TEST DRIVE MEME #11

[expiationmods]

Test Drive Meme #11

Welcome to Expiation, a pan-fandom adventure game with elements of fantasy, science fiction, and some subtle horror.

THE STORY SO FAR (click to expand!)

Characters have arrived in Expiation, a seemingly idyllic fantasy world where they have been told they will be judged and sentenced for crimes they were charged with upon arrival.

Every two months, several characters are chosen for sentencing, where they’re brought to City Hall and told to perform a task related to their assigned crime.

Their only contact at City Hall is a mysterious and long-suffering man called Jerry.

Over time, characters have begun to realize that not all is as it seems in Expiation: as it turns out, the entire world is a simulation that seems to be run by an artificial intelligence.
This AI claims that its purpose, and thus the purpose of Expiation, is rehabilitating the Chosen after their crimes.

In March 2024, after the destruction of City Hall, the city of Aldrip was forced into an upgrade status. While this upgrade was being implemented, characters were pulled into a false reality where they believed they were natives to the city of Aldrip.

Aldrip has been a bit of a glitchy place for many, many months. However, in Summer 2024, these glitches became difficult to ignore, and pointed at evidence of a catastrophic systems failure. For several months, characters experienced chaotic effects as elements from their worlds and many others were thrown into the setting without warning, even going so far as to import a Gnosia infection.

The AI in charge of Expiation believed that performing a system reset might be the only way to stop the glitches before they could impact the world as a whole.

In September 2024, characters complied with the AI’s request and performed a reset. Although this set the AI back to a default state where it felt more neutral–rather than affectionate–toward the Chosen, several people created a system backup that they hope will return some of the data that has made the AI more sympathetic toward the Chosen.

When Aldrip was reset, City Hall became a Courthouse, and this is the new building where Chosen are now sent for sentencing.

TDM top-levels are open to all, whether you are already in-game or not. New characters, please put TDM in your subject header so we’ll know you’re trying things out! You can also put your top-level in the TDM DIRECTORY at the bottom of the post. New folks are welcome and encouraged to use TDM threads as samples in their application. Current players may use TDM threads as part of their AC proofs.

October's TDM takes place on October 21st.

You can view our CALENDAR to keep important dates in mind. RESERVES open on October 21 and APPLICATIONS will open on October 24. After this, applications will next open in December 2024.

Full Navigation

Arrival

Spooky season has come to Aldrip in full force! City and outskirts gardens are full of pumpkins to harvest, trees begin turning red and orange, and there’s a chill in the air that’d have anyone reaching for a cozy sweater. The wind picks up occasionally, howling through the trees, especially near the forest… While the seasonal weather is welcoming, the locals are anything but: they send disapproving glances and keep a wide distance. Unfortunately, this may only be heightened by the new arrivals to the city…

Newcomers to Aldrip face a rude awakening this month. Strange iron cages have appeared on surfaces all over town, short and tall alike, and this is where new Chosen find themselves upon arrival. The cages themselves aren’t terribly hard to open, honestly; the latch is on the outside, and it’s a bit finicky, but it’s not locked or anything. That said, some of these cages are quite high up. They’re sometimes near ledges and windows, but not always, and some new Chosen might need a helping hand to get down.

Yeah. The optics aren’t great. No wonder the locals are a little nervous!

The fall carnival

On the morning of October 21st, a Fall carnival pops up, seemingly out of nowhere. It hasn’t been well-advertised–maybe a flyer or two around town–but luckily for the Chosen, those who work there don’t seem to have the same opinion of them as the locals do. Costumes are not required for the carnival, but they’re definitely encouraged! There is a large tent near the entrance with lots of costumes to choose from, and changing rooms as well, should the Chosen decide they’d like to give it a try. The tent workers will be so excited to help with this process–but they might find some very unexpected choices for the Chosen!

There are plenty of rides, games, and food stalls, so come on down! Some special attractions the Chosen may take note of include:

The Funhouse
Billed as a standard house of mirrors, the Chosen are encouraged to try to get through the maze as quickly as they can. Push your limits! Test yourself!

