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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Nice and comfortable are mutually exclusive in my experience.

[ The big houses of San Francisco had given way to the little shops and apartments of Yee Fow, piled on top of each other like teetering boxes of shipments. Human goods, ready and waiting to be sold off to the highest bidder, the gold mines or the railroads. It hadn't been much, but one upon a time it had been his, and that was comfortable enough. Same with his saddle and bed roll. Nice didn't always mean comfortable, cabron. ]

Pain's easy. There might be more in store than just pain.

[ There were myths Goody had read to him once or twice, from the Odyssey. A king forced to push a stone up a hill for all eternity, another starved and thirsting with food and drink just out of reach. Another spread out across the ground, vultures plucking at his liver and entrails. Is that what this world has in store for them? ]

[ He, at least, still had his childhood to look back on when it comes to nice houses. It's a long way back, but he still remembers the good ranch they had. He doesn't imagine he'll find anything like that here. ]

What could be here other than pain? Humiliation? We know that. Suffering because people treat us as less? [ Scoffing, he shakes his head. ] I don't know how it could be worse than what we already know how to bear.

[ Maybe there's more to lose for Billy, too. Vasquez has never made connections or ties to people the way the other man has seemed to. It means that there's probably more to lose for him. ]

[ He falls quiet as he's asked how it could be worse. How what punishments could be given could be worse than what they already know. Vasquez is right, of course- they know humiliation. Suffering. Pain. What could be done to them that white man's America hadn't already burdened them with?

Loss.

It's the one word that comes to mind as he slowly pulls the cigarette from his lips and puts it back in his case. Loss of memories, of the good times before Shanghai, of the pinpricks of happiness he had found along the way. And then Goody. They could separate them, force them apart so that never again would they see each other.

And that's something that cuts him like one of his beautiful knives. ]

... The home I investigated had an icebox too. And lamps that didn't need oil to burn.

[ Change the subject. Vasquez, let him tell you about the marvel of electricity. It's rather shocking. ]

[ Vasquez can tell the avoidance for what it is, but what's he going to get out of pushing the issue? He already knows the answer of the question he's asked for Billy, but honestly, for himself, he's not sure what can be done to him. The world has already treated him like shit, at least here he gets a roof and iceboxes and lamps. ]

I don't believe you.

[ He does, but again, he needs to give Billy something to allow him distraction. ]

Lamps without oil? Iceboxes and mansions? I thought this was punishment, not holiday. Next you'll tell me there's a fully stocked bar and drawers of cigars.

[ Perhaps instead of the brand on his forearm, he should have just gotten Goody's name tattooed across his heart. Bear that sin for all the world to see. But that would imply he was ashamed of it, ashamed of what they had. It was a secret, yes, for necessary reasons. But he'd rather walk straight into the flames of hell than renounce his love for Goodnight Robicheaux.

All the same, he's glad that Vasquez has taken the bait and changes topics to the peculiar houses instead of needling at the worries for what this world might bring. ]

Haven't found either of those yet. Just the basics. But the place is strange.

[ A pause. ]

Still haven't found the saloon or a proper druggist.

[ Well, there goes his hope that he could find some cigars and some other treats, but he supposes that strange is something you have to bear to deal with very big houses that come for free. Maybe not free, because they had to brand themselves, but then, he's seen worse. ]

I'm going to need more cigarettes than just yours, cabron, I know that.

[ Maybe that will be his punishment - complete withdrawal. ]

We might have to earn it, maybe we have to show penance for sins?

[ If complete withdrawal is what they'll go through, Billy knows that he is, in a word, fucked. Opium is a hell of a drug to withdraw from. He's seen the effects in Yee Fow, and it always ended with them crawling back into the dens for another taste.

Even as little of the drug is in his specially blended cigarettes, it's still going to be a kick in the teeth to withdraw from.
It'll be even worse for Goody. ]

Seems a funny thing to earn with penance. I'm sure tobacco is not so uncommon.

[ Same with the alcohol. They just need to know where to get it. ]

I haven't explored much of the town. We might find a place.

We? You already so lonely?

[ He's teasing, honestly, because it's only habit that's kept Vasquez on his own, but the only time he's felt safe enough to sleep and be comfortable had been with the others around, so he knows that it's the best situation, if he's with others. ]

I could use the company in a search. First, though, you show me these houses.

Lonely? Hardly.

[ There's a small snort of derision, and he rests his hands on his belt, shaking his head slightly. ]

Merely thought we should stick together. Follow me.

[ He'll take him to the house that he and Goody have found, the one he's managed to actually explore. Just a little ways out of the center of town.

It's not as big as some of the big houses of San Francisco, but it certainly feels like it. Three bedrooms, or a fourth depending on what they decided to do with the room with the bookshelves. A fireplace in the parlor, kitchen with running water. And not merely one spigot, but four, along with large tubs actually molded into the wall and floor. A root cellar and attic, as well.

Far too large for Billy to ever truly be comfortable in it. ]

[ Vasquez would feel safer with someone like Billy at his side. He hasn't mapped out this whole place, still doesn't have a really good feel for it, so until he does, he thinks that he could use someone to watch his back.

