bumfuckidaho | test drive meme, may 2017

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test drive meme, may 2017

TEST DRIVE MEME

There was an accident. The details are hazy and obscure, but it's still the first thing you remember. Maybe a car wreck — metal and broken glass everywhere, and the sirens and the screaming. Maybe your bike hit a rock and you careened uncontrollably off a mountain path. Maybe something less mundane, even impossible seems to have happened to you. You can't quite make out the details, not who was at fault or why. Try as you might, the chaos is all you can truly remember.

It's also the last thing you remember from before waking up.

When you open your eyes, the accident is gone. Instead, you're in a hospital bed, and the nursing staff greet you with cheerful smiles.

Don't worry, they tell you. You'll make a full recovery here. Where is here? Why, home in Wayward Pines, of course!

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
TRACK AND FIELD DAY

With the current school semester coming to a close and summer vacation on the horizon, school administrators have elected to end the year on a high note with an invigorating Track and Field Day at the park, in order to better foster fitness and health in the children (outside of their government mandated physical education classes, anyway).

The event is, of course, open to the community at large, whether you have a current affiliation with the school or not. Because, well, everyone could stand to get up off their couches for an afternoon of running around in the sun. Or, in the case of residents with a particular sun allergy, under the shaded tarp canopies that dot the field here and there with healthy snacks, drinks, and some of the less expansive games available today (such as, oh, a nice sedate beanbag toss).

Wayward Pines thrives on the inclusion of all varieties of people, after all. Even those that aren't, strictly speaking, people at all.

All of the most recognizable games are available, of course: sack races, relay races, three-legged races, any sort of race you can think of, really; flag football and dodgeball with soft spongy balls to keep anyone from getting too competitive (the school nurse is on hand just in case though); a massive tug-of-war rope that spans nearly the entire field; and water balloon and blanket tosses. If you're not too sure what the latter is you can ask Linda at the makeshift juice bar and she'll be all too glad to explain for you.

Actually, on second thought, don't ask Linda anything. Don't give her the satisfaction.

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), 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!

( a few notes )

Welcome to our fourth 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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( a. family dinner simulator 2004, level 1 )

[ well, logically, if the hospital says you were in an accident, and you feel tired and beat to hell, they're probably right. it is their job, in a way, to help people at a hospital, and it's helpful to save someone's life, which they probably did, after whatever it was that happened. his other questions, (did anyone else get hurt? is everyone okay?), when they're met with reassurance, give him no reason to reason to worry, and nothing feels off about it all. so it's probably nothing. he heads home, confused, sore, and ready to do his laundry.

EXCEPT. it looks like there's a sale at the grocery store. he's gonna have to cook dinner, right? right. and after all that time at the hospital, there's no telling what's still good in the fridge...

there's a dumb boy with some pretty gnarly grunged up clothes (no, they just got partially shredded by ~~a bunch of swords~~ something, he'll fix them later!) staring down at the selection the produce isle, a basket with other delicious ingredients hanging from his elbow. gotta get that good, good stuff. (please send him home, i think there's partially rinsed off bloodstains on those jeans.)

did you want that (insert produce item here)? well, so did he, i guess. cue the awkward bump of hands ~~muffled doki doki in the distance~~ before shirou freezes. ]

Ah — sorry.

[ he still has not removed his hand from (insert produce item here). kyaa... emiya-kun, you're so forward with the food items... ]

( b. network )

username: emiya

does anyone want some tangerines? i'm running out of space.

edit: there are a LOT of them, and i have no idea how they got in here

[ he went grocery shopping for the house, and bought a reasonable amount of ingredients at a reasonable price, thanks to some strategic couponing, so... WHO THE FUCK BOUGHT ALL THESE TANGERINES? WHY??? the curse of taiga fujimura transcends universes, and shall haunt him until he dies. possibly after, too. ]

Edited (i know words) 2017-05-19 03:06 (UTC)

I can take some!
I'm also curious about the mystery of the appearing tangerines. Does this happen to you a lot?

i have some suspicions, but the potential culprit isn't home to confirm or deny her crimes yet

[ imagine his disappointment when he realizes, no, fuji-nee isn't in pines at all, and this is a real crime of tangerine vandalism. maybe instead of tping people here, they tangerine them... ]

Wow, this must really happen a lot. As a highschooler who loves free food, I will always take extra's off your hands.

she's a serial tangerine-eater, but this is overkill. thanks, though, it's a big help.

just make sure you bring a bag or something.

I'll bring my backpack.

[ insert address of shirou's house here?? ]

[Clary shows up about an hour later with an empty backpack thrown over her shoulder. She knocks softly on the front door before calling out.]

Hello? I'm here for an orange infestation.

