villagememes | test drive

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 words

he 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.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He doesn't know what to do, really. He's making it up as he goes, trying not to further piss Max off while also trying to defend himself and fight for the odd friendship the both of them have managed to develop since fleeing Manticore. He doesn't want to push too far; he doesn't want to simply roll over and profusely apologize for shit they've worked through before this.

The key is in finding the middle ground, and, honestly, even now? That's never exactly been one of Alec's strongest traits.

He arches an eyebrow at her observation.]

Don't sound so disappointed, Max. I'm not trying to screw you over here, even if you don't trust me.

[Alec rubs his hand over his face. God, but this is going to be a long conversation, he expects. And they should really find someplace else to have said conversation.]

Is there somewhere around here we can go where we can talk? I'd rather not have this conversation while freezing my ass off.

[ she doesn't, or at least she doesn't want to. his betrayal when she had had been too great. but he's already mentioned things that he shouldn't know, and however impossible what he's telling her seems, he's right - he's got no reason to lie to her when they're stuck in this place.

max looks him over again, mouth set in a line but eyes less angry, and holds his gaze for a little while before she finally relents. ]

There's an apartment above the Grey Gull. People come in and out of the restaurant, but it should be quiet upstairs.

[Alec nods. It's a start, at least. They've got a lot to talk about and work through, but at least she seems willing to hear him out. He'll take that, as long as he gets the chance to explain himself.]

I'll follow you, then. Lead the way.

[He thinks he's seen The Grey Gull, or at least, he's passed by it. At least they'll have privacy and warmth, two things Alec can appreciate as he tries to explain to Max everything she's missed out on.]

[ she nods, then turns from him, trusting him to follow in her footsteps. fortunately no one is there to witness them as they walk through the doors and disappear up the stairs in the back, up to the apartment she'd been crashing in with daisy until the boarding house had been discovered. once they're there, she secures the door behind them and listens. they're alone, no one's even in the restaurant.

max turns to him, crossing her arms back over her chest. ]

Okay. Start talking.

[ she needs to fill him in about this place, and maybe it's not fair of her to withhold information until he provides some. but it's taking a lot for her to do this after what she'd learned he'd done. ]

[Alec follows as Max moves, walking up the stairs behind the Grey Gull to the apartment Max has been telling him about. He follows her inside, waits as she secures the door behind them, and finds the nearest wall to lean on. He makes himself comfortable, not taking his eyes from Max for a single moment.]

Okay, well. Where to even start? Manticore definitely burns down, and we all escaped. You, playing hero, of course, went with some of the younger transgenics.

[He pauses, looking over at Max for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to proceed. The look he next gives her is ominous, to say the least.]

Does the name Ames White mean anything to you yet?

Ames White? No.

[ but it sounds like it should, or at the very least like it does to him. ]

Does he have something to do with why we were found out?

[He envies her for that, he really does; what he wouldn't give to not know who Ames White is.]

Well, for now, let's just say he's the worst person in existence. Literally, the worst. Whoever you think is bad now, multiply that by a million, and you still wouldn't have anything close to what White is.

[He lets out a long breath, nods. He rubs his hand over his face before he speaks again.]

Yeah. He's been...hunting people like us. Weeding us out.

[ that is...not encouraging to hear. especially the last part. an uneasy feeling creeps into her stomach as he informs her of what this ames guy has been doing to people like them - the people she'd let out when she'd burned manticore down, she's guessing. maybe even her siblings?

part of her still wonders if she can believe anything he says. the more rational part knows he's right, that he gains nothing by lying to her, that he knows it would be especially stupid to do so in this unfamiliar and dangerous place. ]

Why?

[Max thinks it's bad to hear, he thinks, wait until she experiences all of it firsthand herself. He wonders if he should bring up the breeding cult; probably not, he thinks. There's already enough he has to bring her up to speed on. Shouldn't try and completely overwhelm her.]

I believe he was trying to "clean up" the whole Manticore "mess" to prevent people from finding out the program ever existed.

[He lets out a huff of laughter, tinged bitter with the reality he recently comes from, shaking his head.]

Of course, that was before he made everything Manticore ever did public knowledge and put every single Transgenic at risk.

[ if she ever does go home and figure out the full extent of who ames white is and what he's done, she's probably not going to be happy to learn what he's kept from her. although there may be a point to what he's doing. she's already spent most of her time here feeling guilty for not being able to leave; that's bound to get that much worse if she winds up learning how important she ends up becoming to the transgenics, the ones she'd been responsible for letting out.

as it is, she already looks troubled, starting to pace with her hands pressed together against her mouth, a gesture that looks almost like praying. after a few moments of pacing, she turns back to him, her expression grim. ]

How successful has he been at that?

[Alec both envies Max her lack of knowledge of White and genuinely pities her for it at once; if this place decides, somehow, to release her, him, or, maybe, the both of them together, Max is returning to a world that's only gotten stranger since the last she saw of it.

He doesn't miss her expression; the grim nature of it, the way it looks like she's praying. His own expression turns equally grim.]

Are you sure you want the answer to that question?

[Which is, of course, an answer in its own right.]

[ her immediate thought is 'yes', of course she wants the answer, but after thinking about it for a few moments longer she isn't so sure she does. there's nothing she can do about it here and that's bound to make being here with no way out even worse.

and he's right. his answer is pretty telling on its own. ]

Okay. What about you? How is it you went from selling me out to working with me?

[He'd like to be able to give her a better answer, of course. He'd like to tell her back home isn't as much of a shit show as when she last saw it. At least, hopefully, they're all going to change that; that had been the plan, back before they all got trapped in at Jam Pony.

He chuckles at her next question, unable to help himself. It is, of course, a very fair and valid question.]

That's...a long story, with all the gory details and twists and turns you'd expect out of a life like ours.

[He tilts his head, considering how he wants to answer for a moment.]

You don't remember this, but you once told me, if I was going to do the hero thing, I couldn't do it half-assed. I finally started to stop being half-assed about it.

test drive — winter

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