test drive meme, may 2017

[officialnotice]

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.

Comments

Jace Whatever-His-Name-Is-This-Week | Shadowhunters | Track and Field Day

[wayfaring_stranger]

Jace has a mango juice smoothie to help keep him cool--not that he needs help--while he wanders around watching the events play out. It's kind of a train wreck of attractions, but it's amusing to watch. He'd try flag football if he thought it would be fun to snatch flags off unsuspecting victims instead of actually tackling them to the ground. He's fast enough. But where is the fun when there isn't any competition?

[angelic_archer]

The competition was padding behind his best friend, waiting for the best time to reach over his shoulder to steal the smoothie, knowing that after years of training together, Jace won't attack him for the theft. He hopes. Sometimes Jace was more skittish than Alec remembered. Smoothie in hand, Alec offered Jace half of the sandwich he'd bought earlier. "Glaring at my neighbors isn't polite."

[wayfaring_stranger]

"They give me weird looks." Jace commented, taking the offering. He was considering trying another flavor of smoothie. Especially knowing Alec would finish off his mango. "What exactly is a blanket toss?"

The question is asked around a mouth full of food.

[angelic_archer]

"I give you weird looks and you don't glare at me." Occasionally, he did but Alec had learned to ignore that long ago. When he was sure that Jace would actually eat, he took a sip of the smoothie. It wasn't his favorite flavor, but he'd developed a taste for it over the years. At least it wasn't tomato. "I'm not sure. Maybe people throw blankets at each other?" Alec wasn't sure what the point of that would be.

Glancing over at Jace, he scowled when he realized that his friend was talking around a mouthful of sandwich. "Sometimes I think you were raised by - " His voice trailed off when he realized that however he answered that could shock the Mundanes around them or offend any Downworlders that might be nearby. "Maryse taught you not to eat with your mouth full."

[wayfaring_stranger]

Jace deliberately took another bite before responding. "Why would anyone toss blankets at each other?"

He wasn't sure he understood any of the games being played. Where was the challenge? Sure, it looked fun. At least, the three-legged race looked like fun. People were laughing. And he had considered a water balloon war with Alec.

[angelic_archer]

"I don't know. Why would anyone throw bean bags at a target?" It was strange to him. One of those Mundane customs that he doubted he'd ever understand. Some of the games at least made sense. "Not all games are meant to be a challenge. They're fun. And not in the 'let's jump off the roof' type of fun you prefer."

Alec was surprised he hadn't broken a limb when Jace cajoled him into that particular misadventure. "You could try one of them to try to figure them out." Which didn't quite feel like an 'Alec-like' thing to say since he was supposed to be the boring one of the pair but Jace had been acting odd since the accident. "You know that there's something wrong when I'm the one suggesting that you have fun."

[wayfaring_stranger]

"They should have a knife throwing contest." Jace gave Alec a look when he mentioned the roof. "The buildings aren't tall enough around here for that, but the cliffs might be. Cliff jumping could be fun."

He shrugged and stole his smoothie back, giving Alec the rest of his half of the sandwich. "Not much to figure out. And there is nothing wrong." Did he mean Alec or himself?

[angelic_archer]

"No, they shouldn't," Alec answered slowly, hoping that it would help Jace pick up on how terrible that particular idea was. By the Angel, it was like Jace wanted to scare all the Mundanes. "Not everyone trains the way we do. This is an event for kids, remember?" They might have been throwing knives when other children would have been in elementary school but Alec knew that it wasn't considered normal. "This weekend we might be able to try climbing, not jumping. I don't bounce back from injuries like you do." Or avoid them the way Jace could.

Looking down at the sandwich, he mentally shook his head at Jace's avoidance. He was used to it, but it didn't mean that he thought it was healthy. "We could see if any of them are fun." Everyone else seemed to be enjoying the games. Maybe they would too. "You're acting weird."

[wayfaring_stranger]

Jace stopped and looked at Alec for a moment before giving him back the smoothie. He didn't take the sandwich, he wasn't hungry. "The three-legged race looks fun."

He didn't like being the reason Alec was upset or worried and it wouldn't kill him to put on a smile and try some of the games if it would make Alec happy. Alec being happy was far more important to him.

[angelic_archer]

"It does. It's the kind of thing you would suggest when you're trying to prove that you can come up with better training methods than what's in the books." He'd switched to present tense only to keep with the rules. They'd given up those kind of games years ago.

