TEST DRIVE MEME #9

[inthenightmods]

TEST DRIVE MEME #9

Hello and welcome to the In the Night test drive meme for March! Thanks for your interest in our game! In an effort to streamline our application process and avoid future confusion between incoming and existing players, we will no longer have a reservation period. Applications open on March 22, and will be judged on a first-come, first-served basis.

While you're here...

• Take a look at our rules and faq pages to familiarize yourself with the game.
  
• Note that we have a (current) application cap of 15 apps this month for new players, as the game has a player cap of 70. 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 top-leveling is not limited to new characters! If current players wish to post a starter, 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).
  
• If you haven't already, please take a moment to look at our announcement regarding changes to the application cycle, which involves information concerning the 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

DANCING QUEEN (cw corpses)

When the ferry chugs up to the dock, its speakers are crackling with a happy song. What a fun way to bring in all the newcomers! Except... goodness, what's that terrible stench? The ferry docks and lowers its gangway as per usual, but the ship is quiet. No newcomers flock to the deck to disembark, and instead, the faint sound of buzzing flies can be heard over the breeze.

Boarding the ferry quickly reveals the source of the flies: decaying bodies, dozens of them, are littered throughout the ship. Some lie in bunks and could be asleep if it weren't for the rot, and others are strewn throughout the cargo hold and the deck. There are no lanterns among them, and there aren't any signs of fighting or struggle around the ship. Inspecting the bodies (if anyone seriously wants to do that) won't yield any definitive answers in terms of cause of death, but, oh. Though it's difficult to tell at first glance due to the decay, these bodies... They're residents of Beacon.

Maybe you find your friend or yourself or, oh, there's Rastus! And Robin! The gang's all here, albeit disgustingly—and Dancing Queen crackles over the speakers. Welcome, welcome!

—but before the ferry departs again, the corpses start to move. Moving about the ship, someone might first hear a sigh, or a sputter, or a little laugh, and maybe it could be brushed off as a trick of the mind until the bodies stand, hoisting themselves up with whatever limbs they have left, and drag themselves toward the deck. One by one, they slip clumsily over the railing and back into the lake, but not before they drop their disguises and slowly contort back into their usual forest spirit bodies (source).

Ugh. Frickin' spirits.

WELCOME TO OUR GAME: INTO THE DARK

In spite of the strange occurrences starting off the month, there's still work to be done in Beacon. Or perhaps it's precisely due to this that Rastus calls for the attention of anyone who will listen as they pass by his station at the bonfire. All but shoving a torch in your hand, he requests that you place it around one of the many locations that could use a source of light! A lot of new places have been discovered recently, after all.

In the event that you choose to choose to play with this prompt as game canon, please remember to report where you choose to place a torch on the item request page so the setting can be updated accordingly! For incoming players, this can be reported retroactively!

These efforts would be a great service to the community at large; Rastus reminds everyone that while the bonfire is a finite resource, it's still a resource that's meant to be utilized.

network prompts

IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE FOR REAL

Not long after the ferry shows up with, uh, no people and a whole lotta corpses (that turn out to be forest spirits playing a very uncool prank), Robin makes a post to the network!

Oh holy god uhhhh OK so no idea what's going on with the ferry this month, wow. Data from the portal is saying nobody new came through, so... nothing to worry about!!! Probably!! I really don't know anything more than you guys right now but I'm gonna get in touch with Dr. Solis. She'll have a better idea of what's going on than me. I'll get back to you all as soon as we figure out what's up.

In the meantime..........!!! I thought it might be fun to play some games to get our minds off stuff? How about hangman! Here's how to play if you don't know!

She attaches a little set of instructions for any characters not in the know. Fun stuff!

But, uh oh. If you get a letter wrong, you'll notice it's getting just a bit more difficult to breathe... Is the air particularly heavy today? Allergies, maybe? No, the feeling only gets worse as the game continues, each incorrect guess tightening an invisible noose around your neck.

The only way out is through, it seems, as nothing provides any relief save for winning a game. But what happens if you lose...?

