funnyhearts | TEST DRIVE MEME 002

Entry tags:

TEST DRIVE MEME 002

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If Wei Wuxian truly met himself, that would be a very reasonable expectation. They would probably chat and go off to have a drink together. But that's not Yan Bingyun. They're likely to share little in common...except a willingness to throw their own lives away too quickly.

He hadn't planned on striking him. Yet. Shaking him, maybe. But Bingyun stops in his tracks instead. He's never seen himself cringe before, and he doesn't like it.

"Stop that." His sudden anger is returning to confusion. It's not like he could attack a man in this position, it would be cowardly. "You want me to believe that you're 'stuck' here too and just happen to look like that?"

Like him

He could never imagine himself as such a stern and easily riled sort of man. That sort of temperament had always suited Jiang Cheng much better. But from what he can tell, there's no hint of teasing or pranks, not like his soul twin now residing in Mo Xuanyu's form.

Wei Wuxian stands a little straighter, dropping his arms since his other self seems to have calmed down just enough to ask questions rather than make outrageous claims. He still makes a face, just shy of rolling his eyes at this attitude he's receiving.

"I don't just look like that, I am that. You, I mean," he sniffs.

"And I don't owe you any explanations, you're welcome to flounder around looking baffled if you don't want my help."

"You are not me." Sure, they have similar eyes, a similar nose, a similar smile (if Yan Bingyun ever smiled). Similar...he looks down over Wei Wuxian slowly and tells himself that the similarities must end somewhere.

But everything about this man's demeanor is the opposite of his. No one could ever be fooled into thinking they were the same person. But then, hadn't Yan Bingyun seemed like a very different person in Northern Qi? Hadn't he made friends and even gotten close to a girl? That was all fake too - this is what he tells himself, anyway.

Yan Bingyun blinks at him, and starts to walk off. He can't trust anyone here. ...Except he did eat the chocolate, so he does a u-turn halfway down the hall, and ends up standing right in front of Wei Wuxian again.

"There must be some way of getting out of here. You must want that too."

"Is that what you say when you look in the mirror every morning as well?" he scoffs. Even if their faces match, this personality is so vastly different. This other version of himself was really just going to leave things at that? What a stubborn fool.

Wei Wuxian was just shaking his head, ready to go back to Lan Zhan's room, when the other man turned around, apparently with a change of heart. He felt like speaking to him now, hm?

"Finally, something we can agree on," he clicks his tongue, crossing his arms over his chest. Nevermind that most anyone here would agree with such a sentiment.

"Yes, obviously."

"What have you found?" Because the man seems to have been here longer than he has, which means he must've looked into it. Must know something. "What do our captors really want from us? Have they tortured you? What information did you give up?"

He pauses. Some of this information might be irrelevant so he backtracks to ask perhaps the most important question of all.

"Are you from Qing or Northern Qi?"

When he'd offered to answer questions, he hadn't expected a barrage of them all at once! Even if he wanted to share some of those answers, there were things listening almost anywhere they went!

"Slow down, you can't just ask all of that out in the open!" he returns in a hushed voice. The last question throws him the most though. Qing or Northern Qi? Where? Just how far had their paths diverged?

"I'm from Yunmeng," he clarified, as if that should be obvious. What if this version hadn't grown up at Lotus Pier? What if the fates of Wei Changze and Cangse Sanren were completely different?

"What are you talking about?"

"Is there anywhere here that isn't?" Out in the open. Bingyun glances around and sees no one, but there are doors and corners, and spies could be behind or around any one of them. They're imprisoned in such a relatively small space, it's reasonable to assume that it's all under the captor's control. The only solution is to get as much information as quickly as possible.

"Yun...meng?" He sounds out, eyes returning to the man in front of him. "I've never heard of it." And he knows more geography than most.

"Let's start simpler. What's your name?"

He wasn't sure how to say, there are spirits listening in on everything, without sounding like he was crazy or drunk. This version of him was clearly similar in looks alone, what if he didn't even cultivate?

"Ah... private rooms, somewhere you can put on some music, it's hard to say for sure."

But to think that this Wei Wuxian hadn't even heard of Yunmeng? It didn't seem right. Even if he'd wound up wandering with his parents, he would've at least heard of it!

"What's my- really?" he makes a show of sighing, "Wei Wuxian, given name Wei Ying."

"Put on some music..."

Strange phrasing. But it barely deserves thinking about when everything is strange. Bingyun does note the difficulty with which the other surrenders his name.

And honestly, relates...just not for the same reasons.

"Wei Wuxian. I won't give your name up to anyone else."

Oh, right.

"Mm, there's some really advanced inventions here. You can listen to music without the players present. That little tool they gave you," he pulls out the Empathy device to show his own.

