TDM #22

[duplicitymods]

« « « TEST DRIVE MEME » » »

« « « ALL ON DISPLAY

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It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit. Yet, solace is found in the lies we tell each other, comforted by the peace of knowing that we're not alone in our depravity, and once on this path, sin itself becomes the lesser of two evils masked in a cloud of normalcy. This is how Duplicity has functioned since the beginning. The divide of power and social standing is overt in that Dominants influence the decisions made both publicly and privately while Submissives cater to the rules presented to them. It is the way of Duplicity to assign random designations at birth with no leeway in altering what has been given. Climate in the Up is far stricter than that of the Down; violating outlined personas for a Dominant or Submissive while in full view of others is punished by degree of infraction. In the Down, many tend to turn a blind eye to these sorts of offenses. To counteract the discovery of the Deceit Gene – a natural "negative" response to all stimuli – the L.I.E.S. program was founded. The program had been designed to introduce new subjects to the current environment and test for the Deceit Gene through immersion in Duplicity's standing society. Sexual impulses and encounters increase the chances of detecting the gene within these individuals. Participants are typically released from L.I.E.S. after a year; however, results have remained unsatisfactory and testing still continues. ... and you’re here! Finally! Welcome to Duplicity. After choosing a door and stepping through to the other side, the first thing that greets you are the enthusiastic faces of people in medical scrubs and pristine lab coats. Their enthusiasm translates to eagerness as they strip you of your clothes to perform a thorough examination—you will be healed, bathed, and given a paper gown to wear until your items can be processed and delivered to your residence later in the evening. You are also given a device that accesses the network as well as the time and location of orientation. If you enter Duplicity into the Up, congratulations! You’re a Dominant, which means you are immediately picked up by a limo after processing and taken to your highrise. Here, it is two Dominants per floor with separate apartments. If you enter Duplicity into the Down, congratulations! You’re a Submissive, which means you are directed towards public transportation with the address of the motel you’ll be living in. Here, it is two Submissives per room with a shared common space for all rooms. Enjoy your free time until orientation! Participation is mandatory by all new and old arrivals. Winter is here and snow flurries are common in the Up while the slush collects in the Down.

» » » ALL ABOARD

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After stepping through the door and participating in orientation, LIERS are assembled together in the Up for a tour of Duplicity in its entirety. Seats are in pairs and randomly assigned to Dominants and Submissives alike. Traveling from Fiddler's Square, the train journeys through various parts of the Up, showcasing society and examples of lifestyle. Along the way, frequent stops are made; a variety of passengers can be seen exiting and entering the doors. A Dominant with a kneeling Submissive takes a seat near the front of the train at one stop. A small group of Submissives board and sit closer to the LIERS at another, all seemingly content in their roles. As the tour continues through the Up, the train passes close to the Market and White Wall Bridge and zips by North Park before heading into the Down and bypassing Red Wall Bridge and South Park. The train makes a "final" stop at Riddler's Square, where inhabitants of the Down are instructed to return to their temporary housing. Those who live in the Up are permitted to stay on the train and revisit the same locations while returning.

« « « WINTER WONDERLAND

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As a particularly heavy snowstorm blows across the city, Duplicity finds itself blanketed in white. The morning after the storm, many citizens seem to be in a particularly mischievous mood and snowballs are a common sight flying through the air. A projectile meant for someone else may hit you square in the face if you're not careful — and then it's on. Joining these impromptu snow battles is encouraged, no matter a person's designation, and even Submissives teaming up to pelt unsuspecting Dominants with snowballs is generally taken in the spirit of good fun. Not everyone is throwing snow, of course — some are rolling much larger balls and shaping them into lewd snow figures. Those feeling chilled after playing in the snow may experience the urge to warm up with someone else, skin to skin. Whether they're a stranger or a familiar face, holding hands, kissing, or getting down and dirty with the nearest willing partner is invigorating. It might even be the only way to really feel warm again.

« « « DUBIOUS DELIVERIES

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(cw: aphro, humiliation kink) Want to make some quick cash? After exiting the train in the Down, there seems to be a questionable character hanging about the station. Dressed in a trenchcoat and looking more like a flasher than the businessman he claims to be, this shady recruiter offers easy money in exchange for a simple delivery. Just take a package and drop it off at the address on the label. Really, that's it! Stop asking questions. Should characters decide to open the package themselves instead, they'll discover one of the following: glitter — so much glitter, lube (appears normal, but actually contains hot pepper and will cause more than a mild tingling sensation if used anywhere sensitive), a package of flavored condoms mysteriously labeled "every flavor" (none of them taste good), candy or perfume containing an aphrodisiac that, in addition to the usual libido-boosting effect, will also cause an intense craving for humiliation. It seems to be one of those services that allows one to send anonymous prank gifts, and they're hiding behind LIERs as couriers. There's no return address or company information on or inside the package, except for a card marked Encoded Sin Corp — which does not seem to be a real company if the name is searched. Whether characters end up delivering the package — maybe even to a fellow LIER — or get into some trouble along the way, someone is getting a nasty surprise.

