citylogs | TDM: OCTOBER 2023

TDM: OCTOBER 2023

TEST DRIVE MEME

You wake up on a train.

Your phone is buzzing. It's in your pocket, in your hand, on the seat next to you. It's a normal phone, and you're on a normal train car. One of the lights flickers, a little further down. The world is very quiet. It feels like you're right where you're meant to be. On the phone's surface is a white screen and the words—

WELCOME TO THE CITY. BEGIN ORIENTATION?

▶ YES
▶ NO

Please take a moment to complete your orientation.

Once you're finished, the subway doors slide open to let you out onto the train platform. To your right, the platform continues on and eventually ends; to the left is a set of stairs that will lead you up into the station itself. The platform is quiet, clean, empty—there's no one else around, and the only sounds you can hear are your own footsteps, your own breaths, and the occasional faraway sound of a creaking pipe or rush of air. The train you disembarked will stay there as long as you do, its doors still open, until you finally decide to venture up into this new locale.

As you make your way up the stairs to your left, you find yourself in the belly of City Hall station. The station is large, a sprawling underground mini-metropolis of corridors and storefronts. Here, you may find others like you, freshly-arrived city residents from other realms (or even your own). There is also a subway map, which will give you an idea of the layout of the neighborhood, and ticketing machines, which can currently only be used to buy tickets to a handful of stations located on lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 9.

If you're hungry or in need of any kind of supplies, there are plenty of storefronts inside the subway station as well—snack stands, convenience stores, restaurants, clothing stores, a pharmacy, and a variety of empty shops that may or may not have ever been in use. Everything is unlocked, and you can take whatever you need.

Characters may stay on the train platform indefinitely, and may re-board and re-disembark from the subway as many times as they like, but the train will not depart nor will the doors close. Once they go up the stairs into the train station, they may hear the train doors closing and the train departing. Another train will not arrive, no matter how long the character waits. Only once they come up the stairs into the station itself may characters encounter their fellow newly-arrived residents and take advantage of what the city has to offer.

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WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD.

The station is located in the city center. It has three major exits that lead to areas of interest in the district, but there are several other smaller exits that lead in other directions around the neighborhood. You are welcome to use any of them, but may find the north, southwest, and east exits to be the most welcoming.

TO THE NORTH

The northern entrance to the station leads up into the sunlight and puts you out in a brickwork plaza. There's a modest building in front of you, three or four stories of stone with a welcoming facade. There's a sign above the entryway—it says City Hall. You may be tempted to explore, if you're interested in learning more about the city and how it functions, but prepare to find yourself disappointed—the folders in the records rooms are full of empty, blank sheets of paper, and the logbooks and balance sheets are similarly devoid of information.

Immediately to the southwest of City Hall, you will find a small building that houses the tourist information kiosk. It looks welcoming, with an inviting glass facade and a sign above the entryway announcing it as the "TOURIST CENTER." It's a humble building with a receptionist's desk on the back wall opposite the entrance, empty magazine shelves lining the side walls, and a few spinning brochure racks full of blank pamphlets. Anyone is welcome to peruse the tourist literature, though they won't offer much information, being primarily filled with pictures of the surrounding area—City Hall, the park, a statue garden, and the surprisingly heavily-featured cemetery. There are a few sentences sprinkled throughout about basic offerings of the city, such as apartment complexes and office buildings, as well as a few maps with the same limited scope as the larger version on the wall behind the receptionist's desk.

The main feature of the tourist center is the interactive kiosk installed dead in the center, right in the middle of a few rows of uncomfortable chairs that fill the small room. It's noticeably in the way of any would-be foot traffic through the tourist center, and something about the technology seems a little more modern than the computer behind the desk or the landline phone on the wall. The kiosk is a tall silver rectangle, about average adult height, and the upper half is a screen welcoming visitors to touch it to activate the kiosk. If you were to touch it, the screen would come to life with simple dialogue inviting visitors to ask it their questions.

However, residents should note that the kiosk is only programmed to assist with exploration within the available areas of the city. It may not be able to answer every question, and tampering with the kiosk may result in unreliable or inaccurate answers!

