memesinthenight | TEST DRIVE MEME #1

Entry tags:

!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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He ducks his head a little in a laugh as the comment catches him off-guard. A giant? Well yeah, they're tons taller. Over a hundred feet tall, some of the stuff he's read says, but he's never been to Elbaf and giants aren't part of everyday life otherwise. Sure, there are a few here and there, but they keep to themselves. The ones who don't, well, they're trouble.]

That's 'cause I'm not a giant. Just human. A little taller than some, but not by much.

[He wasn't even one of the tallest of Doflamingo's executives. It always seemed the closer you get to the Grand Line, the taller people got. Normal enough in his experience.]

[ Giants, in her world, reach only about fourteen feet – the idea of something as tall as the Wall speaking and walking and... doing other humanoid things, is, frankly, one that would terrify even her. ]

Taller than anyone I have seen.

[ Good God, what did they feed him? ]

Is it paint or tattoos?

[Amused, he just shrugs at that first comment. It's fine. There are lots of little islands where the average height is closer to somewhere around six feet tall. Maybe she just hasn't gotten out much - hasn't seen enough of the world, just fantasized about visions.]

Makeup. Yeah, paint. I need to find a place to wash up.

[And while he's not in a huge hurry, he's eager to do so. Corazón, that role he had to play, is definitely dead. Time to figure out who he is all over again.]

The lake isn't far. It might be easier to remove with some aid.

[ Aid she is willing to provide – fun fact, she is not from a world where mirrors are commonplace, she doesn't think there are any of the rare, expensive polished plates of bronze or silver available. Most she ever wears is a dye for the lips, and even that is difficult to remove without a visual aid.

Especially in permanent darkness. ]

The lake? I heard people died, going in there. A stream might be better. Fresher.

[Which is not at all his actual reasoning, but he's used to faking the explanation for why he doesn't want anything to do with standing water. Nobody needs to know it's crippling.]

There's also an inn over that way. They might even have soap. Don't worry, I'll figure it out, but thanks for the offer.

You believe people can still die?

[ It is a strange thing to sound hopeful about, but she is. Perhaps this is but a station on her way to the Hall of Light, somewhere she may redeem herself in the eye of her god. A place from which she might return, to finish her mission.

Beside that, she still sighs at the mention of soap. ]

Soap. By R'hllor, these things shouldn't be as scarce as they are in Westeros.

I've been told so by someone who's been here a while. I'm still breathing. I burned myself earlier and it hurt. I feel alive enough.

[But sure, he could have been lied to. The rest could all be an illusion. He just doesn't really want to test it, not when he's so glad to be something like alive.]

Westeros, that's where you're from? I haven't heard of that one yet. Most people keep talking about some place called Earth.

[ Alive enough, she can take comfort in. She doesn't wish to ask for more, doesn't wish for more answers. This is too comforting not to cling to. ]

No. Westeros is the land I died in. I come from the land across the Narrow Sea, Essos. Asshai-by-the-Shadow. Earth no one has called it.

[ Was she born in Asshai? No. Has Asshai claimed her blood and bones and skin all the same? Yes. ]

What of you? I thought for a moment it could be Volantis, for I thought your paint was a more permanent thing.

[ Even by Essosi standards, he dresses... wild. ]

Don't know any of those places either. I come from the North Blue. My world's divided up into a bunch of oceans and that's the one I was born in.

[He was not, in fact, but he's from it all the same, in a way. To admit where he is actually from is to invoke fear and horror and hatred in his world, but he became who he is now in that sea and he gives it credit for changing him.]

Tell me about your Essos. Why did you leave?

Essos... It is a large land, larger than the other one I knew, but likely not as large as your oceans.

[ There are too many different places to it, and she doesn't want to speak of Slaver's Bay, or Braavos, or Volantis. ]

Asshai is the city I lived for most of my life. It is not the only Temple I stayed with, but it is there where I truly learned to appreciate fire. You see, Asshai is cast in shadow, but for the hour of noon. The water in its canals is as black as night, and animals and children perish if they are brought in. It has gold, but it is cursed, it could house many thousands of people, but most all of it is empty. It is a magical place, a powerful grounds, but when I saw that the saviour of the world resides in Westeros, it did not trouble me to leave.

[ She crooks her head. ] The sea was... different, shall we say. You said you were born in it, though. A sailor?

