atonementooc | Test Drive 001

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Test Drive 001

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.

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[ His own list- not written in his hand, honestly- has some of the basic supplies of a homestead. Never been one to settle down, but there was nothing else to do in this 'Purgatory', as Goody called it. He'd never really been superstitious. Never believed in the ghosts and demons of China Town, of Goody's Catholicism, of the Hoodoo and Voodoo that surrounded Goody's past. He'd brushed it all off.

There was no God.

At least, that's what he believed in the waking world. Now... He's not so sure. Certainly, the voices that had warned Goodnight not to raise his rifle in violence again had promised a violent death. And this world was an afterlife, of sorts. Had to be, from what he remembers. ]

... I don't think you're going to find spirit money or an offering bowl here. This store is very...

[ Not built with 'their kind' in mind. Not like the shops of China Town packed to the brim with trinkets and memories from the mainland, traditions of a culture he'd never been a part of. ]

... I think this place just has food, really.

[Ray had never been terribly invested in local beliefs, native or Mandarin Taiwanese in origin. She had politely held her tongue when her mother burned spirit money and prayed, kept herself from asking what good it did, and when her more superstitious neighbors had put out bowls of rice at night she hadn't ever giggled at them like her father might have. She'd offered up a desperate prayer or two to the Earth God now and again, even, but never truly believed an answer was coming.

Then again, she'd prayed to leave Taiwan, and technically, now, she had. This was not the town where she had died, nor did it look like any picture she'd ever seen. Wherever they were, for all intents and purposes it might as well be the Purgatory spoken of by the Zhengyi Dao at their temples.]

You can improvise with a store-bought bowl, if it's the right shape. [Ray does pause, though, at both his reading ability and the fact that he knew what those things were.] Ah, forgive me for asking, but are you Chinese as well? It's alright if you're not; my family didn't have any part in the war with Japan. [What she doesn't add, but thinks, is that anyone who brings racial and ethnic prejudices with them in the afterlife is crazy. Surely they can all leave that behind now, with the homelands they were fighting over behind them?]

You might be right, though. I found a store earlier that was full of nothing but lotions and perfume. The stores here are very specialized like that, almost like the night markets in the summertime back home.

[ Of course he didn't balk at other's superstitions, either. Wasn't his place. When Goody went on a ramble about the Owl and ghosts, he only calmed him by assuring them they were dreams. Prayer, faith, belief- just because he didn't have it didn't mean he would deny it to others.

Still, he pauses when the girl asks if he is Chinese. As far as it was concerned in the west, he might as well be. Joseon was a closed country, isolated, kept itself out of the affairs of the world. It had been a long and difficult journey for him to get from Joseon to where he was now. ]

I'm not Chinese. I'm from Joseon.

[ Unknown to him how antiquated that word for Korea is. Guess that's what happens when there's nearly 70 years difference in timelines. ]

It's inconvenient. General stores are more practical. I need medicines as well.

[Much as she would hate to admit it, she did take comfort in the white jade deer pendant her father had given her. More than a symbol of the Earth God, to her it was a reminder of how the little communities that sprouted up around such temples had helped her family, which gave her some hope in humanity.

The word 'Joseon' was antiquated, but people did still use it for some kinds of pottery. For a moment her brow furrowed in confusion as she tried to remember where such pottery came from before she recalled that it referred to wares allegedly hailing from either of the Koreas, and she smiled and nodded.]

Ah, I see. I've never been there, but I know where it is. Before coming here I hadn't left Taiwan at all. I admire you for traveling so far. It couldn't have been easy.

[She frowns slightly, concerned.] Medicine? Are you hurt? There's a section of this store in the back marked 'Pharmacy' that has bandages and pills, but I don't know what most of them do. Still, it's better than nothing.

It was an... adventure.

[ One full of blood and death, the blades of his knife singing as they cut through bodies. One where he was an outsider, where he was a thief, where he was an angel of death in his own right. Assassin, murderer, monster- he wears them all so easily in his skin. There was light, as well. Pinpricks at first, stars on a moonless night. And then the sun, the love of his life. They had died together.

Idly, he picks at the bandage wrapped around his brand, the "M" burned into his skin still fresh from the recent punishments. ]

I'm not hurt, no. But it's supplies. Preventatives.

[ Opium. Laudnum. Things to dull the pain of nightmares and memories burning into his skin, into his mind. Some herbs and salves, fresh linen for bandages. ]

... So you've never left Taiwan?

You must be very brave.

[She'd dreamed of leaving, of never setting foot back in the places that had been so full of death and paranoia for everyone she knew. Ray had gazed out across the bridge that connected her town to the next and looked into the river and wanted nothing more than to be carried away by it. Every new execution or person mysteriously arrested had added to that desire to run away from it all - but it took a braver person than she'd ever been to actually do it.

