the_center_memes | December Test Drive Meme

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December Test Drive Meme

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:

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

arrival | Experience 1: Icebreakers | Experience 2: Common Ground | Experience 3: Fears

arrival

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.

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.

experience 1: break the ice

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!

experience 2: just big enough for the two of us

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.

experience 3: are you afraid?

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:

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.

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Mm. If it doesn't let us go, I shall have to revisit that claim, you understand.

[ He can tell there's more to the story, but he's not going to push the topic. Mainly because he wants to hurry up and get to complaining about his own dumb life. There's a lot to complain about. ]

Now then, where shall I begin? Perhaps with the time I was forced to travel to the moon? I haven't yet got around to ranking my adventures by stupidity level, but one must assume that would come close to the top.

[ Hmm. Maybe he actually should rank his adventures by stupidity level, once they're done here. Not like there's anything better to do in this place. ]

[ ---Okay, that gets Ken to stop spinning his mental wheels and pay full attention. ]

The moon?

[ Given some of the things he's seen, he's willing to believe that's possible, but how is one...forced....to....? ]

The moon, yes. Greyish round thing in the sky, I assume you've heard of it?

[ Oh, sorry, were you looking for clarification? Too bad. You get snark instead. ]

All right, granted, I never actually set foot on the thing, but I find myself not bemoaning the missed opportunity overmuch.

[ Nrgh. Is Ken at fault if he just doesn't think he likes this person? They haven't done anything, but....He's not very good with being ridiculed. It's a weakness, but he can't deny he has it.

Stay on task, then. On task. ]

That does sound like - an experience.

[ Valmont's picking up on the boy's distaste for him, and, look, it's not as though no one's ever disliked him before. He's a criminal, and also kind of an obnoxious person, in general. Comes with the territory.

Doesn't mean he's too jazzed about it, though. So he might stretch his story out just a little longer than he has to, and incorporate just a couple more yank-y arm movements in the telling. Petty revenge. ]

It all started, you see, when I was possessed by a demon. And this demon, apart from being the most pestilential waste of scales ever to slither the earth, happened to have seven almost equally objectionable siblings, each of them based on a different element - fire, water, that sort of thing. Well, due to circumstances in which I assure you I had absolutely no say, he, and therefore I, was tasked with freeing the beasts from the demon netherworld in which they resided, through the employment of a magical puzzle box and elementally corresponding portals, scattered (of course) across the globe and beyond.

If you know your demonology, naturally, you're aware that one of the previously mentioned elements is Moon. I trust you see where this is going: the portal had found its way onto a space station, and, without so much as asking the owner of the body he was inhabiting, the demon saw fit to launch himself as well as my employees into outer space to get at it. ...I don't have to elaborate on what happened next, do I?

[ For the first time since beginning his story, he seems reluctant to continue, but so far those bracelets aren't budging. ]

[ Ken is being jostled. Is Ken being jostled on purpose...? And..the contents of this (suspiciously long) story... ]

...So you were used.

[ That's right. That's who this person reminds him of, in a way. More irritable, but...

Does everyone who gets possessed by demons have the same personality? (And what's that mean about Ken, who was used by someone possessed by the digital equivalent of a demon?) ]

If you must put it that way, then... yes. Yes, I was.

[ His body, his resources, his henchmen, all of them. Used. It still rankles. It wasn't fair. ]

And it wasn't my fault, before you start getting any ideas in your head.

[ Both of them, used. Ken stares at the bracelets now serving as their manacles, gears churning in his head. Overcome the irritation...know when to think, and when to stop.

Move forward. ]

--It's the same. [ He needs to elaborate, doesn't he. Ken lifts his head. ] The situation I mentioned was similar. We've both been made to do things for others' purposes.

Have you met anyone else here?

[ He has a theory, but not enough proof. He can't draw a conclusion for sure without more evidence! ]

[ Huff. ] Meeting people is about all there is to do in this silly place, assuming one's had one's fill of yoga and coloring books.

[ It's only been like two weeks and he's already so sick of it here. ]

But no, I haven't yet had quite such a... personal conversation with any of the other residents, if that's what you're asking. It's your conjecture that everyone here's been manipulated in some way, then, beyond apparently having signed our free will over to this "wellness retreat"?

I can't be certain. But the parallels are troubling.

[ As little as he wants to show weakness in front of this man (it's the attitude; Ken has...difficulty...with abrasive people), he has to own when he knows he's jumping to conclusions.

The more he thinks about this one, though, the less he likes it. Not because he thinks he's overstepped, but because of the implications. If he's right, then everyone here has already been through - ! And instead of stopping that, he let it happen to him!

