TEST DRIVE MEME 002

[happyheartsstaff]

HAPPY HEARTS HOTEL

You wake up in a padded box. It rocks, gently, as though suspended in mid-air. You begin to stir, confusion or distress pushing you to try to sit up — and then the air begins to smell sweet, and you fall back asleep.

You wake up in a padded box. For a moment, you are beatifically calm. You don't know how you got here, or why, but that isn't really all that important. You don't need to know where you are. You're just... here. And here is a wonderful place to be.

But there is a niggling suspicion growing in the back of your mind. A suspicion that here is not somewhere you wanted to be. That it is not where you're supposed to be. You remember... chasing a white rabbit (or was it a person)? A mirror? Bright light, and green ivy crawling over your skin... Before you can worry too much, the box jolts, and then settles, and after a long moment the walls fall from around you to reveal —

A hotel lobby?

"Welcome to the Happy Hearts Hotel and Casino," says an attendant behind a desk. "We're so pleased you could join us. We have your room keys and Empathies here, please make an orderly line and we'll hand them out once we've confirmed identities. After that, feel free to explore the hotel! We highly recommend starting with the casino. Everyone's a winner here in Happy Hearts!"

Is this normal? It doesn't feel normal. And hey — you could swear you had shoes before!

I. THIS IS OUR GET ALONG SHIRT

You haven't been at the hotel long when you run into another Oyster. Hardly unusual for the hotel, after all. But there's something about this person, something that draws you in. Do you know them? Perhaps they're from your world, perhaps you've seen them around the hotel before, or perhaps you've never met at all?

No matter. Hopefully you enjoy this person's company, because suddenly you're unable to go more than a few feet away from each other. Maybe it's like a cord that snaps you both back together when you try, invisible but somehow there all the same. Maybe it's a feeling, a desire to stay together, a fear of being apart. Maybe it's physical pain when you're separated, and the sensation of comfort or pleasure when you're together. Maybe it's any combination of the above.

Whatever it is, looks like you'll be getting to know each other very well. The connection doesn't appear to be going away any time soon.

II. HONORARY STAFF FOR A DAY

It seems the hotel is a little short-handed at the moment. Why? Oh, no particular reason. These things happen to every establishment, of course. But since you're here, would you mind lending a hand? It's a two person job, and the staff member giving out assignments is just far too busy to help. Find a partner and report to your assigned area! They're preparing for something very exciting the Queen is putting on for guests. And of course, you'll be rewarded for your assistance.

There are a number of possible tasks that you could be assigned to.

Perhaps you'll be asked to assist with food preparation. You and your partner will be granted temporary access to the back area of the buffet to work with the kitchen staff — you can cook, can't you? Well. Perhaps you can put together some sandwiches. It will soon be clear that the food you're helping to prepare is all things that would be perfect for a picnic. Staff members will cheerfully inform anyone asking questions that the food is for the Queen's special surprise.

Or perhaps you'll be put to work sorting and cataloging a large inventory of items. Sleeping bags, tarps, pillows, toiletries, first aid kits, fire starting materials; all must be counted and sorted. A staff member will hand out a number of backpacks, and request that each be packed with one of every item. Not to worry about the size — each pack will have exactly enough room to store all the items.

Still others may be placed in a room lined with bookcases overflowing with books and loose leaf pamphlets. Examination of these will find that all are related to identifying native Wonderland plant life. Some are about edible plants, some discuss those that are medicinal, or poisonous, or likely to try to eat you should you get too close. Buried in all of that, you may even stumble across a particular poem. You will be given heavy card paper, pens and water colors, and tasked with condensing the information into portable, easy to read info packets.

At the end of the work shift, anyone who assists will have the expressed gratitude of the staff members they supported. They will also find an additional item from home, aside from what they were carrying with them, waiting for them in their room.

III. TIME TO UNWIND

What better way to unwind after a long day of work than with a massage? A staff member will hand you a token for the hotel spa. Yes, yes, all services are free, but this is an enhanced service. Premium massage oils, access to a relaxing tea, the devoted attention of the most skilled massage therapist, all for you.

When you arrive to take advantage of the offer, you'll find another Oyster waiting there as well. Did the staff member not mention it was a couple's massage? Oh dear, it must have slipped their mind. Or perhaps they just assumed, given how so many of you Oysters seem to be in pairs. Well, you're both here, you might as well take advantage of it.

