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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[ Well, that's a certainly tall fellow, one that immediately has Kate on the defensive, her bat clutched tight in one hand (oh, what she would give to have her bow and quiver right now) as she holds her flashlight up high at the stranger with the other. Horror Movie 101? Strange tall men in the woods are always something to be cautious about. Do not trust. Do not trust.

She squints with suspicion as she steps back upon seeing that outstretched hand. ] Yeah, well, how do I know you're not the one causing those screams, hmm?

[ After all, she just had her own scream. Although, fine, that was entirely her own fault, especially for letting her guard down. Damn it, flashlight, cooperate better when you're on a stealth mission here. ]

[ He blinks, as if the idea had literally never occurred to him. Him screaming like that? His voice is too deep. Or... OH. Oh, she meant he'd attacked someone, oh.

Sigh. His shoulder slump a little but he still keeps his hand out. ]

I guess you don't. But I wasn't. I was sleeping out at the edge of the woods when I heard the screaming and came to try and find out if someone was hurt.

[ Now that there's actually light on both of them, she might be able to make out that he's in an old army-style long coat, a little tattered but well maintained, with a couple of empty satchel holsters and, curiously, a small shuttered lantern on his belt. He's unarmed, other than the flashlight, and his chest is rising and falling with shorter breathes, given that he'd run most of the way out here. ]

You too?

[ Kate doesn't let her guard down easily, but she's also in the habit of jumping to conclusions a little too eagerly. Because, alright, maybe it isn't nice to immediately assume the first person she comes across is a culprit. Anyone could have heard those screams and anyone else could have come to investigate just like she was.

Not that she was presuming him innocent just yet.

She lowers her bat down slightly but keeps it clutched in her hand, not willing to drop all defenses that fast. ] Yeah, something like that. [ Or exactly like that. ] Who sleeps out at the edge of the woods? Low budget camping?

[ He's not sure how he can explain why he was sleeping outside, why he doesn't like sleeping in the house they gave him, how it feels strange and empty and wrong. He's lived out of a sleeping bag for the last few years and before that, the whole white picket fence thing was just not a part of his life. It's more alien and unnatural than the technology, the strange memories, all of it. So... he sleeps outside.

How to explain that? ]

I'll explain later.

[ That should work for a while. At least until- ]

For now, we should probably look for the source of the scream.

[ Tall, mysterious strange man who sleeps out in the woods? Totally not suspicious. Kate isn't entirely sure she's fond of this guy. But she's got her bat and she thinks she can take him on. Sure, she's an ordinary five-foot-something girl, but she's got the instinct that she's more than capable for something like that. Why not, right? ]

Sure, Camper Joe. Valid point. Two heads better than one, that sorta thing. [ She gestures with her flashlight to a trail between the trees. ] You first.

[ Because she's not letting this guy walk behind, no siree. ]

[ He doesn't argue with her, mostly because she's right. He should take the lead. Whatever they come up against, he wants to be between it and her, just in case. That's why he nods and starts leading through the brush, using the flashlight to light his way.

He doesn't seem to much care about the branches and the brush that claw at him as he steps through, but he makes sure to hold it back for her, reaching carefully to make sure he doesn't release it in her face. He's scanning and checking as he does too, but so far, there's no sign of anything, not even the smallest broken branch. ]

Randel. My name is Randel.

[ Her reasoning for keeping him in front of her has little to do with her own protection against what's out there and more to do with protection against him. He's tall, that much is true, and while it's probably not good to be such a "heightist" (is that even a thing, Bishop?), it's way too suspicious out here under the circumstances.

As he walks, Kate keeps her flashlight partially on him and partially on the trail, her eyes quickly darting back between the two to always keep her guard up. ]

Alright, sure. Camper Randel. [ Quickly, she realizes that his introduction might cause some expectation of her own name. Normally, Kate has no problem blurting out her identity. Meeting strangers and trying to make friends can often be her thing. Just not, you know, out in the spooky woods. ] Mine's Liz.

[ Okay. Lying isn't necessarily good either, but it's not really a lie. Elizabeth is her middle name. ]

Sorry I scared you, Liz.

[ He's focused entirely on looking for the source of the scream, looking out for danger; he doesn't consider her a threat or perhaps he just figures that if she attacks him, such is life. It's hard to say. ]

Did you get a sense of where the scream came from? I think it was west.

It's fine. You didn't scare me, I was just — caught by surprise.

[ Aka scared, but hey, there's no need to elaborate on all the details. She's doing fairly well in terms of her fear factor for being an average girl with nothing but a bat in the darkness of the woods. ]

It was sorta generic. You know, like, an echo. Which is kind of weird, because like you're saying, it should feel more directional when it comes from within the woods, but it gave a bit of an everywhere vibe if that makes any sense at all.

No, you're right. I'm not sure if it was a man or a woman.

[ A little farther ]

Or an animal. What do you think?

[ Which is when something occurs to him and he turns part of the way, the light of the flashlight illuminating half his face and bringing the scar across his nose into full highlight. ]

...do you think it was a trap?

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