inaugural tdm of unspecified duration.

[vestigemods]

VESTIGE TEST DRIVE MEME

WHAT IS THIS?

This is a test drive meme for Vestige is a musebox-game successor to The Box (yeah, the one that died like five years ago). It's invite-only with no activity check and almost no application to speak of.

This is a horror jamjar based on Cabin In The Woods, in which characters are pulled into this containment zone run by the Technicians working from a lab underground with the goal of creating Good Quality Suffering™️ to appease the elder gods who hover on the verge of creating a worldwide apocalypse. But of course, suffering is pointless if everyone is too numb to properly suffer, so there are plenty of morale boosts provided in between bouts of fear and misery.

This TDM is ongoing and will fill the gap between now and when I get around to setting up the comms. There is no official start date and currently literally nothing but this TDM available for perusal, but I'll update this section of the blurb as that changes. Threads in this TDM are welcome to be game canon once this shit opens because fuck it. If you have questions, feel free to ask in the top-level below or just wing it tbh, we'll be doing a lot of winging it up in this shit.

Characters arrive with all powers intact and carrying all items that they had with them on their canonpoint.

Also, feel free to hit up the Intro + Friending meme to network with your future peers in this suffering endeavor. (EDIT 5/20: We also now have a DISCORD SERVER! So hop on into that if you'd like.)

PROMPT 1 ► just your ordinary cabin in the woods

⬛ARRIVAL + GENERAL PROMPT

Whenever you're from or wherever you were, you awaken now with the mildest of headaches in a medium-sized wooden cabin. Maybe you wake in a bed, barely padded and covered in dust (so are you now, congrats!). Maybe you wake on the floor, arguably softer than the bed in spots thanks to some handy dandy water damage. Either way, you certainly aren't where you were before, and you have no recollection whatsoever of arriving.

The cabin is modest but multi-roomed and fully kitted with a kitchen and cozy living room. Nice, dry wood sits stacked by the fireplace, and if you check the various switches, the lights turn on with only the faintest protesting static. The cabinets are surprisingly well-stocked, as is the fridge, with perishables and non-perishables alike. As if someone has been here recently... but how, when everything else seems so thoroughly abandoned?

Should you choose to ignore the cabin's supposed hospitality and try to leave, you'll find that both the front and back doors are securely locked, in a way that no amount of fumbling with the locking mechanism seems to remedy.

That's when a sloooooow creak draws your attention to a door nearby, one you may not have noticed before... but it's open now. Was it before? Better yet, should you check out what lies beyond?

PROMPT 2 ► who's up for some fighty-fight, kids??

⬛MONSTER HORROR.

The basement is musty and dim, though a pull-string at the curve of the creaky stairs seems to turn on a sparse row of lightbulbs dangling precariously from the ceiling along the center of the room. This little bit of light illuminates a room absolutely packed with items, furniture and boxes and various knick-knacks of unknown and questionable origin. Spiderwebs litter nooks and crannies, many with actual spiders still nesting inside, and a layer of dust coats most every surface in sight.

It doesn't seem like there's anyone down here, nor is there any sign of an exit at the basement's far end. There is, however, something that catches your eye. An item, one that your feet seem to carry you toward without your mind quite telling them to do so. Perhaps it's familiar somehow. Perhaps it's so foreign to you that you can't help but get a closer look. One way or another, you somehow end up reaching out to touch it. But what harm can that do, a single touch?

Oh, sweet summer child. Haven't you seen this movie?




---




Whatever else your characters might touch, to activate this prompt they'll also touch one of the following five items:


• A child's drawing, of what appears to be... shit, what even is that? Is it a bat? Is it some kind of... reptile? We just don't know. (result! warnings for gore/violence.)
  
  
• A light-blue paper face mask, the sort used in hospitals for patients who have a cold. Maybe you guys should've brought masks too. It sure would keep all this dust the hell out of your nose... ( result! warning for body horror! )
  
  
• A buzzsaw blade, dusty but intact. ( result! warnings for gore/violence. )
  
  
• A music box, covered in faded yellow flowers. I wonder what music it plays? ( result! warnings for gore/violence and Alarming Children. )
  
  
• A funeral urn. But... It seems that someone glued it shut around the edges? I guess that's one way to make sure nobody spills grandma. ( result! )

These enemies can and will follow characters outside, should they try to flee. It might actually be a good idea to face these foes outdoors where it's less confined, provided they don't stray too far from the cabin (see prompt #4).

The blurbs are just guidelines, feel free to scale up or down how strong/weak the monsters are, how many there are, etc. in order to better fit your characters' level of capability. The Technicians know your characters' strengths and weaknesses, so they'd know how to send enough to make this challenging but not insurmountable.

