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erku mods ([personal profile] erkumods) wrote in [community profile] ercookies2021-08-16 05:01 pm
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TDM 016 & 4th WALL EVENT: NO WALLS BETWEEN US

TDM 016 & 4th WALL EVENT: NO WALLS BETWEEN US



00. An Arrival and a Broken Wall?!






You should be coming out of the water, the Nameless Island's own inherent energy drawing people in. It's like being suspended between realities and abruptly pushed from behind through a rift in dimensions. It may make you sick, or that might be the motion of the ocean, lifting you to the surface and carrying you to shore.

Waterlogged and covered in sand, new arrivals should be greeted by robots who welcome them with towels and bracelet devices. The A5 card already loaded up, and if you don’t manage to get away from them quickly enough, they should usher you toward the Laid Bare Spa, where new arrivals will be offered free massages, a sauna, hairstyling, and their clothing may come up permanently missing. But you should be given a complimentary towel to leave with if needed!

Should. That’s how things are for newbies - and maybe today, some newbies will arrive the usual way. Others might be surprised to hear that there is another "you"... already here! If and when you finally meet this other "you," there's simply no way to agree on who the so-called real version is. Your histories may be the same or they may be wildly divergent, but those little differences don't change the fact that you are who you say you are. Some islanders might even find themselves running into a much older or younger version of themselves. Duplicates and doppelgangers, you say? People who look and sound familiar but are just a little bit off? What strange anomalies have washed up from the ocean!

On the other hand, maybe you’re not new here at all, or so you think. You’ve definitely been on this Island for months already. You can't exactly remember what you were doing here before, but you have the modest home and personal effects to prove that you existed. You’ve always been someone who greets new arrivals at the shore. You know very well how things work on the island, and how many of the buildings are abandoned and in dire need of repair. You know that beyond the city lingers a thick fog that obscures much of the wilderness from view. Wander too far into this fog, and you will find yourself mysteriously looping back to where you began, your memories of what you were doing and how you got there erased. You know all of this.

You’ve already claimed a place to live in the now, whether a rundown apartment in the City, a tent on the beach, a bed in the barracks, or your own space at the House of Worship.

You’re a veteran at this by now.

Aren’t you?



I. A WHOLE NEW YOU






The fog has thickened off the shores of the Island and in the areas that have still been obscured. So thick that it looks not unlike the heavy clouds of the recent storm. But late into the night and early into the morning, the fog seems to encroach on the Nameless City even more, blinding and catching Islanders traveling through in areas normally free of its effects. Anyone who gets caught in the especially heavy mist might find themselves suffering from more than just the usual amnesia.

The fog no longer only takes memories, but can also alter your memories... and you. You may forget your time on the Island. You may forget your life before. But you’ll remember something else. You’ll remember a life entirely different as if you lived it yourself: you are a merperson who has always lived here, in the waters around the Island. Those grand underwater cities look like ancient ruins to others, but to you? You still see them as beautiful and palatial as the day they were built. You are a Native whose memories are fuzzy, but you certainly remember living your entire life here in great happiness and luxury. And once you step out of the mist, you might even find yourself physically changed to match what you recall, with fins or tentacles and gills to allow you breathe beneath the waves. You might be completely transformed, or just enough to make life underwater as easy as it's ever been.

Someone else attempting to free you of these delusions will find that the more they try to force you to remember your true life, the more real and convincing your undersea life begins to feel. You must embrace this new (old?) life, embrace this new you in all ways and live it to its fullest. Completing Auspicious Acts will help bring out glimpses, hints, flashes of memory and recognition that perhaps this is not who you once were, and allow you to return to your former self. But the longer you take to embrace this, the harder it might be to let go. Some of these changes could become permanent.



II. LET XXX BE YOUR GUIDE






Things have been strange, not just for the people of the Island, but the robots as well. The typically welcoming robots that offer their assistance in guiding new arrivals or encouraging Islanders to visit the various locations seem to be scarce. There are fewer of them running around the entertainment district and other establishments. To ensure that new arrivals continue to have a pleasant Island experience, robots will be recruiting Islanders as mentors and guides: mentor guides, if you will! Volunteers will lead other Islanders around the Island as a means of helping them become better acquainted with the locations available here for your fun and entertainment, and they will be rewarded with credits for their hard work. Guides and sightseers alike could be someone fresh and new to the Island, someone who insists they’ve been here for years, or even someone that a robot randomly dragged off the street.

Mentor guides will all receive a very form-fitting and revealing uniform - no two are the same! - and, of course, a glossy paper map of all of the available sights on the Island. The pictures are big and detailed, and cute sex toy icons point out various key sights such as the recreation center, the bath house, and the library. There are even suggestions for which Auspicious Acts are the best for each location! Strangely, none of the maps list the same suggestions, so each map encourages its own unique experience.

Mentees will also find that their mentor’s voice is very appealing. So appealing that just listening to them speak is enough to get you feeling some kind of way. The more they talk, the more of a reaction you have. Your body begins to burn or itch and it’s very hard to pay attention to their words when thoughts about all the things you could be doing to them instead keep coming to your mind. The only way to relieve these thoughts might be to make your mentor stop talking altogether, or follow through with some of those helpful map suggestions.

