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duplicitymemes2019-09-12 04:47 pm
duplicitymods) wrote in duplicitymemes2019-09-12 04:47 pm
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TDM #8
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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. The hellish summer heat is finally starting to subside, and the cool breeze suggests autumn is approaching. |
 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. |
 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. |
( 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. |
 (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? |
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!! |
wildcarding it, if this works??
It just so happens that this month in particular he sees the most familiar of faces, and for a minute he thinks that Dean - that is, the Dean that was here before - is back, but before he's even had a chance to get his brother's attention he sees the way he's looking around at the scenery. Like he's still taking it all in, not like he knows exactly where he is and where he's going. He would have called if he knew.
So Sam's already taking a deep breath, preparing for a Talk as he approaches, but the fact that he's glad to see his brother is undeniable. No matter how bad the circumstances are, he can't pretend that having Dean makes everything feel right again, even when everything else is going to hell around them.
This... could definitely be worse. ]
You need some directions?
[ Sam's dressed for work, but this isn't a cheap suit. It's a nice one that's been tailored for him specifically, and while it's not extravagant it's notably unlike the ones that they're more used to wearing. At least he doesn't have a briefcase in tow, since he wasn't planning on taking any work home with him today. ]
i'm emotionally compensated already
he takes a shot again at one of the many pamphlets that'd been shoved at him, whistling lowly and tossing one aside reading something about becky's hammer machine xr, messing with another to see if there's some sort of map that might guide him. it's then his attention's caught by a voice he could recognize from anywhere, one that'd pulled him up from hell one too many times and brought him back from even worse.
at first glance, he doesn't pay much mind to the suit, more so relief that ushers through him that whatever the hell it is they'd gotten themselves into, he at least had a steady head to help get them out. there's a telltale glimmer in verdant hues, a grin that takes to his mouth that suggests entirely too well that he really doesn't have the slightest clue that this wasn't some weird djinn reality, wasn't another tuesday morning, and they weren't getting the hell out of there any time soon. ❫
Sammy boy!
❪ a short laugh, boyish, and he goes in for a hug, giving a firm, full-palm slap to his back. he holds him at shoulder's length, then, looking him over in that crisp undershirt, a jacket that's been properly fit to his big ass frame to a t. ❫
Well, I got prodded by doctor do-good—and not a hot one—and Cinderella got ready for her ball. Talk about playing favorites. You figure out where the hell we are or I gotta do all the work myself?
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This place could have been miserable for him. He's incredibly lucky that it isn't.
He takes in a breath, obviously gearing up for a difficult answer to the question, and one that he's a little reluctant to offer up. It's so rare to see Dean unequivocally happy to see him without any of the anger or worry that Sam's been used to. The trials might have been wearing him down to the bone, but they had an equally devastating effect on his brother. He understands how miserable it is to watch something like that all too well.
But there's no avoiding it. He will gesture for Dean to follow him down the sidewalk, heading away from the train station and toward the main apartment building in the Up where he still presently resides. The streets aren't a good place to hang around in lately. Not that he's worried about anyone getting the better of the two of them, it would just be an unnecessary annoyance. ]
It's... kind of a long story. You might wanna sit down before we get into it.
[ Caitlin won't be home yet, which is good. That's an introduction he won't hesitate to make sooner rather than later, but it's not the one he wants to lead this conversation with. One step at a time. ]
no subject
what was one more for the books?
he's half-expecting sammy to begin rattling off some nuance details, street names, some sort of explanation for the way he'd been cleaned and prepped before he was let into the city. but instead, there's an unsettling quiet that comes from the younger, a feigned smile he knows all too well is more for dean's benefit than anything else. either way, his thoughts don't wander too far, too horrible just yet—not when he's dressed like that; not when he's calmer than perhaps he should be. but it's a winchester trait—keeping your shit when everything else begs you to lose it.
dean doesn't argue in the suggestion of a bit of distance between them and the crowd, but there's a disturbing itch in his sense of direction like he knows exactly where it is he's going.
like he's done it one too many times before. ❫
'You might need to sit down'— ❪ mocked in a scoff, reaching for his brother's shoulder to stop them, facing him now on the sidewalk with blond brows pulled into a tuft. ❫ What's up with you, man? What's— ❪ a gesture around them, vertically as if to suggest his outfit ❫ what's all this?
no subject
He doesn't offer much in the way of resistance when Dean abruptly pulls him back, but he does sigh, a heavy thing that seems to reverberate through his whole stance. Could Dean just make this a little easier on him one time? For once? Probably not. They've had a few of these talks, and they're always like this. Dean always demands answers he's not ready for, and Sam offers them up, even when he'd rather not. Neither of them is good at hiding anything, and Sam's not really in a place where he wants to even try.
