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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1 - for I have sinned (tw - cutting)
Goody might have laughed if he could. He can't. The sound of it dies in his throat before it can bubble to the surface. There is a tired almost manic shaking of his shoulders that might be a laugh, might be something else. He looks at the knife before him. He's seen ones like this before many times. All he has to do is take it. Take it and write his sins upon himself.

He has so many and it's so crushing. He's certain than if he starts, he might not be able to stop.

If he can start at all. His hands shake when he reaches for the dagger. In his mind, he can hear a familiar confident voice. Knives are easy. Perhaps they are. But to him, it's not so simple. He knows he should. But he deserves it. He deserves to suffer. He deserves to go to hell. For all he's done.

He chews his lower lip a little and takes a shaking breath and takes the knife finally. He mutters to himself. "But isn't it also a sin? To harm yourself?" And shouldn't that also add to his list of things he's done?

2 - there is a house in New Orleans
[ The house isn't half as nice as the Robicheaux manner. Nothing really is, but it's a huge step up from the inns and barns and out in the wild, sleeping by a camp fire. A huge step up really. But more than that, there are things in this place that Goodnight has never seen before in his life.

flip.... The lights turn on.

flipflipflipflip off on off on. He can't help but be utterly amazed by the miracle of electric lights. He really can't believe it. So he sticks his head outside to call out to a passer by ]

Hey, have y'all seen this?

3 - Cowboy in a modern era - networt sort of
[There's a man in a grey coat and hat going around with his phone, looking very confused. He's going to come to the next person he sees who might be using theirs.]

Excuse me. You look like you know how to use this confounded contraption. Could you do me a favor and show me how to use it?

[ The trick to dying, it appeared, was not remembering the exact moments of death.Only glimpses of his fate that leaves him wandering, lost, through the empty streets of this strange and dying town. A smile. A laugh. A flask by his hand. The sound of a bell ringing. All as blurred as the red sky overhead, a permanent ethereal twilight.

And a voice that he remembers.

Goody, leaning out of a strange looking house (they all are strange, really) shouting something about seeing something. Smile as bright as the sun and voice just as warm. And he’s foolish Icarus, dashing across the empty road to reach him, flying towards his sun. ]

Goody-

[ He remembers himself soon enough. Slows his pace to a casual walk. As much as he wants to kiss this man, to check him for injury, to hold him close and try to make sense of it all, he cannot. Who knows who might be watching. ]

You forgot this.

[ He holds out the flask, hidden in his pocket. The last vestiges of Home. ]

01; arrival
[It's like walking around in a daze. Penance is creepy, like a vision from a nightmare, but it isn't anything too unusual. He's been to Hell before, briefly. It maybe didn't appear to be quite that horrible here in Penance, but the greeters made it very clear that it wasn't going to be a cake walk either.

'Welcome to Penance, you're a horrible person!' felt like the basic greeting, along with voluntary torture. It didn't feel like he'd been given a choice at all... Teddy, his parents, his brothers-- if he wanted to get back to them, he had to go along with it for now. Going to a potential Hell that he couldn't escape from just wasn't an option.

It still kind of sucks though. He doesn't remember his death. He doesn't remember how he got here. It left a sick feeling in his stomach.

Still, when in doubt, it felt easier to keep his guard up. Hide how muchit was affecting him.]

So... you think they got anything to actually do here or is it twenty-four-seven torture?

02; punishment
[This is a nightmare he can't wake up from. It has to be, even if Billy didn't think even his subconscious could ever make up something as horrifying as this place was. He's not saying that he doesn't deserve this. He's done a lot of bad. He was made from bad, in a way... his mother used part of a demon's soul itself to create him.

Well, sort of at least. It's more complicated than Billy can wrap his head around as he scans the objects before him. Knives. He's not sure he can go that route, but he's pretty sure tattooing it wouldn't work. He wouldn't know how to give himself one anyway.

Burning something into his skin makes his stomach turn... which in return makes him feel guilty for not being brave enough to do it, but it is how it is.

He doesn't even know what sin to start with, honestly, but he finally reaches for one of the blades-- a black and red knife.

