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tabularasa_memes2020-06-24 08:34 pm
tabularasa_mods) wrote in tabularasa_memes2020-06-24 08:34 pm
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June Test Drive Meme
Test Drive Meme #2
New Locations ▲ Scenarios ▼ CommentsPlease note that none of the locations and changes described below will be included in the game when it opens. To help create an accurate impression of the game, we have included several imprints suggested by prospective players from the TDM Imprints Submissions. These prompts and locations are only for the TDM. A new arrangement of imprints will be picked when the game opens, which will likely look completely different from the TDM. Please keep this in mind when applying to the game in the future.
As this is our second TDM, you can find more detailed descriptions of the TDM-only locations on TDM #1. Feel free to use prompts from the previous TDM as well if you missed out on it!
Threads from the TDM may be used as samples on your application. TDM samples must be 2 threads with different characters, each with at least 5 comments from your character. Responding to other players on the TDM will also be part of an AC bonus, so we encourage anyone who plans to app to tag out to other players as well.
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New Location: The Fendt Hope Library
Across from the USJ dome stands an enormous six-floor castle. The entrance boasts a large open room decorated with hanging bird cages, colorful teddy bears of varying sizes, and books. Many, many books, filling shelves that line every wall of the room. Traveling further within, there are hundreds of rooms and hallways arranged almost like a hotel, except every room is its own miniature library. Each room has the same layout, including a desk with a lamp, a round table with chairs in the center, a ladder, and rows of shelves on every wall. Teddy bears have been placed around each room, some of them sitting in chairs or on top of shelves and stacks of books. Many of the rooms feature large square windows with gold curtains drawn.
On the first floor near the entrance is a small tavern-like area with a bar, also surrounded by bookshelves on all sides. There are several wooden tables with chairs for guests to sit, though teddy bears have been placed in some of the seats. A large person-sized bear is seated behind the bar. The only shelf that isn't full of books is instead filled with old wine bottles.
There is a staircase that goes down to the basement, where more hallways and library rooms can be found. The basement rooms are much dingier with gray stone walls and no windows, though otherwise look the same as the other library rooms. Notably, the doors in the basement rooms can only be locked from the outside.
Scenario A: Think Positive!
The world has been filled with many things - animals, plants, people, objects... and among those objects, something has stood out. Objects that demand a greater purpose, to be filled with energy that they cannot themselves create. They have not gone unnoticed, and so, too, does the world notice. Machines are more complex than blocks of metal and plastic. Lights are more than wire and glass. What is it that breathes the life into them that people have come to expect?
Finally, the answer has become clear. Anger, disappointment, frustration: these are all feelings that have been poured into these lifeless objects. Energy, such as electricity, must surely come from those emotions.
That isn't to say making electricity is a simple task, or one that can be so easily controlled. A strong emotion can be quite shocking, but that strength must be maintained to power something for more than a few seconds. But you don't want to be electrocuting everyone you come into contact with, either, so with a bit of coordination, a group of people will have much better luck than one person by themselves.
A crowd in the Heavenly Blanc is enough to make the lights flicker, and you might even be able to get the jukebox going. The music sounds a bit strange, with titles and lyrics that almost seem jumbled together from several different songs, but a tune is still a tune. The lighthouse arcade is especially lively, machines buzzing and blaring with noise the moment anyone steps in, though you'll need a friend or two to play along if you want it to get the game to start. The games, too, seem like a bit of a jumbled mess - or maybe Initial DANCE Taikoaster Versus is just ahead of its time.
Most electronics will now function, provided they have the energy source to do so. More advanced functions may not work correctly, such as long-distance connections. The more complex the device, the more emotional power you'll need to use it.
Scenario B: Take A Look, It's In A Book
With the addition of a another library, books have become an important feature to the world's landscape. Words that were once a jumbled mess have been reformed, arranged into something that can now be understood. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of content to fill every book in the world - most of them are identical copies of the same few books, though there may be slight variations between copies.
Geography contains an accurate map of the known world, including detailed descriptions and sketches of important landmarks and buildings. Any observations that people have made thus far have been noted here, including a few direct quotes. It also describes some of the flora and fauna, though it doesn't go into much detail beyond where they can be found. Each copy has a chapter at the end titled "The Rest Of The World" containing hundreds of blank pages.
Regional Pokédex is a bestiary of all the creatures currently residing in the world. There are only 5 entries, with the rest of the book filled with the same image of a large question mark in a circle at the center of each page. Some of the copies of the book use different names for the same creatures, but the first four entries in each copy describes fireys, jellyrabbits, ghowls, and the Eiffel Tower in the style of short observational notes. The average height, weight, and footprint shape of each creature is also listed. The fifth entry has no title, but lists the average height, weight, and approximate footprint shape of every single person in the world as if they were a single species. The descriptions on this page are much more disjointed and contain wildly different information across copies, but all of the entries list observations and physical details of individuals that have arrived in the world.
Questions Vol.1 is a book of questions. Every question about the world that someone has voiced thus far has been listed somewhere in this book. Some questions are detailed and specific, while others are single word questions like "sleep?" There are no answers provided, but some of the pages have handwritten theories underneath that vary between copies. All of the theories match what people have discussed among themselves so far.
