test drive — winter

[villagemod]

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.

navigation | faq | locations | setting | mod contact

Comments

[bronxbae]

Dani keeps her eyes on Raylan's face, silently chewing on the inside of her lower lip. Three weeks. A lot can happen to a person in three weeks, particularly if that person is Malcolm Bright.

"I believe you," she says, quietly. "And I owe you. Bright is...."

He's a lot.

She takes a deep breath. "I'll tell you what he is to me. He's my partner. One of my best friends." She falters a moment. "He's a mess. I'm mad at him all the time. I worry about him all the time. I think he's the most brilliant, stupid person I've ever met, and if he thought about himself even half as much as he thought about other people he'd be a lot better off. The guy jumped on a land mine to save his team and didn't think twice about doing it."

Dani tilts her head, studying Raylan. Then she just says it. "I love him. So do Gil and Edrisa and JT, though you'd have to kill JT and then enslave his ghost to get him to admit it."

Another deep breath. "And he loves you. Malcolm Bright doesn't look at people the way he looked at you when you walked in that door. He trusts you, really trusts you, and that's not something he does. I'm not saying you have to be anything to him that you're not."

She looks back toward the stairs, eyebrows knit, clear worry in her face. "I just... I'm not sure I even knew he was able to trust people like that. And I want to know what that means to you." She shrugs. "Like I said. He's my friend. I want to know if you'd go as far for him as he would for you."

[tinstar]

Owe him? She doesn't owe him anything. They're helping Malcolm because they want to. Because they're decent and good people. But Raylan could see where she might have some thanks to give that, no matter her fears, Malcolm was okay.

Raylan let her continue, uninterrupted. It was clear that his team cared for him as much as he cared for them; it made Raylan miss Tim, Rachel and Art. Hell, even Nelson, sort of. But the more she talked, the more he got a sense- And there it was. She did love him. How deep that went was something that would remain to be seen but her deep affection was clear, regardless.

But the talk about Malcolm loving him earned a sharp pinch of his brow and a nonverbal protest that didn't get much further than the first inhale. He already knew that Malcolm liked him, that was alright, but loving him was different. There was a metric ton to unpack in all that she was saying, and while he knew part of it, how stunned she was that Malcolm could look at anyone that way was.. well, a little shocking.

"I think, maybe, you've.. I dunno, over assumed or.. possibly taken what you've seen and.. blown it out a little but that's not.. He doesn't.." One hand waffled in a few useless gestures. You don't know what that means for me, you don't know where I come from, or how this fits into how I was raised, you don't know how hard this is. No, she must be wrong.

"He trusts me because he knows that I'm not gonna let anything happen to him, even if that's from himself. That's not gonna change, regardless of how anyone feels. The situation makes things a little more.. demandin' for him. No meds to help prop himself up with makes everything a little worse. It's a copin' mechanism." If Malcolm had his meds, if Malcolm had all the sharp wits that Dani was used to around him, Raylan wouldn't exist in the same way. Wouldn't mean the same as he does now.

There were a lot of pros and cons to that particular catch .22.

"Short answer is, while he wants to be here, yes. I'm not lettin' anyone suffer in front of me if there's somethin' I can do about it. I'm not lettin' him go out there and do it alone because I already know what that looks like for him. Doc's the same. Yes, we'd go just as far for him as he'd go for us. Even under his protest, if we thought it necessary."

They loved him, even if both of the cowboys were functionally incapable of saying it. They were much more like JT then Gil, over all. Just a different breed of hardass, Raylan specifically.

[abrightboy]

Malcolm trotted down the stairs with arms full of blankets, having stopped to sit on the floor for a few minutes of breathing in and out.

He was sharing his thoughts as soon as his feet hit the floor.

“You know, the garage is big enough to split into two decent bedrooms. We can add more insulation from some of the rundown houses and seal around the bay door. If we can find a small woodstove we could even add extra heating. Then Neal and Negan can take those rooms where they probably won’t even...” his face pinched a little, “hear me. Dani can take Doc’s old room and whoever of you and Doc is... on scream duty,” he settled on with a little difficulty, “can stay on a cot or something in my room while the other stays in the master. Though that room is huge, so you could probably fit another whole bed in there if you don’t want to stay in my room the whole night,” he admitted as an option. “Though I don’t mind... leaving it after I wake up because I almost never go back to sleep.” He clutched the blankets and looked from Dani to Raylan. “And everyone will have mostly their own space.”

And Neal and Negan will be out of the scream zone.

He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, then went to drop the blankets on the sofa.