He gets as far as rolling up his sleeve, but Billy can't quite bring himself to just do it yet. Usually rash things are so easy for him to do, but this just feels like so much... too much.]

03; network

Uh, hello? I guess this is on now.

[Billy pops on the video. He's sat in some half-empty house he found to stay in, back to the wall as he sits on the floor. He gives a wry smile.]

My name is Billy Kaplan. If that name means anything to anyone... get in touch with me?

[He pauses, idly biting at his cheek.]

So, stupid question, but how is everyone settling in in this hellhole so far? I found a two-storey that was empty... it feels kind of like a waste of space just for me though.

Edited 2018-01-05 05:32 (UTC)

1 - the arrival

[Dionysus can remember, vaguely, what happened before his arrival... enough to believe it when he's told he died. Being on the list for Hell though, much less pleasant. So was the list of sins he's guilty of and the amount of time he's going to be paying them off before he gets back. He has to get back though... People needed him. A lot.

He lets out a breath, hands sliding into his pockets as he browses the empty shops curiously.

For the brief sleep he got back home, he still feels wrecked. He doesn't want to sleep here any more than he slept back home though... maybe even less if he's being honest.]

Hey-- [He starts when he sees someone coming out of one of the empty shops.] Did you see anything with caffeine in there?

2 - the branding

[Dionysus has been staring at the arrangement of tools for too long. He's half-phasing out, half considering which would be the easiest to do and where. Somewhere along the way, he's sat himself on the floor, legs folded and hands casually resting against them, brows furrowed in an uncharacteristically grim look.

He has to do this. He has to.]

Fuck it, I have no idea what I'm doing...

3 - settling in

[Most people are trying to find homes to stay in, Dionysus is trying to find a decent place for a party. People need a distraction, and if there's one thing that Dionysus can provide? It's that. He wants to help people as much as he can for however long he's here.

He peers in windows of buildings that look like they might work, ventures in one or two.

He might look a bit suspicious, but he's not actively trying to be.]

Um--

[Billy gives an incredulous look at the guy who approaches him, who looks like he just took a step out of some Old West movie. He might have laughed, if the guy didn't seem so genuinely confused. He tucks his own phone back in his pocket and gives a nod.]

Sure? What's giving you trouble?

[Billy sort of lives on his phone, so hey, he could have made a worse choice on who to approach.]

[He's never good at actually reaching out to people, but hey, it's going to be pretty boring without fans or any of the other assholes he already knows around. Besides, he can't actually resist making a comment, even if it's nothing to really do with the topic.]

Nice fringe. Pretty sure I do it better, though.

[He grins, showing off his canines. His shades can do the job of covering how strained his expression actually is around his eyes.]

I've lived in worse places. This is pretty middle-class after the last hellhole I spent time in.

[He's quiet approaching the room he can hear someone in, sneaking as best he can just in case it's someone he doesn't actually want to talk to, and ends up watching the scene from the door for a moment. He needs to double-check he's not seeing what he wants to see. Honestly, he'd never figured Dionysus for the hell-bound type- not like himself, anyway, so he wouldn't be surprised if he's just hallucinating the familiar tattoo.

But eventually he interrupts, aiming for loud, not sure he really achieves it.]

...Do any of us?

Arrival

[The town feels strange, nothing like anywhere he's ever lived, everything just a little too far apart and open for his liking. He probably shouldn't be surprised Hell looks like some kind of American TV set, though, and he might even be thankful that it's not just more of the same, even if not having an Underground is going to be weird and maybe even a little uncomfortable. The greeting committee is worse, making it very clear this isn't home any more, and he definitely isn't the god of this afterlife, if he was ever at all.

He needs somewhere dark to hide out for a bit and recuperate, is what it boils down to, and he's desperate enough to stop the next person he sees, eyes hidden under his shades, wearing a leather jacket and no shirt and really not stopping to think too hard about how that might look.]

Hey, you know if any of these houses have a basement?

