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the_center_memes2020-11-20 04:00 pm
thecenter_mods) wrote in the_center_memes2020-11-20 04:00 pm
Entry tags:
December Test Drive Meme
Thanks for your interest in the Center! Not sure what the Center is? Check out our premise and FAQ.
One of the main goals of this game is to make it easy to jump into, so the prompts are relatively short and snappy. If you have questions about mechanics, ask on the Questions comment, or just wing it!
Reserves open December 1st, and apps open December 15th. We plan to open the game officially on January 3rd, 2021. This TDM can be used as game canon if you want it to, and you can assume that your character has been in the Center since the beginning of December.
Each month at the Center, the Experiences are built around a theme. This month's theme is:
One of the main goals of this game is to make it easy to jump into, so the prompts are relatively short and snappy. If you have questions about mechanics, ask on the Questions comment, or just wing it!
Reserves open December 1st, and apps open December 15th. We plan to open the game officially on January 3rd, 2021. This TDM can be used as game canon if you want it to, and you can assume that your character has been in the Center since the beginning of December.
Each month at the Center, the Experiences are built around a theme. This month's theme is:
getting to know you
Months at the Center are structured with one rest week and three weeks of Experiences. Experiences each take place for one week. They begin at midnight on Sunday morning and last until 11:59 the next Saturday night.
Gwen will announce the the Challenge at the beginning of the month, and will open each week with a short post describing the Experience. It will be vague, and only allude to the actual Experience to come.
The goal of this month’s Experience is to help you and your fellow Participants get to know one another. You’ll be spending a lot of time together.
Learn more on the Experiences page.
Content warnings for this TDM:
Experience 2: small spaces
Experience 3: references to spiders, general fears
Gwen will announce the the Challenge at the beginning of the month, and will open each week with a short post describing the Experience. It will be vague, and only allude to the actual Experience to come.
The goal of this month’s Experience is to help you and your fellow Participants get to know one another. You’ll be spending a lot of time together.
Learn more on the Experiences page.
Experience 2: small spaces
Experience 3: references to spiders, general fears
Everyone arrives at the Center in the same way. You arrive at midnight on Sunday morning of the first week of the month.
You wake up in a comfortable bed in a room you have never seen before.
You feel well-rested and refreshed. Everything around you is washed in soft shades of white. You’re wearing neutral linen clothing, and around your non-dominant wrist is a beautiful, rose gold bracelet. You’ll find it very comfortable, and fitted perfectly. As you sit up, the blank concrete wall opposite your bed flickers and turns into a screen, showing a bone-white, smiling face.
A soft, perfectly neutral voice fills the room as the face starts talking.
“Hello. My name is Gwen. Welcome to the Center. We are excited to accompany you on the most important journey you will ever take.
You are here because you are flawed. You are weak. You feel, in your bones, that you are not the best version of yourself.
But you could be.
Here at the Center, you will be pushed to be your best self. It will not be easy. It may be the hardest thing you have ever done, and what you get out of this journey will be equivalent to what you put in.
Everything you need will be provided for. You can find all other information in the book beside your bed.
Good luck. Please know that we will be with you every step of the way. You are never alone.”
Gwen smiles, and the screen disappears, leaving only concrete.
You wake up in a comfortable bed in a room you have never seen before.
You feel well-rested and refreshed. Everything around you is washed in soft shades of white. You’re wearing neutral linen clothing, and around your non-dominant wrist is a beautiful, rose gold bracelet. You’ll find it very comfortable, and fitted perfectly. As you sit up, the blank concrete wall opposite your bed flickers and turns into a screen, showing a bone-white, smiling face.
A soft, perfectly neutral voice fills the room as the face starts talking.
“Hello. My name is Gwen. Welcome to the Center. We are excited to accompany you on the most important journey you will ever take.
You are here because you are flawed. You are weak. You feel, in your bones, that you are not the best version of yourself.
But you could be.
Here at the Center, you will be pushed to be your best self. It will not be easy. It may be the hardest thing you have ever done, and what you get out of this journey will be equivalent to what you put in.
Everything you need will be provided for. You can find all other information in the book beside your bed.
Good luck. Please know that we will be with you every step of the way. You are never alone.”
Gwen smiles, and the screen disappears, leaving only concrete.
around the center
The Center has two wings of suites and bedrooms, a cafeteria, and a rec room. Your character has access to all of this. Bedrooms lock from the inside, but everything else is fair game. Read a self-help book, have a chat in the conversation pit, try a kale bowl or a kombucha, give meditating or yoga a try. There is plenty to occupy yourself with during rest week at the Center.
this month's kombucha selection
Seasonal Flavor: Cranberry
Effect: Emotion sharing. When you drink the kombucha, you will be able to feel the emotions of the people within five feet of you for the next hour after consumption.
Standard Flavor: Ginger-Lemon
Effect: Boosts your energy and your powers by 20%. However, in addition to boosting your powers, it will also give you way too much energy. You won’t be able to sit still for at least four hours. The more you drink, the more energy you’ll have, although the power-boosting seems to be limited.
