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

[ Rhys is a Dominant, Ash a submissive, and yet their roles feel reversed. Despite the paper gown, Ash shows no shame, and it feels like he's at home on the train. Despite sitting back looking almost relaxed, there's an alertness about him.

His green eyes slide to Rhys. Ash doesn't disagree with the statement. Before ending up here, he was stabbed. He thought he'd found peace in that, but instead, he reappeared here. As a submissive. His mood is low after reaching its peak. It makes him even more on edge than usual. ]

Then we don't got a problem.

[ His words have a slightly lighter edge. Of course, Rhys' statement doesn't have to be truth, but he's not going to actively verbally attack him until he's given a reason to.

Then his expression shifts. The smile is more sarcastic than kind, but it's a smile all the same. ]

Looks like we're the new kids on the block. Wonder how we won that lottery.

[ Rhys' hands are soft, the hands of a magician or a rich First Family son, not a fighter. The paper gown doesn't hide as much as Rhys would like, and his build is slim, a little delicate. He doesn't want to have any sort of problem. ]

I suspect we were volunteered in some manner by the worlds we came from.

[ That this man isn't from Umayma seems immediately apparent to Rhys. It seems likely he is the only one here, perhaps even the only one here of the people of the book. ]

Likely for some kind of political or technological advantage.

[ That Nasheen's Queen would sell Rhys out doesn't give him a moment's doubt. ]

Do dead bodies go for a lot of pull now?

[ Ash was dying. He thinks he may have even been dead, but that's a little harder to quantify. There'd been no Heaven or Hell, but he wasn't sure he believed in those things. Instead, he woke up here, injured but alive.

Sitting back in the seat, he looks around the train, sees the people kneeling or commanding. ]

It looks like we're in some bad porno. Where's the pizza man?

Depends on how dead they were.

[ That's an honest answer, because a good magician can do a lot with a corpse, if they were freshly dead enough. Some of the best can seem to bring people back from the brink.

Porno translates easily enough, even if the concept is something Rhys himself avoids, that he would expect any self-respecting Chenjan to avoid. Even in Nasheen, it's not common. Pizza man, though, is something that has Rhys simply staring blankly at Ash. ]

I don't think I want to ask what you mean.

[ Hm. The answer is barely a surprise. Ash has met people who enjoy all kinds of different things so being dead didn't really save you from much. That's true. Still, the dead weren't as valuable in a normal society.

There's nothing normal here. ]

What what means?

[ It's such a common porn trope that Ash isn't sure what Rhys means. After a second passes, Ash answers his own question. ]

The pizza guy in a porno. Or a plumber. Babysitter? Maybe a coach if you're more into the gay type.

[ Half those concepts don't mean anything to Rhys, even with the automatic translation working as well as it can.

But Rhys thinks he understands enough, enough for him to get angry.]

I certainly am not, and you'll make no further insinuations of the sort. Just because you spend your time in such godless pursuits does not mean I have any interest in that direction.

[ Ash raises one thin, blonde eyebrow. It's almost amazing, would be if Ash's mood wasn't so dark. ]

Get that assumption a lot? I didn't say you were. I don't watch a lot of porn. Besides, you don't have the look of a plumber or pizza guy. You'd probably be the professor or something.

[ Perhaps he added the last bit to be an ass. ]

[ They've finally landed on a profession he's familiar with. But Rhys is sure that the last part isn't meant as a complement, that this man is still talking about pornography. He bristles even further. ]

Men's bodies are asexual, clean.

[ Ash isn't sure what Ryhs means. Asexual? Men are anything but. Most men, anyway. Clean? That's a loaded term. The biggest point of confusion is that Rhys seems to be applying the term to men as a whole. Is he saying men, as the species, don't have sex? That's so obviously wrong that Ash is missing something here. ]

Huh?

They don't belong in pornography, and women should be treated with more respect.

Yeah, why respect the asexual body of men, too?

[ Ash really isn't sure how the conversation turned into this direction. ]

I didn't invent porn, you know. But it does exist.

You're clearly familiar with it.

It's wrong.

So is most of the world. If you're not getting television or the net under that rock, you're the odd one out.

Porn or sex?

We all have the choice not to indulge in such things.

Porn and sex outside of marriage.

[ This place has plenty of both. ]

Is polygamy better, or are you marry and divorcing everybody you have sex with? Sounds like a lot to keep up with. You must not have time for loosening up if you're still this tight.

[ Rhys doesn't know what this conversation is, why what he's saying seems to be the source of any argument at all. ]

There is nothing wrong with a man having multiple wives, so long as he can provide for all of them.

But I don't know where your insinuations are coming from.

[ Rhys is new enough that he's coping with the mandate to have sex in this place by simply ignoring it. ]

You're into that but not porn, huh?

[ Ash isn't actually arguing, but his manner is usually rough. It's an easy mistake to make. ]

I'm saying I read the tour guide book. Welcome to Sex City where you give it up or get taken away. I hope you're ready to support a lot of wives.

I will submit to God, and not to this city.

[ What this man is suggesting is a perversion of marriage, and while Rhys would like a wife he's long thought that that path has been cut off for him. ]

[ Religion. Not a topic he discusses much anymore, especially not with someone who seems so devout. It's a conversation that can't end well. ]

Good luck with that. I'm not telling you to go out and bang everybody, but come up with a better plan than that.

[ Scratching at the back of his neck, he sighs again. This guy is going to run into trouble. ]

The rules said the sex has to happen three times a month. Could be with the same person.

[ Nyx would call him ridiculous for planning to fight this, would offer to take him to her own bed or tell him to go to a brothel. The thought of the latter settles a pit into his stomach. And Nyx isn't here, not that Rhys would take her up on the offer anyway. ]

I'm not sure it's the kind of thing that it's better to plan for.

Although you can of course make your own choice.

[ It's a loaded situation. Some people choose to fight, but if this place can follow through on its threats, that's going to come at a cost. If Rhys is willing to pay it, that's his call.

Finally, he shrugs. ]

Just be ready when they push back. They're not going to make it fun. You find an alternative in those three months and it gives you more choice.

All the alternatives suggested amount to complying with their demands in some manner. But I'll be ready.

[ Better than assuming the threats will be enough to sway his behavior without even testing them. He's dealt with not-fun before. ]

[ It's not a situation Ash has ever enjoyed. 'Do what they say' sounds like giving in, giving up, but there's a way to move within the system. Perhaps not beat it, but make the most of it.

He misses his hoodie, his sunglasses.

Allowing his head to drop back, his eyes close, but his ears perk up for any sound of movement. ]

Means finding a way to do it your way.

[ Even if he doesn't want to do it at all. ]

But maybe they are full of bullshit. I'm new here, too. Taking that risk means being ready for education they plan to push down our throats. Maybe you can run from that, too.

I suppose I'll have to find out how serious they are.

[ It's not the kind of thing he can look forward to, but Rhys knows he'll be feeling the edge he's living on until he finds out if they're serious or not.

It doesn't seem impossible to him that people would simply use the excuse that the city would make them do it in order to engage in sin. ]

And if the lengths I'll go to are more than theirs. I won't assume they're more stubborn.

[ It isn't that Ash doesn't understand or even support the idea. Maybe the threat is hollow, but with this many people around, he doesn't think of all of them would be tricked into submission. He's willing to bet that others have fought, others have lost. Maybe he'd be different, maybe Ryhs would be. The important thing is that they're aware of the cost of failure.

Turning his head to the side, Ash cracks open one eye to stare at him, a smile on his face. ]

Yeah? And how far are you going to go? Assassination?

TDM #8

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)