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TEST DRIVE MEME 004
⚰︎ ⍢ ⌲ ⍚ TEST DRIVE MEME:
Welcome to RUBILYKSKOYE — a dark, horror-smut game where player choices will drive a mod-run storyline about the world and its NPCs. This test drive meme provides a medley of prompts evoking the game's general tone.
THESE THREADS CAN BE GAME CANON if both players are accepted into the game and agree to it. However, if players who'd prefer to start fresh are welcome to reuse these prompts in their own personal logs upon acceptance into the communities. Note: the universal test drive arrival prompt will not be repeated on the coming event log, but players are welcome to reuse the prompt.
CONTENT WARNINGS for this game include: monsters, body horror, dub-con, non-con, religion, blood/violence, and marking/branding, loss of autonomy/self, and mental influences. This log additionally has warnings for: spiders, animated skeletons, aphrodisiac effects, exhibitionism/voyeurism, bdsm, kink negotiation, knifeplay, potential dismemberment.
If you have QUESTIONS about the test drive prompts, please ask HERE. Questions about the game itself or the general setting should be directed to the FAQ.
FAQ ✧ SETTING ✧ CALENDAR ✧ RESERVES ✧ APPLICATIONS
THESE THREADS CAN BE GAME CANON if both players are accepted into the game and agree to it. However, if players who'd prefer to start fresh are welcome to reuse these prompts in their own personal logs upon acceptance into the communities. Note: the universal test drive arrival prompt will not be repeated on the coming event log, but players are welcome to reuse the prompt.
CONTENT WARNINGS for this game include: monsters, body horror, dub-con, non-con, religion, blood/violence, and marking/branding, loss of autonomy/self, and mental influences. This log additionally has warnings for: spiders, animated skeletons, aphrodisiac effects, exhibitionism/voyeurism, bdsm, kink negotiation, knifeplay, potential dismemberment.
If you have QUESTIONS about the test drive prompts, please ask HERE. Questions about the game itself or the general setting should be directed to the FAQ.
IN THE WOODS SOMEWHERE
The chirping of partridges in the treetops rouses you. Light barely filters through the canopy, just enough to suggest daylight. By the time it reaches the forest floor, the light has taken on a sickly green. You lie amongst the frost-covered mosses and ferns, the frozen soil cold and just a little damp on your bare skin. Wherever you were before this moment, whatever you were doing or wearing, when you awaken in this forest, you find yourself naked and helpless as the day you were born. As you sit up and get your bearings, aside from a brief wave of disoriented nausea, you seem to be no worse for wear than you last remember.
You seem to be alone. The gnarled oaks and moss suggest no sign of civilization or sentient life. Just flickers of movement from curious squirrels or brave lizards emerging from a temporary retreat from the wintry weather. With your feet under you, and you'll find the wood is filled with berry bushes and nut trees, though much of the fruit has been picked clean. The freshwater stream that runs north-south, populated by both poisonous toads and delicious crawdads, is running actively despite the growing chill.
wildlife encounters
The longer you hike, the more unsettling sights await you: animal remains, some partially stripped of their flesh or discarded entrails left exposed to the cold. As you continue on your way, you might even swear you catch a glimpse of what appears to be a fully-formed skeletal creature observing you from a distance. Surely, that’s just your mind playing tricks on you... These creatures may be unsettling, but they show no signs of aggression to folks who keep their distance.
In the forest, you may run into others with stories just like yours. Some may have already formed clumsy nudist groups, others may still be processing their confusion, with no memory of how they got here. Now is a good time to overcome any hang-ups you have about modesty; it's going to be a long hike, and the weather isn't quite amenable to your lack of.
Turn your back to the darker, shadowy parts of the forest and eventually the glow of manmade lights and the curve of a dirt road may come into view. At the edge of the wood, you'll find a town surrounded by a fifty-foot wall of beige stone. The only entrance is an iron gate positioned on the southern edge. When you arrive, the gate is already open, welcoming people inside.
This quaint, historic town of five-thousand has cobbled street and signs lit by gas lamp. Wooden shutters protect otherwise open-air windows on the buildings, which are all under three stories with gabled roofs. A number of businesses hug the main street — a clockmaker, a cobbler, a grocer — while residential homes sprawl outwards towards the wall. At the far end of the main street, visible about a mile to the north now that the trees and the enormous wall is out of the way, sits a castle with three towers.
