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

[ Kettara's ears flick back, but she doesn't rise. She gives the man a narrow eyed look, openly suspicious. ]

Why would do that?

I was going to the beach to meditate anyway, but it is better with the company of others.

[He makes no move to come closer, or to back away, standing there easily until he's given permission to join.]

[ An acceptable answer, but it doesn't explain why a human - or at least someone who looks human - would want the company of someone like her. Kettara huffs, shaking her head. It would be simple to snarl and insult the man, try to force him to respond. Then they might fight and that would be - easier, than the rest of this.

Kettara is not enjoying the afterlife. None of it makes sense to her and the confusion makes her tense and angry all over again. Worse, the elements refuse to speak with her, no matter how long she mediates, and Master Muln is gone. She might have even taken Shotoa's advice, mad though he was. But there is no one here she knows, and thus far she's encountered no one who thinks like her. She's lived in the company of trolls, tauren, and even dwarves, who all became like kin to her. But never humans and never when so many of them look at her not with fear or hate, but with confusion, as if her strangeness is a thing to be pitied.

This one seems - calmer, somehow. At least he isn't staring, or deliberately not staring at her skin or the cast of her eyes.

She grunts, and takes her hand off the axe. ]

I will not stop you.

[ If it comes out petulant, then Kettara is just going to ignore that. ]

[He nods, easily dropping to the ground nearby. Close, but not within arms range should she decide she'd rather be alone.]

We have yet to meet. I'm Grandmaster Kuai Liang.

[He takes a deep breath, centering himself and gazing into the fire. Being a cryomancer he shouldn't find fire calming, yet after all these years there's something reassuring about the way the fire dances over the kindling in the bonfire.

Especially this one that burns improperly, the logs are never consumed, no ash is ever thrown into the air. It reminded him of other fire he'd seen many times before.]

[ So it's to be formal, then. ]

Kettara Bloodthirst, of the Earthen Ring.

[ She almost explains the origin of her second name, as humans rarely seem to understand the convention, but in a flash of annoyance decides not to. Why should she be the one to explain? Why can't the humans learn on their own? Instead she takes a deep breath and centers herself. Better to open her heart to the elements than snarl at a human. The former might grant her wisdom. And she does that, breathing in and out and listening, for a while before the curiosity comes knocking.

Abruptly: ]

Is grandmaster the highest rank in your order?

[ Surely he belongs to an order of some sort. She's never heard of a grandmaster who didn't. ]

I'm from Earthrealm as well.

[He assumes that's what the Earthen Ring is anyway. He'd expected if she was from the same world as him that she'd be from Outworld. Maybe part Shokan and part Tarkatan. He closes his eyes, resting his palms on his thighs as he kneels in front of the fire.]

Yes. I am the leader of the Lin Kuei. One of many clans of fighters that protect the realm from those that invade.

Earth...realm?

[ A place, then, and not an organization. But starting a conversation with a human is a start, even if it raises questions.

Kettara exhales slowly and claps her hands together. Fire blooms in her palms. She can feel the familiar heat but it throws no light.

Unnatural. She holds it nonetheless. ]

That is a noble thing, to protect your home.

If we did not, we would be destroyed. It may be a noble purpose, but it is also a necessary one.

There are several realms where I'm from, one in particular that is trying to merge with mine and take over. It cannot be allowed or all life would be conquered.

You likely would.

[ It's said simply. When the choice is fight or die, Kettara will always choose to fight. In that way, she understands why her mother and all the others took the blood when it was offered. They felt they had no other choice. Perhaps it was true at the time, but it doesn't matter now, when she knows how it ended.

She's still here, though. Dead and yet - not, somehow. Kettara flexes her hands, watching the strange fire. It feels like home to her, careful and warm in her hands. But it throws no light and there is no response when she reaches out to it with her mind. Perhaps this is how death is meant to be. ]

Is that how you died?

No. One of the elder gods, Kronika the keeper of time, was attempting to reset the timeline and erase the protector of Earthrealm from existence in order to facilitate Earth's takeover by her son. We attacked her in her keep where she wields the sands of time.

I died in the battle to get to her. I'll never know if we were able to stop her or not.

[Something he thinks about often. He hopes they did, he knows that three of them got into the keep itself, but beyond that he'll never find out.]

And yourself?

A good fight, then.

[ It sounds very complicated, though Kettara supposes most conflicts seem that way to outsiders. ]

A stranger came and offered to teach me a new way of speaking to the elements, to appease them when our own strength had failed. We--I was foolish and went with him. He betrayed us.

[ She shakes her head. ]

But my master survived. My death will be a lesson to him. He will do better with his next student.

[ She has no way of knowing that back on Azeroth, Muln Earthfury will never take another apprentice. ]

[A good fight. Perhaps it was, it didn't seem like it now as he'd died. But what more could he ask for than a warrior's death? Many who deserved such didn't get the honor, he should be grateful.]

That is a wise outlook on such things.

[A level of maturity he wasn't expecting.]

What did he attempt to teach you? Your Master must have also believed in their wisdom if they also went along with it.

My master would not come. I left him.

[ Kettara shrugs. She's not ashamed of that, precisely. It was important to know all that she could. ]

He said he would not stop me from learning, though he believed it would lead to ruin. It did, in the end.

