bumfuckidaho | TEST DRIVE MEME, FEBRUARY 2017.

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TEST DRIVE MEME, FEBRUARY 2017.

TEST DRIVE MEME

There was an accident. That's basically the only thing you know for certain. Maybe a car wreck - metal and broken glass everywhere, and the sirens and the screaming. Or maybe there was an explosion. Maybe your bike hit a rock and you careened uncontrollably off a mountain path. You can't can't quite make out the details, not who was at fault or why. Try as you might, the chaos is all you can remember.

It's also the last thing you remember from before you wake up here.

When you open your eyes, the accident is gone. Instead, you're in a hospital bed – the nursing staff greets you with a cheerful smile.

Welcome to Wayward Pines, they tell you. You'll make a full recovery here.

option one WELCOME TO WAYWARD PINES

The hospital staff had seemed very friendly, but ultimately unhelpful when it came to answering your questions, insisting you shouldn't worry about such things, and that it was smarter to just rest until you'd fully recovered.

That was some time ago. You've since managed to leave the hospital – either via escape, or simply by waiting patiently and filling out paperwork until they finally agreed to release you. Now you've found yourself in the small but hearty town of Wayward Pines, Idaho. It's a charming little place, and the people there are all friendly enough, more than willing to greet you on the street, or give you directions if you need them.

Unless you're asking for directions out of town, of course.

Some will simply smile and give you a hearty pat on the shoulder and ask why you'd ever want to do a thing like that? Others will get quiet for a moment, and direct you to the nearest sign posted near the doorway of every building.

Don't bother taking the road, either. Whether you walk or get your hands on a vehicle, you won't get anywhere. The road simply takes you away from town for a short while before looping around and bringing you right back in.

There's no use questioning things, and it seems pretty useless to try to leave. So really, why not stay a while? Everyone's convinced that you'll find something to love in Wayward Pines.

(For the purposes of this test drive, you're welcome to handwave the existence of basically any local business or activity.)

option two INTO THE WOODS

You've just heard a scream from the woods.

I mean, it could've been an animal. There's bound to be some kind of wildlife amongst the trees, right? But then again, it did sound awfully... human.

Though all of the locals nearby conceal a flinch at the sound, they'll assure you it's nothing, if you ask them. Why, you're probably just hearing things! (But with an anxious undertone of stop asking questions.) If you're curious, though, and brave enough to go see, they won't make any move to stop you from going into the wooded area surrounding the town.

The trees are tall, and their branches are thick enough to block out a significant amount of sunlight from breaking through the canopy, leaving the forest floor a little dimmer and cooler than the streets of town.

Whatever the source of the scream was, you won't be able to find it out here. An experienced hunter might notice some signs of a struggle, and a few faint boot prints, but they don't really seem to lead anywhere in particular.

What you will find, if you walk far enough, is a fence. A big one - at least 30 feet tall, made of metal and concrete. It goes on quite a ways in either direction as well; follow the wall far enough, and you'll see that it connects with the steep, sheer cliffs that surround the rest of Wayward Pines, effectively boxing the town in.

In actuality, you'll probably feel it before you see it. A full 500 yards from the wall, when it's hardly a shadowy smudge through the trees, you start to feel a little bit tired, a little bit weak. Trouble is, the closer you get, the weaker you feel - like the wall itself is sapping the strength out of you, and the closer you get, the worse it feels. Any powers you may have had grow weaker in kind as you make your way to the fence, but even ordinary humans will find their strength sapping away. By the time you're close enough to read the signs and to feel the crackle of electricity radiating from the thick wires criss-crossing the wall's metal surface, you're too weak to stand.

Do you crawl closer still and risk electrocution, or do you crawl away and assess the situation once you're far enough from the fence to be able to stand?

option three IT'S A COUPLE OF FLAKES

There's nothing particularly insidious about the inch of snow that settles over the town one night while everyone sleeps. Kids run outside to have snowball fights and make snow angels, neighbors wave across to you as they shovel their driveway, the local coffee shop runs a 2 for 1 deal on hot cocoa. Snow crunches under your feet at your walk down the street and the cold bite in the air is revitalizing.

The next morning, there's a few more inches of snow. And then a few more the day after that. By the end of the week the snow is a good three feet deep and the entire experience has lost its novelty. Wayward Pines only has a single street plow to its name, and even when the streets are clear, surprise patches of black ice make travel downright dangerous if you aren't prepared. No special sale on hot cocoa can possibly be worth trudging through knee high snow drifts (even your most consciences neighbors can't keep up on the shoveling anymore).

And the power starts to fail in some of the houses. Sure, the repairman promises to stop by as soon as he can, but you're hardly to first person to call him today and he won't be able to pencil you in until tomorrow at the earliest, and what are you going to do about the cold until then? Maybe your neighbor's heat is still on, or maybe that trek to the coffee shop is looking more appealing by the second.

Either way it's time to layer your clothes, watch your step, and hope that Spring to comes early. And try to ignore that kid double dog daring you to lick a flagpole, it just won't end well.

option four ON THE NETWORK

Though it's not as high-tech as you might be used to (or hell, maybe you're ren faire and it's centuries beyond anything you've seen), but Wayward Pines does in fact have a network to accommodate its citizens.

Go ahead, post a network post! Just note that the network, at current, is audio-only and can only be accessed from the telephones in each character's home.

