duplicitymemes | TDM #10

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TDM #10

« « « TEST DRIVE MEME » » »

« « « LIFE WILL GO 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 weather is a brisk negative seven during the warmest parts of the day.

» » » BLINDLY WE'LL FOLLOW

It's time for the monthly Duplicity train tour. 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.

« « « ASK ME ABOUT X

Along with the usual Dom and Sub seminars and demonstrations, the powers that be have decided to try something a little more friendly. After attending the mandatory classes, all characters are invited to a (mandatory) social mixer! There are beverages and light snacks, and mingling is highly encouraged.

Also, all participants have had their clothes removed and replaced with long shirts ( they are allowed to keep their undergarments, but nothing else is allowed ). Said shirts have the phrase “Ask me about _____!” plastered loudly and proudly on the front. It could be a character’s deepest, darkest secret, their most negative trait, or something embarrassing they had happen to them. Each participant is given a clipboard, pen and a piece of paper and are tasked with “asking” three others about what’s written on their chests. Once they’ve completed the task and handed in the assignment they’ll receive their clothes back. Of course, the long shirts can be removed, but that means you’ll be stuck in the nude or in your undergarments until you cooperate.

« « « ON A FLIP CHART

Not into your long shirts? Want to complain or refuse to participate? There’s another option! Unruly Dominants and Submissives will find themselves locked in a private room with a bed, stuffed together into a get-along-shirt. There’s no escaping the garment either, until certain conditions have been met. Written on a flip chart in the corner of the room are the tasks that need to be accomplished to “get along.” Are the two supposed to share a kiss? Sing a romantic duet together? Say the alphabet backwards in sync? The whole point of the exercise is to find that synergy a Dom and Sub pair are supposed to have. Maybe this isn’t the best way to find it, though…

When the conditions are met the shirt is removable or rippable. Otherwise no matter how hard the characters struggle they’ll find themselves unable to get the pesky thing off.

« « « THE LONG WAY AROUND

Many local businesses have adapted to the timing of newcomers, and take advantage of the incoming crowds to do a little marketing. Stationed throughout Duplicity in LIEr-adjacent places such as the train station, the Up Apartments, the Down Motel, and the orientation center are representatives for local businesses and companies handing out free samples and hoping to attract business later.

This month, there’s a particular presence by Harbroken Industries, a cosmetic and beauty company. They’re pushing free samples of their new pheromone perfume sprays, delicately scented and guaranteed to work. Sample bottles are freely available, but some overeager volunteers are taking the department store approach and spritzing unwitting passersby.

The citrus scent is energizing and bright, inducing a talkative state where users cannot get enough conversation, and lose any internal filter for their words. The strawberry-vanilla scent is sweet and comforting, like a warm hug, which users will get a lot of with their new obsession with physical affection. Cedar-sandalwood makes those who use it tough as nails, angry and ready to pick a fight over the smallest slights. The cinnamon-pear scent makes its users feel adventurous and curious, and maybe a little TOO bold about trying new things. And predictably, the patchouli spray inspires “free love,” with an aphrodisiac effect that gets worse over time, unless taken care of quickly.

The scents will wane and the effects will fade after six hours, or after the urges they cause are fulfilled. These volunteers are so eager to make a sale that it’s entirely possible to be hit with more than one spray at a time, so maybe take the long way around these areas if you’re looking to avoid them.

« « « 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: Count the letters in your character's full name ( first, last, middle or whatever combo that they have ). If it totals twelve letters and below they are a Dominant. If it's thirteen and higher they are Submissive.

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

» » » MAIN NAVIGATION « « «

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah. That might not be the whole truth, but most people who are 'native' don't talk about where they were originally from so it's hard to keep track." Not that many of them would likely tell him anyway; even those graduated from the more recent batch of LIEs seem to have a reputation. One that's earned, but makes it harder to get people to trust them with much.

He nods- he does kind of get the reaction, seeing as most people want to believe they can leave within the month. "Yup."