Inside the mirror maze, the Chosen will find more of a test than they might have expected, at first. As they go deeper into the maze, the mirror reflections seem to change. At first, it’s just little things: your reflection might look in a different direction, or move when you stand still. But deeper within the maze, these mirrors begin to show things about the Chosen that they might not be ready to admit just yet. Some reflections may try to confess to the character’s crime to anyone who may be in the funhouse, even going into detail about it. Some may even show the crime as it happened, or a warped version of that crime. Anyone present can see and hear these reflections.

The reflections will follow Chosen until they find their way out of the funhouse. Unfortunately, that could take quite a bit longer, since those reflections are so very vocal and distracting.

Pumpkin Pick-up
You know those duck games at a fair where you pick up a rubber duck and the bottom of the toy has a prize written on it? Well, we know better than to pick up a duck in a dungeon carnival here in Expiation, so for extra spooky flair, these are small pumpkins instead, with painted jack-o-lantern faces! Picking up a pumpkin should reveal a prize…but what’s this? It’s a challenge instead? Interesting.

Written on the underside of each pumpkin is a truth-or-dare style directive. Players are free to make up any challenge they want, here! If you’re looking for some ideas, we’ve provided some examples in the details cut below.

Click here for a list of example challenges!

Tell someone your biggest regret
Tell someone about the scariest moment you’ve ever had
Confess your deepest shame to a stranger
Take someone’s shoes
Attempt to pickpocket someone without them noticing
Find a stranger and show off a secret talent
Tell someone about the thing you hate most, deep down
Kiss or hug a stranger
Eat something that doesn’t look like food
Tell someone about the cruelest thing you have ever done
Start dancing in the middle of a crowd, but only if there’s no music playing
Tell a stranger about the worst lie you ever told
Ask a stranger out on a date
Set off a small firework without warning
Give away your shirt and do not replace it
Confess your greatest weakness
Put on an extra silly costume
Exchange clothes with a stranger

You get the idea! Feel free to use these as a jumping off point and make up your own–there are no limits to what the pumpkins might say. Once the task has been completed, Chosen may turn the pumpkins in at one of the prize booths for whatever prize they would like. There’s no visible indication on the pumpkin as to whether the task is done or not, so you’re welcome to try bluffing, if you don’t want to complete it…but somehow, the booth worker always seems to know.

Dueling Potions
One of the stalls is a game of chance: two identical potions sit before you on a table. The carnie claims that one is a luck potion, and that choosing that potion will give you excellent luck for the whole day…but how do you tell which is which? By drinking the potion, of course!

There’s a 50% chance of victory, here. One vial does indeed contain a good luck potion, and if you choose that vial, your luck will be incredible for the next 24 hours. Unfortunately, the other bottle contains a bad luck potion, and that will have the opposite effect: for 24 hours, you’ll be plagued by disaster, bad happenstance, and maybe even some extra clumsiness. Does it seem a bit like you need to have good luck to get good luck, here? What, is this a commentary on something? Hmm.

Fortune Teller
Want some woo in your spooky season? A midnight-blue tent covered in stars seems to invite you in. You’ll find a bonafide fortune teller within, complete with crystal ball and heady incense. How fun! They’ll give you a cursory reading, either by palm or with strange-looking cards. You get the feeling that this reading is fairly accurate, but strangely…it’s hard to recite details later, if you try to tell someone else about what they told you. How odd. Maybe it was the incense.

It’s not just a hazy fortune and a nose full of frankincense that Chosen leave this booth with: they also feel a compulsion to speak their minds more than they might otherwise. Whether this is telling secrets usually kept close to the vest, expressing their opinions more readily, readily admitting to crimes they’ve been charged with or other wrongdoings, or some other manifestation of this effect is up to players!

There are plenty of other games, rides, and booths to explore, many of which have perfectly standard fare for events like these. Characters can use these booths to win tickets and get prizes: many booths offer cute stuffies and kitschy toys, of course, but Chosen can also find useful items like weapons, food, clothing, accessories, and things like that.

Witch hunt

Last year’s Witch Hunt was metaphorical in nature–this year, it’s much more literal. A limited number of witch hats are placed on a table in front of the carnival. As soon as the clock strikes noon, the Chosen may grab one and try to keep it out of the hands of fellow competitors. These hats are first-come, first-served, but it really doesn’t matter who starts out with one–it’s who ends the hunt with one that counts!

