bumfuckidaho | TEST DRIVE MEME, APRIL 2017.

Skip to Main Content

Entry tags:

!tdm

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Carl failed in his attempt to escape. It horrified him that he can't, because that means there's something out there that made measures to make sure no one leave at all, and they were put in place a long time ago.

So going at it alone is not going to be an option. He needs to find people that think like him: who don't trust the idea of waking up in some strange place and telling you not say anything about your past life . . . especially when you barely remember your past life.

Although those plans derailed when he was "volunteered" into be part of the sales of one table. Although he is starting to doubt the wisdom behind that: most of the customers when approaching for a cookie see Carl's bandage across his eye and pointedly look away (or, in the case of the kids around Carl's age: whisper and point). He looks up when he sees a shadow across his table and looks up. ]

Which ones you want?

[ He tries to be fake-chipper but he fails and just sounds fake altogether. ]

I'm here to man the table next door but if you wanna feed me free baked goods, I'm not complaining.

[ Scott doesn't particularly care about the bandages over his eye and if he did, he sure as hell wouldn't stare at it, since it's not like he's a stranger to people giving him shit over stuff like that. So he slips between the tables to take up his seat a couple of feet away. ]

You here on detention too?

I guess so.

[ Maybe it is punishment for going into the woods. No one had told him as such, but there you go. ]

Why are you in detention?

Teacher told me I had to take my sunglasses off for class.

I told him I couldn't.

He told me I had to.

I told him that if he wanted his classroom to stay in one piece, I couldn't, and he took it as a threat.

[ And thus, here he is. He spreads his hands. ]

[ Carl is utterly confused. ]

He took it . . . what does that even mean? You blow up a building with your eyelids or something?

[ And that's a slooooow nod. ]

Eyes, but yeah, basically. They were supposed to have a note at the nurse's office but that didn't get cleared up before I called him a moron so-

[ Shrug. ]

[ Carl hasn't even tried to go to school yet.

Not entirely sure if he believes this guy about his super-powered eyeballs, Carl veers into a different topic. ]

So how was it? The school, I mean.

[ Yeah, okay, check out the hole in the hospital. It'll tell you exactly what they do. Scott's not terribly inclined to try and prove himself to people. He gave you information, you don't trust it, that's your business. He's got no reason to lie. ]

It's not bad. I mean, it's a school. It's like any other school.

Huh.

[ He leans back in his chair, looking up. Carl tries to remember going to school - it seems like a normal thing to do - but he honestly doesn't remember. ]

You know, I don't think I ever been to school before.

[ He remembers being on the road a lot, foot on pavement, walking past crumbling buildings and overwhelming woods. ]

So you're homeschooled or something?

[ He's pretty sure that he'd go bonkers. He'd be bugging out every day. He hates a lot about school but it's still better than being stuck at home all the time.]

Sort of. We moved around a lot, like nomads. [ Carl definitely remembers there's a "we" involved. He knows he was part of a group, but he can't remember their names or faces. ]

Like going between foster homes?

[ That'd be his own experience. ]

Not really, I remember being with a large group of people. We didn't stay in one place for very long. [ He thinks, anyway.

He's also neglecting the fact that the places they do land for a time are abandoned. In fact, everywhere they go towns and homes were abandoned. ]

So you were like... nomadic. Huh.

[ There's a glance around the park that they're in. ]

So... not from around here, huh? That's new.

I guess so. I remember there was a car crash, and I woke up here. But I don't see anyone I recognize here.

[ The fact that he doesn't remember anything at all doesn't sit well with Carl. He can't explain it, but there's just no way for him to forget the faces and names of people he has been traveling with. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only