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.

QUICKNAV
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Comments

[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.]

[nyxulric]

[ Well that's a bit of a relief... until confusion slips in alongside relief when he sees not the sort of state she's currently in, that much is sort of expected what with the weather and the shoddy craftsmanship (if you want to call it that) of the shelter out here. It's the whole somehow being able to dislodge a piece of rubble and lift the weight of the beam off him that brings the confusion. That kinda comes in handy.

But he pushes away from the beam once she's in the clear and nearly trips over his own feet in the wind and rain, hand running down his face as he catches his breath quickly before his attention falls back onto her. ]

I'm gonna guess that's kinda normal for you?

[ The whole moving things with her hand deal, to which he nods as he straightens up, still catching his breath. ]

[savingthrows]

[Eleven just nods at first, still in a bit of a miserable heap on the ground, gulping in the air.

She's not trapped alone in the dark. She's not back there. She's alright. She will never be back there.

Quickly, she wipes at her face, as if the rain doesn't immediately soak through anything at this point. After a moment, she remembers to use her words - to have them is something she fought hard for, she will not easily give them up again.]

... Yes. I can... [She makes a vague gesture - there is little point hiding it here, where things are more sinister on a level that Hawkins doesn't quite compare to at the worst of times. Still, she reverts to:] It was... scary. Thank you.

[nyxulric]

That probably comes in handy a lot.

[ Much as his warping did before he lost his connection to his King. Now it's no more fancy magic tricks and having to just use what strength he's already got with him.

But he nods when she seems to be ok, another heavy sigh as he catches his breath in the rain around them. Normally, he'd offer her his jacket (or what's left of it) but considering they're both soaked to the bone? A little on the pointless side of things.

Reaching down for his lantern, he looks to her with concern. ]

You ok?

[savingthrows]

Yes... I have had worse.

[The way she speaks, now that he fit of panic fades from her voice, remains slightly stiff and stilted, as if she's unsure of the words until she's shaped her mouth around them.

It's then that Eleven steps a little closer. The man doesn't know that he freed her from memories she'd rather not be lost in more than from a collapsing shelter, and she lacks the scope of experience to express that properly. So for now, it translates into some concern.]

And you?

[nyxulric]

[ Thankfully, the rain has soaked him to the point where his ashen arm and cracked skin along his throat up to the side of his face don't look that bad. Kind of what happens when you're being burned from the inside. But her concern gets him to look to her more closely and, with a bit of a smile, he nods. ]

I've had worse, too.

[ This storm, however, could actually get worse and he give a quick look around before his attention falls back onto her. ]

You got some place around here? Someone you're staying with? It's probably a good idea to get out of here. You know, unless you like being caught in storms.

[savingthrows]

[At this she shakes her head. Eleven's only just arrived, and this place... Well. This place is dark, stormy, scary. The collapsed shelter is what she'd tried to get in to, having gotten disoriented. Some have mentioned a place called Independence, but Eleven has lost track of where she was meant to go to reach it in the downpour.]

No. I'm alone.

[Better that way, because it means her loved ones aren't dead. Worse that way, because it means she has to find her footing without them.]

[nyxulric]

[ It's bad enough to see a kid in this so-called afterlife they got going on here but for her to also be alone? He could see how it'd be a good thing, to know that those you care for aren't stuck here alongside you. But being alone here also isn't any walk in the park from what he's gathering and with this downpour still raging on? Just the cherry on top. ]

Well, for the moment you've got me.

[ And, with a nod of his head, he brushes a hand over his face, wiping away the rain. ]

I'm Nyx. Kinda new here. But maybe we can find you some place to get dry.

[savingthrows]

[It's familiar, that moment of someone deciding 'you're alone? Well, not anymore'. Mike did this. Hopper, too. All of them did, slotting her into their lives even when having her there was dangerous.

Something softens in the way she looks at him.

For the moment, she's got him, but he's also got her. She can be protective like that.]

Eleven.

[She waits for a moment, then adds:]

Friends... call me El.

[nyxulric]

[ With his lantern held tight, he gives a quick look around, trying to gauge just where they are and what the best rout to take out of here is. Looking back to her, he nods with a bit of a smile. ]

Alright, El. What do you say we get ourselves out of here?

[ Because they've been standing around long enough in this downpour going on around them and the last thing either of them need is to lose their lanterns in this or, worse, have them break unexpectedly. ]