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Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE MEME 001
⚰︎ ⍢ ⌲ ⍚ TEST DRIVE MEME:
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: nudity, spiders, waxplay, character death, and references to children in proximity to sexual situations.
✧ ✧ ✧
Welcome to RUBILYKSKOYE — a dark, horror-smut game where player choices will drive a mod-run storyline about the world and its NPCs. For the first round, this test drive serves as characters' arrival into game.
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.
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
This log additionally has warnings for: nudity, spiders, waxplay, character death, and references to children in proximity to sexual situations.
Welcome to RUBILYKSKOYE — a dark, horror-smut game where player choices will drive a mod-run storyline about the world and its NPCs. For the first round, this test drive serves as characters' arrival into game.
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.
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.
AWAKENING IN PAJAK WOOD
The chirping of partridges in the treetops rouses you. Light barely filters through the canopy, just enough to suggest warmth of the sun. By the time it reaches the forest floor, the daylight has taken on a sickly green tinge. You lie amongst the mosses and ferns, the 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.Fortunately, you seem to be alone. The birdsong continues 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. Amongst gnarled oaks and moss, you see nothing around. No sign of civilization or sentient life. Movement flickers at the corner of your eye, but it's just a curious animal — brave squirrels or lizards who have come to see what stirs in their home.
Then, like the rippling of the horizon at noontime, the ash-gray soil around you undulates. Sea, not earth. Something else has come to greet you — their grey bodies blended in so easily with the floor, but as you stagger to your feet, you see them. Thousands of spiders roll like waves underfoot. They crawl towards you from the darker edge of the forest.
attack
Individuals who attack the spiders will find the small spiders are easy to kill, but the pheromones released by their corpses draw larger spiders in their place. 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 will attempt to use their webbing to handicap 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.
hunt
Any aspiring monster-hunters enterprising enough to try to follow the spiders to their nest will move eastward. This way, the forest grows darker and darker — though the sun never grows warm red-gold with sunset.
In the void, the birdsong is replaced by the click of mandibles and the skitter of many legs, but soon it is impossible to see. Even with the brightest magical light does not reach further than a few inches. The air grows heavy and thick, 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. Soon, you cannot move at all.
Turn back while you still can — collapsing out here is dangerous. The void can play tricks on your senses. You may find yourself reliving unhappy memories or hallucinating your worst nightmares.
In the void, the birdsong is replaced by the click of mandibles and the skitter of many legs, but soon it is impossible to see. Even with the brightest magical light does not reach further than a few inches. The air grows heavy and thick, 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. Soon, you cannot move at all.
Turn back while you still can — collapsing out here is dangerous. The void can play tricks on your senses. You may find yourself reliving unhappy memories or hallucinating your worst nightmares.
But flee the spiders westward and you will discover that the wood is well-populated with the survival resources that someone might seek — berries bushes and trees bearing stone fruits; sticks and dry leaves to aid in the building of a fire; rocks big enough to fashion into crude weapons; small animals that can be hunted or caught; hike long enough, and you might just find the freshwater stream that runs north-to-south, populated by both poisonous toads and delicious crawdads.
What's more, you may run into others with stories just like yours. Some may have already formed clumsy nudist hiking parties, others may still be naked and confused and processing how they have no memory of how they got here. They all stagger vaguely, as you do, with only the sun for a waymarker — and even that won't last long.
Now is a good time to overcome any hang-ups you have about modesty, as it's going to be a long hike. If you sneak a good look at your new companions, you may four varietals of marks on their bodies. Maybe someone will even point out that you have one, too.
EVERY DAY LIKE THE ONE BEFORE
Hike far enough — or long enough that the sun does go down — and signs of life come into view. The glow of fires and lights, the smooth curve of a stone wall. A town sits at the edge of this wood, a reward to the survivors.The fifty-foot wall of beige stone protecting the town's perimeter has only a single entrance — an iron gate positioned on the southern edge. When you arrive, the gate is already open, welcoming people into town from the winding dirt road. Attentive eyes may note that the road itself bears the mark of many wagon wheels and horse hoofs, but not cars.
guards
The guards grant entry to anyone who attempts a conversation with them. However, if your character is more likely to attempt to sneak in, overcome the guards, or attack them, please reach out HERE.
Inside the wall lies a quaint, historic town with a population around five thousand. The streets are cobbled, and their signs are 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 bank — 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.
