test drive — autumn

[villagemod]

test drive — autumn
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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.

Since not all setting details have been made available yet, you are welcome to invent your own general locations for this test drive. There are no living souls in Mathias Township beyond the player characters. In fact, there are no signs of life at all... We hope you enjoy your visit.

( Recommended listening: ♫ )



— the fog —

It moves in quickly and without warning, not from the waterfront but the forest, cascading through every street in a thick wave of white. The fog is not a soft blanket enveloping the town, but a heavy weight pressing down, threatening to suffocate the sky is blotted out and you can see no further than your outstretched hand.

Those outside when it rolls in are left wandering blind, stumbling toward shelter as you're unable to even see your feet beneath you, let alone any obstacles in your path. Perhaps you call out for help, hoping for another voice to guide you toward shelter or simply another living soul. Or perhaps you were lucky enough to already be inside when the fog descended, quickly closing doors and windows to keep it from creeping in. Can you hear those voices crying out? You recognize some, but the others... Are they really there at all, or are you alone here and simply beginning to finally lose your mind?

And perhaps the most important question: Do you answer?



— portents —

You wake up with an ache in your head and a cloudiness to your thoughts, your body sprawled on the ground in a location you don't remember going to. As you sit up, the world spins and start to clutch your head — to realize there's something on your hand. A symbol, a word, a streak of wet paint or ink. You don't recognize it or have any memory of how it got there...

Or how the much larger depiction came to be on the wall or the floor around them. You can see it shining wet in the glow of whatever light source is nearest, but something instinctual urges you not to touch it. If you defy that urge, it burns, a searing pain that radiates from the matching mark on your hand.

Did you do this? Or was it done to you? The person approaching may have answers — or accusations.



— past deeds —

The Town Hall stands at the center of Mathias Township, a modest two-story building that would be welcoming if not for the faded sign, chipped paint, and deafening silence. 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 your attention is a large bulletin board on the main wall, once meant to hold flyers or announcements for the community.

What it holds now is decidedly different. Tacked onto the board is a torn scrap of paper with words scrawled almost illegibly in dark red ink.

why did this happen

Upon close examination, a keen eye will realize that the ink is actually blood, though whether it is human is unknown. And beside that scrap, a symbol has been drawn in dark black marker — it resembles a feather or a branch, but you've never seen anything like it before. It scares you even as you know it is perhaps the most important thing you have ever seen in your life.

On the floor below the bulletin board are more scraps of paper scattered amongst grime and dust, most blank but some with other strange symbols scrawled in a variety of inks, perhaps matching the pens and markers scattered near the baseboard. Some are small enough that they might have once been part of the same page, creating something larger. And to the far side, a pristine stack of crisp white copy paper and an unopened box of ballpoint pens.

What do you do?



code bases by tricklet

Comments

[wishuponastar]

You're welcome. I think we could all of us use a hand around here.

[ And she will choose kindness as often as she can afford to. Anna's scared of slipping back, of becoming once more what she fought so hard to grow from. And if they could hear one another's thoughts, they would find themselves mirrored there in many ways. Anna knows what's like to feel like half her senses are amputated, and she has almost nothing but her completely normal, human eyes and ears to rely on - well, and not even those. She glances off into the fog, briefly, thinks she hears Enochian, thinks she can hear the nurses from the asylum, and shudders before looking back to the young woman. It's there, dim but not quite gone, the sense that she can take her measure.

Anna, ironically, chooses to have faith. ]

Look... don't, hm. Don't startle and punch me alright? Just. I know this really hurts, so...

[ There's a touch of color on her cheeks. She can be more somber, solemn, stoic than this, but... well, she's thrown off kilter, and perhaps her grace holds itself back a little, perhaps she picks up on something faint in the heart and soul of the woman before her, brief and fleeting, and running through her fingers like precious water.

Anna passes her hand over the woman's open, bloodied palms, and in the fog there's a dim faint light, a small, soothing rush of warmth. When Anna pulls her hands back, those scrapes will be gone, although the dots of blood remain on now unbroken skin. ]

[chuju]

[ Daisy isn't used to being helped. She's always the one doing the helping, the one pushing aside her own needs and pain in order to be strong for others. It feels weird to accept aid when it's such a small thing, but she isn't herself right now. And... this woman likely has no idea who she is. There are no expectations that need to be met, just one person giving a hand to another in a show of good human nature that Daisy has always held tightly to. People can be good.

She doesn't expect... this. The woman seems a bit nervous or hesitant, but then there's a light and that warmth. There's no itching of skin regrowing like she'd felt from some SHIELD treatments before, it's just a warm soothing sensation and then the stinging bit in her palms is gone.

She brings her hands a little closer to her face, wipes away a few of those specks of blood, and then looks back at the stranger with genuine gratitude. Not only has she healed her injuries, but there's a steadiness in Daisy now that had been wavering before. Displays of unexplainable superpowers? That's her kind of normal. ]

Thank you. I really appreciate it. [ And then she wipes both palms on her black jeans, knowing all too well that the blood won't really show on them. It's not ideal but it's better than nothing. ] My name's Daisy.

[wishuponastar]

[ Some information filters into the part of Anna that is shrewd and calculating - the woman's not weirded out or spooked. Conclusion? Likely has some experience with... hm. Too indistinct to draw a conclusion, really. She might have exposure to the occult, to witchcraft and other magic, to monsters. Difficult to draw that particular line.

Still... good to know. And good to keep an eye on. ]

You're welcome. It's nice to meet you, Daisy - strange circumstances aside. I'm Anna.