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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Right that's assuming we'd actually make it there.

[She'll go along with sarcasm considering that's practically her second language. Sarcasm.

Her eyebrows shoot up at the last comment he makes even though its pretty clear that's not at all what he meant by it.]

Really?

[ HE blinks for a moment before turning to look at her, rather guileless of anything odd he might have said. ]

Of course. There's someone there to help if one of us falls. And someone to talk to to distract from the cold.

[The fact that he didn't even seem to realize just makes her smile grow even more.]

Right.

[Totally not on the verge of laughing. Nope. Although she does reach out for his arm when she spots a patch of black ice.]

Might want to watch the sidewalk. You almost just busted your ass.]

[ For all of his size, he sways easily when she holds him back from the black ice and scrubs at the back of his neck a little in mild embarrassment. ]

Oh, yes. Thank you. I really should have been watching better.

[ He doesn't remove his arm from her grip or tug away at all, but he does start moving again, making sure to be more careful with his steps and keeping a look out for the both of them as best he can. ]

So... have you been here very long? I've only just come here.

A few weeks. Kind of hard to remember, it kind of just blends together.

[Everything is so repetitive here, and this place was unbelievably tiny.]

I'm guessing you've seen the signs by now, right? Or have had people point them out to you and warn you?

[ He nods easily enough. He's not unfamiliar with that kind of signage, after all. He grew up in a deregulated zone and aside from the government leaving notices all over when he was younger to remind people of that fact, the gangs had all had their own rules that it paid to heed. ]

I've seen them. I don't like them. [ A pause. ] But I don't know what might happen if I broke the rules too much. I wouldn't want anyone to get hurt.

[That's about the only reason Skye is careful about how she tries to get information on these threats. The fact that it could hurt others if were too vocal. Which has definitely been difficult for her considering Skye's always been rather vocal about her opinions on things.]

You just have to be careful with you talk to.

[Yeah because that's not risky saying that sort of thing.]

[ Quietly, keeping his voice low and careful- ]

Any time you talk to someone, you're asking them to choose between their safety and their humanity.

[ Softer, waiting for the wind to pick up to make sure that the only person who could hear it is Skye. ]

I've seen something like it before.

[Skye subtly looks around to make sure there isn't anyone within ear shot before speaking up.]

You mean like you've had this happen to you before you got here?

[ His eyes are scanning around too. ]

Not to me. A town we visited as part of a Section III operation.

[Skye's expression gave away that she had no idea what he was referring to before she even said anything.]

Section three operation?

[ He turns his arm to show the patch on one side: a jack-o-lantern with a pair of scissors underneath. ]

Section III of the Imperial Army, Pumpkin Scissors division. Our primary objective is war relief. Working to reverse the damage done to the people caused by the war...

[ A moment to consider that she'd have no idea what he's talking about- ]

Where I come from. The town was called Karusel. The people there had the same kind of look to them. The same fear.

[As much information as he's giving her here, Skye is still a bit lost. Still, she gets the gist of it.]

So you really have been through this before...

[She knows it's a risk to talk out in the open, but as long as they're careful enough.]

Did you guys make any progress?

[ The answer to that is difficult, mostly because it had been a complicated situation from the start, the kind of situation only a war like theirs could have produced. Had they made any progress? There's a part of him that wants to say no, but it's the cynical part. The part of him that he likes, the part that he wants to be, had seen that bar owner almost kill himself to apologize for his inaction, had seen the bravery of the barmaid in doing what she could to save the town from bombardment. Had seen the people put down their arms, the mayor give his life, and the people thank them for freeing them from their own fear. ]

I was shot and spent most of the time there delirious from fever. But I think we left it better than it was when we got there.

[ ...things he's not mentioning: that he's the one who took down the main source of fear that was affecting the town, a massive armored train that surrounded it much like the woods and the fence here. He's not mentioning it because he was not at all proud of it, whatever the results. ]

Edited 2017-04-04 15:02 (UTC)

[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. ]

[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.

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