The Village Mod (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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villagememes2020-11-19 10:10 pm
villagemod) wrote in villagememes2020-11-19 10:10 pm
Entry tags:
test drive — winter
WINTER TEST DRIVE
Welcome to the test drive and thank you for your interest in The Village. This test drive is not game canon but will allow players the opportunity to experiment with game mechanics, the setting, and the flexibility of choice allowed by this game. The following prompts are examples of typical situations characters might face in the game. At least one thread from the TDM is required as part of the game's application process.
The setting details and locations are still being unveiled in the game, so prospective players are welcome to play with established locations or create their own within the general setting of Mathias.( Recommended listening: ♫ )
INTO THE ENDLESS
Winter has arrived in Mathias. Snow falls steadily, big puffy flakes that pile up quickly in drifts as the wind blows them around town. The trees in the forest are covered in it, the branches bending under the weight and shaking when the piles fall from them to the forest floor. The roofs of buildings become solid white and drifts form in doorways as the wind tries to rush inside anywhere it can.
New arrivals wake in the forest, with its winding paths twisting back on themselves as they branch in either direction. It isn't safe to stray from the path, there is a menacing fog that waits just a few yards inward in any direction, but for now, there is nothing impeding movement along those snow-covered paths that cut through the trees. Continue stumbling in one direction and you'll reach the small town, coming out near the mishmash of quaint houses that nestle beside crumbling ruins that used to be homes. But choose the other and you'll seem to stumble on forever, huddling against the wind until there seems to be a clearing up ahead—
And then nothing. The earth opens up before you in a ravine so deep that the bottom cannot be seen. The other side can be seen, tantalizingly out of reach, and there is the sense that safety is just beyond, if only you could get there. But with that sensation is also the knowledge that if you stay here, you will die. The edge seems unsteady, like getting too close would set it crumbling and send you tumbling into that dark endless nothing that waits below...
BODIES WITHOUT SOULS
Benedict Books is nestled quaintly on the square surrounding Mathias's Town Hall, a thick layer of dirt covering the front windows. Looking through those windows provides a much different view than looking directly into the shop through the doorway — vague shapes and forms of figures seem to be inside, though no details can be determined through the streaks of grime. Flickers that resemble flashlights can be seen passing along the windows from time to time, and on occasion there is even a muffled tapping sound that comes from behind the glass, as if someone is trying to get your attention. The same distorted figures can be seen looking through the windows from the inside outward, but moving from one side or the other reveals... nothing. There is nothing there, and perhaps it is all in your imagination.
A portrait hangs at the front of the store to illustrate the namesake of the little shop... that may, in fact, not be so little. Dust covers everything in sight and detritus litters the wooden floor, as if someone left the door open and allowed half the forest inside.
The books are mostly familiar titles from the 1990s and earlier, but close examination will reveal that key details seem to have been changed. They fill shelves in neat lines along the walls and rows in between, the building almost seeming to stretch on forever until, finally, a small office can be seen tucked away in the back. A glance back toward the front door gives the impression that the room isn't that big, after all. Strange that you previously thought so.
Prying the door open is the only way to get inside the small office; the hinges have rusted and are caked with dirt and grime. Search as you might, there are no interesting bits of information to be found here beyond a few inventory lists on the little desk. There is, however, a green and gold safe in the corner that, no matter how many times one turns the dial, simply clicks and clicks. Scratches around the safe indicate that someone tried to get in at one point, though there's no indication as to whether they succeeded.
THE END APPROACHES
Standing at the center of Mathias, the town hall is a modest two-story building that would be welcoming if not for the faded sign, chipped paint, and deafening silence within its empty halls. It's a typical government building, with a reception desk at the front and rows of identical offices within, the names half faded from each door. But what catches the attention is a large bulletin board on the main wall beside the reception desk, once meant to hold flyers or announcements for the community.
