TDM #1

[duplicitymods]

« « « TEST DRIVE MEME » » »

« « « OUT OF CLUTTER FIND SIMPLICITY

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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.

» » » LIES TRAVEL IN COMPANY

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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.

« « « END IN THE DISCORD

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While the societal climate between Dominants and Submissives remains somewhat neutral throughout Duplicity, there has been the occasional whisper of defiance and call for equality. Yet, demonstrations and visible proof of this unhappiness spreads faster by word of mouth on a day exactly when you need it most. Welcome to Autonomy, a "traveling" nightclub that is never in the same place twice. People wanting to attend only learn of its lucrative location and password hours before it opens for business. Tonight, I choose the third door will get you inside and into the temporary freedom club Autonomy has to offer. In this circle, there are no assigned designations and no consequences for taking a role that isn't the one given by society. So, a Dominant may become the Submissive they've always wanted to be—or vice versa. Dominants and Submissives alike are able to mingle without repercussion and be themselves. Food, drinks, and private areas for more intimate – or if your preference is sexual – encounters are provided. Donations are accepted at any point during the night to further Autonomy's attempts of spreading the fulfillment that comes from being untitled. On the night you choose to visit, Autonomy is holding a random lottery for temporary connections. When entering, you have the choice of submitting your name into this drawing to be paired with someone else in the club regardless of designation. A short while later, a message will pop up on your device with the name and information of your partner, and whether or not you choose to meet them is purely at your discretion. Having more than one connection isn't completely unusual either.

» » » TABLE IT FOR LATER

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Gratification of being a successful Dominant or Submissive isn't necessarily simple. Learning curves are to be made, and mistakes will happen. Led by a Dominant and Submissive couple – Miriam and Victoria, who have been paired for twenty-two years – a monthly meeting for unattached Dominants and Submissives is held in the conference room of Morning Wood motel in the Down. The meeting starts a few minutes after nine and has no designated end time. The couple introduce themselves and explain the purpose of the meeting: learn the proper method for a new kink and possibly find your perfect partner. The space is intimate and well-stocked with refreshments. To begin, Victoria, while blindfolded, balances on her hands and knees with her back perfectly level. Her partner, when ready, places various items on the level surface–a full cup, a plate. The Submissive is meant to hold the items until the Dominant believes she's reached her limit. The exercise is one of trust and understanding. The demonstration is a short one, followed by Miriam removing the blindfold and soothing her Submissive. The words are whispered low and with care, clearly a method that is specific to this couple. The process is concluded with the pair handing out workups, videos, and answering questions. Anyone wishing to practice Purposeful Submission can do so in the open room with a random volunteer, aided by the couple, or can find someone to take to one of the rented rooms. Sex may follow any scene but is not necessarily included. Experimenting with unattached Dominants and Submissives allows for new relationships to form.

« « « MOD & OOC NOTES

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Please read carefully. On each Test Drive Meme, there will be a section noting character roles based on birthdays; these will vary each TDM. On an IC level, character 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 chose "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. For characters with a birthday falling in the months of January to June, their designation will be Dominant. For characters with a birthday falling in the months of July to December, their designation will be Submissive. For characters with an unknown birthday, their designation will be Dominant. Arrival into Duplicity has not been used as a prompt as it is a rather large part of introducing the game and will be saved for the first in-game log. But feel free to thread it on the TDM. Also, any locations throughout Duplicity are available for TDM prompts as well! Please remember to mark any necessary content, and have fun!!

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» » » MAIN NAVIGATION « « «

Comments

Argilla | Digital Devil Saga | Dominant

[fervoreous]

((ooc: cw - possible mention of cannibalism. also open to anything and anyone)

» » » LIES TRAVEL IN COMPANY

There was a lot of yelling on Argilla’s part when she got to orientation. Angry, frustrated yelling because that’s what she does when she’s scared. It’s the big questions first. Who are you? Where are my comrades? What gives you the right to do this? Then the big demands. Let me go! Send me back!

It becomes clear rather quickly that despite the fact that she is very clearly an adult woman in both mind and body, her life experience seems to be drastically lacking. She doesn’t seem to have have the basic comprehension about things like ‘careers’ and ‘sexual liberation.’ None of these things existed where she came from.

The answers don’t seem to help her much, especially because she’d still been mind locked on the big questions. She hadn’t cared to hear about anything else, so by the time she’s on the bus and has calmed down enough to think, she finds herself even more perplexed then before.

When she finally steps off the bus, she’s looking entirely befuddled and lost. The only city she’d ever been too had been nothing like this.


» » » TABLE IT FOR LATER

Argilla didn’t come here looking for a ‘submissive’, she just wants to learn something. Every time she asks simple questions like ‘what does kink mean?” or “what’s sex?’, she tends to get some odd looks or laughs like she’s joking.

She’s not joking.

None of this is even remotely familiar. Sometimes it’s like memory hangs just out of reach for her to grasp, and sometimes she encounters something that brings up nothing but an empty, cavernous void if she tries to work it out for herself. All of this falls squarely into that category.

