TEST DRIVE MEME #1

[inthenightmods]

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

Hello and welcome to the In the Night test drive meme for June! Thanks for your interest in our game! Reserves open on June 20, and applications open on June 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/application cap of 20 apps per month (this has been waived for the first month!).
  
• 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.
  
• Though threads can become canon, they cannot count toward AC.
  
• 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

YOU'RE DEAD, JIM

You haven't been in Beacon long when you find yourself in Bonfire Square, staring into the flames and thinking about how you ended up here. Maybe it was an accident, a sudden freak thing that you never saw coming until you woke up on the ferry, or maybe it's a miracle you made it as long as you did. Maybe death was a relief. Maybe it was just your time. Whatever the case, you can't help but reflect on your final moments as you linger in the firelight.

But however you died, it's behind you now, and you're here, stuck in this little town with just a few buildings and a smattering of other people. You're going to be here a while, so you may as well get to know your neighbors, but... Would it be cathartic to commiserate about your deaths? Or is your time better spent stocking up at the general store? Then again, you've got plenty of time, so why not catch a drink or two (or three) at the Invincible? Pretend you're unaffected by your death, and, well. Fake it 'til you make it, perhaps.

Point is, you have options. You're dead, you died, and this is your "life" now. Better get used to it.

AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES

Currently, there's only one place to live (technically speaking) in Beacon: the Invincible, a tavern and inn located in Bonfire Square. Luckily, the place has working amenities (minus light), and the forest spirits don't charge anything for your stay. Unfortunately, it seems there may not be enough rooms for everyone. Guess you'll have to get cozy!

Maybe you'll try to pick a roommate from around town or in the bar downstairs, or maybe you'll just walk into the first room you see and choose that way. Want a room all to yourself? Get ready to fend off any potential intruders. And the fun doesn't end there.

The Invincible's rooms aren't all created equal. Some may have had their furniture stolen or become a dumping ground for unwanted pieces, resulting in a single bed, five dressers, and other equally distressing situations. Will someone sleep on the floor? Will you nail two beds together to form bunk beds? Maybe you just want to make this room into something more like home— potentially to your roommate's chagrin. Whatever you decide, this is where you're staying for now, so you might as well get comfortable.

network prompts

HACKER VOICE: I'M IN

In order to use the network, you have to register a username. Er, at least, that's how it's supposed to work. For some reason, new users have recently been able to bypass that requirement, allowing them to post anonymously. Time to troll strangers on the magical internet!

Eventually though, you'll need a username in order to use the tablet's other functions, like the direct messaging system. So hey, why not take advantage of the ability to source opinions, and workshop your potential usernames on the network? Share ideas, get feedback, steal ideas, critique others, and figure out what you want everyone to call you.

TURN ON YOUR LOCATION

When you wake up, you're in the woods. An iron shackle complete with a chain leashes you to a tree, and the only light you have is your lantern. You've never seen this area of the woods before. You certainly didn't go to sleep here.

Hm.

But, all is not lost. You find your phone in your pocket, as well as a scrap of paper covered back to front in cryptic scribbles. Are these clues to your location? They must be. You also spot a key dangling from a branch, though it's hanging from a tree you'll never be able to reach from here. Perhaps someone on the network will be able to lend you a hand...

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Comments

Arya Stark | Game of Thrones

[facelessgirl]

⪧ YOU'RE DEAD, JIM ARYA
[ So her ship had become becalmed after a month at sea, and the Stranger had finally taken her, lips parched and skin burnt, here. Here. But where here is, Arya certainly doesn't know. It turns out it wasn't nothing after all, the place after death, and her mind has been racing ever since, trying to make some sense of it. Is her father hear somewhere too? Her mother? Her brothers? Are they lost in dark little worlds of their own, alone-but-not-alone, like she is? If she tries, can would she be able to find them?

A lot of questions, as usual, but at least there are many strangers to ask.

And after the disorienting strangeness of it all finally starts to ebb long hours after arriving, Arya has fallen back into her customary wariness. She's quiet. Removed. Watchful. She's been more comfortable observing than talking, listening instead of drawing attention to what she doesn't know, but she has to spend the night somewhere. She supposes. It probably shouldn't be out in the woods. She doesn't trust them. Not after what she's seen.

So for now, she sticks close to the bonfire. At least something in that reminds her of home, even if she has to sit too close to someone else to enjoy it. ]

So do people sleep around here? Or are we all just a bunch of ghosts?

