duplicitymemes

Entry tags:

«tdm

TDM #8

« « « TEST DRIVE MEME » » »

« « « AND IT GOES ON AND ON

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.

The hellish summer heat is finally starting to subside, and the cool breeze suggests autumn is approaching.

» » » TAKE A RIDE

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.

« « « A POCKET OF PENNIES

The weather’s getting cooler, and people have begun transitioning from summer clothing to the sweaters and jackets of early fall. With jackets come pockets, and with pockets come a bizarre uptick in robberies.

Then again, perhaps the correlation is flawed. In the Down, getting robbed is a constant threat. Gangs of street toughs look for lone or inattentive people who look like they’ve got valuables on hand. Uncontracted Submissives are particularly easy to rob, since authorities have little time to bother with a lowly Submissive without a Dominant to advocate for them. One particularly nasty gang of young adult men, the Bulldogs, hangs out near the train, looking to ambush unwary Submissives fresh out of Orientation. They are prone to violent muggings and will simply beat up their target and leave them in a gutter when they’re finished robbing them.

In the Up, the streets are nominally safer, but there have been reports of a group of college-aged Submissive women taking advantage of their designation to attack travelers. They, too, stand near the train and the orientation center, looking to seduce passersby into an alley where a group of them can beat and mug their victims, usually Dominants looking to capitalize on their pretty appearances.

But you’re truthfully at risk anywhere in the city. The new arrivals are easy targets, and any brazen thief might get the idea to make some quick cash. The authorities are spread too thin to help, but perhaps LIErs can look out for one another?

Or they might just get in on the thievery. Everyone’s out for themselves, after all.

« « « NEW FLESH LIKE A GLOVE

( CW: potential dubcon, drugs, BDSM/sexual torture, prostitution, public use )

Surrounding a large building near the orientation center in the Up, banners and fliers announcing the beginning of the inaugural Duplicity High Tech Sexpo, a trade show for businesses and manufacturers of adult novelties. Since this is the expo’s first year, admission is free and many excited volunteers are handing out vouchers all over the city. These vouchers can be exchanged for goods and services within the expo, but have no monetary value outside of it. Even if you refuse them, you’ll likely find two or three of them tucked into your bag or pocket.

Inside the expo hall, there are dozens of booths pitching a variety of entertainments. Many offer interactive demonstrations, showing off their tech for the crowds of interested onlookers. Competition is fierce, and booths try to attract attention and customers through any means necessary. There are private rooms all around the expo for potential customers to try out the products. Booths will also happily accept volunteers for demos, or try to recruit them by bribing them with cash or free samples. There’s a nasty rumor going around that some are recruiting volunteers via more illicit means, like drugging and dressing them up, but surely that’s an exaggeration…

Some of the smaller booths sell more traditional toys and accessories: leashes and collars, specialty lubes and massage oils, fetish gear, strap-ons, dildos and vibrators in myriad shapes and sizes, and other basic items. Others advertise apps for the devices, the most notable of which is HUGGR (which LIErs may recognize as a poorly rebuilt sex-themed version of a certain other app.) The closer you get to the big-ticket sponsor booths, the more elaborate and fantastic the products become.

One of the most eye-catching demos is for the Climax VR Headset. You and a partner both wear a VR headset, which displays a collaborative virtual scenario. Both partners can alter the setting and surroundings however they like, and any sexual activity conducted in VR transmits real sensations to their bodies. You can come together without ever physically touching.

Symphony Hydraulics have a large, loud booth where crowds gather to watch perhaps the most outrageous demo: a variety of fucking machines. Volunteers get stripped, strapped in, and turned on, brought to screaming orgasms in front of the whole crowd. There is a fifteen minute break between demos on each machine, as some poor intern hurriedly washes and sanitizes them between uses. In the interim, they offer smaller, portable versions for sale or rent at the expo. (Some may note that a few of the Symphony Hydraulics staff members look a bit familiar.)

Does all this high-tech equipment have you overwhelmed? Wish you could go back to a simpler time? Sir Robert’f Bedroome Provifionf (sic) is helmed by historical reenactor Robert Plum, who has also created his own line of medieval torture device-themed sex toys. Need a chastity belt to keep your Submissive all to yourself? A rack with an attached spreader-bar? An iron maiden with soft vibrating silicone ticklers inside? All the stocks and whips and chains you could ever need? Sir Robert has you covered. Of course, everything on display is harmlessly altered for sexual novelty purposes, but one might also ask to see Sir Robert’s “special” merchandise in the back.