What it holds now is decidedly different. Tacked onto the board are scraps of paper covered in an assortment of handwriting styles — requests for supplies should anyone find them, pieces of information shared in the hopes of someone understanding the strange symbols and mathematical equations, notes about those missing or recently deceased. And over the center of the board, tacked on top of other papers, is a map discolored with age. Mathias Township can be read in the corner, a stretch of forest displayed beneath it, but everything else has been smeared to illegibility with red... ink? Upon close examination, a keen eye will realize that the ink is actually blood, though whether it is human is unknown. And scrawled across that forest, nearly covering the illustration of a clearing and a large house within, are the wordshe is coming
A number of tarnished metal pushpins are scattered around the edges of the board, waiting for future messages to be shared, and a stack of pristine white paper and pile of cheap ballpoint pens rest on one of three chairs beside the board. The chairs are clearly meant for those waiting for meetings and are covered in the same layer of grime as everything else in the building — everything except the pens, paper, and bulletin board.
Echo | Dollhouse | OTA | Will match format
[ You know who's already 100% done with all this nonsense? This girl right here. Her nerves are too jangled thanks to all the absolute bullshit going on back at home, and to make matters worse, she's been swept off to wherever the hell this is.
Obviously, it's a forest, but it's a forest she's never seen before. ]
Whatever's happening here, it's really not okay to just sweep someone off to wherever without asking.
[ Sure, there's some irony there because of all the years she spent being pointed in a direction and programmed to go there, but now no one's calling the shots but her. Or at least, they weren't until right now.
The woods stay quiet, except for the sound of her voice and her footsteps crunching through the snow, and of course she knows she has no choice but to find a way out of this.
There must be a house, a town- something. But rather than finding any of those things right away, she realizes her path is leading her towards a steep drop down a giant chasm. ]
Okay, note to self: don't go walking around at night.
[ Because falling down there would most likely not end well, and she'd rather pass on falling to her death. ]
II. Talking to yourself
[ Echo's moved on to Benedict Books, and while she's not really an avid reader by any stretch of the imagination, she's methodically working her way through each shelf, reading each title and leafing through ones that catch her attention.
Eventually, though, she gets tired of browsing row after row of shelves and finding nothing of interest. As she's turning to leave, she spots the office way in the back, and deciding it's worth a look, she decides to go check it out.
It takes a moment to pry the door open, but once it is, she doesn't hesitate and steps inside. ]
Hey, anyone here?
[ The layers of dust give the answer pretty clearly, but Echo quickly loses interest in waiting for one anyway. She's just spotted the safe in the back corner, and if anyone follows her into the office, they'll notice her bent over in front of it, trying to work on getting it open. Now would be a good time for that expert safecracker imprint to kick in, but for reasons she's not understanding just yet, nothing seems to be happening. ]
III. The end approaches
That's cryptic. Who's coming?
[ Now Echo's at the town hall studying the bulletin board and the various notes that it contains. ]
I'm guessing it's not Santa Claus, and he'd be about a month too early anyway. Guys like that probably don't come around weirdo towns like this one.
[ She moves onto the next note about a missing person. ]
Daisy Johnson. No idea who that is, but I hope she gets found soon.
[ And then she just falls silent, reading the remainder of the notes. ]
IV. Wildcard
[ Feel free to hit me up with anything, if you'd rather do something else with Echo. \o\ ]
III. The end approaches
In the rubble.
Right.
But this place, for a lack of a better word, had other houses. Houses that looked more like muggle London than Mould-on-the-Wold or Tutshill.
It all seemed rather deserted as well, the streets empty and the windows dark, but Draco had kept pushing on until he got to the... this place. The bulletin board and the girl next to it, was the first sign that he'd had, that he wasn't alone here.
Which might account for half the reason why he didn't say anything for the first few minutes.]
Why?
no subject
What do you mean, why? If you were missing, and it wasn't because you felt like you needed to be alone with no one to bother you, wouldn't you want someone looking for you?
[ She shrugs. She's not really all that worked up about this Daisy's disappearance because she doesn't know her, but still. She's probably important to someone. ]
Who knows what's out there, anyway?
no subject
[If not his mother, then an Auror or two. They never seemed all that comfortable in the fact that Draco had spent only a few months in Azkaban before being released. He sniffs and arches a pale eyebrow.]
I'm not even going to contemplate why you would want to know what's out there, since it seems unlikely that it will help. If you would point the way to the nearest...[There's a stumble, like he was about to say something else but what comes out is-] fireplace, that would be much more helpful. Failing that, a broom would probably do.