Drinks is a recipe book. It lists several recipes for simple drinks one can make with water, alcohol, coffee beans, and tea leaves. Nearly all of the recipes have an alcoholic variant, even when it doesn't make sense. Each recipe includes step by step instructions on how to prepare the ingredients without electricity. This book also details everything people have observed about the world's water supply and its relaxing properties.
Scenario C: Lucky Buns
Luck might seem a simple idea on the surface: if you have good luck, good things happen to you, and if you have bad luck then bad things happen. Where, however, does luck come from? Everyone has different ideas and different superstitions surrounding the concept. One such superstition is tied to rabbits, which is like a fluffy, tentacled creature that swims quietly through the air. A rabbit's luck is tied to its feet. However, touching this particular creature's feet tends to sting and hurt people. On that basis, then, touching the jellyrabbit's feet is clearly bad luck, and so anyone who has felt that sting will experience other forms of bad luck. Whether this comes in the form of trips, falls, getting lost or similar kinds of misfortune relies entirely upon what one's individual idea of bad luck is.
Conversely, touching other parts of the creature must be tied to good luck. Many people do quite like to pet soft and fluffy creatures, after all, so it's only natural that doing so would gift them with good luck. Perhaps they might find things more easily, meet people with similar interests, win games of chance more often, or find a $100 note in their back pocket - money might have no meaning here, but if this is what people consider 'good luck', then that is what will happen.
Once a streak of luck, good or bad, is triggered, it does not wear off on its own. It can only be replaced by luck of an opposing nature, or removed entirely by touching one of the other local creatures.
The creatures' tie to luck is not immediately apparent. Once people learn and understand, however, the information will soon find its way into a copy of the library's Regional Pokédex.
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Frank Castle | Marvel (Netflix) | OTA
[Frank happened upon the library quite by accident. When he first arrived on one side of the lake, he had walked past the dome without looking inside. He had thought to revisit this after spending his first night near the cafe, but the dome now seems dwarfed by the castle, so that's where he's ended up in first.
The space is quiet, with tall ceilings, and the lonely sound of his boots traversing the old floor echo hauntingly down the shelves. He's not sure what to make of it at first. A children's library with a bar makes for conflicting assumptions.
Soon enough, the titles on the spine take his interest and he's not thinking too hard about the teddy bears or the wine bottles. He reaches out for the Geography book but ends up covering the back of someone else's hand instead, clearly eyeing up the same book or perhaps thinking the same thing he is.
Pulling back quickly, he takes a small step backwards and glances at the person standing next to him before ducking his head.]
Sorry. Go ahead.
HEAVENLY BLANC
[Once Frank finishes up at the library, having traced a map of the world and marked out the landmarks, and scribbled down some ideas to try about drinks without alcohol or electricity, he heads back to the Heavenly Blanc where he had previously found some coffee beans and water.
He's surprised to see a few more people gathering there, but he remains cautious. He's got enough rage simmering inside him, surging just beneath his skin to light up the Eiffel Tower but he seems calm enough right now. Mostly he's just in survival mode and trying to figure out his next move. For better or worse, thoughts of unresolved grief and trauma haven't had a chance to fester yet.]
Hey. [He tips his chin towards the person he's talking to. It's mostly body language with Frank, to compensate for the general ineptitude with social graces. If some people are social butterflies, he's a 6'3" big, unwelcome, ugly brown moth.] When did this place light up?
WILDCARD
(Start your own, I'll roll with anything)
Heavenly Blanc
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"How does that work?" He's ignoring the fact that the guy he's talking to might look a bit busy because it looks like he's just doodling to Frank.
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"This world's laws act strangely. Things that make little sense work, as well as vice versa, and this is one of those things." Wily said. He turned back away, and wrote down "Ventilation shafts have porous blockades."
no subject
"Okay." A pause. Clearly he isn't accepting everything at face value. But he's changing the subject. "What're you doing?"
Heavenly Blanc
[Cole's head tilts up when the stranger addresses him, the subtle way he shifts back half an inch an indication that he didn't expect to be addressed. His face itself is partially obscured by the wide brim of his hat, as he doesn't lift his head high enough to look at him in the eye. Despite all this, he sounds calm.]
There was always light here. Or do you mean the light that the electricity makes? That's new. It acts like magic, but no one calls it that.
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Is that fairly common, for you? [Which is a roundabout way of saying that it's not a common explanation for Frank.]
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[It's a bit of a lackluster explanation, but he's already learned that not everyone here comes from a place with magic, so he tries. It sort of makes sense, if the Fade isn't everywhere. But if this person is from a place with electricity, maybe he can learn some things himself.]
Do you know about electricity? Does it normally come from emotions?
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Yeah. It's- science. Fossil fuels. Resistors and conductors and... insulators and shit. [Okay, so, he's not much of a 'mage' guy but he's not much of a 'science' guy either. He can rewire a broken plug head, fix a faulty radio, and he's done some rudimentary cabling work around a house to know where the different coloured wires are supposed to go, but he doesn't know exactly how electrons work inside different atoms to generate current or anything like that.]
