wellie: (Default)
Well Mod ([personal profile] wellie) wrote in [community profile] wellcome2024-04-19 04:40 pm
Entry tags:

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.

hellonspectacles: (Default)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-06-16 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
No, no, I’ve got one, too. There’s a sort of column in front of the wall, and a table next to it. [Palamedes approaches the plinth, reading the letters carved into the surface.]

Who should escape? Well, that’s ominous.
sighsheavily: (pic#16590723)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-06-16 03:11 am (UTC)(link)
And also...is it...straightforward? Like before. With, with the compliments. And climb. [because if it's staying on theme as far as truthfulness, then that's one thing, but...]

...But there's only space for one name...
hellonspectacles: (Default)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-06-17 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Palamedes picks up both cards and stares at them for a long moment.]

Oh. Oh dear. Oh, for the love of— [He makes a frustrated sound.] We’re meant to choose, Cecelia.
sighsheavily: (pic#16420024)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-06-17 03:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[muttered:] Gads. Naturally.

[she sighs, then speaks up, already moving:] Well, I'll place your name here and, if you find a door opening, you'll see to opening the one over here, yes?
hellonspectacles: (his eyes were a perfectly lambent grey)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-06-19 02:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Surely, it can’t be that easy, but Palamedes can’t see any obvious trick…] An excellent idea.

[He waits.

And waits a little longer.]


In your own time.
sighsheavily: (pic#16420024)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-06-20 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
Right.

[there's a short beat.

then:]
There's a green light. Is it changing over there? Is there a door to open?
hellonspectacles: (Default)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-06-25 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Nothing. But that doesn’t— [Palamedes approaches the table and picks up each of the cards with their names on them, examining them carefully for some hidden trick or clue. He returns tot he plinth and reads it, then feels around for some button or latch.

Still nothing.

Pal steps back, almost all the way to the wall behind him, trying to find some pattern, something to make him understand what they’re meant to do.

And then it hits him.]


Oh. Oh, no. No, that’s just stupid—they can’t really expect— [He runs back to the wall that separates the two of them.]

Cecelia, we’re meant to choose.
sighsheavily: (pic#14281461)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-06-29 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
[irate:] Oh, of course. Because this isn't annoying enough!

[she huffs, glowering at the pedestal.]

...Well. I've already set a name in. [yours, obviously!] Perhaps put yours in? See if that allows you passage. We can work backward from there.

[beat.]

Or I melt the wall, I suppose.
hellonspectacles: (Default)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-06-30 01:58 am (UTC)(link)
[It’s cute that you think he’ll agree to that, Cecelia.]

Oh, certainly not. What if they zap me out of here, and you remain trapped to deal with whatever nonsense comes next? No, I should put your name in, and you can tell me if anything different happens over there.

[A beat. Melt the wall? Palamedes is learning all kinds of things about Cecelia's powers today.]

Melting the wall is an option, too, I suppose.
sighsheavily: (pic#16420024)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-06-30 08:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Right. Well. Give it a try, then? Perhaps it's just a test of selflessness.
hellonspectacles: (Default)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-07-01 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, yes, exactly. Thank you for being so sensible, Cecelia. And if you’re wrong, well—let’s try the wall melting thing next.

[He picks up the card with Cece’s name on it.] Here goes nothing. [And in it goes.

Moments later, his side of the room lights up green.]
sighsheavily: (pic#14315118)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-07-02 10:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[Cecelia's ear picks up the soft clicking of some mechanism, prompting her to move forward. gingerly, she presses her hand on the wall-turned-door, breath held. when she pushes and it gives way--]

Oh!

[blink. blinkblink.] There you are.
hellonspectacles: (his eyes were a perfectly lambent grey)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-07-03 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[Palamedes steps through the door...and nearly runs right into Cecelia.]

Oh! Thank goodness. I suppose you were right about the selfishness test.

[He adjusts his glasses and looks around.] And we're back. Well. That was a spectacular waste of time.
sighsheavily: (pic#16416827)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-07-04 03:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Back? [she steps out properly, frowning.]

...Wait. Wait, Palamedes. Look. [she gestures.] This is the other Wellstone, isn't it?
hellonspectacles: (Default)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-07-06 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
[The receptionist speaks right on cue: Welcome to Wellstone. We’re so glad you’re here with us! What’s the name on your reservation? Palamedes grimaces.

With Cecelia's words in mind, he folds his arms over his chest and begins to walk around the lobby with a critical eye. Then he stops and spins round to face Cecelia.]


We should see who else is here. This may be a sign that we have not reached the end of our journey.
sighsheavily: (pic#16416827)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-07-06 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[she nods, quick to agree; she's anxious to know if the others are safe, even if her feet seem glued to the spot she emerged from. there's just too many directions to pick, and she's not a pacer!

that said:]
Split up and reconvene here? Or-- [her eyes get big.] ...If the whole building reverted, then the archive...

[oh no. all that work...]

It should be the same room. If it survived. Meet there? Later.
hellonspectacles: (Default)

[personal profile] hellonspectacles 2024-07-06 02:20 am (UTC)(link)
[Cecelia doesn't need to explain to Palamedes what a horror the loss of her archive would be. If it has been destroyed...Well, he'll be having words with something.]

Yes, yes a good idea. But first, let's see who else we can find. [Even Master Warden Palamedes Sextus knows that people are more important than manuscripts. Usually.] Meet in the archive in twenty minutes?
sighsheavily: (pic#16420024)

[personal profile] sighsheavily 2024-07-06 02:24 am (UTC)(link)
[her eyes are already toward the stairs, anxious to know. but books can wait - people first. people first, Ardenbury.

she double-takes back to him and nods again.]
Yes? Yes. Twenty. Twenty... [from when? there's no bloody clocks in this place and--

and she can just count. guess. be fashionably late. it's fine.]


Yes. Fine. Well and good. I'll start this way. [stairs. there's lots of floor to cover before she reaches that room.]