TEST DRIVE MEME #5

[inthenightmods]

TEST DRIVE MEME #5

Hello and welcome to the In the Night test drive meme for October! Thanks for your interest in our game! Reserves open on October 20, and applications open on October 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 10 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

MAMMA MIA

The town is quiet, the forest spirits behave business-as-usual, Rastus doesn't know what's up. Whatever's going on, you'll have to figure it out for yourself.

And you will, though the hallucinations are subtle at first: objects moving when they shouldn't, people's proportions looking just a bit off, voices in an empty room, and so on. Is it just your mind playing tricks in the darkness? Might be! As the days go on, the hallucinations are harder to ignore, no matter how much you may wish to wave them off as flukes. What's wrong with everyone's faces? When did all the howling start? Who do you hold onto when the world drops out from under you? And those hands...

While you might know it can't be real, it certainly feels real. But at least it can't last forever... Right?

This prompt is a mini version of the game's Bury a Friend event.

GIMME! GIMME! GIMME!

Although the month is already well underway, residents of Beacon will notice a brand new shipment being delivered to the general store—only this one comes via the forest, as a small legion of spirits quickly drop off crates of boxes at its doorstep before scampering back into the woods. Hopefully nobody is riding too hard on hoping for further rations or supplies, because opening them up quickly squashes any notions of a full month's restock. Instead, it looks like each crate is bursting with costumes! Coming in all shapes and sizes to fit anyone of any age or decree, there’s plenty to choose from. Something scary? Magical? Clever? Or maybe even a bit on the sultry side? Dig deep enough, and you’re sure to find something to suit your tastes, props, accessories, wigs and all!

If nothing else, surely you can find an alternate use for a bit of spare fabric in your size, but what's the harm of having a bit of fun? But, oh, be careful if you're playing dress-up while the hallucinations from the event are in play... These costumes might just have a funny effect on you. 🤔!

network prompts

S.O.S.

The morning is interrupted by an alert. The text, which helpfully converts itself to automated speech when opened, reaches every inbox across Beacon, refusing to disappear until acknowledged. The problem? The username it comes from is glitched and unreadable, and all attempts at responding directly appear fruitless. The message is simple, three words:

SOS. SEND HELP.
There's nothing that seems to be able to be done about it, but with the earnestness in which it appears, maybe it would be wise to discuss it with the other residents. Isn’t there something you can do, even to track down the source? Maybe that will help you better put it from your mind.

TAKE A CHANCE ON ME

The longer you stay in Beacon, the clearer it is that you’re here for the long haul. And, on that note, the clearer it is that this place is going to need a lot of work to meet your standards. Obviously there isn’t much that can be done about certain things, like the state of lighting, or some of your potentially missing powers, but there are a lot of things that would certainly improve your personal quality of life. And for that matter, maybe some of your ideas would be agreeable to others, as well.

Whether you’re here to call for the establishment of a club, a new business, or even some kind of monthly therapy circle, the best way to get your message across is to turn to the Network and give your pitch. Whatever skills you may be lacking in the organization of this project, there’s undoubtedly someone out there who can provide. What are you waiting for? No time like the present to start collecting signatures!

QUICKNAV
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Comments

[onlyeverdoubted]

Bodhi's not great at reading people, but the immediate threat level from someone with a military bearing is one of those things he's had to understand for simple survival purposes. The relenting is clear. Either it was actually a little bit funny (probably not), or he's just that pathetic (definitely yes).

Diving into the safety of objective facts, he holds up the cape and appraises it more carefully. "I th-think so? The shape of the collar, anyway, uh, the shape of the collar looks right. But I-I've never been up that close to an admiral, and, well, a cape's a cape..."

[worthallthis]

Yeah, you're pretty pathetic, Bodhi. Pathetic is okay, though; non-threatening. "Admirals where I come from don't wear capes." The Soldier eases closer, hoping not to startle this time. "Just really uncomfortable-looking jackets. And terrible boots."

