wpsfaculty: (Default)
Faculty & Staff of Whispering Pines Sanatorium ([personal profile] wpsfaculty) wrote in [community profile] dhmeming2019-05-15 09:42 pm
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test drive meme. 001

T E S T  D R I V E  M E M E




Welcome to the Dead House.

And to our first Test Drive Meme! Please see the links below for information on the housing arrangements and the setting to get some ideas! Below is also an example of one of the altering events and how it can be played with in game!

There's also the option of using that neat little wrist screen to see who all these "others" are!

Note: If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask on the FAQ.

premisegetting startedrules/faqhousingsetting



one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

PROMPT 1: Left to Your Own Devices

There's no tugging sensation, so sense of falling or of being uninterruptedly drawn from your own world, or wherever you've found yourself, to yet another. Your sense of smell returns first, as the antiseptic scent of hospital fills your nostrils and a bright light somewhere above you begins to pierce the gloom as a reassuring male voice repeats your name.

A medicinal haze fills your mind, clouding your thoughts as you blink your eyes open. The man, blond with a gentle smile and kind eyes behind thick glasses, across the simple wooden desk from you seems familiar, but you're sure you've never seen the man before...right? He tells you that it's alright, that you had another episode and required sedation, that the drugs are wearing off now and any residual haze you're experiencing should clear as the day progresses.

After a discussion, limbs still refusing to cooperate, you're taken through winding corridors and up a rickety elevator to a floor with rows of numbers doors on either side. One is opened and inside you're deposited unceremoniously on the small cot within. An undetermined amount of time passes as sounds occur around you, the shuffling of feet, muffled voices, a bird at the small barred window letting in overcast daylight. Are the sounds figments of your hazy imagination or is that someone at your open door trying to get your attention? If only your limbs would cooperate...

PROMPT 2: and at the mercy of a strange device...

The world begins to take in a sharper focus as a vibrating sensation at your wrist catches your attention. There, a plain hospital bracelet, stating only your full name and a room number, is found, shaking gently against your skin. Brushing at it, what first seemed to be only a clear window holding a piece of type-printed paper with your information on it goes to static for a moment, like a small view screen, then to black, and the following words flash quickly across the screen:
your memories are real
there are others
don't believe their lies

Any attempt to respond to the strange message is met with silence. What others? Do they mean the other people on your floor? The other floors? Do they mean their lies or the ones who put you here, apparently for your own good?

PROMPT 3: Where exactly is here?

The room in which you find yourself is sparcely furnished, but with a bit of peculiarity for the curious and exploratative. The facility itself seems to run on a firm schedule that affords for a lot of free time to use the facilities, be it the sparce showers, the rec rooms on every floor that contact various but rudamentary forms of entertainment, or the yard with its exercise areas, spaces for outdoor sports, and the workshop for the more industrious patients. There's even a list of tasks that need performing, with a reward system in place.

NOTE: When the environment isn't altered in some way, the above is what patients can expect from the day to day life of the Dead House. The cafeteria and the yard are open at specific times of the day, stated on the Housing page. Otherwise, patients are given free rein through the wards, including the recreation rooms and there is no "lights-out" time.

EVENT PART I: just another day at the carnival.

Access to the Yard opens today like it does everyday, but as soon as the double doors open, the scent of popcorn, cotton candy, fried dough and anything else you typically associate with a carnival assail your nostrils along with cheery carnival music. The mist that typically hangs over everything is gone, replaced by resplendent sunshine that reflects on all the brightly colored carnival tents, the gleaming metal of the rides...when did this get here?

Looking back, the hospital building is nowhere in sight, and it looks as though you stepped through a fairgrounds entranceway, instead. You and everyone else around is clothed, suddenly and without warning, in whatever clothing would be normal for you in your own worlds, but no matter how outlandish that might be, no one seems to take any offense to it.

Patients are free to roam the carnival, ride the rides, eat the popcorn and other treats, play the carnival games and even win prizes! Hey, there seems to be plenty of acceptable currency in your pockets, so why not, right?

For those of you who return through the doors you entered by on-time per the schedule, your clothes return to scrubs and anything you won or bought at the carnival disappears...

...except for one thing of the player's choosing. Did you get to keep that stuffed animal you strove so hard for? Maybe a candied apple? Whatever it is, that one thing is yours to keep! Un...less the orderlies find it. Maybe you should stash it in that chest of yours in your room...




EVENT PART II: one night in horrorland.

For those more stupidly brave and adventurous patients who stay outside after the doors have closed, the cheerful carnival changes quickly as the sun sets below the horizon. The dazzling lights go out, leaving the entire assembly, and all its attendees from the hospital plunged into darkness. With the loss of light, all the throngs of people who'd been attending the carnival seem to have disappeared as well. In fact, looking around at the gloomy midway and off-shoots bathed in the light of the full moon overhead, it seems as though no one has been here for some time. Signs and billboards that had appeared new in the light of day seem weatherbeaten and abandoned, garbage never cleared rots in the streets, filling the area with a sickeningly sweet smell of decay.

