TEST DRIVE MEME #4

[inthenightmods]

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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Comments

Eleven | Stranger Things | ota

[savingthrows]

A. Scavenger Hunt

[The girl is young. 14, in fact, and still looks the part with soft features and wide eyes, that seem just a little too serious. Her brow is furrowed in concentration, though, and she slowly turns the tablet over in her hands.

Eleven is... confused, that much is obvious.]

How...

[The question is left there, half-formed, and she'll look at the next best person as if they must have all the answers in the world for this conundrum. Her expression is a mixture of plain confusion and regular old frustration with things she cannot find immediate answers for.

For people from a regular, modern day world, her clothes may be just a little outdated, just a little 80s.]

And why scavenge?

[It's not as obvious as it used to be, but her words come a littler slower than one would expect, a little more deliberate. Like she has to place them in her mouth before she speaks. But her face is earnest, and the question more genuinely curious than merely perplexed. She really just does want to know and learn.]

B. Storm Option 1 - You're in the shelter

[Eleven feels list and disoriented in the storm and in the dark, looking for shelter - she needs it, and soon. She's soaked and not above admitting that she's scared, too, clutching the lantern to her and trying to find her bearings in unfamiliar territory.

This isn't Hawkins, that much she knows, and it isn't the upside down. Her friends aren't here. Here might very well be where the Mindflayer put her.

A crashing sound distracts her, and she spins, squints through the dark with her heart hammering against her ribs. There, she thinks - a shack, collapsed, and did she hear someone call out or was that the wind?

At any rate, she takes a first hesitant step, and then shakes her head in determination. She meant what she told Kali - if others can't save her, she can still save them. Still clutching the lantern, Eleven makes her way to the shelter, holds out her hand and concentrates on that well of power in her that is getting harder to pull from as she used to the more often she has to do it. The collapsed beams wobble and start lifting though. The person beneath might have to help push, but she can help with that and make it easy with an outstretched hand, a droplet of blood running from her nose as she taps into her telekinesis, quickly washed away by the downpour. And she calls out, just about audible over the storm:]

You... are you hurt?

B. Storm Option 2 - She's in the shelter

[Eleven knows about survival, about shelters, but didn't expect this one to be quite this frail. She remembers a blanket fort feeling like the safest place in the world, and this is much sturdier than that. It doesn't hold against the wind, of course, and anyone nearby might hear the shriek of a girl as the structure collapses. Closer inspection will find the structure still not quite settled - only, actually, it seems that something is trying to push the rubble up out out.

Eleven is hurt, but not badly so, hands shaking as she tries to lift the rubble from herself with her telekinesis, straining to the point of nosebleed and shaking hands.

She's not above calling out for help - still doesn't handle being isolated and trapped in confined spaces very well, and while this isn't fullon panic, there's a hint of it in her voice.]

Wildcard

[It's easy to bump into people in the dark, lantern or not, and Eleven is still trying to get her bearings as she squints into the other person's lantern light to catch a glimpse of a face.

Too many people. It's not allowed, at home, and this isn't like Max taking her to the mall - not fun like it, and not safe like it either. These people are other, this place is other.]

Sorry.

[Immediately followed by a soft, if slightly stilted:]

Hello.

Wildcard

[oldtonew]

[ Before coming to this place, Kettara had thought she was prepared for death. Hers, the deaths of others, they were all part of the cycle. She trained as a warrior before the elements spoke to her and that education, even more than Master Muln, enforced the great inevitability of it all. And what was the use in fearing something that would come regardless?

It only mattered if hers was a good death.

It was satisfactory, in the end. Master Muln will avenge her.

Still. This was not the afterlife she was promised. For one thing, it's filled with humans.

Kettara peers down at the newest one curiously. She holds her lantern low, so it does not show her face and leaves the green cast of her skin in shadows.

There's no hiding the red of her eyes, though. Not even in the low light.

Kettara leans forward and sniffs the air, scenting the human.

Female. Smaller than expected. No armor that she recognizes. ]

Hello.

[ Kettara's voice is low and rough. She has no way of knowing the woman is only a few years younger than Kettara herself. ]

Why are you alone?

[savingthrows]

[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.]

[oldtonew]

[ 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. ]

[savingthrows]

[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.]

B. Storm Option 2. Ready to scare the poor kid?

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Suddenly, the piece of sideboard she's trying to lift is picked up and tossed away. Staring down at her is a ghostly... dragon? His face is mostly humanoid, with a nose and mouth and two eyes (bright blue, one clouded over like it's blind), but everything else... decidedly not. His scales are a pale gray, with an almost translucent quality, and his head is framed not by hair but by a bunch of flexible spines and frills, mostly raised now like the crest on a cockateil. There's a wing open, too, over the top of the fallen shelter to help block the wind and rain.

The clawed hand holding the piece of Eleven's shelter up away from her head is a good foot across the palm.

The rumble he makes, though, has the sound of concern to it. If she's not too busy freaking out to register that.]

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

[savingthrows]

[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.]

