TEST DRIVE MEME 001 (#2)

[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 for our grand opening gala. 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. THE CASINO FLOOR

As you pass through the entrance to the casino floor, an attendant passes you a small bag of chips. The casino is loud and bright and filled with games of every kind — you want to play poker? They've got a table for that. Sabacc? There's a table for that, too. Slots, pachinko, and bingo are just a few of the other games on offer. The attendant in the lobby wasn't lying, either — everyone who plays wins. Everyone, every time.

Servers wander the floor with trays of shotglasses full of multi-coloured liquids, offering them to every Oyster "Compliments of Her Royal Highness." If you're expecting alcohol, though, you'll be surprised — these drinks are teas made of the distilled emotions of every Oyster in the hotel. Each colour of tea corresponds to a different emotion, and as soon as you take a sip, you feel overcome with that emotion.

JOY — the distilled essence of happiness, this tea makes even the most rough and tumble of Oysters giddy with happiness — for a moment. The effect fades into a general sense of contentment and affability after a few seconds, and that itself fades away slowly over the course of twenty minutes.

ANGER — this tea, anger in liquid form, can make the most even-tempered of Oysters ready to absolutely blow a gasket. For twenty minutes, anyone who drinks this tea will find themselves much more easily annoyed, frustrated, and all around irritable and snappy.

SADNESS — distilled sadness is a potent tea, capable of turning a stoic, stalwart Oyster into a blubbering mess in moments. Events that may have previously only been a minor disappointment become the end of the world, every repressed unhappiness comes to the fore, and for twenty minutes, any Oyster who drinks a sadness tea can hardly keep themselves together.

II. MAKING WAVES

If gambling isn't to your interest, there are many other areas of the hotel to explore! For the moment, only The Pool Of Tears and the Pig & Pepper Buffet are available for Oysters to peruse, but the staff assure anyone who asks that the other facilities will be open by the next day. Unfortunately, that means no one can buy any swimsuits from This Elegant Thimble, but the staff aren't going to kick anyone out of the pool for jumping in in their clothes!

There are four main attractions to The Pool of Tears: the pool, the jacuzzi, the wave pool, and the lazy river. The water is always just the right temperature, clean and clear and refreshing. It feels as if the sun shines down from above you, warm and comforting. Scattered through the pool area are clusters of modern lounge chairs, just waiting for someone to come relax in them. The Pool is, in a word, serene.

But not for long. The waves generated by the wave pool begin to get choppier, and larger, until it becomes clear that the generator itself is malfunctioning — too late, however, to avoid the tsunami that crashes through the whole Pool and leaves it flooded. Thankfully, no water escapes into the rest of the hotel, and the hotel staff work quickly to rescue those trapped in the Pool and drain the flooding — but you better hope you can tread water until they get to you!

III. EAT ME, DRINK ME

The Pig & Pepper buffet serves lunch foods from across all different cultures, offering something for everyone, and some things you've never even heard of.

On offer with these lunchtime dishes are cookies and biscuits and scones of all kinds, held on tiered trays with signs that proclaim Eat Me! in delightfully whimsical calligraphy. Nearby, hotel staff man a small booth for doling out cups of fruit waters from large pitchers, which have Drink Me! painted playfully on their sides.

It takes a while to feel the effects — perhaps you've even left the Pig & Pepper by the time it happens — but those who eat the cookies and scones inevitably end up growing in size, whether a few inches or feet, and those who drank the fruity water similarly shrink. Eat enough and you might strain the ceiling; drink enough and you'll be the size of a thimble! It's not permanent — if no one else can help you figure out how to get back to normal, the staff certainly will — but it's definitely inconvenient!

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?

Welcome to the (second!) first TDM of Happy Hearts, a new panfandom roleplaying game here on DW! If you have any questions, please direct them to the first comment on this page. Happy playing, Oysters!

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

© tessisamess

Comments

[sixrealmsofhell]

"Would this Aziraphale be here? Chess piece..hmm" It's an interesting concept that made him wonder which piece on the board he would be. He would personally see himself as a king but perhaps a rook would also be fitting. But pawn was certainly out. Unless it was a pawn who was clever enough to become a queen.

"If we are chess pieces then we need to move across the board and attack the king. But it means we will have to go through the other pieces one by one. Which would make all of the workers of the casino as the opposing pawns and the ones we should start with." Questioning them might get them no where but it is certainly a step worth taking. Find the weak link that opens up the board.

[inlovewithmycar]

Crowley, life-long pawn, might have advised not to get ahead of oneself

"Yeah, bumped into him a little bit ago. He's having a look-around."