When you enter, the streets are full of people, but despite any efforts on your part to hide or make excuses, they don't seem offended by your nakedness. Even families with children don't gawk or look twice. Those determined to find proper clothing regardless will find that modern clothing stores aren't available — the closest this town has is a tailor's shop and a stand in the central marketplace selling scarves and blankets.
breaking and entering
If you intend to have your character break into someone's house or yard to steal some of their clean laundry, please review the info about game laws on the FAQ and give the mods a heads up HERE.
Fortunately, the people of the town are very generous! Anyone who ask the locals will be directed to the boarding house for both clothes and a place to stay. Accessible through an embellished iron garden gate and obscured by hanging plants, trees, and vines, beyond an overgrown yard in the residential sprawl of the town is a bright-red door, which opens to a spacious cottage of several stories. It's already full of people who appeared in the village just as you did today.
Tonight, a few of the townspeople will help out with the new arrivals. They stock the kitchen and prepare a communal dinner of parsnips, pheasant, and squash. During dinner, they (and those outsiders who've already begun to settle) sit down at the enormous wooden dining room table and help orient the newcomers and answer their questions.
finding roommates
Don't spend too much time in the dining room going for seconds, though. You'll want to claim a bedroom quickly because each one only has two full-size beds, and there aren't enough spaces for everyone. The last people upstairs will need to double up to squeeze in. Roommates will not be mod-assigned; players should coordinate directly with one another to determine their living arrangements.
Get a good night's rest. By the light of day, locals will help get the new arrivals set up on the coal stove with breakfast. You may notice they're dressed in a way you would almost call normal — at least, in a manner befitting 19th century Eastern Europe. As you find your way around town to get your bearings, folks are eager to help you find a place to apply your skills so you can contribute to your new home.
writer's block?
If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try: naked hiking, acquiring clothing or other inventory items, asking questions at dinner/orientation, or staking your claim on a bedroom!
RECUMITA
The festival fills the streets with dancing locals and all the stuffs of a street market. Despite the challenges posed by the snow-in-summer, farmers are grateful to announce that the situation is not as dire as initially feared. As a result, the harvest festival of Recūmita becomes a celebration of unity and gratitude to their fellow townspeople for salvaging an almost-frozen harvest, the Duchess' magic for protecting and reviving it, and the 'Void-Touched' who braved the Void to strengthen her.Over the weekend, all regular work is put on hold, except for the necessary festival preparations. The streets come alive with vibrant stalls and stands, offering a wide array of delectable treats and refreshing beverages. From barrels of beer and cups of kvas to mouthwatering roasted meats, delightful squash-based dishes like pumpkin latkes, honey-glazed brussel sprouts on skewers, hot borscht in both pork and vegetarian variations, and tantalizing mushrooms stuffed with leeks, cranberries, and bryndza cheese, there is an abundance of flavors to indulge in.
The first day of the festival transforms the streets into a bustling night market, where shopkeepers organize an assortment of carnival-style games. Test your strength in arm-wrestling contests or challenge your pain tolerance in contests where individuals whip each other to determine who yields first, whether to pain or pleasure. In one corner, Terry's Rubean student sets up an unsanctioned fighting tournament, while in another area, a path of hot coals awaits the daring souls who wish to traverse it. Instead of traditional pie-throwing stands, knife-throwing stands attract participants who willingly become targets.
Enthusiastic Rubeans, particularly those involved in integrating the Void-touched, take it upon themselves to enhance the festivities. They recruit local participants and willing Void-touched individuals to partake in an impromptu stage performance, with no need for rehearsals. Come as you are and join the spectacle! Once the performance begins, the passion and excitement behind their efforts become truly evident, as all the performances call for explicitly sexual or violent acts to be performed together.
writer's block?
If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try entering the fighting rings, watching or joining a live sex performance, or eating some aphro food (deliberately or otherwise)!
the fathomless dark
At the outer edges of the forest, shadows grow long and the air grows thick. Though the sun never grows warm red-gold with sunset, the wood darkens. Birdsong is replaced by the click of mandibles and the skitter of many legs. Anyone who ventures out this way will soon find it difficult to see before them, even in the middle of the day — eventually, even the brightest magical light source or darkvision cannot stretch further than a few inches. In the void, the air feels heavy, as if it were not air at all but some more solid mass. Almost like liquid-smoke, it presses down upon you. Slowing your movements. Characters who push too far into the void may stop being able to move at all, and find themselves given over to insanity if they collapse, unable to draw themselves out. This is just one of many dangers.
Monsters thrive this far out. Huge, blood-red spiders the size of hunting dogs drop from the treetops. In addition to their venomous bite, which contains a fast-acting paralytic, these creatures are clever: they attempt to use their webbing to entangle any trespassers, binding limbs together or to trees. If you're unfortunate to become fully cocooned, you don't have long before this forest will be the last thing you see.
