Duplicity Game Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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duplicitymemes2022-07-10 07:11 pm
duplicitymods) wrote in duplicitymemes2022-07-10 07:11 pm
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TDM #25
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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 LIEs 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 LIEs 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 high-rise. 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 for all new and past arrivals. Skies are clear and the weather is warm. |
 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. |
 (cw: aphro/drugs) LIEs has once again partnered with a local coffee chain, Peek-A-Brew, to promote their summer menu and help play matchmaker among those in the program. Along with the usual goodie bag, each character will be handed a small slip of paper after Orientation with a date and time, location, and three fun facts about a mystery partner they're to meet for a coffee date. These "facts" may or may not actually be true — they're simply meant to spark conversation. For the duration of the 1-2 hours the pairs are expected to spend getting to know one another, they will receive unlimited free iced coffee, tea, and lemonade and a discount on any other menu items. Seasonal specials include fruity parfaits and popsicles in a variety of refreshing flavors. Naturally, all goods are spiked to make the consumers more agreeable, more truthful, and perhaps a bit more handsy than normal. Though the meetings are not mandatory, contact with the paper brings on an inexplicable sense of curiosity about meeting their partner and discovering who they really are. |
 (cw: aphro, temporary body changes) With summer heat building, the natives are looking for a reprieve from the sweltering weather. All manner of frozen treats are being sold and consumed and it's not uncommon to see Submissives fanning their Dominants as they walk down the street or ride the train. Sprinkler systems are running day and night in North Park and other city-owned patches of green and plenty of people are taking the opportunity to run and jump through the spray with little care for soaked clothing — or perhaps they aren't wearing clothing at all. Others have taken up squirting one another, as well as whoever is passing by, with water guns or hurling water balloons at anyone who looks like they need to cool down. Especially on the streets near the park, it's a wet and wild battle royale and all are welcome to join in. Getting hit with some of those colorful water balloons and squirt guns temporarily causes those who get splashed to taste like sweet, mouth-watering summer fruits. It's not just their skin either — the effect extends to their sweat, saliva, and even sexual fluids and can last for several hours. Those around them will find it hard to resist having a taste. |
 (cw: violence, public nudity/exposure) If you're out on the streets of the Down, it's not just your wallet you have to worry about losing. It seems that one of the local gangs, the Bulldogs, has set a new test for their junior members and those hoping to join: steal an article of clothing right off the body of someone in a public place. From snatching the hat off their head to slicing the shirt off their back, it's anything goes! These junior initiates quickly get competitive, one-upping each other on who can complete the task in the most ballsy or outrageous manner. Some compete over who can collect the most clothing, either certain articles or overall, or who can score a full set first. As word spreads and more people are going around suddenly missing part of their outfits, the Sparrows, a rival gang, decide to get in on the action purely for bragging rights. Rather than taking the clothing by force, they pride themselves on using stealth and trickery, leaving more than a few people naked and confused. |
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 the assignments are OOCly 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 is more of an optimist, they are a Submissive. If your character is more of a pessimist, they are a Dominant. 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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Those years they spent running, the way they'd leaned on one another? No. It had never been this brutally raw, even when Steve had felt as close to Sam as he had, and then, in the middle of all that, he'd simply had to come to terms with the fact Sam had disappeared from his life in the blink of an eye. He can't recall how much time he'd dedicated to searching for him, how much time he'd sacrificed thinking that Sam might have been somewhere out in the world, surviving rather than dust. It doesn't feel like that now, not with his arms around him and the calloused feel of his thumb against his cheek. The roughness of his kiss, the warmth of his body pressed to his.
Steve staggers under the weight of it and melts.
The second kiss isn't testing at all, firm as he pushes against him and seeks more. There's that unfamiliar taste that comes with it, how it beckons Steve even closer than he already is, and that, on its own, should have been enough to tell him that this isn't just grief or missed opportunities or what-ifs. This is the city toying with them, with his feelings as it had the very day he'd arrived, but Steve can't bring himself to slow down or pull away, loosening his hold to skim a hand down Sam's back before pushing his fingers under his shirt to feel skin. He's solid. Real.
And when he turns his head to break the kiss, to breathe, Steve's right back in Sam's space, their foreheads resting together as he soaks it all in. ]
You sure? [ is all he asks. It might not even be the right question or the right thing to say, but Steve needs him in every way Sam is offering. And from the look Sam had given him, Steve believes Sam needs that too. ]
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'bout you?
[ Sam remembers Steve on his door step with Natasha. Remembers 'everyone we know is trying to kill us'. He hadn't hesitated. He remembers throwing himself into the fight. He remembers Steve given him what he'd lacked in all those years since Riley's death, all those years in which he'd floated through on auto-pilot, getting a degree, getting a job, getting a place, and running, running, running as if it could ever make up for losing his wings, as if it could ever take him far enough towards what he needed. ]
Yes.
