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memesinthenight2020-05-20 03:24 pm
nextnightmods) wrote in memesinthenight2020-05-20 03:24 pm
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TEST DRIVE MEME #01
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 | |||
| comms | | | network β’ logs β’ memes β’ ooc | |
| pages | | | rules β’ faq β’ taken β’ mod contact β’ player contact β’ calendar β’ setting β’ exploration β’ item requests β’ full nav | |
no subject
But the rest? Well, that's not so bad. Really not bad at all, in fact. He chuckles and sips at his drink.]
If you've set up a pirate to topple Kaido and have that much power at his disposal, I'm glad he's a benevolent one. There are worse people out there on the seas.
[And he's glad Law has people who will declare themselves his friends, anyway, because he can easily tell that Law never became the sort to seek them out himself.]
no subject
if law were honest, he'd probably admit literally every single pirate crew out there is worse than the straw hats.
but he's not, so he won't.
however — ]
He's Vice Admiral Garp's grandson, [ he says, because it's kind of relevant information to a marine, and then his expression suddenly turns into... yeah, it is his certified troublemaker smirk. ]
He's going to be the Pirate King.
[ so you know. toppling kaido? just one small stepping stone on the way. ]
no subject
Pirate King?
[Look, he was raised in the Marines. It's not just a job, it was pretty much his whole life, so the very notion of anyone trying to reclaim Roger's old title (even if it's someone supposedly "benevolent") is kind of disturbing. A lot of blood has been shed in attempts to do just that over the years.]
Poor Garp.
[Is all he can think of to say to that, as he shakes his head. A hero of his caliber with a grandson determined to claim that ultimate badge of rebellion against the government? What a nightmare.]
no subject
[ somehow, that one syllable is infused with incredible amounts of unholy glee — not least because he knows the entire world government keeps being in an uproar over strawhat-ya and literally nothing could please him more than the world government trying so hard to stop one pirate and constantly failing at it. ]
He declared war to the World Government over one of his crew mates, invaded Enies Lobby and got her back. He broke into Impel Down, and then out of there. He got into Marineford twice. The first time we met at Sabaody, he punched a Celestial Dragon.
[ look. there are reasons law puts up with the chaos that are the straw hats.
(still happy about the fact this is the person who looked at law and decided they were friends?) ]
no subject
This Straw Hat fellow is clearly a whirlwind of pure and absolute chaos. A monstrous force of - of something he can't put words to. His knuckles around his now-empty mug are white, though he hasn't realized how hard he's gripping it.]
He - what? You're pulling my leg, right? How is he still alive?
[Despite his horror, he can absolutely see why Law would rather be on the same side as someone like that than against him. That's just pure practicality.]
no subject
[ no one would ever be able to make this shit up.
a whirlwind of absolute chaos is about right, though... but useful chaos when you're allied with him, even if 99% of the problems law had before dying seemed to have to do with him.
and he knows the last question is probably rhetorical, and it'd be very easy not to say anything to it, but — ]
He would have died in Marineford.
[ that's all he says, though, because admitting out loud law ended up saving both him and jinbe is something he's very much not going to do.
anyway — ]
If no one's stopped him by now, they're not going to succeed in the future. [ hence, future pirate king. ] Even if the fleet admiral hates his guts.
no subject
The fleet admiral hates him, Law says, (of course, anyone in charge of the Marines would) but it takes him a moment to recall who the current fleet admiral is. He knows the name came up in the last set of issues but it's not coming to him now. Someone he didn't know well.
He does recall that Sengoku had that title for a while. That came up at least once. But he'd retired, hadn't he? Not long after that horrible war alluded to so often, including just now. He wants to ask about Sengoku, but first -]
What exactly did happen at Marineford? I - you must not have had much involvement in it or it would have come up. I know it was a war, and it comes up a lot in articles afterward, but I never got the actual account.
no subject
well then. law takes a breath. ]
You're right. I only got there at the end. It was... the Marines tried to execute the Second Division Commander of Whitebeard pirates, Fire Fist Ace. He was Strawhat-ya's older brother — that's why he broke into Impel Down.
But they're not related by blood. Strawhat-ya's father is Revolutionary Dragon, but Fire Fist was Roger's son. In the end, both the escapees from Impel Down and Whitebeard pirates attacked during the execution... but all the Marines had assembled, the vice admirals and admirals and fleet admiral, too. Strawhat-ya got his brother freed, but Fire Fist died regardless.
[ a pause. ] So did Whitebeard. The war would have likely gone on longer if Red Hair hadn't appeared to stop it.
[ he pauses again, to drink the rest of his now-lukewarm coffee. ] Of course they didn't really report anything about it. The entire thing about Impel Down was covered up, and the Marine casualties. The only thing the papers said was that it was a victory for the Marines. [ he scoffs. ] That's why I went there to see for myself what was happening.
no subject
It's strange to think about. I died, history carried on, and here you are just one year later for me but many more for everyone else.
[But between Pluto and Will's explanations, he understands that's just how things are in the universe, even if he doesn't quite grasp the why behind it. Time is just another coordinate, somehow. Makes him feel awfully small if he thinks about it too much.]
One name that hasn't come up in all this is Sengoku, unless I'm mistaken. He was an admiral in my time. I think I read he was fleet admiral at some point. Do you know how he is?
no subject
[ it must seem strange. it is strange, for him too.
and then cora is asking what he assumed would be asked, eventually; he just hoped he'd have had more time to think of how to answer. ]
Yes, the former fleet admiral. He resigned after the war. He —
[ and here he falters, the calm, matter-of-fact retelling of events shifting into something more unsure and personal. ]
He... came to see me. In Dressrosa, after everything was over. And —
[ why is finding the right words so hard? law's voice is quieter, almost like he's hesitant of the reaction to what he's about to say. ]
He asked... about Minion Island. About why you took the break from your mission, and the exact reason why you died. [ a breath. ] I told him we... we meant to escape together. And that I'm forever indebted to you for what you did. And he said the one thing we could do in your memory... was to remember you.
[ is he resolutely staring at the floor? why yes. ]
no subject
Should have realized.
And oh, poor Sengoku. Who he'd left with a lie and false hope just so he could get Law his devil fruit. He's never stopped feeling an incredible amount of guilt over that. Every good memory of childhood has this shadow hanging over it now, that in the end the man who had taken him in and given him his life back was someone he had ultimately betrayed without even an explanation or any attempt at apology.
He sets the empty mug down beside him and drapes his arms over his knees as he too finds himself staring at the floor. His response is just barely above a whisper.]
I... I'm glad he got an answer eventually. And that you got to meet him, and tell him yourself, since I couldn't.
no subject
because he's law, he just sits there, awkwardly looking at cora, then back at the floor. he swallows an apology; i'm sorry you couldn't live to tell him yourself.
saying that would make no difference. ]
... I think he understood, [ he mutters eventually, because the thing is — the former fleet admiral seemed to understand cora's actions better than law himself had. ]