memesinthenight | TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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!tdm

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

Hello and welcome to the In the Night test drive meme for September! Thanks for your interest in our game! Reserves open on September 20, and applications open on September 22.

While you're here...
Take a look at our rules and faq pages to familiarize yourself with the game.
Note that we have a reserve cap of 20, and a (current) application cap of 13 apps this month for new players, as the game has a player cap of 60. An accurate count of current players will always be available on the taken page.
TDM threads can become game canon if both players wish. If the situation isn't something that could happen in-game, you're free to chalk it up to some strange hallucination, a shared dream, or other mysterious circumstance.
Note that this is not limited to new characters threading with characters already in-game. If current players wish to thread out the TDM prompts as canon events, they are welcome to do so. They are welcome to make posts in the main comms for TDM events as well. Please note, however, that actual plot clues or happenings will not occur in TDM prompts.
If you plan to apply, please keep in mind that we do require at least one sample thread on the application to be from our TDM (though it doesn't need to be the current TDM).
You're welcome to use the provided prompts or come up with something on your own, but we do ask that all threads take place in our game's setting.

Thank you again, and we hope you'll choose to join us!

log prompts

GATHER YE ROSEBUDS WHILE YE MAY

With a cloud of mourning having weighed heavy on Beacon over the last month, the Lighthouse Keeper has decided to try and rally the community with a game: a selfie scavenger hunt! With the promise of (secret) prizes for those who play along, she's provided a list of 25 different items to track down and take a picture with. And, of course, all submissions will be public for others to view and comment upon. A town forum, Instagram-style. How fun! Feel like teaming up? Finding a companion to go searching with could make the task go by faster, as there's nothing saying that you can't both submit the same pictures so long as you take them together. And what's a proper game without company?

This prompt is a mini version of this month's Gather Up event.

IT'S RAININ' SIDEWAYS

Overall, the weather has been mild lately. Since Autumn hit, the standard has been overcast darkness blotting the stars and little wind. The rumble of thunder sounds just before the downpour begins, as if a switch has been flipped up in the clouds. If you're in the Invincible, the houses in the village, or any of the other solid establishments, it isn't anything to worry about, really. Mostly, it just means hunkering down until the storm passes. However...it seems that someone opted to build themselves a structure in the square that's proven not to be able to withstand these harsher elements. Whether you're the unfortunate sap in the tent or you're merely a bystander, one way or another, you notice its roof cave in, the beams placed to support it buckling inward and trapping the inhabitant inside. It's not enough to crush someone, but it'll surely be difficult to gather oneself as the wind and the rain bears down without mercy. Call for help and maybe someone will hear you, or be the good Samaritan that runs to their aid.

network prompts

I CAN'T *PBBT* UNDERSTAND *PBBT* YOUR ACCENT

Something's wrong. The things that you type and the things that you speak are transforming themselves upon being posted to the network. Or maybe that's not quite accurate, because everything in your posts are certainly your own words...it's just that indiscernible static has descended upon the page and crept into your audio, blocking out pieces of your statements--just enough to change the overall meaning of what you were originally saying. Efforts to clarify don't seem to be improving the situation, and it's hard to say if there's any way of fixing this. Maybe it's a comfort that the problem isn't isolated on your end; after all, that effectively takes the issue out of your hands to solve. Or maybe it's just the opposite. Maybe knowing that the network is experiencing widespread failures, however mild, fills you with a sense of dread and unease. One thing's clear, at least: you'll need a bit of luck to get your point across for the time being.

THE TITLE EQUIVALENT FOR WHEN YOUR GRANDMA COMMENTS ON YOUR UNRELATED FB STATUS AS IF SHE'S WRITING YOU A PERSONAL LETTER

Sometime in the recent past you had a problem. Maybe it was a dire emergency advertised to the community at large, maybe you became overwhelmed with stress and needed the ear of a close friend, or maybe it was just something embarrassing you were sharing in confidence. Unfortunately, regardless of what the message was, it looks like it disappeared the moment you hit send, as if it had been eaten by the network itself. It's been long enough now that you've brushed it off; you've been able to solve your problem one way or another and moved on. That's when it appears, unprompted, on the network for all to see, regardless of how private it was meant to be. Well, now you might have a bit of explaining to do.

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[ Heightened sense of smell. Not the least common thing Alice had come across. She wrinkles her nose. Human bodies are gross, it's true. She's getting used to it again, but god, it sucks.

