memesinthenight | TEST DRIVE MEME #4

Entry tags:

!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.

QUICKNAV
comms	\|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	\|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

[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.

[He looks strange. He is strange. Shapeshifter - but then. She's also strange, and this place is strange. So she tugs along, watches him for a moment longer, then looks ahead to the building they're moving towards.]

Do you live there?

So far. It's the only place that feels even a little bit like home. Everywhere else is too quiet.

[He wrings out his clothes-- basic and gray, but of good material, cut like nothing Eleven will have ever seen-- just inside, so he's dripping slightly less. His feet are bare, and he wipes those on the mat inside.]

My name's Stone, by the way. You?

Too quiet?

[Perhaps it's like the Upside Down in that. Or perhaps like the tank.

She can understand not liking either, although she tends to find a lot of noise she's not used to equally unsettling.

The question of her name brings her up short, a little, and she takes a moment to think how she wants to introduce herself.

She's El to all she cares about, but she has a birth certificate now, and the name on there reads...

After a moment, she nods, coming to a conclusion.]

Jane Hopper. You... can call me El.

El, huh?

[Humans have so many names. Hard to tell if El is even related to the other two, or if it's a nickname, or maybe a title? But since it's what she wants, he'll use that one. He wanders over to a chair and collects a blanket that's folded across the back. That'll do for a towel, for now.

He tosses it at El, first.]

I'm used to being able to hear the whole court from anywhere in the colony. Harder to do that in a little hut you don't share with anybody. This place is better.

[Eleven catches the blanket, and seems puzzled at first - these are for bed and couches and forts, what... ah, but yes. She gets it, watching the puddle that's forming under her feet, and works on drying herself off as best she can. She peers up at Stone from under the blanket every once in a while.]

Colo-ny?

[That's not the only question that comes to mind regarding everything he says, but she has to start somewhere.]

Colony. What my people call a group of collected families that live together.

[He considers, as he wrings out his shirt some more, then suggests,]

You'd probably call it a town. Only a town where we're almost all related at least a few generations back,.

Family.

[She nods - this much she can understand.

Once reasonably dry - as much as she will get with the blanket anyway, Eleven steps closer and holds the make shift towel out to Stone.]

Like Hawkins. Everyone... knows everyone.

Yeah, like that.

[He accepts the blanket, finds a dry spot, and rubs at his shaggy hair with it.]

Is Hawkins your town?

[Since it's obviously not a colony, and he's at least familiar with how groundlings do things.]

Yes. It's... home, now. Family, but not related.

[Difficult to explain that one, and would not bring it up if not for the fact of her death having her found family on the forefront of her mind.

She misses them, terribly, and looks down and away for a moment.]

[Aw, that expression. Poor kid. Stone can relate-- not having a single Raksura around is uncomfortable, to be honest. He misses the scents of scales and the sound of their hissing, growling speech. He dumps the blanket-towel around his shoulders and steps over to put an arm around her shoulders.]

Yeah, it's crap, being here without them, huh?

[Sorry, El, he's a surprisingly touchy guy for an old man dragon.]

[She starts a bit at the touch, and perhaps even narrows her eyes a fraction. Eleven has learned about hugs, but Stone is still a stranger. Still, despite tensing up a little, she can't quite help but lean into the touch a little bit and think of Joyce, of Hopper. They give good hugs.

She misses all of them so much more than she can put into words.]

Crap.

[She tries the word on for size. Likes the way the p pops on her lips.]

Yes. It's very crap.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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

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

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

Ha ha, I'm loving it!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject