memesinthenight | Test Drive Meme #7

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!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

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Most of the mistakes he actually regrets - not that there were many to begin with - are ones he won't tell. Mistakes of analysis. Placing a hint of trust in someone, only to get burned; keeping too much from others. The rules here are upended and people are hard to read, and sorting through that while also coming to terms with his grief over separation from the kid and the bitter hatred of his brother had clouded his ability to judge.

But one mistake, and a worthwhile lesson, stands out. He's even able to crack a smile about it now, though it's done with the intent of putting Skyler at ease. He doesn't actually think it was that funny. It was frightening at the time.]

I was out at the shore. As you go northwest, the pebbles turn into bigger rocks and I was trying to walk along them. See if anything interesting might be caught up in them from the lake. I slipped and fell, which isn't a big deal itself, but my lantern hit one of the edges just right and broke, and instantly I - blacked out, I thought. Just nothing. Turns out, if your lantern breaks, you die. Sure wish I'd known that sooner.

[ Sora would commiserate with feelings of mistrust and secrecy, and technically would speak from experience and empathy. However, that was an experience he shared with Skyler, and he doesn't know where he stands with those memories just yet. He's just sure they don't quite belong to him, either.

Okay, that story gets one bleary, red eye to pop out from behind his arm, keyhole pupil widening and contracting in the pale lantern light. He just needs to read Rosinante, to make sure he's not making light of the situation. ]

... You came back to life? [ Big, calming sniff. ] You tripped and fell and died by accident?

Yeah. Keep your lantern safe. The spirit who lives in the church can sometimes retrieve you if you die here, but I've been keeping track of the odds, and it's only about a thirty percent chance that anyone dead comes back. We need to take care of each other. Cooperate.

[A message he continually pushes here which, thankfully, most people agree on. Dying is too common and too risky already. Making it worse through conflict of their own creation would be a mistake that could lead to complete failure, like the group before theirs.]

[ ... That's a wobbly, watery giggle before he puts his face back in his arms again. That definitely triggered another waterfall, and he needs a few seconds to get a hold of himself, but at least he isn't 99% grief in this moment. That's good enough for him. This is absurd. Might as well give it a chuckle.

We need to take care of each other. He grips his arms, but gives a little nod, his spikes wiggling at the back of his head. He can do that. He's good at that. He... would like to do that with everyone, no matter how they might feel about him at the moment. It almost feels like a promise he made once, but he doesn't remember with whom, or why. It's just a part of him by now. ]

... Thirty percent. [ That's also a bit grim. ] Maybe that's how much of me is missing, huh? Thirty percent. [ ... He shifts his head, looking straight ahead over his arms, blearily. If this is the church spirit's fault... he still doesn't have it in him to be mad. Those were just the odds, after all. ]

Yeah, I hear you. [ His eyes go blurry again, but it's... manageable. Comparatively. ] I-I don't want this happening to anyone else. [ ... Now there's an actionable goal. Something that he can use these Riku and Kairi related feelings for. This is possibly the worst hell he can imagine. He doesn't want anyone else to feel like this, no matter what. ]

[He knows none of this is pleasant to hear in any situation, and it's only made worse by the fact that this guy is somehow an echo of someone who was here before, and that people he should know but seemingly doesn't were here before too. It's complicated beyond anything he's seen before, and he's seen a lot in this place.

But the facts are necessary right now, so he tells them like it is anyway. This is not a situation where lying to soften the blow does any good. He didn't know Sora well before but he liked the guy; hopefully Skyler here is just as easy to work alongside.

He won't add that when people come back, there's a chance they come back... changed. Wrong. Skyler seems to have already realized that, given his situation, and he doesn't want to rub it in.]

Then I think you'll do all right here. Let anyone else here know if you need help, or if you hear of someone else in need. Now... With what you said earlier, do you still want to go by Sora?

[Wouldn't be the first time someone changed their name on arriving here and in this case the guy obviously has his reasons. But he can be whoever he wants to be.]

[ He hasn't actually connected with people coming back wrong, per se, but he does have a suspicion that something went horribly wrong during his arrival. Wires got crossed. His soul got thrown out in the cosmos, somewhere too difficult to pull back. This is the best the spirit could do, perhaps.