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

[scarsolderthanyou]

[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.]

Ha ha, I'm loving it!

[savingthrows]

[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.]

A. Scavenger Hunt

[equinoctials]

[ When he sees her, he immediately doubts his own eyes. Doubts, because... because a lot of things. Because he's been in total darkness for a quarter of a year already and he knows that compromises anyone, regardless of the strength of their heart. Because he's been seeing things wash up that wear the face of his friend when he visits her grave everyday to remind himself which of these things is real.

Because Eleven is younger than she was when last they met.

Because she looks at him and speaks in that stilted, peculiar way of hers that seems out of practice, and Riku doesn't see a spark of recognition at all. She's confused in all the ways she was confused the last time.

So he doubts, his expression is strange, he lifts a hand to rub with thumb and knuckle both of his eyes and looks again but she's still there. ]

...It's a game.

[ Why? Why does she come back? How did she come back? She didn't simply wander off into the forest and get lost. She's younger, he saw her walk off the ferry with the rest. How does she come back and not- ]

You're supposed to search for what's on that list and take a picture with it.

[ Riku, hair silver in spite of his youth, holds out a hand for her tablet. Patiently. Quietly. And in his heart burns a question, angry, but he takes that anger and puts it away with all the rest of his darker thoughts, stored up for when he needs them. ]

Want me to show you?

My heart is already breaking for him fyi

[savingthrows]

[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?

[equinoctials]

[ 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.

[savingthrows]

My name.

[She looks down at the tablet as if it holds all the mysteries of the world. She... could claim herself Jane, here. It's just that the name doesn't sit quite right. She's Jane Hopper, but she's been Eleven more than she's been Jane, and she's El to anyone she cares about.

And does it matter, here, who can find her and who can't?

Perhaps it matters only when other people... die. And come here. She hopes to see no familiar faces, and sadness passes over her own features for a moment before she draws herself up.

It would be nice to apologize to Hopper, who took her in and wanted to protect her from from the world. Jane Eleven Hopper.

Her fingers tap on the buttons, face set in deep concentration.

jane011

She's both. The number is hers now, as is the name, and she is El. Eleven looks up at Riku with a deep breath.]

El. Easier that way.

B2

[nyxulric]

[ 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?

[savingthrows]

[Her powers are tied to her emotions. When she can focus on the rage inside of her, she can draw more. Right now she's shaken, disoriented, and scared. It's a relief when someone helps, and she doesn't have to try and move the rubble all on her own.

She could, she wants to, but she gulps in a breath and lets herself be helped for once. Eleven's hand stays up though, outstretched. It could be mistaken for a gesture of reaching out, except really she's prepared to hold the structure up or push the man away if he proves a threat.

She doesn't bother to wipe away the blood trickling from her nose.]

Please!

[Eleven hates confined spaces, and if her cheeks are wet not just from the rain that pelted her before, well, that would surely be difficult to tell - if not for the distraught expression on her face.]

[nyxulric]

Hang on, kid.

[ The words are mumbled more to himself as he braces his shoulder against one of the collapsed beams. The King's magic would sure come in handy right about now but hey, he's improvised before. What's keeping a makeshift shelter falling apart in the rain from trapping and crushing this girl further, right? Piece of cake... so he tries to tell himself.

Shoulder still braced against the beam, he uses his weight to push at the angled one, hoping that it will tip back just enough to make space for either him to reach in there for her or for her to crawl her way out back out into this rain. Not the most ideal situation but they've just gotta work with what they've got.

Puffing out a heavy breath, he pushes more of his weight into it and, with a bit of a huff, he tips the beam some, trying to catch a glance of the trapped kid inside. ]

Gonna hope you can crawl out of that space there while I hold this!

[savingthrows]

I...

[The opening is small. Still, she pulls herself towards it, careful to drag the lantern with her. It's her only sourceof light - she can't lose it, not here.

The opening is a little narrow, but its existence alone makes the stab of fright sting a little less. She's not back at the lab, she's just...

Well. Here.

Eleven presses her lips together, hastily wipes at her pale face. The man can likely see her young features set in determination, as she reaches out a hand.]

I can do it.

[Eleven takes a breath, focuses on pushing past the fear. Focuses, instead, on wanting to get out. And with blood running from her nose and a desperate yell, she pushes out an arm, hand outstretched, and without being touched, a piece of rubble dislodges itself a little further, widening the space he's made for her. So Eleven pulls herself through and out.

What he sees, then, is a pale, shaky, unassuming 14 year old girl with wide eyes and a nosebleed, clutching her lantern and reaching up a shaking hand, brows drawing together as she tries to user her telekinesis to keep the beam's weight off him so he can pull away from the structure, too.]

storm 2

[saintjames]

[ The collapsing structure wouldn't have grabbed Jim's attention, but the high pitched sound of that shriek puts something cold right into his belly. Gordon lurches forward, sprinting headlong into the rain. ]

Hey!

