test drive;

[thecommissary]

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.

Comments

[violenti]

Montana's version of manslaughter, basically. I think it's second degree murder in some states, and third degree in one or two. No one argued that I was acting in self-defense, it was just whether I used excessive force in doing so.

[ The latest national story to make it out of Montana was that of a cult that thought the End of Days was upon the world, and had begun (forcibly) indoctrinating the nearby residents and taking resources. There had been resistance, and at its head, a junior deputy of the local sheriff's department. Depending on the news station, Rook's position had been lauded as a hero that defended his home, condemned as a bloodthirsty maniac in his element, or equally condemned as the personification of the law's gross overreach of power, a la the Branch Davidians.

Rook tries not to be nosy about what the other man is drawing, though he is curious. He watches the motion of the other's hand quietly. ]

[sampler]

[ Again, oh. His eyes are on his page as Rook explains, no longer drawing but writing a few words he hears in a quick, flowing script along the bottom edge of the tv's shadow: mitigated, manslaughter, selfdefense, excessive. Useful words to remember.

It helps him conceptualize what he's telling him, too. Sounds like he defended himself too well and too often. That's... okay. Well. Farrah's lesson here is don't provoke this guy, holy shit. And stand behind cover if someone else does.

He tears that page off the pad and slips it in between the lower sheets, then begins a new drawing. This one is his view in front of him, beginning with the edge of the table and Rook's arms and hands, how he's marked his place in the book with his finger. ]

Is that good?

[ A flick of the pencil towards the book is the only indication as to what 'that' might be. ]

[violenti]

[ Defended himself, and defended his friends, his new home, his community. The community defended themselves too, too well and too often, (most of them, anyway) but you couldn't put a whole county in prison. Left standing was one delusional cult leader, and Rook. The death toll on both sides was astronomical - someone had to take the fall. Only so much punishment could be laid at the feet of one man before public opinion felt there had to be someone else. That, and there would always be folk on the side of those who did wrong, as much as those who were wronged. ]

This? [ Rook lifts the book a little to confirm. ] So far. But, Pohl is one of my favorite authors. If you're into science fiction at all, I recommend him.

[sampler]

[ Pohl. That's a familiar name. Definitely read some, but he can't immediately remember what. "Pohl SF' gets written on the cover of the book in his drawing before he returns to sketching Rook. No face or head on the drawing yet though. ]

Sometimes. Is that from the library here?

[violenti]

Mmhmm. The selection isn't great, but what can you do.

[ He gets the feeling he's going to have all the books in this prison read within a couple of years, if not sooner, though. ] What do you like to read? Or I guess I should ask, do you like to read?

[sampler]

I do. Anything fictional. Or of nature. Or history. And you?

[violenti]

Nature, huh? Mmn- science fiction is my favorite, generally, though I do like some modern fantasy. I'll read most things, though.

[ Comes from being a kid too busy to maintain friendships, but a book could be picked up and put down at any time. ]

[sampler]

[ His drawing-attention wanders and Farrah finds himself drawing circles around a dot off to the side of his sketch of Rook. Pondering about Pohl, what was it he'd read of his? ]

I think the library takes requests if-

[ Farrah grins suddenly, looks up and lifts his free hand to point at Rook's book. ]

Gateway! Pohl wrote it. With the black hole?

[violenti]

[ Rook's brows lift in surprise at the sudden interjection. ] Oh- uh, yeah. First one of the Heechee series. I haven't read all of them yet. I take it you read that one?