No matter what time you pass through the gate, the streets are full of people. The climate of the bustle befits a night market or a busy friday downtown — plenty of people to ogle at your exposed body. But despite any efforts on your part to hide or make excuses, the locals don't seem offended by your nakedness. Even families with children don't gawk or look twice. In fact, the further into town you go, the more you may notice that they all wear revealing clothing that, to your sensibilities, may seem sexually suggestive. Some individuals openly expose their breasts and nipples, while some others may incidentally reveal when they turn around to tend to their errands that their dress is backless — entirely! If anything, they seem to be under the impression that you're naked to participate in the evening's events with the rest of them.
Those still determined to find proper clothing will find that modern clothing stores aren't a thing here. The closest this town has is a tailor's shop, which is closed for religious observance, and a stand in the central marketplace selling scarves and blankets.
Fortunately, the people of the town are very generous! The locals will gladly share what they have with those who ask politely — but those items are as revealing as what they're wearing. You might get a mesh bodysuit or drape outfit. Remember not to be ungracious! it's only appropriate for the occasion.
steal clothing
Anyone unwilling to ask nicely for help could break into someone's house or yard to steal some of their clean laundry. Notably, inside their homes, the people of the town also appear to own some more modest apparel. Be sure to alert us HERE if your character pursues this option.
And what is the occasion? The locals are excited and flattered by any interest in their ordinary weekly prayer: the folks dancing and selling their wares are all offering their energies to give thanks and ask for their god's patronage! The abstractions are all familiar — fertility, harvest, peace. Smalltalk makes them eager to chat and draw you into those festivities — including some ceremonial wax-dripping on the exposed parts of your body!
Anyone who chats at length with the townspeople will gather that the locals feel it's better for the newcomers to dive into the deep-end because, since you'll be settling in here, they expect you'll want to participate down the line. They seem to be under the impression that the new arrivals are a boon from their god.
In addition, many of the locals' choice of clothes reveal the same four types of marks on their bodies as the folx who were wandering out in the wood!
ROOM AND BOARD
Once you're tired out, the locals will help you find a place to stay. The boarding house is several stories tall and spacious, accessible through an embellished iron garden gate and obscured by hanging plants, trees, and vines. 
Beyond the overgrown yard is a bright red door, which opens into a spacious cottage.
The house has clearly been empty for some time — dust has gathered on various furnishings — bedding, sofas, curtains, wooden tables. According to the locals, it has remained empty since its last occupant passed away, and that's all they'll say about that!
Each floor of the house has a shared sitting room, but only the first floor has a kitchen — large enough to support feeding the entire household. Here, a few of the townspeople will help out — they stock the kitchen and help make dinner for the new arrivals.
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.
Beyond the overgrown yard is a bright red door, which opens into a spacious cottage. The house has clearly been empty for some time — dust has gathered on various furnishings — bedding, sofas, curtains, wooden tables. According to the locals, it has remained empty since its last occupant passed away, and that's all they'll say about that!
Each floor of the house has a shared sitting room, but only the first floor has a kitchen — large enough to support feeding the entire household. Here, a few of the townspeople will help out — they stock the kitchen and help make dinner for the new arrivals.
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.
no subject
but it had to be grisha power, didn't it? she'd seen it.
she sets off after yennefer. she certainly doesn't seem like the kind of person who would turn on her if she's ready to walk off, if she has to ask about the word. ]
Etherealki. [ a beat. ] Grisha.
no subject
[ In this particular instance, she is not bothered by admitting to that fact — but if it is intended as some reference to her chaos, she has never even so much as heard that used as an alternative word for what she is.
Walking, at least, provides her with the opportunity to get a better look at her unexpected companion, her gaze occasionally darting over before she squints at the overgrowth ahead of them. ]
Are you not from the Continent?
no subject
[ there's a sea between ravka and novyi zem, or between ravka and the isles. yennefer looks like she might be zemeni, but alina isn't sure enough to commit to that, and she's never heard of them calling it the continent before. ]
no subject
There are other spheres, other worlds that can be accessed by those with enough power to reach them, even if such magics have been kept under tight lock and key in Aretuza for as long as she's known about them. It's all linked to the monoliths, or so she believes; even Istredd has been studying them for an age and is only scratching the surface of understanding their purpose. ]
So that would be a no.
[ It's not judgment, necessarily; she mostly seems distracted as she peers ahead of them, which is a better direction to head in than trying to double-back and risking running into those spider creatures again. ]
What's your name?
no subject
Zoya.