Ray's brand is on the side of her right thigh, hidden by her skirt. She didn't choose it for that reason so much as she chose it because of the memory of more than one illegal, banned book carefully taped there to smuggle it past prying eyes. The character for book, 书, had taken three careful applications of other smaller shaped brands. She'd passed out afterwards, but she's fine now, just thirsty and tired.]

That's probably a good idea. I hadn't really thought of that.

[Her smile becomes strained, self-conscious, as she replies.]

Traveling would have drawn too much unwanted government attention. The war with mainland China has gotten worse lately; they would see leaving Taiwan as an admission of guilt or pro-China leanings. Besides, I didn't really have the money to leave. Jobs can be scarce in mountain towns.

[ Him? Brave? He almost wants to laugh at the idea. He's not brave or noble or just. He's petty, he's angry, he's full of venom and vitriol and would rather spit blood than be told he can't do something. He's been treated like a dog, been a slave in all but name, and what he did, the journey he took? It was stubbornness and pride. It was anger and hate. There was no bravery there.

Just blood. Just death. Just him and his knives, cutting through all the preordained paths, making his own history.

He hands her shopping list back to her, shaking his head. Doesn't understand the conflict that she is talking about- not that news of China really permeated anywhere but the west coast towns. ]

Jobs weren't easy to come by where I'm from, either. But we made do.

[ Hey kid, ever seen a man slice an apple on top of someone's head in half with a thrown knife? No? How about a man who's quick to the draw, and even quicker with a hairpin? How about someone like him, smaller and leaner than most, taking down guys twice his size? That's the jobs he did. Perform. Play a part. And with it, he was free. ]

[Ray's got her own petty side, one that resulted in a lot of fallout for, unfortunately, everyone but her. She was depressed and lonely and wanted to make other people hurt like she did, and in the end the results were so much worse than anything that she'd intended. She'd died a coward's death because she had lived a coward's life, head bowed, following the path society had carved out for her and her generation.

She takes the list back from him, expression and eyes somewhat distant. The thought that has just occurred to her, she voices aloud:]

What are we meant to do here to make money? They wouldn't bring us here only to let us starve to death, would they?

[Ray was never free. She tried to buy her freedom with a list of illicit books, with a deal with a man whose reputation was worse than the devil's to most of her town, with a cutesy smile that along with her looks made her appear to play the part of an innocent young girl. One day she'll get the sight of her classmates with cloth sacks over their heads and the sound of the military police's gun going off out of her head. One day, she'll stop making new prisons for herself wherever she goes.]

[ There's a pause at that, as he looks thoughtful. The money that he has in his pockets- if it's even good here- certainly isn't enough to cover the expenses. In all honesty he was probably going to smuggle some of the items out in his vest or shirt when no one was looking. Gotta do what you can to keep from starving, right?

But starving to death for all eternity- wasn't there a myth about that? Some king that couldn't drink or eat, food and water just out of reach? He'd have to ask Goody about it later.]

They might. Who knows.

[ A shrug. ]

Suppose it's frowned upon to have quick draw contests here, hm?

[Ray purses her lips for a moment, thinking. What happened to ghosts when they weren't fed? She wasn't sure it was always the same, necessarily, but usually, they became more violent, less able to be reasoned with, and more prone to wild mood swings.]

I hope not. I don't think anyone deserves a fate that cruel.

[She shrugs in return.]

Probably, but I don't know. It's not as if they explained the rules of day to day life here to any of us.

[ If they were supposed to get jobs as part of their penance, Billy hopes to all the saints and angels that it doesn't involve any part of his servitude. He's proud, and he refuses to stoop to the levels that he'd been forced to before, on his hands and knees for unrepentant masters.

He idly touches the bandage around his brand. ]

I suppose we'll have to find out soon enough.

[ A pause, and then he sighs. A girl that young shouldn't be in a strange place like this alone. Gentlemanly courtesy- Goody's rubbing off on him. ]

I'll walk with you for your errands.

[A job as penance would make sense, in a way. Didn't some spirits technically do jobs, be it guarding gates or guiding people? The idea wasn't unheard of. The thought of what she might have to do, though, filled her with dread, twisting her stomach into knots. If she had to work in a library or school, she might just opt for going directly to Hell instead.

She always was a coward.

Ray knows she could object to him accompanying her. She's seventeen, after all, and there doesn't seem to be anyone here intent on harming her. The way this place is set up is more keen on them punishing themselves, frankly. But she's alone in a new place and not entirely sure if she's even dead or alive anymore. Now, more than ever, she really doesn't want to be alone with her thoughts. Her indecision shows on her face.]

That would be very kind of you. But don't you have errands of your own to run, sir? You still haven't found the hand axe you were looking for, after all.

[ Seventeen is barely a woman. Still a girl in his eyes. But still, girls her age and even younger were run by Tongs in San Francisco, Sacramento, up and down the port cities of the west coast. Dangerous people, dangerous times. And in a world like this, for sinners working on their repentance?