There's no emotions involved. [Well, what does he know anyway? There's about a 50/50 split at the moment in this place when it comes to things that are logical and things that are illogical to him.]
So, uh, you... supposed to be happy to keep the lights on or something?
no subject
That's what the people here have said, and I think they're right. The electric lights and metal boxes get brighter sometimes when they seem angry or joyful. It would be easier to tell if I could hear them.
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[He glances out at the collection of people enjoying their drinks or conversation.]
I have to ask how people feel, now. Or try to tell by looking. It's harder.
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library
But it won't take her long to realize that if she were to back off, they might just get themselves stuck in a duel of politeness that may never end. So, after giving it a moment, she finally tugs the spine out from the shelf and... holds it out to him.]
Really, it's fine. I was just taking a look, but it's not like there's any shortage of them.
[Considering this entire shelf is lined with books bearing the same title. She has no idea if they contain the same information or not, but she has plenty of questions she'd like answers to.
Her shy gaze warms into a smile.]
I guess we both had the same thought cross our minds.
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Uh... thanks. [His smile looks a little forced as he steps a little closer to take the book from her. Not because she's unpleasant or anything - if anything, he's the unpleasant one - but clearly he doesn't handle awkward very well.]
Yeah I was- [He clears his throat and lowers his voice, breaking eye contact and averting his gaze. They're in a place that looks like a library after all.] Trying to figure out my bearings.
[This is the part where Frank would normally back away, hopefully not trip over a pile of books on his way out the aisle and find a quiet corner to start devouring the book. But he pauses before his gaze flickers up to meet hers.] Maybe we could. Compare notes? [He'd be the first to concede that he's much better at going out and exploring places, taking notes for himself than spend hours flipping through a book and have only absorbed half of it at the end of the day.]
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[That earns a cheery wave of her finger. As far as she knows, there aren't many others in the library right now, and no one who seems to be bothered by the talking. There are no stern bookkeepers around to hiss their shushes, and Tifa has been encouraging others to talk – there's a lot of information in these shelves, so why not share it?
She picks out another book of the same title and motions to a pair of armchairs near the wall, both occupied by two exceptionally large teddy bears.]
But why not? [Her hand raises to cup around her mouth, like she has a secret to tell.] We might have to ask them to move.
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I don't think they'll mind. [If he doesn't intimidate the fuck out of them by simply standing there staring silently. He taps the spine of the book against his palm and clasps onto it while boots pad quietly across the carpet to relocate the bears from the armchairs to the floor.
He doesn't fit any definition of a gentleman, by any stretch of the imagination, but he only sits after she does. There's something a little stiff about his posture and his eyes don't stay on the book on his lap for long stretches of time, always flitting up at the slightest noise. But the more time he spends in the library, the better he seems to trust his surroundings, and the more at ease he looks.]
no subject
She opens hers to the first page, where a photo of that gaudy tower – the so-called Eiffel Tower, according to Damien – plasters half of it.
Her nose wrinkles, but she continues to watch Frank, and when he looks up again, she'll ask—] You okay?
no subject
[He... wasn't actually expecting the book to be mostly empty? Eyebrows furrow as he flips and scans through the empty pages.]
Doesn't look complete. [Maybe it's a misprint?]
no subject
Many of the front pages have information on them, but only just barely, but it's true – the further she flips into her own, the less it seems to have. Blank page after blank page fill its spine, and she stops, chin resting in her hand, stumped.]
The stuff that is in here doesn't even seem to be enough.
[There's one page she's keen on finding, and she flicks through furiously until she lands on the page for Heavenly Blanc.]
Even this one...? It doesn't even say...
[She seems to become lost in the details that it does have, which are very few, about what she still is convinced is supposedly her bar.]
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Library
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"Right. Mostly empty pages?" Frank clears his throat. "Are you... from here?"
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"No I'm not from here. The world I come from actually makes sense." Some sense. More sense than the one he was in, at least. "Unless worlds where libraries come out of nowhere and all the books aren't even halfway finished are worlds that make sense."
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"No that uh... doesn't make sense to me either." At first he'd doubted his own senses, even though it would have been impossible to miss the enormous library coming up like it'd been a bouncy castle inflated overnight. But it's very much real, and it looks solid, weathered.
It doesn't help that nothing about Bowser makes sense to him but he's not going to inquire further since that'll just offend someone without getting him the information he's after.
"Seen any other books that might give the lay of the land?"
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"Every Pokédex has a different entry on people. I'm pretty sure if you looked through a bunch of 'em you'd figure out something on anyone here." Bowser had been somewhat surprised to see that even he had been mentioned in some of the copies. "The book on recipes isn't really useful unless you want to get high on water, 'cause we don't need the water to survive here. The questions book gives you a nice guide on everything that's been said about the world since it popped up."
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"Okay. I think I should start there, maybe." He purses his lips and gives Bowser a couple of nods by way of thanks before his eyes start flitting around looking for those other book titles.