The passages seem to shift, like a moving labyrinth, if patients attempt to find the way out, to the comparable safety and warmth of the hospital, and considering the sense of being watched that seems to be creeping up on all of you, sending a close sweat down your spines, that might be a good idea...if you can find the way. The gloom itself is thick, and figures move just at the edge of your vision, darting into a funhouse here, or maybe even calling your name...

...with a voice that sounds familiar. Follow at your own risk, though, because anyone who hasn't found their way back to the hospital before the sun rises may find themselves missing, as the carnival leaves with the sunrise...

OOC note: The figures characters glimpse are real, and you're free to NPC whatever haunted carnival, slasher film, or other horror movie trope you'd like with them if they corner your character...or if your character happens to think they've cornered them. Keep in mind, characters can die, and the cost of returning is a lost memory. Have fun!



navigation: premiserules/faqreservespatientsapplicationssettingic commooc commmeme commdirectory
customplates: (aaron_041)

[personal profile] customplates 2019-06-30 04:26 pm (UTC)(link)
He shakes his head at the question. He'd noted a few others, but nothing shocking. Actually, he supposed it was.

"There aren't many, which is weird, right? You'd think there'd be more people, with how many rooms there are."
luckyescape: (Laughing.)

[personal profile] luckyescape 2019-07-01 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
Freya rolled her eyes at him. "You know if everyone had magic then I'm sure we could all be cautious." But she was smiling. It wasn't every day that someone got to run away from zombie clowns with Loki and then go stomping through the woods with him.

This was a fucking weird place.

"So. You been in crazy town long? Oh, do any of the people at the hospital even recognize your magic or is like-" Freya waved her arms through the air. "-oblivious?"

A beat.

"What if you turn someone's head into a goat?"

Totally normal conversation.
whereishe: (so he says)

[personal profile] whereishe 2019-07-01 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
"Maybe they're still trying to get people? It can't be easy if no one wants to be here." It was hard to say but Yuna was fairly sure that this was not a place that people voluntarily went too.

"Have you talked to many here or the people in charge?"
vahmedohpe: (but the voice inside)

Revali | LOZ: Breath of the Wild | will match format

[personal profile] vahmedohpe 2019-07-01 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[ ooc: his humanized form is a tall guy with light brown skin, dark brown eyes, and black hair in a high little manbun. ]

••• eerie bracelet

Revali sees the message when he's training in the yard. Training calms him. The ache in his muscles and the deep breaths his heightened heartbeat forces him to take are the only thing about this place that feels right. Of course, he's too low to the ground, and he feels almost naked with all this exposed skin (shorts and a sleeveless top... he should be covered in feathers, right? Even if the doctors say it's a delusion, that memory feels so real...)

And according to this, they are real.

He turns around, scanning the yard. Who else received this message? Who is among these "others?"

The only way to find out is to ask, so he goes up to the nearest person and strikes up conversation, fake casual.

"Peculiar wristbands we have, wouldn't you say?"


••• fairgrounds, daytime

"A boar."

Revali snorts. He hates it. There's nothing wrong with the stuffed boar with its tusks and flat snout, but there's a memory twisting around in the shadows in the back of his mind that makes the carnival prize just repulsive.

So he turns to whoever's next to him and holds it out to them.

"Take this. I don't need a stuffed trophy to show I'm skilled at throwing balls at bottles."

(He needs a medal or a plaque, tbh, but who's keeping track.)


•••wildcard

[ come at me ]
monkey_wrench: (XS 007)

eerie bracelet

[personal profile] monkey_wrench 2019-07-03 07:13 am (UTC)(link)
Sitting in one of the shadier spots of this section of the yard, there were parts of something that had likely once been someone's digital clock methodically strewn out in front of him as he did something with them.

Absorbed in his current project, he didn't register the other patient approaching until he spoke up next to him, and letting out a startled yelp he jolts away from the sudden unexpected noise. Seeing that it's just another patient, fear turns to embarrassment before settling into a petulant scowl.

"Yeah? And what ain't 'peculiar' in this place?" He responds snappishly, gathering himself and snatching his screwdriver back up before returning his attention to the mess of parts and wires. For a moment, it seems like that bratty retort is likely to be the end of his contribution to the conversation, but apparently, he thinks better of it after a second or two. "Peculiar, how?"
itsnothingpersonal: (loki_026)

[personal profile] itsnothingpersonal 2019-07-03 05:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"They make no note of my magics and tell me I'm only mad." He smiles at his response before continuing. "Which may be true, at least the latter."

He gave a shrug. "Do any of us really know how long we've been here?" And he begins to smirk at the question. "That depends. Are you asking what would happen if I turned someone's head into an entire goat, or simply if I gave them a goat's head?"
customplates: (aaron_025)

[personal profile] customplates 2019-07-03 06:32 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's kind of hard to talk to the people in charge when no one comes here but the nurses." He was learning to like this place less and less.

"And I don't know what they want us for."
whereishe: (happy talking)

[personal profile] whereishe 2019-07-04 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Yuna looked down at the medical bracelet circling her wrist and exhaled a sigh. "Maybe they really think they're helping. Either way, we can stay here forever." She looked down the hall but there was nothing about this place that was recognizable. She'd never been here before, despite the feeling that she'd been committed for some unknown amount of time.

