his body on edge. The words on the walls fill the air with a thick, heavy sort of expectation. Flynn steels himself against it, presses himself into armor that isn't there, and nods.
]

Yuri's waiting. We'll get through this.
searingwing: (pic#17186452)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-05-26 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
[He opens the door. Sunlight streams in. He steps inside, and the world feels correct again. Magic fills the air and the breeze smells of dandelions. A practice field awaits them with racks of weapons sitting to the side. Stone walls surround it, and the sky is a brilliant blue. But it flickers. Sometimes it is a dirt practice field with high walls around it and a glittering dome of magic blocking one's eyes from the true sky.

Waiting at the edge of the field are two knights. One is the Grand Master version of Diluc, dressed in his formal best. He holds a sword in one hand. To his left is...Diluc stares. Flynn. Dressed just as formally and radiating a kind of authority that is similar. A shield rests on his back, and his hand lightly grips a sword at his waist.

Diluc switches his focus to his mirror image. He looks better than he does. The artistic picture of knighthood and all his father dreamed of. A resplendent sun.]
Grand Master Diluc.

[The other nods.] Lord Ragnvindr.

[If he weren't raised to be a perfect example of nobility he would have missed the slight sneer in his tone.] Would you be so kind as to tell us the rules of this engagement?

[The Flynn comes alive, taking a step forward as he lifts his hand from his sword to gesture about the training grounds.] 'We're here to test you. The secrets of this clash are yours to figure out. There are no formal rules which I'm sure is delightful for you both. We will begin when you select your weapons and step into the circle.'

[That remark about rules pings that sense he is being judged again. He chooses to ignore it. Diluc looks at the Flynn he knows.] ...that line that keeps appearing. Could that be the secret of this clash? Figuring that out?
thinkfirst: (concern | worry | oh no)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-06-03 09:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ There's something awful and uncomfortable about seeing himself that way: resplendent and full of authority, confident in it in a way that Flynn himself never has been. He thinks about a voice yelling Captain and the sick sense, dawning in the heat of a desert somewhere else, that he's gotten everything wrong.

He thinks about his double, full of ice-cold anger tempered into a blade, snapping and stabbing Yuri through the heart.

The rack of weapons awaits them. Flynn shifts through grass that doesn't smell quite right, close enough to Diluc to brush against his elbow, and pulls his attention toward it.

Carefully, just for Diluc's ears, he says,
]

If they're anything like our doubles, beating them in a simple test of skill won't go well for us. Going for swords is what they want.
searingwing: (One more confession)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-06-03 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
But, without weapons we won’t be able to defend ourselves. We need at least a shield or something to parry with.

[Diluc says. He ignores the judgment he feels from their countparts. They are not important. He deliberately turns to study the weapons. His double is wielding a one handed sword and shield. So is the other Flynn. It can’t be that simple of a challenge.

He looks at his double.]
Weapons only?

[A nod. His eyes narrow and he turns back to Flynn.] I don’t like it. But, what alternatives do we have?

thinkfirst: (side | sad | fight)

[personal profile] thinkfirst 2024-06-08 06:16 pm (UTC)(link)
...none, I suppose. We can't be without defense, and we won't back down from a true challenge.

[ And Flynn's instinct is to stand and fight all the same. Or, at least, part of it is. There are warring impulses in him and he's having trouble picking them apart.

It feels right enough to pick up a two-handed broadsword, long and sharp and heavy. If they are the same doubles—and who knows, really—then Flynn needs every advantage he can get.
]
searingwing: (only fate's left to decide)

[personal profile] searingwing 2024-06-09 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[He waits. Flynn chooses a two handed blade. Their foes have sword and shield. Considering the strength difference that’s one swing for every three by their opponents.

This is the fourth time this place has thrown knighthood and what his father had wanted in his face.

‘Visions are a light in the sea of darkness for those who are lost. To those who have faith, they are little more than badges of conviction.’

And it is the first time he realizes he had never wanted any of it. He walks to the rack and takes up a long slender two handed sword. He buckles it to his waist and rests his hand on the hilt.

He nods to Flynn and steps into the circle. His grand master counterpart narrows his eyes. ‘An Inazuman sword? Really, my lord?’ Diluc says nothing, watching his foes. As the other Flynn sighs and says,]


This is what happens when they resign.

[Diluc looks to the Flynn he knows.] I’m ready. Whatever this fight is. I will support you.
Edited 2024-06-09 16:51 (UTC)