[onlyeverdoubted]

Bodhi doesn't jump again, but he remains sharply aware. He makes no effort to hide his guardedness, probably isn't really conscious of how much he's showing it. He has the body language of a prey animal, and every bit of him is focused either on the potential threat or any escape route. "Never looked at their boots," he admits. "Jackets don't look, well, um, easy to wear, though, you, uh, you're right."

[worthallthis]

It's almost bizarre, watching that body language. The Soldier doesn't take another step, this time, feeling somewhere between guilty and fascinated. It knows intimately how to de-escalate a situation with a threatening handler, how to watch without seeming to watch, how to hold itself ready to brace for a hit or a slice. And seeing some of those behaviors in someone else is. Weird.

"I'm not going to hurt you," it says after a moment, deciding to cut to the chase. "I'm sorry I scared you before."

[onlyeverdoubted]

His rabbitishness has ticked up a lot since, well, everything, but Bodhi isn't used to being called out on it. Most people either don't notice or pretend as much. Looking more silly than afraid now, he fumbles. "You--you d-didn't. Didn't really. I'm always like this." Might as well be honest.

[worthallthis]

The Soldier tilts its head a little. It believes him. There's too much about how ingrained that is for it to be otherwise. The Soldier turns aside a little, to give Bodhi some space without eyes on him, picking up one of the fancy masks in its flesh hand. "So am I. I just hide it better. Do you have a name?"

Just in case the answer is the same as its own, it gives Bodhi an out where he might not have to offer a fake one.

[onlyeverdoubted]

He can feel himself resisting, suspicious of kindness, confused by the idea of empathy when all the damage is new and raw. The broken bits haven't had time to wear down and the sense that he is uniquely and completely malfunctioning is hard to shake.

But there's something about the matter-of-fact tone that makes his defenses a little less effective. No argument, no attempt to sooth, just a statement. "Rook. Um, Bodhi Rook."

[worthallthis]

Oh, good, Bodhi is at least better off than the Soldier. It commits that to memory. "You can call me Soldat." Not a name, but something to call it. Most people accept that well enough. "Are you military?"

[onlyeverdoubted]

As a name that sounds fairly ordinary, but the phrasing certainly suggests it isn't a real name. None of his business if so. He considers, fidgeting for a moment, and nods, then stops. "Probably, um, doesn't count after you desert? I was, I guess. Just a cargo hauler, though, not combat." A structure to give orders within.

[worthallthis]

"Counts in the past." The Soldier frowns just a little, looking in the direction of Bodhi's shoulder rather than his face. The idea of deserting a command is one it never considered (that it remembers). It's curious. "Why did you desert."

[onlyeverdoubted]

No eye contact. This conversation is great. Bodhi isn't sure about a lot of things, but the simple decision he made isn't one of them. He made a kriffing mess of everything that followed and his incompetence wiped planets out of the sky, and it might have all been for nothing, but deserting? He's fine with that part. "I was working for--" He stops. No. The distance there is too self serving. He hasn't even had a price on his head long enough to try and remove himself. His choice. "I was, um, on the wrong side."

[worthallthis]

Jesus. This guy. (I don't know that I'd say "exactly the same", but, I mean. Kinda close. At least he's not an assassin. Then I'd be worried.) The Soldier shakes its head and puts the mask down again, bending a little to sift through the piles of fabric. Even if it doesn't really get the concept of a costume, spare clothes are still good for many things. "Good for you, to get out. I had to die before I managed that."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"Wasn't long after." He sounds about as calm as he has the whole time, acknowledging his final messy mistakes. At least being dead was something he could an accept. A defeat he couldn't be expected to keep pushing himself through. A decent ending. All that's a bit more complicated now, of course. "I don't think I quite figured out how to find the right side, but, still, it, um, it was a bit better. That way." He catches himself fidgeting with the cape in his hands and quickly sets it down before he rips something. The ends of his sleeves look stretched and threadbare.