Holding both food and drink, he looked down at his best friend, trying to understand what was going on. Nothing felt right between them. At least not like it had been before he'd left New York. "Are you angry at me? You know why I had to leave."

[wayfaring_stranger]

"What?" Jace was sincerely confused. He didn't remember Alec leaving New York, but clearly he had if he ended up here. In Pines. Married. Married and happy. "Honestly, I don't know why you left. And, no, I'm not angry at you. You're the one accusing me of being weird."

Just for that Jace is taking the sandwich back. And the smoothie. Maybe he was a little angry. No. Angry wasn't the word. Whatever he was feeling he wasn't sure. He had a lot of confusing feelings when it came to Alec.

"I was in a serious accident recently." Spoken around a mouth full of sandwich. Just because.

[angelic_archer]

"You've been acting like you are." At least Alec assumed that was what was wrong. Jace normally hid his emotions but over the years he'd been more open with him. Hiding a smile when Jace took the food back, he considered how to phrase things since they were in public. Actually, it wouldn't be too difficult. His parents were still furious with him over Magnus.

"Maryse and Robert aren't happy about having a gay son. I doubt they really want me around anymore." The words sounded harsher than he expected, causing him to wince. "Sorry. I've been trying to keep you and Izzy out of it." But he must not have done a good job of it since they both had moved to be with him.

"I know, but you're usually not this grumpy. Or rude around Mundanes." They'd all grown up, pushing aside their parents elitism. "They're just different than what we're used to."

[wayfaring_stranger]

It wasn't the Mundanes. So he should probably stop glaring at them like it was. And he should stop being grumpy with Alec. It wasn't Alec's fault he fell in love and ran off to live happily ever after. It wasn't Alec's fault the only thing Jace remembered of his wedding was-Nope. Not going to think about that. Alec is alive and that's all that matters.

Magnus is good for him. He makes Alec happy. That's all that matters.

"I want you around." Jace licked the mustard off his bottom lip and looked up at Alec. "I thought you were gone. That I'd lost you. I don't ever want to feel that way again."

[withstyle]

[Izzy didn't have any problems jumping in with the bake sale, but she'd be lying if a part of her is a little less...interested in the track and field day. The games are cute...for kids. Maybe if Max were here she might be willing to watch him play around at some of the different games, but she's not particularly interested in the games herself.....though the people aren't bad, obviously.

Though, seeing the faces of people like Linda...or certain others react to her doing some of the activities in her heels might be worth it. Not quite enough to tempt her that much, though.

Spotting the familiar blonde, though, Izzy changes course and makes a beeline for Jace. And even in her heels, with her shorter legs, she manages to catch up. Looping her left arm through Jace's right, she turns her ever confident smile to him.] Fancy seeing you here! Wasn't sure if you'd join in the neighborly festivities or not, Jace. [Her tone is teasing.] Found anything worth trying? I haven't...

[She shrugs, taking in their surroundings still.] Still on the lookout, though.

[wayfaring_stranger]

I suggested knife throwing to Alec and I heard his eyes rolling in his head. [Jace smirked, doing a quick check of the area to make sure he hadn't lost Alec.

He teased on the outside while secretly panicking for a split second when he didn't see dark wild hair towering over the crowd near the juice bar. There he is. The relief he felt was a bit more obvious than he would have liked, his arm unconsciously squeezing Isabelle's against his side, but there were only two people who knew him well enough to notice.] I'm glad you're here, Izzy.

[withstyle]

[She doesn't miss a beat, a bit of a laugh escaping either way.] Trust me, you don't want the kids around here...or people like the infamous Linda getting a hold of knives here. [She's keeping things light.

But she does notice the way Jace looks around after mentioning his parabatai; she also feels the way that he squeezes her arm in closer. She says nothing, though, not bothered by the way he's squeezing her.] Everyone is glad that I'm here. None of you know what you'd do without me. [She teases, again,putting on an air of flightiness that isn't actually anything truly like her.]

Now let me turn it around on you. I'm glad you're here too. I'm not the only one interrupting the newlywedded bliss. [She pokes his arm, playfully, trying to keep things sort of light.] You missed the bake sale last month, you know.....I made ninja throwing muffins. [Yep, just....normal conversation with one of her brothers.]

[wayfaring_stranger]

[Now Jace is curious about this 'infamous Linda' person, but he's going to save the questions for later. He has noticed the way everyone speaks and behaves. Including Alec and Magnus. But he's had a lot going on in his head so there isn't much room for whatever seems to be going on around him.]