⪧ AND THEY WERE ROOMMATES
[ Every face is unknown to her and the darkness is eerily like that which had engulfed Winterfell when the dead approached. She doesn't trust any of it, but she has to admit that she needs somewhere to spend the night. She can't just keep lurking around the fire like a hungry wolf, and she trusts the darkness of the woods even less than the narrow corridors of the inn's upper floors. Something about the place reminds her of the inns she knows, but all the differences shout at her from window and wall and hearth.

She finds an equally narrow, empty room, two beds and not really enough space for two people, but Arya is small. If she has to share, she'll manage. She has known far, far worse sleeping arrangements in her past, and the beds seem more comfortable than the pallet she had in the House of Black and White. It's certainly better than under the hedges along the kingsroad.

So she looks up calmly when there's a knock on the door, pausing in her exploratory circuit of the room. She steps closer, wary, wooden boot heels silent on the floor. She opens the door and stares down the face on the other side. ]

Yes?

⪧ WILDCARD!
( ooc: or hit me with something else! action is preferred for surprise scenes, but i'm ready for anything. )

and they were roommates!

[ultimatums]

[ in raylan's defence, this door looks like every single other door on the corridor, and he has too many other things to think about to be remembering exactly which one of these doors goes to his room. he'd come back from another trip to the invincible with, after much cajoling, a whole bottle of pretty good whiskey tucked into the pocket of his jacket, only to find the door to what he'd thought was his room shut tight. when he knocks, and the door opens to reveal a young girl, he only frowns more deeply. ]

—hello. [ mostly out of a pertinent sense of confusion, brought about by the utter dislocation of realising he's radically misinterpreted the layout of this place, for a whole second he doesn't know what to say after that. this is unusual for him. ] This – huh. Not my room. [ rather than backing away and heading further down the corridor – his room definitely had some sort of painting on the wall outside, but not this one, clearly – he wedges his hand against his hip and stands firm. the kid has a pretty hard stare, the kind of stare he recognises, so his immediate instinct is not to baby her. he peers over her head to get a look inside. ] I see you got the deluxe suite.

[facelessgirl]

[ Arya's eyes flick over him instantly, taking him in, catching on his strange clothes, his baffling hat, and... and the bottle under his arm. She squints at it a for a second since it doesn't look like any wineskin she's ever seen. Arya can smell the spirits on him, however. She recognizes that.

Great. Well, at least he doesn't smell much like the Hound otherwise. He's tall, but not threateningly so. Arya assumes if there's trouble she'll be faster.

She resists the urge to say that this really isn't her room either, not any more than anything is really hers here, but she doesn't. She'll claim what she can for now. Better not to get into any fights if she doesn't have to, and acting like a pushover will certainly bring them her way as sure as throwing her weight around.

Finally, she blinks at him. Better not to leave bodies. If that's even a possibility anymore. ]

Oh, I'm sure yours is more comfortable. You'd have a broken nose in here.

[ultimatums]

[ somehow, raylan feels like he's just been assessed for threats, which proves him right to some extent that he shouldn't underestimate this kid. if there's one thing he knows from experience, it's that age has no bearing on how dangerous a person can be. he shifts his weight from one leg to the other and tips his head a little to one side. ]

Uh huh. [ well, that's that settled. ] You're gonna get queues down the corridor for that bed there. Hope you don't mind company.

[facelessgirl]

[ She'd expected as much, with the number of people milling about in the tavern-like area downstairs and all those she'd left still gathered around the bonfire outside. This seems to be the only place with beds around, and most of the people she's seen don't exactly look rugged. It's not like she's not used to sharing space, and when she was on the road with the brotherhood they'd often shared single rooms and ended up practically all on top of one another.

But that was a long time ago, and Arya is less inclined to allow others to share her space now. She's not that little mouse anymore. She considers the truth of what this guy is saying and shrugs, looking unshaken. ]

Depends on the company. Do you not have to share? [ She returns the line of questioning, leaning one shoulder on the doorjamb, not really opening the door any farther but not closing it either. ] Sounds like you're the lucky one to me.

[ultimatums]

[ if she's relaxed a little, then raylan will too. he clears his throat and adjusts his hat a little so it's not casting such a dark shadow over his face. ]

I'm tryin' real hard to avoid it. Harder than you'd think. Been gettin' a lot of pretty pleases with sugar on top. And I don't have nobody likely to be askin' me where my momma is, neither. [ that's half a question – it's not that he wants to know where her parents are, just that he's acknowledging it'll be harder for her to wheedle her way out of roommates, if there's someone with a particularly parental bent hammering on her door. ]

we're all dead

[spitefullight]

[ Elden had sat near the fire to at least try and warm himself...or...no. Maybe really he just wanted to stare into the flames and try and remind himself of the sun. Feeling it on his face, the light washing over him and feeling emboldened by it. It seemed like some kind of cruel joke being placed in this afterlife when you worshipped a sun goddess.

