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

[paletteswap]

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.

[oldtonew]

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. ]

[paletteswap]

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.

[oldtonew]

[ 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. ]

[paletteswap]

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.

[oldtonew]

[ 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.

[paletteswap]

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.]

[oldtonew]

[ 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.

[paletteswap]

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. ]

[oldtonew]

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.

[paletteswap]

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.

[oldtonew]

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?

[paletteswap]

No.

I should, but she did not strike me as someone I wanted to converse with. However she does have vital information we need. If she'd be willing to share it is another matter.

[oldtonew]

How did she strike you that way?

[ It's asked with genuine curiosity. There's so much Kettara doesn't know about this place.

Kettara's shoulders have relaxed somewhat, and her posture is less tense as she warms to the questions. It's comforting to learn, to take a further step away from her own ignorance. ]

[paletteswap]

Her first message to the network made it seem that she views this as a game, and that we're players on a board to her. That she can wipe clean whenever she wanted.

I would assume someone with the power to end so many lives would take that responsibility seriously. But she does not.

[oldtonew]

[ That doesn't bode well at all. Kettara frowns, thinking. ]

Having power doesn't make someone a leader. Just makes them strong.

[ But even the very strong can be killed. ]

No one opposes her?

[paletteswap]

Many do, but she wields the power to 'reset' everyone. Or so we've been told by people who were here before us. We would have to take her by surprise and kill her, or risk her murdering everyone else first.

[oldtonew]

What does that mean, to reset everyone?

[ To kill everyone, presumably, but it's odd phrasing. ]

[paletteswap]

Kill everyone. Additionally it seems that a reset actually turns back time in this place. We keep discovering locations that have been here for previous groups of people but have been lost during the reset.

I'm not sure how it functions, I'd rather not witness it.

[oldtonew]

Powerful magic.

[ Kettara tips her head back, thinking. ]

She must be difficult to kill.

[paletteswap]

No one has met her. Or even seen her as far as I know. She's in the lighthouse communicating only over the network.

It would be treacherous to even get to her with how well guarded the location is.

[oldtonew]

[ That's telling. It might mean she isn't as strong as she seems, or perhaps simply knows she's outnumbered. Or that whatever Robin is doing up in the lighthouse is so important it cannot be left alone.

Kettara frowns. She will have to consider this further. ]

Has anyone tried?

[ It's important to have as much information as possible. ]

[paletteswap]

Not that I know of. There was a group who went out to the lighthouse in order to reconnect her to the network.

Nearly all of them died, and many did not revive after.

[So not just regular dead. The dead dead kind of dead.]