atonementmods | Premise

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.

At some point while wandering this creepy ghost town, all new visitors are greeted by the same small group. It's a curious mix of cherub faces and demonic sneers dressed up in smart suits. Professionals. They tell you that you were very bad in your past life, but not to worry, they are here with an offer that you really shouldn't refuse.

Stay in Penance and agree to undergo punishments for your sins, cleanse yourself of all that heavy baggage, or follow your less pleasant greeters down to the pits of Hell to suffer for an eternity.

It seems like a simple choice to make. If you stay and work off your debts, you are free to return to your home world and live a second chance at life in any way that you choose, and to hopefully do it better. Of course, there is some minor fine print. If you agree to stay and seem to not be taking it seriously, your hosts will be very displeased and more severe punishments may be dealt out. If you continue to sin and hurt others, your punishments will be more severe still.

It isn't all dreary torture and hopeless surroundings though, not at all. In exchange for your cooperation, everyone is given the means to make Penance the lively town that it used to be. Food, clothing, and the means to open up their own businesses and do most of whatever their hearts' desire are all provided (almost) freely to their guests. Your hosts would rather you succeed if possible.

Hell is having some difficulties at the moment and doesn't need more growing pains after all...

But that's a minor, uninteresting detail in the scheme of things and nothing you ought to worry about. The welcoming committee leaves you to your own devices after your agreement has been settled upon, papers signed with a prick of blood, seeming to vanish into thin air.

Now that you're alone, what will you do until your first punishment?

Atonement is a panfandom sandbox based in a town on the border between Hell and the living world called Penance. Characters are allowed to live their lives and work off their sins by agreeing to undergo punishments whenever their hosts see fit. In exchange, they can live their lives as normally as possible in between their trials until their debts are paid off.