But it's the change in her voice that strikes a chord with Alice. Solitude. Loneliness. They seem the same, but they aren't. When Charlie died, Alice had wanted solitude so she could pretend the loneliness was under her control. Now, with her father dead... dead and not here for her to find and spend time with... ]

If I leave, it'll just be someone else next. So where will you go? There are humans everywhere here. Some of them might even try to hurt you.

[ Alice might've, but only as a niffin, as a creature of pure magical energy and a soul without its shade. As a human, she'll only hurt someone if she really has to. ]

[Eleven's eyebrows draw together. Not quite a frown, the expression borders on concern. It's easy to see he consider the situation. Alone, in the dark, bumping into a stranger, and definitely noticing those red eyes.

Still... the woman doesn't look like the monsters Eleven knows. Nor does she look like people Eleven knows, and that leaves the girl on uneven footing.]

Why are you alone?

[The tone is almost petulant, a child parotting a question back, clearly lacking a good answer of her own. Why's she alone? Because she can defend herself, or so she has reason to assume. She raises the lantern a bit, squints into the darkness around the strange woman's (creature's? she doesn't know) face and tries to make out features.]

They can try!

[ Kettara flattens her ears, growing under her breath. She hopes someone will try. It would make things easy and there is a desperate, angry part of her that craves it. The violent clarity of a fight. Sometimes she even finds herself plotting ways to engineer one, or how she might position herself to draw an insult, any insult, that she could respond to. Something to reset the balance, to make this place like home in this one small way.

Then she thinks of what Master Muln would say, and is ashamed. Master Muln would not crave isolation and scheme ways to start fights. Master Muln would take the long view and find a way to make peace with this place and the souls that inhabit it. Even the humans.

She lowers the axe. ]

What do you want?

[The truth is, she's already scared - the disorienting darkness is too much like the Upside Down, and she's been on high alert for all manner of creature to jump out at her even before the storm hit.

The details therefore don't even register; the storm and the darkness and the flicker of lantern light make her mind scream Mindflayer or Demogorgon or perhaps just Danger at her, and she reacts.

The shriek upon seeing her would-be-saviour is really just pure instinct, as is the way Eleven flings out a small, trembling hand. Stone may feel pressure crashing against his chest like a physical force, slightly amplified by the momentary terror that washes through Eleven at this sight, but she was already struggling with the wreckage - it's unlikely to dislodge him, and the way she bites out a "No!" might even clue him in that it's not his shape that scares her, but the shape that she thinks she's seeing.]

[ She nearly jumps out of her skin at the sudden hostility, letting out a noise that may or may not be a squeak and stepping back. ]

I'm sorry!

[ She ~~yelled~~ said, blurting it out even though she really isn't sure what there is to be sorry for. But hey, better safe than sorry. Also chances are, she did mess something up. ]

[ Kettara huffs at the question. The woman - girl? - isn't afraid of her. It's a novel realization. Before she came to this place, this strange afterlife, all the humans Kettara met had either been angry at her or afraid of her existence. Occasionally both, and that had been before she grew into her full height.

This one is neither angry nor afraid.

How curious.

Kettara blinks down at her, curling her lip back to show off her tusks when the girl lifts her lantern for a better look. ]

I want to be alone. And I can survive when I am alone.

[ She puts a hand on one of her axes, comforted by the familiar weight at her hip. ]

[ The voice is apologetic, as is the scrabble of feet against the ground as the woman backtracks, but Kettara is not in the mood to be kind. She snarls, twisting to face the intruder, and lifts one axe in warning.

She doesn't stand yet, remaining crouched on the ground. The woman - human? - isn't close enough to scent. Either way, Kettara doesn't want her coming any closer. Her eyes gleam red in the dark and she jerks her head, showing off her tusks. A clear warning. ]

Go away!

[It's a strange place she finds herself in, and it's strange people she meets her. But people nontheless, and they make all the difference. The darkness is still disorienting, but the lantern lights reveal things much less scary than what she feared... for now, at least.

This feels... almost normal. Like Hawkins, but at night instead of under a blue summer sky. Like her friends could run around the corner any second now.

Pictures, like at the mall.

Eleven looks down at the tablet, brows drawn together as if she's giving the proposition much too serious a thought. She's breaking all of Hopper's rules, but... she has to start finding her footing here, doesn't she? And the boy with the silver hair is quiet and patient.]

Yes. Please.

[She holds the tablet out to him, frown melting into something a little more earnest and open.]

What... is your name?

