THE SKY WENT OFF-WHITE.

[wastemods]

WHO: Anyone and everyone.
WHAT: Our inaugural test drive meme.
WHERE: Anywhere in the world core.
WHEN: Whenever your character arrives.
NOTES: Expect surreal horror and possible violence. Please use common sense when warning for other content.

Art by Basile Godard

THE SUNLIGHT SPLINTERED.

You reach the end of the ash-gray hall at a run, hands fumbling for an antique door handle. And then you stumble, fall, tumble—any number of adjectives, depending on where, exactly, the door opened—into a radio station.

The equipment is old and dusty, but devoid of cobwebs to the observant eye. And it's dark, save for whatever light makes it through the windows. They display disjointed locations; perhaps one shows an upside-down tower, while its neighbors frame the crumbling pavement of a rotting car park and the stripped out interior of a sewer. Whatever the case, peering through one window reveals a landscape that impossibly doesn't connect to the next.

The door is still there, the only exit to this grubby room. It opens somewhere, anywhere else in this distorted world. And once you leave, it no longer leads back whence you came.

Where do you go?

THE LIGHT, DIVIDED.

A sun on one horizon, a full moon on the other. They're luminous but unreal, like they were plucked from a sky and pasted to a flat, starless backdrop. You can see only one, depending on which side you entered; it's essentially random. Both "sides" overlap like alternate dimensions and you can't see anyone who isn't on the same side as you. Light or dark, you walk in the light of a muted sun or an overbright moon. It never feels quite real.

Neither star nor satellite seem to move from their position. The passage of time is at a standstill.

Regardless of which side you're on, you'll find signs that you aren't alone. What someone does on one side affects the other, so moving an item or writing something down will translate to floating items and mysteriously appearing letters. Speech doesn't travel...unless there's a radio. Radios may turn on and off, with voices audible through the white noise. And if you walk past a mirror, the reflection isn't your own. Instead, it acts as a window to the other side.

In-character observations:

• Anyone sensitive to time, space, and related dimensional shenanigans will feel they're distorted. And it isn't something they can fix, at least not with powers.
• It's possible to cross dimensions if a character has related powers, but they'll suffer backlash and significant stress from the transition. Successive jumps aren't gonna fly.
• If a character is affected by the sun or moon, they'll find neither holds sway over them here; e.g., vampires can walk in daylight and werewolves won't shift in the full moon.

TL;DR: Whatever this is, it isn't natural.

THE SHADOW REALM.

Outdoors, there are shadows on the prowl.

Silent and eerily insubstantial, they trail after you like blind spots given form. Staring at them too long is unsettling but, for the most part, they're content to watch you back...if they can watch. They don't seem to have eyes.

When that isn't enough, however, they attack. Stealing the shape of monsters from other worlds, they may lack special powers, but that doesn't keep them from being dangerous. When in doubt, you're safest indoors.

But maybe that isn't good enough for you. Or maybe you just fucked up. Either/or.

RADIO WAVES.

If you aren't wondering how you got here, you're probably at least asking why. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anyone around who can answer your questions. Everyone else is as clueless as you.

But, some time after you arrive—whether it's days, hours, minutes, or seconds—the dead air stirs. The atmospheric pressure drops and playhouse lightning arcs across the facsimile of a sky. It's a storm that warns of what's to come, as an earthquake shifts the ground beneath your feet. Around you, buildings flood, and water pours out in falls only half aware of gravity. Wind hurls debris at such high speeds, it turns into shrapnel. Rain pelts you from above and below as the temperature plummets. It starts to snow.

Somehow, the sun and moon remain visible through the turmoil. A collection of mirrors scattered through the world don't reflect their light; instead, it passes through them and illuminates the other side. These specific mirrors, all set in ash-gray frames that match the halls, are untouched in the unfolding natural disasters, and standing before them will shield you as well. Consider them havens in the chaos, proverbial eyes in the storm.

In the dark, a radio turns on of its own accord. Is someone—something—talking to you?

INTO ALL OUR DARKEST FEARS.

Welcome to THE WASTEYARD's first test drive! Some quick things to remember:

• Our TDMs tie into the game plot. As such, any applicants can keep their TDM threads as game canon.
• The network is exclusive to in-game characters. TDM characters can only use radios.
• There is a language barrier, so please mention what language your character speaks somewhere.
• We don't have a fixed day ratio; instead, you pace yourself at your discretion.
• Characters may face backlash when using any powers.
• Mark if your character is on the sun or moon side of the divide. The choice is yours as the player.
• If you have any questions, please direct them to our FAQ!

