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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.

guidemyway: (A beat)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-05-02 06:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ruby feels the tug at the chains and she slowly follows it back. Turning herself to try and reach for whatever has pulled on them without tangling herself up anymore. It's then that her hand brushes against Emerald's arm and it doesn't take herself long to figure out who exactly has come down to help her.

She feels her vision blur- not that it's doing her much good being buried in sand. But the heat, pressure, and lack of oxygen are starting to take their toll on her.

Thankfully it doesn't take Emerald that long to find a latch on the end of the shackles. Out of reach for for someone caught up in them, but easy enough for her to unlock.]
hallucinogem: (the secrets of the circuitry mind)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-05-02 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[she would know the touch of ruby's hand anywhere. as though things weren't life-threatening enough, emerald kicks it into high gear, unlatching the chain, grabbing ruby's hand, and shoving both of them upward with a powerful kick off the floor. she starts swimming as desperately as she can with the weight of her girlfriend at her side, and just when it seems like she's going to run out of the will to press onward—]

[she breaches. she takes in a huge gasp of air, then reaches down into the sand and wraps both hands tightly around ruby's arm. she yanks up as hard as she can, which isn't easy without much solid to push off of, and hopes to the gods she isn't too late.]
guidemyway: (3999546 (49))

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-05-17 12:18 am (UTC)(link)
[Ruby for her part holds on as best she can. That is until her grip on Emerald's hand starts to loosen and eventually goes slack. Unfortunately this just means the work that Emerald has to do only gets harder along the way. Ruby isn't quite total dead weight, but she's having a hard time focusing on anything that might actually help with the effort.

By the time Emerald emerges on top of the pool of sand, Ruby finally slips out of consciousness. With Emerald's pull her arm does manage to flop up against the edge of the pool, and manages to keep her from slipping back in. But- Emerald's work isn't quite done yet.]
hallucinogem: (imprisoned by the thought)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-05-17 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[that's okay. she can do this part. she thinks. come on, think about—think about that scene in the stupid yeti book where the yeti went unconscious and the guy had to save its life. what did he end up doing? she breathes out slowly, trying to calm herself, and recalls the passage to the best of her ability. he'd started humming some song to himself and used the rhythm of it to time pressing against the yeti's chest, and he'd breathed into its mouth a few times, too. and it had worked, so... there's no reason to assume it won't work here.]

[emerald starts idly singing one of the only songs she knows while she balls up her hands and places them over ruby's breastbone.] Aruba, Jamaica, ooh I wanna take ya...

[and she starts compressing. they're lighter than they should be, but she has no way of knowing that. after a few lines, she breathes in deep and starts giving her girlfriend mouth to mouth.]
guidemyway: (3999546 (36))

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-05-28 02:42 am (UTC)(link)
[The compressions aren't quite strong enough to do what they should be. But Ruby should probably be thankful for that- seeing as her ribs aren't about to break from it either.

It's the lips pressing against hers that end up jolting her back to a sense of consciousness. She must not have been that far gone in the first place.

But what comes isn't exactly the kiss Emerald might have been hoping for.

Instead it's her girlfriend coughing and spitting up sand into her mouth.

Sorry.]
hallucinogem: (imprisoned by the thought)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-05-28 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[listen, she'll take what she can get. and right now, she cares less about a desert makeout sesh and more about saving ruby's life. she pulls back once she feels ruby cough sand into her mouth, and though it's a little gross, em can handle it.]

[she spits out a couple mouthfuls of sand, still feeling the grit on her tongue, then wraps her arms around ruby's shoulders and pulls her upright into a hug that's not too tight, hopefully.]


Ruby! You're alive!
guidemyway: (Is all you need)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-06-03 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
[Ruby's head is still a little fuzzy from what had just happened. So it's pretty easy to pull her up into the hug- She coughs a couple more times and sucks in a few breaths. It's still pretty gross from the sheer about of sand that had got into her system, but she's working on that.]

Uh... Yeah- I guess I am.

[Her eyes lazily gaze around the room before she settles on the pool of sand.]