In addition to the spiders, you may come across the sharp-toothed furred yetis that emerged during the snowstorm, still looking for a meal. Each one hunts alone, a fifteen-foot-tall shambling creature that drips black ooze and super-chills the air around it until your skin feels tight and icy. If it gets the drop on you, you're likely to be its dinner. It has emerged from a long summer hibernation to enjoy the colder weather, and it's starving.
Those who seem lucky enough not to run afoul of the monsters here are in for a worse fate. The void can play tricks on your senses. As madness sets in and you lose all sense of direction, you may also lose control of your body — what is that steers your hands to turn against your friends? Why does it sound like your own voice whispering?
In the fog, you may also hear the voices of those familiar to you — people you know from the town, or people whom you know with almost perfect certainty aren't here. these figments may recreate unhappy memories or force trespassers to hallucinate their worst nightmares. Nothing is as it seems in the void, and when you swing at these figments, desperate to silence them, it might not be a figment at all, but a friend in the flesh trying to help you. By the time you see their true face, it could be too late to stop yourself.
writer's block?
If you're struggling to pick a way to engage the prompts, try fighting a monster, hallucinating your worst nightmares, and/or attacking a friend or stranger!
HIDING INSIDE EACH OF US
Uh oh spaghetti-os.
The marks worn by all residents of Rubilykskoye aren't just cool body art, as it turns out. The town is full of rumors, whispered in shadows and over candles of a starving creature hiding in the dark corners of your chest. Feed your inner beast, they say, before it finds a way to feed itself.
Alas, its emergence is inevitable — sooner or later, the horrible things that happen here pile up and make someone repulsed by the idea of human contact. Someone holds themselves back, bites their tongue, or simply does not believe the stories. Today, for one reason or another, that creature is coming out. Someone hasn't been keeping it sated.
Symptoms escalate over weeks, from monstrous irritability to full-blown body horror transformation, where people physically shed their human forms and evolve into the monsters this place made them. Once a person becomes something more (or less) than human there's only one way to go back — sate the beast.
Rubilykskoye's performance troupe is thrown into a state of panic as they make a shocking discovery: Vyanchaslav, their unofficial manager and conductor, has vanished without a trace! Vyanchaslav plays a crucial role in the troupe, overseeing small inter-troupe matters and having the final say on casting and rehearsal time. He is known for his reliability, making his sudden disappearance all the more perplexing, especially right before a major event.
The last time anyone saw Vyanchaslav was in their usual rehearsal space, just before a crucial run-through of their upcoming performance. His absence during that rehearsal was highly unusual, and it left the troupe members worried and confused. They are now frantically trying to piece together what might have happened to him.
As they search for Vyanchaslav, they notice a faint sound lingering in the air – the distant whine of a fiddle. However, there is something unsettling about it. As they follow the source of the sound, the room grows darker, and an eerie chill runs down their spines. Those who draw close enough to properly hear Vyanchaslav's song will feel inclined to dance themselves til their feet bleed, til their lungs give out. That is, provided they don't cut a devil's bargain with him first, selling something else to the devil in exchange for their freedom.
(There are other monsters lurking in every townsperson — feel free to invent your own npc monsters and scenarios!)
The marks worn by all residents of Rubilykskoye aren't just cool body art, as it turns out. The town is full of rumors, whispered in shadows and over candles of a starving creature hiding in the dark corners of your chest. Feed your inner beast, they say, before it finds a way to feed itself.
Alas, its emergence is inevitable — sooner or later, the horrible things that happen here pile up and make someone repulsed by the idea of human contact. Someone holds themselves back, bites their tongue, or simply does not believe the stories. Today, for one reason or another, that creature is coming out. Someone hasn't been keeping it sated.
Symptoms escalate over weeks, from monstrous irritability to full-blown body horror transformation, where people physically shed their human forms and evolve into the monsters this place made them. Once a person becomes something more (or less) than human there's only one way to go back — sate the beast.
someone else transforms
Rubilykskoye's performance troupe is thrown into a state of panic as they make a shocking discovery: Vyanchaslav, their unofficial manager and conductor, has vanished without a trace! Vyanchaslav plays a crucial role in the troupe, overseeing small inter-troupe matters and having the final say on casting and rehearsal time. He is known for his reliability, making his sudden disappearance all the more perplexing, especially right before a major event.The last time anyone saw Vyanchaslav was in their usual rehearsal space, just before a crucial run-through of their upcoming performance. His absence during that rehearsal was highly unusual, and it left the troupe members worried and confused. They are now frantically trying to piece together what might have happened to him.