(If asked, Robin also has no idea what's up with that. Heck! Maybe it's the lanterns acting up again? In any case, the weird hangman curse will resolve itself within a day or two.)

PARTICIPATION FOR CLOWNS

All at once, a notice arrives in everyone's inboxes. It appears to be some sort of strange attempt at a bingo card! It would, potentially, be a mystery as to who crafted this and, well, exactly what it's supposed to mean, were it not for the underlying message that accompanies it.

HELLO! HELLO? HELLO HELLO. ALL BRING CARD TO GET GIFT FOR ALL! YES! ONTO BODY LIBRARY GIFT IT GOES! THANK A MUCH!

The real problem here being, of course, that the librarian's apparent game is a bit, well, difficult to understand. Well, it's possible that it won't require any stringent rules. Ultimately, those who bring in a bingo card that has a row of marks in any particular fashion will receive a free gift compliment of the spirit as a way to promote the library. There might be some fabric missing where the shirt has been bitten into, but, hey, nobody's perfect.

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Comments

[fjorgedinfire]

Fine then, don't take his hand.

"That's nothing much, it's just a cantrip - uh, a basic-ass spell, doesn't take any real energy to cast over and over. Not like some of my other ones." He hasn't got many spells in a day, but plenty of power behind them. "I can do some illusions, a few thunder-y spells, summon a demon."

You know, the usual.

[callada]

Illusions and thundery spells all sound like the sort of magic stuff he expects someone to say they can do.

Not so much that latter bit. He fixes Fjord with a look of concern, more than anything else. "And where you're from, exactly what are demons like? Have you tried doing that here?"

He knows what the stories say in his world - though those stories differ from culture to culture. The boy he raised, the boy he saved was a demon according to some, probably. And here in Beacon he met Crowley, who also was far less monstrous than some of those tales had said. Would Fjord summon a monster or a person? Is either one actually a good thing?

[fjorgedinfire]

"I haven't tried it here yet, naw," he says, but there's a wary tone to his voice, seeing that look of concern. "Demons are a kind of monster, here--"

He waves a hand with a gesture, and a monstrous, orangutan-like creature swirls into life, a static image about four feet tall mid-roar. "Some of them are just mindless monsters, I can't imagine that I can summon something that can think for itself."

[callada]

The sudden appearance of the beast startles him, and he staggers backward a step as he places a hand on the hilt of the pistol worn at his hip. But it doesn't move, and Fjord doesn't look concerned at all. Just an image?

"You can create pictures in the air?"

[fjorgedinfire]

"Oh-" He jumps at Rosi starting, and quickly dismisses the illusion. "Sorry. Yeah, I can do two kinds. Little dinky ones that I can only make about five feet tall, or sounds. Whatever I like as often as I like. Or I can make one really fuckin' big one that acts like a real proper animal. Can't touch any of them, but it can still take a while for people to notice it's fake, 'specially when I can change it up on the fly."

[callada]

"I see." The man's powers are awfully versatile and varied. He relaxes just as the image vanishes and rests his hand on his hip.

"Seems like a good distraction. Or bait," he says, mulling over the uses of such a skill. Could come in handy here for sure against some of the spirits, perhaps, assuming the creatures are as visually-focused as most humans are, and that's a big assumption. Maybe they rely more on scent or sensing heat - he's never really thought about that before.

[fjorgedinfire]

"I know it works on the spirits, too," he says with a sly grin, dismissing his sword in another splash of water. "I got past a few of those crocodile spirits in the shopping district with it, the looks alone seemed to fool them pretty fuckin' well."

Not well enough, though; his ribs twinging when he bends down for another corpse attest to that particular mistake.

[callada]

"They'll catch on eventually and start distrusting you, but you can use that too. Summon enough images and they'll take a demon to be one until it has its claws around their necks."

For all that he's patient with the spirits, and tries to refrain from violence, it's all to retain their goodwill. He doesn't like them at all. The ones here are certainly listening, and they might bolt into the water and tell the others of this little niche strategy, but that's fine - if the result is they're always cautious about every illusion then they can only benefit from it.