Punishment

[He'll have had worse, he's almost done worse, and he's not really about to make whoever runs this place too angry. So if they say punishment is a part of what he's doing here- then punishment it is, and at least he gets to choose what he commits to skin. Might as well make it a short word, right? And he might as well pretend he gets some kind of choice about doing it at all, for that matter.

He holds the blade of the knife between his fingers first, heating it up with a small miracle, because he's fairly sure cauterising will be a painful bitch but much easier to keep clean. And then he sets the knife to the back of his left arm, wincing at the smell of cooked meat, but managing the two cuts it takes to do a very angular C.]

Shit-

[He has a few more words in that line, too, waiting for the pain to pass, but it's going to take a while to get through them...]

[The sound gives him a start, Dionysus twisting around to see who it is, even if he already knows. He couldn't forget that voice.]

Baph--

[Whatever he's about to say is forgotten with the realization of what it means to see him here. He's dead. He died. His shoulders slouch a bit and he lets out a breath.]

What happened?

[The face on the screen gives him a pause. The hair is pretty close after all...

But he can't let himself be one-upped by someone who looks like they live at Hot Topic or something.]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on that one, actually...

[He gives a wry smile at that.]

Okay, but exactly what was the last hellhole you spent time in?

Arrival

He awakens gasping on the floor, both sweating hands pawing at his tortured throat, which is abruptly free of obstruction. His assailant is gone, he survived. ...did he?

Rufus sits up on his elbows, his heartbeat struggling to return to normal as he takes in the space around him. It's a room unlike anything he's seen before, mainly in its simplicity. There's some sort of bulge in the ceiling above him, resembling a chandelier, or an oculus, but with no candles or skylight. Rufus finds himself fixated on this as he lies there, his mind racing as he tries to piece together what's happening.

Out and About

There's more off about the village than its red sky and quiet; the houses are shaped in a way unfamiliar to Rufus, uncanny in their similarities to the buildings he knows, yet with materials and designs that seem to come from somewhere else altogether.
He's wandering down the center of the street, wearing his guards' uniform and looking more or less like someone who might be found at a modern Renaissance faire, albeit much more confused.

Punishment

Though he's starting to understand, Rufus still needs a great deal of explanation. He's bewildered by his newfound ability to speak an entirely different language, and to understand when he hears it, but he still isn't quite certain he heard correctly.
A tattoo? Or a scar? Of... something he did wrong? But why?

out and about

Like a bad penny, Atticus was bound to turn up sooner or later.

He steps out of one of the many dilapidated houses lining the central thoroughfare, shrugging his shoulders into a smart-looking blazer that was, more than likely, confiscated from a wardrobe inside. (It was this or an executioner's hood.)

Considering his surroundings inscrutably, he spots Rufus approaching from a different direction, and goes still.

Edited 2018-01-05 20:46 (UTC)

It's while Rufus is peering in an empty shop window that he catches a familiar reflection in the glass, and he turns quickly to see that he has company.

Was it a dream where he last saw Atticus? If they're both still walking around, breathing, functioning, it must have been, because there was no surviving that. Feeling a well of panic in his chest, the Captain forces it back to approach his employer, smiling in his well-meaning way and sketching a bow.

"Master Vedici," he greets, "it's good to see you here."

And it is, because Rufus knows little about magic or what it can do, and he now has reason to assume someone is here who can tell up from down.

Edited 2018-01-05 21:50 (UTC)

"Is it?"

A man has joined him at the tool cabinet, standing slightly behind and scrutinizing all the terrible sharp implements with a quirked brow.
"This all seems a bit much," he remarks with a halting smile, "I don't know who made the rules here, but I don't suppose they'd mind if I wrote 'idiot' on my forehead in charcoal and called it a day."

Edited 2018-01-05 21:58 (UTC)

One already has a person in it, and the building appears to have once been a pub of some kind. Rufus is behind the bar, not exactly hiding (and much too large to do so successfully even if that were the idea), but not being overt about his presence either.
At least, until the door opens. His head pops up above the counter and he smiles easily, standing the rest of the way with a whiskey bottle gripped cheerfully in one hand.

"You're just in time," he announces, "glad to see some things always stay the same." In other words, Thank God There's Booze.