As they search for Vyanchaslav, they notice a faint sound lingering in the air – the distant whine of a fiddle. However, there is something unsettling about it. As they follow the source of the sound, the room grows darker, and an eerie chill runs down their spines. Those who draw close enough to properly hear Vyanchaslav's song will feel inclined to dance themselves til their feet bleed, til their lungs give out. That is, provided they don't cut a devil's bargain with him first, selling something else to the devil in exchange for their freedom.
(There are other monsters lurking in every townsperson — feel free to invent your own npc monsters and scenarios!)
you waited too long
At first, as you hide yourself from your darker impulses, a subtle itch develops under your skin. An irritability that makes you snap at the person who bumps into you on the stairs because all those fleeting emotions that you've been repressing bubble to the surface. Every dark thought you've had about being here, all the fears of never getting home, of being surrounded by ticking time bombs, the anxiety of wondering who you might hurt or what relationships you might betray by doing what you have to do. The anger. Oh, the anger.
Maybe you shut yourself in your room or run into the woods to hide away, but there's only so much you can do to deny the itch that grows into hunger like a spark catching and growing to wildfire. Someone comes to check on you. That knock on the door or crunch of leaves in the wood that fills you with dread at what you might do and hope that you will be sated.
As claws and fangs and scales and spines and fur grow and your body transforms with a sickening crunch of bones and peeling of skin, so do your appetites. If you won't sate them, you'll lose yourself to your beastly impulses sooner or later, mauling friends and taking your fill. Is it better or worse if only your claws get inside of them?
Maybe you shut yourself in your room or run into the woods to hide away, but there's only so much you can do to deny the itch that grows into hunger like a spark catching and growing to wildfire. Someone comes to check on you. That knock on the door or crunch of leaves in the wood that fills you with dread at what you might do and hope that you will be sated.
As claws and fangs and scales and spines and fur grow and your body transforms with a sickening crunch of bones and peeling of skin, so do your appetites. If you won't sate them, you'll lose yourself to your beastly impulses sooner or later, mauling friends and taking your fill. Is it better or worse if only your claws get inside of them?
ningguang | genshin impact | skala
(cw: hot coal walking)
RECUMITA: DEMONSTRATION
(cw: voyeurism, exhibitionism, potential: masturbation, femdom, lap dance)
recumita; firewalk
But then a few Rubeans shift away, and Yennefer realizes the woman's features are unfamiliar to her, someone who is essentially a stranger even if she stands out amidst the others for the sole reason that she's another within their number, another Void-touched to be regarded with skepticism and perhaps even hostility.
It takes a moment, as Yennefer briefly forgets herself by staring into the coals, for her to even realize she's being addressed. ]
You've done something like this before, then. [ Not a question, but rather a confirmation, violet eyes rising from the path to meet the other woman's gaze. ]
no subject
[Her gaze returns to the coals, to the crowd around them. Her self-certainty is solid, but she is a stranger in a strange land, no longer Lady Ningguang of the Jade Chamber. Yet she still hasn't stepped forward to walk the coals herself.]
But I will admit I'm usually somewhat removed from such... corporal activities.
[As confessions go, she knows it's slight. Especially where there are others here, as new to the surroundings as herself. But that doesn't change the feeling of it being a devastating vulnerability.]
no subject
[ And one that Yennefer understands full well, if the brief smile that changes the shape of her mouth is any indication. But she can also understand the importance of absorbing details at a distance, rather than immediately plunging one's self into the thick of things — and the woman standing beside her doesn't strike her as so impulsive, either. ]
Out of habit, or necessity?
[ It's one thing to avoid these types of gatherings due to position or hierarchy, and perhaps the woman beside her hasn't been afforded the opportunity to participate in anything resembling this for an obvious reason. Or there could be something else, something Yennefer wouldn't have initially considered. ]
no subject
[A necessity at home. Potentially a fetter, now. She was not Tianquan here, and acting as such would not make it so. But discarding the trappings of a life built over years was not an act of moments, or days, or even months. But perhaps, if remaining here was to be her future, something to be worked on.
Much like meeting others. Gaining allies. She tips her head, cordial.]
I am Ningguang.
no subject
[ There had been a time when she'd briefly considered introducing herself to others under a false name, wondering if it would benefit her more to explore here without anyone knowing the truth of her identity. But the more she'd come to the conclusion that no one here had any unique knowledge of the Continent, the more she'd also discarded the idea of secrecy.
