memesinthenight | 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

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Do you want to get free of them or not

your just a little less knight in shining armor than I imagined

Why were you expecting a knight? I'm not a knight except to Mary, who is very small and very imaginative.

[The Soldier might in fact be prowling the village now looking for some guy surrounded the spirits in costumes.]

it's a joke
because i'm a damsel in distress

[That's a really dumb joke.]

I'll still help

[And there he is. A guy surrounded by little spirits in costumes. The Soldier prowls that way.]

[ It's not Eliot's fault if the guy doesn't appreciate good humour. But he won't lie and say he isn't relieved that, reluctant or not, his rescuer has come. He looks just as surly in real life as he'd been online.

Great. ]

No rush, or anything. Take your time.

[Ironically, as Eliot speaks out loud, the Soldier does in fact pause, frowning, giving him a closer look. Don't they know that face? Don't they know that voice? Wasn't it a lot friendlier last time they interacted?

Maybe they have it wrong, remember it wrong. Best not to say anything. They produce a knife from one of their many hidden sheaths, and use it to tap on their left hand: a pattern of long and short notes of metal on metal. One of the "toy soldiers" turns and chirps in another pattern of the same. The Soldier translates.]

They want your left shoe. They will release you once you give it to them.

What?

[ Eliot looks down at the things, which are definitely prodding his shoe and yelling their gibberish at him. ]

If I give them a shoe, then I only have one shoe. I can't roam around in the dark with one shoe.

You can get new shoes from the general store.

[The Soldier points in the direction of said store with the knife blade.]

Or you can try to make another offer and I'll translate. See if they'll take it.

These are special shoes.

[ One of kind. Made just for him. He's definitely not giving them up, and he also has no money to get new shoes. He assumes he needs money for shoes. ]

Uh. I have, uh. Rings? Do they want one of my rings?

[ God, that's painful to part with, too. ]

[The Soldier taps out the translation, receives a slow response of Morse chirping.]

A ring is acceptable.

[They smile just a little.]

They'll give it back tomorrow, anyway. That's what they've been doing, lately, when they trap people like this. You'll find it in a weird place.

Well, I can go without a ring for a day but not a shoe.

[ Though Eliot does pick his least favourite ring. He slides it off his finger and looks down at the soldiers, who are either cheering or goading him on, and he awkwardly crouches down to hand the ring over. ]

There. Now - Shoo.

[They do, all chattering musically amongst themselves, one of them holding the ring high like a trophy. The Soldier watches them go with something like amusement.

Then they ask, possibly proving they got his dumb-ass joke,]

So. Am I a knight yet?

Well, I guess I never did get to knight anyone, so. Sure. Why not.

[ He watches his ring get toted off like a crown jewel, then looks back at his savior. He presses his lips together for a moment. ]

Thanks for the help. Sorry I was sort of a dick, but tone's really hard to read over text.

[Well, that was nice of him. Demonstrably wrong, given how the sarcasm came through pretty blatantly on Eliot's side, but nice.]

Yours was pretty clear. But it's fine. It worked out. Who are you?

[Because they can't say they've never met him before. It really is uncanny how much this looks like Eliot. Who helped them remember how to sew a patch and mend a tear in clothing.]

[ He said he was sorry. ]

We all have our defense mechanisms. I'm Eliot.

[ Though the forwardness sort of throws him off. Generally, people introduce themselves first, but Eliot's more than gotten the impression that this guy doesn't care. Which isn't bad. Eliot appreciates someone who isn't afraid to be blunt, because he does it himself, too. ]

[Well, now they're really confused. Eliot knows them. Knew them. Eliot died (again). Quentin has been very visibly mourning him. This is weird.

Though they're not going to judge, if the rudeness is a defense mechanism, at least. Considering their own myriad of coping strategies, both healthy and decidedly not, they can't exactly complain.]

Soldat.

[If he knows Russian, that's going to sound like a really weird name, but if he doesn't... it still sounds like a weird name, but not quite as weird.]

Glad I could help.

[ Conveniently, being a Magicians means Eliot has a nice little pocket of knowledge full of languages. Sure, he's not great with the old ones or really most of the none-Western ones, but even Eliot's smart enough to use his minimal-at-best Russian and common sense to figure that out.

But, hey, no judgement from him, either. ]

Now I know who to call if I'm in another jam. Fuck the ghostbusters, call the knight.

Don't know who the Ghostbusters are, but we're all dead. They probably wouldn't be helpful to dead people.

[They sound as likely to "bust" the Beacon residents as the spirits.]

[ Wow. Tough crowd.

Eliot glances over, but of course he can't see the little soldiers or his ring anymore. ]

All right then. It was nice meeting you.

[Sadly, it's a crowd with very, very few references to pop culture under their belt. If Eliot's jokes came from the 30s, they might actually land. At least the Soldier still sounds amiable when they say,]

Sure. Let me know if you have any other trouble with spirits. I'm always willing to help out.

[ Ah well. You win some, you lose some, right? ]

Thanks. Really. I'll remember that.

Test Drive Meme #7

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=> action? okay to recognize him as Eliot from before or would you rather he not?

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