Watching someone get treated like furniture sets something off in her and more than once she came very close to jumping up and trying to stop it. The only thing that stops her is the fact that the submissive isn’t being hurt and… thinks she enjoys it?

By the end she only question she has is “Why? Why would you do this?”

In the words of one of her dear comrades, she does not comprehend.

» » » WILDCARD

Bring your own adventure!

Table It For Later

[whatsina_name]

Phillip looks over at her, not entirely sure of the answer himself. But since the woman looks so utterly baffled, he sort of feels compelled to at least try and answer her.

"I mean... I think it's a kind of trust exercise?" he says, because while the actual 'being a table' thing is not something he can see why it would be enjoyable, the point of exercise he does, "I mean, the 'submissive' is putting her trust into the 'dominant' to remove it before it's too much for her, and the dominant has to not break that trust."

Having a trust like that is pretty powerful, but he probably doesn't need to explain that. Most people would know that, he thinks. Maybe? Maybe this is another area where he's weird.

[fervoreous]

She looks like she's about to say something but pauses, eyes furrowed. There has to be a better way, but the only ways that she knows personally are 'having your back in a battle to the death' or 'comrades don't devour comrades'. There is a very high probability that most if not all the people here aren't going to understand any of that.

Nor would she want them to, honestly.

"It just seems so pointless demeaning."

[whatsina_name]

Phillip shrugs. "Maybe she doesn't think so. I mean, the rules are different here. Maybe it's not considered demeaning." It's a little bit of a stretch to guess that and he knows it, but. He's not here to kinkshame. (He's not sure what he is here to do, but that's beside the point.) "Or maybe she likes being demeaned, if it's someone she trusts doing it. You'd have to ask her to know."

[fervoreous]

"Is that... normal for people to do?" She's aware that she doesn't understand how people are supposed to think or act. So far many of her questions have gotten her odd looks due to her seeming lack of what should be common knowledge.

"To want to be vulnerable?" She may not know what kinkshaming is, but she sure sounds judgy.

[whatsina_name]

"Sometimes." Admittedly, Phillip has pretty much no practice in proper BDSM himself, but... his mother writes erotica so there are some very informative research materials lying around their house. Also the internet exists. "If you're always in control of your life and tough and... everything, for some people it's nice to be the opposite of that for a little while."

[fervoreous]

"Maybe.." She remembers the first time she'd ever cried. No matter the whirl of incomprehensible emotions she'd been feeling, if she's not been with her comrades she likely would have never let herself get to that point, or she'd like to think she could have kept herself steady. It was safe because she'd been with the people she trusted most.

But still. "That kind of trust should be earned, not... you should have to practice something like that. It feels... fake."

[whatsina_name]

"Yeeeah. That's kind of the part I'm not sure about, too." Sure, in a way he can see the appeal. But in a room of total strangers? Noooo, not happening. He's kind of grateful he got arbitrarily labeled 'dominant' for this exercise alone, though it's still not totally comfortable. Maybe he shouldn't be trusted with someone's safety. How would they know?

travel in company; cw: shuten eats people too, it might come up

[deheaded]

From just to the right of Argilla, a small woman — barely breaking five feet tall — walked past. Her long purple robe dragged across the ground behind her, but she didn't seem to mind the dirt catching on it. When Shuten stopped, it was to look over the skyline in front of her, and take in the sights.

She felt the presence behind her, and Shuten waited for a moment to see if the stranger would move or continue standing there. When her curiosity is sated, Shuten turned to face her.

"Lost?"

It's kind of a joke: they're all lost.

whoo! a version of shuten doji appears in megaten games too whoops

[fervoreous]

Argilla can sense who's an asura and who is human rather easily, and she can feel something as the smaller woman happens buy, but this person is neither of these things as far as she can tell. It makes Prithivi churn against the inside of her skin, even more so when she actually gets a good look at the woman. Creature. Demon?

There's a tense moment of hesitation where she sizes the other woman up, then shifts her weight back to one side.

"That's putting it lightly."

hell yeaaaah!!

[deheaded]

Correct in three, though Shuten wouldn't want to confirm it to a stranger too soon. Let them ponder and think all the want first. Her kimono drapes over her slender shoulders, but Shuten doesn't bother fixing it, instead turning her attention back out to the skyline.

"I suppose we're both a little lost." Fingers gripped the railing as she pushed herself onto her toes, as though it would give her a better view. "Well, all of us."

A soft laugh.

"Just remember that no matter where you are, you're there."

[fervoreous]

Argilla just watches the small demon, wary but not hostile. She's not planning on a fight unless given a reason, as much as her hunger tells her too. It's not that bad just yet.

"I... suppose that's true."

It's not like she has a home or anywhere else to go back to.

"I've been nowhere. It's not pleasent."

[deheaded]

For a moment, Shuten wondered if the Throne of Heroes could be considered nowhere, but... it's a complicated thing, nowhere. Even if there's something there, can it really be called empty?

Shuten glanced over her shoulder at her new friend, her purple hair falling across her chin.

"Is that what your home was like? Or was it a placed you were banished to?"

[fervoreous]

That gets a bit of an eyebrow raise, and she looks the other demon over again. That particular concept of banishment is lost on her.

"More like banished from."