That hadn't been the case with Alina, who had initially presented herself under an alias and then been forced to divulge the truth regardless, an incident which had proven, to Yennefer, the futility of attempting to maintain such a cover. ]
I can't say I aim to stay long enough to develop any new habits, anyway.
no subject
I was under the impression the length of our stay wasn't a matter we had any influence over. You have the means to leave?
no subject
Not exactly. But that doesn't mean I've abandoned my own pursuit.
[ She gives the other woman a considering look, more appraising than anything else. ]
Though perhaps it'd be achieved more swiftly as a combined effort.
no subject
I have an interest in returning to my home, of course, but I can't say I can directly contribute to any efforts without first understanding their nature. [Already, she knows, her particular skills and talents aren't directly applicable to much of life here. She wasn't incapable of using her hands, by any means, but it wasn't her strength.] I wouldn't want to slow your pursuits down, after all.
no subject
[ Judging by the brief, sideways tilt of Yennefer's more chagrined smile, those efforts have been limited — but that doesn't mean that she's given up by any means.
The Duchess, by and large, seems to be the one who holds most of the power here, so Yennefer's plan, at least as it stands currently, is to make herself indispensable to that authority, enough that she could even learn the truth behind why they were all brought here to begin with, if not to earn a more advantageous boon. ]
Besides, applying more minds might force the solution to present itself more quickly than it would otherwise.
no subject
[She inclines her head, then looks over at the crowd gathered around the coals again. The entire festival, its impetus, the ebb and flow of needs and habits here.]
But I will need time to learn more about this place before I'd be capable of giving any useful insight.
[She's still too new here. Too unsettled, searching for understanding, a balance to stand.]
no subject
[ At least in the looking of it; chalk it up to decades of experience within Aedirn's court, but Yennefer prides herself on having a knack for recognizing who actually possesses some level of political and tactical acumen and who's merely full of bluster and pretense. Ningguang is certainly far from the latter.
But for the moment, she simply nods — a subtle, acknowledging incline of her head — because it's a position that she can understand, especially when it's driven by the desire to familiarize one's self with their surroundings. ]
Then I'll await your insight at a later time.
recumita
She folds down onto one knee, bent over it like a chivalrous knight, heedless of the way it ruches up her short dress and parts her folds to give Ningguang glimpses of the pink of her. ]
How would you like this humble one to address you, my lady?
[ It's been a long, long time since she used such courtesy language, and it feels strange on her tongue in English. But she wants some guidance here, some kind of connection to the woman she's about to perform for (still not even sure what the fuck she's going to do - the ribald crowd makes for a totally different experience from her brief foray into an OnlyFans, and Caroline isn't really the submissive type.) ]
no subject
[After a moment of consideration, appraisal of the sight before her. This was a woman who knew her worth, one that was not used to submitting, but knew something of the practialities of playing a part as necessary. Her confidence betrayed her, but then, Ningguang hadn't requested any simpering self-abasement. She'd had no taste for it in Liyue, where many would happily throw themselves at the feet of the Tianquan, and she doubted even these surroundings would change her mind on that.
She leans forward, reaching to take the woman's chin between thumb and forefinger, tip her head to meet her eyes. We're something alike, aren't we, you and I?]
But I didn't ask for you to be humble. [Her gaze drops, slow and deliberate, to the pretty blush of the woman's exposed cunt.] Unless you think this display is your best attempt at impressing me?
firewalk
But he’s supposed to be at least giving the appearance of ‘fitting in’, and thus he’s forcing himself to attend at least for a couple of hours. It doesn’t stop him from being obviously awkward, and he was content to just watch the firewalking in silence, until …
… oh. Someone is talking to him. Eyes scan her casually. Someone he doesn’t recognize, but the topic isn’t anything to put him on alert. So he opts to just nod, he’d heard something similar before although he doesn’t remember where. ]
Mm, I don’t think I could do it.
[ Physical challenges are not his forte, and he doesn’t miss mandatory gym class or sports day. ]
no subject
Why is that? Are you prone to rushing, or moving too slowly?
no subject
It depends on the situation, I guess … maybe if I didn’t know how firewalking worked I’d go too fast to try and move quicker than the pain. But since I’m aware of the trick, it’s more likely I’d take it too slow.
[ A small shake of his head. ]
But I wouldn’t be likely to try in the first place. I’m not really the physical feat type.
no subject
Yet it seems you walked here, did you not?
no subject
… that’s … not really the same …
no subject
That is the only physical part of the feat in front of you. The rest is a matter of the mind. [She inclines her head slightly.] Considering how much thought you put into answering me, I believe yours is more than adequately exercised.