[That's a pretty vivid description. He can see it in his mind, and to him there's no wonder it's mostly empty and difficult to live in. Dark but for one hour? Few would live in such a place by choice. He has lots of questions, but he'll answer hers first out of courtesy.]

A sailor, yeah. Though lots of us are. Most of the islands in the seas are tiny, so unless you like living in one village all your life, you learn to sail. So we introduce ourselves by the ocean we come from, not the individual island, unless you come from one of the few bigger kingdoms. I get the feeling a lot of people here have spent a lot more time on land than I have.

I certainly did. Asshai lies by the Jade Sea, I used to love watching the ships come in, but I was a woman grown by the time I boarded one again.

[ And there is a lot of time in between, when she had learned the arts of shadowbinding, of blood magic, and had little else on her mind but darkness. After, she had given herself wholly to scripture, even though it was the Temple who'd made her what she was to begin with. ]

It must be strange to be so far from the sea now, if it most of what you have known. Have you ever seen a kraken? Or a leviathan? Forgive me if I ask too many questions.

No, it's fine. I don't mind.

[It helps that the questions are things he's happy to talk about. The sea is treacherous, but it's also the path to freedom. He's spent so much time in some parts of it that he feels he knows it well - the sort of familiarity he doesn't even share with most people.]

We call them Sea Kings. Enormous monsters, right? Big enough to eat a ship, or a whale. Yeah, I've seen one. Had to pass through their territories more than once with a ship and it's always something you try to outrun, because if you stay and fight, you're dead. Usually if you see one at all, it's already too late for you. We got lucky, that's all. There were two close to each other, not that we knew that at first, but they ended up fighting each other and we rode the waves north.

[With a snapped mast, two of his men gone and left to the sea, himself bleeding from where that razor-sharp tail had whipped past him and left a deep gash in his side. He's had too many close calls with death.]

[ He is pleasant to listen to, and besides, she has not had much time for stories in recent years. Hasn't had much time for stories in most all her life, unless one counts scripture, which she does not. ]

Sometimes luck is all one can ask for. I have only seen creatures like these in paintings or on tapestries, or in bits and pieces at the Temple.

[ Waste not, want not, and so much alchemy relies on rare ingredients. ]

Be glad that's all you've seen, then. I guess we're probably all right here, though who knows what's in that lake.

[Nothing. Right? Lakes aren't big enough for the Sea Kings. The worst they'll likely see is a crocodile. Maybe they're still not far from the sea, though. It's hard to know in all this darkness. He doesn't smell sea breeze, doesn't hear waves, and the buildings, though worn, don't seem salt-corroded. But sometimes, lakes have a stream at the low end that heads seaward and that's where he'll go once he figures out how to get his hands on a boat.]

On your one trip over the water, what did you think of it? What kind of ship were you on?

It was exciting, though my God is one of fire and not given to the seas, and I knew nothing of ships, safe for it being a large vessel.

[ She tilts her head. ] I have spent more time on ships since. The last one was the king's own, a war galley. I believe I was the only person to enjoy the journey, but then, the cold does not touch me.

[ That being said, now she's worried of something otherworldly and betentacled in the lake, which, considering the horrors she's birthed, should not really concern her that much. The devil you know, and all that. ]

You must miss the sea already, if you are so close to it.

A little. I'm thinking I want to get out on that lake, though, once I figure out exactly how. You feel the wind coming off the water? It's big enough to make weather, and I don't mind sailing in the dark.

[May as well spread word around. He doesn't really want to sail with these people. He's used to traveling alone and while he doesn't trust any of them yet to watch his back, it's safer to have more than one on board in any journey. But he's got to figure out how to get a boat, first, and that won't be easy.]

Well, if you follow a god of fire, maybe you're in good hands here. That's just about the one thing we know we have.

A risk, until you know what lies inside.

[ But then, it's for him to decide, and it sounds adventurous enough. It can't be said that she sounds opposed, merely intrigued. ]

No, this is not a holy place. Things will not burn here, and how else can they be cleansed? The Hall R'hllor resides in is one of Light, not pure darkness. I am not rejecting the gift [ she gestures to the lantern, the bonfire ] but if it is purely God's doing, I cannot say.

[He shrugs. It's a risk he'll take, because how else will anyone find out what's out there? He's survived all kinds of monsters; battled large numbers of pirates with their guns and their cutlasses. There are few things he has much confidence in himself in, but sailing and handling the challenges of unknown waters is one of them.

Religion, however? Not his area of expertise. What exactly was all that she just said?]

Huh, well, you would know more than I do. And you said you were following some sort of savior to your... Westeros?

[What kind of religion is this where burning is cleansing? Sure, he kind of gets where that can come from, but blame being nearly burned to death as a child for his skepticism. His question sounds neutral enough, even open-minded, and he accepts that other worlds are different from his own, but there is just the smallest bit of concern underneath the calm demeanor.]

Not quite. I saw the saviour in my flames, and I crossed the sea to meet him, in Westeros, the land of the seven kingdoms, the Wall, and... what lurks beyond. He did not believe me at first, but the Lord of Light does more than listen.

[ She sounds eerily cheerful about the entire thing, as if she is talking of something most people would aspire or experience in their own life. ]

Even a man as godless as he was at first came to see the truth.

[ There's a moment's pause. ]

What do you believe in?

[Well he's certainly not going to just state his godlessness outright after that comment, is he? As if nonbelief made someone by default untrustworthy or somehow otherwise flawed. Lesser. All kinds of things about her demeanor on these topics are pinging him right now as untrustworthy, and yet she's the one claiming to follow a deity.

Apparently untroubled, though, he shrugs.]

Humanity, I suppose. There's a spirit to people that I find pretty powerful. We can do anything we set our minds to - good or bad, but I'd like to think most people prefer to cooperate when possible. It ends up being self-correcting.

[In reality he is not in the slightest bit that optimistic, but it's not really a lie. He believes in humanity and love and good, in justice and peace. It's damn hard work keeping that faith sometimes, though.]

[ If there has ever been an uncomfortably zealous person, it's Melisandre. There's rhyme and reason to it: she had been born into slavery, and what she considers her 'salvation' was... being bought by the Red Temple. Not a place where dissent thrives, nor the concept of atheism.

And that's not even touching the arts she learned. ]

Humanity. I like the sound of it. [ And she does, this is a cornerstone of her faith, even as her concept of 'good' has become utterly distorted. ] It does not do well at war. I can imagine it different at sea. Or perhaps if one is far away from lordlings.

[It does all right at war, he thinks. Not everyone is perfect. Doesn't mean the entire race is to be cast aside as hopeless. Really, he should have said he believed in something more expansive, thinking on it again - but what word would include not just humans, but minks and fishmen and all the other sapient tribes? Justice - probably that, but even then, there are many definitions and interpretations, most of them not particularly spiritual.

Oh well. He'll let her be right, because he doesn't know her well enough to want to argue the point. There's plenty to learn from people if you appear to agree with them, and he does want to know more about what she believes in, because it sounds utterly foreign to him.]

Yeah, I suppose it might be different from place to place, and it's not always easy. What about you? Your Lord of Light - what does he stand for?

[What gets cleansed, and how?]

He is the God of Light and Shadow, of Fire, of Justice and the Truth. He stands between us and the terrors of the night, and it is his flame that gives us life.

[ She knows he is an unbeliever – what else could he be, in this world? It mattered more to her once, unbelievers, just this past morn, but this world requires something else, this much she has gathered. That, and even unbelievers carry good in them. Davos Seaworth, another sailor, a former smuggler, now a knight, with land of his own, makes for a perfect example: he mistrusts her, more so than her god, he loathes her, he would kill her, she's certain, and yet, the king could not ask for a man more loyal in his service. ]

He can cleanse us from our sins, from the evils we have done. [ Even the most convinced heathen can be cleansed and lead to his Hall of Light, and isn't there beauty in that? ] And he will be all we have to defeat the Other, he who makes the dead walk in his army.

[On the one hand, he's very into things like justice and truth. Well, maybe justice more than truth, because truth and lies are tools, while justice is a pursuit; an ideal worth living for.

On the other hand, she sounds off her rocker just a little, but no more than most religious zealots, he supposes. Still better off than some he knows of. Terrors of the night? Walking dead? Sounds like a bunch of nonsense, but so is being here in this place.]

Your world must be incredibly dangerous. People make things hard enough on each other. An army of the dead?

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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