He gets a little more heated, thinking about it, and shakes their joined arms. ] For now, we need to get these off.

[ Common ground. Honestly, if anything's likely to get Valmont to look down his (considerable) nose less at a stranger, it's knowing that they've been through something at least a little similar to his possession. He wouldn't wish that on most people, and he eyes Ken with slightly less open contempt. ]

Right. I suppose I'd better finish my anecdote, then, if we're to be released from our predicament.

[ But their newfound commonality doesn't mean he's too keen to share the end of this particular story. Nothing for it, though, it seems, so. Deep breath. ]

We freed the Moon Demon, as I've said, and then our nemeses showed up, and no, how they made it onto the blasted station I've no idea to this day. The standard exchange of blows ensued, and the upshot was that my employees and I were [ ughhh ] trapped in a trash capsule and launched into space by an eleven-year-old, there, how do you like that for a misadventure, you metallic menace -

[ He's addressing his bracelet, as one does. The bracelet makes no reply, and Valmont turns his frustrations upon Ken, hoping the slight reddening of his face comes off as anger and not deep, deep embarrassment. ]

Well, go on, then! I've told mine, so I can only assume it wants you to elaborate on your experience as well. And be quick about it!

[ Ken crumples up his face at that tone, or perhaps it's at what it's telling him to do, but there's no way out of this, is there. The bracelet demanded that much detail from the other person. It's not going to let him go if he omits anything.

Glowering uncomfortably down at his feet, he starts talking. The words sound forced from between clenched teeth. (They may be.) ]

I have a "Dark Seed" embedded in me. When active, it makes me smarter and better at sports - at a price. The powers of darkness feed off its negative energy.

[ He manages, with great effort, not to scratch the back of his neck while talking about this. Having one hand occupied helps. ]

Wanting the Seed, multiple enemies pursued me. I thought one of them was holding children hostage as collateral. Thinking they'd be freed, I went along with the enemy...

[ He walked onto that truck. It was him. He's not looking away from that fact. ]

I heard what I want to hear. The Seed was copied, and, those children -

[ He can't finish. He's so ashamed. Just like back then, he's being made to do what he doesn't want to do. He didn't want to share this. He didn't want to talk about this. This is his burden to bear, and share when he's comfortable. To close that distance before he's ready--!!

He shakes his bracelet in futile frustration. ] Open up...!

[ Oof. This is uncomfortable just to watch, never mind to be attached to by the wrist. Valmont even tamps down his first instinct, which is to ask where he can get one of those Dark Seeds - playing with dark powers for fun and personal gain is normally his catnip, but it sounds like the boy might not be too receptive to that particular inquiry right now. Honestly, some people are so touchy. ]

That had better be enough for it to let us go, are you listening, you miserable piece of -

[ And then, quite suddenly, it lets them go. The bracelets unlink without a sound, and Valmont, caught off balance, stumbles backwards a few steps and lands on his butt. He's been in more embarrassing positions in front of people he'd like to respect him, but not by much. ]

...Finally.

[ He picks himself up from the floor, trying to come off like a much more suave and cool person than that landing would suggest. ]

I suppose it considers our trauma-based bonding complete for the moment. And I, for one, feel ever so much better having relived mine.

[ Sarcasm so thick you could cut it. ]

Seeing as we'll almost certainly run into one another again in this place, I suppose I ought to know the name of my partner in this little exercise, Mr...?

[ Ken manages to stay standing, at least, catching himself when he too is released. He's rubbing his wrist as the other man stands, and still can't look him in the face.

It's (mostly) not your fault, sir. He deeply resents what he was just made to do. ]

Ken. Ichijouji......Ken.

[ Can he take the bracelet off -

No, didn't expect that to work. ]

Mr. Ichijouji. A pleasure.

[ He definitely doesn't mean that, but he's not being entirely insincere, either. It wasn't terrible to have someone ~~forced~~ willing to listen to his troubles for a time, even if they did end up being slightly more embarrassing troubles than he'd intended. And knowing at least one other person here has been through an ordeal like his... it's almost comforting. ]

You may call me Valmont. I'd offer to shake hands, but...

[ The whole thing, with their hands having already been in close proximity for much too long, and all. ]

I trust I'll see you around.

Mn. [ A head bob. He gets it.

Then he's correcting (overcorrecting, really) his posture, and looking up at Valmont. ] Well then.

[ And with that, he's turning to get out of here. If he walks really quickly, it doesn't look like he's running, right?

...No, it absolutely does. Stiff, uncomfortable set to his shoulders and everything.

He hates it here. ]

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December Test Drive Meme

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