[ And perhaps it's selfish, taking what Steve is offering in his grief and with the city making their kisses taste too sweet. Perhaps it's cruel to know that Steve walks away from him, takes Sam's steadfast certainty and snaps it in half, searches for his well-earned peace and rest and happiness so completely far from Sam when Sam had been nothing if not certain by his side for so long, and still say yes to this. But Sam can't help himself. He's always been the man to let himself fall, snapping his wings open at the last possible second.
Sam remembers Steve Rogers entering his life and uprooting it in its entirety just by giving Sam something to be sure about for the first time in so long. He remembers needing and wanting nothing more in his life for four whole years after, more alive than he'd felt in oh so very long, and more certain about chasing a brainwashed ex-assassin through Europe, joining a superhero team that didn't bother paying him, ruining his civilian life to do the right thing, staying behind to cover Steve and Bucky, not knowing he'd ever see the light of day again once thrown on the Raft, facing an Alien army far outclassing some fisherman's son turned pararescue. And every step of the way Steve had told him he didn't have to do it. And every step of the way Sam had been sure.
None of it changed until Steve gave him a shield and a legacy Sam didn't want and couldn't say no to anyway, because he'd never been asked. ]
Always.
[ Because Steve had sped past on Sam's left one day, and ever since all Sam wanted was to try and keep pace. He'd always been sure he'd inevitably get left behind. And he'd always known it would never stop him anyway. So he pulls Steve's face towards him, coaxes him their lips together and arches into him. Allows himself to want Steve and embrace the certainty that they only meet in the middle for a brief, bright, wondrous moment before Steve rushes past. ]
no subject
He can lean on his friends, but they should be able to lean on him too. He can't expect it to be good all the time. They're people, not tools. That's not how you show someone you love them.
It's the thought he holds onto when Sam meets him, rocking into him with the same fervor as Sam arching forward, and they work well together—even in this. They always have. Maybe they always would, something that sticks with Steve as he takes a step towards the bed and tries to navigate them both without tripping over either of them in the process. This part isn't smooth, but he's sure, regardless of whatever's happening here, that he wants to feel Sam. He wants to touch him, to have those hands on him and holding him close, and it's that very idea that he leans on as he kisses him harder, teeth grazing lightly at his bottom lip when he pulls away to breathe. ]
Here. [ There's a pause, needing to press his hands against skin but also finding that they're both very overdressed suddenly. ] Let me –
[ Even as messy as this is going to be, Steve still takes his time to help Sam get out of his clothes. His shirt, at least, because Steve is seconds behind in doing that with his own, and by then, it's easier to get them both onto the bed, to push Sam down against the mattress and straddle him so he can see his face when he looks at him. Steve puts all of it to memory: the heat of Sam's skin, the line of muscle in his arms and chest. He looks good, looks like someone he never thought he would see again, and Steve is aware that it must read easily on his face, never one to hide much at all, even when he tries.
Whatever words he can think of will never be enough. Not right now, maybe not ever. So, he speaks with his body instead, leaning down to kiss Sam again until they both need to breathe and trailing his mouth along his throat, over his collarbone. He tastes him, touches his chest and belly with a firm gentleness that screams how much he's needed him and how much he's wished he'd been there to stand at his side like he's always done from the very beginning. It's like reconnecting with a missing part of himself, and Steve sighs with it, murmuring Sam's name quietly before finding his mouth again. ]
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But he refuses to engage in troubling thoughts when he's here, with Steve's blue eyes on him as solid and as warm as his hands and his lips and his tongue and his teeth, making Sam tremble under him. He opens his legs as if it's the easiest thing in the world to let Steve in closer, let him slot in between and take away all distance between them. And it's so easy to reach back to him, so painfully easy to touch him, feel his warmth.
And it hits Sam hard then. That Steve is here. Alive. Living and breathing and staying - at least for just now. At least for just this moment. Sam can feel the way his muscles move under warm skin, can feel the way Steve's pulse jackhammers as their mouths slot together just so, as Sam's lips open to him, sweet and dark and warm, like a promise of all things Steve can have in this moment. Steve is alive. And after six months of loss and grief that he's only just started to heal from, that is everything.
Sam runs his hands over the warm and exposed skin, gentle and reverent but with purpose, with intent until his fingers find a button, a zipper, help ease the fabric open and down a little as their kiss breaks for air, but Sam chases it, nips at Steve's bottom lip with a soft groan. Goosebumps on Sam's skin, a slight shiver, a tremble, at every one of Steve's touches, kisses, glances. ]
I... Steve, I need. [ He gasps for air at the way they rock against each other, brief and bright, feels like he's about to see stars. But he has to tell him, because it's important, because he knows Steve will want to take care, and the thought alone makes Sam want to flee his own body screaming... ] It's been... I haven't. Not since...
[ And he finds he can't say it. Even now, so many many years later. And perhaps that will tell Steve everything he needs to know. The fact that Sam, who is so rarely at a loss for words, cannot say this, but needs Steve to know it anyway. That this is the first he's had since he lost the first of so many partners. ]