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 | FOURTH OF JULY |
If there's one thing to be said for Wayward Pines it's the town's resilience and staunch refusal to give up on the image of a picturesque little town, and July 4th this year has the community putting it's best foot forward in this regard with its annual 4th of July picnic and fireworks spectacular.
To hear anyone (Linda) familiar with the town talk (complain), this year is a much more sedate affair than any of the years prior, but in a lot of ways today is a very good opportunity for people to reconnect with their neighbors; chat quietly at a table, share a recipe, play some catch, or argue with Jerry over the proper way too cook a burger. Jerry never listens, of course, but thankfully the whole event is a pot luck so there are plenty of other, far more edible options for those with a more... discerning palate.
The day passes pleasantly, and the night? The night brings the fireworks. A beautiful cascade of bright colors and lights in the sky. Sparklers are handed out like party favors while everyone is strongly encouraged to play safe by a long-suffering and weary looking sheriff. After all, the town has had quite enough excitement by this point, don't you think?
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 fifth 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.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
officialnotice) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
bumfuckidaho2017-06-17 08:38 am
TEST DRIVE MEME
Ezio Auditore da Firenze | Assassin's Creed
He is far, far too old for this, Ezio's decided. Ending up in the hospital had been expected when he was twenty, fine when he was thirty and a little excessive when he was forty but old habits it seemed died hard.
Not that he'll ever admit that he's old.
"My age? Bah, I can still run circles around you, young lady." He grumps at one of the nurses trying to offer him a cane to help the stiffness in his knees from the accident.
Someone should... probably come help either him or the nurse.
III
Who dresses semi-formally to a summer barbeque? Ezio, that's who. It's a nice slate grey with a festive red tie, and while he's got the waistcoat on the jacket is draped on one of the chairs to claim his spot under a large umbrella. That and his rolled up sleeves are the only concessions to the heat of summer.
"Come, sit my friend!" He waves at anyone headed his way. "There is room in the shade for you here."
no subject
This whole place was pretty much a good plot-line for all of Desmond's nightmares for the next year.
"Son, I got some bad news for you," were the Sheriff's words, hat in hand and a solemn expression, "There's been an accident."
Part of Desmond wanted to laugh. Laugh at the sheer insanity of it. An uncle? Last he knew, he didn't have an uncle, but the memories don't trickle in so much as they just... show up. There, as if they'd been there all along. There was no sense of surprise. Mainly because there wasn't a reason to be surprised. Sure, he had an uncle, just an estranged one-- Dad never particularly talked about him. Some sort of fight that neither of his parents shared much of the details. Seven years still seems like such a short amount of time to catch up on lost opportunities, but Ezio was still family.
Family looked out for each other.
His boss lets him take the rest of the day off. Which is exactly why he's hustling down the hallway after an orderly points him in the right direction-- here to help probably both of them, flagging the nurse down (who still seems concerned enough, at least to Desmond).
"It's all right, he's always been steady on his feet," he tells her once he's close enough, waving her off.
She seems to pause with it, but nods and takes her leave, cane still in hand.
Desmond takes a breath, looking Ezio over. His mouth is a thin line for a moment and there's obvious concern in his expression. "I'd ask if you were okay, but I think that'd probably be a stupid question. Look, you want to sit down, maybe?"
no subject
He's had worse, he's fairly sure of that much considering some of the old seeming aches and scars he has under the borrowed clothing.
He sighed though. "Sitting does not sound like a bad idea though, but somewhere more comfortable than these plastic horrors."
no subject
Everything in him is currently telling him nothing is wrong. Nothing is out of place. Accidents happen. Hell, he'd had one not that long ago. (Days ago, technically, but it feels far away, now.) Was it really so far fetched? Especially at Ezio's ago?
Not that fifty is that old, right?
"Yeah," Desmond says instead, accepting the pat on his shoulder. He nods down towards the end of the hall that he'd come down. "Patient lounge has better chair. Terrible coffee, though."
no subject
He sits heavily in the nearest comfortable looking chair when they arrive, an amused quirk to his expression. "I will take it easy tomorrow, and then I have every intention to go right back out to it. A fall only stops you if you do not get back up from it, and fresh air is far better for a man than sitting around on the couch for a week."
III
"Dude, aren't you hot or something?" The question is posed, naturally, before a greeting, because who has time for those? Newt will take the proffered seat in the shade, though. He's already got some red skin on his nose over a veritable parade of freckles that have decided to show themselves in response to the excess of sun.
Re: III
He holds up his own glass in something between a salute and a toast at that. "Besides, if the students saw me in shorts and a t-shirt it would destroy their perceptions of reality. I wear suits and get excited about the unit on the Italian Renaissance."
no subject