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

[nothingtoknives]

[ 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. ]

[paper_airplanes]

[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?]

[nothingtoknives]

[ 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.]

[paper_airplanes]

[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.]

[nothingtoknives]

[ 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.