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TEST DRIVE!

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Prompt 1: Amnesia

[ You woke up, all your memories having vacated you. Well, that sucks. But hey, no time like the present to go out and figure out things. Maybe someone in your smartphone contacts knows you or what's going on. You open up your smartphone's lock screen and-- hey, that looks relevant. Profile pages! It has your unit name, member names, but no pictures. . .

Well, the rest varies. This one says Likes: Industrial Strength cleaning products, Breakbeat hardcore, Volleyball shorts and Dislikes: Roombas, Electro-industrial, Maid Outfits. The next has a thrilling tale that concludes with the idol mud-wrestling God, though it doesn't mention if they won or not. The third says that the member became an idol because they want to use the television and media attention to get the notice of their long lost sister, and reunite their family. The fourth just has someone's three sizes. The fifth has a detailed astrological profile.

Since no one remembers their names and there's no pictures to match it to, this is actually less helpful than you hoped. And furthermore, the doors aren't opening until you and the rest of the amnesiacs on this unit tell it who is who. Looks like you and the rest of these people have to discuss which of you is more likely to have mud-wrestled god, and who joined because they really want to find their long-lost sister. Or you can just use the tape-measure that was left sitting on the main table of the center room, that might be a quick way to settle at least one of these things. ]

Prompt 2: Memory Regain

[ You saved up your points, performing in Games or Lives or Vids, something or other until you had enough points to put the order in.

You didn't really know how to expect a memory to look like, but as it turns out there's just an alert on your app. Once you click it, a playback starts-- on the screen, and in your mind. You remember something now.

However, in buying the cheap version, that just broadcasted to several other people's phones in the area as well as all screens in the area. Cool. That was definitely what you were trying to do. ]

Prompt 3: Game Time

[ Welcome to the Game Tower. Today's game is a sort of mad fake phantom thief free-for-all. You arrived, were given top hats and cloaks, and the inside floor of the tower had been remodeled to resemble an art museum, with a giant roulette wheel right by the elevator you exited. Below that was a little slot, where today's hologram host explained the wheel would spit out a slip with a goal just for you.

So you have a little slip of paper with a goal on it, and no way of knowing what anyone else's goals are, though you did see the big roulette wheel being spun at the beginning letting you know the some of the possibilities:
♚Steal a heart
♚Steal a life
♚Steal an object
♚Steal a kiss
♚Steal someone's clothes
♚Steal someone's shoes
♚Steal a secret
♚Steal the giant statue from the center of the museum
♚Steal the portrait that depicts your true love

...well, waiting around isn't going to get you any points. Get to it, temporary phantom thief! ]

Prompts 4: Fanmail

[ Today, trying to take the elevators up from the lobby to access the apartments you and the other units live in just isn't working. Upon the doors being pried open, you found out why quickly: the elevator shaft was jammed up with fan mail, so it couldn't properly descend. Letters cascades out from between the open doors: letters from people who watch you play games, do lives, make vids, and probably all sorts of other things on those omnipresent cameras.

Are you really going to read these? Though right at your feet, a few have spilled from their envelopes. Now you can't help but read those. Here's one in purple glitter pen that says, jesus just come into my home and strangle me with your hair and one that is written with newspaper cut out letters (alarmingly reminiscent of a calling card written by a serial killer) that reads incongruently hello my soft best child ur good and valid and I love you forever plz be ok don't listen 2 the haterz u have done nothing wrong. Oh, and here's one asking if you can wear tighter pants for your next live, they want a better shot of your ass for their shrine. This one just says MARRIED?

Well, it's just as well you have no idea who those were for. Most this fanmail isn't for you. Except for the few that you just read, they're all labeled in envelopes for different people from all the units. Time to read other people's fanmail. Or try and find them and deliver the fanmail. Or just start a big fire in the middle of the lobby, you could do that too. ]

Prompts 5: Wildcard

Feel free to make your own prompt. Here is a link to specific unit information, if you would like to use it as inspiration.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You... what?!

[PROCESSING...........]

At the very least you should have enough courtesy to read it properly. [Is he do-- no hE'S NOT DONE.] To burn it in front of the people who took such care in sending those things... don't you feel any sense of remorse for their feelings?

[ oh boy you are new ]

I read through it, I tell them which parts I like, I answer questions if they've asked 'em... and then I toss it all into the fire.

[ Sometimes he keeps key chains! And he gives the plushes to Zari, or at this point some of them probably go to Persi. But everything else goes in the fire. ]

Because no one has the storage space for this.

I...

[He grits his teeth. It still feels wrong, but-- he can't deny the logic of it.]

...I suppose you have a point. If things were to continue on like this, eventually you'd need to choose what to keep and what to discard. Perhaps it is better then to just... appreciate it now and be rid of it all, in fairness.

Fairness.

[ Man, there's a lot in Imeeji that concerns him in terms of Fairness, but. ]

Honestly, I'm mostly worried about storage. [ Beat. ] And, you know. Encouraging things I don't actually wanna encourage.

