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

one

[inthewar]

[ Damien remembers such mundane things about his life before this; he loved motorcycles and really good scotch. The word Detroit keeps ringing through his head, too, and he thinks that might be where he grew up. None of these details mean anything with his immediate circumstances except he does know he killed people. He killed a lot of people, on the orders of others. A mercenary of sorts.

That's a memory that's really fucking unsettling and he'd like to forget that altogether but that's part of him. A part of him he needs to figure out, eventually.

Right after he makes some sense of this place and what that screaming is. It quickly becomes a lesson in futility, trying to track down the source, and by the time he's slowing down and growing so strangely tired, he runs into someone. Taking a deep breath, he gives her a friendly nod, approaching slowly. ]

Think it means we need to get the fuck away from it. Far away.

[avicula]

[ dutch remembers killing, she remembers the rac, and she remembers a man called khylen, but not why is he is important, only that he is. there are moments when she thinks that she must be going crazy, because every single one of those memories takes place in space or in a city very different from this one. she's flown spaceships — that can't be real, can it? and yet, it feels more real than anything here, more her. ]

Not sure we can get far enough. [ for the tiredness to end, certainly, but the wall around old town that she remembers influenced everyone in the town, made them complacent, made them happy. she remembers that happening to someone she cared about, but she can't remember his name or his face.

if this wall is anything like that, there's nowhere they can run, not really. but they can probably get far enough away to stop feeling so damn tired.

maybe the company learned from their mistakes, she thinks, a bitter thing, and then wonders what that means. ]

[inthewar]

[ It's the feeling of being trapped without actually being trapped that's fucking with him. He'd almost prefer being locked in an actual prison cell with bars around him. It'd probably sound damn crazy to anyone else, but there's something strangely familiar about prison cells. He's been thrown in a bunch before, he thinks. And he's sure he'd know how to get out and run. At least then, he'd know the odds and it would be a fair fight. None of this fence bullshit.

Here, they're out in the open, seemingly free to go anywhere, but not. The illusion of that is such a mindfuck. ]

What are you thinking, then? You saw a wall that could do this - you remember much about it? How the fuck to escape?

[avicula]

[ if this is like old town, if the wall does the same thing, making them complacent, they won't have to worry about it much longer — or more accurately, they won't be able to worry about it much longer. dutch doesn't quite know why, but the thought of being manipulated that way makes her stomach churn, makes anger burn bright and hot in her chest, more so than might be warranted.

maybe that means she isn't affected yet. maybe that means this wall works differently. ]

Last time, it took hundreds of bodies to break the wall.