[Ah shit. Stone isn't expecting being shoved by the air, and he winds up falling flat on his tail, feet splayed out to either side of her fallen shelter, blinking in confusion.

Then there's a whirl of dark mist, and instead of a giant ghostly dragon, there's just a tall, gangly old man sitting in the mud looking annoyed. He picks himself up, rubbing at his tailbone, and grumps at her,]

I was only trying to help!

[At least he did manage to toss the biggest piece of debris aside in the midst of that, so she's not being too squished anymore.]

[ Suddenly, Alice isn't so scared. The axe getting lowered may have something to do with that. ]

The same thing you do, probably. Just to be... alone with the bonfire.

[ She looks at that very bonfire. ]

To forget how shitty it is that we're stuck here, even if it's just for a minute.

[ She looks at the girl again. No challenge in her posture or her face. Just... kind of a peace offering. A mutual understanding that this all sucks. ]

Not unless they're off on a continent I never visited. We've got more groundling races than I can count, sealing and skyling too, but nobody who calls themselves humans. Or orcs.

[And, since they're exchanging family information as well, he adds, with an air of amusement that says he knows she won't know his court any more than he knows her clan,]

I'm from the Indigo Cloud Court. I'm their line-grandfather, which basically means I'm older than dirt and most of them are related to me.

[Not a gun. Axes are for fire wood.

Oh, Eleven isn't stupid. Axes can be used for more than fire wood. But guns are harder to avoid when used right, and guns can mean police or military or worse.]

Me too. I can survive.

[She's done it before, after escaping the Upside Down. Squirrles and waffles.

Eleven blinks at the reveal of tusks, and parts her lips, the lower one curling back slightly so she can press her bottom teeth to her upper lip.]

You have teeth.

[That's unusual. As is the green skin. As are the red eyes. But still - the woman reads more 'person' than 'monster'. This isn't exactly a Demogorgon. Eleven remains... slightly weary, but nothng worse.]

[She scurries out of the collapsed shelter, ready to draw on all her anger, all her fear, either to fight or to cover her reatreat, but...

There's a whirl of dark mist, and it leaves behind an old man on the ground.

The... Mindflayer then? And it... fled?

Something doesn't add up here, but adrenaline is still knocking her heart hard against her ribcage, and she moves closer, stands over him - but faces outwards, hands outstretched and scanning the darkness.]

Where...?

[Almost like she's looking for something in the dark. Almost like she's gonna protect him from whatever she thought she saw just then, not quite connecting the dots just yet.]

[ Honestly, she was just going to scrabble away because if there’s one thing she hates more than anything, it’s confrontation. When the stranger brandishes the axe at her though… Look. A kid is scrambling around this town, and Coraline would really prefer for Mary not to be threatened with major injury/death. ]

Please put your axe down first.

[ She tries to make it sound firm and fearless, but… well. She clearly doesn’t want to be here. The shadows around her seem to pulse slightly, matching a nervous and nonexistent heartbeat. ]

[It's cute that she thinks she's going to protect him. He's like fifty times older than she is and has probably killed more evil monsters than she could imagine, in his time.

He does use her shoulder to help get him to his feet, though, since she's standing there so helpfully. And waits until he's standing and no longer touching her (just in case) to say:]

That was me. I'm a shapeshifter. Not going to eat you, either, before you start thinking things. Do you want to get inside and get dried off, or should we keep standing out here in the rain?

[She doesn't startle at the hand on her shoulder as the man pulls himself to his feet, just keeps scanning what she can make out through the dark and the rainstorm - but she does startle slightly at this admission - shapeshifter?

Eleven knows monsters, and she knows people, and in her own way knows that people can be monsters of a sort. Things that are both...

The hesitation plays out on her face, but if nothing else he's right in that they're in the rain, and they need to get out of it - that was the whole purpose of finding shelter. So she relaxes her defensive posture, and instead uses her wet sleeve to wipe at the traces of blood under her nose the rain hasn't yet washed away.

If nothing else, she's been warned... and he did save her. And she did manage to push him. So she nods.]

Inside... and dry.

[It seems a better option for now. After another pause she adds a slightly awkward:]

Thank you.

[Stone waits patiently for her to make her decision, pushing wet hair out of his face-- both his skin and his hair are completely colorless, the only spot of color to him being his blue eyes, and one of those is dimmed by some kind of scarring that means it's likely blind-- but then nods with relief.]

Smart kid.

[He pats her shoulder twice, then heads for the Invincible.]

