TDM: ROUND 3

[strangerpeople]

15 STRANGERS ROUND 3 TEST DRIVE There are 15 strangers in this place. Someone knows why. And its clear the odds are stacked against you. 1. ARRIVAL Oh god, you're inside a Base. Why are you here? What happened to your powers? Your memories? Who else has been so unlucky as to be brought in with you? What are you wearing? What are these strange rules? And...why do you feel like the person who wrote them is going to like yelling at you? 2. POWER You have been, er, "blessed" with a power. Its not a power you want or care for, but its yours now. You might want to try an control it, lest you hurt someone else. That is...unless you want to. Or if you want to try and see if you can break out of your new domicile. Or, hey, go ahead and blow things up - there's no rule against property damage aside from the camerabots, after all... 3. HOME So now you live in a Base of some kind. Whee. Maybe living here forever won't be so bad, since there are things to do with your free time. Unless you're looking for a way out, but surely, you wouldn't do that, right? 4. MINIGAME The Commander has decided to do...erm, 'games'. Those who win the games will get prizes, the Commander has promised. This Test Drive Meme's minigame: a laundry folding contest! The most items folded in one hour wins! Work alone, or in teams - either way, you get the feeling there's an ulterior motive to the Commander making you do this while they watch and laugh... 5. MOTIVE The Commander has (somewhat too gleefully) announced the motive for the week. Clearly someone out there really wants to give you a reason to kill someone else. How will you react? Will you stand against such an insult and help others to fight the temptation? Or perhaps, you yourself are tempted...? 6. DEATH One of your own has died - no, been killed. The Inquisition has started. The body lies before you, and now you must discern the truth from the clues before you. But can you when you mourn? Or, perhaps you don't mourn the dead. Perhaps you're only playing along because you know more than you let on. 7. TRIAL Well, it looks like the Commander wasn't kidding when they said there would be a trial if someone was murdered. So now you're here, looking to condemn the responsible killer. If you do, they die. If you don't, well, you'll end up killing an innocent person, as the Commander has announced what would happen if the majority votes incorrectly. Whatever happens, you have to figure out what happened. Can you? 8. SCAPEGOAT Oh dear...the Commander has just announced that the person everyone just voted for...was actually completely innocent! Not only that, but they've revealed who the real culprit was! Maybe you're that innocent person, trying to say your goodbyes or beg for your life. Maybe you're one of the ones who voted for the innocent person, trying to cope with the horrible act you've just committed. Or maybe you're the true culprit, who now has to not only deal with an innocent dying for your actions, but also the fact that you can now be killed without repercussion!... 9. WILDCARD Anything not mentioned above. Go wild!

Comments

[stealsyourduelist]

[No, he had assumed it would be something like that, so he just nods. The scene is weird to him, but not to a mindboggling degree - the computer looks really similar to the one in their rooms.]

I imagine that would make it difficult to follow the conversation.

[The guy popping up at the end at least confirmed that that is what it was.]

So that was the two-way communication that this technology offers, allowing them to communicate in silence. That would have been a nice way to get around the monastic vow....

[fashionfever]

[She nods cautiously. He's following it so far, though clearly with effort.] I'm pretty sure there are monks who do that nowadays. Like, if you're going to send letters to the Vatican anyway, you might as well just do email. [She puts her finger on her chin, thinking.] I should ask Patrick if they used email at that monastery he visited... [This is kind of wistful under the surface though she tries not to let it break through. Patrick is not one of the Titled, obviously.]

[stealsyourduelist]

It has been quite some time since I have visited one myself...

[He could ask who Patrick is but, later. Science is more interesting than people]

Is e-mail what they call this practice, then?

[fashionfever]

Well, there are lots of ways to do it. Texting, IMing... But email is the really big important one, yeah.

What would you for something like this? [She's pointing at the screen where the girl is with the boy again. "This" means a budding relationship, perhaps?] Notes on doves?

[stealsyourduelist]

[He considers this.]

There is a monster we call 'Happy Lover', a sort of round angelic faerie, that would be appropriate to send with a message to one's betrothed.

[fashionfever]

That's...

[Angela's smile freezes in place for a minute.

A monster? That's a huge red flag! What kind of girl would go for that?

No! You should be supportive of his interests! I bet it's like a little teddy bear.]

That's adorable!

[stealsyourduelist]

[He already said it's an angelfairy, okay!!!]

It's pink, after all. The young lady would probably be fond of it. [He's gesturing at the screen to indicate that he means the girl in the movie.]

[fashionfever]

An-die. [You're never gonna get someone interested in you without addressing them by name! What, are only Titled worthy of that honor? She is an American of concomitant looseness.] Pretty in Pink is the whole title of the movie. Lots of little girls just... always love pink things, you know?

[And big girls like Angela judging by, well, everything.]

[stealsyourduelist]

I shall try to remember. [He doesn't really mean that at all, but....] 'Always' truly meant forever for you, hm?

[They're all wearing these dumb suits, so it's not like he can see her dressed to the nines in pink hues, but he can imagine it based on her fascination with this movie. He doesn't relate that much. He prefers shades of blue, anyway.]

But, what are the differences between 'texting' and... 'I.M.'? The terms of the future are quite unusual, no matter how often I hear them.

[He's at least able to take it very much in stride thanks to working with the Rose Duelist.]

[fashionfever]

You bet. [Said in a "don't push it, kid" kind of tone.]

Well, I can see how they would sound kind of complicated. That thing they were using on their desks is a computer. [Puts both her hands out to vaguely frame that medium large box.] But texting is something you do with a phone. [She puts one hand out open palm like a flat smartphone would fit well into it.] And at first a phone was just for talking to people, you see? [She glances back at the screen - she should keep an eye out for when a phone shows up in the movie. What a fun little objective in the time management game of her life!] But then they invented a way for short little sentences to show up on your phones. So that was like, the only part of the phone that shows text? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's why they call it texting.

[stealsyourduelist]

[He looks at her hand a bit blankly, but he follows soon enough. So, this 'phone' does the 'text' as well as some function where it transmits speech. He could ask a lot more questions, but he does recognize that she's trying to watch this movie thing, so he decides to leave it at that for now.]

I believe I understand. Thank you, Angela.

[He will at least make deliberate use of her name if she's going to be a stickler for that kind of thing.]

Do you relate to this movie? You went to one of these high schools?

[fashionfever]

Oh, yeah, I did... [She's twirling her long hair around her finger. Why do women do this in the modern era they should just pin up their hair under bonnets] A little while ago. [I mean, Rosie may not know what high school is, but the characters in the movie are 17, so more like a good while ago.]

In the movies they just show the good stuff! Meeting people, standing up to your parents, falling in love, finding yourself... Not all the homework and tests and part-time jobs.