memesinthenight | TEST DRIVE MEME #05

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!tdm

TEST DRIVE MEME #05

Hello and welcome to the The Next Night's test drive meme for December-January! Thanks for your interest in this GPSL! We operate on a rolling application system. Applications are always open and will be judged on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Next Night is currently set to end in spring of 2021, so this will be the last TDM posted - but don't let that dissuade you! There are plenty of opportunities for new characters to get involved in current game events as the community of Beacon unites to deal with a world-ending foe.

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 10 apps for new players, and that 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 top-leveling is not limited to new characters! If current players wish to post a starter, they are welcome and encouraged to do treat the TDM like any other game-wide event. Current players are welcome to post logs or network posts using TDM prompts as desired.

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

the walls, the walls are coming down

After Dr. Solis' disappearance, the people operating the portal have occasionally struggled with bringing in new people. So they widen the parameters. Select all target sectors of the multiverse. Surely, this has to be better, right?

For some of you, the last thing you remember is dying. Maybe it feels like a moment ago, maybe a lifetime. But now you awake in darkness, with a lantern your only source of light, and a tablet that prompts you to sign on to a network at your side. The locals must be these strange thing surrounding you - some humanoid, some animal-like, others something else entirely, but they encircle you, masked faces pressing closer, until one shrieks and squeaks and takes you by the hand, or shoves you, or simply tries to herd you to the large bonfire in the center of an open square.

For others, you're quite sure you were just recently alive, and possibly in the middle of something important. And when the forest spirits try to haul you off, their hands pass right through you. Your lantern flickers. The network prompt blinks, but entering a username doesn't seem to get it to go anywhere until it finally lets you on as an anonymous guest user. Strange. But while you're here, you might as well enjoy the sights, right? Hopefully this is just some strange mistake and you'll wake up shortly with nothing more than a headache to show for it.

Note: for characters who are not dead, they will function as "ghosts" for this TDM - however you want to interpret that! If you decide to app them to the game, they will have to end up dead as part of their arrival in Beacon, but are allowed to remember the events of this TDM once they have died and wound up here.

As this is a fourth wall-style prompt, feel free to play any character you like for a brief visit to Beacon, but keep in mind that if you later decide to app them they will need to fit within the rules for appable characters. For situations involving characters previously in Beacon returning for this mini-event, any memory of previously being in Beacon is allowed but will automatically render the threads non-canon (or some strange hallucination).

Questions? Feel free to ask on the December Gameplan.

rat nicholas

Did you all forget the Rat King? Because the Rat King hasn't forgotten you. Just as you're picking up the monthly supplies and greeting the strangest round of newcomers yet, there's a thundering of paws, shrill little squeaks, and the glint of torchlight on sharp teeth. A wall of rats overtakes the town, threatening to trample anyone and anything in their path.

But if you manage to stay out of their way, you'll see a strange sight - the Rat King, body composed of hundreds of fleshy, furry rat bodies writhing and swaying, is being pulled on a large piece of scrap metal across the snow. And as they swarm, the King tosses gifts to and fro! Try not to get bonked in the head by a shrunken apple doll, or trip over a very pungent cheese rind. Among the strange rat-favored junk you might even find a few treasures in the form of actual sweets, or some lovely spirit-made garlands, though you might have to beat the rats to the good ones!

network prompts

Q&A

WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE
TO SEE THEM AGAIN

WHAT WILL YOU GIVE
TO KEEP THEM SAFE

KNOWING YOU GET NOTHING IN RETURN?

[The words appear on the network - sometimes when you go to make a post, sometimes interrupting what you were trying to type.

Maybe this place is just like that, or maybe there's someone looking for an answer?]

shivers

The brutal cold drags its teeth across your flesh with every biting gust of wind. You just want to get indoors, to safety - but the snow spirals thickly around you, blocking all vision, reflecting light from your lantern onto shards of ice that seek to dig in to any part of your exposed skin. You close your eyes, cover them with a hand, while branches crack and snap in the forest around you.

When you open them, you aren't where you were, and you are very alone. But the tablet in your pocket still has a signal. Maybe you can ask for help? Maybe someone knows how to guide you back?

(This is a mini-version of our upcoming event, Shivers (I've Got 'Em)!)

