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6.0 Test Drive Meme
6.0 Test Drive Meme
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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
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!
1. There Ain't Room
2. Glitter Bomb
3. Riddles Three
A. Cry For Me
B. Love Me
C. Hold Me
I. Blood
II. Sweat
III. Tears
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:
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.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.
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.
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:Once you answer correctly, the hour glass disappears, leaving a hole in the floor that you must jump through to exit.
- 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
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: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!
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 your room is green, when you open the final door, you've escaped! Welcome to Wellstone.
- 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 red, when you open the door, you find yourself back in the first room. Good luck!
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:
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.
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It's genuinely impossible to tell if Barnabas took notice of the missed shot, or the cursing under Ademnet's breath, because he shows no reaction to it. No comment, no shift in his focus, nothing. He seems entirely transfixed on lining his shot, using the sights on the barrel, and firing with unusual precision for someone otherwise unfamiliar with the weapon in his hands. The shot landing squarely between where the cowboy's eyes should be.
He did, by the way. Notice the shot, that is. He just seems more focused on taking out the cowboys, than ridiculing his fellow marksman for the mistake. Silently he continues, picking off a few more with that startling accuracy of his. Yet, as they find each cowboy struck, evidenced by a hole punctured through them...nothing changes.
Barnabas lowers his gun for a moment, staring down the targets that share their likeness.]
It would seem that was not the solution.
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Guess we got to aim at us, then.
[He doesn't sound at all excited by the prospect.]
You're pretty tohburned good at this. You sure you ain't ever seen one of these before? [He taps the barrel of his gun.]
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I am certain.
[Then he raises his gun again, taking aim.]
It is far too simple a solution, do you not agree?
[The implication being that there is more to this than meets the eye, but he knows not what will happen should he shoot either of the targets. Once more he reads the message in the back, There Ain't Room...
Ah. He understands.
He fires at his own cutout, hitting it right between the eyes, before moving onto aim at Ademnet's. He stops, flicking his gaze to his lithe companion, the silent implication all but clear: fire on it or I will.]
Feel free to pick the next room!
...But he's got more sense than that. Marginally.]
I got ears, you know. If you want me to dalpoundin' do somethin', all you got to do is ask.
[He aims at himself and fires. It's not as pretty a shot as Barnabas's, but it would probably have killed a real person.]
There. Just 'cause I'm--
[Before he can finish the thought, the floor drops out from under them both.]
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Barnabas chooses not to comment on that as they find themselves landing in the next room. Barnabas does so without incident, his balance like the felines he's likened to, though he is similarly alert of their surroundings despite such an entrance. It is a nondescript room, plain as far as the other two previous are concerned, but in the middle hangs a paper. His brow furrows as he approaches, he doesn't touch the paper but he does read it.
Silently, to himself. Exchange five sincere compliments each. Don't break eye contact.
Then he turns to see how his companion fares, having not spared him a glance until now.]
You are literate, correct?
[After all, it isn't like he commented on the signage in the previous rooms, and knowing what a crossbow is (or how to throw knives) didn't mean one was schooled on their letters.]
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No, of course I can't--
[His eyes catch on the paper, and he blinks in confusion. Huh. Maybe he can. When in the name of Toh did he learn that?]
"Exchange five sincere compliments each. Don't break eye contact."
[Oh, pound me bloody.
Ademnet doesn't wait to be ordered around again. He lifts his chin to look Barnabas in the eye, his expression steely.]
You're goin' first.
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So he could not read, and now he's capable? What is the nature of this realm they find themselves in, he wonders... Though not for long, as Ademnet makes it clear he's in a rather defiant mood, and believes him of capable authority to make commands. Fortunately for him, Barnabas is not a man so easily bothered by such things, and so when he locks his likewise steely gaze with his, it is unflinching as the alloy it's likened to.]
You have spirit, despite what others might deem as petulance. You have well weathered these trials, and possess a keen eye. When offered direction, you follow it, where others may be seduced by the siren song of disobedience.
[A beat.]
You are not hard on the eyes.
[Eh, he has a thing for twinks, diminished as his feelings may be, that didn't stop being true. Anyway, that should be five, and for as much as his quiet, neutral voice may not sell them as sincere, they are.]
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Well, what in the name of Toh am I supposed to say to that?]
Right. Yeah. [A beat.] Thanks.
[He's trying so hard not to look flustered.]
You got good aim, and you ain't stupid. You're tall. You're--practical, I guess? Most noble bastards like you would've been a lot slower at comin' up with somethin' to say to me, assumin' they didn't just dalpoundin' refuse. I don't got a good word for that. Practical's close enough.
[That's four, right? He takes a deep breath, steels himself, and mutters:]
...Not bad-lookin' for an old guy.
[As if to prove the honesty of his assessment, a door opens.]
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Something to keep in mind for later, perhaps.
The sound of the door opening cues Barnabas to break eye contact, his gaze flicking to the side, towards the door as he starts to walk towards it. No fluster, reaction, nor word of thanks from him, it seems. Though as he is about halfway to the door, he does speaks:]
You presume me a noble—what impelled this conclusion?
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Ain't you heard yourself? Normal folk don't talk like you do, and you don't think twice about givin' orders and just expectin' folk to follow, either. Bein' able to spot the folk who can legally beat seven shades of misery out of you is the sort of thing you learn fast, yeah? Meanin' no offense.
[He means some offense. It's an otherwise honest answer, though. He cracks a tight, wry smile, the whip scar on his cheek crinkling as he does.]
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Silently Barnabas finishes closing the distance between himself and the door, walking through it without further comment.
Where they find themselves is in a room that's unusually tall. There's a hatch in the ceiling near one of the walls, and from it a rope dangles down. Following it down brings them to a single word message, though Barnabas doesn't look to it immediately this time.