TO THE SOUTHWEST

The western exit of the station takes you up into a city park, lush and green with a very light fog still hanging about the trees. There are lampposts on the walkways and benches where you could rest, and plenty of flora, although you can neither see nor hear any signs of animal life. You walk the paths that meander idly through the verdant grass and you feel a sense of peace, some of your unease about this place easing into a pleasant calm. The air smells fresh, like it's recently rained, and you'll find the grass ever so slightly damp should you decide to take a seat.

As you make your way deeper into the park, the trees grow denser and the smell of soil and plant life grows stronger. This is the older part of the park, very nearly a forest, with ivy climbing the trunks of the trees and plants and shrubs growing riotously around their bases. As you turn a corner, you find yourself first in the statue garden, although the statues are harder to see now, choked as they are with ivy. There are many statues, some partially obscured, some fully—very few of them still stand free of the vines and clinging roots. (It doesn't feel quite as peaceful here.) If a statue's face looks a little bit familiar, you may not want to look at it too long.

Continue down the path and you will find yourself in a graveyard, one that seems centuries old. Most of the headstones are worn away by time and covered in moss, rendering them impossible to read. The few that are free of moss are blank, or bear only suggestions of names too faint to be understood. (Was that the name of—no, it couldn't have been. Could it?) Many of the headstones stand at an angle or are toppled over completely, having been subjected to either strong winds or the roots of the trees that grow up from some of the graves, spreading branches toward the sky.

TO THE EAST

The final exit of the station, to the east, puts you out on a quiet surface street. Are you hungry? Or are you paralyzed by choice? There are plenty of restaurants, offering options of almost any food you can imagine. You could try a convenience store—it's well stocked, and the items there seem free for the taking. How about a restaurant? There's no one to take your order, but when you look in the kitchen, there's something on the stove, and it's just what you've been craving. Imagine that.

A few blocks down, you come in through the lobby of a tall building and find yourself in a corporate office. The fluorescent lights are steady and unforgiving, and the cubicles and offices are empty. There are a few pieces of paper on desks, a few folders left in organizers, but everything is perfectly blank. Despite how empty and quiet the office is, it nonetheless gives you the feeling that just a few minutes ago, this place was bustling with workers going about their daily business.

You enter another building and find yourself in the lobby of an apartment complex—finally, a place to rest. The first door you try opens easily into a completely empty living room, freshly vacuumed but without a single piece of furniture. It's a nice apartment, quiet, but with a little too much echo for your taste, maybe. Still, and perhaps oddly, you have no trouble envisioning what life here would be like.

The second door you open leads to an apartment that feels lived-in. Why does it feel lived-in? It's fully furnished with items that seem to go together perfectly, true, but the feeling is more than that—the room feels like someone was just here, maybe standing right in the kitchen only moments before you swung the door open. The air is a perfectly comfortable temperature, and it somehow smells like home despite that you've never once set foot here before. The refrigerator is stocked, and the cabinets are full of spices and flatware and kitchen utensils.

As you look around the living room, you find that there are pictures in frames on the walls and some of the flat surfaces—a seascape, a field, a shot of a city park bench. In each of the photos there's something just slightly wrong with the angle, as though the photographer were aiming for a subject that can no longer be seen.

Characters are welcome to explore the district around the City Hall subway station to their heart's content. The City Hall building itself contains several floors of offices and file rooms, but none of them contain any particularly interesting information. Nonetheless, characters may wish to team up with other newcomers and try to find some hints about the nature of the city. They can also spend a while in the park, the statue garden, or the graveyard. In the blocks surrounding the station there are plenty of options for food and housing, as well as office buildings, storefronts, and alleyways to look around. There are no workers in any of the buildings, and there does not seem to be an honor system for payment, nor any consequences for taking food from the stores or setting up camp in an apartment or office building.

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THE POISON'S IN THE DETAILS.

CONTENT WARNINGS: Monthly prompt includes the potential for body horror, including: mold or fungus; spores; and hanahaki-like symptoms. It also includes the potential for violence, mutilation, or death. Please label potentially triggering content in subject headers and interact responsibly with threads!

With the cacophony of the fun fair now gone, packed up and sent away for another year, the southern half of the park is now empty. That doesn't mean that the park itself is without attractions, though: up in the northern corner, sprawling out across the green, is a curious garden full of winding paths and draping trees, and within it, the smaller poison garden, where a variety of different flowers blossom and bloom along the gravel path. From roses to gladiolus, tulips to belladonna, this garden has many flora that residents may recognize from their homes, and some that they most certainly will not. As residents walk along the paths, observing and smelling and—for the brave—touching these plants, they will encounter a long wooden table, stretched out in the midst of fresh cut green grass.