( a few notes )

Welcome to our second test drive here in The Pines! Just one important thing to note this time:

Upon arrival in Wayward Pines, characters find themselves struggling to remember entirely who they were or where they came from. Memories return progressively over the next two weeks. You're welcome to play with this mechanic in any of these prompts, but it's definitely not mandatory! For more details on this temporary memory loss, see our FAQ.

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Of course. [She nods. No hesitation.] Whatever you wish.

[She couldn't guarantee the quality of her answer, but she would do her best to answer it however she could. And if she couldn't answer it satisfactorily now... Well, she'd surely be able to answer it eventually. It was the very least she could do for these people who were so... apparently devoted to her, even if she could only had the briefest idea why.]

Edited 2017-04-17 09:07 (UTC)

[ Even with permission, it takes Crowe a moment to brave saying the words. ]

I... remember who you are and what I was supposed to do. But not your name.

[ She wishes that she didn't understand what he's saying. She really wishes, but she does understand. Tucks a strand of hair away from her face, then crosses her arms again.

She wants to know. She wants this all to stop hurting and he just told her that chances of that are nearly non-existent, because any sincere talk will be unsafe, so it probably won't happen. So Crowe raises her chin up. ]

Well, show me around then.

[ That can happen, right? Or something like that? ]

[Oh! She smiles a sympathetic smile.]

That is quite alright. In all fairness, when I awoke, my name had escaped me as well. [A strange thing, really, but it hadn't seemed all that important at the time. Still, she'd been lucky enough to meet someone who did know it. It was the only reason she could share that knowledge now.] My name is Lunafreya. It is a pleasure to meet you.

[She'd ask hers, too, but she didn't want to draw attention to it if she didn't remember. It was frustrating enough just knowing you had all these things you should know, but didn't. She'll let her take things at her own pace.]

[Okay not the answer she was expecting to hear, nor was she glad to hear it. At least it was the truth though. But it just reminded her of how easily things could get screwed up here. Spotting someone staring at them with suspicion, Skye turned on at the spot.]

Maybe we should stop...

[She hoped he got the hint and subtly looked over to where she had been looking a second ago.]

[ What he's not mentioning: that he singlehandedly took down the weapon allowing the regime to enforce their rule, a massive armored train that patrolled around the city. What he's also not mentioning: it nearly cost him his sanity to do it. But the world, and things like this, are complicated and victories aren't always perfect. In fact, they usually aren't. ]

Maybe.

But what's living and what's surviving?

[ But he'll leave it at that. ]

[ ... oh. She - Princess Lunafreya, she corrects herself - has such a lovely, lovely smile. Crowe's breath catches, just a little, then her hand comes up, fisted, over her heart, and she bows. ]

The pleasure and honor are all mine, Your Highness. My name is Crowe Altius, and I am a Glaive. That is, I belong to the Kingsglaive, of Lucis.

[ Crowe is not very sure what all of the words mean, but they feel right, so she lets them stay. ]

[He'll never be able to describe how grateful he is that she seems to remember more than he did when he woke up. He flashes her a grin that's surface level at best, hiding the tension that has sunk into his bones the moment he first learned how dangerous this place was.

It wasn't the bodies, or the screams, or the undertone of consequences that hung over every interaction. It was how safe he felt when he wasn't thinking about Insomnia. It was how well he fit in here.]

It's small, so it won't take long.

[If they could just make the woods without anyone getting suspicious, then maybe they'd have a chance to actually talk.]

Oh, great. Small and quiet and not so bad is just what I wanted.

[ On the one hand, Nyx says that it's not that bad, which should probably be a good thing.

On the other hand, even with him there, she is so strung out that she's pretty sure the peace and quiet will have her screaming and punching at things in no time at all, and that's probably not going to be a good thing.

But she shrugs. When she gets to that, she gets to it. For now, he can lead the way. ]

[Luna finds herself feeling similarly—she only has a vague idea of the meaning and significance of these words, but they feel right to her, too. Words that inspire confidence, words that she feels like she can trust.]

Then I would be most grateful to have you at my side. [She gestures away from this place, away from the dark and shadows, back in the direction she came from.] Shall we go?

[She wasn't yet sure about the rest of this place, honestly, but neither was this the place for them to be.]

[Lips pursed together, Skye brought her hand up to her face to brush hair away from her face.]

I think here it will be hard to find a balance.

[Either way, they are close to the cafe and they really shouldn't be talking about this. Sometimes it was just difficult to be as compliment as the others around here.]

I'll pay for your drink. Think it's the least I could do.

It's perfect when you want to climb the walls.

[There's so much he wants, needs, to say. Wants to tell her that there are no daemons roaming the streets when the sun goes down, no empire beating down the wall. That the wall here is their prison and the cliffs surround them are too high even for his own comfort to scale.

Instead he gives her a tour. Shows her the local places she's probably already aware of (who knows how long she's been in the streets): where he works, the tea shop where Cassian works (it's Too Fancy but their coffee makes even the decor worth it), the grocery. Points each building out in a casual air with all the precision of a soldier who has paced these streets more times than he'd care to count, memorizing exits and who frequents what when.

He's talking too much, even for him. Filling the silence with idle chatter that means nothing. That he knows she can tell means nothing. He talks like he's lived here for years, drawing on the out of place snippets in his memory for details like his life depends on it. He couldn't say for sure yet whether it doesn't.

But eventually it's clear he's deliberately making his way out of town, towards the farm and hopefully beyond where there are fewer cameras. Where he can report properly without showing off that he's breaking all the laws. He can play their game, but Crowe wouldn't, not without having a damn good reason, he thinks. This isn't Insomnia. They have no purpose here.]

ooc: And off they go.

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