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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!! |
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[It strikes him as a bit unfair that this fellow has clothing, however strange, and he's left with this flimsy thing threatening to flap open at the slightest hint of a breeze.]
I doubt very much the Maker had anything to do with this. He doesn't interfere with us.
[If he did, well, no. He doesn't care to go down that trail of thought today. Things are weird and depressing enough.]
They gave you clothes?
[He has never been what anyone could call a smooth conversationalist. He had little hope of making that a graceful transition no matter how he tried, so he simply didn't.]
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[The he isn't as surprising, really, humans have been getting that one wrong since the Beginning.
Whether or not God is interfering would take far too long to unpack; does he count, as an interference? Does the angel? Does the Antichrist? These sorts of things are complicated.
Easier to answer a question about clothes.]
Sure, just had to ask. Must've liked me more than they liked you.
[He's..... a fucking liar, but he's not sure where the whole "don't reveal yourself to humans" thing stands when he's been sucked into another universe.]
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[Similar accent to home, though, if that means anything. He's not sure it does.
His expression sours considerably at that.]
Bastards. I asked for my clothes.
[Was he polite about it? Weeelllll...]
They say they're in my quarters up there. Somewhere.
[The height of the building is daunting, putting most of the structures in Kirkwall and even Orlais to shame in glittering scope.]
Said they needed cleaning. I bathe regularly. I bathe far more than some people I know. What did they tell you? Are you to live here, too?
[He gestures toward the doors.]
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[There's a sharpness to his grin that suggests he's deliberately misinterpreting whatever Andrastian might mean, it's especially easy considering the whole... vibe this place has.]
Wouldn't take it personally, if I were you. The whole cleaning business, I'd bet good money it's more a half-arsed attempt at a quarantine process. [Crowley shrugs, idly smooths out the lapels of his jacket.] I am, yeah. Might do to head in before a stiff breeze ruins whatever's left of your modesty.
[He has to admit, though, he's slightly reluctant to leave the company of someone who seems as put out by all of this as he is. What he'd seen on the drive over has not inspired him with a lot of confidence about the city.]
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It's not a--never mind. [Least said, best said.]
[He hadn't considered that, quarantine. He'd just as soon not, now that he thinks of it. The last thing they need is plague on top of everything else.]
If we're both to be there, it wouldn't hurt if we took part of the way together. I imagine climbing all those stairs is going to be a tedious affair. Besides, stairwells are notorious ambush spots. Strength in numbers.
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If there's stairs, I'm going to fucking riot, they'd best have a lift. [But, well, they can probably stick together. Crowley makes a face at the prospect of that many stairs, as if he's a creature that couldn't theoretically walk up a million steps without growing tired, but he starts towards the doors regardless.] Come on, then. Have you got a name?
[Such manners. So polite.]
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I didn't think of that. Perhaps they do.
[He steps forward with him toward the entrance. Maybe it's his turn for a touch of cheek.]
Last I checked. I doubt I would if it were as easily stripped as my clothes. I'm Cullen. Cullen Rutherford. And you?
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You never know, names are easy things to lose. [It's half a joke, half true. He wasn't always named Crowley, nor Crawly, but whatever name he had Before is gone with his divinity. No point dwelling.] Anthony Crowley.
[An idea occurs to him and he rolls it around in his head as for a moment, weighing pros and cons, before he adds:]
I could use a bloody drink and while I can't say I'm real interested in making nice with the locals just yet, some company wouldn't go astray. If your clothes are waiting for you, could always join me once you're dressed.
[Crowley is, mostly, a solitary creature, but he knows the value of allies in strange situations, and Cullen seems like an alright sort.]
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Serah Crowly, a pleasure. [The emphasis is Se-RAH, his dip of chin merely the suggestion of a bow.]
I could do with a drink. I'll do that. I can't say I'm any more enamored of the idea of mingling with the locals.
[Perhaps one. He has no intention of getting impaired in a place like this. It's rare enough he indulges at home. He looks around for any sign of the stairs or the open sorts of lifts he has seen in his life.]
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It does make him curious, about where Cullen is from.]
I'll be honest, I'd be worried about anyone who didn't need a drink.
[He's relieved to find there is, in fact, a lift and it's ready and waiting, because that's what Crowley would expect of any self-respecting lift.]
How's fifteen minutes for you? Can meet you back here and we'll find a bar?
[He could easily just miracle up a few bottles of scotch, but inviting a stranger into his flat is A Bit Much. Better to stick to neutral ground.]
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[It has him wondering if anyone arrives in this place and likes it. He's not sure he'd want to meet them. He steps into the enclosed lift and waits for something to happen. Maybe this fellow knows more and will get it moving.]
Twenty, and we're good to go.
[No matter how practiced he is, getting into armor takes time.]
I don't suppose you saw a tavern on the way? I'm afraid everything was moving far too fast for me to see more than a blur.
[Faster than he had ever ridden on horseback by far.]
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What floor did they put you on?
[He'll press that one, too, once he's got an answer.
There's even room for multitasking; he fishes the device he was given out of a pocket and starts investigating the search function.]
There's got to be something on here that'll tell us where there's a tavern. If they've got the tech to make a phone like this, they've got to have google maps.
[It's occurring to him that Cullen might be from somewhere (somewhen?) pre-internet, just from the occasional word choice, but God forbid he actually do anything about that realization.]
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The whole time he has been clutching the little thing they gave him much like a child might a rock, in his palm and largely forgotten beyond the instruction not to lose it.
He raises his free hand to rub at the back of his neck. A couple of those words made no sense to him. He's not sure it's worth asking about, because if Serah Crowly knows how to make use of the thing for their purposes, that ought to be enough.]
The maps would have to be very small.
[There. That's fairly neutral and perhaps indicative enough of ignorance without lighting a torch above his head for all too see. (Figuratively.)]
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They're not like — [Crowley does actually have some experience in explaining technology to people who don't know anything about it, namely: other demons who don't spend anywhere near as much time on Earth as he does. But it's different when explaining it to say, Hastur, who's both very stupid and very willing to set someone on fire with a thought. For now, with a stranger, Crowley just pulls up whatever app passes for google maps and holds out the device for Cullen to see.
He makes a point of zooming in, then out, and scrolling sideways along the map to show more of it.] It's a digital map, you're gonna be in for a bit of an adjustment, I think. I'll explain a bit of it over drinks.
[He can imagine how overwhelmed he'd be by the technology, if he'd been in the 1300s or something when he arrived here.]
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That's...wondrous. Maker's breath, if I'd had something like that during the campaign... Ha.
[He shakes his head in disbelief.]
Do you know who makes the maps? With that level of detail, the cartographers must be incredibly skilled. [And expensive.]
Never mind. As you said we can talk about it over a drink. I'll want to know everything.
[Not long after that, the lift halts, and the doors slide open. Judging from the lit number, he assumes it's his floor, ignorant but not stupid by any stretch.]
I'll see you on the ground floor in twenty.
[He strides away quickly, head bent as he jabs a bit at the device without much success yet. He hopes that will soon change.]
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[He's definitely willing to offer some explanations about various technologies, but he's also perfectly willing to make sure he gets something out of it, even if there's no real need for him to make someone else pay for anything. He assumes whatever passes for a credit card here will work the same way his credit cards in London do, which is to say that he wants them to be accepted, so they are.
Money is fake, anyway.]
See you in twenty.
[Crowley spends those twenty minutes doing a quick once-over of his own flat, finding it acceptable, if not entirely to his personal tastes. He claims his watch, which was the only part of his outfit he didn't reproduce with magic, and then heads back to the lobby to wait. And to see if there's an equivalent of wikipedia in this world, just to make life easier.]
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He can spend time exploring the place later. He's much more interested in taking the chance for some reconnoitering with someone who has valuable skills he can help him with. If the price of that is a few drinks, so be it.
When he steps off the lift, he looks entirely different, larger, bulkier, and far more sure of himself. The plate mail is gleaming, the fur mantle cleaner than it has been in...ever, if he's being honest with himself, and all of it smells fresh.
He approaches, boot heels thudding on the tiles.]
Ready. Were you able to find a tavern?
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That's not entirely what he expected, though it isn't entirely a surprise, since he was already drawing conclusions about Cullen based on his manner and the lack of familiarity with technology. The armor matches well enough with what he'd been assuming, but still.
Rather than answer the question, he asks his own.]