[ Even now, knowing he was right, it still hurts that Muln hadn't listened to her. But it was for the best, Kettara reminds herself. Her teacher was wise and she was not. ]

The stranger, Shotoa, said he had gone into a deep meditation and listened to the elemental spirits, and in that meditation they had told him secrets that would quiet the others. He was mad, of course, but I did not see it. Master Muln, my teacher, did not trust him. But I wanted to listen.

[ She shakes her head again. ]

It was our duty to maintain balance between the elemental spirits, but they would not be quelled. The clans under our protection were suffering. Many died and we could not save them. All our strength, our devotion, meant nothing. And then Shotoa came and the elements obeyed him. I said we should listen to Shotota, just listen. See if there was any merit to what he offered. The masters refused, so we - the students - we left.

You wished to learn more than what you thought your master could teach you.

[He both understands the reason, and is amused by it. Students always think that their teachers are witholding the best lessons from them. And that is rarely the case. His own student, power hungry and vain, had abandoned him for an easier path to power - betraying their clan and laying it to ruin.

It was because of her that he ultimately became the last Lin Kuei, the last remains of the clan dying with him. ]

Your cause was noble, even if the results did not bear it out. It's impossible to walk all paths that the future sets before us - seeing if there is hope in another route sounds reasonable to me. You could not have anticipated what would happen.

Yes. There is no shame in admitting what you do not know.

[ One one hand, her master was right to trust in the traditions of the elder shaman. Shotoa was mad, though he might once have been wise, and she hopes he was given a quick death. But on the other, his power made an impact when Kettara's and even Muln's had not. Lives had been saved. And no matter how Muln would tell her about the tapestry of life and how important it was not to get caught on the individual threads instead of the wider weave, Kettara cannot help think of the lives that were lost. And the lives that Shotota himself, even in his madness, saved.

Perhaps it's right that she should spend the afterlife contemplating this. ]

My master will lead the others with wisdom. It was as the elements said. I was destined to teach him an important lesson.

[ At least her death had a purpose. That's more than most can say. ]

It takes a long time for most to learn such wisdom. Many think that not knowing all there is to know is a failing, a weakness. Yet it's the first promise of learning more about yourself.

[He turns to look at her, trying to gauge her age. Unfortunately since he's unfamiliar with her species he has no idea. She seems unnaturally wise for someone who was still a student.]

Teaching others with your death is a powerful lesson. Unfortunately it's sometimes the only one people will listen to.

You died with purpose, that's a rare honor.

[ He sounds like Master Muln, then. Just a little. She thinks the two of them might have understood each other, in the way old masters often do. Muln might not even have cared Kuai Liang was human. Perhaps she should follow that example. ]

My people believe it is best to die fighting.

[ Kettara clenches her fists and the fire dissipates. At least she can still call the elements in this place, even if they won't speak to her. ]

It was a good death.

[ But this was not the afterlife she was promised. ]

As do mine.

[They are not so different after all.]

Be that as it may, this place makes me doubt we are dead at all. I do not feel dead, do you? I still must eat and sleep and do that which I did in life.

[ Kettara eyes him with new interest. She knows the humans have warriors, of course, and their king is supposedly a great one, but she's never known them to venerate death in battle like that. Most of their warriors treat it like a profession, something to do in exchange for gold.

She touches the lantern hanging from her belt, frowning at it. ]

There are different kinds of death. And it is possible to kill a warrior, put their soul in a jar, and command them to rise and fight again.

[ She didn't fight the Lich King, but she knows the stories. She knows the aftermath. ]

Some of those warriors retained their minds. Some did not. But they spoke, ate, and some of them even drew breath.

My mind feels like my own, [ she adds. ] But I don't understand such magic. Perhaps something like that is at work here.

There are many horrible ways to reanimate someone who's died, or to enslave the living to another's will. This does not seem to be any I am familiar with.

[And he'd been possessed, turned into a robot and revenant, which covered most of the terrible things that could happen to a person in his world.]

If it is, there does not seem to be a point to our existence here. Unless it's a holding area until whoever has done this has need of us. But it seems ... more mysterious than that.

[Maybe that's wishful thinking.]

[ There are many terrible magics in the world, Kettara knows. And it seems in other worlds as well. ]

If it were only bodies, or service, there are easier ways.

[ She frowns at the fire. ]

It feels like a trap. Something to keep the prey engaged until the real purpose begins.

And some have already been removed from the playing field. Why would there be the ability to die twice? They must have been taken somewhere.

[Or he's just forever hopeful that they're not really dead. ]

Have they? Curious.

[ It also depends on whether these people have been killed or simply taken away. There are hierarchies to death, and too much power already in play that Kettara does not understand. Again she finds herself wishing Muln were here. He always had a gift for seeing the bigger picture. ]

This feels like a game, regardless. And I do not like being used.

Nor I. But that is precisely what it feels like. I've yet to figure out the best course to fight back. The only adversary that's made themselves known are the creatures further into the forest and the lighthouse keeper. Though she claims to be peaceable.

I was told she's called Robin. Like the bird.

[ Kettara hasn't attempted to contact her yet. To do that, she needs to be prepared. Ask the right questions, demand the right answers. There's too much she doesn't know. ]

Have you spoken to her?

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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

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)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)