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

non-canon prompt.
[ oh shit. he's back.

and he's pretty sure he didn't die from just going out of the reception hall for some cool air. (if he did, he's pretty sure emer would, like, die to just shake him for being dumb enough to trip to his death or something.)

still... joking thoughts aside... daylight surveys his surroundings, unsure which feeling he feels is the one he feels the most as he notes how things have both changed and remained since he had left. he knows he's had a growth spurt but everything feels so small now. weirdly ephemeral, in a sense?

after all this time, he still knows the layout of beacon, he muses while walking down familiar paths, feeling like he knows the place like the back of his servo. he wanders towards where he knows the bonfire will be, wondering if he'll run into someone and- ]

Oh. [ he does. he flashes the familiar face a little smile as raises his new lantern up, the bright pink/gold glow contrasting against his blue and purple paintjob. ] ... Hi. It's been a while, huh?

canon prompt.
[ huh.

he's definitely sure he was just going out of the reception hall for some cool air. the last thing he remembers is walking out the door and... that's it, really. did he fall through a portal that opened beneath his pedes? did the archway spontaneously turn into a multiverse gate when no one was looking? are emer and nightbreak blaming poor taxon for this at this very moment? (yes, for the last question. poor guy.)

he foists his lantern up while he walks down what he hopes is a path to the town, keeping note of what he sees as the light that spills out of the lantern opening, illuminating his path and what he thinks is a path towards somewhere more populated. he thinks he sees a bonfire up ahead and oh-! look at that!

there's someone there! ]

Hey there! Hello! [ he smiles at the (most likely) smaller person as he approaches them, crouching a bit in hopes of not intimidating them. ] I come in peace and all that jazz. I'm a friendly alien, believe it or not.

Mind telling me where I am? I'm kind of in the middle of my wedding party and would like to get back to it before the dance is called.

[Rosinante is bundled up against the cold in layers, his old feather coat now converted into a thick scarf, and with his fleece rabbit hat instead of the heart-tailed red one - nothing wrong with it, thankfully, it's just an especially cold day. It's the weather that has him in a hurry, too, with a sack of oats in his arms and something else causing his bag to bulge as he heads for The Invincible to help restock.

But he slows down a few paces off. It's been a while since he's seen anyone new - the lantern is unfamiliar, and so is the height - but new, he very quickly realizes, isn't the right word. His eyes go from casual surprise to wide shock.]

Daylight...?

[Daylight died. Cao Pi found a piece of his armor. It's rare that people come back and it usually means they're from some other universe, as it's been explained to him. So is this real, or is that seven-eyed creature lurking just past the edge of the trees? He risks a glance in that direction before snapping his attention back to Day.

He'd ask if it's really him, but if it's a hallucination, it would say yes anyway, wouldn't it?]

[ daylight manages a noise to acknowledge rosinante but, beyond that, he... he's pretty unsure of what to say next. it's been decades since he's the others in beacon. it's been so long and so strange that, sometimes, it got to the point that he found himself wondering if he had dreamed up the experience. a weird coping mechanism as he was recovering from the shot that nearly tore him apart.

but it doesn't seem to be the case now. maybe. it feels surreal enough that it has daylight questioning it.

then he decides fuck it- this is happening. this is now. beacon and those he met through the darkly dim place still holds a special place in his core. he might as well enojy it while he can, no matter how it ends.

so he grins, giving his friend. a quick and easy wave to show that he heard him. ] It's me!

Digging your new outfit, Rosinante. It’s pretty cool. [ daylight gestures to the outfit, noting the attire is better suited for colder months. is it the winter then? approaching winter? it was summer back during his wedding. ] I guess a lot has happened while I was away, huh?

It's... been a while. Not a full year.

[He's going to remain cautious until he's sure this is real, but unfortunately that means if this is real then the celebration will be delayed. He wants to be happy to see Daylight again, but even if this really is him, being in Beacon means being dead, doesn't it? And that's not something he wishes for anyone who isn't ready to go.

But maybe he should say some of this rather than keeping it in his head, especially if this really is his missing (and presumed dead) friend. He relaxes his stance a little, though he hasn't come any closer.]

Lots of green-eyes messing with our heads. I should probably fill you in on everything. Come with me, I need to drop all this off at The Invincible.

[ not even a full year when he had...? wow— time definitely makes fools of them all and continues to do so. it's already the year 2246 (earth time) on daylight's end.

that’s something they can focus on later, he thinks to himself as he follows rosinante towards the invincible. he tries to keep an eye out for the buildings and the landmarks they pass by, wanting to note what has changed, what has changed the same, and what the spirits got involved in.

spekaing of the spirits- ]

They're still acting up, huh? [ he doesn't sound mad when addressing the green-eyed spirits, only disappointed.

