obsidianooc | test drive;

The game cap is 30 players. We currently have 22 players in game.

TDM Guidelines

1. We strongly encourage you to post to the AU Workshop before posting here, just to get your concept out there. Feel free to link to your workshop post in your tag for easy lookup purposes.

2. Threads can be game canon if both players agree to it.

3. No one is late! Consider this a permanent test drive (until captcha is hit, if that happens). We'll be tracking top-levels and drawing attention to new posts.

4. You don't have to use any of the prompts below; feel free to create your own!

5. Don't worry about cell block assignments for the purpose of the TDMm if you haven't chosen one - feel free to keep it vague or retcon the threads a bit later.

Prompt 1: Common Room

The common room has books, magazines, newspapers, cards, and board games. The television has been out of commission for a while, but oh! Look! It seems like a new TV has been mounted on the wall! And this one's a 32 inch flat screen, a nice substitute for the old broken tube TV someone broke over a Monopoly dispute turned violent.

If you decide to watch the TV, the screen cuts to static a few minutes after you start watching and a strange voice starts to speak. It's a soft voice, but with the occasional distortion as if spoken by a person standing too close too a microphone.

"Hello there! You must be [CHARACTER NAME]. I think it's about time you got to know somebody a little bit better. Why don't you..."

(Choose one of the following options:)

"Tell someone something you don't want them to know. It doesn't have to be terribly juicy, as long as you'd prefer not to have told them."

"Give one of your fellow inmates a nice hard slap across the cheek."

"Be nice. Ask somebody if there's anything you can do for them. Anything at all."

"Find someone with a snack, and take it away from them."

"Go up to someone you don't know, and ask them what they did."

"If you decide to ignore me, or you tell anyone you're not acting of your own free will, the guard beside the magazine stand will send you strait to the SHU for two weeks.. Your choice."

No one else in the common room seems to hear the voice except you - although the aforementioned guard sure seems to be staring you down. The other people watching TV continue to react to the show that was playing.

Prompt 2: Lockdown

Uh-oh. Something bad must have happened, because the entire prison has been put into lockdown without bothering to herd everyone back to their proper blocks. You've been herded into a cell with someone from ANY block, and who knows when you'll be let out.

You have a set of bunk beds, a table and chair, a toilet and sink, and two shelves where the inmates who actually reside in that cell have put anything that belongs to them.

Now's a good time to get to know your new temporary cellmate. Or pray that you're on good terms, if you already know them.

Prompt 3: The Yard

It's recreation time! Your daily opportunity for a couple hours of fresh air, if you choose to take it (or if the indoor guards are sick of you and decide you're going outside whether you like it or not). The guards here are primarily concerned with preventing your escape, so if you're not lingering around the fences you'll be watched less than if you were inside.

If you're new, weak, or don't have a solid group of allies yet, that also means it's less likely that anyone will help you if someone else decides to pick a fight. Be careful.

The outdoor guards to a careful, meticulous sweep of the entire area every night, trying to keep...something out. It seems they were slacking off a bit yesterday: the tiniest sliver of obsidian rock has made its way into the yard undetected and - ow - you've brushed up against it, embedding it somewhere on your body.

The shard has imbued you with one of the following effects:

The next person who makes eye contact with you can read your thoughts, and you can read theirs. Careful, it might get hard to tell who's who after a while.

You suddenly feel frightened and timid, as if everyone in the yard is bigger, stronger, and out to hurt you.

You are overcome with the urge to dig into the ground with your bare hands, looking for more of the rocks.

The next person you see fills you with rage, and you want to attack them.

You become exceptionally suggestible, and will do whatever you're told.

You feel a strange euphoria: regardless of how you felt before, the prison now feels like the very best place to be, as if you're at the center of the universe.

Regardless of the effect, the shard will slowly start to burn hotter and hotter, compelling you to remove it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He notices the smile, and he's smug as hell about getting it, but he doesn't show it. ]

A little of both. [ ...But mostly the former. Whatever great powers there are, they don't generally show up for card tricks.

He shuffles the deck a few times, tapping it against the table and then pulling out a card. It's the King of Hearts. ]

This your card, kid?

[ Whoever said don't meet your idols can go fuck themselves. His attention flickers between Flagg's face and the shuffling of cards. He knows that's the point, but can't find it in himself to care. ]

That's the one. Quite the coincidence, isn't it?