It seems to be like a city-wide game of tag. The Chosen’s job is simple: obtain and keep a witch hat on their head until the clock strikes midnight. If a “witch” is caught by another Chosen (by way of being tagged), they must hand over their hat, or they’ll be disqualified.

There’s no official sign-up for the hunt, so characters can join in whenever they’d like, or may decide not to join at all. So, what’s this all for? Anyone who manages to have a witch hat on by the time the clock strikes midnight is guaranteed a prize! OOCly, this prize is any small non-magical item from home, either personal or not; ICly, Chosen will not know what this prize is before entering. How do you obtain this prize? There’s an RNG for those who would like a chance to sign up to win an item. Sign-up is optional, and TDMers are welcome to join in! New items will be delivered at the start of November, so any new applicants who win the hunt will be able to obtain their items as well.

Wildcard

Make your own fun! Just because it’s not in the prompts doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Have at it! Go crazy! Try not to break anything (too much)!

♡

Comments

[skelters]

[ look, vash is the furthest person to judge someone else by their looks - let alone any number of eyes or, let's say, unorthodox number of limbs, so while other people might choose to give onych a wide berth where he is standing, vash makes a beeline straight for him.

... or maybe it's because of it, who knows. he makes for an easy landmark or something. blame his constantly bleeding heart. ]

It is! And I'm bacon! [ announcing such a stupid statement so proudly ... but vash's face brightens considerably when onych actually takes the outfit from him to examine more closely. that is the furthest he's got with trying to convince anyone, so far. ]

I mean ... it's just a seasonal costume, I don't think it's meant to last for any longer ....

[ even though he hasn't made it himself or directly responsible for its manufacture in any way, he sounds faintly apologetic. ] I haven't had any luck finding someone to wear this with me, so maybe even just ... one arm? Or the hat?

[ surely they could attempt to jam the white beanie on top of ... what counts for the other's head. perhaps. ]

[onych]

Hmm. [ Onych catches the tone of mild apology and the way Vash's expression falls, becomes pleading — ah, it's cute. They're always so cute, but this one is being especially open and expressive, and he's so fond of that kind of naked human honesty. Obviously Vash is desperate: if there were better options available, he must already have tried them, right? And this seems like a very, very important matter to him. High stakes. Intriguing.

(It never occurs to him that Vash approached him out of pity because he's a giant scary offputting monster. That's just wildly unthinkable.)

Well, he's not the sort of Overseer to refuse his humans twice, and while Vash might not be his human, strictly speaking... All humans are, in a way. He's seen no other Overseers around to say otherwise. ]

I'm afraid you've found my one weakness. I can never bear to see a human unhappy, and I particularly can't bear to be the cause. Let's see, here...

[ He lifts up the sweater and spreads it, tilting his head thoughtfully. Then he takes one claw and runs it straight down, abruptly ripping the back open from top to bottom. ]

Theeere we go.

[ Now he can slide the sleeves up at least one set of arms! He pulls it tight across his front, and spreads his arms proudly (and a bit carefully. The armpit seams are completely taut at his elbows.) The hat goes on next, backlit by his halo. ]

I am egg. And you're my bacon.

A perfect match.

[ He's trying to be charming. ]

look at these two cryptids at a human festival ...

[skelters]

[ it's not pity!!! far from it! let's call it some sort of sympathetic intuition, okay? much better that way, even if it's calling a spade a shovel in the greater sense of things.

but more importantly, it would surprise vash to know that onych considers him as nothing more than a particularly earnest human being who happened to stumble across the mighty being to humbly request assistance ... yes, blending in with the humans is something that he now does as easily (easier, even) as breathing at this point, but of course it's be a different matter altogether for a third, secret (cosmic horror) being. visually speaking, there's not too much difference.

vash is about to offer to go and ask if there's, maybe a slightly bigger size perhaps?, when the other decides to (literally) take the matter into his own hands and create a quick solution. the seams look like they're about to burst if he as much as breathed too hard by accident (does he even breathe?), but it's on, and the hat is also on, completing the horrible costume conglomerate. ] Wow!!

[ whatever onych is doing, vash is definitely charmed. nobody has made this much of an effort to go along with his unreasonable requests before? his smile grows wider, a second set of dimples dipping behind the flash of white eyeteeth, and vash claps his hands together almost without meaning to. ]

Alright, let's go! We can split the prize fifty-fifty, sound good?