PROMPT 3 ► congratulations, you fucked up

⬛SURVIVAL HORROR.

Perhaps you didn't touch anything in the basement. Hell, maybe you didn't even set foot through that ominous basement door. But hey, we get it. Not everyone likes to party. You're not getting off easy, but at least you can say that you didn't fall into the trap.

If, by the time an hour has passed since the creaking open of the basement door, no object has been touched and no baddie has been summoned, you'll find your nose assaulted by the prevailing smell of smoke. One glance out any window tells you why: The cabin has been surrounded in it, an oblong ring of fire six feet thick burning tight along the exterior cabin walls. You're safe inside for the moment, but how long will that last?

Now, you have no choice but to try to escape the blaze. It overtakes the cabin quickly, creeping up over the rooftop, shattering windows and burning a path inside. No matter which way you try to run, you're almost certain to get burned... But that's certainly better than burning to death in here.

PROMPT 4 ► "escape"? never heard of her.

⬛PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR.

For some, staying in this creepy cabin with its stupid locked door was never an option. Maybe you break one of the windows and crawl through that, or maybe you're angry and OP and punched a man-sized hole in the wall itself. Hey, we're not judging. You got yourself outside, and that's what counts.

The outside of the cabin is... actually pretty nice. Picturesque woods, birds singing, perhaps a couple of deer bounding through the trees not far off. This place might actually be relaxing, if it weren't so alarming and kidnap-y. But it is, so it's time to get the fuck out of Dodge.

Or to try to, anyway. Just a few short meters into the trees, you find yourself entering a deep and all-encompassing fog. You can barely see your hand out in front of your face, let alone your path through the forest ahead. If you're not alone in this venture, you'd best keep a hand on your companion lest you lose track of them, as well. And is it just you, or is there a slight chemical taste to the fog that you're breathing in?

(Yes. The answer is definitely yes.)

Before long, you find yourself turned around, stepping back out of the fog with the cabin in front of you. Little do you realize that simply turning you around is the most merciful fate that this fog has to offer.

---

This is easier to break down without narrative, so!

• The first time your character ventures into the fog, they're just turned around and sent back to the cabin.
  
  
• The second time, they hallucinate things that they don't want to hear. Something they fear, something that hurts them, something that stresses them the fuck out. Maybe a character's worst fear is wildcats and they hear one growling just out of sight in the mist. Maybe instead they hear a loved one crying for help back in the direction from which they've come, drawing them back to the cabin. Or maybe they hear the voice of someone they admire berating their cowardice or stupidity or something, for running away from the cabin in the first place. The goal is to psych them out and send them running back to the place where the action is happening.
  
  
• The third time, it's the same but full-blown visual or even physical hallucinations. Basically anything that might lure, scare, emotionally wound, etc. them into going back to the vicinity of the cabin.

Characters are welcome to start off venturing into the mist together, or to discover one another while they're already in the mist. If it's the latter, look out - it may be harder to tell friend from foe when you can't quite trust your own mind.

THE LOOP ► a note on replayability

Regardless of which prompt your character faces, they'll be left unbothered after the creature is defeated or the problem is overcome until sunrise the following morning. Though the fog still keeps characters from straying from the area, they're welcome to recover and lick their wounds in the immediate cabin vicinity. An unburnt cabin leaves them food and resting facilities, while a burnt cabin... Well, at least the fire never spread from that self-contained ring, so they have some nice unburnt grass to sleep on.

Come sunrise, all characters still awake will fall unconscious. At this point, many of them will reawaken in a perfectly undamaged cabin back in Prompt #1 to begin the loop anew. They may have the same comrades in this loop, or perhaps they have different ones. Maybe their new companions have done this before as well. Maybe they're brand new and have no idea what they're up against. R.I.P., you poor unsuspecting fucks.

This is, in effect, a series of trial runs by the current batch of Technicians to see if they're able to run this containment zone scenario long-term. When Vestige opens properly, characters will awaken free of the loop and will have quite a bit more continuity and recovery time between horrors. The 'loop' mechanic is specifically in place to give this TDM some shelf life and let y'all entertain yourselves while I work on the actual pages and such, rather than the one-and-done feeling of the usual TDM.

