memesinthenight | TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ honestly, she was perfectly content to be dry and indoors. did he really have to shake off like that right in front of her? ]

Even ghosts feel the sensation of water, [ is her prim retort, hands busy dabbing at her skin, sweeping off the worst of the spray before it has a chance to drip onto her trousers. ] Rain would be no different.

[ she might have offered to dry him off, but not with that attitude. he can catch his death of cold for all she cares. ]

[ yes. ]

Do they?

[ kol frowns, pursing his lips. it's very clear that he doesn't believe they do—given that he was one who felt nothing and saw nothing at all. what he would've done for just a drop of it…

tilting his head to the side, he plays a little coyly, ] Do you speak on behalf all the ghosts?

Yes. [ retorted in the prim voice of someone whose confidence is based on practically having folio magi memorized. ] Ghosts can feel sensations of external stimuli, though they experience significantly decreased sensory awareness in comparison to living magical entities.

[ why, yes. magical entities. those are real, too. ]

I speak on behalf of all the ghosts I've encountered. If you don't believe me, you're welcome to venture back and ask them yourself.

[ while she talks, kol wipes the water away from his eyes and the bridge of his nose. it's almost as if he's not listening, but he is—to her heartbeat, to tell if she's feeling rather aggravated by his mere assumptions, and to her words that are quite interesting. ]

That's all quite nice. [ crossing his arms over his chest, he grins at her. rather cheerily, especially for someone who is so afraid of death, ] I'm kind of jealous—I wish when I was a ghost twice over that I had the pleasure of feeling the sensation of a mere breeze.

[ he begins to walk, turning on his heel after he passes her so he can begin walking backwards into the invincible. ] Come on, Ghost Whisperer. I'll "buy" [ — air quotes and all — ] you a drink. You can tell me more about these things you've heard. [ without waiting, he starts on his way to the bar with rather confident footsteps. ]

[ she isn't quite sure how to respond to that. confusion furrows her brow, her brain rapidly trying to make sense of the simply stated twice over but ultimately failing. ghosts... are people who have died. you cannot die and come back and then become a ghost again. reincarnation isn't possible, even with the sorcerer's stone. or even with horcruxes! you still have to be alive to make use of immortality. ]

What do you mean, twice over?

[ does she follow? well, she hasn't much choice, considering the fact that there is a mystery left unsolved and the possible answer now in the distance — so yes, she does. hermione follows along, and although she isn't much happy about being manipulated into it, the short walk does give her time to pepper in a few more questions. ]

Were you dead? Before this, specifically. I realize we're all dead, supposedly, and thus likely apparitions of a sort, but before this. You've been a ghost?

[ sprinkle a little interesting tidbits like salt bae and those who can't help themselves will follow—it works every time. when flirting with a witch has failed in the past, he always changed tactic to entice them with his knowledge.

kol doesn't reply to her as he approaches the bar, lifting his arm and indicating two with his fingers. is he indicating two as his answer to her? or two as in drinks? then he sits down at the bar, elbows resting on the counter top. she's finished asking her questions by then. ]

Twice.

[ the spirit bartender delivers two glasses of a mystery beverage. even though it'll be cheap as hell, it'll do the trick; kol only lifts his, turning his head to look at her on whichever side she stands or sits on. ]

I've died twice. This is the third realm I've been to for dead spirits. I feel as real as I did while in the land of the living.

[ it is quite awkward to stand beside someone at a bar when there is a perfectly good barstool waiting to be sat on. not to mention that, in comparison to his easily six feet of height, hermione is practically diminutive when he's seated on the stool beside her. it makes for a rather uncomfortable craning of her neck that she'd much prefer to avoid.

so, kol will have a seated companion on his right, though one that only picks up her drink. it smells... quite awful, really, and she does not hesitate to make a face at the aroma. definitely not butterbeer. ]

So do you not think we're dead, then? [ that is her hope. she is aware it goes against the assumption of this place, the one so conveniently placed on that opening page of her electronic book — hello, you're dead! — but she is undeterred. proving her hypothesis only requires finding the right supporting evidence. ] You called this a realm.

Oh, we're definitely dead. [ he says that quite easily and with an unwavering confidence. it's much, much better than being lost to oblivion, like he's been threatened with twice over.

kol has been alive, undead, permanently dead, and a ghost. despite his reputation of being incredibly impulsive and hot headed, he did take the time to study how each of those felt. his death is still one he's trying to process, but his current status as a ghost was one he easily accepted within minutes of jumping off that ferry.

swirling his glass of cheap alcohol, he looks into it for a moment as if it'll predict his fortune. when he seems pleased—or simply bored—with what he might see in the swirls, he looks to her. ]

When you die, you go somewhere—a realm, which most would understand as an afterlife. There's plenty of them, all made for the purpose of housing particular souls. Beacon is very much a realm made for a particular purpose and catchment of ghosts. You'll find our state of being spirits is very different to the native spirits who were most likely born here.

[ his certainty might be reassuring, if not for the fact that every fiber of hermione's being is rallying against the very concept of accepting her own death. she'll accept many things — being kidnapped, banished, or otherwise transported to an alternative realm, one where magic might operate under different laws and the sun never peeks above the horizon — but death is really asking too much of her.

for now, anyway. she continues to resolutely not drink from the glass put in front of her, to the bartending spirit's dismay, and watches him with wary consideration. ]

A ghost is a ghost, isn't it? Why would we remain corporeal while the local population is not? That seems to defeat the purpose of an afterlife.

[ glancing up for a moment, kol frowns, then gestures to her with a loose wave of his wrist. ] I haven't quite figured that one out yet, although I do have some very riveting theories.

[ he doesn't think they're very riveting, just fyi. from all the witches he's studied, from all the lore he's either been a part of creating or had the pleasure of experiencing, he has an idea, but nothing quite concrete just yet. that's frustrating for him—kol, in his own way, is a know-it-all. ]

I'd be interested in hearing them.

[ that, at least, is the truth. hermione will never pass up the opportunity to learn something, given the time to do so, and in beacon, it seems she has nothing but time.

she can give him her full and undivided attention, turning in her seat a bit to face him more directly. she considers even pulling out note-taking supplies — parchment, ink, a quill — but doesn't yet. she'll listen first, plan an essay about the subject later. ]

I'd very much like to solve the riddle. We could — [ she pauses, considering. ] We could work together on it, if you like.

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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