TDM #2

[lockdownmods]

This is the Test Drive Meme for the first full round of Lockdown! If you're interested in joining us, aren't sure, or just want to get a taste of the game itself, this is the place to experience it!

If you have any questions, your mods limitedwings amplitude and hypothetical are here to answer them! The information for Round One that has been released thus far can be found over here. You can use that information to flavor your top levels as you'd like!

And as always, the test drive can be used for your application sample. So go wild.

▸Orientation.

The sound of a chirpy alarm wakes you. To turn it off, you’ll realize that it’s flashing 6:30 A.M. brightly on its digital display. It’s not yours. Luckily it’s not hard to turn off. Some of you may recognize the room you wake up in-- to some extent. It’s decorated as a school dormitory, but it’s made for only one. Whether you’ve been here before or not, if you look, it won’t be difficult to find your answers.

An acceptance letter to Fayflower University sits atop the desk, stating that you have been chosen as an Apprentice of something or other-- a member of the first class since the program’s restructure. Some of your classmates, or perhaps even you yourself, have come here having already taken the school’s entrance exam. Others may not. The recruiting process is never a simple one. You may have just caught their eye now.

There’s also a unique looking fitbit attached to your wrist now. It won’t come off, no matter what you try. You can also find a tablet next to your acceptance letter. You can’t download apps, but there are a handful already programmed on it. It might come in handy.

Whatever your particular case is, now would be an excellent time to take a look around the dormitory and meet the others who will be in your “class”. Maybe someone with some experience can enlighten you to what’s going on here-- or maybe you’d just like someone as clueless as you to yell and cry with.

▸Faculty Office Consultation.

You may have one or several bones to pick with the individuals responsible for bringing you here. Well the Faculty Office is open! You’re more than welcome to introduce yourself and get to the heart of the matter with them. What kind of answers they may give you though...

Unfortunately the man you'll get, whether you know him yet or not, is Oswald Hale.

Or if you’re feeling particularly naughty... you and your fellow Apprentices may feel like snooping around when the staff is out. Be careful though... wouldn’t want to get caught now, would you?

▸Bulletin Board.

In the dorm’s common area, there’s a giant corkboard plastered onto one of the walls. There’s a small banner at the top that reads, “BULLETIN BOARD”. Here’s the perfect place for all your flyers, artwork, or discussion that you’d like to keep off of the tablets. There are some things that technology can’t always emulate, after all.

This would also be a good place to start for those of you who are interested in creating a club of some sort! This is a university, after all, and what’s a university without student-run organizations? You’ve got downtime in between murders, so a little fun can’t hurt anyone...right?

▸Fitness Test.

There’s a track, if you look around hard enough, and positioned at the starting line is a clock. Right now, it reads: 00:00:0000. But as you approach, your fitbit provides a prompt… somehow. Were fitbits always able to do this and you just never realized it? But at any rate, the prompt is a simple text with, “BEAT THE CLOCK?”

You can grab others to race if beating the clock is not your style, or if you choose to accept the challenge, the timer will automatically set to 00:00:5500. Once you start running, it will begin to count down. If you beat the clock, it will reset and immediately start counting down again. A successful race will read, “PHYSICALLY FIT” on the fitbit.

However, on your first failure, you will get the error message, “FODDER”.

Anyway, good luck running a 3 min 40 second mile. Totally doable. (not really doable)

▸TEST TIME.

Did you think you would survive this without a murder? No of course not. There’s always murder. Maybe it’s someone you were close to... or maybe it was someone you’ve had a few quarrels with (...are some people looking at you a little differently?)-- either way it’s your job to uncover the truth.

But working together with everyone... can you say you really trust everyone anymore?

Comments

[donotlick]

[ Well, if they're stealing they may as well steal. Hank's doesn't have a photographic memory or anything so there's no way in hell he'll remember all this crap unless he takes the files himself. Punishments sound pretty shitty, but he can't make sense of the "fodder" bullshit, so he'll just take that.

Ah, but Nicolas is going right back to it, huh. Hank taps on his shoulder to get his attention, gesturing at the door as he speaks. ]

Hurry it up, we don't wanna spend too long in here.

[upperdosed]

[once he sets his mind to a task, nicolas could do anything. he's determined to find names or something that they can use to cross reference the other two folders and finds exactly what he's looking for- a folder with "names" written on it.

perfect timing too because hank taps him on the shoulder. he nods, shoving the file into his jacket before tidying up the desk as best as he can.]

Names.

[nic clarifies with a gruff and grating tone as he moves towards the door.]

[donotlick]

[ Well they're gonna get along swell, aren't they. Hank makes no note about Nicolas' voice and just nods. I mean, fuck, Hank only speaks English, he's not gonna fault a guy who can't hear for sounding a little off. ]

Found somethin', huh?

[ Hank follows Nicolas out, keeping a lookout for any "staff" that might have caught them snooping. They're lucky, for now. They can go over this shit in the kitchen or something, because Hank is on his way there whether Nicolas follows or not. ]

Let's see it.

[upperdosed]

[of course he follows. once they're in the kitchen, he slaps the file on the table and opens it up. who knows exactly how useful this file is, not nic, but he does flip to the page that has a roster of students.

"you know this shit, right?" emphasis on the right, as he signs with one hand to slide the file over to hank. "if this isn't what we need, I can go back." seems like he's not afraid of getting caught.]