[ there's a call from inside of "it's open!" in response. if she doesn't follow through on her own, shirou comes to the door himself to open it, but if she does, she catches him in the process exiting the kitchen and drying his hands on the apron he's wearing. it really is an infestation -- from the foyer its easy to see over the breakfast bar and the collection of cardboard produce boxes stacked on the counters, on top of the fridge, everywhere save for a small cleared off area where shirou must have been working. apart from that, the house is tidy and clean, even though the only person there is probably this poor teenage boy. ]

Oh, good.

<3 you're good

babyhunter - 2017-05-26 19:48 (UTC) - Expand

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redundead - 2017-05-27 02:19 (UTC) - Expand

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babyhunter - 2017-05-28 19:03 (UTC) - Expand

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redundead - 2017-05-30 03:11 (UTC) - Expand

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babyhunter - 2017-05-30 03:31 (UTC) - Expand

just eat them you dumbass

[He has no indication of knowing whether this is Emiya or not. But also, fuck that guy.]

[ he might be the other emya!!!! the one with the gun (singular) and the dead eyes!!! you don't know him!!! ]

i don't think that's going to work in this situation

i don't know what kind of answer you expected when you tell us you're trying to get rid of edible things.

there's too many for just one household, so why not give them away instead of letting them go to waste?

[ who IS this spikey cranky person ]

THAT'S LOW

EVEN FOR YOU

[ suspicious pause ]

sorry?

oh.

i must have the wrong guy, he wouldn't apologize. my bad.

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redundead - 2017-05-19 04:01 (UTC) - Expand

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guerrilla - 2017-05-19 04:10 (UTC) - Expand

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redundead - 2017-05-19 14:55 (UTC) - Expand

[ handwaving that yukari's been around for a few days before shirou — she's looking like she's at least gotten a good night's sleep and some clean clothes. yukari too wanted to take advantage of the good sale going on at the grocery store, and she wasn't expecting to run into anyone familiar. and she especially wasn't expecting— ]

Shirou-kun! [ she jerks her hand back from said produce and instead throws her arms around shirou's shoulders, giving him a tight hug. the kind of hug you give a close friend after finding out that you've both been in a terrible accident. ] Omigod, you're okay!

[ something else fills in the gaps, for that voice, that face, and shirou finds himself staring at this girl hanging off of him. no, not girl — friend? the name escapes him, but. ]

Yeah, I — [ through the fog, he picks out a name, but this time he sounds so much more uncertain ]

... Yukari?

[ maybe he should have stayed in the hospital longer after all ]

[ yukari pulls back a little, resting her hands on shirou's shoulders for a second or two before she realizes, ah... and... awkwardly, she rests her hands behind her back. ]

Yeah — but it sucks, doesn't it? That haze? [ the memory loss, she means. inside she's got a knot of anxiety but on the outside she tries to project a mask of optimism. ] It'll come back soon, you just gotta relax.

[ its his head that hurts (doesn't feel right, actually) but for some reason, his free hand doesn't stray to rub at the ache building between his temples — instead, it pushes the heel of his still bandaged palm against a phantom pain over his heart ]

They said nobody else was — [ at the hospital, he means. if yukari knows this feeling too, then she must have been at the accident too, and... ]

You didn't get hurt, right? [ she looks fine, especially compared to him... ]

Only a little.

[ her grin flickers, and she decides against telling shirou about her sprained shoulder and wrists. no need to make him worry about something so small. ]

But I'm fine now!

[ shirou's brows furrow, that unconvinced and unconditional care obvious in every line of his face. the fact that his ribs hurt, and that he's got these cuts, and feels like he ran twelve miles uphill, none of that matters if yukari (and he's remembering now, summers in town and popsicles on the back porch, walking to school even through the rain) was ever in even the slightest bit of danger. even though it's clearly passed, and she's clearly fine (right? she's fine), the fear that gripped his heart has only barely loosened its grip, even if he doesn't know how to express it to her. ]

If you say so...

[ she is definitely fine! totally fine. look at this grin, totally fine. let's not remember the fuzziness of her mind or the slight ache that's settled in her skeleton after the accident.

it's fine, totally fine. ]

What're you here for?

[First off, there was no way that Henry believed that there was an accident. Sure he was holding evidence to the contrary, but it had to be a mistake right? He was a kid that was destined to not sit still for too long, he had too much of his mom in him he supposed. He has seen the sale at the grocery store too, and once he ditched his mom, which he would probably pay for later, he made his way through the aisles of the store. Henry was focused on his surroundings so he didn't notice the actual live person until he was bumped into. ]

Hey, it's okay. What is that? [Nodding towards the fruit. ]

[ shirou stares down at his hand, remembering finally what he was doing. in no time at all, he's scooped up the daikon in particular he'd picked, and bags it to put in his basket, ignoring the twinge of pain in his bandaged hands, and what feels like maybe a cracked rib. ]

Daikon -- er, or you can call it a white radish, I think.

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