"The nurses don't know anything but is there a way to contact people outside? Or maybe if we just…" Her voice trailed off. "Rikku is better at breaking into places but we can give it a try."
luckyescape: (It's Irony.)

[personal profile] luckyescape 2019-07-04 05:10 am (UTC)(link)
Freya hummed as if she was carefully considering Loki's experiences and comparing them against her own. "The two aren't mutually exclusive. I'm pretty sure I'm mad but I don't really think there is anything wrong with that. We all have our issues and I'd much rather focus on enjoying my life." She stretched her arms over head and yawned.

"Thinking about hospitals makes me sleepy."

Not that Freya has had a lot of experience in hospitals. She had tried her damnest to avoid them at all costs before she had woken up in that too clean-too white room.

Her lips curled into a smirk as her arms fell down to her sides. "Oh man, both. Can I go with both because now I want to see both of those things happen, but it does make me wonder how the anatomy of a goat body taking the place of a human head would work?"
vahmedohpe: (maybe i can roll with mine)

[personal profile] vahmedohpe 2019-07-04 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)
That's a fair reaction. This place... Revali really doesn't like it.

"They're merely meant as identification devices." That eyeroll is almost audible there.. "Mine... malfunctioned, a moment ago. Has yours?"
monkey_wrench: (XS 049)

[personal profile] monkey_wrench 2019-07-06 02:31 am (UTC)(link)
Pausing his tinkering, he starts tapping the end of his screwdriver on the clock's casing as he mulls those words over for a moment, trying to decide if he's reading too much into them.

It doesn't take long for him to fain going back to his work though, a decisive twirl of the screwdriver marking he'd made up his mind before he gives his faux cool response.

"If you're talking about it displaying cryptic messages, I don't know if I would call that a malfunction." Not really one for subtlety he decides to just cut to the quick with this. But as a half joke/half genuine offer (in the case he was reading this situation all wrong because this certainly wouldn't be a first) he adds, "If it's something else, I can take a crack at fixing it but it's gonna cost you."
customplates: (🛑 061)

[personal profile] customplates 2019-07-06 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
He looked down at the bracelet himself when she did, eyes narrowing slightly at the circle of plastic, unassuming but certainly something more to it, before nodding.

"When you woke up, did you see the message?"
itsnothingpersonal: (loki2_007)

[personal profile] itsnothingpersonal 2019-07-06 05:41 pm (UTC)(link)
She and Loki had that in common. He was, after all he'd done and been through, most certainly mad, but no human hospital for the mad could hope to hold him, of that much he was certain. Something more occurred here, something that allowed the faculty to look past their extraordinary abilities, something that rendered them useless against them. This place, for all its finality, was a lie.

He smiled thoughtfully. "Gruesome, likely deadly for either, really, but what a glorious death."
luckyescape: (I'm not paying attention.)

[personal profile] luckyescape 2019-07-07 01:12 am (UTC)(link)
"Worth it." Freya remarked as they continued through the woods. She really didn't like hospitals.

The trees were thinning and breaking apart ahead. She began to slow their pace, her ears perking at every little rustle and noise in the distance. "I think we're close and yup. Clowns... let's hope they only hear and can't smell."

Freya looks back at Loki. "Ready to star in your very own horror movie?"
itsnothingpersonal: (loki_010)

[personal profile] itsnothingpersonal 2019-07-07 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Energy shimmered across his skin again, and his clothing transformed into supple black and green leather armor, a brilliant green cape, and golden helmet topped with great, curving horns. He moved his arms out to the side, and two wicked daggers appeared in his gloved hands, their razor edges glittering in the moonlight. A smirk spread across his face and he nodded once, the movement of those gleaming horns something to behold.

"Destroying the head stops most undead. Shall we?"
luckyescape: (It's Irony.)

[personal profile] luckyescape 2019-07-08 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
Freya watched with amusement as Loki's costume became more elaborate. "I didn't know you were so horny."

The joke had to be made.

"Do you have any extra magical blades I could borrow?" She pointed down to his daggers, a smirk touching the corner of her mouth.
itsnothingpersonal: (loki_010)

[personal profile] itsnothingpersonal 2019-07-09 11:22 pm (UTC)(link)
His grin turned more wicked. "You have no idea."

And he takes a step, flipping his daggers in his hands, excited to finally see some action. "I'm afraid not. Surely you can improvise."
luckyescape: (Crazy people)

[personal profile] luckyescape 2019-07-16 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
Freya rolled her eyes as she once again extended her fingers into long dangerous looking claws. "Maybe we can get into it later."

What is being appropriate?

"At some point I'm making you carry shit for me too." She turned towards the path in front of them and jogged. It was easier to keep her steps quiet without wearing shoes but she was restricted by her clothing and she was waiting for that to be an issue. She could see the hospital in view and of course, there were at least three of the clown zombie things shambling around in front of it.

Like god damn guard dogs.

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