memesinthenight | Test Drive Meme #7

Entry tags:

!tdm

Test Drive Meme #7

TEST DRIVE MEME #7

Hello and welcome to the In the Night test drive meme for November! Thanks for your interest in our game! Reserves open on December 20, and applications open on December 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 2 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

MAGIC CASTLE IN THE LAND OF SWEETS

You wake up one morning to find that The Night Market has come to Beacon, rising from the depths of the lake to set up booths and stalls all around the square. As a market, they offer a variety of goods and services typically unavailable to the good people of Beacon. Lantern charms that grant special and boosted abilities? Check. Magical potions to imbue the imbiber with fun but temporary effects? Got 'em. Specialty goods from home? Can do. Cigarettes? You bet your buns. The only catch? It all comes at a price.

Accepted currencies at the Night Market include: Building and scrap materials, old tablets, old lanterns, captured forest spirits, torches, information, and most importantly... Plutonium. Of course, attempting to barter is always an option... but these currencies are your best bet for dealing with the various vendors offered by the Night Market.

And finally, if bartering isn't your speed, The Night Market has also brought with it a host of activities akin to a street festival. Warm up with a hot toddy or gourmet latte from the pop-up coffee booth, sample a treat from the candy shop, or win your bae a stuffed forest spirit or mechanical goldfish from the carnival games. Above all? Have fun!

This prompt is a mini version of the game's Pleader event.

BATTLE WITH THE (RAT) KING

Throughout the month, the residents of Beacon will discover that a familiar and not particularly wanted visitor has returned. Strangely, the creature appears to be incised by the holiday decorations that have been put up by those so inclined. It goes after any decoration it can, intent to rip them down, tear them, sometimes even run off in a tangle of garland. In particular, the Rat King goes into a frenzy any time it spies a nutcracker, and won't stop until it sinks its teeth into the wooden soldiers. It could be worse, you suppose. The thing doesn't seem to be paying mind to people unless they get in its way. Still, there are some residents that went to a lot of trouble to put this all together. Maybe you should help?

Or maybe you're scrooge and just want to watch the Rat King do its business. That's also fair. Just expect to get some coal in the secret santa exchange.

network prompts

MARCH OF THE TOY SOLDIERS

At some point while you were out and about, minding your own business, you find yourself in quite the troubling situation. All of a sudden, you're surrounded by what appears to be a small army of tin soldiers. The reality, of course, is that they're all somewhat small forest spirits that have decked themselves out in pieces of scrap that act as army-like uniforms, and not real toys at all...but still, the effect is unsettling. They're not all that threatening, really, aside from being creepy, but there are so many of them, and they hold sharpened, bite-sized spears that they keep trying to jab into you any time you try to move out of the circle they've made to sequester you.

Ultimately, you're able to more or less make out what they want: a ransom, of which they do not have the ability to properly communicate. They won't rest or let you go until you post of your plight on the network and give them what they want. You know, just, who knows what they actually want. That's still up for debate.

CHILDREN'S GALLOP

RINGLE DANGLE JINGLE JANGLE!

This is the nosie that greets you on an endless loop from the Bonfire Square. A small group of spirits have gathered there and set up what appears to be a donation pan, which they keep smacking and rattling as they provide all of Beacon with a rousing and unending set of holiday caroling. Unfortunately for everyone who isn't a spirit, this basically just sounds like coordinated screaming. And the screaming does not stop. Maybe for some of you, this would be easy enough to ignore in one capacity or the other, but it seems the spirits have accounted for this, and are very insistent on being given the attention their cheery efforts deserve.

Which is to say: throughout the day, everyone receives what is effectively spam emails to their tablet in the form of...very loudly written words. The emails pour in, over and over:

WE WON'T GO UNTIL WE GET SOME WE WON'T GO UNTIL WE GET SOME WE WON'T GO UNTIL WE GET SOME WE WON'T GO UNTIL WE GET SOME

QUICKNAV
comms	\|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	\|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Building materials. There is a stockpile of things you can trade for them by the bonfire, if you see something you really want. Information, too, if you have any they don't know yet.

[But given this guy looks pretty new, the Soldier is not assuming he has much information that the Night Market would want.]

[ He nods. He doesn't have information, unless they're interested in the world he already left. ]

Is it okay to take from the stockpile?

[ Someone's probably keeping track of it. ]

That's what it's there for. I can show you.

[No harm in walking a little ways with a newcomer, to show them the things Bodhi and Elena left for everyone's use.]

I would like that. Thank you.

[ He musters a small smile. ]

What's your name? [ So that he'll know who he needs to help in return. ]

[There's a brief hesitation before the Soldier answers,]

Soldat.

[If Lucius knows any Russian, he'll recognize that just means "soldier", but I most people accept that as a decent cover name. They start back towards shore, off the floating dock platforms.]

What is yours?

[ He doesn't know Russian, so he just takes it as a given name with a nod. ]

I'm Lucius.

[ It's a name he inherited from someone else with mixed feelings on the matter, but he's still used it out of a lack of any other ideas. He doesn't make small talk just yet, looking around the path that they're walking down and trying to remember the details. ]

Nice to meet you, Lucius.

[That's what you say to exchanging names, right? OF course it is.