Atticus isn't smiling.

"Basco," he says, all neutrality, all impenetrable mask. This place has none of the hallmarks of dreaming, for if it did, surely Atticus would not have brought himself into it wearing a gallows' noose around his throat. (He cuts his eyes to Basco's neck; there's some irony to this meeting.)

He takes a breath and reaches for his glasses, which are still cracked, of course, but serve him better than their absence. "Yes," he says faintly, turning around, "wherever 'here' turns out to be."

Edited 2018-01-05 22:04 (UTC)

"I hadn't thought to look."

The man Baphomet has stopped is not particularly remarkable looking; close to middle-age, dressed in business casual that looks as though he recently confiscated it from one of the derelict houses around them. He looks back at this strangely dressed young man with very pale eyes, then turns instead to consider the buildings around them.

Atticus glimpses what looks as though it might be a basement window near the foundation of one especially forbidding-looking place. "There, perhaps."

He turns to look back at Baphomet, considering him for a silent moment. Then, as though coming to some decision, he suggests, "Shall we have a look?"

Hell if I know.

[It's not a great play on words, but it's a start, right? He gives Dionysus a grin, because it's been a while and their last conversation wasn't great, as parting conversations go. He's even a little relieved that it wasn't, even if it's a case of Situation Normal, All Fucked Up.]

One minute I'm sat around waiting for Marian to get back, the next I'm here. Heard something happened to you, though.

[It's a terrible play on words, but he can't quite bring himself to complain about it right now. It's not as horrible as some of his puns after all--

And really. Their last conversation wasn't a particularly good one and they're reuniting in a way he would really prefer not to.]

I think I died. [Obviously, and there are details that Baphomet needs to know, but... maybe not right now. Not here.] They say we get a second chance if we're good.

It actually is a relief. Dionysus might not exactly be looking for alcohol, but this place is familiar enough. It's a break from the red skies outside, the entire Hell implication.

He gives a smile in return as he steps in. "Is this place yours yours?"

Hey, I don't have to agree to anything.

[He's just saying, he is a god, agreeing was not part of the deal. Not that he actually got to read the shortprint or anything.

His grin fades, and he shrugs.]

Pretty average as hellholes go. Dark, mostly. At least here I have access to Jack Daniels.

[Back home was a more emotional trap than this one can ever be, without Marian to keep him in it. But he's not going to spill his guts about it to strangers.]

Why, where did you come from?

That gives him pause, because it sounds like the setup for an awful horror movie, but he's pretty sure this guy doesn't actually know who or what he's talking to. Baphomet might not be the worst thing here, but he can probably fend off a middle-aged man.

...The idea that if he's not as harmless as he looks, the other guy might not be either doesn't even cross his mind. There are a few less than twelve gods now, and he knows of all of them, and his world doesn't give powers to random people as far as he knows.

"Yeah, why not?" he says eventually, hands shoved in his pockets. "If nothing else, maybe there's something useful in there."

Not quite, last I heard. Body's still there, just you aren't really in it any more.

[Everyone dies on him in the end, it's not even news any more, and if he sounds callous about it he probably is being. Dionysus knows what he's like, and is also ludicrously forgiving, so it will probably be fine. He ventures further in the room, eventually leaning against the wall just behind Dionysus, looking down.]

That should be easy for you, but their idea of good is about as fucked up as mine.

I'm not. I'm here instead, which means dead, doesn't it?

[It doesn't matter what his body is doing up there if he's not in it. But maybe he can be--

Or maybe it's all a big lie and they're stuck here forever.]

I have to mark myself soon... it's what I was about to do.

[So if Baphomet doesn't want to stay... or if he does. He's not telling him to leave, but he feels like he should get it over with soon.]

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Page 1 of 14

Test Drive 001

OOC questions, comments, etc.

Goodnight Robicheaux | Magnificent Seven

2!

Billy Kaplan | Marvel 616

Dionysus | The Wicked + The Divine

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Baphomet | Wicked + Divine

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Rufus Basco | OC

Atticus Vedici | OC

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arrival

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