He still doesn't know what to call himself. He worked so hard to be Sora - to stay Sora, even when people still called him Skyler because they associated his face with his other, to stay Sora even while he lied to Skyler's family - that being anything other than Sora feels not only wrong, but a lie.

But Riku was right. That was selfish. After all, he was just some stray memories in a body that wasn't right - just the closest thing. A cheap substitute. A fake. Why did he ever think that he was the real thing? ]

I don't know. [ He lifts an arm to scratch the back of his head. ] Sora... still feels right. But Riku... I don't want him to feel like I'm insulting him. [ ... ] It's hard. I've never had to... make myself into a new person before.

Well, this is the place to do it, if you want to give it a shot. Whole chance to start over. Don't worry about upsetting Riku, just be who you are.

[Something he had to learn, himself, once he arrived. Free from all the baggage placed on him in his home world, free from the alternate persona he had to maintain for years under the watchful eye of his brother. As much as he misses home, and as awful as things here can be, at least he doesn't have the stress of his history weighing on him now. He's just Rosinante, just some former soldier, now dead and doing his best to help everyone else.

Hopefully Skyler, or Sora, whoever he decides he is, can find that same peace here. He'll need it, for there things they have to band together against and being crippled by existential doubt doesn't do any of them much good.]

[ Don't worry about upsetting Riku. Sora gives an immediate wet snicker that turns into an equally wet sob. Too late.

Still, it's a solid point. Sora's identity crisis aside, Riku is going to be fine. Sora's always believed in him far more than he's ever believed in himself. It's how he got here in the first place. It's probably best to stick to making new friends, and saving this world, and preventing any more deaths. It's sensible and Sora would have done it anyway.

Riku will deal with all of this in his own way. Sora will just have to pick up after himself a little more carefully from now on. No Riku safety net anymore. It's fine. 17 years without a Riku safety net and Skyler survived. He can too. ]

Thanks, Rosinante. [ His voice is crackly from the gross wet stuff clogging up his sinuses, but he finally puts his chin down on his arms. His eyes are still watering a little but it's mostly just emotionless, helpless aftershocks. His body refusing to listen to reason. ] I owe you one.

[How does he continually end up counseling these people? He knows the answer, of course - it's because they have to get along, they have to work together, and he's decided to encourage that by helping the ones who seem like they need help. Put those official mediation skills to use like he never really had to do with recruits, since he rarely had an actual command despite his rank.

He doesn't say no, knows it's just a phrase, so he smiles a little and tops off his whiskey, then knocks a healthy amount of it back.]

Given the sort of things that happen around here, I might have to take you up on that some day. Get yourself settled, get food and basic supplies within reach. When things happen here, they go south fast.

[ Rosinante, you're a pro! However, it's not just a phrase to Sora. He takes these kinds of things very seriously. Promises, debts, superstitions, charms, rituals. They all mean things. Sora knows this a little too well.

Rosinante may not know it, and Sora won't harp on it, but Rosinante has collected himself one (1) life debt. Sora doesn't care if they never speak again after this: he owes Rosinante one, and that's just how it is. ]

Yeah? [ He sniffs, bracingly. ] I... don't have a username yet, but I can give it to you once I figure it out. If you knew Sora, I can. I can do a lot of what he did. Let me know what I can do. I'll be in the library until then.

[ After a moment of thought, Sora turns his attention to the spirits in front of him. ] Hi. Sorry, can I have a shot glass? Just one. I won't break it this time. [ They chitter in musical suspicion and general annoyance, but he gets his shot glass. ] Thanks.

All right. I'm "silent" on the network if you need me.

[Which he almost hesitates to say, mostly because he doesn't really want people messaging him left and right, but he'd rather they do that if they need help than have to deal with the problems this place throws at them all without someone's assistance. Tackling things alone is how people die. Otherwise he'd be off exploring more often.

Anyway there's a directory so if he can figure out how to get that far, he'll figure out how to get hold of anyone he likes.

When Sora's shotglass arrives, Rosinante nods to it and settles his hand on the bottle of whiskey. Kind of the spirits to leave the whole thing to him rather than just the one glass, but they know by now.] You want some?

[ First "hello" and now "silent"... Oy, Sora's memory is not made for these kinds of abstract associations. It's a good thing that Sora is coming down from acute emotional distress - it'll emphasize the importance of this username, at least! He'll ask what it means later. This well put together dude has Sora's respect and awe, so he'll only use the username if he has a reason. Rosinante has nothing to worry about!

