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.)
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.
han solo (OLD!!) | star wars
PTA events. Han always hated these things, tried to make himself as scarce as possible whenever one of these fundraising events rolled around. Leia usually made him show up in her stead, anyway-- at least, when she was too busy to do it, herself. Gotta support the kids and their education. But she's got a better head for politics than he ever did. Navigating the egos of the other parents is way more up her alley than Han's. He just has a tendency to rub people the wrong way a lot of the times, and it hasn't gotten better with age.
He thought, when Ben graduated, they wouldn't have to deal with this crap anymore. But nah, 'this is our home' and 'children are the future,' so it looks like he's stuck dealing with the PTA until the day he dies.
Because he drew the short straw this time, Han's at the bake sale with an offering of cupcakes, fresh from... the bakery. What? Leia's a busy lady, and she doesn't have a domestic bone in her body. She doesn't bake for him, let alone the entire town. And no matter how many times he tries to point out that they might as well just donate the money spent at the bakery straight to the school, she won't have it.
It's important to network, or some baloney like that.
So, here's Mr. Solo, lounging in his fold-out chair behind a table of immaculate cupcakes, all while he reads an automotive magazine, wishing he was anywhere but here and projecting a general air of 'grumpy hermit'.
no subject
When she spotted Han her eyebrows rose, an entertained smile playing across the delicate curve of her lips. "You look like you'd rather be anywhere but here. Cupcakes got you down or is it something else?"
She tucked a lose strand of hair behind her ear while pulling the small pad of paper from her pocket. All notes helped.
no subject
And in Han's case, it's looking like a definite not.
"You guys went all out. I teach here and all they got out of me was two boxes of Entenmann's." Let's be honest, the kids like store-bought baked goods better than anything she'd make on her own, and she wasn't going to buy anything at the bakery when her 2 for $3 boxes of donuts are selling just fine.
no subject
She let him more often that she probably should in her opinion, but it wasn't as if the fate of the universe depended on her being focused on a bake sale for crying out loud. This time at least.
"You'd probably sell more cupcakes if you didn't look like you'd like you'd tell whoever was coming to buy them that you wanted them to get off your lawn." The words lacked heat, and it seemed like it was a conversation (or a strand of conversation) that Leia had had with her husband more than once. Or more than a hundred times, perhaps, but it was something that never really seemed to get old. At least not yet.