(he remembers the conversation he had with vantas, back when they were kidnapped, when they were experimented on.) ] I guess they did something pretty recent. Have you guys been able to communicate with them more easily with the notes I left behind?

[ he thinks the notes should have been intact in his rooms, flood or no flood. ]

Well... I wish I could say yes. I kept your notes, made sure everything made it to the network. And Diode has been trying to teach anyone who will learn. But the trouble is that it's still so risky to even try and meet with them, and there are so few of us here now, we've had to be more selective with what risks are worth taking.

[Oh, but he skipped over some important stuff just now, whoops. Back up a step.]

You'd like Diode. He's a former lighthouse keeper. Remember the lantern that the green-eyes brought Robin? That was his. I think they wanted him back since he can talk with them.

[ oh! that's interesting to learn about. daylight definitely would like to meet this diode character, if he has the chance/time to do so. he's sure his younger self would have been ecstatic by the turn of events, no doubt breathlessly pestering the poor guy talk to him all things spirits and languages and other things.

for now, he opts to smile, genuinely happy for the turn of good luck for the group. ] I guess that's what Dr. Solis was trying to do when she made that post, huh? Try to bring him back? Always wondered what she was planning with how much effort and planning was being put into that mystery project of hers.

I'm glad someone else can fluently speak with them. Hope it's made things a bit easier for you guys during the past yearish.

... and I'm sorry I left, by the way. [ he rubs the back of his neck, huffing under his breath. ] Guess I should get that out of the way now.

[If only it had made things easier. Green-eyes just aren't something he wants to get involved with if he can help it, given how their numbers keep dwindling. But he nods, appreciating the sentiment at least. Maybe some day it will amount to something concrete.

Daylight apologizes, though, and Rosinante shakes his head slowly.]

I know you didn't exactly set out to try and leave. If any of us knew how to do that there'd be a lot fewer of us here. What happened, though? We took you for, well, dead. More dead than we already are, I mean.

[ daylight gives an apologetic look, making a shaking gesture with his free servo in response to the question. ]

Wish I had a satisfying answer for you but it's pretty lame, all things considered. I got swept up by the waters. Saw some spirits in trouble - stuck, couldn't get out - and I went to help them.

I ended up falling into the waters when settling them somewhere safe and... [ yeah. he's not surprised how quick and sudden it had been, looking back at the rapid turn of events. given how he ended up in beacon in the first place, daylight understood how quick and easy it is to lose a life or save a life. ]

[And the rest is obvious enough. The grim frown on Rosinante's face and the slight nod of his head says there's no further need for detail, if there even is any. He'll keep to himself that Cao Pi found... part of him after, when they were scouring the place for survivors. Too gruesome.

His expression softens into something that's not quite a smile, but there's a release of concerned tension from his forehead and the corners of his mouth.]

I guess I can't really welcome you back here, given what this place is, but I'm glad you got to go home. I know you had people there you cared about a lot. They must have missed you.

[ his expression softens at the mention of his loved ones, nodding in reply because... yeah. there was no use denying the shock and, later, relief of finding himself back on the lornful light.

he rubs the back of his neck, huffing a bit as he tried to hold back a smile. daylight feels bad that the others don't have the chance to see their loved ones but- ] It's nice. Yeah. It's nice being with them again.

They, like, flipped when I woke up from the medical stasis they had to put me in. Apparently, Emer did something pretty wild to rescue him and was by my side the entire time I was under. [ the mention of emer has him smiling a lot now, though there's a tinge of sadness and bashfulness to it. ] I, um, think you saw a memory involving him so you know how close we are to each other.

Yeah. Yeah, he's a big part of who I was referring to.

[There's that smile of his, finally. Rosinante just loves seeing people happy, especially when it's deserved, when it's love. Daylight was pulled away from him again now, it's true, but they got more time than they had before. That's worth cherishing.]

Glad he was there for you the whole time. How long was it for you, between then and now?

I think it's been... Five Earth years, give or take. A lot happened after I woke up in the medbay, hooked up in ways I had no idea I could be hooked up to-

It's been so long and the events were so- [ he pauses here, his expression screwing up in thought.

in the end, the most he can do is he gestures to their surroundings as if that would help make sense of what he's trying to imply. ] -that, sometimes, I thought it was all a dream. The others thought so, whenever I mentioned stuff to them.

daylight vis lornlit. | original character.

dat sweet noncanon

yessss.

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Canon prompt

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