[ He's shouting before he's even reached the rickety lean-to, splashing mud up on his trousers and against the wood, almost catching himself on it in his urgency. The whole structure seems to heave, and since he doesn't know what's happening inside of it or the power this girl has, it only serves to bolster his need to get her out quickly. Who knew how long it was going to stay standing. ]

I'm here! Just hold on!

[ It's buckled in on itself, succumbing to the weight of all that water, but one side is more bent in than the other. Instead of trying to fight with the caved in doorway, he starts yanking pieces of the roof off until he bares one of the support beams. Bracing one hand against it he looks down into the shelter, hoping that whomever is inside is still conscious. ]

[savingthrows]

[There's a voice, and for a moment that's as much a new source of terror as it is a relief, until Eleven remembers that she's not locked into pitch black isolation.

Her situation isn't exactly better, but it's different, and the voice helps bring her back to the present. She sucks in a breath that's half a sob and scoots closer to the opening, holding the lantern up to see. Her face, in the flickering light, is pale. There's a trickle of blood smeared under her nose and over her lips, and she looks distraught and strained.]

It broke. Please, I'm...

[The structure lurches, and Eleven yelps again, holds out her free hand to where the rubble is shifting, trying to hold it together just a bit longer, before her wide eyes return to the man return to the man peering through the hole in the roof.]

[saintjames]

[ She's not only alive, but awake, and while the urgency hasn't left the situation some measure of relief scores through him. Her face is bloodied up, he can only assume she got cracked with part of the shelter, so even if she does have a concussion it hasn't knocked her out. It'll make this much easier. ]

I'm gonna get you out, okay?

[ There's a note to his voice that makes it sound even and sure, despite being raised over the rain and the thunder, like he's making her a promise. He stays there just half a heart beat, long enough to maintain eye contact with her and see if he's been heard, before he looks around at what he's working with. If he pulls anything else loose, it might send the thing toppling, but maybe— ]

Here— pass me your lantern.

[ Still holding this side of the structure up with one arm, he puts his hand down into the hole he made to her. Gordon understands that what he's asking is probably pretty intense, their lanterns are apparently their life source, but she's going to need both hands. ]

Trust me.

[savingthrows]

[Something shifts a little in Eleven at the request. The most obvious thing occurs to her first, of course - this lantern is a life line, its importance has been impressed upon her. And she'sasking to hold it. Of course, where she to think clearly about the overall situation, she could easily follow the logistics.

For now, she doesn't like it, and nerve endings still frayed with fear, Eleven sets her face into a scowl. She has one hand up and outstretched, as if reaching for him. Now, the same gesture holds a certain tension, like she's prepared to defend herself.

She looks like he's not the first adult she assumed she'd have to defend herself from, and isn't cowed by the prospect.]

No.

b-1

[otrazhenie]

[ Elena had been outside when the storm began, clutching her lantern as she tried to keep her bearings amidst the rain and darkness, when she noticed the structure in the square. It's her own penchant for helping people that has her going inside and finding it empty — hopefully the inhabitant has found better shelter elsewhere. She takes a moment to collect herself, preparing to make a run for it through the downpour, when the structure literally crashes down around her, a thick piece of wet wood hitting her head on the way down.

Holding her lantern close to shield it, she tries to get a good grip on the debris to shove it off herself, but it's moving before she can, lifting on its own to reveal— a girl. A teenager, younger than Jeremy, and Elena can smell the blood on her even as it's washed away by the rain. ]

No, I'm fine. [ Shaking her head, the pain already subsiding, she climbs up out of the mess and hops clear as smoothly as she can manage with everything slick from the rain. ]

[savingthrows]

[Eleven holds the piece of debris she moved until the woman is clear, then takes a breath and lets go for the energies holding it aloft. She's been using her powers much lately, even before coming here - there's a certain strain there that she's beginning to worry about. For now, it's unimportant. She holds the lantern up as much as she dares to peer at the woman, both their hair plastered to their skin in no time in the rain and storm. Eleven takes a step closer, eyes darting around]

Inside...?

[Out here, she has to raise her voice over the storm a little, and leaves the word hanging. She's learned to structure her sentences better, but enough is said with little. She doesn't know if the woman is from here or as new as Eleven is - at any rate... she has a lantern, and that seems to put them on good enough footing around here.]

[otrazhenie]

Yeah, we should get inside.

[ Elena's voice is raised as well to be heard over the wind and rain, the thunder seeming to get louder with every passing second. She gestures in a specific direction and then holds out her hand to the younger girl, not recognizing her and so assuming that she's new and probably has no idea where she's going. ]

Come on, the inn isn't far.

[ They can wait out the storm, dry off, get something warm to drink. The cold fall rain would affect the other girl much more than it would her, and they really didn't need to find out if they could get sick in the afterlife. ]

[savingthrows]

Independence.

[The name has been mentioned to her before. She says it a little oddly, perhaps -like she has to place the word carefully in her mouth before attempting to speak it. It's a little stilted, and just a little off.]

I'll protect you. On the way.

[And it's said with such a somber, earnest tone.]