Well. Look out for each other, he supposes. ]

You can help me find it. You seem to have found this 'hardware' store.

[She's sure she should feel young. People have told her before that seventeen isn't old at all. But there's a tiredness in her, after the things she's seen and the things she's been responsible for, that makes seventeen feel like an exhausting length of time.

She doesn't know how old Billy is, but she appreciates the offer nonetheless. It's very gentlemanly, in a way.]

I only found it by accident, but sure, I can show you where it is. I have a feeling this place will take some getting used to before we know where everything is.

[ He's been lucky. Forty-six years on the earth until he died. A decent life, if not particularly good. He understands the tiredness- maybe it's a different one than what he carries on his shoulders. And then he pauses, remembering something in an earlier conversation. A husband to be, studying in California before returning to her.

Institutions don't take people like him. Maybe a ship's captain who did trade with China, for tea and cheap labor, silks and opium. A frown cuts into his face as he walks with her, thinking things over. ]

You mentioned before you were engaged?

[ A good time for small talk with this girl is to help her find his supplies. She might be able to pay for it- he certainly can't. ]

[Seventeen is older than some people lived to be, under Taiwan's current martial law. Her heart aches for a moment as they walk through the grocery store aisles, thinking of how Xiaohong would have loved all the fruit available here. Fifteen was too young to die the way that girl had...

Oblivious to the strangeness of what she'd said before, she nods.]

Yes, I was, until... well, until I ended up here. [Or in other words, until she died.] His name was Chang Ming Hui; he was a teacher, in addition to doing translation work for the government. We were going to wait until after I'd finished school, so I wouldn't have to worry about a wedding and exams at the same time. Then things happened, and neither of us ended up getting to see graduation day.

[There's untold stories layered into her explanation, but Ray isn't sure how else to put it. Life was never simple when it came to Taiwan, it seemed. Her basket is slowly filling with the vegetables and nuts necessary to make basic dishes, if she can just find rice here. If they take Taiwanese currency, then she has enough on her from before to pay for it, and if not, surely she could work it off?]

[ A teacher? A translator? And she herself, in school? Come to think of it, her attire is strange, too. The skirt up to her knees, baring the entirety of her lower legs- he hadn't thought much of it, because who was he to judge? But now, all the details seem to come into focus, and he knits his brow in confusion. ]

... You'll have to tell me more about this schoolteacher of yours. Most people who came to the states were miners and railroad workers.

[ An enigma, really. A puzzling piece that he just can't quite seem to get to fit inside of his story. He sighs as he picks up a few peaches, a small container of figs. Treats that were hard to get out west, where apples were far more common. He doesn't have much, but what he does have he surely can use for this much.]

[She can see his confusion. What she can't see is the source of it. Yes, it was probably objectively morally wrong to have fallen in love with one of her teachers. Other people had voiced that opinion before. But it wasn't unheard of the way his expression indicated.]

He only spent a year there. People can - or could, I guess it's been a while - make some money translating inbetween English and Chinese. But as Taiwan's war with mainland China intensified, it became a little politically dangerous to spend too much time abroad. Besides, people who can speak Hakka, Amis and Taiwanese all at once are rare, so he could get a better position back home, especially in places like Huālián. That's where we met. He taught language lessons to third year students and served as our guidance counselor.

[Things had been different then, that scorching autumn day she threw a paper airplane out the window as Ming Hui walked into the school just in time for it to fall at his feet due to a faint breeze. There hadn't been any love at first sight on either side. He'd looked up at her third story window and she'd stared back at him and the ground, and maybe they never would have remembered it later at all if she hadn't been directed to the counselor's office for her poor attitude. She was already depressed back then, even in those relatively better days.

They don't have the treats here she wants, no wheel cake, baobing, grass jelly, o'ahping or grilled squid. The lack of familiarity is disconcerting. When she sees candied fruit slices available in a package, she can't resist picking it up. The way the candy is packaged and looks is different, but the basic structure is so simple it instantly reminds her of home.]

[ Billy listens with quiet contemplation, and once again this war with China is mentioned. News of the 'mysterious orient' was seldom heard, but he would think that if China went to war with someone, it would have made ripples. After all, it was sliced up into bits and colonies, used for the Opium, tea, and silk trades. And Japan- where did Japan fit with all of this? ]

... Guidance counselor?

[ That's a phrase he's never heard before. And it's becoming more and more evident to him that this girl- despite their similarities- is incredibly different from him. Educated, even. Perhaps she would do well with Goody, talking poetry and politics, philosophy and art.

He picks up a package of almonds- not quite common outside California. A good snack at least. ]

... And what is this war between China and Japan, or China and Taiwan? I haven't heard of either.

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Test Drive 001

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