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

[skeletonize]

Or that.

( the answer to "how safe is necromancy, really?" comes down to a flat answer of "it depends," and there are many variables to take into consideration. harrow has worked herself to physical exhaustion more times than she could count on two hands, but it is an art she has mastery over, so she feels little need to be wary of it. she is aware of her own physical limits, and she would not surpass them for something like this.

there is a jagged shard of something lodged in her that seems remiss to simply walk away. a bizarre feeling, certainly — if there had ever been a side of harrowhark that had yearned for meaningful companionship, she had smothered it in the crib. but it comes to her gradually as he continues, materializing simply: knowledge. there was only so much she could surmise; she is a stranger here, and very little of the pre-Resurrection world made much sense to her at all.

so she poses a slightly different offer: ) Information, then. ( she raises one sleeve to dab at her nose; it's started bleeding by this point. ) Cross. Walk with me. Answer my questions about this place. ( her lips curl faintly in a sneer. ) I am being more than generous with this.

( but her silence before was a tacit acknowledgement: her necromantic stamina does have limits, so he would have to move quickly if he wanted to make it across unhurried (or at all). )

[glorification]

That's an offer I can accept easily, of course. To share information about a place like this is ideal, I think.

[People can work together, though he's not so blind as to ignore the realistic side of things. Not everyone is going to care about everyone. But this person, at least, he's decided is worth his time. She gave in a bit, with this offer, and he's going to remember that. She has a point where she'll back down, even in the slightest.

Carefully, he stretches his foot out to walk along the bridge, gracefully, though he is moving cautiously as well.]

Why don't you begin with your questions as we walk? Ah, if you could stay close so that I don't fall, that would be nice, as well.

[skeletonize]

Good. ( said quickly, hoping to put this whole matter and this God-damned chasm well and truly behind them.

it's not a very good trade, and she's aware of that, but considering there was already 1) another extant (if dubious) method of crossing the gap and since 2) she didn't really think there was much of worth or mention across regardless, she will settle.

if she felt as though she were safeguarding something of importance, however... he would find her an impenetrable and treacherous wall.

the bridge holds. it is surprisingly sturdy, and if one decided to get a brave look closer at its construction, they would find that gobs of cartilage reinforce the integrity of the spinal columns and the rows of ribs—macabre, certainly, but it does its job. she turns on her heel and begins to lead him across, not wanting to waste any time (especially as she's starting to feel an uneasiness in her chest that she knew would lead to a cough that would resemble a minor fit of septimus', if she held up this construct too much longer).

it's up to him to match her pace; she doesn't slow. she does, however, say with confidence, ) I wouldn't let you reach the water.

( but hopefully it won't come to that. how comfortable are you with skeletons, eichi?

she mentally flips through several of the encoded messages and questions she had written in the margins of her journal, but they were either too granular or too broad-scale to broach now. instead she starts simply. ) What does a place like this mean to you?

[glorification]

Hm? What an interesting question.

[The bones are eerie, and something he's definitely going to mention to those he knows later in casual conversation. They're grim, but somehow it looks so fake that it doesn't bother him. Or perhaps it's that he's too focused on staying close to her and not falling? He keeps up with her, even if it does take effort from him, and focuses ahead more than below him.]

I've rarely ever been to malls. Until just the other year, I'd never been to one, you see, so a lot of it is still a mystery to me.

[skeletonize]

( please don't ever mention any of her necromancy looks fake, eichi, you have no idea how many years went into the absolute anatomical perfection of her constructs — put any of the vertebrae beneath their feet before a medical professional and they would remark how it seemed to leap from the page of a textbook.

regardless; it seems her luck is poor. of all the strangers she is locked in here with, she has to fish out one that is just as alien in a place like this as she is. )

Remarkably unhelpful.

( the sweat is beginning to plaster her hair to her forehead; the heavy black Ninth vestments are feeling more and more uncomfortable by the step. but they are nearly across. maintaining their bridge is not yet untenable, just annoying. )

There are no such places where I am from. ( the idea of a shopping mall in drearburh was honestly hilarious. she feels like nav would get a kick out of that — "what would they even sell there, anyway? bone polish? arthritis medicine?" or something like that. ) And while playing archaeologist for a time was novel, it has gotten old.