...Was I in there?
hallucinogem: (imprisoned by the thought)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-06-03 01:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. Yeah, you were chained to the bottom, and I'm so relieved I got you out in time. I don't even know how you ended up down there, but that's—I mean, I guess that's what the town is doing to us now!

[she just sounds incredulous at all of it, like this is the worst thing that's ever happened to either of them. she squeezes ruby, but not too tight, and rubs her back to help ease the sand out.]

I mean, what's gonna be in the next room? A machine that takes out eyes and shoots you in the chest?
guidemyway: (F3Hu3TJWAAAZYwa)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-06-17 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
Ugh... Okay. It's coming back to me now-

And that explains why I have sand like- everywhere.

[It's a hard knock life for her.]

The town should really stop being such a jerk. Have we ever told it that?

[Ruby squeezes back and takes a second to look over toward the door.]

Ugh- I'd really rather it didn't do that.

I'm just you know- happy you've got them back again.
hallucinogem: (i'm after rebellion)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-06-17 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
I know. I hate sand. Coarse, rough... what's it good for?

[she smiles and runs her fingers through ruby's hair gently, mostly to sift the sand out but also to be cute at her.]

Speaking of this town being a jerk. I... it's not a big deal. But I can't wrap my head around the idea of my other eye "coming back". It's more like I have an extra eye, if... that makes sense. Like in my head, I'm only supposed to have the one.

[that sounds stupid to even talk about. like what, meaningfully, is the difference? what does it matter? but it still gnaws at her if she thinks about it too hard, so maybe that alone makes it something worth talking about.]

So it's weird, you know? But I don't know if I can do anything about it.
guidemyway: (Were you at least called a friend?)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-06-25 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
As far as I can tell- Nothing.

[Look- Considering her near death experience right here. She's pretty content to let Emerald just have her way at the moment.

But the next bit kind of catches her by surprise.]


No. I think I get that. As weird as it is.

[She has to admit this as much after all.]

Look- I kind of like- I'm pretty sure I died before I wound up here. Had this weird conversation with a big metal lady who said I could be anyone I wanted to be.

...And then I woke up in Wellstone.

So it's not the same thing, but it's definitely a thing.
hallucinogem: (too hard to find)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-07-02 04:30 pm (UTC)(link)
You look pretty alive for being a dead girl.

[it's a stupid joke that she hopes gets at least a ghost of a laugh, but she doesn't really know else how to react to it in the moment. they've all died many times by now, but that ruby had died before coming here means something else. it's just hard to know what.]

Maybe both of us feeling weird in our own bodies can be a good thing, though. Maybe it can be something else we bond over. [a gentle smile. she's trying, gods help her.] I have extra parts that shouldn't be there, and you're an adorable little zombie. We're two weirdos just making the best of it.
guidemyway: (3769888 (19))

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-07-03 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[It does get a giggle and a snort. So congrats there, Emerald.]

Yeah- Well. I think I'm the new me now. Whatever that means.

[She doesn't really know who chose to be. She wasn't a huge fan of herself and the old her for a long time, but she was working on that.]

Yeah. Just two little guys out here doing our best. I kind of like that that.

I mean as long as you're fine with me trying to munch on your brain every now and again.
hallucinogem: (and the joke's on you)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-07-05 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
[that gets another laugh out of em.]

That's not unreasonable. [i mean, no one's gonna eat her eyes. she looks up at the exit to the chamber they'd been stuck inside, and she keeps an almost eager grin on her face as she thinks on what could be ahead of them.] That'll be room number five. If you're good to get up and keep going, I say we should go into it. Maybe we'll be solving puzzles and I can bulk up my brain more. You know, so you don't starve.
guidemyway: (3999546 (44))

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-07-11 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
[Ruby gives a little grin.]

Oh boy, free extra brains! What more could a girl want?

[She glances over at the next room ahead. And she's not all that eager to move on after nearly dying here. What if what was ahead happened to worse?

...Then again. She wasn't a huge fan of the sand or heat here.]


I mean- I'd take a nice puzzle or a board game. I don't think that's too much ask for, right?
hallucinogem: (imprisoned by the thought)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-07-13 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Let's hope. [she ruffles ruby's hair, then gets up and starts walking through the open door into the next (last?) chamber.]