Perhaps the most unassuming booth at the expo belongs to Grandma Hattie’s Snacks and Sweets. Grandma Hattie, a kindly old Submissive, has partnered with a tech company to produce what appear to be completely normal vending machines, stocked full of her tasty homemade bread, snack cakes, and other baked goods. Vouchers are good for a free sample of any treat from a vending machine. They taste amazing and have no apparent odd effects-- until 10 minutes after consumption, when you suddenly gain an insatiable craving for a random kink. Your craving will dominate your thoughts for three hours, or until it is appeased.

« « « PERFECTION OF THE DIGITAL

(CW: potential dubcon, objectification)

By far the largest and shiniest booth comes from expo sponsors Sexy Metal Incorporated, who have set up a display of their incredible high-tech sexbots. These life-sized dolls are made of extremely realistic material that feels like warm human skin, and come with state-of-the-art mechanics that give them lifelike movement. Engineers show off how the bots can be plugged into a computer and programmed to act any way the buyer likes.

They come in a wide variety of customizable appearances and eerily, some of the bots on display look exactly like people you may know. Booth staff encourage customers to buy these dolls, or to rent them and give them a try onstage in front of the fascinated crowds. If that’s not kinky enough, one of the engineers has purchased a VR headset from another booth, and programmed it to interface with the bot’s controls. Care to slip inside the silicone skin of another person?

« « « MOD & OOC NOTES

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: In celebration of our one year, pick whichever role you want for your character!

» A Pocket Full of Pennies: Feel free to come up with any free-roving gangs or petty criminals you like for your characters to tangle with.

» New Flesh Like A Glove: Characters can spend money on items at the expo, or may exchange vouchers for what they want. Each voucher has a value of about $5 within the expo and they may be acquired by finding them, having them handed to characters/stuffed in their pockets or bags by expo volunteers, or paid them in exchange for “volunteering” at booths.

Characters may indeed try before they buy, either out in the open or using one of the provided private rooms with a partner. The expo has a staff of unpaid student interns tasked with cleaning and sanitizing products if they are used but not purchased.

Grandma Hattie’s snacks can inspire characters to have any kink you may desire.

» Perfection of the Digital: Sexbots can resemble any player characters, including brand new arrivals/test drive characters. They can also resemble characters that yours knows from home. The engineers have no explanation for this, and the one who identifies himself as the designer will shrug and say he gets inspiration from many places.

The sexbots are hot-ticket expensive merchandise, so security is tight around the booth. Characters who attempt to steal or destroy a sexbot (for instance, one who looks like themselves) will be quickly set upon by guards, who are meant to eject them from the expo. However, many of the guards will take bribes from other booths to provide them model “volunteers,” drugged into complacency.

If characters want to acquire a sexbot permanently, they will have to buy it or exchange a hefty 50 vouchers for it.

Please remember to mark any necessary content, and have fun!!

» » » MAIN NAVIGATION « « «

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A. And It Goes On And On, cw for bugs

It is a surprise to find his clothing and some items in his designated room, a surprise and a relief. It's enough to make up for the strange opulence in the room of his assigned living, the feeling that someone else must surely already live there. For all that the sun feels weak and he's only seen one of them, it doesn't feel right to leave his skin uncovered. Wrapped in the burnous, with the pistol they'd let him keep, he wonders what this place is supposed to be.

There's only ever one way to find out, and that's to talk to the bugs.

Out on the streets he calls them to him, opening his hand and using his magic to bring forth a small grouping of grasshoppers. They feel strange, weak. "What kind of filter is on this place?" he says out loud, and he tries to use the grasshoppers to feel the answer.

B. New Flesh Like a Glove

It is a mistake that he ended up at the Sexpo but now that he has Rhys is finding it difficult to find the way out again. These people might be worse than Nasheenians, flesh on display like he has not seen even when walking by a whorehouses and men and women both meet his eyes without any sense of shame.

Stillness, he things. Silence. This is all temporary. His eyes are mostly fixed on the ceiling to try to control what he sees.

"Have some modesty," Rhys snaps at one of the booth attendants who gets too close to him, looking down despite himself to see what they're holding. "I don't know what that is but I'm sure I'm not interested."

