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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.

sighsheavily: (pic#16590725)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-14 12:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[there's a loud rush of air from below, and then hands come up and push Light further up.]

Keep going! [as if he needs the reminder! the hands fall away, the flap into the air only giving her height for a moment before she starts to fall - float, rather, as she keeps the wings open so she can scramble to catch onto the rope herself to keep her legs out of the rising tide of blood.]
pereatmundus: (surprised 7)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-16 03:18 am (UTC)(link)
I am!

[Far from hurrying him along, the unexpected push almost makes him lose his grip. He recovers quickly and keeps climbing, swallowing his annoyance. She's afraid of the blood. I can't expect her to be rational. Even so, it feels ridiculous. Being doused in blood would be unpleasant, but it wouldn't hurt. Compared to their recent acid bath, it's a stupid thing to fear.

He hauls himself through the opening in the ceiling, then starts to haul the rope up after him.]


Just hang on!
sighsheavily: (pic#16420021)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-16 07:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[hanging on is about the best she can do; she dispels the wings after one last flap to get a couple feet of height and holds fast, eyes squeezed shut as the crash of liquid fills her ears and the smell makes her nearly want to faint. she almost doesn't register his call at first, but double-takes when she spies the edge of the opening within reach.

she scrambles best she can, given her poor athleticism, to get herself pulled up.]
pereatmundus: (punch)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-16 07:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[Once she's within reach of the top, Light grabs her wrist to help pull her through the opening.]

I've got you. Come on, help me out!

[Once she's safely out, he releases her arm and flops onto his back, panting but triumphant.]

Someone should have warned us we had gym class today. I'm wiped. [He looks over at her.] Are you all right?
sighsheavily: (pic#16416827)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-17 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
[Cecelia remains prone to catch her breath, arms aching from strain.] I'll...be fine. In a moment. So long as...we've no need to run any...more...?

[...

where...where did that boy go? when Cecelia pushes herself up to sitting, she seems alone in this narrow room, but when she strains her ears, she's certain she can kind of hear him?]


Boy...? [shoot, what was his name again--]
pereatmundus: (concerned 6)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-17 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
[What the hell?

He'd turned to look at Cecelia, but all he can see is a wall. Light sits up in alarm and looks around, his exhaustion forgotten. He can hear her. She must still be close.]


Cecelia? [He raises his voice and tries again.] Cecelia? What's going on?
sighsheavily: (Default)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-19 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I, I don't know. What do you see ahead of you? [she looks down the room she can see.] I'm walking ahead.
pereatmundus: (thinking 5)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-20 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
Just a long, narrow room. There's some sort of podium further on, but--hang on.

[Light walks warily up to the plinth and reads the instruction. Chewing his lip thoughtfully, he looks over the pair of names. This is either a trick or a logic puzzle. The question is, which one?]

It's asking me to choose which one of us gets to leave here. Is it the same on your side, too?
sighsheavily: (pic#16420024)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-20 05:04 pm (UTC)(link)
It is, indeed... [her eyes are fixed on the names, same as he is.] Selfishness or altruism? Or is this a play on our innate levels of skepticism...
pereatmundus: (explaining 7)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-20 06:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Who knows? It stands to reason we'll both find out how the other voted. Otherwise, there would be no reason to let us talk about our choices.

[Which means he should probably vote for Cecelia, right? Make the socially praiseworthy choice that won't risk lasting resentment, even if it penalizes him in the short term. Without a clear win condition, there's no compelling argument to do anything else.]

There's no way to know which answer the room considers right, but we know which answer our partner wants to see. This is a test of our trust, I think.
sighsheavily: (pic#16420024)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-22 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe so. Though, we don't know what will occur... So perhaps we should try this one at a time. [she plants her hands on her hips as she considers the slot on the pedestal. room only for one, so there's that. and the indentations on the stonework wall really tells her....nothing. gads.]

Suppose you put my name in the slot; we can see if some kind of retribution comes of it? I can manage to repel...a few things, at least. [so long as it doesn't involve any athleticism...]
pereatmundus: (neutral)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-22 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Good thinking. I'll give it a shot.

[Light slides Cecelia's name into the slot on the pedestal and waits for something to happen. Nothing does. He takes it out and slides his name in instead, but again, nothing changes. He pulls his name back out.]

It doesn't make a difference which name I put in; there's no response. You should try it, too, just to be thorough. But it looks like just one of us making a selection isn't enough to trigger a response.
sighsheavily: (pic#16590723)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-22 10:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[she almost chastises him for going on ahead and trying his own name - what if it had dropped the ceiling on him or something?! but that's about as likely as...anything else.

that said, she tries similarly, clicking her tongue.]


Seems so.

Which means we ought to decide if we're going to try the same names or opposites... [beat. she bobs her head a little.] Or simply not tell each other at all!
pereatmundus: (neutral 6)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-23 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
We'll be gambling no matter what we do. We might as well act independently; that way, neither of us takes the blame if we choose wrong.

[The setup is meant to play them against each other, not to be reasoned out. He remains convinced of that.]

What do you want to do?
sighsheavily: (pic#16420024)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-24 12:07 am (UTC)(link)
[sigh.]

I think...I'm overthinking. And I think the best thing to do...is to trust our own instincts.

[so she puts his name in the slot.]
pereatmundus: (happy 6)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-24 03:52 am (UTC)(link)
Fair enough. Good luck to both of us.

[Tempted as he is to vote for himself, the safest bet in the long term is to choose the more socially defensible option. He puts Cecelia's name into the slot. As he does, the doors of both their rooms light up green.]

Interesting--my door just turned green. Did anything happen to yours?
sighsheavily: (pic#16416827)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-27 12:56 am (UTC)(link)
[she's only barely just gotten his name into the slot at the change, and she almost speaks up, but Light's quicker on the draw.

quickly after:]
Green as well! Try the handle, lest something change too soon.

[it is very strange when she does, because she does not expect to so suddenly be bumped shoulder-to-shoulder with him in a tiny storage closet.] Oh! Wh--oh. There you are! Good. Now, we--

[she triple-takes and gawks at the lobby.]

...What...?!
pereatmundus: (concerned 4)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-27 04:49 am (UTC)(link)
[Light tries his best to let her pass. Ladies first, after all. He steps out of the closet after her, blinking at the lobby with wary confusion. That's the receptionist, and this is clearly the Staywell, but...]

What the hell happened to this place?
sighsheavily: (pic#16416827)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-27 05:43 pm (UTC)(link)
It's...changed back... [she steps further out, only barely acknowledging the concierge waving from the desk; her eyes scan the area and then fix toward a window.]

The desert again. Did...we go back? Or did things revert back...
pereatmundus: (nervous)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-28 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[So this is what things looked like before the forest, huh? As if Light's investigation of Wellstone hasn't hit enough snags already.]

There's got to be some reason for the change. We'll need to re-explore the area, try to compare things to both the original Wellstone and the forest version...

[And then what?, a voice in Light's mind asks. Light waves the thought aside.]

Hey. You don't think the building change impacted the archive, do you?
sighsheavily: (pic#16420021)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-05-29 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
[her stomach drops.]

Oh, no. [all that work!!

she starts, stops, then looks over at him.]


The archive was my original room - I should be able to acquire the key once more and check. I'll do that. Please check your own and have a look about for the others, won't you? We can't be the only ones here. [right???]
pereatmundus: (concerned)

[personal profile] pereatmundus 2024-05-30 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
I will. I'm sure everyone else will show up, if they haven't already.

[Sheesh, what a mess this is.]

If you run into Darin before I do, send him my way, okay? We should go survey what all has changed as soon as we can.