« « « SURPRISES FOR SALE

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(cw: aphro, dubcon, excessive fluids, exhibitionism, public use) A small winter market has been set up along one of the major streets in the Up with stalls selling a variety of goods ranging from knitted hats and scarves, soaps, scented lotions, candles, jewelry, artwork and assorted crafts to hand-dyed bondage rope and kinky leather accessories. Food and drink stands are plentiful as well. Strings of lights crisscross the street between the roofs of the shops, providing a cheerful glow, and there are tables set up in the street itself for people to sit and chat while having a snack — if they can stand the cold. Some of the most popular treats being sold are hot chocolate, eggnog, marshmallow snowmen, and sugar cookies decorated like snowflakes. Of course, their popularity may have something to do with the effects they produce when consumed. • The hot chocolate simply gets one all hot and bothered. • The eggnog may cause heavy production of sexual fluids, a desire to be filled or covered with someone else's cream, or all of the above. • The marshmallow snowmen will make those who eat them want to invite others to use them as they please, desiring nothing more than to be molded into the perfect fucktoy. • The sugar cookies seem to induce all sorts of different cravings — after all, no two snowflakes are alike! These effects tend to last at least an hour and may, in some cases, last up to a full day. One of the jewelry shops sells an unusual selection of compass pendants and bracelets. The compass arrows spin round and round lazily while the pieces are on display. Once worn, however, that changes. The arrow will settle on a direction, but instead of pointing north it will lead directly to another person. Perhaps you should speak to them? You may even begin to feel magnetically drawn to them yourself… In the event that two people have compasses that point them at each other, the attraction will be even stronger — nearly impossible to deny. There is another shop which sells intricately designed pocket watches and small clocks. When these timepieces are stared at for an extended length of time or picked up and handled, characters will feel a brief but strong connection to their past and experience a vivid flashback to some moment that was, in whatever way, meaningful for them. After reliving the memory, they will feel compelled to speak about it to whoever is nearby.

« « « MOD & OOC NOTES

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Please read carefully. On each Test Drive Meme, there will be a section noting character roles; these will vary each TDM. On an IC level, characters will still have gone through the doors but assignments OOCly are still randomized. When applying, there is a section of the application that denotes whether the character chooses "left" or "right." When participating on the TDM, there will be a third option. Players may link either a top level or a thread (five or more comments from their character) from the TDM and title the link as "Door Pass." This means that the player is choosing to take the designation that they were randomly assigned on the TDM, rather than taking the designation of a door. If the player decides to select a door rather than use the pass, then they are trying their luck; they may get the same designation they had on the TDM or the opposite. Once the application is submitted, players can't change their choice. To assign roles to characters for this TDM, use the following guide: If your character likes it hot, they are a Dominant. If your character prefers the cold, they are a Submissive. To Note: Characters can only swap their designation for one of the following reasons: an event occurs that allows it or there are OOC reasons that make it a necessity. Any swap always requires mod approval and each character can only ever switch once. Characters that are being reapped will keep their previous designation but players can choose to use new TDMs with different designations for fun! Test Drive threads can be used as activity proofs for characters currently in-game. Please remember to mark any necessary content, and have fun!!

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» » » MAIN NAVIGATION « « «

Comments

[requiemshark]

[ Nothing to heal could mean a lot of things. Some weapons are powerful enough they just make things disappear. No bodies, no wounds to heal. It's not that much of a surprise. ]

wish i knew. there's a lot that doesn't make sense here. heard a theory that this is all a simulation of some kind. advanced tech. would explain some stuff. can't prove it though.

[collateraldamaging]

Probably not. A simulation is automatically several steps more complicated than just physical arrival. Either you have the same problem where you need a living brain to load in once it's here, plus keeping it alive for years and maintaining the program and data, all without any user compensation... or you need to upload the subjects as digitized copies. Since we're all from different universes how could they have gotten those without us being here already? They'd have to be hopping through wormholes or whatever to secretly scan us and maybe somehow they could work with a dead brain but I know I'd still be an exception.

[requiemshark]

i really don't know, man. not a tech, not an engineer.

you should talk to a guy named Crais. He knows more about this stuff

[collateraldamaging]

Neither am I. Just a dead soldier trying to make sense of things. Thank you for the reference.

Can I ask you something else?

[requiemshark]

sure

[collateraldamaging]

How do you keep your shit together?

[requiemshark]

[ Ah. ]

didn't for a long time. i chain smoked a lot.

now i take it one day at a time. works as well as anything does around here.