This table has been decorated for a party, though it seems that all the guests must be late. A strange variety of different sized chairs and cushions have been set out along the long length of the table; it seems to fit at least twenty people, maybe even more. Small dishes and porcelain tea cups lay in random design across the off-white table cloth, used flower doilies and half-folded napkins tucked here and there as though someone left in a hurry. Even stranger still, there are six large, ornate pots of tea, scattered about the table, each warm to the touch and, you guessed it: full of tea. You suddenly find yourself craving a cup, and tuck into one of the chairs to pour yourself some...

...but you didn't think that it would be that easy, did you? Once you've swallowed a mouthful, or even your whole cup, your body starts to feel strange. Depending on the color—or flavor—of the tea you're drinking, you're going to experience some side effects:

Color Flavor Effect

Red Hibiscus: This tart and fruity tea is naturally sweet. You will begin vomiting blood. The amount is up to your body's reaction. The correct antidote will fix you.

Yellow Jasmine: This tea has a light, floral note, and is slightly sweet. You will hallucinate something terrifying near you, and may lash out and attack those around you. The correct antidote will fix you.

Blue Pea Flower: This brilliantly-colored tea has a very delicate, woody flavor. You will gradually begin losing one of your senses (sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch). The correct antidote will fix you.

Black English Breakfast: This is a full body tea, with rich undertones and a bold flavor. Something very terrible will begin happening to your body: your hair may start falling out, you may become covered in hives, or your skin may start opening into sores. The correct antidote will fix you.

Green Green: This tea has a very clean, grassy flavor, like the earth. You will begin to transform into a terrifying creature or animal of your choosing. The correct antidote will fix you.

Orange Ginger: This is a tea with a warming, slightly spicy taste. After drinking, you will suddenly fall into a death-like coma. A kiss may wake you, or the correct antidote.

In a panic, you look for something to help you. Just beyond the table, tucked away into a wall of ivy, is an old wooden shelf, the lettering nearly worn all away on it. Little packets of seeds line the tiered shelves; there are no pictures on them, but the packets themselves seem to all be different colors—and you may notice that the colors match the colors of the various teas on the table.

Ripping open the packet that matches the color of your tea, you find it contains actual seeds—will you swallow them and risk a plant growing in your stomach, just to see if it will counteract the effects of the tea? Oh, surely that's the stuff of fairytales, isn't it?

Residents are welcome to explore the various paths around the outside of the garden, observing plants and flowers of their choosing. The tea party is open to all, and the tea will continue to be brewed somehow, no matter how many people drink it. Players can choose the extent of the negative effects on their character, or have their character remain unaffected by the tea entirely. In order to get rid of the negative effects, characters must either find the correct seed packet that matches their tea and eat the seeds, or wait twenty-four hours for the symptoms to subside. The seeds will not do anything but cure the character—though they're welcome to think something awful might happen.

The tea party cannot be destroyed, and items that are moved from the table can only be moved within the perimeter of the poison garden. Characters are unable to steal things from the tea party; they will mysteriously return back to the table if taken beyond the aforementioned border. The tea party will remain there permanently, though the negative effects of the tea will mysteriously disappear after November 1st.

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A DROP OF BLOOD OR A DROP OF EGO.

At the apex of the path that winds around the poison garden is a large greenhouse that looks like it has seen better days. The panels are filthy, covered in dust and dirt and grime, and the doors creak on their hinges when you open them. Inside, the air is hot and musty, but the smell of herbs and spices fill your senses, letting you enjoy the atmosphere. The greenhouse is clearly separated into two different paths: the one to the left has a hanging sign which reads "DEADLY BEAUTIES" and the one to the right has a hanging sign which reads "BEAUTIFUL DEADLIES".