[bronxbae]

Raylan didn't know. Or didn't realize how far it went. It's fair. He's only been around Malcolm for three weeks. Three weeks of Bright suffering in a way she's never seen. Raylan has been there for Malcolm at his lowest, and it doesn't surprise her, really, that he doesn't understand what it would mean to Malcolm that he hadn't left. The girl Malcolm fell for, Eve, had seen him break once and vanished. And how long had it been before then, since he'd had anyone in his life romantically who knew how bad things were and still cared?

But it's equally clear to her that Raylan, cowboy that he is, isn't prepared for the idea of romantic involvement. He really cares about Malcolm, she believes that even if he won't say it. But romance?

Bright never was one to make things easy on himself.

She smiles at Raylan, small but real. "Good."

And that's that. For now, anyway. Dani turns to look at Malcolm, eyebrows raised. "Am I going to be the token female? You all better make sure to put the seat down when you're finished or I swear to god I'll superglue it in place. Where do I sign up for scream duty? Is there a roster?"

[tinstar]

Raylan was almost visibly relieved when Malcolm came back down the stairs, his footfalls tracked back and forth across the upper rooms as best he could with the conversation going on too. It seemed, at least, that Dani wouldn't be pushing any envelopes with Malcolm right there. The smile, the reassurance of 'Good' should have been enough but Raylan wasn't so used to being quickly pegged in anything.

A little ironic that Malcolm was going to be Raylan's shield against having to talk about it, ever at all.

"That sounds like a decent plan," he said to Malcolm with a nod before glancing over at Dani. "We can work you into rotation, if you think you can handle the strength he gets at night. Like the Hulk on ambien. 's pretty impressive, actually."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm started to shake his head, though his protest was derailed by Raylan's remark that he was impressively strong, which made him look at the Marshal with a hint of an uncertain smile. He wasn't sure how to respond to that but it was also... really flattering? But then he remembered himself and looked at Dani.

"I don't... know if... that's a great idea..." he said, concerned frown returning. "I mean. Technically you got into the middle of one once and... you did stop everyone from shooting me but. That was a relatively mild... episode."

[bronxbae]

Dani has to bite her lips together to keep from smiling at the look that Bright gives Raylan when Raylan calls him strong. Jesus, the guy has it bad.

This conversation? Definitely not over, however much Raylan might want it to be.

"I also clocked you that one time and you got five whole hours, in case you forgot. And that was when you were high."

[tinstar]

He smiled reassuringly back at Malcolm, a passing look that slipped away with a tuck down of his chin before he lifted his eyes back to Dani. "My vote'll be whatever Malcolm is comfortable with. Doc and I have gotten a pretty solid shift goin' on, but it's always easier to not change."

Raylan could, for the most part, admit some of his flaws.

"But there's plenty of detective work, not that we've gotten to far with it. Any other eyes on this... case.. is helpful. You got any strong feelin's on moonshine?"

[abrightboy]

"That was not, technically, a night terror," Malcolm pointed out. "Though it was my best night of sleep in the last twenty years," he added.

He looked at Raylan as he spoke, relief smoothing anxiety from his features a little.

Whatever Malcolm was comfortable with. Not something he was offered in his personal life often.

At his question, Malcolm raised an eyebrow and returned his gaze to Dani.

[bronxbae]

All right, the cowboy gets points. It's not something she expects from a man--actual thought for what someone else is comfortable with. She's protective, and possessive, and she forgets herself sometimes for both reasons. It's a good reminder. Malcolm might be one of hers, but he's also his own.

"Whatever Banner thinks the Hulk needs," she said finally, her little smile back in place. "And I'm always willing to form an opinion."

/scurries back out so Dani and Malcolm can talk some more.

[tinstar]

Raylan nodded with another little smile playing over his lips. She'd fit in and do fine here, at least on the days that were anywhere close to half normal.

"I'll leave y'all to settle in and catch up. Welcome to Mathis, I suppose," he said with a tip of his hat before heading out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

[abrightboy]

He watched Raylan go, then turned his attention to Dani, looking at her face for a moment before giving her a wary "Don't say anything!"

[bronxbae]

Dani almost told him that ship had sailed, but she was tactless, not stupid.

“He’s law and you’re living with him. You really think he hasn’t picked up on it?”

[abrightboy]

"What? No. I've totally been keeping a lid on it," he assured her. "Like I told Doc... nothing is ever going to happen. Okay? He's way out of my league anyway; he's not interested in me like that."

[bronxbae]

She gave him a flat look. “You almost swooned when he called you the Hulk.”