[Encouraging?? Hmm. Perhaps he's too new here to fully get it yet.]

...I can't say I completely understand, but...

I suppose if that is the way things have been handled here for some time, then there's probably good reason for it. Still... at this rate, I'm going to be here quite a while.

[Because he still has to properly read it all first, of course.]

[ Well, he's not gonna lie to the newbie, even if he thinks he (and most people here) would be better off burning the vast majority of what they get. ]

Oh, I'm... definitely not the only person who just burns most if not all of it, but I wouldn't say it's the way things are handled here, either. A lot of people keep way more than I do.

Edited 2022-04-26 15:15 (UTC)

And reading it'll probably clue you right in, but I'm talking your — image?

[ Smallest beat. ]

You can't totally control it, of course. Sooner or later, you're going to do something here that you definitely wouldn't have if you'd had full control of the situation.

[ Or yourself. ] [ And for this bit, he leans in, lowering his voice. ]

But you can control how you react when you get fanmail about it.

My image...

[He seems to become even more serious.]

For an idol, I can't imagine there are a great many things more important than that.

[He gives those words a great deal of consideration, weighing them mentally-- even as he begins to approach one of the first boxes in the front.]

But if you say reading it will help me understand, then it's clear what I need to do.

[ ..................................? ]

—Yeah. It's sure to be enlightening, one way or the other.

[He hums, seemingly in agreement. And for some time he is mostly silent; unpacking and reading through various pieces of mail. Some only take a few moments to go over while others are studied longer.

At first his expression is simply curious. Then perhaps a bit surprised.

But it continues to shift.]

This... is...

[Really it's only a matter of time before his face begins to color. And as the color deepens, until he ultimately bursts.]

--highly inappropriate!!

[He shoves what he was reading back into the box so hard it's a miracle the box didn't have a hole in it.]

[ Welp, that sure wasn't a very controlled reaction. Lupine purses his lips in an effort not to laugh. It would be mean to laugh! Innocently: ]

You don't say. Which part, blondie?

[ As if he couldn't guess. There's a lot about their mail that someone might describe as "inappropriate", but the bright red is a hint. ]

Edited 2022-04-26 15:17 (UTC)

[Exhaling, he tries to regain his composure. He can tell there is absolutely nothing innocent about it, but he cannot completely ignore the question either.]

I refuse to publicly acknowledge such ideas. So you might as well give it up now.

[He won't say. He CAN'T say.]

Oh, come on. You have to realize that's an answer, too.

It is nothing of the sort!!

And I'll ask you not to make your own assumptions with nothing to base them on!

[ So much for trying not to laugh! He's gonna need a minute. ]

[This person is officially the worst.]

...by all means, please. Get it all out of your system.

[His dignity will just be over here taking major damage in the meantime.]

[ he IS thanks for noticing ♥ ]

I've been here — since — Day 402. [ Wheezing. Okay, deep breath, trying again: ] Trust me, whatever you got in the mail, I've seen worse.

[...that changes his expression into a calmer one of consideration. Although he shows no sense of being upset with it himself... there is no telling what all people have been willing to send if they were perfectly fine putting their name to something like this.]

...I see. My deepest apologies. I may have been... somewhat naive in forming my initial expectations here.

[ And that's nice of you but he just snorts. ]

Nothing to apologize for. My first day, I did get someone asking if they could keep my decapitated head, though. You know, just... whenever that happened for the first time.

[ ...THUMBS UP. ]

So far so good!

[SIR. SIR??!?!!]

There's nothing "good" about that!

[The fact that Lupine is so calm and unaffected by it only makes it worse. What other horrible things have people sent??]

How... how can you act as though it's nothing?

[ It's good that he still has his head! Hasn't lost it yet. But, uh, his smile goes decidedly crooked. Eyes flicking up to the ceiling, where he imagines cameras might be if they were more visible. Back to Flynn's face again. ]

I mean, we're all gonna lose body parts eventually. That fan definitely can't have my head, I'm pretty sure I'll need it back, but eh. They can ask.

[ And then he moves closer, under the guise of checking out another box of mail, to murmur: ]

Besides. Freaking out? It's only gonna encourage that kind of fan.

I am not freaking out.

[But he does take a deep breath anyway.]

But I cannot believe that allowing such behavior to be treated as acceptable will change anything. Doing and saying nothing is the same as welcoming it!

[ SO. NEW. ]

I mean, you can definitely try that tactic. [ Clapping your shoulder! ] I'll wish you luck. Me, though? I'm gonna stay focused on encouraging the kind of mail I like instead.

[ ........Man, it's a little tempting to just, like, shove one of the doujin he got in this guy's face. In his experience, anyway, the content definitely gets less tame once the fans know you better! ]

[He gets the sense that he is being baited here. Logically he should avoid it all together. But somehow that feels a little too much like being beaten-- despite the fact that this is clearly no competition.]

Oh? And just what sort of mail is that?

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