Hopefully he didn't spend too long with the buffet. "I'm just. Watching the work dynamic here with the employees. See what's what."

And what he could exploit. He was very good at tempting beleaguered workers into getting their due. It helped that he could sympathize.

[sixrealmsofhell]

"Perhaps we need to collect the other pieces of our side that are willing to make this game more strategic." Mukuro isn't really a team player but if it means using everyone's strengths to clear the board faster then he is all in.

[inlovewithmycar]

Crowley's eyes wandered over the crowd of confused, disoriented, and angry people.

"We should start with the ones who clearly don't want to be here then."

[sixrealmsofhell]

"That should be easy enough to figure out. But be careful of any snakes that might be in the garden." Meaning that someone who might be there to act like someone who got pulled out of their world unwillingly but is really simply a clever spy of the ones that put them there.

[inlovewithmycar]

Crowley lowered his shades, fixing the young man with a yellow, serpentine stare.

"Pretty rude turn of phrassse," he hissed. "We're not all that bad."

Snakes in the garden was a good thing, as far as Crowley was concerned. They ate pests and were a vital part of the natural cycle. Whatever was going on here was... well. Not that.

[sixrealmsofhell]

Mukuro smirks with a kind of victorious look on his face. Being able to get the man to reveal a little bit more of himself is most certainly a victory in his book and he likes adding marks to the win column.

"I've never been one to be known for being polite." Mukuro finally pushes away from the game he had been leaning against.

"I'm a snake in my own right, but I prefer to be the owl." and owls hunt snakes.

[inlovewithmycar]

The demon wouldn't be sure exactly what new, profound thing showing his eyes had revealed other than that Crowley was a serpent (or The Serpent for as much good it did him). After all, there were far more obvious tells about his demonic nature all out in the open; the scaly feet, the feathery wings, the entire Ramones discography on his phone...

"Mate. Mate. You're not a snake. Or an owl. Or a chesspiece. You're human. One-hundred-percent. I know this because I know what humans smell like."

Crowley was starting to suspect there were two very different conversations going on here. The demon was trying to scheme and maybe get this human to lay off the blatant reptile stereotypes, and he wanted to be... an owl? Of all things? Was he part of that furry subculture or something? (Would it be the feathery subculture in this case?). Should he ask? Oh shit, was it rude to ask if someone was part of a peculiar subculture?

[sixrealmsofhell]

Mukuro often took the form of an owl on his world in order to gain information and to get to places a human wouldn't. A master of illusion, he could put his consciousness into any form of creature or human body. In this world he may not have those abilities but that didn't mean he couldn't still get what he wanted through other means. And in this case, every small detail of this man paints a larger picture in his mind.

"I am all those things if you look past the literal. Your nose may understand what humans smell like, but not all humans are the same and your nose can't tell what they are capable of. On my world human's are capable of having great power." And Mukuro is one of the strongest where he is from.

Like a cat on the hunt of a mouse, Mukuro circles the other. "An owl is observant of his surroundings, able to see almost all the way around him all in search of the one he hunts. Being observant is the key to gaining the information needed to get out of here while on the surface we play the part of the pieces on the board, forced to move in certain ways to please the one who placed us here. The snake is cunning, able to slide below the surface and get where it wants silently and stealthily. If we expect to get the upper hand, we must also be the snake. In my life I've played all three roles in order to get what I wanted. I can't physically become those things here like I would on my world but that's just a minor detail."

Mukuro also likes to hear himself talk..so enjoy his long winded explanation.

[inlovewithmycar]

Crowley pinches the bridge of his nose. Go- Someone give him patience, this man monologues.

"Right. Fine. You're a snake or an owl or whatever. Very impressive, very cool, not interested in getting into a dick waving contest with a human when there's a bit more pressing matters."

Crowley was not very powerful, as either angels or demons went. He was clever, resourceful, had quite the imagination, and a general aptitude for presenting the face of obedience if he wasn't always on the level with his former employers. It had served him quite a bit better than raw power ever would, barring one or two occasions.

Those occasions were usually with demons who quite resembled Mukuro in attitude. Mighty and powerful with a host of demons at their beck and call coupled with very fragile egos.

"Can we get on then? Maybe save your routine for intimidating the people who captured us?"

[sixrealmsofhell]

"The plan is to gather the more unhappy of the visitors. So let's divide and conquer. We should figure out a place to meet so we can learn what everyone's strengths are and how to proceed with using them to the most advantage."

Brute strength or mental strength. Both will be needed to get what they want. Mukuro isn't really a team player most of the time, but he needs to be able to see what they have at their disposal in order to use it to his advantage. Typically he doesn't really play nice with others.