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]

⟪ she smiles her most shit-eating smirk when he calls firebending a trick, but then, he's agreed to go into the rat's nest with her now. he'll see a little more firebending in there.

that said: colour her mildly impressed. he's obviously not a bender, and he's not a fighter the way the guards and soldiers back home are, but he is swift, and efficient, and gets his part of the deal done quickly and without any whining. so you know azula gives the rat-blasting her best effort in return.

once out, he tosses one of the most priced heirlooms of her nation at her as if it's nothing at all, and she catches it, because she's been trained to fight since she was old enough to stand. can't hold a conversation to safe her life and hasn't managed to find anything to eat other than jelly beans she arrived here, but that's neither here nor there. ⟫

You do have manners. ⟪ she lifts up the hair piece, and then realises that she'll actually have to do her hair half-up if she wants to wear it properly, which she has to. it's all part of her duties now. ⟫ Azula. And I'm not the princess anymore, not with this. I was always meant to be crowned Fire Lord...

⟪ trailing off what seems like mid-sentence, she takes a couple steps towards a glass storefront, to see her reflection and to try and figure out the hair problem. ⟫

What about you? You're not a soldier. ⟪ she's half-hoping for clues in the pile of stuff he grabbed for himself. ⟫

[oraculi]

[Fire Lord means little to him. He's not stupid, it's clearly a title, and you know what, he's heard of stranger things than a fourteen year old being crowned king (or queen, or whatever).

But the thing is: it doesn't mean shit here. Nothing does, not when there's so many people from different worlds, when they none of them recognize the common cultural milestones the others offer. She might well be Fire Lord, but so might he, for all it carries significance.

That bending, though . . . that's something to keep an eye on. That carries significance, though if it's good or bad, he can't tell yet.

Anyway. He doesn't say all that. Just swigs at his bottle, watching her fuss at her hair. And chuckles as she says that.]

Sure ain't.

[He watches her in the reflection, amused and unbothered. He's watching her a little too closely to be called casual, because some instincts don't die.

Initial cravings of alcohol subsiding, he sets the bottle down near and goes through what else he grabbed. A few things are useless, and he tosses them aside. But a knife? Ah, that's helpful, and he smiles thinly. It's engraved, which suggests it belongs to someone else here, but finders keepers and all.

He hefts it a little. It's a good weight, and he tosses it once, which is a very easy way to lose one's fingers unless one knows what they're doing. Which he does, so.]

Haymitch. And I, Miss Azula . . . am a drunk. But one who has his liquor, so I'll be a satisfied one the next . . . oh, let's call it three days.

Watch it with those flames near me, huh?

[firelords]

⟪ in azula's own little world, she has just solved a problem, answered a question, even: maybe her brother did die in the agni kai. maybe the little waterbender couldn't fix him after all. then she hasn't failed, then her father wouldn't return to find that she'd lost everything. she'll still be flawless.

her hands begin to shake, frustration evidently rising high as she fails to do what she usually has servants do for her. still, she's grabbing the golden hairpiece so tightly as if she thinks it might dissolve if she she doesn't cling to it.

then she turns to face him again. ⟫

I am firebending master. A prodigy. ⟪ a beacon of humility. ⟫ No one gets hurt unless I want them to, Haymitch.

⟪ which... is as close as she can get to saying that she will, in fact, make an effort to contain herself. to say she'd grown up sheltered would be a far stretch, but her exposure to heavy drinking has definitely been limited. ⟫

And you shouldn't tell people your weaknesses. ⟪ three days is not a long time, really. and if this is the payment he might take for help, not that she needs it, ever –– it's just good to know. the knife catches her attention, he doesn't hold it like someone who's about to take up shop in a kitchen, and then he plays with it as if to prove it. how stupid she'd been to turn her back and fiddle with her hair. how close to getting that blade buried in her neck. ⟫