Her expression changed as he went on, gentling into something like disbelief. “You think he’s out of your league.”

[abrightboy]

"I've never been called 'the Hulk' before," he replied a little defensively. At her next comment he huffed out a small scoff, putting her blankets on one of the stools. "Way out. You can't even see his league from my league," he told her with a wave of his hands, moving back around the island to grab his tea.

[bronxbae]

Dani pursed her lips. She didn't want to say this, but when did she ever stick to what she wanted to say around Bright?

"You're wrong." She held up both hands, the gesture both defensive and quelling. "Don't. I know I just met the guy, but hearing how things have been for you, how long you've been here, and the way he talks to you..." She let her hands drop. "He's the first person I've encountered while knowing you who might actually have a shot at deserving you."

She put a hand up again. "Shut up. Would it be so bad if he knew?"

[abrightboy]

At deserving him? At deserving a lifetime of disturbed sleep and the rest of his mess?

But Dani was already not broaching his arguments before he even made them and he took it with a hint of a sigh, wrapping his hands around his cup again.

Until her last question, when his eyes shot up to hers.

"Oh my god. Absolutely! Because then everything would be weird and awkward and I wouldn't even have him as a friend anymore. Worst. Outcome," he insisted. "There's nothing to be gained by just... making him uncomfortable."

[bronxbae]

"You think him knowing you have a crush would make things weird and awkward when he's already calling you a screamer in bed."

At least there was a hint of amusement in her voice as she said it.

[abrightboy]

"Well, that's objectively true," he pointed out breezily. "In fact, Doc actually warns anyone that stays here so they aren't... alarmed. I will let him know that you... already know."

He fidgeted with his cup for a moment, looking down into it like there were any answers to be found.

"I tried not to sleep at all when I first got here," he admitted. "I huddled in a corner of the library because nobody else was out there in town at night. If I did fall asleep, nobody would hear me. I couldn't hurt anyone. Then... some things happened and... Raylan told me there was going to be a gathering at the house he shared with Doc. They'd made a batch of moonshine and were offering to share with anyone who wanted it. I don't know that I did. Want it. But I was deep in withdrawal from my medication and I needed to take the edge off somehow. I took... too much of the edge off. I fell asleep on the floor of their sunroom. Unrestrained. I... got up and rampaged into the house. I broke a glass. They had to tackle me to the floor. Do you know what they did after that? They made me eggs and told me I was staying with them."

[bronxbae]

She wanted to hug him again. Dani crossed her arms instead, leaning her hip against the island.

"Then I think we'll all get along just fine." She paused, pushed close to her limit as far as feelings were concerned. It took her a second to say anything else. "I'm not good at it either. Seeing people and..."

She scowled, looking away. "And believing there's a reason for them to stick around when things go to hell. I get not wanting to risk that."

Something else hovered at the edge of being said, but she couldn't even be sure what it was, herself. "I'm just also going to say nothing good comes from hiding things. It's your choice, what you want to do. But if he's half the guy you seem to think he is, I don't think him knowing would kick you out of the friendzone."

A one-shouldered shrug. Her expression crimped into a faint smile. "You really don't do simple, huh."

[abrightboy]

"People don't stick around," he told her, looking at her face this time. "Not for long. Not until what they've signed up for really becomes real to them. And who can blame them? If you spend a week here and decide you want to move to the empty house next door instead, I won't blame you," he told her sincerely. "You only kind of know what you're getting into. You haven't tried to live with it. And it's worse here than at home. No meds. No... coping mechanisms. Virtually nothing I use to keep myself level in day to day life is here." He shook his head and looked into his tea again. "If it weren't for them... I don't know what I'd be doing. What I would have done by now. I have to take what I can get."

[bronxbae]

She wanted to say No you don't. She wanted to look away from those stupidly blue eyes. "They have."

I will, she thought. Promises weren't shit, really. It was the doing that counted. She couldn't lie to herself. That moment with Bright in the precinct had scared her, and knowing that it wasn't a bad one didn't make that feeling go away. The fact that most of her fear was for him also didn't make it a simpler knot to untangle.

She picked up her own tea again, mostly just to do something with her hands. Mildly, she said, "And what you can get is pretty hot."

[abrightboy]

Malcolm looked towards the stairs before he caught himself and looked back at her with a huff of a laugh at himself.

"I haven't... gotten.... that," he pointed out awkwardly. "But. I can't complain about the views in here," he conceded.

[bronxbae]

She lifted her tea, raising her eyebrows as she peered at him over the rim of the mug. "Does he sleep shirtless? He seems like a shirtless sleeper kind of guy."