[collateraldamaging]

Hah. And have to ask a dom to spot me.

It doesn't get easier?

[requiemshark]

yeah. find somebody you don't hate.

pieces of it do. i came from a war zone. one thing i learned there is that people can adapt to anything.

there are good people here. that helps.

[collateraldamaging]

What if that's part of the problem?

[requiemshark]

that's harder. sometimes i treat it like a war zone. keep it about survival. don't think that's the way to go about it though.

i don't know. find small moments.

[collateraldamaging]

Cigarettes, survival, small moments. Got it.

[ He kind of wants to try and articulate what's wrong but... this stranger didn't sign up to help with his shit and it's been struggle enough puzzling through personal issues with Val, who he trusts with his life. He can't do it. Abort mission, Kazu, retreat, figure it out on your own. ]

What was your war over?

[requiemshark]

survival. turns out aliens are real. there's a truce now but they didn't like us much and their weapons were better.

[ It went about how you'd expect. ]

and then there was all the human shit in the middle of it. didn't exactly have a kumbaya moment.

[collateraldamaging]

Shit. I can't imagine adding aliens into things. Humanity's been at war somewhere for all of history, we do not need another species' help killing each other.

But that means you didn't die in the war?

[requiemshark]

they had planet killers. so that was that. but people made it. more or less.

[ Everything changed, but humanity kept on trucking. ]

long story. involves context. tried to kill some people because they killed my people. didn't go well.

[collateraldamaging]

[ Okay hold on he's gonna follow that to its conclusion out loud (so to speak) again, just a minute. ]

Killers plural. Earth alone wouldn't stand a chance, so... at some point humans successfully colonized other planets? We're only just starting there but if the Unity win the war it's probably all up in smoke.

[ That would've been a good joke if you were from his world, alas. Then there's a beat between responses because Kazu hadn't realized it'd be something so self directed, and yes he's still struggling with everything surrounding his own death but that honestly seems worse. It's something very personal, and he can only imagine the rage and grief that must have come beforehand to get to that point. He imagines thinking something like 'at least I don't have to feel this anymore' at the end but just winding up here, probably still all alone, and... fuck. ​]

I'm very sorry.

That kind of pain calls for more than cigarettes.

[requiemshark]

Yeah. I was born on a place called Eremus. Never been to Earth. Knew people who had though. Covenant came hard. Wasn’t like we had much chance to defend ourselves. 

[ And now they’re all stuck here. ]

Nothing to be sorry for. Not like you killed them. But I’ll take tequila one of these days.

Or coffee. Coffee is also good.  

[ He’s drinking less these days. Maybe not much less, but still. ]

[collateraldamaging]

You never see first strikes coming at all anymore. I remember being read old legends of battle as a child. In my culture, war was to be officially declared. Opposing forces would gather on open ground and announce themselves. Maybe send out their strongest warriors to face one another first, or diplomats to try one last time to resolve the conflict. Only then would they fight. There were rules about letting your enemy collect their dead and rest. Attacking in secret was dishonorable and that was a great offense in war even against foreign invaders who used improper tactics. I remember thinking it was so stupid of my people to care about honor more than death. If you want to win you should use sneak attacks and bioweapons, press a button and blow the enemy up from across the ocean. That's what I was into. Nearly twenty years of watching the world fall apart and it still took dying to finally get it. Without honor the other side stop being people. Shit, the Union killed all of their own forces too in my last battle. I guess they were expendable since nanotech did the work. When all that matters is the win it's no wonder the war never stops.

[ A beat. ]

Tequila and coffee it is. I don't want to talk about death anymore. What do you do for fun around here?

[requiemshark]

[ Okay. That's a lot. Ephemera sits with it for a moment, taking it all in. Wondering how he fits into this before he realizes that there are some things you can only say to a stranger. And this place twists people up, doesn't it? Grief and hurt and all the ways they collide in the aftermath no one - not a goddamn soul - saw coming.

He exhales. ]

spar and paint. not at the same time. there's stuff around here that's not completely pornographic, you just gota look for it.

[collateraldamaging]

[ Yeah, sorry buddy. It's not much about Ephemera beyond the fact that he's responsive in the conversation. Terse, but for the replies being short they're still clearly honest and don't sound dismissive or bored. The guy's listening. That's enough to go off on what's basically an existential rant. ]

I'd like to spar sometime, if you're ever free.

[requiemshark]

I can do that. just tell me when

[collateraldamaging]

I would now, but if I wore my suit I could really hurt you. When I get appropriate clothes?

[requiemshark]

[ That's interesting. ]

your suit?

[collateraldamaging]

It's what I arrived in, special armor that interfaces with the neurological system. The most important feature doesn't apply here but it significantly enhances strength and speed.

[requiemshark]

[ Huh. ]

no shit.
i got something similar.