[donotlick]

[ Sign slower, Nic, Hank's trying his best to keep up here, but he gets the gist of what he's asking. He takes a closer look at the information they found -- it's the roster, maybe with a bit more information than they posted publicly, but nothing earth-shatteringly new. ]

Now, hold on a minute, for fuck's sake. We can't just go barging in there whenever we fuckin' feel like it. They'll probably start puttin' in locks if we just raid the place.

[upperdosed]

[gotta go fast. he does slow down a little bit for hank, repeating when he's met with stumped looks. at least this old man tries to keep up. he's sort of used to old people telling him to just speak.

"Then we'll break the locks." gosh hank, think critically here!! "Nevermind about going back," he gestures at the fodder file. "What about that?"]

[donotlick]

[ Incredibly, Hank is mostly an asshole about things people are assholes about. ]

And when we break the locks, they'll set up traps. And if we disarm the traps, they'll do even crazier shit. You noticing a trend here, asshole?

[ It's a bad idea, see. You have to think critically, like a good cop. ]

This one's the one we should be fucking worryin' about. I can't make heads or tails about this fodder shit, but it sure sounds like they're setting people up to die.

[upperdosed]

[he grows irritable from hanks pessimistic attitude. sure, it's probably true but nic is trying his best to help crack the mystery. he can't help but scowl, lips twisting into a silent snarl.

"Setting up people to die? That's fucked up. Which fucker do we gotta kill to stop this?"]

[donotlick]

[ Sorry, Nic, that's just Hank. He's survived this long because he expects the worst, always. It takes him a bit to decipher Nicolas' angry signing, but the scowl makes it obvious enough. ]

Wish I fucking knew. But it wouldn't surprise me -- people do some fucked up shit.

[upperdosed]

[people do fucked up shit, sometimes without rhyme or reason. nic knows that better than most. his whole life was based upon people doing fucked up shit to him and those around him. it's a fact he kinda accepts of life- that there may never be an answer to the 'why.' doesn't mean he won't figure out the 'who' and beat them senseless.

"Oswald Hale?" he finger-spells slowly for hank, eyes darkening.]

[donotlick]

[ That's just the way of the world. Humans are awful, Hank lost his hope in it years ago. He'll be happy if they figure out why this whole mess is happening, but he'd be more surprised to learn a reason besides "why the fuck not."

Hank nods. ]

He's definitely connected. Doubt he's the head of this whole fucking operation, but he's gotta know something.

[upperdosed]

["Let's go get him."

He signs it like it's something that's easy to accomplish. Like they're gonna go get the big man himself and sit him down to spill everything.]

[donotlick]

Easier said than done.

[ Hank gestures around them. ]

You see any way to figure out where he is? 'Cause so far I got nothing.

[upperdosed]

["Cause a scene? Yell for him? Wait for him outside the office?"

He rambles on with a few other ideas that are A) dumb B) not likely to work and C) imply Hale would show up just because.]

[donotlick]

Those're all ways to get yourself fucking killed, you know that?

[ Have a brain, Nicolas!! ]

[upperdosed]

Doesn't matter, I'll get him.

[sounds aggressive but he's trying to make a point here, hank!!]

[donotlick]

Then you're a fucking idiot. You might be a bigger fucking idiot than Connor, and that's saying something.

[ Don't!! Get!! Killed!! ]

[upperdosed]

[he pretends he didn't understand, giving hank a dumbfounded expression. nic's done riskier things in his lifetime, not that hank would know. and he's used to the live fast-die hard attitude. a person like him doesn't have long to live anyways so why care about preserving ones self? he's lucky if he'll get a couple more years.]

I'll get him.

[donotlick]

[ Don't pull that suicidal bullshit on Hank, he's the only one allowed to have a deathwish, you understand, Nicolas?? ]

No.

[ Hank can't sign but he uses his arms to accentuate his point, spacing each of the words unnecessarily. ]

You [ pause ] will [ pause ] get [ pause ] yourself [ he points at Nic ] killed. [ he draws a line across his neck with his index finger. Dead. ]

You'll fucking die, idiot! You seriously wanna do that?

[upperdosed]

[he can't pretend to not understand that. not when hank went out of his way to make his point vividly clear. it would have amused nicolas if it didn't also piss him off. one of his hands fingers the dog tags around his neck, glaring at hank.]

Better me than more people getting hurt.

[donotlick]

[ Hank groans, raising his hands in a mix of surrender and frustration. ]

Look, I won't argue that there's people here who'd definitely fuck this up worse than you. And yeah, preventing people from actually dying is a 'noble goal' or whatever, but we can't know for sure that anything good would actually come from that.

You could die for nothing. What then, asshole?

[upperdosed]

Tch.

[hank's got him there. he doesn't have an answer for his death being useless. well, other than saying something like 'that's the way the cookie crumbles.' but he knows that that's not the kind of answer he should give hank, no matter how much he believes it to be true.

"Then what bright ideas do you have, jackass?"]

[donotlick]

[ Welcome to the world of being part of a group, Nic. It sucks don't it? ]

We get more fucking information. We wait and see if we can corner this prick, Oswald. We gotta play it smart, not fast.

It sucks, but sometimes you gotta do the boring shit before you can get anything done.

[upperdosed]

["More people are going to die if we don't take steps to warn them now."

he places heavy emphasis on the now. being part of a group does suck but that doesn't mean they should sit back and wait for shit to happen either. especially when they could easily be keeping an eye on Oswald.

"Someone should keep an eye on him."]

[donotlick]

See, that actually sounds like a plan that won't end with you bleedin' out on the ground.

[ There you go, look at that teamwork! ]

Watching him is better than fucking kidnapping him. We gotta play it by ear before we know what he's capable of.