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

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.

[ War, huh. Sora frowns, drinking a little more of his water. It would have been nice to get away from that. He's got a very different perception of what death's supposed to be like! This isn't it. ]

So none of them actually got hurt, huh... Good. I didn't want to hurt them. [ Rastus and Pluto bring things, huh... He's gonna have to see what they want to buy.

He snorts. Might be trying to hide a smile, here. ] How many did you try?

I only had one, and that was enough. I got off easy compared to some of the others I saw. Stuff like that back there.

[And the one that Will ate at the same time in their stupid game of chicken, but he's not going to throw the guy under the bus by saying what happened to him. Poor Will.]

And I just gave up all the rest I'd taken, so you'll have to wait a few weeks if you want to try one yourself.

[ Sora's now trying to imagine Rosinante all red. As tall as he is, it was probably quite the sight. ]

You know? I think I will. What's the worst that could happen? [ ... He'll tap the countertop with his knuckles. They may be dead, but plenty of bad things can happen as long as you're awake enough to feel regret about it. ]

Only one way to find out. That is, if they have them again. Might be different stuff, themed for some other occasion. Do you have any big celebrations in February on Earth? All the Christmas stuff was new to me.

[And he's not sure if the market was Christmas-themed or not, still. Could've been any number of those other holidays. The spirits had set them all to playing that Hanukkah game with the top, and Jason had told him Saturnalia was also around the same time. Meanwhile, most don't even seem that interested in the upcoming New Years' Day other than as a date to acknowledge. Having no significant other, he figures he'll just celebrate it with Mary. Kids always like more holidays.]

Different themes, huh... [ Sora taps his glass against the counter and nods. He's got you covered there, cultural transplant. ] It's gonna be Valentine's Day. If Christmas and Hanukkah are about giving stuff to your friends, Valentine's Day's about love. [ He shrugs. ] It's on the 14th. Big couples' day, but lots of people give chocolate to their friends and family too.

Huh. Well, lots of people here probably won't say no to more chocolate.

[Makes for easy gifts, anyway. At least now he knows ahead of time. Probably won't be a holiday he does much with, though. No family here to speak of, no partner, just Mary to look after and a few others he enjoys collaborating with.]

Good to have a heads up. The spirits started shoving those spinning tops at us and I didn't know what was going on. I probably still have mine somewhere.

I know I won't! But I dunno if anyone here's gonna take it seriously. You guys have a lot to do around here. [ HMM..... Things to think about. Perhaps things to bring up with Rastus! You know, when he isn't in the emotional doldrums. That should be pretty soon. ]

Spinning tops? [ Oh, what's the word... He's looking for "dreidel" but he won't find it. Woe. ] Yeah, that was a Hanukkah thing. Judaism. It's a religion back where I'm from. Don't know much about it, to be honest.

It's all right, it got explained to me. It's just hard to keep track of all your festivals.

[Hanukkah is the one with the strange spinning tops and a game with unclear rules that results in strange prizes. More importantly, it's apparently a festival of lights, which is why he figures the spirits seem to have adopted it and continue to perpetuate it. While Christmas is something else, about giving each other gifts, and legends of a man who lives at the north pole with dwarves who make toys, or something. No, it was elves, wasn't it? But small dwarf-like elves, not like the glittering white-haired man who sails with Pluto. See, he totally gets Earth holidays!]

Guess I'll figure it out eventually if I'm here long enough.

We sure have a lot. It kind of phases out during the summer, except for the Fourth of July, but... [ He counts on his fingers. (Okay, yes, he knows, but he's got a sinus headache on the horizon, let him live). ] Yeah, they won't come in July.

[ You know what? That's fair, and Sora wouldn't correct him. If they only have two years left on this world, possibly, what's the point in splitting hairs? ]

Well, we'll have to keep you alive, huh? [ Sora rolls the bottom of his glass around on the counter. ] I'm down for that if you are. [ He won't ask for the same back, but he did hear Rosinante's speeches about solidarity and keeping each other propped up. He's into it. He'll keep anyone alive! His standards are pretty easy to meet. ]

Heh. Usually the other way around, with me and a few others working our asses off to keep everyone safe. Which isn't a complaint. Not everyone's great in a fight. We've all got our skills.

[But sure, he'll take it as an offer of assistance.]

Are you trained in any kind of combat?

[ In Sora's experience, even the most incredible heroes he knew needed help sometimes. It's good that Rosinante's taking the offer, but Sora does mean for it to refer to him specifically! Rosinante may not know it, but he's gained himself an ally.

So Rosinante is the fighting type? Sora expected as much, hearing about how he's in the military, but it's good to know that they'd have that in common. ] Count me in, then. I'm pretty good at watching other peoples' backs.

Trained? [ Sora smiles wryly. ] Nah. There was a soldier here who said they'd train me with a knife, and those'll be the first real fighting lessons I've ever had. I'm good in a fight though.

Oh, Soldat? Metal arm? That's helpful of them. You can also try Captain Javert. He runs combat training classes over in the village all the time. Used to be part of the police in his world.

[Hell, kid, do both. He's all for it. Sora is more than old enough to be able to fight as far as he's concerned. Rosinante enlisted at thirteen and saw naval combat by fifteen - pretty standard stuff where he's from. By nineteen, Sora's surely plenty capable.]

Test Drive Meme #7

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