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

The fence... Right. The fence. That's where the guards are, and they made it clear they will attack anyone who attempts to escape. But escape is really the only thing AM wants to do right now. He feels incredibly uneasy, as if something horrible will happen to him if he stays in this yard another moment.

"Where are you leading me then?" he asks in a low tone, tensing up as he very slowly moves toward the younger man.

He remembers deescalation from training, but his real-life experience had kind of skipped straight over that and into violence. Still, he tries to dig out those textbook strategies. He stands still as the other approaches.

"I'm not leading you anywhere but away from the fence so you don't get in trouble." (To say the least.) "We don't have to go anywhere else, we can stand right here if you want. If you wanna sit down somewhere, we can do that too."

As AM steps closer, away from the fence, he feels his heart race even more. He feels as though he is walking into the heat of the inferno. His gut instinct is telling him that something is very wrong, that he needs to get away or else something bad will happen. What exactly? Everything. Everyone is against him. Everyone is stronger and younger. This man here is far stronger, is probably luring him into a trap...

So AM actually stays where he is after a couple of steps. He hasn't acted like this, not perhaps since his youth in the Air Force. It's not as if he has any PTSD from that time, but he does feel once more like a lost little boy, overwhelmed by the crushing walls of this compound and the ravenous inmates within.

"Why? To lure me into a trap? Is that it?" Finally he speaks faster, donning a far more defensive stance as he realizes that it's fight or flight - either he jump the fence and risk being killed, or he stand his ground and risk being killed. Curling up into a ball is neither of those two options, obviously, but doesn't do anything to help.

"You and your ilk are just trying to get rid of me, aren't you?" He laughs bitterly and slowly.

"I'm not luring you anywhere," Rook repeats, voice almost gentle. "You can stay right there if you want. I'll stay right here. I can't reach you from here, see?"

He gestures (slowly) to the inmates around them, none of which are paying them any mind, beyond maybe mild disinterest. "I've been here all of a couple weeks, I don't have any 'ilk'. I also don't know who you are, or have any reason to want to get rid of you. If I did, I would've let the guards do it. I just wanted you to get away from the fence so you didn't end up in the SHU or worse."

Too gentle. Almost condescending, as if he thinks AM is just some senile old man who can be tossed about.

Maybe to Rook, the inmates look disinterested, but to AM their stares seem judgmental and hungry, as if they have scoped out a weed in their garden.

"You don't know who I am?" Another bitter laugh. "I find that hard to believe." He looks back at the fence again, where the guards are still watching, though they aren't basically trying to chase after AM or aim their guns at him anymore.

Of course, in his normal, more logical state of mind, it would be perfectly believable for someone not to know who AM is. But no, of course this guy knows who he is - at least in terms of prison hierarchy.

Then again, this young man makes a good point. The guards would throw him in SHU or worse, wouldn't they?

"You know, in prison, it's not wise to trust anyone." His eyes narrow and he grins, though it's still in a very "ready" stance, as if he's about to lunge forward.

Rook recognizes that body language, and it takes everything he has not to shift into a defensive posture of his own. He stands deliberately with his posture open, neither offensive nor defensive.

"That's fair. You only have what I'm telling you to go off of. I'll walk away right now if you want me to." And if this man thinks Rook trusts him for a second, he is sorely mistaken. But, he can think what he wants.

The dude is away from the fence, which was (ostensibly) Rook's goal, and this is way more than what he bargained for. Honestly, he'd prefer if the other inmate wants him to go, at this point.

He almost doesn't want this man to leave, because what then? He's going to get his cavalcade of other strong men to come over and attack AM. But then again, the two of them standing like this could look suspicious enough as it is.

"Yes. Fine. Walk away," he hisses. AM doesn't trust Rook at all, of course. The minute he moves, AM is going to put up his defenses, because why wouldn't Rook use that youth and superior strength to attack him?

"Walk away and don't come near me again!"

Fine with him. Rook puts up his hands a little higher, palms open.

"You got it. I'm going to turn around and walk away, now."

He does just that, slowly turning on his heel to leave the man alone.

AM remains standing there, closely watching Rook as he turns around.

He can't trust anyone, can he? Not when the prison is full of ravenous dogs, ready to pick off anyone who falls slightly behind.

That fence is still tempting him, even if his chances of death are greater from it. He just hates this yard and everyone in it.

test drive;

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