Heading to the left, you decide to observe the various plants there. Shelf upon shelf of various potted plants watch you as you go past; some of them snap at the air, veiny teeth grasping for the delicious meat of fruit flies and ants, and some of them threaten to touch you, with vines that roll and curl outward for just a shivering touch. Overhead, tangles of vined plants and spiked ivy mix together, an oppressive shadow that makes you feel as though you're trapped in this place as you walk through. Be careful: these carnivorous plants might be beautiful, but they won't hesitate to get a little too friendly with you. The floor is caked with dirt, but some of those brown stains might not just be from mud and dust, smeared by shoe heels and work boots. These plants might want a taste of blood.

Heading to the right, you find yourself in a beautiful space, the flowers so large they seem almost overwhelming. Have the plants gotten bigger, or have you simply gotten smaller? Gorgeous purple blossoms, pink petals, bright blue flowers and speckled white flowers cower and bend to cast you under them, like a flower-patterned umbrella sheltering you from the rain. The further you walk under them, however, the more you get the feeling that they're not just there to watch over you: they're there to explore you. At first, it's just a few gossipy whispers, so quiet you might not think they're real; then it's full-blown voices, the flowers bending and twisting as though to speak to each other in harsh, judgmental tones. What are they talking about? Well, they're talking about you—your secrets, your opinions, the things you don't want anyone else to know. These flowers are spilling your tea, and anyone walking along with you is going to hear it.

The back of the greenhouse—if you make it there—has the same doors as the front. They open back out onto the winding, circular path of the poison garden, where you can head back home...or experience the whole thing over again.

The greenhouse is rather large, and characters are welcome to walk through it along any path they wish. The carnivorous plants will possibly nip and bite at your characters, or try to restrain them, but they aren't very strong and can easily be broken away from. Feel free to imagine as much of a struggle as you wish, but they will not inflict any kind of mortal wounds on characters.

The giant, oversized flowers will tell your character's secrets or their deepest darkest opinions—this is open to player choice. The flowers cannot be attacked or hurt, and the only way to get them to be quiet is for someone OTHER than the character they're talking about to scold them or tell them to be quiet. Alternatively, if you can walk the path hand in hand with another character, this will also cause them to go quiet.

Plants cannot be taken from the greenhouse or killed, and they cannot be dug up from their pots. The greenhouse itself also cannot be destroyed, and any fire lit in the greenhouse will be immediately extinguished by an overhead sprinkler system. This place is meant for enjoyment and admiration, not crime!

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WILDCARD.

The city is by no means small, and there are plenty of things for you to see. There are even some places that other residents have created! There's no rush in exploring, so feel free to take your time looking around and peering into various nooks and crannies and alleyways—and don't worry, you're not very likely to find anything peering back.

If none of the above prompts appeal, feel free to check out the Locations and Maps pages and write your own freestyle prompt using one or many of the available locations. We highly recommend checking out the Character-Run Locations as well - they might be great places for new characters to get started!

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

a. from one cage to another

[ What a quaint place it is, stepping off the train. It would almost be too quiet if not for the aid still pressed familiarly against his ear, a perfect and lovely reminder of his loss. He takes a quick stock of his personal effects before he spots someone non-threatening and smiles softly, voice lilting with curiosity. ]

You wouldn't happen to be able to answer a few questions, would you? I'd be grateful for your help.

[ A picturesque gentleman, this one, down to his stylish blue suit. ]

b. party with a view

[ It is a lovely little tea party that's been set up, here.

But you don't get to be his age or Grade without knowing better than to take a sip from a cup you didn't bring yourself, and so Argalia is more than content to sit at the table with a cup of blue tea waiting to be tasted. Pea flower, he's already discerned on scent and color alone, and he muses out loud to himself: ]

I should have thought to bring a lemon to squeeze -- this tea in particular has a secret to its color.

[ Feel free to join him, truly -- he isn't going to be tasting anything first, and not every tea has something wrong with it, but he'd rather someone else die than himself. ]

c. left or right?

[ Now, here comes a fun game.

Argalia can be found on both paths, unafraid and unbothered by the plants down either way, so pick your poison: ]

i. left
Aren't you charming? Maybe I'll bring a few of you back with me.

[ A little green around the residence he chose couldn't hurt while he bided his time. Argalia looks like he's very well tamed the carnivorous plants with how he's carefully and soothingly petting one, but in truth he's already paid the price -- and gladly so. Everything needs blood to live. That's only natural.

Noticing another, though, he eases his hand against closed maw of one of the larger traps and smiles. ]

Don't be afraid. They're no different than you and I, feeding off others to survive. You could even say we're family.

