TEST DRIVE MEME, APRIL 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

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.

Comments

General Leia Organa | Star Wars (The Force Awakens)

[oldladyleia]

Option one: welcome to wayward pines.

[The hospital is weird and Leia knows it. The nurses are wrong, and she touches her head trying to put things together like just what, exactly, a car was. (Had she really been inside a car and not a ship? Was a car a type of ship?) But she only allowed the nurses a minute to baby her before she pulled herself up to her proper height, and stared the head nurse down, despite being in a hospital gown. They'd given her clothing and released her post haste, giving her a slight smile.

Telling people what to do was something inherent in her, and the nurses responded to it.

When she was walking to the house, things started returning to her, and Leia found her feet going along a familiar sidewalk to the home that she shared with her husband, and that her son had grown up in. Neighbors waved and Leia waved back with a smile, asking about their family as a reflex. It was something that someone had taught her, but she couldn't say who or what. Instead, she let herself be greeted, and answered questions about the school (as she was the vice-principal) or the model UN (that she'd set up and advised) mostly though, Leia tried to place them and find out what their importance to her was. If there was any. ]

option three: PTA BAKE SALE
[Leia Solo was not domestic. She didn't bake, mostly because she didn't have time to do it. Of course that meant that when it came time for things like the PTA bake sale, she left it to Han to pick up the order that she'd placed weeks ago for fancy cupcakes that would probably be sold at half the price they paid for them. It was funny really how her salary tended to find it's way back into the school's pockets from time to time.

As the vice-principal, Leia sometime had a hard time with students because they were sent to her when they acted out. She tended to be able to figure out what was going on with them without thinking about it; Leia just knew. Mostly, she gave them the disappointed talk and it tended to work. Sometimes. Now though, Leia had set that face aside and greeted them like old friends, asking about classes and how they were. When parents stopped and asked about their children, she smiled and said that they really should ask their children that.

But she stopped at almost every table and paid for something, asking for them to hold it until the end of the sale. If nothing else, no one could ever say that Leia Solo didn't support their school.]

option four: the network
SN: TheGeneral

I'm looking for some volunteers for the Model UN program at the school. I'd like some adults that they can practice off of, if you think you're up to it. My kids are good.

[sheriffing]

[ now that she's had time to recover from the accident, Emma is more aware of the people around her. she's been able to fill in a few blanks, like her friends and co-workers and the students who really piss her off. she ends up at the bake sale with a few store-bought items that she abandons to someone else's table, and then wandering around and picking up a few things in support of the school seems like the right thing to do.

among the staff, word travels fast. she knows where the good snacks are, which ones they can't give away, and which parents have already embarrassed themselves in front of their children. she has a brownie in hand when she notices one of the friendlier administrators approaching the same table where she's stopped to indulge.

it's a little strange, how memories hit in varying levels of intensity. there are people she tolerates, then people she genuinely admires. Leia's one of the latter.]

If you don't stop telling people to save the cupcakes for later, I'm going to go around and collect yours when all of this is over.

[she's probably kidding, and yet, that's an accurate statement of Emma's feelings toward food. she'll have whatever it is, if you don't want it.]

[oldladyleia]

[Leia had very few people whom she disliked among the staff here at the school. There were teachers whom she'd found too lask and teachers she'd found too tough and of course teachers who probably had no business being around children in the first place. However, Emma wasn't one of those teachers, and the blond was greeted with a teasing smile.]

If you do that, [she began gesturing a bit with the clipboard that she was holding.] I think you may need to fight Han for them. He always gets grumpy if he has to sit here all day and has nothing to show for it at the end. [Her words are spoken with a soft fondness that she wouldn't share with someone whom she wasn't comfortable with, and Leia found herself more trusting of the blond before her for some reason.]

But I suppose if there's anything that you particularly have your eye on, we can put your name on it instead of mine.

un: kent

[silver_lined]

I've been told I'm not too bad in a debate. And I'd be happy to give your kids something to chew on. When do you need me?