With all this gloom he felt thin. The power his goddess gave him was there but it felt lesser. Stretched and looking to it through a black frosted window. These thoughts just continue to encircle his mind until he hears the voice of the girl now beside him.

He hadn't even seen her approach and it's a bit jarring. She was definitely good at being sneaky. Her question though does earn a small laugh from him. ]

I'm feeling tired right now if that answers the question. [But, right....ghosts...they're supposed to be dead but still felt tired? ]

Seems kind of weird if you ask me. What does a ghost need sleep for if they don't have a body that needs it?

[facelessgirl]

[ In truth, Arya hadn't even been trying to approach silently. She would have considered that a little rude and certainly knew it would have made her uncomfortable in his place. It comes so naturally to her now that it's difficult to turn off, especially in a word so full of shadows.

Arya shrugs, unable to smile like this boy but not bothered by his levity at all. ]

I don't know. But I think if I was a ghost I might need the rest. Before I got back to work.

[ Arya had left so much of that vengeful life behind with the shores of Westeros, and yet... a part of her would always be that little ghost bent on revenge. Even now. She's not sure why she's sharing that with him, though. ]

But what's the good of being dead if you can still get tired? [ She looks a little sad for a moment. If this is all true, then it must have ended up as no true escape for Sandor at all. ]

[spitefullight]

[ He feels distant for a moment when she speaks about it in the theoretical. He's seen so many kinds of undead it's easy to lose count. Had he ever seen a ghost before? Or fought one? He can't remember. Each horrible thing bled into another. But, he knows from what he's seen and what his goddess would tell him in his dreams.

When he speaks it's from experience; ]

If the ghost is undead? They never really rest they just...exist. Exist to just kill the living for no reason other than hatred or sadness. It's not a good existence.

[ He looks at this girl though and there's just...something sad there. The small shift in her eyes, the way her mouth falls. Just little things. It's easy to pick up on someone when he's alone with that person. The din of every voice around him just seems to drown out that perception in him. But, right now it's just the two of them. So, he shifts himself to look at her more, the distant look from before fading to something personal with a warm smile on his face. ]

Maybe it's to remind us we're still human. If you're always awake, your mind is always going. After awhile that can drive anyone crazy. Going to sleep...well...it's there to give us a break you know? So maybe that's why we're tired here.

To remind us that we're not just ghosts.

every friend is now dead

[littlegentleman]

[In the boy's stance, she'll see much of herself. He's closed off and quiet, but the wary, watchful sort of quiet of a child used to sneaking around in the shadows. Used to learning through the act of silence. He glances at her, quickly, then his eyes go back to the fire. He shakes his head slightly.]

Don't know.

[His words are soft-spoken and to the point, but not meant with any sort of apparent impoliteness.]

...I haven't gotten tired, yet.

[facelessgirl]

[ It's true that Arya recognizes something in him because she's seen in many times before. On the road from King's Landing, in the horrors or Harrenhal, when you had to disappear and keep your head down to survive. She's known boys like him before and been a very similar girl once, so she doesn't look right at him as they talk, and just like him, she talks quietly. ]

Me neither. Lucky that isn't the weirdest part.

[littlegentleman]

It's all quite a lot to take in, isn't it?

[The fact that they're dead, of course. That goes without saying. That this is what it looks like after...it's hard to accept. Junior doesn't say anything else, at first, eyes set ahead of him in thought.]

I wonder what it is about this fire that can keep away...such deep shadows.

[facelessgirl]

[ She shrugs, staring into the fire with a long distance in her eyes, thinking back on the war for the dawn. On all that had happened. ]

I've seen stranger.

[ She says it rather deadpan. At least these people look like people. Strange people, to be sure, but not dead murderous wights bent on killing her. She's seen death. This just isn't what she was expecting for her own. ]

That's what fire does. The night is dark and full of terrors. [ She's thinking of Melisandre and all she'd done during the battle. ] This is what keeps it back.

[littlegentleman]

Stranger?

[He supposes he can't argue. Hasn't he seen some strange things, as well? It feels silly to argue that a fire can't be out-stranged.]

Is the night really so frightening, do you think?

Dead again

[song_of_ice]

[He hears her voice and sees the outline of her against the flames. Arya. His heart seizes in his chest at the very idea of her being here. While he had thought he came to terms with her death, Bran's letter had at least renewed hope in him that he would see her again, once his task beyond the Wall was complete and Cersei agreed to the ceasefire. After falling into the ice, he had assumed that all of that was ended. His family, his attempts to fight the Dead, he did his best and failed again.