Maybe you need them to mentor you in more ways than one?



III. SITCHES GET GLITCHES






You’re walking down the road, or in your own home, or visiting a friend and suddenly something happens out of the corner of your eye. There’s a soft pfzzzzzzt and the feel of static on the skin. You turn and realize that the wall is suddenly gone. Or, maybe the glass in a store window disappeared. Perhaps someone’s clothes just vanished off of them in the middle of the street, or the chair you were sitting in at the cafe suddenly poofs right from under you.

It’s as if the world around them is malfunctioning - little glitches that can last for seconds, hours, or even days before returning to normal on their own. Nothing that could seriously harm someone, but enough to be quite inconvenient. At least completing an Auspicious Act in the affected area or with the affected person seems to put it to rights immediately. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop these glitches from happening again. You may be concerned, and the robots understand, but if asked they will insist it’s just the world adjusting as the Augur welcomes so many new people! Nothing to be worried about, obviously. It will take time for fluctuating energy levels to adjust, that’s all.

Some robots might even say it’s the perfect time to enjoy having so few barriers between you. Embrace the open nature of the Island and share yourself and your home with others. Walls are only meant for keeping out what you could be letting in!



OOC Notes:


Enjoy a mini Fourth Wall event, Islanders! As such, this test drive meme is open for anyone to create top levels, not just prospective players. Current player characters, characters you want to play in the setting but can't app full-time, drive-by castmates, duplicates, canon AUs, characters that normally would not be allowed such as fandom AUs and genderswaps (not including characters under 15), formerly dropped characters, etc. are all encouraged to come in and play! As all other test drive memes, this one will be game canon. Characters who fourth wall but do not app will disappear after a few days to a week, along with their home (if applicable) and all of their possessions.

Please label your top levels as to whether you are test driving [TDM] or fourth walling [4W]. (Of course, you are allowed to change your mind! But our rules regarding appable characters will still apply.) Since auspicious acts are an integral part of this event, potential and current players can swap one Auspicious Act on their card for one of their choosing, if needed for any of the prompts. As usual, prospective players can use an Act and swap it onto their card if they choose to app into the game.

If you have any questions, please ask them below.




N A V I G A T I O N

sanc: (He says when you gonna make up)

[personal profile] sanc 2021-08-17 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Relena perks up at him, looking him in the eyes again. ]

Home?

[ She's not sure she'd ever heard Heero say the word. She's not sure if he's ever had a place he could call that word. She highly doubts it. Has he been here long enough to be comfortable with that word? There's already such a disconnect between what she knows and what he knows, it's very possible. ]

Sure... sure, I'll come with you. Is there-- may I have some tea when I get there? It's been so long.
heeroics: (ʜʏᴘᴏᴄʀɪᴛɪᴄᴀʟ ᴇɢᴏᴛɪꜱᴛɪᴄᴀʟ)

[personal profile] heeroics 2021-08-18 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ Heero has... a lot of things on this island that he never had anywhere in the Earth Sphere. Good things which he had long considered far outside of his comprehension, let alone his reach. Relena used to be one of them. He would like that to be true again.

Especially if she is unsafe wherever she was taken away to.

He nods, with barely a pause before he is literally sweeping her off her feet and into a carry. Heero won't give her the opportunity to deny that she needs the break. ]


Tea. Understood.

[ He thinks they still have plenty, but he is already making a note in the back of his mind to go out for something more fresh while she is resting. ]
sanc: (How to get up off this floor)

[personal profile] sanc 2021-08-18 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
[ Relena almost lets him go to let him lead, but she's swept up into his arms before she gets the opportunity. She should have known. He's always doing all he can for her. That's where they've ended up in their lives. They never have a confident word for what they are, but she's happy to be so close to the closest friend she has.

She wraps her arms around Heero's neck and rests her cheek on his shoulder. She didn't feel unsafe with Himeka and Estinien with her, but this is the safest she's felt since she left home. ]


There's no giant worms here, are there?
heeroics: (ᴡʜᴇɴ ɪ ʙʀᴇᴀᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʜᴀɪɴꜱ)

[personal profile] heeroics 2021-08-18 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He glances down at her in his arms, an obviously questioning look, but he doesn't ask outright. So many strange things happen even here on the Island, so he shouldn't be surprised that other alternate worlds would have... similarly unexpected occurrences. ]

No. There are creatures in the forests, but not in the city.

[ More concerningly, she is as light as a feather. It must only be a difference of a few pounds since she left them, but Heero notices in an instant. Has she been eating? ]

Are you hungry?
sanc: (If I only knew)

[personal profile] sanc 2021-08-18 03:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Relena realizes from the pause that Heero's a bit confused. That at leas tells her he probably hasn't been dealing with monsters. And hopefully, not mages either. ]

Not in the city. Good. I suppose I haven't been in Thorne's city to know if there are any there.

[ She is hoping not. The worm hadn't been too bad... the cave in, on the other hand...

She hears his question and and looks at him for a moment with wide eyes. ]


Hungry...

[ She hasn't even thought about food. The food was so bland and bare in portions in the dungeon, she really never looked forward to it beyond having to eat it. She didn't even realize how hungry she was until he asked. That spell probably had not helped. ]

Yes. Starving.