[ a lucky thing that the booth isn't too far away, just in case the cheap shitty fabric can't make it any further than the next five minutes. even so, vash can't help but to hover around just beside the other as they start walking, constantly turning his head around to check that onych is, in fact, peachy. ]

I haven't seen you around here before, [ the most blatantly lame pickup line of a millennia, but he says it as though it's just chatting ] Did you just get here?

we're just normal men.... just innocent men

[onych]

There's a prize?

[ There's only a short opportunity to register surprise before he finds Vash leading him along the route, and of course, now that they're fully gussied up and Vash is beaming at him with a heart-melting smile as warm as the sun, he's not going to resist. His body slithers along, tentacles writhing, one set of arms staying awkwardly rigid within the egg's strict confines.

His head seems to be looking past Vash and along their path, but all of the many clustered eyes on his body stay zeroed in on him as he flits close by. He may not know that Vash isn't human, but he does know he's distinct, at least: he has a curious gusto to him, an energetic drive of the sort that suggests a compelling need beneath the surface. There's a lot of life in there, a lot going on.

It's hard to read much more than that when the rest of his body is merely galloping bacon. But maybe that's a bit of a story in itself. ]

Ah... yes! Just about an hour ago. [ He taps a claw against his faceplate. A seam tugs somewhere, so he lowers it in a hurry. ] The cages are a pretty poor security system, but I suppose the point is more about the impression they give than any practical use. I'm fond of an illustrative metaphor, personally. It's something like a primer on what to expect going forward.

[ He is a bit worried about the whole bit where he's leaving the Abattoir unsupervised, though. Hopefully not for too long! ]

You seem rather well adapted to all of this. Have you been here terribly long, yourself?

oozes back in like sizzling bacon fat :"

[skelters]

Yes!! Didn't you know?

[ oh, of course not, not when they've only just arrived! vash's expression (what little onych can see between the bacon outfit, and the mop of untidy hair, and the big orange glasses) quickly shifts through a series of emotions - realisation, surprise, embarrassment, and finally to one that resembles some kind of infuriatingly understanding chagrin - and he reaches up to gingerly pat one of his arms at the elbow. gingerly, because the fast pace they're walking in means that the shitty cheap costume fabric is in danger of immediately coming apart at the seams, and not for any other extraterrestrial features. he immediately slows down the pace of his walking, feeling guilty. ]

That must have been some surprise.

[ suddenly arriving here and finding himself locked up in a cage? that won't be fun for anybody. ]

You're right about it being similar to what you'd expect here ... but it really isn't too bad, really! [ you used 'really' twice, vash. are you that pressed for reassurance?

at the pointed question, he seems to grow inwards back into himself, something a little more complicated to his smile when he flashes it again, the corners of his eyes creasing determinedly, unshakeable. ] Um, yeah. A little while now ...

SLUDGES BACK IN LIKE LEFTOVER GREASE

[onych]

[ The pupils in Onych's many, many eyes judder, dilating and narrowing at Vash's rather vague answer. Until now, Vash has been forthright enough that it throws Onych off to hear something so nebulous, coupled with that detectable distance to his smile. Strange. ]

Well, then I'm certainly relieved to have a learned tour guide.

[ ... An indeterminate amount of time, huh. Despite his effort to keep his tone light and chatty, he can barely suppress the dark mood that washes over him at the thought. A little detour is one thing, but he's not inclined to be put out indefinitely by this. Stuck here while the factory idles? And he's sure any Overseer they replace him with won't appreciate any of his work or his hobbies...

It hardly bears thinking about, at least right now. He focuses on Vash instead, reciprocating the gentle shoulder pat with a clawed hand pressing lightly on his back, large and warm. He injects his voice with a sort of thoughtful gravity, something that might sound sincere: ]

... That must be very difficult for you, not knowing if you'll see home again. But you keep up your spirits very well, putting on your kindest face even for a stranger... What a lovely, enviable quality, that compassion.

It's something I dearly love to see in other species. The desire to sow hope.

[ They seem to be approaching the booth Vash was after! Onych speaks again before he can forget: ]

What's your name, by the way?