memesinthenight | TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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!tdm

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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[ that placid response is enough to get five's attention, a brief glance over the rim of his glass. for obvious reasons, people tend to be more confrontational around him, usually. this is a deliberate, well-honed calm that eugene is projecting. and that's...interesting. ]

Likewise. [ he...guesses?? ] What is it that you do, Eugene? Or did, considering.

[ the addendum is tactless, obviously, but he raises his eyebrows briefly in acknowledgement of that. some self-awareness, at least. ]

Ah, reckon I prefer 'do'.

( it's a minor correction, but a firm one. death ain't about to stop him none from doin' what needs done, an' helping folks has always been his highest tenet. people here can still get hurt. take injury. need a moment's comfort or a steady hand. he's made his peace with dyin', but this semblance of life weighs easy on the soul. he'll walk on. )

I'm a paratrooper. ( he doesn't bother with the specifics of division, regiment or rank. odds are it won't mean to others what it does to him. but it's important. he was airborne before he was a medic, no matter how the latter subsumed him. he gives a little salute with his beer. queer thing, to drink it cold when all of europe disdains it. ) Combat medic in the war against Nazi Germany. If'n you know what that is.

( it's offered without judgement. he's learned right quick that earth and its sundry histories ain't a universal constant so far as others are concerned. )

[ five cants his head at the correction: fair enough. it's a sentiment he can respect, if not totally understand. he's ex- too many things (masked hero, survivor, assassin) and didn't have real choice in two of those.

(he'll own his decision to join the commission. but even then, the choice had been die alone or have the chance to go home. that's part of why he'd been recruited, of course.) ]

I know what that is. What year was it for you?

[ five's been to more time periods than he can count, to take out the marks assigned to him. he's seen war, across time. the revelation isn't conceptually strange, but it is sobering.

(metaphorically. he takes another sip.)]

( he ain't one to really express relief in obvious ways, but at hearin' the fella's from earth there's an easin' of minute tension in the line of his shoulders. it ain't that other folks from far-off places bear suspicion or scrutiny — he ain't about that life to start. it's more the fact that gene's something of a creature of habit, and the familiar is a balm to the mind in this place they've all come to occupy. )

Just a few days past New Years, 1945.

( his birthday ain't far off. twenty-one ain't all that much a milestone by his yardstick, but he'd wanted to live to see it all the same. somewhere, reggie'd joke about stayin' the older one between them, for ain't a soul grows older in death. )

Had a fair few folk tell me we won, though. So ( a slight nod. ) I'm glad for that much.

( ain't the dying what troubles him. death has always been an old friend to the hicks' family. it's just leavin' his boys without one of their senior medics, to soldier on through the hardest winter their corner of europe's seen in a lifetime. )

Shit.

[ eugene would've had a long way to go, thousands of more ways to die, but he'd also made it as far as the last year of the war. imagine hearing about the war's end secondhand, a matter of months off. five's never fought any wars, but he's seen enough of them to know how often they take young lives. eugene's about a third of his age, if he's guessing right, and jesus christ.

(five knows exactly what the handler would say about it. he also knows what she'd say about the bitter taste in his mouth, after the number of people he's looked in the eye, knowing when their death was coming. chooses to chase that down with another mouthful of beer.) ]

At least there's that, huh?

( it's a right queer thing, to feel this sense of kinship and sympathy from someone who ain't much taller than his collarbones. it's a curious dichotomy, an' he can't even put his finger on why. now that they've talked some, he doesn't think there's a question of the kid havin' seen some things that gene would rather a child avert their eyes from. it's just a matter of what.

odd turnabout, that it makes him feel so damn young himself. )

Ah, it ain't no thing. I'm satisfied with the livin' I did.

( he'll miss his brothers, and his pa. and alex. an' the fact reggie ain't strolled up on him yet has got him breathless with hurtin' when he thinks about it too much, but. that don't bear mentioning none. )

Anyway. Enough about me. What's your story, Five?

[ makes a sound in his throat, says, ]

Now you sound like my brother.

[ it's not too hard to imagine, say, luther shrugging off dying for a cause, even one of their dad's, in a way like this. they were raised to save the world, something his siblings now take with varying amounts of seriousness. not hard to blame them, given sir reginald. hard not to blame them, given the things he's seen. either way, he doesn't like the similarity.

what's your story, five?

not one he's telling, that's for damn sure. ]

It was 2019, [ he says, turning back towards the bar ] for me. Long way after your time, soldier.

An' you sound like one of mine, so we're about even, huh?

( even looks a little like albert at that age, an' his brother's about as surly as a wet cat on a good day. will he know, out there in the pacific? will some runner come get him and put a missive in his hand in government ink, stamped with the war department seal? or will that letter go straight on to his pa?

he doesn't care about his body for his own sake. he'd rather his boys not waste the energy diggin' in the frozen ground to bury him. but his family would want somethin' to bury. )

I'm beginnin' to see that that's a runnin' theme. New millennium an' all. A pal o'mine would've wanted to know about flyin' cars, but they cure TB yet?