Alec and Magnus...they're really happy. [Looking for Alec again, Jace lowered his voice a bit.] Were you at the wedding?

[withstyle]

[Izzy nods. It's not a question, but she can't help but feel like confirmation is what Jace is looking for here. He's not quite biting on the distraction, though. So, she'll just have to go with the real talk.

Keeping her own voice low, Izzy chooses her words...carefully.] Yeah, I was there. [Izzy speaks lightly, eyes on Jace as she does.] I remember the stained glass windows made for a really beautiful background to the big first kiss and then they left and wound up finding this place. [She could have sworn that he was there too, though....so that's a little oncerning, but...there are so many accidents here it could be related to that and Izzy can't help but have the thought.] You don't remember?

[wayfaring_stranger]

I remember the kiss. [But that's not all. He doesn't remember anyone else. Just the wedding. Alec walking away from him. And then the kiss. He's not sure he's remembering it right, but the emotions involved are haunting him. Hurting him. And there were stained glass windows so they have to be remembering the same wedding.] I was a mess when I woke up in the hospital. Everything is still a bit....off.

[And then he does his best to shake off the emotions and memory and leans his head closer to Izzy's conspiratorially.] Were there casualties? And do you have any left because I'm feeling vulnerable without my stele and seraph blades.

[withstyle]

[Izzy nods; that much is good, at least. He remembers something, even if not everything. She remembers the feeling that she had when she woke up at the hospital...and when she'd first ran into Magnus in town.] I know the feeling. Memories come back at their own pace, so you'll probably get them back, just give it a little bit of time.

[Izzy offers encouragingly, leaning her head on Jace's shoulder for a moment in a bit of a hug. After a moment she lifts her head, though, turning her face slightly in the blonde's direction with one eyebrow poppping up as she remains quiet.] Casualties? [She can't quite help the confusion, but she shakes her head, curls bouncing lightly with the back and forth movement.] They didn't give me my stele back from the police station yet.

[She lifts her arm, though, the serpent bracelet sliding up and down her wrist.] They let me get this back, though. It's all I've got at the moment.

[wayfaring_stranger]

And ninja throwing muffins. [Jace grins. This is a much better topic of conversation than his messed up head. And his messed up heart. A wedding memory gone wrong and then Alec is dying. But that is something he's not going to ask Isabelle about.

Alec is her brother and the only family she has right now when they're so far from their home. And she seems happy. Jace doesn't want to ruin that. Not for Izzy or for Alec.]

[withstyle]

Well, I threw those away, actually. [Izzy corrects with a bit of a laugh, amusement definitely pulling at her mouth. She knows that he's avoiding whatever is going on with him right now in favor of masking it with humor.

For now...she'll let him, just because the accident does make it kind of hard. And with memory issues you shouldn't push. Though, she's not sure if that's something that was told to her or not.] After almost breaking a table, but still. Didn't want to risk anybody trying to eat them. [She tilts her head up toward Jace again, though.] I think I could make them again, though. Though, I've since heard about a really terrifying tuna fish jello thing that seems to be making another good food-based weapon.

[Izzy delivers that with a straight face, only starting to laugh after two long moments. She's not serious. Not really. Though, Alec and Magnus' face in regards to tuna and jello in combo...priceless.]

[wayfaring_stranger]

[Jace isn't going to tell Izzy eating anything she makes is a risk because he's teased her enough about her cooking. Until she mentions the tuna fish jello.] Do I want to know how you can make jello into a weapon? Sure. You could use it to smother someone to death, but how does the tune fish fit into this?

[Weapons, training, fighting. Those are easy topics of conversation. It relaxes him a bit and he's grateful Izzy always seems to know when not to push.]

[withstyle]

[Izzy can't help the grin.] If you'd been here for the 50s night... [She teases with a bit of a wink.] It's exactly what it sounds like, though....tuna in a jello mold with some other ingredients in a sort of...salad form.

[The way that she says this is so blase, but she's fighting back the amusement.] The idea of it terrifies both Magnus and Alec. It's a pretty effective weapon for that alone. Mental warfare, Jace. [Yep, she's still teasing, she swears!]

[wayfaring_stranger]

[That actually gets a smile and a laugh out of Jace. He's imagining Alec and Magnus's faces. And then he's remembering the kiss again. He's convinced it's because he has so few memories.]

I'll let you fight with food and stick to what I know best.

[Fighting. Evading emotions.]

What is 50's night?