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
comms	|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Comments

[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.

[worthallthis]

"New people come once a month on the ferry," the Soldier explains. "Along with supplies. We." It pauses, looking a little guilty, gaze going further to the side. "Weren't sure a new one would come. Crashed the last one."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"That. Uh." He's got nothing. There presumably is a reason. People do things for reasons. Just not necessarily with goals in mind he can appreciate, as he's learned, even if they're supposed to be on the same side. "A story."

[worthallthis]

Assuming that's a request for that story, the Soldier answers, "Crowley and Aziraphale wanted to return to the world. To their lives. There's apparently an apocalypse they need to fight against." The Soldier doesn't know a lot about it, honestly, just what it's picked up here and there from the two of them. It seems like a decent reason to want to go back, anyway. "So I helped them try to steal the ferry to see if it could take us back. It. Didn't work the way we thought."

[onlyeverdoubted]

Yes, he can sort of see how that became a plan. It sounds like a bad one, but he's working from a sort of extra-removed hindsight. And he's coming in with a lot of baggage. "Could, um, see how that might go badly, yeah."

[worthallthis]

"I didn't think it would do anything, it would have been tactically unsound to give us any control over the means to escape," the Soldier says, sounding still embarrassed and maybe a little grumpy. "But I had orders, so I had to try. People have been surprisingly decent about the whole thing, though."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"That, uh, does sound like a very easy tactical exploit," Bodhi agrees quietly, though he's run into a few of those that didn't turn out to be protected. "Good to know, though." People being decent isn't something he relies on.

[worthallthis]

It was a huge surprise to the Soldier, too, not even necessarily pleasant all the time-- when experiencing guilt and shame for the first time, punishment had seemed necessary to make it go the fuck away. Being left to grapple with the emotions alone had been... hard. "Only two people even bothered with anything remotely like punishment, and one of those was just ordering me to help people and not try to escape again. The other was just not talking to me for four days. And hardly anyone even yelled at Crowley and Aziraphale, either." The demon had been so sure he'd be run out of town or attacked, and nothing bad had happened at all.

The Soldier is pretty sure that grim "certainty" on Crowley's part had been his own version of the Soldier seeking out punishment. Trying to handle guilt in an entirely not useful manner.

[onlyeverdoubted]

The brief point in this conversation where Bodhi felt like his feet were comfortably under him has passed, but that's just a return to normalcy. "Definitely sounds like a different approach than I'm used to, then." The part of him that's been under Imperial dictates since he was seventeen wants to question how that'll work, but he isn't going to say so. Bad subconscious mind.