[worthallthis]

"What happened?" the Soldier asks, glancing at him sidelong with obvious but polite curiosity. "If you are comfortable talking about it." The Soldier is pretty sure this guy isn't from its own world, and thus not actually HYDRA but he seems pretty human. What was the "side" he chose that was only marginally better than the one he left?

[onlyeverdoubted]

He's really not, but the stilted, formal request is more interesting than regular conversational prying would be, and he tries to find a workable answer that he can get out of his mouth. He's not going to talk about Saw Gerrera or his hole in the moon because he won't be able to get it out. He's not going to try to pour a galaxy's worth of history on a stranger, because that's rude. "I, um, I defected with information. The first batch didn't believe me and when the next faction pulled me out of that cell they, um, thought it was too dangerous to act on. Went a bit rogue."

[worthallthis]

"How do you go a bit rogue?" the Soldier asks, sounding momentarily a little more natural, enough to make its tone dry. Maybe a little bit of a different accent sneaking in that might remind Bodhi of a border planet somewhere. (Brooklyn to a spacer, right?) "Seems like an all-or-nothing kinda of thing."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"We, uh, did intend it to be. I defected from two armies in a week." Bodhi seems to lose his stammer mainly when he's being blandly snooty. "But someone rethought, apparently, and they did send some troops after us." He isn't clear on details on account of dying partway through.

[worthallthis]

Blandly snooty is a pretty good way to avoid freakouts, yeah. The Soldier is also good at employing that strategy, though right now it's fairly sincere. Fairly sincere, and honestly kind of impressed. This is a disaster pilot, right here. "Twice in a week. From two different armies. Is that a record?"

[onlyeverdoubted]

"I'm guessing a bit about the week." It's hard to keep track of time when you're catatonic in a freezing dark cell with an old corpse for company. "I'd sort of hope so, though? It, uh, doesn't seem like a problem that ought to come up a lot."

[worthallthis]

"I hope not." The Soldier, who is trying to work on this socializing thing, offers what it can of similar experiences: "I was in an army once. I couldn't imagine ever wanting to defecting from them, at the time." (They were the good guys, fighting fucking Nazis. Of course not.) The Soldier looks away again, frowning thoughtfully. "I did, though. I wound up owned by the people the army had been fighting. I don't remember how that happened."

[onlyeverdoubted]

Bodhi has the manners not to say that Soldat oozes military bearing in every possible way and anybody who wasn't blind and deaf would peg him, but he thinks it. The story should be horrifying, and it is, but there's a blunt edge on the awfulness. He's hard to shock. Has he ever specifically heard of the Imperial army trading in useful captured rebels? No, but he wouldn't be surprised.

Rather than try to put his thoughts into words that would be unavoidably meaningless and banal (slavery sure sucks, huh?), he tries to relate to what should probably be the least relatable part of that statement. "It'd be nice if you could be sure about memories, wouldn't it?"

[worthallthis]

The Soldier looks aside at Bodhi again, in some surprise, briefly actually catching his eyes. Only briefly, though. "Yeah. It would. I don't have very many," it admits. "And I don't know how many of the ones I have are real."

[onlyeverdoubted]

Bodhi is not great at eye contact. He glances away again and tries to fix his gaze on the neutral middle distance. This is kriffing surreal, but he nods anyway, taking what refuge he can in going through the motions of a normal conversation, tones he'd use to discuss tricky atmospheric conditions. "Well, if you figure out how to tell that bit, pass it along?"

[worthallthis]

Don't worry, Bodhi. Eye contact mostly only happens on accident or for brief emphasis. Bodhi's reaction to this moment of it only reiterates how the Soldier needs to keep treating him. It does smile a bit, vaguely amused at their mutual tone. "Sure thing. You came in on the newest ferry. Right?"

And the Soldier is so glad there is a new ferry.

[onlyeverdoubted]

Ferry sounds right. Without a schedule he can only guess about how new it is. "Yeah?" True or close enough to true, probably, and Bodhi doesn't like to make objections to anything that doesn't seem rather vital.