TEST DRIVE MEME #01

[nextnightmods]

TEST DRIVE MEME #01

Hello and welcome to the The Next Night's test drive meme for May-June! Thanks for your interest in this GPSL! In an effort to streamline our application process and avoid future confusion between incoming and existing players, we do not have a reservation period. Applications will be judged on a first-come, first-served basis.

At this point in time, characters have not yet ICly unlocked the ability to bring in new people. However, we hope that will change in June! As soon as we set a date for applications to open, we will post an update to the OOC community as well as to plurk.

While you're here...

• Take a look at our rules and faq pages to familiarize yourself with The Next Night.


• Note that we will have an application cap of 20 apps for new players for this upcoming round only, and that the game has a player cap of 60. In future months we expect to limit this to 10 apps per round. 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.


• Threads with new arrivals must ICly take place after the mechanism for bringing in new characters has been re-enabled in order to be kept canon. We understand this makes keeping track of dates a bit tricky and may require some timey-wimey handwaving but please try to keep this in mind when deciding if a thread can be canon or not.


• 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. In addition, any threads from the TDM will be forward dated to when these mechanics are restored.


• 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.


• As we no longer plan to have a bimonthly game-wide HMD meme, we will require all new applications going forward to have a HMD post somewhere on the journal and we will ask for this as part of the application process.

Thank you again, and we hope you'll choose to join us!

log prompts

EMERGENCY LANDING.

You've arrived.

Where, exactly? Well, that's quite hard to say. All around you is darkness. Even the stars above seem dimmed, as if it were possible to turn down the brightness on the sky. The only light immediately apparent is a lantern placed directly beside you. The handy-dandy tablet also provides light, but not enough to help much. Seems like you're going to have to find your way in the darkness.

Whether you find yourself in a dusted, rusted old amusement park, a spectacularly creepy abandoned orphanage, or what seems to be a museum with a very abrupt water feature in the middle of it, it's very clear you're not where you were when you closed your eyes. If you look back, what do you remember? Your death could be vivid, complete with the injuries that brought it, or a distant memory that almost seems like a dream. Either way it sticks to the back of your mind, whether you want it to or not.

And it might not be the best of ideas to worry about how you died or how you got here alone in the dark. Because turns out, maybe you aren't so alone after all. It might be a feeling, a crawl up your spine. Or sounds, bumps and wheezes and scratches hidden in the dark. Or it might be eyes, shining out in the shadows. It might be a good idea to start running, and hope you aren't the only one that found yourself stranded in this strange place.

Whatever you do, make sure you bring that lantern with you. Diverting too far from it makes you feel faint, and pushing past that feeling is not advised.

---

Turns out, it's not just new Beaconites that are turning up all over the place. The automated system is doing its best, but, there's some kinks to work out. The good news is, there's supplies coming into Beacon after almost two months of nothing! The bad news is, the supplies are showing up all over the place, with no rhyme or reason.

There are blankets and clothing items scattered on the dilapidated track of the Euthanasia coaster. There's a pile of food in the midst of the mostly destroyed sculpture garden, almost looking like an artistic statement on consumerism. Need some new tools? Hope you like climbing, because they seem to be precariously balanced in the branches of trees. There's a fax machine settled by the Bonfire, and nobody really knows what that's about.

Whatever it is you find, it's all helpful things that the residents of town could probably use. Though, admittedly, it'd be more helpful if it were in a place it could be used. Just like cargo off the ferry, it'd be a good idea to haul all this stuff from its landing place to the store, or wherever else it might be helpful. Or for those feeling less charitable, just grab what looks good and squirrel it away. Surely nobody is around to mind that you're helping yourself to more than your fair share!

As a final warning — tread with caution. Because with everything appearing at relative random, the next place it appears could be directly above you. And nobody wants to be under a pile of building materials when it ultimately lands.

KATAKLYSMOS.

All around you are signs of a devastating flood. Debris is still washed up against trees and buildings, walls have been knocked over, roofs caved in, and there's even a massive sinkhole in the Town Hall. Sandbags and trenches decorate the salvaged buildings.

And to the forest spirits, this seems to be cause for celebration! Are they excited that everything flooded? Are they just trying to cheer people up? Is this some festive holiday they've adopted from previous Beacon residents? Hard to say. But little pop-up booths reminiscent of a street market start to take shape around town, made out of collapsed homes and downed trees. The spirits offer snacks and drinks (probably pilfered from whatever was left of the sorry supplies, so think sliced spam and Tang), and "souvenirs" of people's ruined personal belongings that had washed out of their homes.

The best part, though? Water-based activities, fun for the whole family! Yes, the spirits are running around with buckets full of water to dump on everyone! Congrats, you survived the flood, here's more water! Watch out - if they can't find buckets they might just steal your shoes or hat and fill those with water instead!