And you're welcome. Couldn't just let you get squashed. There's rooms in here, if you want, you don't have to hang out in lean-tos.

[ For a moment Kettara almost asks why, but then the woman explains and it should not be so easy to understand the wants of a human. Not in a moment like this.

She looks away, ashamed and tired all at once. She wants to go home. She wants to go and sit with Master Muln or any of the other Earthen Ring, and just listen to them.

Kettara sits back down with a huff instead. Where else is she going to go? ]

Then do so.

The universe is wide, and there are many worlds.

[ Even more than she had previously thought, given that this place exists. Kettara gives one of her braids a tug, watching Stone curiously. ]

You are an elder. We do not have many, in the Frostwolves. Or even in Ogrimmar. You must have seen many great things.

That is good.

[ Only the strong survive, and even that, not always for very long. Kettara still doesn't understand all the rules governing this place, but she knows, with a bone-deep certainty, that it will not accept her presence gently. Oh, there's plenty of food and water, and even warm places to hide from the elements, but there is no sunlight. And she is dead, but brought back to breathe again. It is not a blessing. She can't be certain what it is. But whatever comes next will not be kind. How could it?

She snaps her teeth together, more playful than threatening. This human seems young. She's not entirely certain when they undergo their adulthood rituals, but this one is difficult to read. Watchful, very watchful, but not afraid. Perhaps a child. Perhaps just quiet. ]

Most animals have teeth. You have teeth. But I have tusks, too.

[ She snaps her teeth again, demonstrating. Then: ]

You are not afraid of me.

[ Kettara sounds more curious than anything. ]

Why?

[ He takes the tablet and points to where he'll touch it to wake the tablet up. The first thing it prompts for is the entry of a username, and Riku's hand has drifted towards 'e' before he stops. ]

Riku.

[ He says it softly, turning the tablet around to face the screen towards her. ]

You'll need a username. Something people will see whenever you put anything on the network, like leaving a note that anyone can read.

Could always just put your name down. I did. Easier that way.

[ Don't think too much on how, if she sets to work on inputting her username, his teal eyes keep darting over her face, the set of his eyebrows carving a small crease between them. Her return brings up a whole world of possibilities and he grapples with how they're both sweet and sour. Selfish as he is, he saw how it ground one friend down, how it stole another from them in the blink of an eye. Felt the agony and then the relief when the other him was ripped out of existence completely.

He might miss them, but he wouldn't wish this place on anyone, not even his worst enemy (but only because he'd be stuck here with him). ]

It'll be okay. Everyone starts out like you.

You do not give me orders.

[ The light - what little there is - seems to shift around the woman. Some sort of magic? Kettara growls again, and jerks her tusks in warning. ]

Leave me be.

[ Now there's something he didn't think he'd be hearing around here: someone knowing his name.

It takes him a second to actually glance over at the one addressing him and when he does? He just stares for a long moment because... that guy is sure looking familiar to him. Though he's a bit surprised he's even half recognizable himself what with the whole looking like he just crawled his way through death and all. ]

Well there's something I didn't think I'd see here.

[ He pauses as he turns a little more to Ignis. ]

Someone from home.

[ Who would have thought trudging your way through a downpour like this would result in getting soaked to the bone like the two of them are. Seems like common sense, doesn't it? Yet apparently common sense is a flower that doesn't grow in everyone's garden. Or at least, seems to have been plucked from these two gardens here since being out in this? Not the smartest of ideas.

He chuckles though, if even soft, head knocking back against the door as he attempts to try and stay dry; pointless, he knows. ]

Guess that makes two of us then.

[ Pausing, he gives his companion here a fleeting glance before he looks back out to the storm around them. ]

What's got you so eager to be out in all this?

[ Because judging from the katanas there on her back? Can't say she's out for a swim. ]

[ If there's ever a sound that's capable of ringing in his ears, it's the sound of a young girl in trouble, relating it to his sister and how he couldn't be there for her. So when he hears that shriek through the rain and wind, he immediately spots the makeshift shelter that's collapsed in on itself and quickly makes his way through the storm for it.

Seems like even in death, some things never change.

When he catches sight of movement in the rubble, he grips a piece of it and with a huff, pulls at it to try and pry at least some portion of it off to the side. ]

Hey! I'm gonna get you out, ok?

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Page 3 of 24

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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All my apologies to poor Stone - it's not personal, I swear!

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My heart is already breaking for him fyi

no worries, I'm canon-familiar, I expected it :D

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Ha ha, I'm loving it!

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B2