The path from the docks into town isn't very long, but it's not like crossing the street, either. They see the church first, lit up from within with the glow of many candles, but the light doesn't carry far. No light carries far, here, not even their own lanterns. The bonfire, though, carries further, and that can be seen up ahead.

The Soldier doesn't make small talk, either, actually perfectly content to walk in silence for a few minutes. It's kind of nice to find someone else who doesn't seem to mind that, either.]

[ As they walk, he notes the unnatural darkness. Even his own light magic didn't have any effect, which terrified him greatly; but that was something that happened a few hours ago and he's mostly over it. ]

Does that fire ever burn out?

[ He expects to be smothered by smoke at this distance, but he isn't. ]

No. It doesn't even really burn anything, it's some kind of magic fire.

[Which some other Beacon residents find annoying, not having a proper explanation for a phenomenon, but the Soldier is used to accepting things they don't entirely understand. They nod in the direction of the birdlike man hovering around the blaze.]

Rastus is the keeper of it. He'll let you take a torch for your room, if you ask him.

Do I need to give him anything?

[ Having some light in his room would help alleviate his inability to sleep. Not that he needs to sleep per se, but it does some good for his nerves.

If it's magic fire, high chances that it's a finite resource. What happens if it runs out? He doesn't want to think about it too much, but it comes to mind anyway. ]

Just your promise that you won't lose it or try to toss it in the river. It doesn't burn out, it keeps going forever unless intentionally doused.

[Rastus is nice like that. The Soldier has a torch outside the house they share with Crowley and Aziraphale, in fact.]

The more we spread the light out. The better the town is. All in one place doesn't help anyone.

[ That's... surprisingly nice, for a survivor's town. Though, as he thinks about it, Lucius supposes he can see the merit of having more light everywhere. ]

Alright.

[ There has to be a way of replicating that bonfire. He files it away mentally to think about later, looking around for the stockpile. ]

[The Soldier leads Lucius around the far side of the blaze, where Bodhi had left his collection of tinkered bits of machinery, and Elena had left her box of scraps. They stop by them and nod down at the collection.]

Take your pick. However much you feel you need or can carry. You can always come back, if what you want costs more.

[ He crouches down to look at the salvage. Most of them are scraps and he isn't immediately able to tell what they are meant to be. ]

Should I put something back in the pile?

[ Taking without giving back feels wrong to him. ]

You don't need to. Besides, if you had something to add. You'd have something to trade. Bodhi mostly collected the machinery scraps and repaired them to have something to do, anyway, I think. Not because he wanted anything back for them.

[Which the Soldier absolutely understands. Keeping busy is important, particularly between the various awful events that keep happening.]

[ It's hard to accept that, but he supposes he must. It's not like anyone here knows who he is, would expect miracles from him. ]

Okay. Thank you.

[ He starts to pick out a few pieces of the salvage that look intricate, turning them over in his hands. He doesn't sense anything - maybe they're too depowered for him to interface with, or they were too broken to.

Once he has a few pieces, he straightens up. Will the Soldier walk with him back to the market? ]

[If Lucius looks like he wants accompanied back to the market, then sure, the Soldier will walk with him back to the market. The Soldier is pretty good at reading subtle cues to find out what someone else wants out of them, though put to better use than during life in finding ways to help people that said people don't actually voice.

So the set of the kid's shoulders, the way he looks in the Soldier's direction, suggest that company is still desired. They offer,]

I can show you which vendors are the most helpful for what you want to get. If you want.

Edited 2020-01-03 06:08 (UTC)

That'll be nice...

[ He feels kind of relieved that the Soldier asks him first. It's hard to be vocal about things for him; he's not used to having his own direction. ]

I kind of want a light. My room is a bit dark.

[The Soldier considers that a moment, starting to walk again, back the way they came.]

Pluto, probably. Light created by magic or technology doesn't work right here. But Pluto may have an idea. They must have some form of light beyond their lanterns, at their station. If she can't help, we can get you a torch from Rastus.

[ Pluto? He frowns a little, remembering that it's the name of the leader. ]

Alright.

[ He has to wonder. If the Night Market has light and can travel, then they certainly have some knowledge about this world that the Beacon residents don't. But how to get that out of them? ]

Does the Market come often?

This is the first time any of us have seen them, and there are people who have been here for six months. So I don't know. You can ask. Pluto might say when they plan to come back.

[If they plan to come back. They might decide this batch of residents isn't worth it.]

Oh, okay.

[ So he should definitely try to get what he needs this time. It's a little unfortunate that he's here too late to stockpile resources. ]

If they're coming here from somewhere, then there's got to be another place that isn't Beacon. [ He says this out loud, wondering if the Soldier has anything to add. ]

Underwater. Maybe.

[The things they've overheard, and logical suppositions.]

They came on submarines. They don't get reset. Under the water is the only place the spirits can't go.

[ That presents a loophole, he thinks - if they could escape the World Eaters just by being underwater... ]

They don't get reset, [ He repeats quietly. ] You don't suppose they could tell us what they've seen through the resets? But that'd cost something, I'm sure...

Intel definitely costs. But they have been down there for years, I heard them say that at least. This group has only been here six months since Robin called the last reset.

(no subject)

diastima - 2020-01-09 01:50 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only