Standard Flavor: Green
Effect: Heals you by 20%. It also makes you very suggestible. You will go into a haze lasting at least four hours. During those four hours, you’ll be very open to suggestions from anybody, including Gwen, about things you should do or say.
Effect: Emotion sharing. When you drink the kombucha, you will be able to feel the emotions of the people within five feet of you for the next hour after consumption.
Standard Flavor: Ginger-Lemon
Effect: Boosts your energy and your powers by 20%. However, in addition to boosting your powers, it will also give you way too much energy. You won’t be able to sit still for at least four hours. The more you drink, the more energy you’ll have, although the power-boosting seems to be limited.
Standard Flavor: Green
Effect: Heals you by 20%. It also makes you very suggestible. You will go into a haze lasting at least four hours. During those four hours, you’ll be very open to suggestions from anybody, including Gwen, about things you should do or say.
At the beginning of the week, Gwen's post reads:
You must learn to be honest with yourself and others before you can take the first step.
Overnight, little plaques have appeared on every surface in the Center: all the tables in the cafeteria, all coffee tables in your suites, counters in the bathrooms, and on your nightstands.
Every time you pass one, it’s like you’re being drawn to your own reflection in a window. You’re compelled to slow down, stop and read what’s on them: ice breaker questions.
As soon as you lock eyes with the prompt, your Bracelet snaps as if heavily magnetized to the nearest surface, trapping you in place. So do the Bracelets of anyone who heard you read the prompt. Not near a surface? They Bracelets lock you together with another person who heard the question.
Answering the questions seems to be the only way to get free, so you’d better be ready to share some fun facts about yourself!
You must learn to be honest with yourself and others before you can take the first step.
Overnight, little plaques have appeared on every surface in the Center: all the tables in the cafeteria, all coffee tables in your suites, counters in the bathrooms, and on your nightstands.
Every time you pass one, it’s like you’re being drawn to your own reflection in a window. You’re compelled to slow down, stop and read what’s on them: ice breaker questions.
As soon as you lock eyes with the prompt, your Bracelet snaps as if heavily magnetized to the nearest surface, trapping you in place. So do the Bracelets of anyone who heard you read the prompt. Not near a surface? They Bracelets lock you together with another person who heard the question.
Answering the questions seems to be the only way to get free, so you’d better be ready to share some fun facts about yourself!
At the beginning of the week, Gwen's post reads:
You are not as singular, or as special, as you believe yourself to be.
You open a door, and instead of being where you were going, you’re in a small, white cement room with another character. The room is just big enough for the two of you to sit down cross-legged in. It’s a tight fit. Every five minutes you spend in this room, it gets smaller by a half a foot on each side.
On the wall, stamped into the cement is the phrase: Our similarities bring us to a common ground.
The only way to leave the room is to find something that you both have in common and bond over that. What counts as bonding? That’s up to you to decide! If you (or the Center) decides it’s not good enough, Gwen simply won’t let your characters out of the room.
Bonding can look like sharing stories about that thing, talking about why you like it or hate it, what it means to you, etc.
Once you have bonded, a door will open to one of the places that one of the characters was headed before. Yes, you have to go together. You’re friends now!
Throughout this week, this keeps happening to you, often when you enter or leave a room, including the bathroom.
You are not as singular, or as special, as you believe yourself to be.
You open a door, and instead of being where you were going, you’re in a small, white cement room with another character. The room is just big enough for the two of you to sit down cross-legged in. It’s a tight fit. Every five minutes you spend in this room, it gets smaller by a half a foot on each side.
On the wall, stamped into the cement is the phrase: Our similarities bring us to a common ground.
The only way to leave the room is to find something that you both have in common and bond over that. What counts as bonding? That’s up to you to decide! If you (or the Center) decides it’s not good enough, Gwen simply won’t let your characters out of the room.
Bonding can look like sharing stories about that thing, talking about why you like it or hate it, what it means to you, etc.
Once you have bonded, a door will open to one of the places that one of the characters was headed before. Yes, you have to go together. You’re friends now!
Throughout this week, this keeps happening to you, often when you enter or leave a room, including the bathroom.
At the beginning of the week, Gwen's post reads:
Facing your fears alone will destroy you.
Overnight, your greatest fear manifests in the Center. If you are afraid of ghosts, suddenly there are ghosts around your person 24/7. Afraid of dying? You’ll see yourself die—viscerally, in a very real way—every time you enter a room. Afraid of spiders? Spiders. Everywhere you go.
Fears will always try to drive characters away from crowds and other characters. They seem to want to get you alone where you're at your weakest.
While nobody can face their fears alone, if you try to fight off their fear with the help of someone else, it works. If you team up with another Participant to face your fear, it will disappear and stay gone for the rest of the week. For example, if your fear is spiders, and you and another Participant face the spiders and squish them all, the spiders will be gone. If you're afraid of dying, if you accept the inevitability of your death with another Participant, you won't have to watch your final moments again.
Notes about this Experience:
Facing your fears alone will destroy you.
