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.)
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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bumfuckidaho2017-05-17 09:14 pm
TEST DRIVE MEME
chloe | the last witch hunter
[ waking with a headache is basically chloe's everyday life so when a nurse tells her that she was in an accident, well. at least it wasn't just her drinking herself into the hospital! that's always nice to know. she's not intent on staying however, so she impatiently signs herself out and puts her pants on so she can leave the hospital and not moon the entire town.
there's something she has to do that she can't remember but first, she asks the first person she meets: ] Coffee?
three.
[ botany, it turns out, is an easy a class because as long as the students can keeps chloe's plants alive all semester she will give them a hard earned b. if the neville longbottoms of the class actually talk to her about plants, they will get an a. #belikeneville also everyone should take this elective.
it also means that she has to attend field day because h a h a. ]
Go team. [ sitting in the bleachers, squinting into the sun because her sunglasses are uselessly tucked into her hair, chloe looks more like some student's older sister than an actual teacher but oh well. she is taking advantage of this non-teaching day to drink her iced coffee and pretend she isn't pale enough to be allergic to the sun. ]
no subject
Which is when he hears "coffee". Seth looks up, takes a second to squint at the woman — notes the things that feel familiar, the hard look and the red hair. That's it. He has no idea who she is. After a short, slightly miserable pause: ]
Fuck it. Yeah, coffee. [ He drags his hand down his face before standing up, which is when the more logical response kicks in. ] Do I know you?
no subject
[ probably not? admittedly she is a basically hungover and her brain is shot to hell, but she honestly has no idea so for now she is going with no until she at least has some caffeine in her. ]
Honestly, you look like the sort of bloke that'll pay for a girl's coffee. [ suit. it's the suit. she stopped because of the suit. it's his own fault. ]
no subject
[ More amused than challenging. Half because of the 'bloke' part, half because he didn't find a wallet with his suit. The latter of which isn't going to stop him from getting coffee, obviously, but it might not be the gentlemanly endeavor she's got in mind. ]
Seth Gecko. [ One of the few things he knows, even if it sounds like something out of a B-movie. Seth gives her another once-over that's more casually wary than leering, then he nods towards the door. ] Come on, English.
[ Bad memory, or just bad at accents?? Hard to say. ]
no subject
Chloe. [ she doesn't correct him that she's scottish because she sounds english, accent perfectly posh. ] There's a coffee shop down the street where I don't think they'll let us pay if we milk the terrible accident angle.
no subject
Seth's eyebrows lift at the mention of more or less scamming the coffee shop. It saves him the trouble of finding a wallet, and he nods slightly before starting for the door. He holds it open for her when he gets there, which is earnestly polite. ]
Ladies first.
[ That's a little too exaggerated to be polite, but it's pretty mild. He's still nursing a headache; full sarcasm requires more energy than he's got. ]
no subject
Thank you. Add this to why you look like the sort of bloke that would pay for a girl's coffee.
three
That's it, kid! Get back up and dust it off!
[His voice booms across the field as is appropriate for this sort of event, and when he's sure he has managed to draw only the right sort of attention to himself, he parks on the bleachers beside Chloe.
In a much quieter tone, conversational with a hint of "there are ears everywhere", he comments:]
Getting you alone for a talk was way easier back home.
no subject
[ applying adorable to the lumbering bear of a man that is kaulder is always fun for her. she leans in to nudge him companionably with her shoulder. ] If you keep this up people are going to start gossiping.