That she was here didn't offer any comfort that he was wrong. Clearly something happened that brought her to this place, as dead as he was. He watched for a time, uncertain how to even approach her or what to say.

It was craven, but he was unsure and didn't know what would confront him in how she looked or what might be left from...however she died. He was still in his Wildling gear and likely didn't look much better. But finally gathering his courage, he answered her.]

I've never known the dead to sleep.

these guys get stuck with the worst things in common

[facelessgirl]

[ Arya had died slowly and hauntingly on the sea from thirst, a death off of any known maps, but she'd died with the knowledge that at least her family was alive and well and that her death had been something made by her own choices. It hadn't been much of a balm during those becalmed days, but it had been something. But when she turns her head and realizes that it's Jon beside her, Jon so much and not quite like how she remembers him looking last on the pier in King's Landing, her heart stalls. Starts up again twice as fast.

At least that part of her certainly doesn't feel dead. ]

You're right. They don't.

[ He'd taught her that long before she'd seen it for herself. Humanity blinks back into Arya's eyes in a second with a glassy little film of tears and she throws her skinny arms around Jon in his layers of fur and mail and leather right there beside the fire. Right there in public. It doesn't matter. No one knows them. For once Arya isn't worried about looking like the warrior she is.

Neither of them quite look like death has struck them, although Arya looks even skinnier than she had before her voyage. She pulls back to let her eyes rake over his face, his clothes, and back to his eyes. The ones that are just like hers. ]

So what happened to you? Is it true? Are we dead? [ As though her brother might still have the answer to everything. She has no reason yet to suspect that he's not exactly the same brother she'd just recently left behind. ]

This is going to be so painful

[song_of_ice]

[There's only a momentary look shared between them before she's jumping into his arms. He's quick to hold her, believing this to be the first time they've seen each other since he left for the Wall. All of the pent up emotion and grief he'd been ignoring finally released. He could feel his tears scatter in her hair, but held firm to her all the same.

He notices the differences, but there is the fact that she has grown up so much that takes his larger focus. He stares down at her when they pull back, seeing the differences between the girl he knew and the woman that was before him. She didn't seem to be killed in the way he might expect from the Long Night, but he doesn't have the strength or heart to ask her what happened.

No more than he can speak of his own journey.]

I don't know. [He looked around, unable to comprehend this place when set against what he experienced with his death before. This isn't right. Ser Beric had gone through the same as he had, so it wasn't simply in his mind or a mistake.

Why was this time different?]

Everyone seems to have died, but it isn't the same as before. There was nothing then.

Pls bring the pain also sry for the wait

[facelessgirl]

[ The way he holds her... It's different than she expected. More like the time beneath the heart tree in the godswood, the first time he'd seen her again after so many years apart. She squeezes him harder because of it, renewed strength that she'd lost before she died again in her arms. It's a strange relief, but to be embracing Jon of all people is the greater one.

Perhaps he might have expected her to question what he meant by the same as before, but Arya already knows, so she doesn't. "How did you survive a knife through the heart?' she'd asked him, but she'd never been told the details. He's telling her now. ]

I thought there would be nothing, too.

[ She says it quietly, almost fearfully. She'd learned not to fear death, but now that it had come and passed and she was still here, still not understanding it, still waiting to learn more about what would happen to her, and now what would happened to Jon... ]

But what happened to you this time? You don't remember? [ She doesn't have the heart yet to tell him how she'd died, not when it takes a long moment to disentagled herself from his arms. ] Did something go wrong in the north? With Sansa?

Ditto

[song_of_ice]

[He suspected that Sansa told Arya of what he suffered, as it was something that was noteworthy enough to discuss. But it was strange that she hadn't questioned it a bit more. At the moment though, his mind was focused on seeing her again after so long apart. He would think about this later and might ask, but right now he wanted to think only of her.

Arya had always been astute and it made sense that she would expected nothing rather than the Seven Heavens. It was depressing though, knowing that their family was facing nothing than a contented afterlife.]

No. [He looked at her with a bit of confusion.] Did Sansa not tell you I'm- I was on Dragonstone? Tyrion suggested a plan to convince Cersei of a ceasefire. He told us to collect a wight and bring it south. During the expedition, we were surrounded by the army of the dead. Daenerys came for us and while the others were climbing onto her dragon, I stayed behind to buy them time.

[He hadn't survived it, obviously.]