Overnight, your greatest fear manifests in the Center. If you are afraid of ghosts, suddenly there are ghosts around your person 24/7. Afraid of dying? You’ll see yourself die—viscerally, in a very real way—every time you enter a room. Afraid of spiders? Spiders. Everywhere you go.
Fears will always try to drive characters away from crowds and other characters. They seem to want to get you alone where you're at your weakest.
While nobody can face their fears alone, if you try to fight off their fear with the help of someone else, it works. If you team up with another Participant to face your fear, it will disappear and stay gone for the rest of the week. For example, if your fear is spiders, and you and another Participant face the spiders and squish them all, the spiders will be gone. If you're afraid of dying, if you accept the inevitability of your death with another Participant, you won't have to watch your final moments again.
Notes about this Experience:
- If your fear is a specific person, that person will appear and they can talk to your character, but they are limited to a script of a few sentences, like a pre-programed doll that can only say a handful of phrases.
- Fears won't try to kill anyone—after all, you can't face your fears if you're dead—they will attempt to harm characters and can leave physical woulds and certainly mental scars.
- You can see and interact with each other’s manifested fears. However, only a team containing the person whose fear it is can defeat a fear.
navigation »
no subject
[ That's interesting. She's still not sure if the chair has something to do with the place they've found themselves in, or if it's something else altogether. Has he been here for longer than she has? Did this place do something to him?
At least he's able to answer her questions. ]
What kind of missions?
no subject
Assassinate. Sanction and extract. Protection detail. Create accidents. Internal executions.
no subject
[ That's what immediately jumps out at her from what he says. Though the rest of it is... equally concerning.
Is he some kind of assassin? A spy? Lily feels herself tensing up as she looks Bucky over with this new information in mind. ...He definitely looks like someone who could easily kill her if he tried... Lily's going to have to be careful around him - that's what she thinks, as a chill of something like fear suddenly runs through her body.
After a moment, she shakes the surprised expression off her face, and looks at him with eyes ever-so-slightly narrowed. ]
Did this place do that to you? The Center?
no subject
There has been no maintenance since. Since coming here. There wasn't a Chair.
[He swallows hard, but manages to keep his expression fairly even.]
Until now.
no subject
But maybe it wasn't this place, then? ]
Until now, huh?
[ Did Gwen put it here just to hurt him? Why?
Ignoring Bucky for the moment, Lily starts to walk over towards the chair. She's not stupid, of course - she knows that she has to be careful with it, that it's probably dangerous, but... she wants to get a better look. See exactly what it's supposed to do. ]
no subject
[He watches out of the corner of his eye, keeping his face turned down and hair half-hiding the Chair itself from view.]
Don't-- don't touch it. Be careful.
[The Chair itself is mainly metal, with heavy clamps on the armrests. It can recline, and the metal pieces over the head can rotate. It looks like there are plates on the ends of the circular arms, but what they do is a mystery.]
no subject
The design seems a bit complicated for something that's just designed to hold someone still, though...
Lily casts her gaze back to Bucky. ...Honestly, in that moment, she almost feels sorry for him. But that doesn't mean that it's her problem. ]
Is this what Gwen meant about facing your fears...?
[ Lily wonders out loud, and... gives the very bottom of the chair a little poke with her foot. She knows he said not to touch it, but she wants to know if it's real or not. Seems like it is. ]
no subject
Well I'm facing it. It's right there. What am I supposed to do with it.
[A pause, then the reiteration,]
Please be careful. It can erase you.
no subject
It's possible that he's supposed to sit in it, but that seems like a bad idea. ]
It can erase you?
[ Lily looks from the chair to Bucky, and takes in his expression. ...He's deadly serious. She swallows. That's...
She can't imagine exactly what that means, but it's a frightening thought. ]
Well, you're still here, aren't you?
no subject
Erased in here. I remember nothing from before my last. Maintenance.
no subject
Now what? Honestly, Lily's tempted to leave Bucky to figure out how to overcome his fears by himself. She doesn't care about helping him, but... just as she turns and starts to walk away, she finds herself stopping short.
Bucky is... some kind of assassin, she thinks. If she could get him on her side, would she have a better hope of escaping this place? No, more importantly - if she abandons him now, leaving him to deal with his fear alone... will he hold a grudge? That's what she's scared of. It's quite possible that he won't care at all, but...
Lily turns back to Bucky, and takes in his appearance once more. The fear in his expression. The way he holds himself. The power lurking underneath.
In the end, it's cowardice that has her speaking up. ]
I'm going to assume that you didn't use it willingly. ...Did you?
no subject
Did he want to? No. Fuck no. After three weeks without maintenance, he has no desire to go near that thing ever again.
Is that willing? He can't come up with an answer, so he stares at the floor and says,]
I don't know. It was. It was orders.
no subject
Lily can sympathize with him, there. She knows what it's like to be used. But if he didn't like it, he should've just fought back...
It's a naive way of thinking, but Lily is still just a teenager. Or maybe she's just trying to stop herself from feeling sympathetic? ]
So that's a no, then. Whatever those orders were, if they put you in a state like this... I can't imagine that's something you wanted.