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

[scaredofdogs]

[He'll make up for that...mistake.]

Thank you Lan Zhan..for all the things you told me today. Even if they weren't all good to hear, it helps to think there will be more for me after this place.

[billowing]

Mm.

I think you are happy.

In my time.

[ They've only just re-met so, he can't be sure. Wei Ying was always one to hide his feelings behind a smile. But ... Lan Wangji was pretty sure. ]

[scaredofdogs]

[He wonders how happy if they part ways in lan Wangji's time..but he doesn't say it.]

I'm sure I am. Even in my time..things feel different then before. Maybe because people think I'm dead so I get a little more freedom but..I don't think that's it completely.

Plus I've been by your side, so of course I'd be happier!

[billowing]

[ Why does Wei Ying keep saying that, each time like a little needle piercing through his heart.

Should he say he stayed, because everyone knows Wei Ying is alive, and though he does not personally care for his own reputation or safety, Lan Wangji does?

No, it would be embarrassing, which is why he never said anything in the first place. ]

I don't know why, when you first returned, you did not want to see me.

[scaredofdogs]

A-ah...it wasn't that I didn't want to see you. It's that I thought it might be easier that way. I figured everyone would try to kill me if they knew I was back.

[He wasn't really wrong about that...]

And..I wasn't sure how you would react.

[billowing]

[ Wow, Wei Ying really thought he'd wanted to kill him.

The opposite couldn't be more true. ]

When did you change your mind?

[scaredofdogs]

I guess..when I realized you knew who I was. For awhile I figured you only saw me as Mo Xuanyu so I didn't have to worry about what you thought of me. But once I figured out that you had known the whole time and still brought me back to Cloud Recesses...well I knew you didn't want me dead at least. Which is more then I could say about anyone else I had encountered.

[Jiang Cheng definitely wanted him dead..]

[billowing]

You really are not good at pretending to be anyone else.

[ Not to Lan Wangji, anyway.

Because you know, first of all, even in the wrong body, he immediately went looking for Chenqing. ]

[scaredofdogs]

[He pouts. He thought for sure he could fool..someone.]

I guess it all worked out okay..but it is sad knowing that I put forth so much effort in lying for nothing. I thought for sure my acting was good!

[billowing]

...The first thing you did was use a flute to summon Wen Ning.

[ Like, kind of a dead giveaway. ]

[scaredofdogs]

Ah..haha...well I didn't exactly call Wen Ning. He was the last person I expected to show up!! I was calling for any strong corpse..I got even more then I planned.

[billowing]

And who else plays flute to call strong corpses?

[scaredofdogs]

...You can't tell me in the 13 years I was missing that SOMEONE didn't pick up a flute and do the same thing, or at least try to! Or that Mo Xuanyu couldn't have just been the one to follow in my footsteps. He did use one of the forbidden techniques so who knows what he could have done.

[billowing]

There were people who pretended to be you.

None successful.

[ Is he gonna explain that Wei Ying played their song???

No. Not a chance. ]

[scaredofdogs]

I've seen the ugly pictures that my supposed followers have drawn of me. What an insult..

[billowing]

But better, that they do not know what you look like.

[scaredofdogs]

Does it matter? I guess for your Wei Wuxian it would..but for me, I'm in a different body. So even if they do know what I look like, it's not like they would ever see me again.

[He figures that body is nothing but dust now..]

[billowing]

With the same clothes, still playing Chengqing.

People will believe you are another imposter.

[scaredofdogs]

Let them believe it. It's easier then believing I came back from the dead.

[billowing]

You have always done the impossible.

[scaredofdogs]

This goes beyond what I would have expected though. But it's okay. It seems I don't really need to hide who I am anyway. And eventually, people will even forget about what the Yiling Patriarch did.

[billowing]

[ Ummm yeah he wouldn't take that bet. ]

Perhaps.

[ He doesn't want to say he disagrees.

But he also doesn't want to say that there's someone else to blame now, the real person behind all this, and.

Well, he promised not to divulge such a thing. But he does want to tell Wei Ying that it gets better. Not because people are better. ]

[scaredofdogs]

[He has to believe his life is not destined to be all doom and gloom so he can keep waking up in the morning. He still accepts what he did and is willing to always be the one people blame. It's just easier that way.]

I'm glad you figured out it was me right away today. I don't think I would have liked pretending I wasn't..I've had enough with doing that once.

[billowing]

You called me Lan Zhan.

[ Nobody calls him Lan Zhan. It was inevitable. ]

[scaredofdogs]

I guess that is as much of a giveaway as anything else I've ever done. You looked so surprised though! I imagine seeing a new face call you that was pretty shocking.