C. Network

Are your days short to keep you from fitting any more sin into them?

[ Rhys' voice is lofty and judgemental. His neck is unmarked and his background is public housing in the Up. This device discomfits him, inert with nothing he can feel. If he couldn't see that it works he wouldn't trust it to transmit his message. ]

These designations, dominant and submissive, they have no meaning. We all must submit ourselves to God.

[ ooc: He's experiencing some major culture shock, but I'm up for anything! (This place is still better than his canon…) Feel free to shoot me a PM or hit me up at

snowishness if you want to chat through anything first. ]

Edited 2019-09-13 01:37 (UTC)

Phillip is pretty sure in most circumstances a hoarde of grasshoppers surrounding you would be alarming, but this guy seems to just be going with it. Bug magic? He's heard of all kinds of magic around here, but... bugs. That's new. It takes all types, he guesses.

His curiosity peaked, he wanders over in time to hear Rhys's question to the insects. ...He's not sure how talking to bugs would be useful, are they intelligent enough to relay enough information? "Filter?" he asks instead, cocking his head in confusion. He's probably not talking about Snapchat.

There's really no point to asking the question out loud when Rhys isn't going to get an answer verbally, when the grasshoppers cares what he commands them rather than whatever words he uses, but he can be a man of some staged drama.

"The organic filter, to keep out contagion," he says, because a human resident of this place might be more likely to spit at him than answer (he assumes), but no one can say that Rhys isn't trying.

He reaches with the grasshoppers, trying to sense what's between them and the sky.

"Ah." Ok, that actually makes more sense than Phillip thought it would. He's not a big fan of sci-fi, but he's seen movies and therefore can kind of picture what he might be referring to. "There isn't one here that I know of." Which isn't to say there isn't one- he hadn't thought about it before, but that would be the exact kind of information this place wouldn't let them know, he's pretty sure.

...He's not going to ask about the grasshoppers yet. He'll wait to see if any kind of explanation is provided. Does this guy know how weird he looks?

These grasshoppers are weak, not optimized for much of anything, but they do at least respond to Rhys. He's starting to see how he's acting strangely, mostly because he can't sense another magician.

"Is there much disease?" That much he can use the grasshoppers to sense, and there's none of the rolling contagions seen between Nasheen and Chenja, or anywhere the filters are damaged. There must, then, be a filter protecting them, and maybe from the sun here as well.

Phillip can't tell if Rhys is even talking to him, but he's here so he figures he might as well answer. "Nope. Somehow the people in charge here manage to control that insanely way." Seriously you would think STDs would be rampant, but apparently they planned for that and figured ways around it... who knows how.

Yes, he is planning on just standing here continuing his half-conversation with Rhys until he's more directly acknowledged.

STD's aren't the sort of thing that Rhys tends to worry about, and not because he hasn't been having much sex. They just aren't really a thing on Umayma.

"Filters," Rhys says. With that he dismisses the grasshoppers and they resume more normal patterns of movement, clustered near him still but no longer deliberately. "And probably not being at war." He glances over at Phillip and then quickly away again, like he's not willing to make eye contact. "Or is this city just far enough from the front?"

Phillip is definitely not getting the best impression of this guy's world, if these are the questions he's asking. (Ignoring, of course, that they're probably all pretty reasonable questions for winding up on an entirely unknown planet that you're been kidnapped too.)

"Probably not at war," he agrees, which considering the word 'probably' is still in there is likely not encouraging. He might be joking. Maybe. "Ok, I'll bite. What was with the grasshoppers?"

Umayma is definitely a bit shit, and Rhys would be the last person to recommend it to anyone. At the same time, he's even less impressed with what he's seen here. At least on Umayma there are those who know how to submit themselves to God. He's seen none of that here.

"Probably," Rhys repeats, making it clear exactly what he thinks of that.

Followed by a little more confusion. "The-- Oh. I was trying to feel for a filter." Whether he couldn't find signs of one because there isn't one, or the grasshoppers aren't strong enough, or he's just not good enough, it's hard to tell. "It seemed less dangerous than simply trying to walk out of the city." After all, he's been kidnapped. It's unlikely any filter is coded to let him through.

Rhys Dashasa | Bel Dame Apocrypha | Dominant

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

C.

no subject

no subject

no subject

(cw: poor bdsm practices)

no subject

no subject

no subject

C.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject