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

[ He gets the same kind of tea, curious about the taste of it and willing to try some new things. There's nothing sinful about tea, at least. ]

My planet's name is Umayma. I was born in the country of Chenja, but I live as a refugee in Nasheen.

[ He knows she's not Umayman, that much is obvious by how she dresses, how she acts, the color of her skin, not that she'd argued with him, but the way she had. ]

What about yourself?

[not sinful until she happens upon a loose leaf tea shop, then she'll spend a ridiculous amount of money on tea and accessories for the tea.

and her eyes widen when he tells her where he's from] You're from. . . another planet? [and another part of what he says hits her] And you're a refugee? Oh my gosh!

[it takes her a moment to recover] Me? Oh. I'm from Earth? I live in a city named Seattle in a country called the United States. It's all very boring. [aside from your liaison with Christian, her subconscious sneered at her]

[ There's a reason Rhys had suggested it when she seemed upset, and that's because tea...helps. ]

Then you're surely also from another planet from me, and very likely this place.

[ It might be immediately obvious to Rhys, with all the ways this place is different from Umayma, but he suspects they're all a little far from home. ]

I'm never heard of Seattle, I'm sure it's more interesting than you say.

[her stepdad always made tea for her when she was a girl and she was upset.

and she's still wide-eyed in amazement] I--I know, but where I'm from there's just us. There aren't any other planets out there with people living on them. I mean, scientists have been searching for other life, but--oh my gosh!

[she's been trying to overlook the part where she's on another planet, too]

Well. It's near the ocean? I haven't really had a chance to explore it much, I just moved there after college.

[ It's difficult for Rhys to get too excited about the mere existence of other worlds, since he'd always known Umayma was isolationist, not alone. But the details of them, some of it does sound interesting. ]

Umayma was settled over three thousand years ago. I've never been off of it, until now.

[ But he's sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that this isn't Umayma. ]

I've never seen the ocean. What's it like?

[Ana was never a huge sci-fi buff, she's more into the classics of British literature, but even she knows enough about science and pop culture to know that the news of life on other planets would be a humongous deal back home]

Settled? So you guys originally came from somewhere else?

[as sure as she is that this is nowhere near Earth. but one reason to panic at a time]

It's--it's huge. You can look on it and look into forever. It smells like saltwater and seaweed. And it's a lot colder than you'd think, at least where I live. Not exactly bikini weather.

Of course. Humanity could hardly stay contained to a single world.

[ A lot of that description only sort of makes sense to Rhys, but he tries to follow it. Huge, he can get, deserts are huge. Umayma has oceans, of course, but Rhys has never been to the coast. Cold sort of makes sense, he supposes. ]

What's a bikini?

[her eyes grow wide again] ...wow. We can barely keep up a space station, but where you're from, they're colonizing worlds. That's amazing.

[she can't help but be amazed at the notion of not only there being other worlds out there, but other worlds being settled]

Oh! It's--something to swim in.

Like clothing for the ocean?

[ He can imagine regular clothing bogging down when wet. ]

It's-- I suppose it's different. It predates me by many thousands of years, so I do fail to personally find it impressive.

Uh-huh, that's it exactly.

[but she's omitting how revealing bikinis are. Ana never felt comfortable in them, feeling like her breasts were too small and her butt too flat to look impressive]

I guess even the extraordinary can become ordinary in a thousand years or so. That is a long time.

[ Probably for the best to omit their revealing nature. Rhys isn't really comfortable with the fact that none of the women here seem to cover their hair, let alone the rest of it. ]

I wish I could say we'd solved our problems in that time, but we certainly haven't.

[if it helps, Ana is dressed pretty modestly: a white button-down long sleeved blouse, black pants, and black flats. she's never felt comfortable in dresses, owning none of her own and having to borrow from her roommate when the occasion called for it]

Really? [hesitantly] Like what kinds of problems?

[ It's more than what most people here are wearing, but that doesn't appear to be a high standard. ]

The most pressing is obviously war. I'm not sure that it will ever end.

But then disease, poverty, the usual sorts of things.

[clothing standards do seem a little lax, but she's always been modest in dress. and she hadn't liked Christian's attempts to buy her more "suitable" clothing.

and her eyes are sympathetic] That sounds really rough.

It is, perhaps, an outcome of human nature.

Unless you have avoided that where you're from?

--oh! No. God, no. We've had wars. Terrible ones where millions of people have died. We're sort of at war with another country when I came here.

[ Rhys takes a sip of his tea. His voice when he speaks is wry. ]

I would have been more relieved to find my world unique, but I'm not surprised. How does one mange being sort of at war?

It's kind of complicated. Ten years ago, we had a major terrorist attack and the group responsible was holed up in Afghanistan. So we sent troops there. The guy responsible for the attack got killed a little under a month ago, so I hope that means that the war will be over soon.

[ He can follow some of that, but not enough to really make sense of it. ]

You weren't at war before the terrorist attack?

[geopolitics weren't her field of study, English Literature was, but the death of bin Laden had been huge news a couple of weeks ago]

No. In fact, things were pretty peaceful. For my home country at least.

That sounds pleasant. I hope, even with the other problems here, some measure of peace can be maintained.

...peace. Yeah. A little peace and quiet sounds really good right now.

Were you fighting in your country's war?

[his question takes her aback for a moment before she replies]--me? Fighting? No. No, no, no. I was in college and graduated just before I arrived here.

[ It was something about how she'd wished for peace, and that fact that it's a reasonable question for most people on his world. ]

What were you going to do on your world, if you hadn't come here?

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