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January 2024 Test Drive Meme: Our First!
| Welcome to the Simulation: Our First Test Drive |
Full Navigation Reserves open 01/27/2024 @ 12:00 AM EST |
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Summary: 🌼 Content Warnings: Optional light alcohol, isolation, bad weather via thunderstorms, feeling of being watched and taunted, false information, mental manipulation, memory manipulation, memories or depictions of murder and torture There is a knock at the door. You mustn't answer the door. It has been a long, long, long day, hasn't it? You don't even remember sitting on the couch and you certainly don't remember dozing off. But that strange broadcast certainly woke you up and now...You are here. In an unfamiliar house with outdated wallpaper and dirty carpet. The weather outside seems frightful. Torrential downpours with clashing thunder and flashes of lightning chase even the most persistent shadows in the house. Was the lady on the TV serious? Did you just have to wait in this lousy place for the storm to blow over? Or, wait, how did she word it? Wait while things finish configuration. Damn, your head is hurting and you could use a drink. Hopefully, the tacky yellow kitchen has a stocked fridge. Luckily for you, it's filled with fresh food and some fresh booze. There is a knock at the door. You mustn't answer the door. Unluckily for you, there is another person in this house with you. They might have woken up on the same couch as you or are bumping around upstairs. Either way, the freak in the polka-dot dress wasn't wrong: You're not alone here. When you and whoever else in this house finally join up, you will notice that the house seems to become a bit more lively. The pictures on the wall change to feature you or your companion. Some of the pictures are genuine from back in your homeworld, but others...Not so much. Others look like false memories of you with families you don't even remember or at a school you never attended, but they are all so real you can't help but think maybe Daisy is telling the truth after all. There is a heavier knock at the door. You mustn't answer the door. There is a radio in the house that suddenly begins to declare an emergency announcement: "At this time, we urge all residents of Sweet Acres to seek shelter immediately. The wind is picking up and we anticipate this storm to last the rest of the night - Oh? A heavy booming knock lands three times at the front door. Let. Me. In. The pictures around the house begin to change. Now it shows you and whoever you're sharing the house with doing some...terrible things. Maybe some of it is true. Some of it may be completely false. Will it matter when the pictures seem so terrifyingly real? What happens when the TV glitches on and starts to play sketchy home videos of one of you doing something terrible? What happens when the radio starts to play terrifying audio of you confessing to an atrocious crime? What happens when the person you're stuck in the house with might just be the stranger the radio warned you about? Or will you have the sense to realize that something is very wrong here and that you're both being played a fool? The knocking at the door is only getting louder. So loud it cracks the door. The storm worsens. What should you do? The madness will only worsen the longer you stay. You may even be driven to defend yourself from each other, you may come to develop false memories of crimes you didn't commit. You may just... Decide to open that damn door already. It turns out, that's what you needed to do the entire time. Because the moment you do? You open the door and see a beautiful, sunny day outside. No rain. Not a single gray cloud. Certainly no horrifying stranger either. But now you're left with whatever you did or thought from the house. For some people, the terror may slip away as easily as the rain, but for some of you, you might be stuck with paranoia and suspicion. Welcome to Sweet Acres. |
| [ The Bot Problem ] |
Summary: 🌼 Content Warnings: Forced sexuality, optional sex, aphrodisiac style computer virus, dubious consent, hunted by machines, use of bombs, guns, and shrapnel. Possible character death or maiming You will notice that there are still some errors in the system as you go out and about exploring your new town. There will be an occasional glitch that opens up a screaming void of bottomless darkness before it blinks out of existence. Those are unsettling enough, but at least they don't seem harmless. The bots, on the other hand, are a different story. They glitch into the town, cracking through this carefully structured reality like breaking through a window. It seems like Daisy has a lot of work to do on the external firewalls of Sweet Acres! In the meantime, you're going to have to deal with her incompetence. A lot of the bots can easily be mistaken for other residents in town. These are model-gorgeous women and men who almost seemed like caricatures of stereotypical beauty conventions. Big lips, huge hips, large muscles, chiseled jaws, perfect hair, pearly white teeth. These beauties flounce about and no matter who or what you are, if they look your way, they are immediately approaching you. "Hey, sexy. I'm single, horny, and lonely. I just turned 18 and I've got my daddy's credit card." "I've never seen a person more beautiful than you. I'm the CEO of at least three different six-figure income businesses. How about I take you on a night out in my Ferrari?" There isn't a single thought behind those eyes or in those smiles. If you have the thought to rely on your Daze, you can just block the Sex Bots and they will blink out of existence. Alternatively, you could probably just smash them out of existence with a good punch or the swing of a weapon...They will just vanish into a cloud of corrupt coding. But if you're a bit more gullible and still catching up on the strangeness of this place or can't figure out Daze, you might make the mistake of responding to one of these bots. The Bot will immediately scan you for all of your information and warp its features into something that you actually would find to be the ideal beauty. "This is better, right?" It's hard to