"Things like this."

But all that aside, it shouldn't be so strange to hear his own name from a face that matches his, but the tone and timbre are all wrong, like he's never said it before.

"I'm pretty sure most everyone here already knows it. It's not exactly a secret," he shrugs. It's not really how introductions usually go, and sure, he'd pretended to be Mo Xuanyu for a time before, but...

"Why, is yours? A secret, that is."

"So they try to break their prisoners with luxuries instead of torture."

An interesting approach...and one that Bingyun can see working. Relaxing people. Getting them to lower their guard. It's clever and insidious.

"Sometimes." He answers quietly. For a long moment he seems to be weighing the pros and cons of something, never revealing what it truly is. At least not until he speaks again. "I'm Yan Bingyun."

"Right, that's what I think too!" he nods, glad his twin seems to at least have gotten on the same page about him with some things. They gave them everything they needed here, let them relax and put themselves at ease, but it was hard not to feel like livestock, waiting for their time.

"Yan Bingyun?" it's nothing at all like Wei Wuxian. How different must their worlds be that even their names are different? "Well, that does explain a few things... but raises a lot more questions too. What's the last thing you recall? Before you woke up here?"

So, maybe his man is more clever than he thought. Bingyun knows that a lot of people would call him paranoid. But just because he's paranoid doesn't mean that he's not also right.

"I was returning to Qing with the envoy who negotiated my release." For the specific moment, he was reading a letter. But there's no point in bringing that up. "Now I find myself captured again."

A coincidence? He doubts it.

An envoy? So he was some kinda... some sort of important, he supposed, if he had people entering negotiations just to get him free. That was different, and unfortunately, it wasn't a memory that lined up in any way with one of his own.

"Bad luck," he agrees, either way.

"But I think you'll find this is quite a bit different from any ordinary kidnapping," he adds, as if kidnapping is a perfectly normal occurrence.

"My room's not far if you want to hear a little more? Has anyone er- explained how all this works?"

He was no one - or least that's how Yan Bingyun looked at himself. It didn't matter that hi father was the head of the Fourth Beaurea, he was a tool to be used and discarded whenever it benefited his country.

He is interested in hearing more. He shake his head at Wei Wuxian's question, and after a moment holds out his hand in a sort of 'after you' gesture.

"Lead the way."

Ah, wow, recently he has had the dubious joy of explaining this world to several new residents, but few made it all the way to their rooms without at least a little bit of information. He nods at the gesture and starts off toward his room.

"Oh, you're really really new, huh? Guess we better start at the beginning."

He pauses once he reaches his room, hesitating a moment. If this were another Wei Wuxian, he wouldn't be too worried, but the only thing he had in common was the same face. How did you tell someone they were about to walk into a scary-looking demonic cave?

"It's... a little messy," is all the warning he gives before swinging his door open. It resembles almost perfectly his cave in the Burial Mounds. Dark and decorated with talismans that were effectively useless here, but probably meant more for ambience anyway. There were papers scattered all over, and more than a few empty bottles lurking here and there.

Yan Binyun's mouth drops open, a rare unguarded reaction. But can he be blamed? The last thing he expected on the other side of that door was a cave, but especially not a cave that looks like this.

Clearly, this was given to torture poor Wei Wuxian.

"Messy?" He arches an eyebrow at him. "It's not fit for animals."

"No need to be rude," he huffs, shutting the door behind them. There's no guarantee their words are safe from the spirits' watchful eyes, reporting their words to the queen, but it's at least a little more private than the hallways.

The bed is more or less clear, and he gestures for Yan Bingyun to have a seat first.

"Ah... where should I start?" he taps his nose a couple times.

"This queen, does she have a name? What are her demands? Who leads her army?"

These are the question that come to Bingyun's mind, and he's advancing on Wei Wuxian with every step, eager for answers. But after a moment he remembers the invitation and turns in the direction of the bed. He sits stiffly on the edge of it, his eyes still on the other man.

He's relieved when Bingyun takes a seat, the man is intense, is he always like this? How exhausting.

"Hmm I've actually only heard her voice once. She doesn't exactly hold court with us. It's more that we seem to be useful to her somehow?"

Definitely something about emotions and teas and their abilities, the queen seemed to be able to put all to use for her benefit, from what he could tell.

"No leaders that I've seen. At least, they haven't shown themselves. Just the uniformed guards if you wander where you shouldn't be. Ah... don't fight them, if you can help it."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE MEME 002

HAPPY HEARTS HOTEL

I. THIS IS OUR GET ALONG SHIRT

II. HONORARY STAFF FOR A DAY

III. TIME TO UNWIND

IV. WELCOME HOME

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject