inthenightmods: (meme o'clock)
In the Night Moderators ([personal profile] inthenightmods) wrote in [community profile] memesinthenight2019-11-15 01:42 pm
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Test Drive Meme #6


TEST DRIVE MEME #6


Hello and welcome to the In the Night test drive meme for November! Thanks for your interest in our game! Reserves open on November 20, and applications open on November 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 7 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




KEEP YOURSELF ALIVE



When the spirits decide to throw the residents of Beacon a feast, you have two options: partake or abstain. It doesn’t take long for the effects of the food to become apparent. Either you turned away from the temptation and watched your gluttonous comrades fall into a deep, comatose slumber…or you’re among the dreamers, and you awake to a Beacon of a time long forgotten. It's the same Beacon that was left upon falling asleep, but now, the sunlight is bright overhead and songbirds can be heard throughout the forest. The bonfire has been replaced by an ornate fountain, like a proper town square, and there's no lighthouse out on the peninsula.

While dreamers have the chance to explore, those stuck in the waking world find themselves swiftly overcome by a horde of violent green-eyed spirits that attack everything they can get their hands on: even if that includes an individual that’s left asleep and helpless. Regardless of your strength, this is your task now. Protect and defend the town if you want there to be anything left of it.

Although, unlike the official event, there will be no mod-run groups for dreaming and exploration, you’re free to write your character waking up in a sunny version of the known locations in Beacon and write your own psychological horror breakdowns of the dreamy world. Or, if you choose to write your character as a defender, feel free to make up your own green-eyed spirits to fight while looking over the comatose bodies of the dreamers.

This prompt is a mini version of the game's Enter Mr. Sandman event.





SHEER HEART ATTACK



You’ve never seen him before. A giggling little boy, cloaked in shadow, beckons you to follow through the forest. He travels quickly, always too fast to quite keep up with, and takes you through the trees with ease. If you choose to keep following, you're lead to an old, abandoned house, and once inside…find that the dining room has been all done up for a sort of dinner party. Various spirits clatter at the seats, pounding the table with forks and knives. They’re not the spirits you know. They’re not the chirping, scuttling friends that can be encountered around town.

No, these are long-clawed and jagged-toothed. They’re dirty and sunken-eyed, their masks streaked with red. The little boy collapses in a pile of wooden limbs at the foot of the table. Closer, now, the light of your lantern shows him for what he was: a puppet. The puppeteer makes itself known where it had hidden itself against the dark ceiling, eight long legs creeping into the once-unoccupied space of the doorway. As it blocks the way out, and the other spirits grow ever noisier, the looming figure of the Baubledook takes their rightful place at the far end of the table.

You have very little time to ask yourself: are you the guests of honor...or the main course?




network prompts




TOO MUCH LOVE WILL KILL YOU



Another week comes, marked by Robin's latest bulletin posting on the Network. But this one's a bit different: as a final note to sign off on the latest updates, she encourages everyone to give thanks in the spirit of the harvest season. Whether you want to thank someone directly or maybe say something more abstract, don't you think you'll feel better if you spread something positive? No? Not incentive enough? Well, this time, Robin appears to have accounted for the no-fun naysayers that try to skirt around her attempts at community building.

All readers will quickly discover that they're unable to navigate away from the bulletin until a thankful comment is left. There must be some kind of keyword function programmed in to only allow escape to those who have left thankful content. Better think of something, cynics and grumps. If nothing else, there's probably no way for the Network to tone police?





I WANT IT ALL



A friendly pumpkin sprite has appeared in the bottom corner of your tablet's dashboard! It's a loving and smiling companion, asking quite frequently to be attended to and, most importantly: fed. Curiously, the more that you feed the digital vegetable, the bigger it grows...until it's actively blocking out parts of your screen. You could stop feeding it, of course. It's not real or alive, so what's the harm? But as it grows hungrier and more insistent and you continue not to feed it, it cries and cries until it goes from sad to angry.

And then you notice it chomping at the edge of the screen, eating it away, bit by bit, blacking out the corners and working its way inward, making apps inaccessible and the network harder and harder to navigate. Maybe you should have given it what it wanted.





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featherknives: (19)

1

[personal profile] featherknives 2019-11-16 08:24 am (UTC)(link)
[She knew that running around the forest mindlessly, following a small spirit that way too playful for its own good, would end up badly. She just didn't know it would be this bad. Xayah is already in half crouching position, two feather blades summoned in case she has to fight back.

Her eyes quickly dart from the Baubledook to the guy (kid?) next to her, reaching for the sword.]


Quiet! And start retreating slowly, there's a small clearing behind us, I have a plan...

[She's not sure how far she'll be able to carry him, but she didn't spend days shapeshifting her wings back to their natural form, and then spent weeks practicing to fly, for nothing. Besides, if she leaves without his lantern, he's as good as permanently dead.]
webshoots: (pic#13550484)

—2 / @parker

[personal profile] webshoots 2019-11-16 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
Me. Me of us wants a peaceful death.

But FWIW, things are pretty split on whether this is death or just an interdimensional kidnapping with a side of memory manipulation.
thricefold: (044. you can always find me here.)

( prompt: too much love. )

[personal profile] thricefold 2019-11-16 10:57 am (UTC)(link)
[ perhaps as a way to not immediately meet those expectations - if only to make the inevitability all the more crushing, because life is just like that - the first message is from someone who's going by @zita: ]

That's an interesting thing to be grateful for.

[ it might possibly come across as judging since the network can't convey tone but it's coming from purely a curious state on her end. ]
webshoots: (( face ) does this look)

—2 / @parker

[personal profile] webshoots 2019-11-16 12:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[ WOW this speaks to peter on a deep level. ]

That's a lot for one person to take on, but it sounds like they were lucky to have you.
thricefold: (007. oh‚ be careful what it takes.)

[personal profile] thricefold 2019-11-16 01:31 pm (UTC)(link)
And I was so very lucky to have them. They, in a way, saved me.

They gave me a reason to keep trying even though, I must admit, there were days I simply didn't want to try.
[ she's not usually this, ah, open about her feelings or thoughts but, then again, this isn't her life. it's the afterlife and some rules may be allowed to be bent, to a degree. ]
webshoots: (pic#13550484)

[personal profile] webshoots 2019-11-16 01:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Sure. At the risk of sounding cliché, there are things you'd pick yourself up after for other people that you wouldn't necessarily pick yourself up after if you're on your own. Having that connection's important.

And it's definitely something to be thankful for.
thricefold: (036. try and fill us with your hate.)

[personal profile] thricefold 2019-11-16 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't think that's cliché at all. Merely something that's tried and true.

And something that sounds like you have personal knowledge in, if I'm allowed to make that observation.
thricefold: (054. and i remember thinking.)

[personal profile] thricefold 2019-11-16 03:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[ zita is almost too busy kicking herself for having a nibble of some food to hear her companion's words.

almost.

upon realising that there's someone else here - someone, possibly, in need of help - she quickly allows her to refocus her attention on anything but her own concerns. ]


It should be. I can't- [ she stops herself, not wanting to divulge too much information in the wake of this, feeling unguarded and exposed. ] I don't see anyone else with us. There were more at the party, for certain.
webshoots: (( face ) that t-shirt tho)

[personal profile] webshoots 2019-11-16 04:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I guess so - not like you, but my family's important to me. There's nothing I wouldn't do for them.

Which -- I'm with you on being grateful they're not here.
ladytakamaki: (25 - Z89OKm2)

2

[personal profile] ladytakamaki 2019-11-16 05:59 pm (UTC)(link)
I mean, that's totally fair! I have some pretty good hair genetics myself.

What hair products did you use? ...When you were alive, anyway...
Edited 2019-11-16 17:59 (UTC)
paletteswap: (Judging)

Keep Yourself Alive

[personal profile] paletteswap 2019-11-16 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[The door is sturdy, but not enough to keep whatever is out there at bay for too long. Time for some reinforcing; Kuai shoots a blast of ice at it, freezing the door to the frame and putting a more solid barrier between them and what's trying to get in.

This time when it slams against the door it bounces off with a nasty sounding hiss and garbled growls.
]

Guess it doesn't like the cold.
ladytakamaki: (after all that you put me through)

1

[personal profile] ladytakamaki 2019-11-16 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ look, she doesn't know if they can be killed either, but that doesn't mean she's not going to try. she can fight and this situation is hella weird. this may not be the metaverse but carmen is still with her, and she doesn't think this guy can take on all of the spirits by himself. (sorry!)

so when the mysterious man tells her to get out of the battlefield, ann summons her persona. it's huge, several feet taller than the both of them.
]

No way! I'm fighting with you!

[ she looks at the puppeteer, then back at him. ] Any ideas?
ladytakamaki: (always down for the ride)

too much love

[personal profile] ladytakamaki 2019-11-16 06:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know about that. I've met some pretty cruel humans in my lifetime.
moderatelymaladjusted: (01)

Keep yourself alive

[personal profile] moderatelymaladjusted 2019-11-16 06:30 pm (UTC)(link)
[The feast.

Quentin didn't go because- there's just no way he wants anything the spirits are offering right now, not after the latest stunt pulled in Beacon and the horribleness of all of that mess. Not after the vivid and cruel hallucinations or the fucking hands.

But. Eliot went, just like he went to see the play they put up and Quentin had spend both nights low-key hating everything about this place and sulking, eating the last of the pizza from the fridge and pity-drinking alone.

Except. He'd wanted to surprise him by showing up anyway, because this was the kind of idea that made sense back at the cabin and not at all once he got here.

The long table is set, and mostly eaten, the glasses half-full and everywhere he looks, there are bodies lying around. Like all of them keeled over dead at the same time and he starts checking for life signs at once. The haze of cheap red wine lifting just enough with the sudden burst of adrenaline and he goes by all of them, the ones he knows and the ones he doesn't and they're all breathing. All still alive and the night explodes in spirits.

Charging through the treeline, long limbs and teeth flying all over the place and Quentin slams up a Sumerian Shield Charm on instinct, and ducks behind the nearest table.]


They all need help! Come on, help me flip the tables over. [Quentin flips the one he's hiding behind, creating a make-shift barrier with the bonfire at his back and the trees in front.] We can pull them behind this! And-- help? I can't hold the shield for much longer!
mollymocked: (⚔ this the greatest show)

ii. @mollymauk (ZITA!!!!!)

[personal profile] mollymocked 2019-11-16 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[wow that sounds familiar.]

Seems like we're in a similar situation. Bit of a shite thing to have in common, but what can you do?
subroutines: (pidge)

hm, the first one

[personal profile] subroutines 2019-11-16 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
( hey keith, were you expecting to be joined by a gremlin? no? well, surprise, because you are, and she's not about to leave you for the sake of saving her own butt.

she might not have started out her stint as a paladin knowing how to fight, but if there's one thing she's learned since then? it's that she's way more capable than she would have given herself credit for otherwise.

even still, she shoots keith a rather bewildered look at the suggestion.
) Are you nuts? I'm not leaving you here. ( her brows furrow, and her mouth pulls to the side in a half-frown. think, pidgeon. )

We'll figure out a way out of this together. ( think, pidgeon. )
mind_blown: (Feels so good to be confident.)

too much love WILL kill you (@jtodd)

[personal profile] mind_blown 2019-11-16 07:13 pm (UTC)(link)
what if
just hear me out
we want 2 get out instead
rhyses: (023)

[personal profile] rhyses 2019-11-16 07:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Good! Excellent! Definitely gonna do some damage with that.

[If the creature breaks in, that is. Which seems more and more likely, right up until that horrible crashing stops, and then Rhys finds out silence is worse than anything.]

. . . uh. Maybe it . . . lost interest?
paraskeptic: (if you ask and credit the maker i don't actually mind if you use these ♥) (ds13559446)

2

[personal profile] paraskeptic 2019-11-16 08:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, that's something.

[ not being flippant, although it may sound that way. if she can find something to be grateful for after dying, why begrudge her?

(also, she's also a redhead. not that the method of discussion conveys that.) ]
5thchild: PM me if any icon is yours (pic#8222737)

Kaworu Nagisa // Evangelion

[personal profile] 5thchild 2019-11-16 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Keep Yourself Alive

[ This should be called, in fact, don't bother to keep yourself alive.
Kaworu is around and checking everything (and everyone) in front of him with much curiosity, but he politely refused any sort of food. Not only he does not need it, but he isn't knowledgeable enough to recognize Lilin food; as someone who refuses to consume living creatures with a nervous system, he wasn't going to try his luck at food like that. So while he remained close and watched everything with much interest, Kaworu refused any offer of food.

Which means he is very much awake while everyone falls into their slumber and spirits attack. Anyone saying it's his role to defend the town, they are being surprisingly hopeful. Kaworu is not as proactive as one would expect from someone who was so interested in peeking around earlier on; in fact, he has no reason to even bother to defend himself.


Ultimately, because they are all dead.

Why does it matter? Why would one still want to attack and defend, when they are all technically dead?There is no future for Kaworu, his role has ended, and therefor whatever step is next is, ultimately, unnecessary. It's not that he wishes to die: he simply has no need to stay alive either.

In other words? When an angry spirit charges at him, Kaworu simply looks back at it and smiles softly, ready to accept what comes next. ]



Too much love will kill you

[ Now, this is what Kaworu lives for. Showing love and being thankful. ]

I believe I was born to meet him, to live for him, and die for him. I am most thankful for every second of it, and I am thankful now, for being able to remember it all and to cherish it.


I want it all

[ Well, Kaworu fed the digital pumpkin because a) it's digital b) it kept changing as he fed it c) he was curious. Deep down, he also thought he could still control his device with his powers if he wanted to, but only now he came to realize he no longer is able to manipulate technology the way he did before. Stopping also did not help, since the pumpkin got mad and is now eating his device away.

The angel is very ready to just drop his device and ignore it, but as someone gave this to him, he also does not wish to be ungrateful. Therefor, he attempts to use the network simply to ask: ]


I am not familiar with pumpkins. I believe I need some help dealing with one. [ be more specific, kaworu

but alas, he is not and that's all he will say. Meanwhile, anyone passing by Kaworu would see him sitting down, watching the angry pumpkin eating his apps away with a sconfused expression. He isn't sure what he is meant to do, honestly. ]
sweetwater: (039)

[personal profile] sweetwater 2019-11-16 09:15 pm (UTC)(link)
I did a hair mask weekly, and only bought the very best from Barnaby’s. Of course, there's not even a Mallmart here.
sweetwater: (035)

[personal profile] sweetwater 2019-11-16 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
The missive said not a word about our current circumstances. If they wished for thanks about this poorly lit otherworldly afterlife, it should have stated as much.
paraskeptic: (ds13559476)

[personal profile] paraskeptic 2019-11-16 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
I wasn't being sarcastic. That said, I'm sure they figured that their desire to hear how grateful we are to be here was implied.
daughteroflight: Icon by <lj site="livejournal.com" user="100x100magic"> (nobody's home so nobody minds)

[personal profile] daughteroflight 2019-11-16 09:55 pm (UTC)(link)
That's amazing. I always wanted to see the ocean. [ there's a pause after that message sends, but finally there's an addition. ] Can't believe I won't get the chance now.
sweetwater: (030)

[personal profile] sweetwater 2019-11-16 09:59 pm (UTC)(link)
What are you grateful for about being here?

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