Or perhaps something that gets the heart pumping is more to your speed than relaxation. A staff member may excitedly tell you about a rave occurring at the The Rabbit Hole nightclub. Invitation only, of course, but the staff member is happy to tell you the code to get in.

There is indeed a party in full swing at the club that night. Live music, flashing lights, alcohol flowing freely, the works. You may find that the alcohol packs more of a punch than you're used to. You may even find that drinks that are supposed to be nonalcoholic, ones that you've had before in other parts of the hotel, suddenly pack quite a punch as well.

It's all in the name of enjoying yourself, right? Hopefully you won't be too hungover in the morning.

IV. WELCOME HOME

Maybe you just want to be alone — well, that's what you have your room key for! Oysters room on the second and third floors of the hotel, one to a room. You were assured your room would be exactly what you'd always wished for — and for some, that's right! It's exactly as you would have decorated it yourself. But for others, their rooms are totally wrong. A grizzled cowboy can't have a pink room! Hotel staff are firm, though: every room is exactly as its owner wants it to be. Search your feelings, Oyster. You know it to be true.

On each bed are the Oysters' personal effects, minus weapons, as well as a towel folded in the shape of a heart, and a single foil-wrapped chocolate. If eaten, the chocolate is delicious, and incites a feeling of tender warmth in Oysters — not lust, but a desire for closeness. Why spend time in your room, when you could go find a new friend in the casino?

For purposes of the TDM, you're welcome to play with having more than one linked partner! If you choose to app in the next round after playing on the TDM, there will be an extra add on to the application for you to claim your additional item from home. Please direct any questions to the first comment on this page, and happy playing, Oysters!

PREMISE RULES FAQ TAKEN RESERVES APPLICATION MOD CONTACT HIATUS & DROPS WORLD INFO NPCS CALENDAR AC REWARDS

© tessisamess

Comments

[billowing]

That he even has to bother should be a sign that he has no idea who he's dealing with, though his face remains still. It was just quite unnerving to see his face. "I am of Gusu Lan Sect, second son of Qingheng-Jun, Lan Zhan, Lan Wangji."

He says all this with a sort of cold, aloofness. Before, he had seemed almost comfortable in Bingyun's presence, to have addressed him so casually.

[bingyun]

"I've never heard of this Gusu Lan Sect." Or the name mentioned, for that matter. He looks at Lan Wangji for a moment longer, but there's really no way of knowing whether or not he's telling him the truth. Why would he lie though? To gain his trust, maybe. To get the information that torture couldn't draw from him.

But all of that was over, and none of this makes sense. His lips part, a soft sigh escaping before he finally speaks.

"Yan Bingyun, Overwatch Council."

[billowing]

He must be from a different time entirely, then. Whether backward or forward in time, he doesn't know. But he'd hate to think of a time in the future when the Lan Sect was no longer, wiped away off the map, a relic not even remembered.

"Overwatch Council of where?" he asks. He has heard of a few Yans, but none of too much note. Perhaps he was a descendant, then. Or an ancestor.

His robes don't look of a particularly old style.

Lan Wangji's mouth tightens in confusion.

[bingyun]

"Of Qing." Yan Bingyun looks at him in surprise, bordering offense. How can anyone not know of Qing? It's unthinkable to him.

"Surely you know of it." He can't accept anything else. For some reason...for some reason it almost terrifies him. His heart starts beating faster in his chest, and Bingyun takes a deep breath before closing his eyes. An attempt to calm it.

[billowing]

He does not. He is starting to get a headache. He has never before had to ask clarification over a year or a historical event or anything like that. He thinks it might not work anyway - if the Lans have been forgotten, what else had been forgotten? Would they know the same poets, the same kings, the same calendar?

"In which city were you born?" he asks. Those have excellent historical records with regards to name changes. Hardly anyone tries to bury those names under new rule. They could at least establish if they were from the same time period.

[bingyun]

The year, historical events, none of what they know would align, even if their lifestyles would: swords and arrows and horses, Bingyun knows these things too. If only it was as simple as being from a parallel universe. But Yan Bingyun doesn't know the truth of his world the way that Fan Xian does. That the past and future can look eerily similar.

"Jingdou. The capital."

He's starting to feel a headache coming on himself.