CODE BY TESSISAMESS (patreon)

Comments

[skittering]

( it takes lalli a moment to grasp the direction she's going with her words, but at 'you seem to know me', a subtle change runs through him. his expression closes off, what little it offered in the first place, and he stills somewhat.

but then he seems to work through it, glancing off through the trees. ) It's fine. ( it has to be. ) I'll keep you alive. ( because that's the only part of this that actually matters, or so he has to tell himself. )

[lethechained]

[ Watching him as closely as she is - wary of his reaction - Naminé recognizes the change, small though it might be. There's a sincerity in such a contained response, one that might give her some greater confidence about his intentions were she not so busy feeling guilty. And he says it's fine, the muted claim enough to let someone less conscientious than she is off. But Naminé, who knows a thing or two about being forgotten herself, is not so sure that it is fine.

That being said, this hardly seems like the time to contest it. Not outright, anyway; her arms lower, one hand curling around to clasp the opposite one, and she frowns all the more deeply. Part of the confusion has ebbed from her expression, replaced with something else - a sort of determination he might find familiar. ]

You've been doing that since we met, [ she begins, then hesitates, amending it late to, ] … Since you found me.

[ Because it feels - odd, to say it the other way when it's possible there's something she's forgotten. Anyway, her point is, ]

And-- I still don't know what to call you.

[ She doesn't have high hopes about it jogging her memory, but thinking of him as that guy who helped her just doesn't seem right. ]

[skittering]

( what to call him? that's one of the least relevant things she could ask for (not 'don't know if i can trust you', not 'don't know if you're capable', but a name). but it's nonetheless the most naminé thing she possibly could've asked, and so he doesn't bother to comment on it. she has always gotten an above average amount of leeway from him, at least as far as irrationality and sentiment goes. )

Lalli, ( he sighs. and then, more practically, ) Night scout. ( mage, too - but that's irrelevant at the moment. after a moment, his nose wrinkles dryly and, ) Day scout now too, I guess.

[lethechained]

Lalli…

[ It was the easiest thing to ask. The other stuff she's still working on, because those issues aren't quite as simple as stating facts; she's never met an untrustworthy person who said upfront that they were so. No, she's seen already that he's capable enough - or more so at least than Naminé, who is unarmed and untrained - and whether or not she can put faith in his character remains to be seen. But there is a certain amount of sentimentality in the way her face falls after echoing his name, because she doesn't feel any sense of recognition. She wouldn't even have expected that to be a name before he said it.

She has to bite back another word of apology as she gives up, exhaling a breathy sigh of her own and giving her head a small shake. 'No good,' her face says, though she doesn't. Looking back up at him, she doesn't find the room to hesitate; as little as she likes to ask, the situation demands clarification. (Naminé, however, uses a soft, contrite voice to request it.) ]

So-- how is it that you knew my name? Have we met before?

[skittering]

( no, of course it's no good. this is what's supposed to happen after you leave asgard - you're supposed to forget the place and everyone there. he's not sure why he didn't forget. klaus and emil didn't seem to forget, either.

the questions earn a pause, then a nod. ) You were... in a different place, before this. A city. You don't remember it. ( does that make it worse, or better? he doesn't know. he does feel like the more details he offers, the worse this will probably sit with her (like how long she was there, for example, or the fact that there were gods). )

[lethechained]

[ A city. Her delicate eyelashes flutter in a blink, brow knitting. This is hard enough for her to process even without details, and though her expressions tend to be subtle, right now it's easy to tell how she's struggling with this information. There are too many questions she wants to ask, most of them the obvious; why would he remember while she doesn't? How would they have gotten here from there? Even what she wouldn't speak aloud buzzes round in her head, because she's only just met him and she has to wonder, like any sensible person might, whether his claim is legitimate.

Frowning at him though she is, her expression lacks hostility. It's more as if she's studying him very closely, trying to examine him rather than make any kind of decision. She wants to understand, but it's a challenge, and when she opens her mouth to ask any of the questions she might mean to, she finds herself hesitating instead. Really, this all hinges on whether or not she ought to believe him. Having saved her helps his case, but, ]

Were we--

[ It's a stupid question, and she cuts herself off from it almost immediately, exhaling a perplexed sigh as her eyes avert. Were they friends? That title has been outside of her reach for so long that she feels foolish for even thinking it, besides which - she'd be obligated to take his word for it, just like everything else. Quietly overwhelmed, Naminé lifts her gaze from the ground again, only to have her attention drawn to the injuries of his that she noticed before. Something in her expression changes; it's easier to worry about someone else than to worry over herself, and no matter how distressing the implications of her forgetting might be, another idea occurs to her. ]

Earlier, you said... that I said I could heal people.

[ If that's true, then, ]

Do you think that maybe I still can?

[ That'd be a start in proving it, at least, though she sounds uncertain about the suggestion, herself. ]

sorry for such a short tag!