[oldladyleia]

Now, I've heard that before, Mr. Kent. You sure you can handle my kids?

[silver_lined]

If I can't, I'll come run for cover behind you. But I think I'll be all right.

[oldladyleia]

You should know, Mr. Kent, that hiding behind me might lead to more problems than it solves.

[volitaunt]

[ He knows that back. Even if unfamiliar clothes, in an unfamiliar setting, he knows that back, and the rush familiarity has him pelting down the sidewalk toward her from behind, nearly taking out a woman carrying her groceries up to her door.]

Sorry! Sorry. General!

[ General? That isn't right. Is it? Does he know her from his days in the Navy, or from after, at NASA? He's not sure. He just knows it's important to reach her. He knows it's important that she recognize him. He almost skids up to her, his last running steps becoming a walk.]

Excuse me. General-- [ General what? General-- ] Organa. General Organa.

[ Two words when paired that feel like coming home. ]

[oldladyleia]

['General.' That was something that kids at the school had started calling her as a sort of joke, but it had stuck and had passed into generalized (pun intended) usage. So it wasn't uncommon for someone to be yelling it at her in order to get her attention.

What was uncommon was the way that the voice felt both familiar to her and not familiar all at once. She'd heard it call for her in a similar way many times, but she'd also never heard it before in her life. One hand touched her temple, and she closed her eyes for a second as she tried to gather some peace around her from the air. That was something that she'd always known how to do, and something that was a bit of reflex.

But she was jolted out of it by the addition of Organa. No one really knew that name. No one here should know that name.

And then there was the awful, awful thought that she shouldn't know that name either.

Now that she remembered the name, however, she remembered the voice that went along with calling her it. When she spoke it was soft, and she subtly waved a hand in his direction, so at least they weren't on the street while she was attempting to place her thoughts in order.]

Poe.

[volitaunt]

Ma'am.

[ He follows her silently, knowing her signals without fully knowing why. It's enough to realize that she knows him, for now, and that she's here means things aren't as bad as they could be.

Or they're worse than he thought, but he'll stick with the positive spin for now. ] Is everything okay?

[ He immediately smiles at his own question, knowing very well that it's not. ] I mean are you.

[oldladyleia]

[The house feels much too big when she steps into it, much too big and much too open. A vision almost seemed to superimpose itself over the big living room with it's large TV, and it's open concept kitchen that got very little use. The vision was of a smaller room, closer to the size of her office and a desk loaded with files and view screens and the air being colder than it was right now.

Still Leia shivers at the comfortable suburban temperature as if a ghost had walked over her grave.

One hand presses against her chest for a second, and silently she goes through the stages one might if they were having a stroke (her husband is older, after all, and one never knows. Finding that she doesn't seem to be having any of them, she just asks softly:]

Would you get me a glass of water? The kitchen is that way. [There's a vague gesture to where the kitchen is and Leia makes several steps in that direction anyway, because she's not normally one to ask people for things here.]

option four

[ask_alexa]

I might be able to help. What do you need exactly?

[oldladyleia]

Have you ever done Model UN in the past?

[ask_alexa]

No, but I went to law school.

[oldladyleia]

Well, that will definitely work then. What's your name?

[trybelieving]

I'd do my best if you're still looking!

[oldladyleia]

If you're willing to try yourself against my kids, I'm always willing.

[trybelieving]

Is there anything we need to do to prepare?

[oldladyleia]

Have you ever done Model UN before?

III

[ren_egade]

[Being here is already a chore without having to try and avoid his mother as she makes her way through the crowds, yet Ren is attempting all the same. The fact that he's tall and wearing all black probably doesn't help matters, but he can't fix the first and the second is simply more him than any color would be. He's managed to dodge her gaze for the past twenty minutes, but Ren knows that instinct of hers will kick in and she'll zero in like a targeting system.