"And other people have been here decades or more, from the sound of it. Long enough to be more citizens of this place than wherever they came from. Not exactly a particularly comforting thought, I suppose," he's a bit more sanguine about it than a lot of other people might be, though. He does want to get back to his friends, no, his family, but he's also pragmatic enough to recognize that as far as he knows, he's not being hunted here and also as far as he knows he doesn't have to hunt, he doesn't have to hurt people, and if he has to put up with this weird setup in order to have that... well... a year and a half doesn't seem horrible, really.

Though there is the nagging thought, there, that he's something eternal. Would he want an eternity of living here? It's too soon to tell, but the idea makes him a bit uncomfortable. He chuckles, though it's likely obvious he's changing the subject,

"So is this a hobby of yours? Helping poor new arrivals figure themselves out?" it's not mocking, he's genuinely curious. It seems like a reasonable thing for someone kind to do.

"No, it's really not." Phillip has a... difficult relationship with this place, doesn't like how people are essentially trapped here, but to an extent he does understand why some of the 'natives' have adapted they way they have. Keeping up outrage is exhausting, and for many people being here is legitimately better than being back in their worlds. But it does bring a lot of questions with it about the timeline of things.

He gives out a little laugh and shrugs. "Sort of. I don't go to their orientation anymore so it's mostly just when I run into people, but when I got here people didn't have a goddamn clue what was happening and it was rough. I like to get people up to speed when I can."

"Well, I appreciate it," he says, sincerely. "Good people are hard to find, sometimes, particularly in times of crisis. I'm glad to know that this place doesn't simply harden everyone who comes here."

Bad choice of words, maybe, but if the innuendo is intentional, he shows no sign of it.

"Do people die like this?" he can't help but muse, because it's cold, even though he's not bothered at all by it and he can't imagine having to make this walk basically naked if the cold was a concern to him. He seems to realize what he's said a moment later and waves it off with a bit of a nervous laugh, "Ah, forgive me. That's a bit morbid."

Phillip almost makes a comment about that. Almost. But he's distracted by the question. "I mean, I guess they could? I haven't heard of it happening." He wouldn't be entirely surprised if LIEs did something to prevent that, considering- "It's possible they've done something to prevent it though. They can bring people back to life here, and do, so it's not out of the question."

He is completely ignoring the apology about it being 'morbid.' He doesn't want to get into that right now.

"They can... bring people back to life?" congratulations, Phillip, you've finally found the thing that will stop Shido in his tracks. He turns and looks at him with a growing feeling of unease that borders on alarm. "How... do they do that? Bring people back, I mean."

He's aware that this is too intense of a reaction, but he can't help it, can more feel the reaction happening to him than feels like he's in control of it in any way, like everything has narrowed, abruptly, down to Phillip and to this information.

Then again, if Phillip has his suspicions about Shido's nature, it's likely that such a reaction, while not really proving anything, gives a really good look into his own feelings about his vampirism.

Well at least Phillip considers 'alarm' to be the appropriate reaction in this scenario. "I have no idea," he says, and he sounds a touch disgruntled about it, "We haven't even really seen any side effects from it. Or at least, nothing noticeable." Maybe if you die enough 'integration' into the city becomes easier or something, but everyone he knows luckily has had very few experiences with that.

"But they don't come back... different or anything?"

In his world, there are only a few ways to cheat death, none of them good, but there are countless ways to come back from the dead. Or at least, to come back as some kind of shadow of yourself, doomed to endless hunting, hurting. He's one of the more human versions of that, one of the few undead things that retain their minds and, he sincerely hopes, souls, though his own is likely tarnished beyond repair.

"No... side effects at all?" it sounds too good to be true. And then, immediately, it doesn't.

"Wait... no one can die? Everyone's just... condemned to all of this... until...? Until what?" maybe this is Hell.

Oh good. Someone does see why this situation is terrible.

"As far as I can tell, yeah. Which is part of how the 'natives' have been here for decades before us, I bet." Enough to forget their original homes, or at least fit better in this one. What will happen, he can't help but wonder, when people have lived here longer than they ever lived in any other universe? Maybe it really is just time wearing people down.

"Oh... god..." he looks away, not because he's got anything to hide on his opinions of the subject, but just because he needs a moment, sick to his stomach in a way that isn't actually physically possible for him anymore but is apparently emotionally so.