His response is prefaced by a sort of shrug, as if he's momentarily uncomfortable in the suit. It's not really about the suit, or Dean's questioning, it's just a reminder of how fragile this place is, at least everything he's built up here. And just how incompatible it is with their life. Since when would he ever actually be allowed to have a normal job, an admittedly not very normal girlfriend, a house? A couple of dogs?
It can't last, and yet it has. ]
Pretty much what they've already told you is everything we know. It's hard to find answers around here, and believe me, I've been looking. I've been here for a year.
[ He would have liked to get Dean back to the apartment before they talked about this, but it was probably inevitable. ]
no subject
what he does know is what should be coming out of his brother's mouth is a lot heavier than what he lets on, sugar-coated in a way that makes him chuckle, almost as if to call bullshit, but he doesn't even have to say it. all it takes is a look and he knows sam will get the picture, just as much as he picks up on that uncomfortable shift of his shoulders, the fidgeting like everything he needs to say crawling around within his frame. ❫
What they've already told me? We? ❪ which is—well, jack shit. he'd had a difficult time paying attention after waking up in some too sterile medical room with gloves and sponges nudging and scraping at him. apparently he'd missed the lecture where everything was laid out, but he's momentarily stunned into a drawn silence when he rewinds sammy's words, eyes ticking to the side as if it'd only just registered. ❫
Hold on. ❪ a hand lifts to scratch through mussed blond strands, and it's obvious that there's a frustration brewing within him, the total lack of understanding and being thrown into a complete psychotic sex shop of a city almost too much for him to sort out all at once. he thought it'd make it easier, finding sam, like they'd slot right back into character and do the same shit they always did, but it's... different. sam is different. ❫
You were just bitching last night about me eating the leftover pizza. I think I'd notice if you were gone a friggin' year, Sam.
no subject
The fact that he has been here a year, almost exactly, has made him more tense lately. It feels like this is uncertain territory, despite everything ostensibly staying the same for now.
He spares a glance for the sidewalk around them, still uneasy and not just because he's got to give Dean the bad news. Interrupting a talk to fight wouldn't be new for them, but it's still something Sam would rather avoid. If he can coax Dean into walking while they talk, even if it's completely subconscious just so that he can keep up, he will. At some point he should text Caitlin, since she'll be home and... well, it would be more than slightly awkward if he brought over unexpected company like this on a day when she's planning to surprise him when he gets home from work. They've definitely gotten used to having the place to themselves.
The refusal to believe gets another sigh out of him, but he's nodding at the same time. He gets it. He went through the same crap before. ]
If you're traveling dimensions, time is relative. Wherever we are now, it's not earth, or at least it's not one anything like the one we know. Maybe it's some kind of post-apocalyptic thing, I don't know, we don't have any frame of reference.
[ If it sounds frustrating, it's because it is. ]
Look, we're trapped here as part of some screwed up experiment, and so far no one's been able to find a way back home. No way we have control over, anyway. Sometimes people disappear and reappear, but if there's any rhyme or reason to it, I haven't figured it out yet. There's not much to go on here.
no subject
most of it was.
he takes to sammy's deliberate stride, only because the thoughts and points he's attempting to connect are a distraction enough from the anger that seethes beneath. he's only been able to pick up bits and pieces of what's going on, but from the displays he'd witnessed back at that orientation (he'd never been a good student), it wasn't difficult to believe what his brother was laying out for him. he had no reason to lie to him, either, not if it was the real sammy. ❫
So you've tried? ❪ a tone that's pained with hope, nearly edging him to respond in favor, but there's an expectant glance up to the brother at his side as if he has a feeling it might be otherwise. ❫ Getting home — ? ... I mean, come on, man. You're wearing a friggin' fitted suit, for god's sake. You on a case? ❪ a question that's asked, but one he already knows the answer to. he's clinging to any sense of normalcy he can find, but that typical vigor they both share to dig themselves out doesn't seem to be reciprocated. in fact, sammy seems... content. almost as if him popping up here alongside him was more a nuisance of explanation than it was anything else.
maybe it's because if it'd of been dean stuck in here for a year, he'd be in a hell of a lot worse shape than what he saw right now. his focus should be on gathering every scrap of information he can about this place, but there's something else tugging at him that he can't quite understand, something deterring him from that calculative path to get back, to wake up. ❫
no subject
Jarring changes happen, but it's not their kind of thing.
