TEST DRIVE MEME, FEBRUARY 2017.

[officialnotice]

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.

Comments

<333

[coy]

[ she jumps when suddenly there's a boy standing next to her. she'd been too focused on the whole arm thing that she hadn't noticed his approach, which is crazy considering it feels like she can hear everything, every broken twig, every crunch of a leaf, every insect.]

What? Where did you-- [ her brow furrows as she folds her arm towards herself but then looks at it again.] No. How would... this be genetic? Who are you? Are you the one who screamed?

[offkey]

Am I the one who -- oh, come on. I know I've got like, a couple years left to hit my manly peak but that's downright insulting.

[ Him? Scream like - like a high-key banshee? No. Way. His would be more of a shout, and he wouldn't be shouting anyway, he'd be figuring out how to get the hell out of these trees.

He shakes his head, points back in the direction of her arm, because we are not having any further discussion about him being slow as balls to hit puberty. He's fifteen-going-on-sixteen, okay. He's well aware of his shortcomings. ]

As for genetics, well, you know, you could have caught a self-healing gene from one of your parents. An aunt? Uncle? Grandparents? No?

[coy]

What? No-- [ her brow furrows, frustrated at how he can be joking at a time like this. he is joking, right? how could he even believe that's a thing? of course, as she has that thought, something tugs at her brain and she feels a little... suffocated.

she shifts on her feet, licking her thumb and rubbing the specks of blood off her arm. she sounds distracted as she stares at the space where the wound used to be---] So you heard the scream?

[offkey]

Hey ... you feeling okay? That self-healing thing you're doing isn't draining your metaphorical batteries, is it?

[ She's spacing out. That right there is a 'I've got a million other things I'm thinking about right now or maybe I'm thinking about nothing at all' look, and yeah, that's a bit worrying.

Maybe she's lost too much of her energy. ]

I - yeah. [ The last word comes out slow and drawn out while he continues to think on the first point.

And then he snaps out of it. ]

Definitely heard the scream. It's what brought me this far.

[coy]

[ she glances up at him, snapping out of her freaky thoughts before she really looks at him.] I'm trying not to freak out. I heard a horrible scream and now I just cut my arm and it healed and I have no idea what that means. [ she looks around before realizing--]

I've never been here before.

[offkey]

Oh, good. Welcome to the Amnesia Club, your badge is coming in the non-existent mailbox neither of us have.

[ Peter offers her a salute like he thinks the boy scouts do, or maybe they don't and he's just setting out to make a bigger idiot of himself than the record allows.

He blows a huff of breath out, face in hands, and tries again. ]

Sorry, I - uh. Guess I do this thing where when I'm freaked out, I just make really stupid jokes. [ He shrugs a shoulder, hapless. ] I woke up and started wandering around, hoping something would jog my memory. And then there was the scream, and basically you're the first person I've met here who hasn't given me the ol' pat-on-the-shoulder-and-smile like I'm the weird one.

[coy]

[ Okay, so he's the 'trying to use humor to diffuse the situation' type. There wasn't one of those on TVD, really. Besides Damon and this kid does not remind her of Damon in any way. Thank God.

Letting out a little breath, she shakes her head.] Yeah, well, I've been getting that all day too. I don't know why. Everything feels off.

[offkey]

I think that's what happens when you're not sure what 'on' is supposed to feel like. You're kind of on auto-pilot, right? Just ... going through the motions in a haze of confusion?

[ At least that's been Peter's experience. He could also roll over and die, or hang out in town with the Pleasantville citizens, but he's not about that life either. Something tells him he's used to strife like this. Something about bad luck following him around.

Anyway.

He gestures to a general point through the trees where foliage only seems to be getting leafier. ]

That scream over there? That's the first real clue.

[ Even if it's not in an ideal location. ]