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

network; double anon antics

[hardwearing]

[ Wash hasn't bothered picking a username just yet. He probably will eventually, something sure to be unimaginative and unmemorable, but right now it doesn't seem important. Nothing does. He's been struck with the same strange numbness as when he first woke up in Hadriel, sure he was dead and it was hell and there was no point in engaging with anyone or anything. This time he even remembers dying, and the damage to his armor is pretty damning even if he still feels alive physically. Maybe that's what has him questioning it all, keeps him curious enough to have explored the square and start poking around the network instead of just lying down to accept his fate. (Not that succumbing to the tangled knot of emotion that seems to be all the stages of grief at once would last long -- he gets bored easily.) And then he comes to this post, which is a damn good question, actually. ]

There's just the tavern and the store, and not much there.
It feels like it matters if we eat. Haven't pooped yet though.
Want me to keep you posted?

[evocation]

[That's... gross. But she started the grossness, so now she has to lean into it. Besides, having a stupid conversation is better than thinking too hard about anything important.]

yeah
and tell me what ghost poop looks like
is it just going to be ectoplasm like that stuff from ghostbusters?

[hardwearing]

Is that how ghosts actually work?
I seem too corporeal for ectoplasm poop but I guess I'll find out eventually.
Hey if we are ghosts maybe I don't have to shave anymore.
That's a perk.

[evocation]

idk
i've never seen a ghost poop
if we get too drunk will we puke?

[hardwearing]

That seems easy enough to find out.
But it's also probably not the best idea.

[evocation]

what? why? we're already dead
who cares

[hardwearing]

Because I don't feel dead, do you?
Drowning my sorrows didn't work when I was alive, I don't see why it would now if nothing else has changed.

[evocation]

no, but i'm pretty sure i remember dying
apparently the guy who was supposed to bring me back decided to suck at his job

[hardwearing]

Same. On both counts.
I'm not in denial or anything, just stating facts. Dead or not, it seems like I'm still me.
Not sure how to deal with any of this yet but making it all more miserable with a drunken puking session seems ill-advised.

[evocation]

who was supposed to keep you alive?
and look
i'm saying we might not have to puke
maybe it's a win win

[hardwearing]

You'd probably think I was insane if I told you.
Try it if you want, then.
Let me know what happens.
Just for science, I've never found anything useful at the bottom of a bottle.

[evocation]

chill, dr. no name
i'm not an alcoholic or something
there's nothing else to do anyway
and i wouldn't think you're nuts

[hardwearing]

I didn't say that.
Or mean to imply it.
Sorry.

He was an alien. But I guess he must have died, too.
Don't really want to think about who else did.

[evocation]

an alien?
god
what is it with aliens?
all of them suck

[Wow, racist.]

[hardwearing]

We're aliens to somebody too.
Maybe even to each other.
But people tend to suck regardless of species.
He wasn't so bad, really.

[evocation]

okay well
where are you from?

[hardwearing]

Ever heard of Minab?

[evocation]

[Kyna was replying pretty much rapid-fire before—now, there's a telling pause before she responds. It's probably just a coincidence. It's totally a coincidence, and she's going to look like an idiot, but]

wash?

[hardwearing]

[ There's a long stretch of silence on his end as well, as Wash stares at the screen in horror that whoever he's talking to is someone he knew. Meaning they're also dead. Now there is a burst of denial, maybe it's coincidence or a bizarrely appropriate typo but... he knows that's stupid. And saying no won't change the fact that someone he knows is here too, as much as he doesn't want to face it. He shouldn't be surprised, of course a bunch of people must have died in the attack, including his friends but he was stubbornly refusing to think about it until now. When he's faced with the fact of it in blunt, toneless text.

Worse, between the way this person speaks and their knowledge of his birth planet, there are only a few people it could be. Really, just one. And he's not willing to accept that. ]

I need to wake up now.

[evocation]

[It has to be him, doesn't it? Her heart leaps, and for a split second she's torn between indescribable joy at the thought and then the horrified realization of what that means.]

what?
wash, is that seriously you? where are you?

[hardwearing]

[ The happiness that she's here with him hasn't hit yet because he's stuck on Kyna is dead and can't get past it. Of course he wants to find her, but he also doesn't, because that makes it true. Stupid, really. It's true whether he wants it to be or not.

Maybe he'll skip over his own existential crisis completely, in favor of having one for her. There's another long stretch of nothing, then: ]

Top floor of the inn. Door on the right at the end of the hall.

[evocation]

give me a sec

[Teleportation isn't really an option—she doesn't know the layout of this place well enough to ensure she won't teleport into a wall and hurt herself, so she does it the old fashioned way. It certainly takes her longer than usual, even though she's only a floor below him.

It's him, obviously, and once again Kyna is caught between relief and dismay. He's here, but she can only imagine what caused that damage on his armor.

Impulsively, she crosses the room and throws her arms around him, ignoring the metal digging into her.]

Oh my God, it is you.

[hardwearing]

[ Wash stands up at the sound of footsteps, leaving the tablet beside his helmet on the table in a pool of light from his lantern. He listens to them coming closer, chest tight with anticipation until another light appears in the doorway, held by an intimately familiar figure.

God, no. No no no this can't be happening. It feels like something in him is breaking, falling to pieces even as guilty relief floods in. It's a complicated tangle of feelings that he hadn't started picking through on his own behalf yet but... it's different when it's someone else. And he just stands there staring like a conflicted idiot until Kyna takes the initiative and rushes forward, hugging him despite the fact he's still in his armor. Damaged armor, with ragged tears in the metal. She could get hurt.

She already did. Again, she died and he wasn't there to stop it. ]

Kyna? Careful, you'll cut yourself on-- [ His voice catches in his throat and he settles his hands on her shoulders to nudge her back, get a better look at her. As much as he can, anyway, with useless tears welling in his eyes. ] God, you're really here.

[evocation]

[Of course he worries about her first, even though he's the one who looks like he just lost a fight with a woodchipper. She lets out a soft, irritated huff when he eases her back, about to scold him, but then she sees the look on his face and softens.]

I guess you can't get rid of me, huh?

[It's a pretty useless joke, but she's trying. There are tears in her eyes, too, but she tries to blink them away.]

[hardwearing]

[ He can't quite manage a smile at that. It's a decent joke but he's just too upset, and simultaneously happy, and also angry at himself for being so incredibly selfish as to be glad she's with him. It's a mess. He's a mess, but what else is new... Kyna's seen him worse off than this, anyway. ]

Obviously not.

[ A stray tear rolls down Kyna's cheek and he just can't take this. Can't look at her and wonder how she died, if it hurt, if her friends are missing her right now, if the people she was supposed to take home and save are trapped or dead now too... his grief for her is breaking down the numbness he's embraced since waking up here and thoughts of his friends are sneaking in. They're probably fine. They have to be fine. They have to have lived and won and gone home and been okay. Except there were all those times they sat him down and screamed in his face about how much more important to them he was than he believed, and out of nowhere he wonders who's taking care of Olympia, and that's it. Fuck death.

Kyna probably knows him well enough to see the collapse happening inside his head through his expression, and he doesn't want her to think it's her fault. Also he really wants to stop thinking at all, this is terrible. So he takes a shaky breath in and cups her face with a cool, metal encased hand, leaning down to kiss her hello. That's not inappropriate at all, right? He's real bad at reunions. ]