(Sora does figure out the directory a few days after this and uses it to call a doctor. He's a goof but he's a goof with a bit of experience going it alone!)

Sora will pull a wry smile and finally chance a glance at Rosinante. It's a little sheepish, but what's on his heart, at least, seems to be lifted. ]

Only if you're offering. [ Sora's open to a no, but he knows that he can just ask for some himself, and he knows that Rosinante knows he can do that. Now it's down to what he thinks of the situation. ] I only want the one.

There's plenty to go around. We get restocked every month.

[And yeah, yeah, that could end at any time - almost did, once - but obviously Sora is going to get a drink one way or another and Rosinante doesn't actually intend to finish the whole bottle in one go. It wasn't full when he started and there will probably be some left to pass back. He tips the bottle into Sora's shotglass, immediately manages to spill half a shot all over the bar in the process when he tries to right the bottle to cap it again, but then reaches for a napkin to mop it up.

He's not drunk, this is just... him.]

Cheers.

[To what, he's not sure, and it doesn't matter anyway. He lifts his own glass to toast nothing in particular except that they're here and they're alive and the spirits didn't stab the poor guy with those spears, and Sora-Skyler is a mystery but he's one who will hopefully be free to figure himself out now. That's pretty good.]

That's good. Whoa- [ Ah. Sora will reach over and ineffectually sort of pat the air around the fumbled bottle as soon as he sees it happen, but will quickly refocus his attention to the mess on the counter, lifting the glass and using his sleeve to dry the liquor off the bottom. Both of his sleeves are pretty comically drenched in salt water anyway. The whiskey is as a drop in the bucket as it can literally get. Without a bucket, of course.

At least that's shattered the illusion of a perfectly put together rescuer. That's good. Sora doesn't know if he could handle worshipping another hero. Him with his sleeves and Rosinante with his napkin. It's really, really funny.

Sora laughs - it's a little strained, but more from the efforts of the past fifteen minutes than from any lingering despair - and will lift his glass with Rosinante. ]

To knowing yourself. [ Aaand he'll knock that back like he's done it before... but he'll make a bit of a sour face. Wow, he hates that. He does feel like he feels closer to how Skyler went through a entire bottle once, and maybe understands the whole drinking mindset a little better than he did before, but still. That burns. ] Golly, that's really rough.

[To knowing yourself, indeed. At least that part, Rosinante figures he's got down himself. It's the presenting oneself to the rest of the world part he's still not sure about.

He gulps his down with far less difficulty, of course - months of this garbage alcohol has worn his throat rawer than it already was - then takes one last draw from his cigarette before snuffing it out in the bottom of the glass. That's enough of both vices, for now. He doesn't laugh at Sora, but there's clearly a teasing smile there at the corner of his mouth.]

Yeah, it's shit. Hard to get good stuff out here without buying it off Pluto and her people, or hoping Rastus gets your order right. But it does the job until then.

[ It's the opposite for Sora. He can have as many identity crises as he wants, but outwardly? He doesn't know how to be anything but himself.

Sora won't gag, but he'll clear his throat trying to not sound like someone's punched him in the throat, placing the shot glass in front of him and toward the nearest spirit. ] Thanks.

[ Sora's going to catch that air of amusement and scrunch up his nose in defiance. Hey, he did it because he felt like he owed it to someone else! If Rosinante gets too amused about it, Sora's going to ask for more shots out of hurt pride, and then this night will take a very different turn. ]

Is that something you miss from back where you're from?

Good alcohol? Not really. It's not that big a deal to me. I drink less than some of the people here, and I'm not especially picky. You should hear how some of them go on and on about how this coffee is the worst thing they've ever put in their mouths.

[But they drink it anyway, Ignis and Will and the others. He does too, sometimes, if he's bored of tea, but again it doesn't strike him as that terrible. Maybe he's just had a lot of really low-quality drinks in his time and doesn't know what the good stuff even is. Maybe it's that everything here tastes a little subtly different from home anyway.]