Even if he's still not sure how Billy can be here and not be riddled with holes. ]

I think if my abuela knew that I was in some purgatory place following a dead man, she might have to say at least one or two rosaries for me. Maybe it will even get me out of here faster.

[ There's a bitter sort of chuckle, softer than he imagines Vasquez can hear. He doesn't have family to pray for his immortal soul, and he himself had long washed away the idea. There was no one to set up a marker in his name or leave him offerings. ]

Pity that the only man who ever prayed for me is here, too.

[ And at this rate? Goody will be out of here long before him. There will come a time they'll have to part eventually. ]

This way.

[ He turns down another street, the shops with glass windows and little signs above the doors slowly turning into patches of grass with houses off the road. Not the little one or two room cabins or sod-houses that are far more commonplace for settlers, but made of stone and clean-cut boards, like the houses of San Francisco, Sacramento, and- if Goody's stories are to be believed- New Orleans. ]

That one down there is where I'm staying.

Don't look so sad, if you want me to pray, I can send up a prayer. Not sure that God listens to me anymore, but I still pray.

[ Maybe it's useless, but he still worries about his soul sometimes. Maybe being here is a response; it's not hell, but it's a chance to be better. The question is, does he want to be.

Whistling when he sees the house, he gives Billy an impressed look. ]

Never seen a house this big outside of the mansions of the rich people.

[ They're the ones who usually own slaves and are assholes, so Vasquez is predisposed not to like them. ]

[ There's a soft roll of his shoulders. A quiet gesture that means he doesn't really care one way or the other. There are some sins he can never repent for, some that he will refuse- and if that is the case, he'll be stuck here for eternity. ]

Agreed. I told you they were too big.

[ He'd take a cramped little log cabin any day. Hell, he's slept in broken down barns and in a tent under the stars, in lean-tos and abandoned houses and all of them had been more comfortable than the vast emptiness of these houses.

He pushes the door in all the same. Wonders if Goody might be home. ]

... We have enough space here to be a boarding house.

Would be more interesting if it were a brothel.

[ He's just pointing out the obvious, even though he doubts that it would happen. For one, there's probably no interest and two, maybe more importantly, when you're in a place that seems determined to make you repent, adding more sins isn't very smart. ]

Maybe I could find a small little version. That's all I really need.

Or a saloon.

[ He very much doubts a place that brands them for being murderers and more than likely looks unfavorably on his relations with Goody would allow for a brothel. Or a saloon. Gambling and drink wouldn't exactly go well with this Catholic Atonement that they've found themselves in.

... Although, if they could find the saloon, they could probably find Faraday. You know. If he made it. ]

All of the houses in this area seem to be about the same size. If we find something smaller, that'd be preferable.

[ There's an unspoken offer for Vasquez to stay here, too. Stick together. Maybe it's too big for just Goody and himself, but if they brought in more people, made it feel like a boarding house...

Of course, the tradeoff is that Billy and Goody wouldn't get any privacy. Their relationship would have to be hidden to visits in the midnight hour, slinking between bedrooms before dawn so no one would suspect... ]

Right. Lights.

[ He flicks the switch that's beside the door, and it seems like sunlight floods the entryway. No gas or flame needed, the lamps burning brighter than oil could ever provide. And a moment later, he flicks it off. Darkness again. Just the beginnings of the infinite mysteries of this house. ]

Don't tempt me, I'd love nothing more than to have a saloon run by someone who I know and can get in easily with.

[ He's not saying he'd want to cheat, but it'd be nice to have free drinks. He makes a sound of want from the depths of his throat as he thinks about how good that would be, shaking his head.

He watches with vague alarm and amazement when Billy turns the lights on with nothing more than a press of the hand. ]

How did that work? Is there gas in the walls?

Goody thinks it's something Edison was working on.

[ He flips the lights a couple more times, still admittedly in awe. But that's hardly the only surprise he has to show Vasquez. ]

Kitchen's this way.

[ Sadly, they haven't found any alcohol yet, but there's some tea and coffee left over from whoever lived here before. ]

Coffee or tea?

I don't know who an Edison is, I'm not sure I care, either.

[ He follows along, though, eyeing the lights warily like he's expecting some demonic spirit to jump out of them while he's paying attention to them, more than a little wary about all of it. ]

I thought this was going to be a potential saloon. Where's the tequila?

Some scientist. Ask Goody about it when you see him.

[ He's not the only one wary about the lights- and if something should go wrong with them, Billy would prefer at least an oil lamp or some candles to make sure they can light their way.

There's a soft smirk as Vasquez inquires about the tequila, and he shakes his head. ]

Whoever lived here was dry. No spirits in the house.

[ Vasquez gives Billy a horrified look at the idea of no alcohol, though if they really are in a place that requires atonement, maybe he shouldn't be so surprised when there aren't any sources of easily available liquor to be found. ]

Are you saying you've been sober this whole time? Is there nothing that you've found?

[ Listen, cabron, most of the time he's sober as a judge. The only exception in a long while was when Goody left. It doesn't bother him much that there isn't any liquor- what worries him is the dwindling supply of his drug of choice. ]

Nothing, so far. Just what was in Goody's flask.

[ He'll put the kettle on the weird stovetop. Might as well make some coffee. Show some semblance of hospitality. ]

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Test Drive 001

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