"And you say you're from...Gusu? I've never heard of any place by that name. I've studied every Kingdom."

[billowing]

"Jingdou." This it starting to get eerie. "Fujian?" Jingdou is not and has never been the capitol of anywhere. And Gusu-- even Gusu doesn't exist anymore?

"And Jiangnan?" he asks, which seems kind of silly to ask because that just means south of the river, but it's what encompasses Gusu. He doesn't know that his city was already supposed to have been renamed - to Kuaiji, eventually to Suzhou. "Jiangnan must exist."

[bingyun]

Bingyun listens, but with every strange name that Lan Wangji mentions, he just looks more and more confused. Eventually, he just shakes his head, because that's what all of those names mean to him.

If this man is being truthful, then he must feel the same way that Yan Bingyun does.

"I want out of here. I haven't been home for a very long time."

It's strange for him to use a word like that. Home. His life has always been more about for what he can give to Qing, not the other way around. But he's human, and he's been through so much, and he just wants to see his father again. His kingdom. He'd even settle for Fan Xian.

[billowing]

That sentiment, at least, he can get behind. It was odd to be so out of place with a man who looked so familiar to him, who was apparently from another world entirely, that was almost like his own but not quite.

"They have not told us what they intend with us," he responds, "But they understand that we all want to leave."

Which means they'll have to work towards forcing that from their kidnappers, who are reluctant to set them free.

He takes the pamphlets back, and starts to fix the illustrations. He figures he owes Bingyun an explanation. "There's another man here," he says, brush dipping into watercolor. "You look remarkably similar." It's a warning, that he'll probably run into some more... issues.

[bingyun]

"They must want things from our lands." He never thinks that it could be something from them personally. Yan Bingyun doesn't see himself as Yan Ruohai's son, and an important member of overwatch council in his own right. He has a very specific value. He's just a spy, and when he's caught his value to his land is gone. His life might as well end there.

He exhales heavily and closes his eyes as if to meditate.

"If we are being held for some sort of ransom, I hope it's never paid. I'd rather stay here forever than see my homeland compromised."

Bingyun tries to remain calm at the additional bit of information that Lan Wangji gives him. There are lines across his forehead, until his eyes eventually open back up again.

"Why?"

As if he'd have any idea himself why there's another man who resembles him here.

[billowing]

He gives Bingyun a look that he usually reserves for the other bearer of his face, which is a very filtered look of "are you serious?" Because how was he supposed to know why they have such a similar visage but are otherwise completely opposite in demeanor?

If he were a more self-entitled man, he would've assumed it was to torture him on a personal level.

"They have not told us a ransom," he responds instead. Because that was easier to explain. "Other than our emotions." He still doesn't know how that ties into anything, how they could monetize or distill such a thing in a useful way, but he supposes there are things here he's not yet meant to understand.

[bingyun]

Someone in charge of this place must have a type. and one they can't be faulted for.

"Emotions?"

He surely...most definitely must have heard that wrong. Why emotions? What good were they? Maybe if those in control were especially sadistic and enjoyed watching the negative ones come out, which is entirely possible. But Bingyun prepares himself based on this information, sitting a little taller.

"Then consider this our goodbye, Lan Wangji. They won't keep me around for very long."

[billowing]

Listen, he doesn't really get it either. Harnessing negative energy might be useful, but somehow this place pulled in two Masters of Demonic Cultivation and what appears to be mistaking one for a third, yet... Haven't asked for any usable tips despite what they claim.

As for positive emotions, he is getting the feeling that those can also be cultivated, but to what extent? And why?

"Yan Bingyun, it is not so simple. The hotel likes to play games." He doesn't know why, and apparently isn't all that forthcoming with explaining things in a way that makes sense.

[bingyun]

"Those of the Overwatch Council have no emotions."

Back on this bullshit. It is a "fact" that he's actually been proven wrong on. But none of the witnesses are here to tell on him.

"Blood cannot be squeezed from a stone. They will do away with me." His lashes lower as he speaks. "If I can't return to Qing, it's just as well."

[billowing]

Lan Wangji, ice queen extraordinaire, bringing the "jade" into twin jades of Lan, inventor of the microemotion, gives Yan Bingyun a look.

"Whatever you think may happen, they will force it from you. Avoid the tea."

That's his grand advice.