And that's all, folks. So take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!

NAVIGATION.

PREMISE
RULES
FAQ
ACTIVITY
APPLICATIONS

TAKEN
HIATUSES & DROPS
CANON UPDATES
REWARDS
TPC CLAIMS

WORLD
EXPLORATION
DEVICES
QUESTS
INFORMATION

CALENDAR
SUGGESTIONS
MOD CONTACT
SETTING INBOX
CODEBOOK

Comments

[ascocarp]

[She stares at him, lips pursed in remote anger. It would be so freeing to scream, yell, or just fucking leave. The worst thing, though, is she knows she'd regret it all later, swallowed up by her own loneliness.]

[She takes a deep breath.] If I was bigger than you, what the fuck would you do? [It's all she'll say. Anything else puts her position too much in the forefront.]

[The people who've really fucked with her, though, the people who really tried to hurt her, they... were nicer than this. That shouldn't be comforting, but it is.]

So what do you want, huh? I'm fucking lost, too. I don't think you can be not lost in this shithole.

[calculo]

( robbie rolls his eyes and finally pushes away from the counter so he can walk the perimeter of the room. there's gotta be another way out of here since their previous exit was gone now. )

If you were bigger than me, I guess you'd just be yelling at me but in a deeper voice. ( jokes. )

I don't want anything from you, Ellie. ( he wants to get out of here but he figures that's a shared goal. ) Haven't asked you for anything despite you holding a knife on me.

( he's really been pretty nice all things considered. ) Right now, I want to find a door.

[ascocarp]

[She sighs, and it sounds something like a sniff, laughter repressed. Fine, whatever, they can pretend they're all friends and shit, but she's not letting her guard down. She doubts, for all his big talk, he'll do the same, unless he's seriously underestimating you. She murmurs under her breath, teeth chattering from the bone-deep cold in her hand,] Yeah, but I gave you shit, and now you're whining...

[Whatever, whatever. She's sick of this.] There's always a way out in this frickin' place. I thought I got stuck a million times, but there's always a door or a window... Wait, shit.

[She laughs to herself, a dry, tired sound, and starts opening all the cabinets.]

[calculo]

You think you're the first kid to give me shit? ( gabe did it all the time. god, robbie really hopes he's not here. his brother's smart, clever and resourceful but this is not the place for him. and if he is here, robbie needs to find him. )

You think the way out's through a cabinet? ( hadn't he heard about a book that went like this once? maybe it was something gabe tried to get him to read when they'd both been younger. ) Would make as much sense as anything else in this place.

[ascocarp]

We got in here through a fuckin' clock, remember? [She shakes her head, and keeps opening cabinets. Now that he's mentioned it, the lack of a door out is starting to bother her.] You can look, or you can bitch.

[calculo]

You really got a strange definition of bitching. ( and people thought he was defensive. besides, he is looking. he's dragging his fingers along the wall, looking for slats or bumps or some indication of hollowness that would denote a door. but, it's solid. it's just wall. )

Let's hope the door isn't through the oven. Seems like tempting fate to crawl through there. ( he doesn't want to become a shadow's dinner. )

[ascocarp]

Oh, fuck. [She sucks her teeth, and walks over to the oven. Lo and behold, there's clearly something on the other side that isn't the interior to an oven.] God dammit, Robbie, you jinxed it.

[Said with more tired resignation than actual heat. There might even be something like humor.]

[calculo]

You're kidding me. ( look, that hadn't been his intention but now he's moving, coming up behind her and crouching down to see that there was something on the other side of that oven. that...how does that even happen? )

Dios, I hate this place. ( doesn't matter that he's been here five minutes. he hates it. he wants out. he doesn't have time for puzzles like this. )

Want me to go first? ( since that was there way out and all. )

[ascocarp]

[It kind of looks like another room, maybe, if viewed through a giant peephole. Ellie is busy enough squinting at it that Robbie's words catch her by surprise, and it shows on her face. People always ask her to go first. She's smaller and it's scary, but you have to prove your worth, carry your weight. She blinks a moment, processing this, but can find no ulterior motive.]

...Yeah. Yeah, you go first.

[calculo]

All right.

( he crouches down and then shifts and stretches his way into the oven. it's not a suffocating fit but it is tight. his jacket scrapes up against the sides of the wall and his hand scrabble a bit on the uneven surface but he eventually passes into another, bigger room with a few different doors.

there's no roof and the sun beats down, making it warm and bright. at least there's that. at least they can see outside. )

Come on. I'm through.

