Test Drive 001

[atonementmods]

Test Drive #001 Welcome to Atonement's first test drive, and thank you very much for stopping by! Please refer to the prompts below for ideas, or simply make up your own, whichever is easiest for you. Prompts Arrival: You don't quite remember how you arrived here. It appears that you're suddenly in a dead land with eerily red skies. The grass is dead, the trees are dying, and there's absolutely no sounds of life beyond your own footsteps, even if it feels like you're being watched somehow. Eventually along the narrow path you follow, you walk through gates that seem to guard a quiet, abandoned town and a sinking feeling starts to settle in that you are far from home and there may not be an easy way back. The sign hanging above the gates simply says "Welcome to Penance: Home Between Homes" and nothing more. Within the gates, there are the leftovers of what may have once been a lively, welcoming little town, if it didn't look as if people either fled or somehow vanished in the blink of an eye. There are dusty shops that are still stocked with supplies, many with their doors busted out or left open. There are homes that haven't been touched in what feels like an eternity but they still have furniture and the remnants of the people who lived there previously. Cars and bikes are littering the streets that are in varying shapes of usability. The more you look, the more unsettling everything becomes... First Punishment: As a show of good will, your hosts will give you a very easy, albeit potentially embarrassing, task to carry out for your punishment this month. First: There will as few secrets in Penance as possible. Transparency is key to atonement. You will reveal at least one sin in a way that will be permanent, which means via tattoo, scarring, branding, or other permanent means somewhere on your person. For those who are unable to be injured or scarred, there will be enchanted items that will be able to pierce even the toughest skin, cut deeper than even increased healing can recover from. All necessary items will be available at the tattoo parlor in town. If desired, characters may also make an announcement on the network listing their sin(s) for judgement from their peers. Please note that if the character insists they are free of sin, they will be provided a list of what they're guilty of by their hosts. Settling: It's time to settle into a home in Penance, either alone or with roommates. There is comfort and safety in numbers after all... Do try not to fight over housing if you've both accidentally chosen the same home... Your hosts will be very unhappy if you start a fight this early on over such a silly thing. If settling down isn't something you feel like doing, you may go and explore anywhere that you'd like, including outside the gates. Please be aware that there may be demonic forms of all types of common animals living outside them that move swiftly and silently. They will vary in aggressiveness and tamability, so please keep this in mind. As a note, all threads may be considered game canon if all parties agree. Hope you have fun and thank you! Game is set to officially open February 1st or when we reach a minimum of 10 players. premise | faq | taken | reserves | apps | hiatus/drop | network | logs | ooc | mods | requests

Comments

[mysteriumtremendum]

No one could ever accuse Atticus of engaging in a fair fight.

He tests the strength of the soil around the lip of the newly created sinkhole and, finding it satisfactorily solid, leans over the edge to peer down at where Rufus lays, scowling up at him. Hm--not dead. Perhaps an additional twenty feet or so, next time.

"You always were a colossal idiot." Then he kicks a mass of soil into the hole, sending it scattering across Rufus in a shower of dirt and rocks, and walks off, leaving him there.

[thereneverwas]

Though he sneers back up at Atticus, Rufus is in pain and shock both and is also beginning to realize just how stupid this is. He growls when the dirt hits him, and feels his temper flare again, but that's all this was: a temper tantrum, from both of them. A flash of anger covering something else.
Something like... the desolation of being...gone, dead, whatever he is. Rufus rests his head back against the wall of the pit and sighs, his brow knitting unhappily. Ophelia has long since moved on from him, but he still feels the loss keenly, and moreso that of Octavius; is it possible he had held out hope, that someday the boy might know, and that they might all be a family?
Is that why he never moved on?

Gazing up at the small hole that is the red sky, Rufus acknowledges that he'll have to try to get out, but for now it's time to slump here despondently. And reflect.

It's about an hour later that he uses a bit of debris to carve "IDIOT" on his hand, which he presses against his forehead to form the word backwards on his face. It seems appropriate.