As with most forest spirit prompts, feel free to NPC them yourselves - they're of slightly above animal intelligence and will come up with inventive ways to get you soaking wet when you least expect it.

network prompts

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES.

So you've found yourself in Beacon's eternal darkness. Well done! One of the first things most do here is check out the folding tablet they arrived with. On opening it, a prompt requests that you enter a network username.

But the instant you hit "OK", the screen redirects you to a welcome app. Which seems like it should be a good thing! But whether you select that you'd like it to be read aloud or if you would rather read it yourself, it seems to be a completely glitchy, bizarre mess. Parts are barely readable, but some parts look perhaps intentionally altered. Surely this isn't how the people of Beacon intended to welcome you, right?

Once it finishes, or once you manage to close out of it (a challenge, perhaps, since finding the right button on the screen to touch is difficult - the X shifts, the screen gets covered in static, and what is that sound) the network opens, prompting you to read the latest posts or make a post of your own.

WHISPERS IN THE DARK.

It's late. Or it feels late, it's always hard to tell in Beacon. Something pulled you from sleep, or whatever you were working on. A whisper, just nearby. A familiar voice, quiet and distant, and getting increasingly louder.

After some investigation, it becomes apparent the voice is coming from the tablet. There's a cryptic post, asking simply Do you hear me? And any time that particular post is pulled up, the voices won't stop.

The voices are distinctly ones that seem familiar. Maybe someone you've met in Beacon. Maybe someone you knew before then. Maybe it's someone you shouldn't be able to hear at all, and yet, you do.

There's no chance at actual conversation, though — the voice is simply asking if it can be heard. Softly, at first. A tinge confused, in some cases. The confusion escalates and is tainted by panic, as the voice keeps calling for an answer, an acknowledgment, that seems impossible to give. Even as the voice begs to be heard, please, please just say you can hear me, even as it fades into screams of frustration or terrified tears, no amount of response seems to break through.

The comments are open — maybe you can get your answers that way?

QUICKNAV
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pages	|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Comments

[hndzhn]

( Her voice had been small and tenuous on his ears when she spoke his name, but the weight of her hand in his and her apology—

It's heavy, and it's warm, and it pulls him to calm and center. The shock on her countenance had been almost like a knife between two ribs, but there's no room to be wounded here. Not when Pudding is here and crying.

He won't tell her to stop crying; no, not here, where its just them without prying eyes of family members or the fixtures around their home imbued with their mother's soul.

Katakuri does, however, squeeze her hand as though to say, "I see you, too." )

No need to be sorry. I ...

( Another pause. )

... Didn't think I'd find you here.

[flangirl]

Is it my fault?

[ It tumbles out of her. She's not Sweet or Poisonous or even Flustered right now, she's just a small scared girl with a heart pincushioned with knives. ]

[ His hand wraps around hers. It's so warm and strong. But it's here instead of home. ]

I fucked it all up... the wedding, and the plan, and I'm not even really sorry...

[ Oh my god, why the hell did she say that last part? ]

[ Her right hand stays in her brother's; her left comes up to wipe uselessly at her streaming eyes. ]

But if it's why you're here then I am sorry because you shouldn't be here you should be keeping everybody safe like you always do...

[ Everybody. Not Mama, specifically. Pudding doesn't... much care if she's safe or not. ]

[hndzhn]

No.

( And it's not; not really. It's his fault, isn't it — because he lost to Straw Hat. His mother's rage, unbridled. His death, fiery.

The last thing he saw was Brulee's expression, horrified beyond measure.

But she's right; he should be keeping everyone safe like he has been for most of his life. It gives him some measure of anxiety, a strange feeling about him that he never allows himself to feel fully. Where will they be without him, working in their stead to keep their mother happy? Will they fail?

Will they follow?

He stiffens some. )

It's not your fault, but my own.

( A pause. )

If you're the only family here, I can at least keep you safe.

[flangirl]

Katakuri-nii...

[ Keeping her safe. ]

[ It's such a wrong and terrible way to think, she knows that, when there are... some... family members she loves and cares for, but -

- but fuck it. Mama even encourages the fucking infighting, doesn't she? ]

[ So fuck feeling bad about it. Pudding allows the jealousy and poisonous glee to flood her heart, and she surges forward, hugging her brother around the middle. Because she can. Because he's a size where she can. And because he's here, here, Beacon, and fuck everyone else, this and he are both all hers. ]

I'm so glad to see you.

[ Some vestige of home. Not "Totto Land" or "The Big Mom Pirates" or "The Charlotte Family" or even Cacao Island. Home. Comfort. One of the few people who cares for her as she is. (Who's never called her creepy.) ]