[ In a way. Maybe more literal for others, but philosophically speaking... ]

ii. right
[ These flowers are a little more annoying, but only by virtue that he can hear their whispering tones far sooner than others might. It's a comfort in some ways at the same time, but he'd rather not hear them badmouthing his darling late-sister or claiming his selfishness in doing what he intends.

He is, however, keenly interested in the secrets of others over his own, and so he'll follow the differing words when they start up until he finds the source -- that is, you. ]

d. anything else?

[ If there's something else you'd like to do, just go for it! I'm mostly voicetesting him right now, and for who it matters to he's pulled after his third battle and before his final return. ]

[ if roland were to choose between the two ominous paths in this creepy garden, he'd obviously choose the one with the carnivorous plans chomping away at air, the ivy thick enough to blot out the light from outside the greenhouse. besides, with all his investigations coming up in smoke in most cases, he's not expecting too much from this place either.

oh, how he'd love to be wrong in this instance for once.

there's no mistaking the blue cloak, the pristine white hair that he shared with his sister, that leering voice. roland's brain is overloaded from information he'd gotten from angela last month that he hadn't considered this one oversight at all -- the fact that at some point, he would arrive. ]

Family, huh.

[ he clenches his gloved fists, his voice eerily calm. ]

Doubt you even grasp the mere concept of it.

[ hey, brother in law. ]

[ ... Well, now isn't that a familiarly aggravating voice, and an unremarkable face to match. Argalia's smile stays as pleasant as can be to the gazes of the snapping plants around them, though striking a nerve like that makes him laugh lightly. ]

More than you do, Roland. But that's a rather cruel thing to say to the person you took family away from in the first place, isn't it?

[ A tut. Same old, same old on both their sides -- they may be lacking weapons here, but Argalia isn't interested in an outright fight at the moment anyway. He can't hear it.

... The gloves, though, draw his eye, and Argalia decides his new goal is taking what rightfully isn't Roland's. One could say they're just an ordinary pair, that perhaps Roland picked them up from a store, but there isn't a chance in all the world that man would cover his blood-stained hands in anything but her. ]

Only to lose her in the end for the both of us.

[ Heya, brother in law. ]

[ normally roland would easily take that in stride from anyone. not everyone outside the library knew what really happened to angelica, after all, and he'd hallucinated her plenty of times these past couple of months that anything this place throws at him will no longer haze him.

but argalia's different, and the fact that he keeps rubbing it in on roland's wounds will never not piss him off. in fact, he's feeling it again -- the rage that he thought he had suppressed after he talked with angela a while back. this time it's different.

that's that, and this is this. ]

Say one more word, and I'm gonna feed your fucking head to that plant you already deemed as "family".

[ argalia may be without his scythe, but roland's resourceful enough even without angelica's gloves. in his periphery he can spot a pitchfork, a shovel, a pickaxe at the corner among others -- so many weapons to be found in nature. and despite having killed here before, he won't hesitate at doing it again, especially if it's argalia. he's simply too dangerous to be let loose right now... ]

My, you never do change.

[ Amused and pitying. Argalia keeps an eye on him even as he continues, ready to move if needed. A little dance never hurt anyone. ]

To think she'd ever pair with a senseless brute like you... I still don't understand. But truthfully, I'm not interested in a fight with you, Roland.

[ Despite the way he's talking, anyway. There's no real gain in it right now and he isn't a trigger-happy fool like the pierrot before him. Argalia pauses a beat, smile hitching higher. ]

Though I can't lie either, I am interested in removing your hands from your body right now. Why don't you us both a favor and chop to it?

for better or for worse u_u

gradenine - 2023-10-03 07:04 (UTC) - Expand

argalia ♪ library of ruina

c.i) blanket ruina spoilers hello..............

Lays a blanket gently down.... Hello

weeps... i took roland from before the hana fight but angela updated him on things after that help

What a good girl she is...

b..... also blanket ruina spoilers probably. hello..........

Miss Librarian herself..... Hello

i yelled hearing there was an argalia on the tdm ngl

I'm happy to hear that! The cast is so big, I couldn't help myself.

heading right....

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right!

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b

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c left-- forgive yet another ruina

I'll take you all on

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