[ he gives eugene a sideways glance, says, ]

I doubt that.

[ as if he's somehow more qualified than eugene to comment on any similarities he may or may not have to one of eugene's siblings. but he sincerely doesn't think that whomever he reminds eugene of is guilty of the kind of shit he is. so: he doubts that.

(he very much does not think about how his siblings might be taking it, just like how he does not think about how they must've taken losing him the first time. they have a world to save, not to mention their own lives, and that matters so much more. mourning can wait.) ]

Flying cars, no. Tuberculosis, also no, but there is a vaccine. [ a beat, then: ] A lot of the world's polio-free.

[ not everywhere, but that's something, maybe, to someone from 1945. ]

Edited (reading up on polio now lmao) 2019-06-23 01:34 (UTC)

( okay but that's also literally something his brother would say!! it ain't so uncanny as to be eerie, but it's definitely a likeness that won't be shaken so easily. he half-hopes that one of his other brothers will saunter on up, some healthy margin of age between them to indicate a life long and well-lived an' agree with him on the point.

but ain't no point in pushin' the matter, not when the fella's so recalcitrant against it. )

All right, easy.

( that comment about polio, though, he cracks a smile. it's a small one — he ain't given over to excessive emotional displays at the best of times — but genuine enough for all that. )

Heard about that one, believe it or not. I gotta say, I'm glad folks are still so excited about it after all that time. It's one Helluva thing.

Eh, plenty of people take it for granted.

[ if he'd never traveled through time, would he even think to care about something like polio? reginald hargreeves raised them on dire warnings of saving the world from criminals, violence, not disease. they grew up in a fine mansion in a big city, money spent like water after them.

he taps his fingers on the counter, adds contemplatively, ]

Which is a luxury.

[ he had a lot of time to think, during the apocalypse, of everything he'd ever taken for granted. a roof over his head; accessible clean water; decent food; family. people who cared about his well-being (his siblings, obviously, not their father), who took care of him when he was tired or sick (mom or pogo, obviously, not their father). ]

I'd rather they did.

( takin' things for granted means the world is better looked after. he remembers going hungry days at a time in the depression, workin' himself to the bone just to put something like food on the table for his brothers. he ain't bitter about it, but he wouldn't wish it on another soul, neither. he ain't of a mind that folks should have to suffer to build character, none of that. if a kid has never known hardship or hunger, if they've never been ravaged by disease or lost friends to it, if they've never gone off to war — that's a good thing, by his yardstick.

does make him wonder about this young'un, though. )

Ain't nothin' wrong with luxury, so long as it don't turn 'em cruel.

( reggie was a good example of that. he had more money than you could shake a stick at, his family managed to cling hard to their wealth even in the depression, but there wasn't a mean bone in his body. it was gene's first time really bein' around anybody of affluence, and it set the tone for the rest of his reckoning. )

I didn't say there was.

[ he says, but without heat; he hadn't said there wasn't, either. god knows he'd never wish the apocalypse on his siblings, or anyone else.

(maybe it's just the conversation, but eugene makes him feel old. maybe it's just the unflaggingly kind sentiments coming from a dead young man's mouth.) ]

( congrats, they're both feeling the totality of their ages. a+

gene just laughs a bit. the conversation is somethin' like awkward, but he ain't one to fluster about it. )

Not much of a talker, are ya? C'mon, let's grab a table. Maybe I can slip you another beer when you're done that one, an' if you're inclined maybe I can wheedle s'more stories about the future outta you.

[ fact is: five doesn't remember how to be around people.

forty-five years since he accidentally jumped forward in time, and he spent the majority of it alone, the last person alive. last few years, there was the commission; which is another way of saying, there was the handler, there was the occasional colleague, but mostly there were the marks. when he broke his contract, made it home, there was --

-- well. there was no time.

and that's one reason why he hesitates. the other is when eugene says stories about the future, there's a flicker across his face he can't help. when he thinks of the future, what flashes before his eyes is destruction, is fires burning, is dead silence.

which is, all at once, too much. he exhales, sharp, the line of his shoulders going stiff. he doesn't teleport away to get out of the conversation, but honestly it's a pretty near thing. ]

No, [ he says, goes to stand, ] I'm going.

[ to get a fucking breath, mainly, but also mostly because he's lingered more than long enough. ]

( ain't no cause to chase him. he can sense a misstep but not the nature of havin' done it, though he reasons somethin' he said was the sure cause. he ducks his head, tips that beer in a faint little salute. )

All right. You be safe, Five.

( because he ain't got a clue what else to tell a boy that don't seem much like a boy, in a world where they're all dead anyway. )

Got a tent outside, if'n you find yourself needin' medical attention you feel free to stop on by, yeah?

Sure.

[ it's an acknowledgement, at least. and then he does teleport away, space rippling around him as he slides through like it's nothing. ]

( um.)

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TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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