He really should just leave, but he's been trying to find others, like Cassian, who might know something beyond this small town. Ren can't be alone in this suspicion he's from more than just Idaho. Anyone else would tell him that talking to his mother would be the right path, but Ren has a rocky history with his parents. Between their jobs, they always seemed too busy for him and it really soured things for Ren growing up.

Hence avoiding her and having to deal with the emotions that come along with it.

Sadly (for Ren), he can only dodge for so long and he spots her gaze travel across the crowds to meet his. Kriff. He tries to turn around, but that won't help, there's no way she won't recognize him from the back just as easily. She is his mother, after all.]

[oldladyleia]

[Even in Leia's memories of this place, there was always the way that she could find her son when she needed too. Or when she wanted too, because it wasn't always need even if her work sometimes kept her being more hands off than she would have liked it to be. But the town--or something-- had needed her to be there and to help it and to... There were dreams of things being bigger than the town that she was more than a little inclined were say were delusions of grandeur.

But she could sense him flittering around the edges of her consciousness like a bird, there but not in a way she couldn't place her finger on. He was her son but he was also not her son, and the dichotomy was hard to place together in her head. Han had said that Ben was going his own way, but this was different. This wasn't that Ben had depression or that she'd allowed Ben to spend too much time in the town's Hot Topic this was something different.

When he met her eyes, she could feel a shift of things, like a click of the universe sliding into place. This wasn't just something like a simple fight, it was more than that. There was a sense of light and dark and something deeper that flexes in her and around her as she closes her eyes and tightens her fist around it. There's a part of her that wants to use it, but she doesn't.

Instead she follows him quickly, moving past other people at the bake sale with a brisk walk that was more on the side of rude than usual. When she came close enough, she just called to him. His name, the name she gave him and not the one that someone else did.]

Ben!

[ren_egade]

[There's no escaping Leia. Ren doesn't even try, knowing that if he shoved his way through the crowd, when she eventually caught up he would get a long stare of reprimand for pushing and shoving. Ren isn't up for that. It's not that he's giving up, either. Just mitigating the damage.

He slowly turns when she calls him by his old name. His gaze levels on hers and he tries to keep his expression neutral. As much as it would be easy to get into an argument with her and draw the attention of the crowd, Ren doesn't want that. It'll be far too difficult to peruse the thoughts of others if they're in a panic.]

Leia.

[He doesn't call her mother. Hasn't in years. Still thinks of her that way, but he's trying to stop. It's easier said than done. She was better to him than Han. Yet, she still failed, left him alone more often than not. Preoccupied with her work instead of her own child.]

un: p.maximoff

[windchasing]

It's a lost cause, Mrs. Solo. None of the other adults are as good as us.

option 3: bake sale

[ouzel]

[ When Leia stops at the table for Go Ask Alice Cassian waves off any attempt at paying him. He remembers having met with her when Pietro transferred in, to explain the odd situation of a paternal, formerly-unknown sibling taking care of a teenager.

Granted, if anyone else was responsible for Pietro in a school setting and didn't immediately try to inform whomever was in charge of their existence, Cassian isn't sure what to think. ]

The donation to the PTA has already been made, this is just to offset.

[ There is absolutely no reason to take her money, anyway. ]

How is it going?

[oldladyleia]

[Leia recognizes the gesture of just paying for something and then going along with it. Somewhere around, her husband set up a table that had cupcakes that had cost her more than what she was selling them for. It was a little silly, but that's what happened in places like this.

Still the tea house was one of Leia's favorites in town; she found it to be a center of calming even when there was a discussion of whether or not one could have hot chocolate in the summer.

Leia was on the side that one could have it whenever you needed it, no matter what the temperature outside was.

Picking up one of her favorite sort of cookies, Leia smiles and holds it in the napkin for a moment before responding.]

I think it's going well. If nothing else we have a good turn out.