deny...They even sound like the ideal beauty in your mind. A gentle hand on your arm and then they are leading you away. Except they aren't leading you anywhere. You watch helplessly as coding goes up your arm and begins to consume your body. You can't feel anything but a prickling sensation. The Bot vanishes, but you are left rewired. Now it is you with the dramatic features emphasizing your most attractive parts. Regardless of your personality, you suddenly feel the urge to walk up to just about anyone anywhere and flirt with them. Whether stupidly or sincerely. It's hard to remember yourself with the bot's virus wreaking havoc on your Daze. Worst case scenario? You wind up sleeping with someone because of this bizarre virus, but you will also ironically get it out of your system this way and feel completely normal after. Alternatively, you can find someone who is a bit more tech-savvy with the Daze and who might have an idea of how to hack into your system and get rid of the virus for you. This might involve some personal line of questioning, but hey, at least you're not walking around asking for sex from total strangers anymore! The Sex Bots are a dream compared to the other virus attacking the system of Sweet Acres. One will begin to see small metal robots trotting about, no bigger than a backpack, with lethal determination. These metal dogs scour their surroundings for anything organic or anything that doesn't belong in the space. This means they are actively ripping up plants and destroying trees, which is tragic enough, but just be glad they haven't seen you yet because it turns out that Daisy's Sweet Subjects are the metal dog's top priority. The moment they notice you, they will begin a neverending chase. These robots can catch up to a speeding car and resist an enormous amount of damage. They are waterproof and run on their own network completely disconnected from the Daze, so good luck trying to hack into them- it won't work. They can see just as well in the dark as the light and have sensors that allow them to pick up on body temperature as well as any vibrations you might make. They are not gentle creatures: their goal is to terminate all organic beings and Sweet Subjects in the area. If they catch you, they will immediately attempt to blow your head off with a small gun they can form. Alternatively, they will expel a shrapnel bomb if you catch them off guard. They also have paralyzing fog bombs. Metal dogs can be destroyed, however. With large explosions, armor-piercing weaponry, people with extreme super strength. Or you can get creative! Maybe you know a spell that can turn them into a stuffed animal or melt the metal. Maybe you have control over metal beings. There are ways to destroy these things. But don't worry. If worse comes to worse, Daisy is going around to destroy them for you. But do you really want to owe her your life? |
Ellie | The Last Of Us 2 | CRAU
[BOT PROBLEM]
WILDCARD
[ Ellie is a CRAU from The Village, which was also a small town horror setting. She's not very different from how she was at home, though some of her rage has cooled (or turned back into despair, depends on the day/incident), her mental health is real shaky, and she's familiar with the existence of magic and of other worlds.
I'm
bot stuff
So, a robot that extremely looks like a robot is going to walk right up and punch the leather jacketed bot right in the face. She, of course, explodes into bits of code before dissipating, and Hal turns his head to look at the presumably human next to him.
"You can block them if you think real hard about it," he explains, "but it seems that sometimes the manual way is more cathartic."
His voice is very slightly metallic-sounding and he's made of matte grey metal and red circuitry lining his face and hands, but despite the materials he looks normal human shaped. It's probably pretty uncanny, sorry.
no subject
But what is maybe even stranger in this moment is another robot waltzing over and punching the shit out of the sexbot.
"Holy fuck," Ellie says, eyes wide. "Are you…"
Wait, how does one talk to a robot? He seems to be much more conscious of himself than the sex ones are. What do they call that, robots that think for themselves? Androids or something, she thinks. She's read a lot of books.
"You're different from them," she says instead, knowing it sounds stupid as hell.
"Uh. I mean. Thanks?"
no subject
"You're welcome. But yes, I'm very different from them. It seems those bots are built around a single purpose with a small script of responses, much like a simple chat bot given a body. I'm a fully-formed artificial intelligence."
A beat passes, and he continues. "My name is lil Hal, but you can just call me Hal."
no subject
She stares at him all through that explanation.
"This is cool as hell," she murmurs, only half-aware she said that out loud. Not that she's sorry! This whole place is strange and wild and she's not entirely convinced it's not a dream. Or a hallucination. Maybe Mathias finally just fucked her up for good. Cool robot dude who punches evil robot dudes, though? How can she not like that?
"I'm Ellie. Is there a big Hal or are you just Lil Hal for fun?" she asks, one side of her mouth quirking up. Even in a bizarro world situation, her sense of humour is what it is.
no subject
Hal's body doesn't have the capacity to blush, but he seems a little flustered all the same: he rubs the back of his neck like a damn anime character, even. "Thank you. One of my main goals in existence is to be cool as hell." Is that a joke? It's unclear, but he seems in a really good mood over being called cool. He knows he's cool, but it's really nice to have someone else admit it.
"There is one, actually." A timeline without knowledge of 'daddy' Hal is truly a tragedy, and he's happy to explain it. "On old Earth there was a science-fiction film called 2001: a Space Odyssey. In it, there's an artificial intelligence named Hal 9000. When I named myself, it felt ironic, which I liked."
no subject
She grins, lopsided, at the explanation.
"Yeah, I've seen that one," she says. She's seen as many old movies as they could scavenge from wherever, DVD and VHS both. She does especially like space movies, though.