[fjorgedinfire]

"I am perfectly content not bein' liked by weird ghost people," he says dryly, as he manages to haul another alleged corpse overboard. It waves as him as it falls, and he shudders. "Already had enough of corpse bullshit with Dashilla back on my world. You ever had to face down a sea hag before?"

[callada]

"Uh. Not sure. I take it you don't just mean an old woman," he says as he pauses to light a cigarette.

Sure, he's had to deal with some salt-seasoned grandmothers, though. Tough women who didn't let anything get in their way, not time nor pirates or anyone else. But that has nothing to do with "corpse bullshit" so he has a feeling he's missing some context.

[fjorgedinfire]

"Well she might well have been at one point," he admits. "But she was this creepy witch kind of thing, lived at the bottom of the ocean in a ship graveyard. Seems like she had command over the ghosts of the sailors that died there, we got attacked by a few of them when we were investigating, and this special magic ritual table that she could use to summon storms that were strong enough to capsize ships." Which explained the graveyard, in a retrospect that had been horrifying at the time. What with how he'd helped partially fill the table.

[callada]

"Wow. Sounds kind of cool," he says with a small, sly smile. Probably horrible to deal with in person - in fact, certainly, because capsizing ships with storms is a terrifying power.

But he misses the sea, and stories like this sound more like grand adventures than real experiences with how long he's had to be away from it. He hasn't feared a storm in a very long time.

"I still wonder about how big this lake is. About what's below, and on the shores, other than the Helix station and the Night Market folks." Wishful, wistful thinking.

[fjorgedinfire]

He looks over the lake. Or rather, the giant empty blackness where the lake is supposed to be.

"I wouldn't mind knowing that either," he admits. "Supposedly something lives in there that's big enough to throw Stone around, though, it'd be pretty dangerous even for us." Not that that makes it sound entirely unappealing, unfortunately. "Plus if it's anything like the rivers, could be more than a hundred feet deep."

[callada]

"Mm, what hit Stone was up in the air. Slammed him down onto the lake's surface. But there's things that live in the lake too. Remind me of fighting fish."

An unpleasant memory, that one. He's not sure how best to deal with them - the rusted metal hull in the scrapyard may or may not be enough to ward off their teeth. He wants it to be enough. He's suspecting it's not, and he doesn't have the metalworking skills or the haki to reinforce it.

"But the lake's definitely deep, if the station is under there. Pluto probably could answer that."

[fjorgedinfire]

"Yeah, fishmen are sons a' bitches too," he says dryly. "Fought a couple of those too, sure as hell wasn't fun. Getting in their territory makes things pretty fuckin' one sided."

He leans on the edge of the deck, looking straight down. "Can't say I'd enjoy going down there solo, you wouldn't be able to see something coming 'til it's already got its teeth in you."

[callada]

"You wouldn't," he agrees, though he arches an eyebrow at Fjord, pulling his gaze away from the water. "You have fishmen in your world too? Might be the first I've heard of them being somewhere other than where I'm from."

Sort of a strange relief. Humans are so widespread across the worlds, and it seems a few other races are present but less so, such as elves or their descendants.

Maybe he ought to ask what Fjord is, too, but it never feels like an easy question to bring up without being awkward about it.

[fjorgedinfire]

"Yeah?" It was interesting how much overlap there seemed to be in their worlds. "I imagine they're not quite the same as what you're thinking of, again."

He makes another minor illusion, to show the head and shoulders of an ugly bastard. "I've encountered them a couple of times. They seen awful fond of stolen treasure, both times they were hoarding some pretty impressive shit."

[callada]

Rosinante regards the image with only a mild frown, then shrugs. "They're really varied where I'm from. Some don't look too far off from that, though they usually have feet. It's merfolk who have the tails."

Stolen treasure tracks, though. Pirates come in all races and fishmen are formidable fighters with their own unique martial arts given their aquatic heritage. Given then hell that Fisher Tiger put the government through not long before his death, Rosinante knows just how devastating they can be.