bumfuckidaho | TEST DRIVE MEME, APRIL 2017.

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TEST DRIVE MEME, APRIL 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
PTA BAKE SALE

It's that time of year again. The time when everyone digs into their wallet, ignores their diet, and spends a little time supporting the local school bake fair. You know, for the good of the children. And it doesn't hurt that Linda's Blondie recipe is honestly to die for. The school PTA has pulled out all the stops this year in the hopes of encouraging a good community turn out, posters advertising the sale plastering every street corner and stuffed into every mailbox for a solid week leading up to the event, and today is finally the day.

There's at least two dozen different tables set up with all manner of delectable treats, even one or two offering vegan alternatives for those inclined, not to mention a few others catering to some of the townspeople's more... unique palates.

Maybe you've got your own table set up with your wares, or maybe you were simply lured to the park today by the appetizing scents wafting through the air. Either way it seems like the whole town has come out to show their support today and why wouldn't they? Children are our future, aren't they? Or maybe it's just Linda's Blondie recipe.

Yeah, that's probably it.

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 currently has two basic functions. The first is audio-only and can be accessed from the telephones in each character's home. If an audio-based medium doesn't suit your needs (or aesthetics), be sure to take advantage of the Wayward Pines Message Board from your brand new laptop for the chance to communicate with your fellow townspeople in a text-based format instead!

( a few notes )

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

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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Better, even if Cal might have preferred it hadn't gotten that far. He wanted to sigh, but he'd pulled his claws out now, and he couldn't back down from it. Not without damaging the image of the power that had finally cowed Seel. And something said that he'd need it later. If not to keep Seel in line, then to keep someone else in the same place. Something would come around and he'd have to be Tigron again. This place was going to get exhausting fast if he had to keep fighting with Seel for dominance.

He waved a dismissive hand--that was as close as he was going to get to actually accepting the non-apology. He knew better than to expect a real one. At least he was mostly-prepared. Maybe not to deal with him, but at least to have some kind of an idea of what he'd be dealing with.

"Good. I hope you'll remember that in the future."

Hopefully they'd only have to do this dance once or twice. With Thiede that was all that was needed. But this was Cal. Was he special? Did their history make this struggle harder or would Seel simply remain cowed? A lot had changed, they had to get to know each other now, instead of remaining stuck in the past and repeating history over and over. It wouldn't be easy. Old habits and patterns were hard to break. But was this pattern any different than their beginning? Cal asserting his will over Seel? No, this was different. Before Seel never bothered to fight back. Maybe they deserved to go back to the beginning. Times were easier then. They had less baggage.

"It wont happen again." At least he'd try. Seel tried to have good willpower, and in some cases he did. Just not with people.

"Would you like me to bring you back some pie?"

It would happen again, no matter what Seel said or promised now. Seel might have believed it wouldn't, but Cal wasn't that stupid. He could be glad at least that he wasn't so thin-skinned as he could have been. That would have ended far differently. If nothing else, he could hold his own when Seel went on another rampage, trying hard to hit bone. Another day, another dance. They had their steps, and breaking out of them would be difficult, if not impossible. Maybe they wouldn't even try.

He almost told Seel not to lie about it, but bit it back. They'd antagonized each other enough and even if it was uneasy, there was some kind of peace. Who knew how long it would last? He didn't need to end it even faster.

"No. Don't worry about it."

If Cal wasn't who he was now, that confrontation would have ended very differently. Cal had changed and grown. Seel hadn't. But at least he was temporarily cowed into submission, and that was a change that would at least come in handy. Thiede had turned him into a trained dog, he might not like it, but he would come when he was called and roll over on command.

This would be a new dance, with steps from the old. Maybe they could make it into something beautiful, if they tried. Seel raised his head, still angry but at least doing his best to mask it with a neutral look. He grasped for something, some kind of bone he could throw at Cal. Because he was not apologizing.

"Did I ever thank you? For Azriel?"

"No, you didn't.." He hadn't expected that he would have. He more felt that Seel would just curse him for not being there sooner--to stop it or pull them both out before the real damage could be done. Or pretend that it hadn't been him who'd done it. He'd barely been in time as it was and there was a long road ahead of both of them to recover. If they ever did.

Or maybe Seel would find a way to blame him for that, too. Somehow make it his fault that it even happened in the first place. Because every bad thing in the world was his fault now, right? He'd lost his mind and with that came losing everything else that used to make him a person. Now that there were new things, nohar quite believed it. Really, he shouldn't have expected much else.

"Swift did. On behalf of both of you." He'd assumed that would be the most he could hope for from Seel. "You may consider me properly thanked." Since he knew Seel didn't want to have to say it too.

Seel nodded. That was good, since Seel wasn't entirely sure he should be thanking Cal for any of it. His child was alive. Was that even good? Would Azriel recover or would it have been better if they both had died? Was Azriel even capable of leading the tribe after all this? At the moment Azriel wasn't even capable of doing anything but stare at the ceiling. What were they even supposed to tell Flick? He supposed that should probably come from Swift or Cobweb, or Pell, although last he heard Pell wasn't in the best condition either. Had Swift already taken care of it while they were stuck here?

So, while Seel didn't exactly blame Cal for not getting there sooner, he wasn't entirely sure he should even thank him for saving his son. At the moment there was nothing left of him.

Not exactly in the best mood to go to that lunch now, Seel closed his eye briefly and then opened them. "Come on. I think I need a drink now before I go."

Was that an actual invitation? Or as close as Seel was going to get to one, anyway. He could guess what Seeing was thinking. The kinds of wounds that had been inflicted on both of those children didn't just heal. It could be decades before there was any kind of a change--he could certainly speak to that. The only positive that there was in this was that there was anything--even just a body--to bring back. And Aleeme was even worse.

No one could blame Seel for needing a drink. Not after all that. He probably needed a few. More than a few.

"Sure. Do you actually want me there for it?" Would looking at him just be a reminder of how terrible their lives were, even after the supposed happy-endings?

Forever was going to be a different place now, he couldn't help but think. Cobweb couldn't dust away the pain so easily. Azriel was a blank slate, both him and Aleeme weren't capable of walking much less feeding themselves or basic conversation. Maybe they could buy some more paintings and just rotate them so they had something different to stare at. Enough of that and he might start to wonder why Cal brought them back home at all. Vague hope. That they might get better? His child died in that room, all Cal had brought back was a living corpse.

"Not really. But I need someone to remind me to get ready so I don't walk into the neighbors luncheon a mess." He had to get ready and put his game face on.

He could do silent company. Considering the conversation they'd just had it might be better that way. He hadn't meant for it to turn that direction, but it had and it was too late to change it now. Cal didn't even really know how else to respond. He was sure it was a chapter of his life Seel would rather forget and he had more than a few of those himself. He didn't say he understood, or that he could relate. It was much more likely that Seel didn't want to know that they had anything in common, even if it really wasn't all that similar.

So he just nodded, quietly. He didn't offer a hand, didn't make some stupid comment. Part of understanding was knowing when iy was time to shut up, when the other person didn't want to hear it. There was only so far platitudes got you.

"Alright. Let's go."

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