"Everyone..." immortality is great if you choose it, but if you don't, it's the worst curse Shido can imagine. He's known for a while now that he's un-aging, but as a vampire he's not unending, he can commit suicide, he can screw up and get himself killed. He's killed other vampires.

(He'd thought he'd killed the only vampire that mattered.)

Now, even that choice has been taken from him. There's a defeated slump to his shoulders for a moment, the weight of that too much to bear up under. But after a moment, he does, taking a deep breath and setting them back up again.

"How does everyone stand it?" he muses aloud, since it's obvious that Phillip understands from the way he's talked.

Ok, this guy definitely is immortal, or at least has thought about the possibility of being immortal considerably in a probably very tangible way. Because--

"I don't think they think about it too hard." Or they haven't put the pieces together that that's what's going to happen here. The fact that they don't even acknowledge that death (or Death) is much of a thing most of the time here, the fact that people have been here so long as to maybe not remember where they were from before or the histories associated with it. He kind of doesn't blame them, even. If you're not used to thinking about how awful being immortal can sound, then it probably takes a direct example to get you to start.

"Ah." He says simply and just kind of leaves it at that for a moment. There's a clarity to the previous conversation, suddenly, with Phillip saying that and Shido realizing that maybe normal humans wouldn't, or would think it was a blessing.

He's fairly certain, even in the tattered remains of his memories, that he didn't want to be immortal, hadn't asked to be turned. He remembers the church, the terror when he realized he wasn't going to be leaving it. But if he'd been given the choice, then, death versus immortality, he doesn't know what he would have chosen. He'd believed then that he was going to change the world, after all. Would he have naively thought he could hold onto his humanity from the beginning.

Would Cain have even let him have the illusion of it from the start?

He only remembers being human in odd, half-formed memories and in moments like these. It's a weird realization, to know this attitude also probably gives him away. But, also...

He turns and looks at Phillip, a bit more keenly, speculative,

"But you do. You also understand."

Phillip... saw that question coming. He knew when he answered like he did that, if Shido was actually immortal, that it would probably be pretty obvious. He's still not always sure he likes near strangers knowing even that much. His instinct, for all that he's loosened up in Duplicity, is still to be very guarded. But he's trying, if not to give people the full blown answer of what he is, to not be as obnoxiously cagey about it.

"Yeah," he says with a sigh, "I do." The elevator stops and the door to the Down opens, and he steps out with a pause for Shido to follow.

Shido considers his words carefully, falling silent for a moment as they walk. It's not an awkward silence, at least not from his side. He's more mulling things over than any kind of frantic need to respond or fill the space. Finally he says,

"It can be difficult, having something other people want while not desiring any of it," it's vague enough, an indication that he's not going to pry, even as there's an acknowledgement that they likely both know what the other is talking about, at least the broad strokes of it. "All we can do is make use of the time and the... gifts we've been given, even if they are more burden than gift."

Phillip's more than happy to walk as Shido thinks, leading them toward the Down's housing. And even after he does, it's his turn to be quiet for a moment, thinking it over. Even the people he's met here who are immortal are very divided over how they seem to feel about it. He can't find anything that ties them together, either; it's probably their goals or the kinds of lives they've lead, which are not things he can predict now.

"Yeah. And not worrying about the things we can't change." Because he can't change this about himself, has no way out. He needs to come to terms with it.

"Also true. Though I would imagine that's easier for some here than others," he gestures at the mark on his throat and his current state of dress, but it's more in a kind of tongue-in-cheek humor than anything snide or self-deprecating.

It bothers him, of course, how could it not? But it's not something to lose sleep over, compared to everything else about this entire situation. Hopefully he'll find someone kind to be a patron of sorts and, if not, at least there's very little chance that he's going to meet anyone like Cain here. Though... actually...

"I do have another, perhaps more practical question. Have you ever met... uh... someone you know here?" He hasn't really fully picked up that there are people from different worlds here, but even if they brought a thousand other people directly from Tokyo, it's not like he would be likely to know any of them.

It's a good question, and certainly an easier topic. "I haven't, no, but I've known people who have," he says with a shrug, "It's kind of hit or miss, honestly. Most people seem to be alone or just have one or two people they knew from home, as far as I can tell, but I know there are exceptions." Normally he would assume that Shido was asking after friends or something like, but from the way he asked-- he's actually not sure.