You're gonna be bloody hot in that get up, you sure you don't want to leave the armor behind?
[Crowley remembers plate mail. It was the worst.]
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[He feels worse than naked without it, especially in a strange place.]
I've been trying to do what you did with this, but I don't think I saw the first couple of things you touched.
[He waves the phone.]
Let's find somewhere to take a load off.
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So it's fine.
Just, ugh, Catholics.]
If you're sure.
[He'll start moving again, leading Cullen out the front door and to the left. He checks his device to make sure they're heading in the right direction, then goes back to the home screen so he can demonstrate while they walk.]
Lucky for you, these things are pretty intuitive once you know what all the symbols mean. Here — [He points out each symbol as he mentions them.] Maps. You can write messages to people with this one. Call them, that's uh, that'll let you talk over whatever distance. Search for information. Music. Write notes.
[There's a camera, too, but he'll save that for when they're not walking. He figures it'll require a bit more explanation, and he's already dropped a decent amount of info.]
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I'm sure.
[He's soon enough sweating in the sunlight but doesn't let it phase him. Gloves off, he holds his own device in hand and checks its corresponding symbols.
He opens up the maps one and with a bit of fiddling gets it to show their current location.]
I can't believe how useful this is. Always knowing precisely where you are at any given moment?
[It occurs to him he's being a touch rude. He doesn't want him to feel like he's using him solely for what he can tell him.]
Are these things commonplace for you? You seem so casually familiar, much as I'd feel about a compass or a sextant. How much does this place resemble where you're from?
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It's good to have, especially if you're the sort to get lost easily.
[Considering most of his efforts towards explaining tech are to demons who aren't interested, or Aziraphale who's very not interested, he's fairly impressed that Cullen is both paying attention and seeming to grasp the concepts quickly enough.]
Common enough for the past decade or so, most people have got one. As for this place — some things are familiar, technology seems about the same, architecture isn't too weird. It's the culture that's the big one, not sure there's anywhere on Earth like this.
[There are ways it reminds him of Rome, the class division especially, if he draws a line between submissives and slaves, but even at their most hedonistic, they weren't so obsessed with sex that it was government mandated.]
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[All the whizzing carriages careening so quickly it's a wonder they don't overturn on the turns in particular. It's a very good argument for staying out of the street.]
I don't think there's anything like this in Thedas, either. For all of their reputation for hedonism, the Orlesians have far more decorum, and the Imperium is more focused on blood magic and power, not sex, per se. It's wretched.
[And degrading, and many other words he doesn't care to dwell on, because it's depressing.]
I just realized I didn't thank you for this. You certainly didn't have to take the time. I'm more than happy to compensate you with the drinks.
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Magic is a very rare thing, on Earth. A handful of witches throughout the ages, maybe a druid or two who was more than just high on mushrooms.]
Ugh, don't thank me, I've got a reputation to maintain. [As someone who doesn't do things for other people without reason. Except it occurs to him with those words that he doesn't have any kind of reputation. There's no Hell looking over his shoulder, no one who knows him, no one to expect him to act a certain way. He puts a metaphorical pin in that thought, deciding it's the type of existential crisis that's best had alone.] Anyway, tell me more about magic and we'll call it even, can't say there's much of it on Earth outside of stories.
[Bold words from the occult being.]
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[He has no idea why he wouldn't want the thanks, but if there is something to it, he can be discreet.
It always somehow comes back to magic, doesn't it? He nods, closing his eyes briefly.]
Not everyone in Thedas possesses the ability to be a mage. Conservative estimates by some of our scholars say maybe ten percent of the overall human and elf population on the continent. No dwarves, not ever. There are Qunari mages, too. I know very little about them except that it seems they are terribly abused. You only ever see them wearing collars, odd half masks, and with their lips sewn shut and their horns cut to nubs.
[Not a sight you'd ever forget if you also found yourself on the receiving end of their devastating spells.]
Spellcasting is reliant on a sort of energy that comes through the mage from a place called the Fade. It's also the place where demons exist naturally. Just as every mage is a conduit for the energy, every mage is a potential doorway for a demon.
[He pauses there to gauge his reactions before considering continuing. It may sound so weird to him that he'll lose interest altogether. He doesn't want to bore him.]
You really don't have much magic on your world?
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