Dead

[rehabbed]

[ Neck bent, Jesse is peering down at the tablet in his hand. His other hand is tapping the screen, occasionally swiping. That tapping hand pauses to give a little cluelessly exasperated shrug at the screen, a soft scoff of confusion under his breath, before his finger returns to searching through the device.

The voice suddenly speaking surprises him. He looks over his shoulder sharply, jumpy, his alert gaze piercing yet hollow. A quick and mistrustful up and down assessing look at her, that turns quietly questioning. Those clothes, if clothes is even what they can be called. Far more like armour. Nothing like what he's wearing — baggy jeans, a tri-coloured shirt and dark hoodie, and sneakers. His eyes dart back up onto her, and being reminded that he's dead has him answering with his shoulders sagging in a resigned shrug. His tone is, too, is grimly resigned; flat: ]

Beats me, yo.

[facelessgirl]

[ She's been watching him use it for some time, and Jesse's model of proficiency with it is the only thing that helps Arya as she finally flicks hers on herself. She silently watches his hands work with a sharp focus, her eyes locked to the device and what he's managing to get from it. When she had first tried, she hadn't even been able to turn it on, but now it awakens to her touch. How strange, this magic. She's shocked to see this man getting it to do so much, shocked that there are others who understand it.

But despite their many differences, when he looks up at her - spooked and yet drained, a familiar sort of colorlessness in his face - Arya recognizes the look of a soldier. Notably, the soldier after the war, when the memories are all cluttered up behind the eyes. Written on the face. Arya has learned to hide hers a little better than this stranger. All he'll see are flat Stark greys staring steadily back at him. ]

You're helpful.

[ She says it flatly, sarcastic. He doesn't speak in an accent she recognizes either. She knows she's the one that looks out of place here in her leathers and swordbelt, but it's his bright colours that she's fascinated by. Only in cities like King's Landing and Braavos has she seen anything that comes even close.

She cocks her head, pointedly watching him and the device in his hands. ]

Can you teach me to use that thing?

[rehabbed]

[ British chick. Jesse has never really met a British person before. He stares at her for a long, unreadable moment. He'd think it weird as hell to be speaking to a British chick dressed in leather armour, but... Well. He's dead. In Hell, he can only assume, because where else would monsters like him go? The thought is both too surreal to fathom and strangely comforting, despite all the silent simmering rage that he'll never get to kill Mr. White himself burning a hole inside him. Comforting because it's all finally over. He's finally free. Except there's no comfort in knowing Mr. White is still alive.

Can he teach her to use this thing, though? Seems, for a second, that Jesse doesn't comprehend her question — he remains staring for another half a beat. But then, he turns his attention down to the tablet in his hand. ]

Still tryna figure it out myself. It's not much different to one of them iPhones, 'cept... I mean, at least you can actually Google shit on an iPhone.

[facelessgirl]

[ Arya isn't unacquainted with what it feels like to be stared at, but it doesn't put her in any better of a mood. Is this guy stupid, or just scattered as she'd been until she'd forced herself to get her head on straight? While she'd died with relative acceptance after weeks of starving and days of knowing her death was coming, whatever happened to him seems to have left its mark on this man. Even if she can't see it.

When he finally speaks though, she just blinks back at him, mystified by what he's said. Looking just as lost as she'd just thought he was. ]

Not much different than what?

[ Arya has never seen anything like these devices and can't imagine something else coming close. She comes around the front of the log bench and has to move Needle out of the way to sit down beside him. She doesn't sit too close and immediately lays her own device in her lap. ]

Show me what you mean when you say the words. [ Because it's the only way to learn. ]

Roommates

[kungfuey]

[ When Arya opens the door she's greeted by the sight of a woman dressed all in black. The arsenal of weapons she has on her body might be mostly concealed from view, but there's no missing the Katana and Saber she wears strapped to her back.

She doesn't shift, the brunette's features not even twitching as her gaze slowly drops to meet Arya's full on. Scarlett making no effort to soften her expression as she meets the silent challenge of that stare. ]

You just gonna stand there or you going to let me through? [ A dryness to her tone as she speaks. ]

[facelessgirl]

[ Well, given those limited options. Arya blinks slowly and one eyebrow raises in an expression that asks if this woman is serious. ]

Just stand here, I suppose.

[ And she leans on one hip, locking her stance as if to make a point. But Arya is also eyeing her, struck by their few similarities like she was the first time she saw Brienne. They don't really look the same, she has to grant, but then again Arya has seen some strange looking dress here already. She'd recognize a sword anywhere, at least. That piques her interest. ]

You should find someone friendly to bunk with. [ Arya doesn't want to end up in a fight already, but as the waif proved many times, Arya's temper rises quickly to needling. ] They'll let you push them around.