"I see..." it's pretty clear that's not an answer that brings the purple-haired man a lot of joy. "Is there a... registry of any kind, then? Some way to see who they've brought?" he's remarkably calm and casual given the circumstances, but it's still definitely showing that there's someone he's worried about being here.

He wouldn't want any of his friends to be stuck in this place, least of all Riho (who knows, Yayoi might actually have fun) but he wouldn't be worried about any of them. Even Riho, kind-hearted though she is, is a survivor at heart.

But Cain showing up here, of all places, particularly as a Dominant, fills him with a creeping terror that's almost impossible to fully hide.

Phillip shakes his head. "Not that I know of. You can ask the network- through the device they gave you- and see if they know of anyone you're looking for being here. Or you can just keep an eye out to see who posts on it yourself, but some people avoid it."

At this point it's clear that Shido is thinking of someone very much in particular, and probably someone whose attention he wouldn't want to draw. "...I don't know everyone, but I've been around for a while so I might be able to help."

Shido considers that for a moment, doesn't even really try to hide that that's what he's doing. He's not sure if he can trust this young man, but he's also not sure he really has any choice? He's going to have to rely on other people here no matter what, it seems, which isn't something he minds so much as something he's aware can be perilous whether he minds it or not. Still... Phillip seems nice enough.

"His name is Cain. He's tall, a bit taller than me, with long blond hair." He doesn't say the man is a vampire, but then, he also hasn't actually said he's a vampire himself. "He'll figure out I'm here fast enough, if he ends up here. There's nothing I can do about that.. I just want to make sure I see him coming."

"That doesn't sound familiar." Again, Phillip doesn't know everyone, not even close, but he doesn't think he's seen anyone like that on the network either. He's not sure if that's helpful or not; maybe Shido would be happier to have a confirmation that he was here, knew to expect him, than a vague answer.

"That's... probably good. I can't imagine him showing up here and not making himself known," there's maybe some grudging respect there, though good luck getting him to admit it.

"If you don't mind, if you do ever see him, I wouldn't mind a warning," particularly if he's a Dominant, though Shido can't quite bring himself to say that. Really, the wheels are already turning, though. He'll need to find a contract as quickly as possible and try to find someone potentially strong enough to actually protect him from Cain, but people like that... tended to be just as bad, in his experience.

"Are those the housing buildings?" he points up ahead to the run down buildings and shakes his head slightly, "They certainly do like to rub it all in, don't they?"

Phillip nods. "Yeah, I will." Honestly, he gets the feeling that Shido would find out first, but he can try and give the guy a break. And hope that the guy just doesn't show up at all. Maybe it's just a personal issue, not something that would cause problems for other people, but it kind of doesn't sound like it.

He looks forward to where the man is pointing and nods. "Yeah... they do," he says with a sigh, "The good news is you can kind of do what you want with the space? I've known people who can make them feel nicer." Homey, mostly, and the people he knew had magic, but still.

Shido should be more worried about Cain causing trouble for other people. And he is worried, of course. But he's more worried about what happens in a place like this one if Cain's able to "re-acquire" Shido. If Shido can still oppose him, he can take care of the worst of Cain's malevolence himself. But if they're both on the same side, even if that's forced, he can't imagine it will go well for anyone, and that's something he doesn't want in the slightest.

"Hm. It seems like it would be difficult to do so in such a short amount of time and with so few resources, But I suppose I'll have to see what I can do. Thank you for the escort, Mr Durand," he bows slightly, "I'm fairly sure I can find my way from here if you have other matters to attend to-- though if you would like to continue our conversation, I won't shoo you away," he grins slightly. "Perhaps it will be a bit more comfortable of one once I can have it clothed."

"Phillip is fine." He is not sure he will ever adjust to being called 'Mr. Durand' and doesn't really care to try. "It's up to you- I know you probably have a lot to adjust to and I don't want to get in your way. We can always talk later."

He'll linger, though, waiting for any kind of sign from Shido- some people need the time to personally process and some don't want to be alone. He can't really know which Shido is before being told.

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cw: light suicide mentions

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