[ascocarp]

[And she watches him. He goes without cajoling or complaint. That, more than anything, finally builds something like trust. She nods, squares her shoulders, and slides through.]

Holy shit. I'm never gonna get used to that.

[calculo]

Just be glad I didn't get stuck.

( he wasn't a big guy but ovens were not spaces meant for anyone to go crawling through. this wasn't a prison break except they were having to treat it like it was. everything was tight, cramped and hidden.

the area around them is what looks like the remnants of a building. the walls are half gone, windows busted out and one single bed in the middle of everything. )

¿Qué demonios es este lugar? ( nothing makes sense. not a single piece of this. ) You recognize this place at all?

[ascocarp]

Real reassuring. [But it's without any real heat; she's mostly talking just to talk.]

[Ellie lands on the other side of the... oven, and she finds the broken ruins of a building around her. Wow, great. Home sweet home.]

Nope. [She pops the P.] Have you got, like, some kind of theory on all this crazy bullshit?

[calculo]

No.

( he's really not ready to tell her what kinds of things he's done back home, how he's hops from one dimension to another on a regular basis. this isn't like that. he hadn't come here of his own volition. this isn't part of the deal that he'd made with the rider. )

You remember what you were doing before this? Did anything feel off?

[ascocarp]

[Ellie gives an expansive shrug, adding both her arms into the gesture.] Not really. [Does anything ever feel right, anymore? Ugh, so dramatic.]

I mean... [Now that she consciously thinks on it, instead of forcing herself not to think of it, she can't quite... place it. What was she doing right before this?] Fuck. [She doesn't want to just offer it up, though. Information is valuable.] What about you?

[calculo]

Talking to my brother.

( that's not exactly the truth but it's safe. it's easy. it's normal, something he definitely is not. not anymore. )

Making him dinner. It was a typical night. I'd gotten home from work, he was home from school, we were eating and next thing I know, I'm here.

( there had been no portal opening up, no pain, no flash of light, nothing. the car accident that changed his life had been more traumatic than his arrival to whatever this place was. )

[ascocarp]

[She goes still at that, staring at him sharply. I got home from work and made him dinner. It sounds like something out of a book.]

What year is it?

[calculo]

Where I'm from? ( he shrugs. ) 2017. That not the year where you're from?

[ascocarp]

[She has to take a second to think. She left the school in '33, and it's been a while since then... New Years probably passed while she was tending to Joel, or right after. It's not like they were lugging a calendar around.] Thirty-four, I guess. But- [She frowns, thinking. He didn't describe anything that'd be impossible, just unlikely. Maybe the QZs are better where he's from. It's not like she's been there. Anyway, weren't things better at first? Or were they worse? People talk about it both ways.] I dunno, I just thought... Nevermind. I'm glad you and your brother made it out okay.

[calculo]

Wouldn't say we're okay but we're getting by. ( gabe was in a wheelchair and he was carrying around some hell demon but yeah, they were doing...all right. )

Made it out okay from what? ( she's hinting around something, something that must have happened to her wherever she's come from and he wants to know now. )

What happened to you? ( there's no demand in his tone, just simple curiosity. )

[ascocarp]

Getting by is pretty okay.

[She shrugs, and then, when he goes on, her posture becomes stiffer. She's got a naturally expressive face, so it's hard to go completely stonefaced, but god knows she's trying. She envies Joel his beard, in that moment.]

What d'you mean?

[calculo]

Made it out okay. ( he repeats the words she'd used on him and looks at her expectantly. ) Made it out of what?

( she doesn't have to answer but he can tell there's something there beyond the normal 'made it out of high school' or whatever that most kids her age would be doing. )

[ascocarp]

[She spreads her arms wide, an exaggerated shrug complete with that very specific look of teenage antipathy.] The infection. Duh.

[Now that it's not about her, singular, she can deal with it.]

[calculo]

( if she expects to see recognition on his face, she's going to be surprised because there is none. he waits for her to elaborate but when she doesn't, he shakes his head and shrugs. )

No idea what you're talking about. There wasn't any infection where I come from.

( plenty of other mierda but no infection. )

[ascocarp]

[She doesn't know how to respond to that. It's clear on her face; no surprise, no confusion, not even really disbelief. She's just... she draws a blank. How do you deal with a normal person who is so thoroughly removed from every context she's ever known?]

...Okay. [She resettles the backpack on her shoulders, hands gripping the straps.] Let's get outta here. Already been in the same place too long.