He bites his tongue rather than snap back at Dean. It wouldn't be frustration aimed at him, after all. It's this place, and maybe not how it's changed him, but how he's needed to adapt to live here. On one hand, he's managing it just fine. For the most part he's an exemplary citizen, at least as far as the authorities are concerned. It's not a complete facade, but it's far from the whole picture.
The building that he leads Dean to towers over the buildings around it. It looks every bit like a normal upscale apartment building. A bar might be a more familiar, comfortable place to talk, but it's also not private. Sam would rather not have any number of eavesdroppers pausing to listen in to their conversation. ]
I've tried. A lot of people have tried, but we haven't been able to get to who or what actually drags people in here. They just... disappear sometimes. And other people come in to take their place.
[ He resists the urge to sigh yet again, instead doing his best to give Dean an steady look as they cross the lobby. He'll pass up the elevators, despite the fact that they look convenient, and head for the stairs instead. ]
It's not for a case. There isn't any work for hunters around here.
no subject
Okay, so you've tried, and what? Now you're playing dress-up and just waiting to go poof?
❪ whether his irritation is warranted or not, it's present, and a face his brother is more than used to dealing with. probably because, at the moment, it doesn't really look like sammy was hard at work hitting the books like he did back home, nose buried deep in those bunkers' shelves until they figured it out. there was nothing that they couldn't get to the bottom of, no matter how exhaustively they had to put themselves on it. so for dean to sit back and accept that sam's had no choice but to find some sort of complacency, it's not gonna happen anytime soon.
as for there being no red flags of a case, he's... not buying that. with all the weird shit he's already seen in his brief time in the place, anything supernatural would be mild if not dull in comparison. ❫
Do you hear yourself? You sound like a Taylor Swift break up album. No work out there? Sam, I just met a frickin' vamp who says she's a Queen back where she's from. ❪ and he fucked her, but look he's still blaming that damn cherry pie from hattie's sweet stand that he shouldn't have indulged and yeah, conversation for another time (or not at all.) it wasn't just a statement, either, he'd witnessed the fangs, and if it wouldn't have been for whatever that treat was laced with, the situation would've probably turned from sleepover to fright night real quick. their voices take on a bit more of an echo when he leads them towards the stairs, and he's yet to consider exactly what he'll be walking into. he's used to motel rooms, the cold, cement walls of the bunker that shit, actually have started to feel like the only home he's had. ❫
And she wasn't our kinda vamp. Nothing ugly about her. She seems like she just frolics around grinning at anyone who'll look and what, no one bats an eye? If there's one, then there's more.
no subject
Or he'll be gone before he has a chance to. That's always the easier option. That harder one is having to stay and find ways to cope with this place and the feeling that anything he does just amounts to treading water, with the one definite opportunity to get out locked up behind what seems like an impenetrable wall.
Talking about vampires, relatively, is a much easier subject. ]
There are a few vampires that I know of, and none of them are like the ones we know. Werewolves too, but I don't know if they're still in town, and a few other things that aren't human. But they're all just people, and they have to follow the rules as much the rest of us.
[ It's a bit of a kick in the gut that Dean's gotten to know a vampire already, everything that happened with Benny is still fresh in his mind, even though it's technically been a year. There's a stark difference between time spent here and what he left at home. Not that home has much more for him, unless he goes back miraculously healed, the same way as he was when he arrived here. He's got his doubts. He's also not convinced that his future is as set as his brother wanted him to believe before. The fact that he's still here, when nearly everyone else has come and gone, just chips away at any certainty he might have had. Maybe there is a reason he's stayed when the others haven't. ]
For the record, even if you did kill one of them, which still counts as murder here by the way, they'd just be back later, and probably even more pissed at you. Even dying doesn't get you out of this place.
[ When they finally do come out on the tenth floor it's a fairly open hallway with just two doors, one on either side. Sam's already got his key out as he turns to one of them. ]