[ she doesn't want to think about genya right now and the culpability she had for keeping alina stupid and suffocated inside the little palace, so this is the name that comes first.
for all the good it does. she doesn't meet yennefer's gaze as she says it. she's not a very good liar, as it turns out. ]
no subject
Whatever reason this young woman has for disguising her identity, it belongs to her alone, and chances are Yennefer won't be here long enough to unearth the truth behind it — if she has her way in getting out of here, that is. ]
I'm not Grisha, whatever that is. I'm a sorceress. [ If such an equivalent exists for the girl, which may not even be the case. ] Do these Etherealki of yours know how to manipulate the elements?
no subject
It's not magic though. It's the small science. Magic is far too dangerous.
no subject
[ It's a fascinating difference, although Yennefer inwardly knows there's not much time they can waste standing around and discussing it — for not the first time since her arrival, she's bemoaning the fact that she's standing in this forest without a stitch of clothing to her name. This conversation would feel much different under alternate circumstances. ]
I wasn't aware there was any such difference.
no subject
[ none she's heard of, anyway. it's almost absurd to consider, but the fact that yennefer is asking at all seems to suggest that maybe she can. alina studies her, the question writ across her face. ]
no subject
[ She could venture a guess, but much of what she's learned already from this girl doesn't carry one whit of familiarity — and she's already devoting some of her focus to concentrating on where they're going, so she's willing to give Zoya the opportunity to offer up an explanation.
There's little more than a cursory glance cast in that direction, though, rather than lingering scrutiny. ]
no subject
[ it's just so hard to conceptualize. even someone from novyi zem or ketterdam would surely have heard of ravkan saints. she stops walking, stunted by her bewilderment.
just how far off are they from one another? ]
They were powerful grisha who made some ... great impact, I suppose. [ she tries to recall the iistori sankt'ya. ] Like Sankt Ilya, the bonesmith, who created amplifiers for grisha power from his own finger bones.
no subject
[ She likes to think she's not really in the habit of humoring people — especially people she's only just met and has no strong sense of, at the moment — but Zoya seems genuinely surprised at the revelation that she has no personal frame of reference for these words and phrases. ]
The ones who were mythologized for certain acts, then. [ The Continent has them, although even those who have been immortalized in the statues made since are figures of both infamy and legend, as remembered for their failures as they are their successes. ]
Can you do it? Not... the bones part. Wielding. Channeling.
no subject
Not very well.
[ if she tried to claim that she was a squaller like zoya, she'd have to prove it. she wouldn't be able to do that. so she has to rely instead on the presumption of incompetence.
alina wilts with this admission. she doesn't want someone like yennefer to see her as stupid and useless. but ... it's too dangerous to be the sun summoner right now. she doesn't even have mal with her, let alone the kind of allies who could protect her from kirigan and the king. and that's to say nothing of the fjerdans. ]
no subject
But that hesitation speaks volumes where she's concerned. ]
You don't have to stand on false modesty with me.
[ Not only are they the only ones within earshot of anything in this forest, as far as her senses can perceive at least, but she finds herself in the same exact position her former mentor once inhabited — with less patience for someone diminishing themselves. ]
Besides, if you didn't know how to do it well, you'd likely kill yourself in the attempt. Right? [ Their spheres might be different from one another, but somehow Yennefer can guess that the overall rule of power still applies. ]
no subject
[ merzost? certainly. but it didn't matter how good you were. that would extract its cost regardless. it's not hard to imagine that cost being a grisha's life, however, if they were trying to draw on more power than they had.
or an amplifier, the integration of which was said to be dangerous. she's been thinking about that a lot, lately. ]
no subject
[ Regardless of the differences in their worlds — filled with terms and descriptions for power that Yennefer has never heard of in the slightest — that part feels unchangeable, a condition as deeply ingrained as the power itself. ]
Magic didn't belong to our world, in the beginning. It was something that was brought there.
[ And those who display a skill for it are taught to channel it, but even then, the ones who have a conduit moment don't necessarily make for good mages. However, as Yennefer herself had learned early on, that doesn't mean they don't serve their use to Aretuza. ]
no subject
[ and by whom? it's so bizarre to even think about. the principles of grisha power are an integral part of so much ravkan history and culture that trying to extricate it, to imagine a world without it, makes alina's brain stretch and ache.
what is ravka without her saints? it's like trying to imagine ravka without war or the fold, yet still more impossible because she knows they predate either of these. ]
no subject
[ And with it came humans, and monsters, and those who were never meant to wield power, but they stayed, and endured, and even thrived as a result, and the elves to which the world had once solely belonged saw their numbers dwindle. ]
Not everyone can channel. People might have a sense for it, but that doesn't mean they can wield.