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

[spiritualize]

Ouch. Guess that's fair enough.

[ guy who is only coping this well ("coping") ("this well") because this is like the fourth time this has happened.

her swift navigation impresses him, even with the size of the place and the skills she'd explained. it's a heavy door, and while he's got no reservations about her ability to open it, he's still much taller. so he reaches over her head to push it open. ]

Is that why my keyblade disappearing felt creepy? Sensory thing?

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph is from the school of face every problem head on and smash it, and if that strategy doesn't work then she isn't interested. Not to say she doesn't ever do something more subtly -- particularly when it involves tricking people -- but her own personal weaknesses she's unrelenting about addressing.

She doesn't actually mind Riku opening the door for them even if he reaches above her head to do it. He's been chill and respectful of her abilities so far, which means she doesn't need to prove anything. She walks right out into the waning daylight without a thank you. ]

Yeah, basically. I think seeing people are used to their eyes tricking them, but if I'm sensing something, it's there. Rock solid.

[ And then... not, when it vanishes. ]

[spiritualize]

Makes sense. It comes and goes when I call to it, so much that it's not really conscious.

[ the grungy twilight isn't the comforting orange he's used to from this time of day, and he squints in distaste as his eyes adjust. there's one last echo of running away again? from his reflection before the door swings closed with a thud. ]

Shut up.

[ uuugh. he pinches the bridge of his nose, quelling the irritation, before looking back to toph. she looks... a lot younger than expected, now they're outside. ]

Why did you come and check on me?

[fieldtrip]

[ She's about to comment on his relentless pest of a mirror self, but then he asks why she'd helped him and Toph pivots on her bare heel to give him a look of disbelief. ]

Why wouldn't I? You might have needed help. Actually, you did need help.

So you're welcome.

[spiritualize]

[ really, he does try not to get a little childishly huffy about that. he fails, but tries. ]

I'd have been okay on my own. Happens all the time.

[ totally normal circumstances, it's fine. ]

Don't get me wrong, thanks. It was just unexpected.

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph smirks at him. If anything, this hint of pushback makes her like him more. She likes people who both stand up to her and respect her at the same time. ]

Uh-huh. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone you needed a little girl to rescue you from the big scary maze.

[spiritualize]

[ riku rolls his eyes even though he belatedly realises she can't actually see it, and there's a dumb little smile on his face anyway. ]

So that's how it's gonna be? Alright, next time I smash a mirror, you'll be the first person I call to help clean it up.

[fieldtrip]

Yeah yeah, you wouldn't be the first person. I'm like the local totally overkill building cleanup crew.

[ Toph has done a lot of cleaning up and fixing buildings around Aldrip in the past ten months. She doesn't mind it, but she really is overkill. Enjoying being out in the fresh air, she laces her fingers together and stretches her arms out over her head, considering what to do next. ]

You want a burger? That's what I usually do with new people. You seem new.

[spiritualize]

You're what, twelve? Who gave you a license for working in construction?

[ this is quickly turning into a very silly conversation. ]

A burger sounds great, actually. [ he doesn't remember the last time he'd eaten something like that. coffee and whatever pity food aerith or leon had brought him had practically been his entire diet for weeks before ending up here. ] I am. New, that is.

[fieldtrip]

I'm fourteen, thanks, and nobody gives me a license.

[ She just does what she wants, obviously. Like now, as she takes that as enough of a confirmation and sets off walking toward her favorite burger place, once again figuring Riku will follow. ]

All right, hit me. What are your newbie questions?

[spiritualize]

[ follow he does, barely masking a laugh with a shake of his head. this kid was something else, and shockingly... really easy to talk to. he missed easy banter like that. ]

A bunch got answered already. The basic idea of the place is annoying and senseless, but the concept of a trap is one I'm pretty familiar with.

[ and might have had a regretful hand in enforcing one of those himself. he presses that memory down again quickly. ]

I am curious about how long everyone's been here. What about you, Toph?

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph is who she is and she isn't waiting for permission or asking for forgiveness. Sometimes that's abrasive, but a lot of the time it's refreshingly straightforward. She's not looking to prove anything and she doesn't mind going out of her way to help people. ]

I think almost a year by now? [ She's not exactly keeping track, but it is her birthday around this time of year so Toph has recently been forced to consider it must be getting close to a year. She'd shown up only a couple months after turning thirteen. ] Don't take the premise too seriously. It's not like they're literally putting us in prison or whatever. Things can suck, but we still have, like, houses and friends and jobs.

[ Toph isn't going to sugar-coat life in Aldrip, but she also comes from a world that recently wrapped up a century-long war, and she's been to Lake Laogai, among other places. She has a real sense of perspective for her age on what constitutes a prison. ]

[spiritualize]

[ the hum of acknowledgement he gives her is supposed to be neutral, but doesn't quite have all of the frustration filtered out of it. a year. riku had been processing this with the mindset of someone who had already spent so long waiting, that another period of time was nothing, but that time seemed to stretch further the more he learned. ]

Yeah, the premise didn't line up from the start. It feels like a normal world, aside from not being able to leave.

[ even the weirder experiences so far weren't too removed from what he'd experienced elsewhere. ]

[fieldtrip]

What do you mean, feels like a normal world? How many have you been to?

[ Toph still has a bit of conceptual difficulty with what's going on here. She's far from stupid, but computers are fairly abstract ideas to her, and being in a "simulation" similarly doesn't quite sink in. As a result, she tends not to include that in her newbie explanations, because if she doesn't understand it herself she doesn't think she should be the one explaining it.

Her closest understanding is that this is like the spirit world. You can get stuck here, reality itself is malleable and bends, and time doesn't pass right between here and the natural world. That's been enough for her so far. ]

[spiritualize]

A few.

[ he shrugs vaguely. it's pretty obviously more than a few, by that response.

"normal world" might be a bit of a stretch, but it's not different enough that riku feels like the distinction is important. even less so if this was some sort of simulation - that meant the real issue would be whatever state they were all in outside of this, if they still had forms outside of it at all. ]

Worlds all have their own orders and rules. It's unusual to have a lot of people from other worlds in one, but not unheard of.

[fieldtrip]

Seriously? Okay, if you're the expert, lay it out for me. Pay me back for rescuing you.

[ Toph is sincerely interested -- this sounds more comprehensible than all the tech talk -- but she's also ribbing him again. They're fast coming up on the burger place and she's ready to hear all about other worlds.

It's the kind of thing she'd like to travel around and visit if it were possible for her. ]

[spiritualize]

[ he scoffs at the teasing, but falls contemplatively quiet right after. explaining this kind of thing generally fell to the more talkative members of their little light defender squad, even if riku probably understood it better than some of them. or they'd hand the task off to ienzo, always happy to lay out details even if he tended to get carried away with academic terminology.

after a long pause, he fumbles over the beginning of the explanation anyway as they arrive at the burger place. ]

Each world's got... There's different knowledge in them, different origins. Some are really isolated. [ his own home being one of them, though with the occasional comings and goings of the aforementioned light defender squad these days, it's opened up a bit. ] Others are almost like - hubs, I guess, for people from all over.