[she finds herself separated by walls all around her as soon as she arrives, and immediately, she calls out.]


Ruby?

[she looks around the room and sees the pedestal with her name, ruby's name, and the words "who should escape?" written on three separate pieces. there's a slot to place one of the names into the pedestal, and she thinks she understand what they have to do. a puzzle with two pieces is still a puzzle, though; ruby will finally have some good luck.]

Ruby, are you still with me?
guidemyway: (Did you mean to make me)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-07-20 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
Yeah.

[And Ruby let's Emerald ruffle her hair, but once she stands up she'll give her a lighthearted little elbow.

Once they travel through the door she finds herself separated from Emerald. But as she examines a similar set up to what the other girl had come across. She does hear Emerald's voice through the wall. She speaks up herself.]


Yeah. I'm here.

You got a weird pedestal trying to make you make a choice too?
hallucinogem: (i'll settle for lies)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-07-20 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah. I think it wants us to decide who gets out of here. [she's already holding one of the names in her hand, flipping it over to see if she can figure anything out.]

I wish I knew if there was a trick to this one. It feels too easy after everything we've been through, right? Like, maybe we have to pick the same person or something?

[really, that doesn't matter. she already knows her answer. she could finish this in an instant if she wanted to.]
guidemyway: (hypnotize them all)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-07-20 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
That's dumb. Like really dumb.

[Ruby hated the idea of this. Especially because she had already been talked to about how her down attitude made Emerald sad, and that thinking the other would be better off without her wasn't a great mindset.]

I'm guessing you're not going to like it if I say we should pick you, right?
hallucinogem: (imprisoned by the thought)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-07-22 05:59 am (UTC)(link)
Fantastic guess, Rubes.

[she wants to laugh, and she's even grinning as she says it. her selection's already in the slot; she's just waiting on ruby to pick someone.]

You loser. Of course I'm gonna pick you. I swam through burning-hot sand and breathed into your mouth. I will do literally whatever it takes to save you. You know that.
guidemyway: (tumblr_de05d9e17e693620342ea15f90fdfe67_)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-08-11 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ruby pauses as Emerald says that. She shouldn't be surprised, she isn't really surprised. But she still doesn't really like it.]

Okay. Yeah.

But I think it should have been my turn to save you?

It isn't fair when you go and do the saving all the time. You know that, right?
hallucinogem: (the secrets of the circuitry mind)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-08-13 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
[emerald considers it, and after a moment, she slowly pulls her selection out of the slot. when she talks again, she's still loud enough to be heard past the wall dividing them, but she sounds... regretful, almost? remorseful. something like that.]

I didn't even really think about it like that. I just didn't want to see you have to go through all this stuff again, or whatever happens if we get left behind here. It's... it really isn't fair?
guidemyway: (3999546 (47))

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-08-18 08:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[There's a part of herself that feels a tinge of guilt when Emerald asks the question at the end.

She hadn't really meant to hurt the other girl's feelings. She knew she was just looking out for at the end of the day, like she always tried to do.]


Okay. Isn't fair probably wasn't the best choice of words there.

But I think protecting one another is a two way street. There has to be some room in there for you too, right?
hallucinogem: (is it any wonder that my mind's on fire)

[personal profile] hallucinogem 2024-09-03 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[em walks over and leans her back against the dividing wall. she's not holding anything except hope.]

I don't know what's on the other side of this or what's waiting for us. Maybe it goes back into the town, maybe it's another stupid puzzle, maybe it's... I don't know. [she puffs out air slowly through her nose.] I think I have to get better at trusting you. 'Cause you're right. And, like, I don't want to keep treating you like that same scared girl who hated herself. You're not that and you haven't been that for months.
guidemyway: (I am a trapdoor)

[personal profile] guidemyway 2024-09-04 03:02 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ruby shifts lightly as she feels Emerald voice a little closer through the wall. She approaches and let's her hand run up against it.]

Look... I appreciate you looking out for me. I really do. I wouldn't be where I am today without it.

But- Like if we're going to do this, we've got to do it together, right? I think that's the only way we really pull through.

So I'm going to be putting your name in there. I don't know how much of a difference it makes. But there's a fifty fifty chance we get it right, right?

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