Instead, he seems focused on observing the other peculiarities of the room, like the hatch and the rope itself. The task seems clear enough to him, even without reading the instructions yet.]
Believe you capable of ascending to the top?
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[He stops mid-thought, hair rising on the back of his neck. All around them, a familiar red liquid is seeping steadily out of the walls.
Toh's fiery prick, what now?
Without thinking, he grabs Barnabas by the shirt and attempts to shove him toward the rope. His voice takes on a sharp crackle of command:]
Don't just stand there lookin'! Go!
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Fortunately, Barnabas isn't exactly petty, so he does not hesitate to move towards the rope and begin his ascent. To avoid the slickness of the walls (and transfering any of it to the rope), he avoids putting his feet on it. Thus he relies primarily on his upper body to climb, only using his leg to steady the rope so that Ademnet is not shaken too much by his climbing.
Even should Ademnet prove a poor or slow climber, Barnabas assumes he can pull him up the rest of the way once he reaches the top, if necessary. Though, for now he is focusing on tirelessly climbing, eyes locked on the hatch above them.]
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Once Barnabas gets high enough, Ademnet starts after him, his boots dripping blood as he climbs. He's a brisk climber, more muscular than he looks, with years of experience shinning up and down the trees of Lord Pelyar's orchards. He keeps pace with Barnabas easily, leaving just enough distance between them to avoid being kicked.]
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No trace of that blood-filling room, the rope, there is nothing but a wall behind him. He frowns at it. The room itself is once again rather empty, though decidedly narrow with a wall bisecting it. Accepting that there's little more he can do for Ademnet with no way back, he decides to wait and see if he will show up just as Barnabas has.
But that doesn't happen. He's alone in this room, and so after a moment longer, he turns to head towards the door at the far end. He reads over the instructions there, and their names—which is certainly one way for them to learn each other's.
Who should escape?
A simple enough trial, at least on the surface.]
no subject
This whole place is some corbie prison. Toh's prick. Of course it is.]
Hey, you! Old guy! You alive?
[It's not the most polite way to ask after Barnabas's health, but he never asked for Barnabas's name, and he'll be damned before he calls him m'lord. Ademnet inspects the plinth in front of him, waiting for an answer.]
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Indeed I am.
[His attention goes back to the names, to the choice before them.]
It would seem we are left with a choice to make, Ademnet.
no subject
Looks like it.
[Does this mean only one of them can leave, even after all of that? What happens to the one who stays behind? He's got no good reason to pick some imperious noble turdlord over himself, but the thought of having to make that decision--and right in front of the guy, at that--makes his stomach churn with anxiety. Whether the feeling is guilt or some lingering sense of societal expectation, he isn't sure. Either way, it's not a feeling he can ignore.
He'll probably find a way out no matter what I do. Last thing I need is a guy like him pissed off at me once he does.
Ademnet lets out a slow breath and picks up Barnabas's name.]
Ain't much of a choice, though. I'll find another way out.
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[It would make sense, would it not? So far these trials have been ones that work best through cooperation and mutually earned success. Thus it would stand to reason that the choice would likely follow suit. As such, he chooses Ademnet.
And as he does so, the light at their doors turns green, allowing them through. Barnabas glances at the light, then to the unlocked door as he proceeds through. Only to find himself in the bright, airy lobby of the Staywell. He looks behind him, seeing what looks to be a closet door.
Odd.
He takes a few steps further into the lobby, giving it a surveying look. Wondering, idly, if Ademnet will emerge from the same door, or another? This realm does not seem to run on typical rules of reality, after all.]
no subject
Does that mean he put my name in, or was the whole test just a fake? Who knows. The second one, probably.
Ademnet walks up to Barnabas, looking around the lobby warily.]
You got any idea where we are?
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None at all.
[He looks to the receptionist.]
Perhaps he may elucidate our circumstance.
no subject
Right. You goin' to ask him, or should I?
[Translation: use your tohburned words, Barnabas.]
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Not because of being a King, but because, ordinarily he has his other half—literally. This other half—a magical creation that indefatigably supports and fills in for what Barnabas otherwise lacks—is sorely missed, but he cannot remember him. Cannot know what is gone. So, unfortunately, this is falling squarely on Ademnet's shoulders at the moment.
Barnabas finally looks at him.]
What is the matter? Capable of asking me, yet you hesitate when it comes to asking him?
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[This is a comment that should, based on the world order he remembers, end very poorly for him. Yet here he is, stubbornly making it anyway. For whatever it's worth, he doesn't sound angry as much as resigned, as if he's already sure the answer will be--at best--a no.]
I get that you ain't much for talkin' in general, so I don't mind doin' it for you. All I'm askin' is that you ask, instead of just jerkin' my head around and expectin' me to go. That ain't so much to ask for, yeah? Might not be fancy folk, but I'm still folk. Not a corborn horse.
[Sorry. He doesn't know.]
no subject
That's what happens when they fit a more... mythological space, than something more natural like a chocobo, for instance!]
Finished?
[He asks after a moment's beat once Ademnet stops talking. Then he looks to the receptionist.]
My capability is not in question, I but only offered an avenue in which your initial question may be answered. You need not complicate things.
[But then without further ado, he approaches the receptionist with that saunter of his. There's a compulsion to give his name, and he does, which then garners him a key. Holding it in his hand, he looks at it with a pinching of his brow, before attempting to inquire about where they are.
The answers are, of course, perfunctory. Wellstone, the Staywell, all of them meaningless names that do not explain where they are in any meaningful way. Perhaps Barnabas would find it infuriating, were his heart capable of such a feeling, intead he just looks to the key in his hand as if it would unlock more than the door that would prove to be the other half to their pair.]
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