Not that it was much of a home, but it was all they had.

"It was...deleted. And some of us fell through the nothing that was left."

[deheaded]

What an odd creature she's found. Oddities were what made life exciting, however, so Shuten was not willing to let her go without a real chat.

"Sit, sit," she finally purred after a momentary pause to let the phrase it was deleted sink in. A hand waved toward a bench, and Shuten took her place before this woman either followed or left.

"Were you in a... Hmm," another pause, and a hand lifted to her lips, sleeve covering her unmarked neck. "... Sim-you-la-tor?" There was one in Chaldea; they had used it to practice fighting and gain materials to make each other stronger. It's the only point of reference Shuten has for a statement like that.

Table

[berriedmemories]

She's the first person labeled as a dominant that hasn't made him immediately uneasy. How could she? Not only is she just as confused as the rest of him but there's something about the pink hair that makes it hard to find her too threatening.

Which is stupid, he's pretty sure, but there it is.

"I wish I could tell you." He just shakes his head, looking more than a little unsettled by this whole deal.

[fervoreous]

The pink hair and eyes tend to make her seem softer than she really is. The thick scar that cuts her eye is reminiscent of a certain, musclebound swordsman, though not as cleanly healed. It's jagged, like not a lot of effort was put into it's care.

"If being a dominant means treating people like... objects then I don't want anything to do with it!" It's bad enough that there's part of her can't help but think of people as food, as much as she tries to ignore it.

[berriedmemories]

He has a feeling her scar is from something much more dangerous than a dumb bar fight, just from how it's healed.

"I don't think it necessarily means that..." A hand to scrub through the short spikes at the back of his head, thoughtful but also not really wanting to think about it too much. "At least I hope not. I'm sure as hell not being anyone's table."

[fervoreous]

"But that's what they're doing, isn't it?" She gestures back towards the presenters.

"Even without making them act like furniture, they can't do anything without a dominant person telling them too. It's just... wrong." There's a word for it and it's on the tip of her tongue, but she hasn't quite gotten there yet.

lies travel in company

[maragion]

[While Heat isn't at moral odds with his new circumstances, he does feel like a fish out of water; not entirely new, but the last time he was subject to a massive change, things were altered in his favor and he wasn't removed from home to participate in some weird cultural bullshit. Surprisingly quiet through the extent of orientation (barring one or two early threats, mostly regarding the Embryon and being reunited), he's settled. Not entirely, but enough to try and figure his shit out.

A shock of pink catches his eye; it's after the seemingly unending bus (what the fuck is even a bus?) ride; he makes a beeline for her, seizes a shoulder from behind.]

Yo, what the hell's going on?

[Demanding; he really is relieved to run into someone familiar, but certain emotions manifest in a weird way with him.]

[fervoreous]

-=she's been riled enough that it was hard for her to follow much of the orientation. tribe is everything for them, and being alone is tantamount to death in the junkyard. some programing can't be that easily ignored.

when she's suddenly grabbed, she spins around ready to snarl and attack but her hand pauses mid rush when the voice and face register=-

Heat!

-=they have a lot in common when it comes to rage, but she's able to let it go far quicker and easier than he is. the tension drains from her body as relief overtakes her defensive anger=-

I wish I knew. Have you seen anyone else?

[maragion]

[In response to that ferocity, he looks smug as ever. He could have done something ahead of grabbing her -- that sort of reaction was basically expected.]

Nah.

[Friend or foe; but hey, if they fucked up, at least they fucked up together. Even as a team, Heat tends to be more of a lone wolf -- different, but seeing a familiar face is worth taking advantage of. The guides are obvious, lined in wait or escorting groups on tours. He's not so inclined to indulge, even though that seems to be the right course of action.

He'll figure this out on his own.]

But it looks like we're gonna be stuck here for a while.

[Based singularly on their being no easy venue out. They haven't been saddled with so much information for quick vacation, probably.

Whatever that means.]

[fervoreous]

-=who was it that said you can't be a comrade alone?=-

But where is here? Another world all over again? I shouldn't even....

-=there's no way she could have survived, let alone in one piece, should she? at least she doesn't feel like she's been overwritten this time=-

God pulling another one of his tricks?

[maragion]

[Look, circumstances are important. So, Heat's probably not the guy you wanna consult for technical matters. Their existence, the process of and why are things that surpass his knowledge at the moment. He hasn't caught wind of anything that clicks in his brain. Similarly, he hasn't heard anyone mention God.]

Probably.

[On the other hand: what else could it be? Who else could be to blame? Again, critical thinking isn't his forte and if Argilla's lost on the matter, it can't be a personal problem.]

But if we're here, everyone else's gotta be here too.

[The most wisdom he can impart, faulty as it is important.]

[fervoreous]

-=she doesn't actually expect him to have any answers. even gale hadn't had any answers the first time this happened so any hope for actual comprehension on their part is factually nil. all they have is another pile of growing questions.

heat gets a firm nod, though. the thought that the others might not be here hadn't even occurred to her. not yet.=-

What's the last thing you remember?

-=she folds her arms across her chest, not quite hugging herself but it has a similar air to it.=-

It wasn't like last time.