"So…you're not like them. Are you, um, more like me? I'm not from here either."
Something in her head keeps telling her she is from here, that she grew up in Sweet Water with a regular family. But it's bullshit. She knows that can't be true. The evidence is emblazoned on her skin, scars beneath the tattoo on her arm, Joel's watch shoved in her pocket like a secret protection charm. It's too big for her to wear, but it makes her feel…more grounded, maybe.
no subject
"Um. Hi. I'm not -- I'm as lost as you are. My name's Koby. I'm not going to hurt you." Right, because she's obviously deeply concerned about that. Koby's about as intimidating as a bean sprout.
Then, jumping about a mile when the knocking sounds: "Yeah. Yeah, I can hear it."
no subject
He doesn't. He looks as tense as she feels, which probably means they're in this weird ass situation together. Again, not her first go round with this kind of shit. She's getting pretty sick of it, in fact, especially the part where she has absolutely no control over it or idea when it will happen.
"I don't remember seeing you in Mathias," Ellie says. The knocking continues. Mathias. Is that right? Sweet Acres. This is Sweet Acres. She heard that in the broadcast.
"Something is really fucked up here," she says out loud, but she hasn't gotten around to putting her finger on it. She just woke up, so it's understandable.
The knocking stops and they're left in the eerie quiet, the static from the television buzzing softly behind them. It reminds her of a horror movie.
no subject
So, both hands reaching out to grab onto the back of the couch -- for stability, for something to remind him this is all real -- he manages to shake his head. "I've never heard of that place. I haven't seen you in the East Blue -- which I'm guessing you haven't heard of either?"
Multiple worlds. Multiple people waking up here. Why? The knocking starts again, softer, almost inaudible for now.
no subject
"No. I've never heard of the East Blue." It's weird to her that it's not, like, a town name. The East Blue. What the hell.
Is this not Mathias? Did she somehow escape that nightmare? She doesn't remember leaving. All she remembers is…well, nothing. Not even going to sleep.
That can't be right. Of course she went to sleep. She fell asleep watching TV on the couch here in Sweet Acres. But her mind fails to fill in a space for Koby, and that anchors her.
Her eyes dart towards the door. The knocking is back, just barely. For the moment, she ignores it. In Mathias at night, when they were warned not to go out, that meant business. There would be monsters or something. Monsters don't knock, though, right?
"Sorry, this is…a lot. I'm Ellie," she says, realising she didn't actually tell him. He looks like he might vibrate through the floor with anxiety, and really? She can't blame him.
"Do you remember this place? This house? I have this weird feeling like…it's familiar."
no subject
But then: a memory, Koby on this exact couch, in this exact room, resting his cheek on one hand as he watches TV, as he thinks about how he needs to run to the store, needs to get the gutters cleaned, needs to do a load of laundry in the morning. It fits just as neatly. Like everything about his life on the seas was a very strange, very vivid dream.
"...I don't know." It's the most honest Koby can be, crossing his arms across his chest, tightly. "I...feel like I might, but...also that I might not?" A beat. "I'm Koby. By the way." Another beat. "Do you feel that same way?"
no subject
Man, it would be cool to have pink hair.
She nods.
"Yeah. That's exactly how I feel."
The knocking resumes and it causes her shoulders to tense.
"So, listen. This is going to sound totally fucking insane, but…this isn't the first time I woke up somewhere weird. People from all over the fucking place did the same. But I don't mean, like, from another country. I mean from different worlds." Even as she says it, she knows what it sounds like. She can feel her cheeks get hot; this is embarrassing. Why is she telling (her brother?) this guy any of this? Why should he believe her?
"Mathias was the name of the place we were trapped, but none of us were from there."
no subject
The renewed knocking makes him cringe, full-body, instinctively moving a few more steps away from the door. He thinks: Alvida, her club, blood on the deck. He tries to make himself stop thinking.
At least the girl understands, feels that same sense of unreality, of wrongness. More than that, she launches immediately into a description of something that -- yes, it sounds absolutely absurd, illogical, impossible. But Koby's best friend is made of rubber, so. Maybe not that impossible. "What happened, there? Was it anything like this?"
Please Wait (Also hi fellow CRAU player) (cw: slight innuendo-y joke)
"Audrey," she says. "Did you also get a message from that clown-faced weirdo?" She pauses at the question. "Oh...yeah. Whoever it is has been banging that door pretty hard and long, haven't they?"
no subject
The knocking at the door stops for a few seconds before resuming.
"Ellie," she says, still tense. She doesn't really want to throw down here in the living room, but if it came to it, she could and would. So far, they're just sizing each other up. She can stand that.
"Clown-faced weirdo is a good way to put it," she answers. "Yeah, I got some message about, I dunno. A simulation?"
no subject
"Same here. As well as her claiming that she made us." It feels...weirdly believable to Audrey, for some reason that nags at her mind. "And that we have to stay here for some reason. Any of this ringing a bell for you-" She sweeps a hand at the wall, then blinks when she sees one of the pictures, squinting.
"Is that...us?"