The King of Hearts. The best one to be, though plenty of fools would pick Diamonds.

[ Love and admiration and devotion were leagues more valuable than any amount of riches. Unlike some leaders, Flagg never took monetary donations or bought mansions and cars and jewelry. He slept where his followers slept, ate what they ate, wore what they wore.

A true man of the people. Truthfully, he just didn't care for things, he wanted people. ] I've heard about you, beautiful boy. [ That's how Miriam described him the last time she spoke to him, years and years ago, and she was right. ] And I don't think it's a coincidence that you're here.

Money can't buy true loyalty where it matters. It will never be enough, and it will always be toward the money, not the hand that gives it.

[ People are much more prone to get behind someone when they feel valued. Michael wouldn't have made it so far had he not had people who believed in him. So long as he'd had Ms. Mead at his side, there'd been nothing to fear. Her stories of their charming and down to earth leader had only solidified his belief in what they were doing.

Michael shifts under the attention, fingers lacing together above the table. His lips tick upward in a knowing sort of smile. ]

You could almost say that it was satanic providence.

[ Or intentional, there was that, too. It hadn't been so much that he'd been sloppy. He knew better than that. They all did. ]

Edited 2020-07-08 18:27 (UTC)

You've been taught well.

[ He smiles, too, and it's pleasant enough but not without that fierce edge that all his smiles had. ]

Some people think this is the end of the line. I say it's the start of a line that none of us have even begun to understand. You can start to feel it in the air when you've been here for a while.

[ Strange things happened here, and there was always this darkness lingering in the halls, on the faces of the guards, and in every blade of grass in the yard. Flagg embraced the darkness, so he got to enjoy himself more than the ones who feared it and let it consume them. ]

Ms. Mead always spoke so highly of you. I took everything she said to heart.

[ He wanted to make her proud, to fall into Flagg's shadow and be more than a simple follower. That feeling of belonging the cult gave him was powerful, and within these walls, it would aid him. Michael wouldn't be a bottomfeeder, scraping away on his knees for the scraps cast from the top. He'd stand on their backs for his own benefit. Live to the potential he felt thrumming through his veins. ]

It didn't feel like the end when I was brought here. It was a door opening.

[ He leans forward, mystified. ]

What does it feel like?

She was always one of the better ones.

[ Sure, Flagg's own beliefs leaned less towards any Biblical concept of Satan and more to some inexplicable, primordial darkness - chaos itself - but he didn't care if his followers differed in that aspect as long as they shared his goals. ]

It feels like...[ He taps his finger against his chin, trying to think of the right words. ] ...being embraced by the darkness. Some people might say it's more like being crushed, but that's because they're not ready for its strength.

[ Or because normal people don't enjoy the sensation of being surrounded by the ominous unknown, but Flagg would call those people weak. ]

She's the one who pushed me in the right direction.

[ One of the only people in his life who could never do wrong in his eyes. It had been simpler to grasp what they believed in when it had been fixated on one central being. As he's matured, the hunger for something else has grown, and he finds himself enraptured by Flagg's description. The hair on the back of his neck rises.

He hasn't experienced that yet, but he's only just arrived. As with all things, it would take time. ]

I'm ready. [ It's said with a conviction he doesn't fully believe, but he's always gained a lot of his strength meeting something head-on. ]

I know you are. [ If he picked up on the lack of conviction - and he did - he doesn't let on. The boy's trying; Flagg was young once, too.

He rests one of his hands (and it's such a soft hand, for a man as rough as Flagg) over Michael's. ]

I can help you. It may take a few days for me to get what I need, but I know a way to get you closer.

[ This? Meeting with Flagg? It's everything he'd hoped it would be. He spent so long building this man up in his mind, watching recordings and never having access to him- he'd been much too young and lived far enough away for it to be impossible.. But the magnetism isn't an exaggeration. It's no wonder he has so many followers.

Michael feels special for being a part of it. A cog in the machine so much bigger than he is. ]

Tell me what I need to do.

Soon. [ He doesn't want to reveal too much too early. He wants to see how Michael is at thinking on his feet. ]

I'll come to you when everything's ready. Until then, watch people. Get to know them, if you can. Think about who you're willing to make an ally or an enemy out of.

[ He hasn't gotten where he is in life without a bit of ingenuity. ]

Interrogation is something I'm quite good at. I'll have ideas by the time we meet again.

test drive;

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