[skittering]

( the first question is one that he honestly expects her to finish. she has never quite shied away from topics of friendship before (he knows that was the end of that question, 'were we close' or 'were we friends' or something like that). but instead comes one about her healing, whether or not she retains it.

lalli glances down at her wrists. bare.

he lifts his hands now, pushing his sleeves back one after the other to reveal a pair of metal cuffs inlaid with deep maroon stones. ) Still have yours?

SHHHH it is a perfectly acceptable size >:O

[lethechained]

[ Lalli might begin to find that there are certain... differences between the way Naminé was when he first met her and the way she is now. This Naminé is quieter, hesitates longer. She's a little skinnier, a little more afraid; and sure, some of it can be chalked up to the world in which they've found themselves, because that world is terrifying. But so too is a large part of that discrepancy in her demeanor due to other causes. This iteration of his friend hasn't yet been told that there's hope for her, that she'll have a chance to live a real life - and she certainly hasn't seen proof that she's capable of building positive relationships to begin with. Asgard helped soothe a lot of Naminé's oldest wounds, but here they're as close to the surface as they ever were, and to her, the idea that she made a friend somewhere (and has simply forgotten about it) seems almost too good to be true.

And she doesn't quite know why he looks down until he raises his arms, illustrating the issue. Her fingers curl, then her wrists lift as well. She hasn't got any sleeves to push back, and her clothing in general doesn't provide a lot of room to hide accessories. Still, she looks down at her own slender arms upon the prompting, just in case. Predictably, they're devoid of any manner of jewelry, bracelet or otherwise. She shakes her head, and doesn't say that she doesn't recall ever having seen such objects before. (That's more or less implied.) The real question is the one she asks as her hands lower again, hovering as high as her midsection rather than falling to her sides. ]

Do I need them?

[ That seems like a logical reason for the segue, at least. ]

[skittering]

( he can see that she isn't wearing the cuffs, that wasn't in question. he just didn't know if she might have had them in a pocket (do dresses have pockets??) or possibly left them inside, if she didn't even recall that they were hers.

so no, she doesn't have the cuffs. )

For the healing. ( since it came from the gods. )

[lethechained]

[ Regardless of whether dresses ought to have pockets, hers definitely doesn't. It doesn't have much of... anything, really, aside from the bare necessities to qualify as a body covering and the single accent of the scalloped edges on the skirt.

His response seems to puzzle her, less because it's another thing she's forgotten and more because-- ]

Why would I need bracelets to do magic...?

[ Her genuine confusion would probably be easier to understand if they'd had more opportunity to discuss her own worlds and her nature in them. Since, you know, she can already use magic there. Uncertainly, she hazards, ]

Are they supposed to make it easier?

[ Magic boosting accessories are a thing where she comes from. ]

[skittering]

( he shakes his head, thoughtlessly adjusting the cuffs on his wrists one after the other. )

That's where it was stored. The magic you healed with. ( her god was sigyn, so the stone was different as was the precise sort of magic - but regardless. ) Mine was different. Rune traps and wind.

( neither of which are of any use here and now, nor is he absolutely positive he can access them here. it feels like he can, but he also has yet to try. he doesn't need it, here. he has his actual magic back, from his actual gods. )

[lethechained]

I see...

[ Naminé grows briefly more puzzled, then less; perhaps, she reasons, it was a different kind of magic. That's about her best guess - but all that leaves her with is a moral dilemma. If it was another kind of ability he was anticipating, then does he know what else to expect of her? Teeth sinking into her lip, she hesitates, considering him. But quickly enough, her eyes are drawn back toward what she can see of his injuries, and by that point the decision's made for her already, really. Got too much of a conscience, this girl. ]

Maybe I can use my own magic, [ she volunteers, at the end of an uncertain silence. ] I've never tried to cast Cure before, but I'm sure it couldn't hurt.

[skittering]

( a beat, considering, and he nods. she's right - it couldn't hurt to try. )

Okay, ( lalli agrees, in case his nod was ambiguous. then he follows up with, ) Didn't have your own magic, in Asgard. None of us did. ( and they never really talked about it... so he doesn't know what she's capable of now. )

[lethechained]

[ She nods in return, expression serious. ]

I'll try to do my best.

[ And that involves stepping a little closer, which she does first - partway, at least. Her palms lift for her to consider them, beginning to focus on her secondhand memories as she attempts to piece together the skill required.

Of course, she finds the added bit of information he provides somewhat distracting. Glancing up, she gives him a slightly round-eyed look. ]

No one did? [ Although she's had cause in the past to regret the powers she was created with, the idea of being without them makes her distinctly uncomfortable. She tries not to lose the thread of her recollection and is largely successful, but she still has to ask, ] How come? That's-- so strange, with how many types of magic there are.