![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
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?
no subject
"An elven kingdom known as Stilmyst," he answers, before eating his spoons worth fully, only speaking once swallowed, "are you from a human kingdom?"
no subject
When he eventually takes a brief breather it's so he can answer the question volleyed right back at him.
"Yeah, humans. I'm from London. It's... on planet Earth..."
It's this moment that really feels like he's on a trip again, having to explain the planet he's from and not just the country and city. He shakes his head as though he's trying to loosen up the bizarre feeling.
no subject
"I was told that planet is round, is that quite true?" He could sense it was true being told it, but it still seems so unbelievable.
"I'm also so curious if you also have elves, given you could recognize my type so quickly."
no subject
"Sorry, didn't mean to laugh... there's a conspiracy theory that it's flat but it definitely ain't that. It's round, yeah. Like a football."
Because of course Ankari might not know about Earth's roundness but the football reference? Of course that'll make more sense.
The next question he's back to looking a bit uncomfortable. How to phrase this without being rude or insensitive?
"Nah just... humans. And animals. Elves're... not real. But there's books and movies and shit like that with elves in. Fantasy shit. I just know what the ears look like."
And Ankari's ears are exactly where his gaze flicks to and then away from almost immediately after so he doesn't get caught for staring.
no subject
"No antlers, though?" He asks teasingly in his regal, lilting tone, "and I don't mind if you stare at me, sire. It's rather flattering, actually."
Honestly, he's been looking at Bob this whole time with casual appreciation. Ankari might have been unfamiliar with humans before, but even by elven standards the man is attractive.
no subject
Despite the way he looks he does try to be polite when his table manners don't get the better of him. His gaze switches back from his stew to Ankari the moment he catches that drift. At least this time it's to his eyes.
It's not like he's not used to making a good impression just by his looks alone for people who like the vaguely rugged, scruffy sort of look. But this is the first time he's ever been complimented by a non-human.
It makes him grin a bit.
"Oh yeah? You like what I'm putting down, do ya?"
no subject
"You're most charming, sire," he states plainly, "I'm sure you'll find many here who are exceedingly forthright in their attraction to a man of your sort."
What a long winded way of saying anybody can see you're hot, man.
no subject
There's a brief moment some discomfort flashes across his expression. A temporary threat of intensity to the shadows cast across his features before he seems to force himself onwards.
It's unfortunate the only other times Bob has heard something similar it wasn't meant as a compliment. But that doesn't seem to be the intention here and he loosens his grip on the spoon still half dipped in his stew, even if he's down to the dregs now.
"What sort's that, then?"
no subject
no subject
Bob would feel bad given the elf is a green bean incarnate, but he's really not going to turn down additional food. Especially since his stomach, even at the best of times, feels like a black hole. Food goes in and he couldn't say where it lands given the lack of insulating fat he's got going on. He's not skinny but he's certainly trim.
Maybe that tyre round his middle is due for middle-age, assuming he gets there.
"Bold and charismatic? Nicest thing anybody's said to me for a while. Usually it's more like... 'scruffy little cunt'".
no subject
All his delicate and well controlled manners soon meet their match, though. He lifts a spoonful of broth to his mouth and Bob times his final comment just right, making the poor elf sputter with a laugh. Half the liquid goes up his nose and half into the air in front of him. At least Bob didn't sit across from him!
He doesn't have a napkin so Ankari just needs to put a flat palm to his mouth and nose, cough laughing into that with embarrassment. Come oooon, man.
no subject
"That tickled you, did it? Nice."
He finishes up his bowl and leans back, narrowly avoids burping loudly - these are the table manners he has - and pats his admittedly warmed through stomach happily.
"So the food is free here. But where do I sleep?"
no subject
"You just had to time it for food going into my mouth," Ankari playfully scolds, finishing cleaning up. That's enough of his own food for him, too, "This same building, we call it the Boarding House. Most of us Void-touched live here, usually a couple to a room. You'll need to claim yourself a spot as you like,"
no subject
"Just keeping you on y'toes, Daddy."
For men like Bob - too used to concealing their sexuality and relying on such seemingly arbitrary items as coloured fabric to communicate their preferences - the hanky code is necessary for safety. Not that he really gives Ankari much time to process the cheeky little name he's given him.
"How do I know if somebody's already nabbed a spot if they're not there? Don't fancy pissing anybody off by nicking their bed."
no subject
"That is simply a risk, unless you pick a roommate for yourself," Ankari hums, before figuring... Why not. It had been a while of him not sharing. Nobody had really wanted to force themselves into the room of the Inquisitor, after all.
"I have a spare bed in my room, should you like that while getting settled." It's probably a comfort to Bob to stick with the person who greeted him, right? He could swap later if he liked.
no subject
The first is that his new friend here seems to like him enough to offer up a spare bed in the same room. The second is that--
"I'm a bit of a snorer so... last chance to change your mind, yeah?"
It's not like motorcycle levels of roaring snoring. Just a light breeze that's more suitably described as the volume of a happy cat.
"But if you throw something at my head I stop proper quick."
no subject
"Just don't panic if you see me looking like a corpse in my sleep," Ankari explains, "not many are familiar with my kind of elves. As you see me presently is called bloom. I have a state of wither I go into that makes me appear rather ghastly. It mostly occurs in sleep or when I am greatly tired. Perfectly normal." Which is a lot of the time given his illness, but... he can pretend it's no big deal for Bob. What is Ankari's life except trying to put up brave and capable fronts?
no subject
"Everyone looks a bit butters in their sleep, mate. None of this sleeping like a fairy princess bollocks you see in movies."
So maybe Bob isn't taking this the most seriously. That'll be a fun observation when it eventually happens.
"All this chat about sleep and that stew's making me tired as fuck." Not at all that he was in high stress survival mode before Ankari had found him wandering the forest.
"Mind if we skip straight to the directions for bed?"
Any other time and that would be a chat up line. But it's clear that Bob's flagging and in his mind, there's nothing that a few hours sleep can't fix. Maybe.
no subject
"I'm sure you're exhausted, sire," he nods, standing and taking up their emptied bowls and spoons, moving to put them away politely. Only fair, since Bob went and got them in the first place, Ankari happy to do his part. He gestures Bob follow along to his room, which isn't particularly far. With Ankari's poor hip and knee, a spot upstairs wasn't his choice, so it's first floor rooming with him.
"Oh," Ankari only remembers once he opens the door that the couple of beds are still pushed together. He wasn't particularly greedy for space, but he'd had Tyler sleeping close from practically from moment one. When he left, Ankari hadn't the effort to pull them apart. Better now than never, "we can separate out the beds, as you like."
no subject
Snorting his amusement, Bob can't say he blames Ankari. If he was here by himself he'd push the beds together too. It makes his appreciation for the offer of sharing a room that much more impactful.
"Appreciate you doing this, fella."
He doesn't need the help to drag one of those single beds across to press flush up against a different wall. It's not that heavy and Bob's spent more than a few weekends building flatpack Ikea shit that weighed more than this for friends and family.
There's precisely zero ceremony to the way he bundles himself onto the bed, only just getting the tatty boots off before he's reclining. It's not the worst place he's slept by a long way.
"Nap'll do me nicely," he says, folding his hands behind his head as though he's using them as an additional pillow.
no subject
Like a king... huff.........
"Rest up, I have some writing to finish this evening. If you need to find me, ask after the Moot Hall," with that, Ankari is fine leaving Bob be for his nap.