[ Sora nods sagely - a little less cartoonishly sagely than he might have in another life. He does very legitimately get it. He grew up in a place with a Starbucks dotting the streets like it's a public service, after all. He knows the type. (Not that Skyler was ever a fan. He had other, uh. Extracurricular activities.) ]

So... what do you miss? Anything? [ ... Sora will actually ask for a glass of water from the spirits now. Hydration is key, he knows! The spirits are fluttering around, offended by this pushy young man, but he'll get his water shoved at him. There might be a bit of spatter. ]

The sea. The sun. Two things I apparently took for granted. That lake out there doesn't cut it, you can't sail on the damned thing.

[Safe answers. What he misses most - who, rather - is a topic he keeps too close to his heart to speak of to someone he's just met.

But if Sora keeps having questions, well. Time for another cigarette, then. He has plenty these days, thankfully. The withdrawals he had to go through his first month here he definitely does not miss.]

[ Sora's really gonna go to sleep smelling like cigarette smoke, huh. Well. He's had worse nights, he supposes. He's not terribly offended by the idea of smoking here either, after a moment of thought. Like, the only real danger is gone now, right?

He rests his cheek on his hand and his elbow on the counter, closes his eyes. He's been to the ocean in Skyler's lifetime, fortunately, so he can remember how a proper tropical ocean is supposed to look and sound. That, plus the handful of memories he has of running around the beaches of his island, trying to catch up with Riku and looking at shells in the water with Kairi, is just enough memory to make his heart hurt. (He's not going to cry again. He's going to put that away for now and have a bracing sip of water instead.) ]

Sail? Were you on the crew of a ship? Were you the captain? [ This seems like a fairly reasonable question to Sora! Even if Rosinante's apparently a little clumsy, he seems capable enough. ]

I was in the Marines. Which, the people from Earth here keep telling me that's some specific thing in their world that it's not in mine. It's the World Government's military branch. Land and sea, but mostly sea given most of the world is water.

[A longer explanation than he'd usually give, but he's used to answering the same questions over and over by now. Might as well cover it all. Yes, yes, Earth sailors are apparently in navies, and the Marines are essentially a navy also, just a specific, worldwide one.]

[ For the past two years or so, this Sora's actually been on the run from the military, police, the FBI... pretty much every governmental executive body every. Of course, that's more there and less here, but he'll still wince a little. The feds, huh? ]

Yeah, I'm from there too. Earth. Military wasn't really my thing, though. [ He remembers worlds that were mostly sea too - the Caribbean, the Destiny Islands, wherever that redheaded mermaid princess with the song was from - but he's not about to start tossing names out there. He doesn't remember a military in any of the worlds except the Caribbean, but he's pretty sure no one in the navy there called themselves marines, nor was anyone in that world like seven feet tall. (Speaking of, he is absolutely wondering why Rosinante is so tall. Why? That tall?? Bro????)

Anyway, he guesses that being surrounded by water and sun all the time would probably make you take it for granted. He knows he took the islands for granted before the world ended. No, Sora took the islands for granted.

He blows his bangs out of his eyes. This is hard. ]

Is that where you got that thing? From earlier. [ And now for a detail from what seems like a lifetime ago... He remembers that candy Rosinante had did a weird thing, dude. ] The candy that made the spirits, like, blow up or something? Or was that from here?

[Military isn't most people's thing, and that's why he does it. Gotta protect the people who can't protect themselves, and all.

He looks very puzzled initially at the mention of a "thing", but then chuckles as Sora finishes his description.]

The candies are from here, yeah. They're harmless. I didn't know what they'd do to those spirits, but I saw one grow extra legs or something? Whatever it was, it was enough to throw them off for a while. They'll be back to normal in an hour or so. Last time I had one, it turned me lobster red.

[ Sora and Skyler have always been more of the vigilante sort! For all they thrive in structure, they don't do very well with orders. For the record, though, that's gotten them both in trouble. ]

Oh wow, I just thought they were bombs. That would have been too brutal. I still wanna think I could have given them what they wanted. Where did those candies come from, anyway? [ Rosinante... why did you... eat them.... ]

I didn't want to actually hurt them and risk bringing a war to our doorstep. We've had enough of that.

[They've only just barely recovered from the last onslaught, after all. If the spirits are going to be mad at anyone for this, hopefully it's just with him. Maybe they'll even laugh it off after, as he had. Maybe they'll think growing extra limbs and blowing jets of bubbles and being extremely tall is good fun. Quite possibly, actually.]

Got 'em from the night market, last time Pluto and her people were in town. Just a couple weeks ago, actually. They were giving out handfuls of them for free.

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