TEST DRIVE #1

[collectedmods]

TEST DRIVE #1

Hi shoppers! Welcome to the first Test Drive Meme for COLLECTED. A few things before we get started:

» For the time being, our TDM’s are closed to those eligible to apply based on our invite system. This means that you must be on one of the mod’s plurklists, or invited as a +1 by someone on those lists. Thanks for understanding!

» TDM Threads will NOT be canon.

» Because of that, feel free to assume/handwave CR, and assume your character has been in the setting for a little bit.

» When the game opens, characters will be able to try their hand at going outside. But, during the TDM, all doors and windows to the outside will be locked, and characters will be unable to venture out there.

» These prompts are not exhaustive - feel free to make up your own within the setting of the mall! Anywhere on the Second Floor of the mall is free game. And if you have any questions about what you can and can’t do (or about anything else) reply to the QUESTIONS comment below, and we’ll get back to you soon.

Most importantly, have fun! And thank you so much for your interest in Collected; we’ve been so stoked over the turnout!! 🧡

PROMPTS

I.

There’s one big problem about getting around the Mall - and no, it’s not the bottom floor that’s flooded.

The other huge problem that the dilapidated infrastructure causes aside from making everything smell weird and leaving tons of crumbled debris around is that at some points in the mall, it’s impossible to get across large gaps in the flooring where it’s fallen through to the waters below. In fact, to access the side of the mall across from where you are right now, there are no paths that are safe for walking across. But there is one way.

One attraction of the mall has stayed (mildly) in tact - and that’s a Hi Wire Bicycle. The one way across to the other side of the Mall is this rusty, dusty bicycle attached to a thick wire, with signs around the attraction describing how much the fare used to be to ride across - if you were daring enough, that is! Obviously, no one’s ridden across this thing in years - much less for the overpriced payment required.

More than that, it seems a little… less than safe. The net that probably provided mall-goers with some degree of self-assurance has aged, sagging and unraveling at the junctures of some of the knots. If you were to fall onto it, would it still catch you…? The wire affixed to the bike doesn’t seem too steady, either, not to mention how hard you’ll have to push against the rusted pedals to get them to move. As it stands, though, it’s the only way across to get to the Second Floor’s other half of stores. Luckily (or maybe unluckily?) there’s a seat for you and a friend. So, at least you won’t go down alone.

To make it across, you’ll have to be brave, be creative, and most of all, be lucky!

II.

A.

Near the heart of the food court, decorations for what used to be Santa’s village are still laid about. How many Christmases ago were these left here? By the looks of things, a lot. A thick coating of dust has settled on the nooks and crannies of what is supposed to be the elves workshop, alongside the seat where Santa must have sat to take pictures with children.

In the Elves’ Workshop, you’ll find a massive amount of animatronic elves. They’re all positioned to be working on toys, putting up decorations, or singing from carol books - it looks like these little guys were put here to perform for kids, not unlike an interactive (and more Christmas-y) version of It’s a Small World. There’s even un-opened (and therefore okay-to-eat!) boxes of chocolate chip cookies that must have been for the Mall-goers around Christmastime stashed inside an open cabinet, which was most definitely only for employees to access.

The only problem is that once you enter and make your way inside the workshop… something strange happens. Is something grabbing onto your clothes? Your hair? Maybe a stray finger? It’s the little wooden hands of one of the elves. Your first thought is that you just brushed past it and got caught on it - but, on the second thought, it’s not letting go. In fact, it’s grip is getting tighter. Painful, even. All while it smiles blankly ahead, eerily still aside from it’s tiny hand squeezing you. Take your eyes off these cheery boys and girls for too long, and you’ll realize they’re not staying put like good little elves - they’re moving closer to you only when they’re out of sight.

If you’re unlucky enough for several to latch onto you, you’d better ho-ho-hope someone can break you free.

B.

Outside the Workshop, more towards where the line to meet Santa would be, there’s a big snow machine. Unluckily for you, the machine’s sensors, which would have known to start putting out snow whenever people walk by, seem to still be working despite the Mall’s run-down state. As soon as you get near the thing, it starts spewing out tons of fake snow. It’s completely unlike the delicate sprinkling you’d find in a shopping center: it’s plain blasting you with the stuff, more like a hose than anything else. Too bad that the part of the machine that broke was whatever controlled the volume and speed of the snow instead of the sensors, right?

The fake snow is sticky and old, and will stick to you and the floor the more you get caught in it - better hurry and stop that machine!

C.

There’s a huge, luxurious chair that was most certainly reserved for the Santa employee in the center of the village area - tall and wide enough for at least a few people to clamber onto. Even though the paint is chipping off parts of the throne, and the wood is decaying in places - it still doesn’t look too bad, all things considered. Even the camera is still sitting in front of the chair, balanced on a tripod as though there were kids coming to take pictures with Santa today.

You’ll find that walking into the frame of the camera with more than one person causes the camera to go off. The camera will even print your picture, and never seems to run out of film - no matter how many times it fires. Did it catch your bad side, the first time? Feel free to try again! Dress up, find props, take pictures with your newfound companions to your heart’s content!

The only thing to be wary of is that in every few photos, someone else is in the photo. It’s a smiling, bright-eyed child, despite their transparency compared to you and your companion in the image. Judging by the sitting pose, and the performative smile, the added kid is none other than a reflection of a child who had taken pictures here with Santa long, long ago.

III.

With the size of the mall, and the variety of the stores inside, it’s only natural to think to forage for items that might be of use - there’s got to be something left behind here that will help you, right? Or a portal home?

Not too far from the department store you’d wandered in from, there’s a clothing store with an… interesting problem, for lack of a better word. The store has been overrun with rats. Big ones, too, scurrying about the floors and what’s left of the shelves, gnawing on what remains of the carpet and the remnants of cardboard packaging. Anyone sane would steer clear of this mess!

But, there’s something off about this store. Not only do all the rats somehow stay mysteriously contained within the walls of the store, never scurrying out of it, and with no signs of other stores being infested at all, but there’s also something that’s very familiar to you in this store. It could be a weapon, an item of clothing, or something as simple as your most favorite phone charm - point of the matter is, the rats have a hoard akin to a dragon’s behind the cashier’s counter, full of trinkets and belongings to all who have come through this place. They’ll work to keep their paws on what they have, too.

If you want your special something back, you’ll have to brave the vermin.



NAVIGATION

Comments

[firelords]

The year 100.

⟪ the thing is, the question's pretty simple, but it grounds her enough to prevent her from going off on a tangent at poor lottie. ⟫

Oh. AG, not BG.

⟪ as if that makes it any more clear. she steps closer, though, to look at the paper (at least she thinks it's bits of paper) in lottie's hand as well. it's –– ⟫

It's like a portrait. ⟪ she frowns, visibly unhappy with the result. for one: it's not as dramatic as she'd thought. for another, the other woman looks gorgeous even in the picture, while azula looks... exactly like a fourteen year old who hasn't slept properly in some time and, well, cut a chunk of her bangs off not that long ago. not perfect, not perfect at all. ⟫

[oomfies]

[ AG.. BG?? Does Azula actually think she paid attention in school to even know what that means? While flattered (and still terribly confused), that answer gives her an idea of what's going on - although, maybe not as much as that particular grimace she gives at the photo in her hands. ]

Kinda. It's like the selfies I take with my phone? [ You know.. The thing you always see her do for virtually no reason, entirely unprompted!! ] It's called a photo.

[ Speaking of, she decides to just.. Flip the photos to face each other, and save it in the front pocket of her backpack. From experience, she knows what it looks like to take a photo personally (literally, literally she does).. And she figures maybe just putting it away will save her a possible argument. Maybe make the sour expression on this little girl's face a little less.. Hm, sad to look at. ]

Usually, they don't do that, though.. Take photos by themselves. It's a person that does it?

[firelords]

⟪ that's what she's doing? azula hadn't asked, honestly, she despises having to ask people anything – it makes her feel inadequate. why she would need so many pictures of herself is beyond her, too. a portrait or ten, for posterity, sure. but there's plenty of mirrors around if she just wants to know what she looks like.

hell knows azula's argued with half of them by now. ⟫

Then how –

⟪ the camera goes off again, and this time, azula grabs the picture. suck on that, lottie. you have two awful pictures of her, but now she... also... has one... it's less triumphant in tone than it started, that's for sure. she's about to simply set in on fire when she spots the girl in it. a child, by all accounts, smiling as if it's having the time of its life. fool. ⟫

Where did you come from?

⟪ heel turn, face towards the throne-like chair, which is empty. she checks the picture again. ⟫

[oomfies]

[ Lottie would be less concerned if they were maybe having fun, in the middle of a photoshoot or something. But not having the convenient distraction of a photo means that she has to very much concentrate on the fact there's a small child (smaller than the one standing next to her, thumb pressing tight on the corner of the photo) in this photo. A girl. A dead girl?!

Truthfully, she's a little freaked out - but she's had a run-in with a ghost before. And while she wasn't a child, more grown adult, she's trying to reign in anything she learned from that ordeal to use now. ]

Okaaayyy.. I think we should go.

[ Is what she settles on, putting a hand on Azula's shoulder to reign in her curiosity. ]

No pressure or anything! No big deal.

[firelords]

⟪ azula already stands more like a military general than a teenage girl, but she manages to tense up even more at lottie's well-meaning touch. ⟫

And run from a child?

⟪ the camera is done happily printing the next picture, and azula grabs it – only to back a liiiittle into lottie's hand at the sight of the girl-child, now distinctly closer to where they were standing. ⟫

[oomfies]

A dead child? Yes.

[ That camera flash only serves to make Lottie start to sweat, start to freak out a little. Sure, she has ghost experience, but the ghost she was haunted by talked about Rihanna. Makeup. Brand sponsorships. But this?? Completely out of her field.

Without bothering to wait, Lottie simply grabs Azula to move them farther from where that girl stood. Just a little ways off to the side, not entirely out of frame - only enough to catch Lottie's long ponytail. And it seems that is enough, because it flashes again, far quicker than the last. ]

We always run from dead children!

[firelords]

What can it possibly do?

⟪ she snarls it out, but doesn't struggle free, and she does make sure to keep pace with lottie. maybe the green-haired wonder is the expert here. something soars and hisses past them, and for a moment, azula thinks 'knife' before she realises it's just another polaroid picture. even in their flight, she grabs it – ⟫

I think it's following. You're the spirit expert. ⟪ she hopes. ⟫ What now?