bumfuckidaho | TEST DRIVE MEME, JANUARY 2017.

Skip to Main Content

Entry tags:

!tdm

TEST DRIVE MEME, JANUARY 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 YOU DONE HECKED UP

It's hard to say what it was, exactly, that crossed the line.

It might have been all those questions you've been asking about the town and the people within it. It might be all that talking you've been doing, about your life outside and the family you miss. It might have been the number of times you've not-so-subtly referenced the fence in the woods.

In any case, the Sheriff has taken notice of it, and you've been charged with disturbing the peace. It's his hope that a few days in a jail cell will teach you that such things aren't appreciated in Wayward Pines.

Until such a time that he deems to let you out, you and your cellmate have some time to kill.

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, at current, is audio-only and can only be accessed from the telephones in each character's home.

( a few notes )

Welcome to our first test drive here in The Pines! Just a couple of things to note:

( 1 ) 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.

( 2 ) ~~The above link to the FAQ won't actually load for the first few hours this is up - we're sorry about that, we just have to port the FAQ into HTML.~~ The FAQ is now live! We'll also be tossing up a few more vital pages over the next 24 hours, then opening reserves at 12:01 AM EST on the 17th. Keep an eye on thepines for updates.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( one: welcome to wayward pines )

[ People forget things, right? Noah knows that's not anything unusual, not every memory is stored and saved forever (he's sure he learned something in school about that, but whenever he tries to search those parts of his brain, it's like hitting a brick wall. Nothing.). Besides, all the nurses in the hospital kept going on and on about some accident, so he figures that whatever pieces might be missing had to be the result of something knocking him in the head -- though, he doesn't feel any kind of soreness that would indicate he was even in an accident, he doesn't even know what kind of accident he was involved in, every questiont that he'd asked was answered by way of pretty words in soothing tones that did absolutely nothing to jog his memory.

Oh well. Maybe he'd catch a glimpse of it on the news. Accidents were usually reported on, right? Someone had to know something.

There's something... strange about the town. It both feels vaguely familiar -- like a place that could have lived when he was younger, too young to have any concrete memories of. -- and yet completey new and somewhat out of place. Like something real, but not all at the same time.

Or maybe he's still recovering from the "accident".

It doesn't take long for Noah to come across an ominous sign plastered in the window of a small sandwich shop only a few blocks from the Sherrif's office -- and despite just how little sense it made that the Sherrif had his things, but couldn't tell him much more about the "Accident", Noah didn't question it. There were a lot of things that were weird, but every time that he goes to ask about them, he gets the runaround. Stopping just short of the door, his eyes catch on a khaki colored poster in the front window and he mouths the words as he reads them.

The words are another thing that he feels like he both knows by heart, and yet has never read before.

Do not leave. (Okay. That's a little weird.)
Do not discuss the past. (That's... a little more weird.)
Do not discuss your life before. (That sends a cold chill through Noah, the edges of his vision becoming fuzzy, as though he were bordering right on the edge of beingt here and not.)
Always answer the phone if it rings (Not as weird, but okay. He could do that.)
Work hard, be happy, and enjoy your life in Wayward Pines

Looking around a few times, he catches the attention of someone walking by on the sidewalk. ]

Uh.. Hi. Sorry, but do you have any clue what all this is supposed to mean?

[ He gives a quick motion with his head to the sign in question.]

( three: you done hecked up )

[ Disturbing the peace? Disturbing the peace?!

Noah hadn't been doing anything except asking his neighbor a few questions. He wanted to know how he got here (because the talk of some "Accident" wasn't cutting it anymore.), he wanted to know how to get out of here, he wanted to know why this place felt both like home and yet like somewhere he'd never been before. He should have saw it all coming, though. The way that his neighbor continued to look over his shoulder, or fidget uncomfortably the longer that Noah prodded him about some other life that he just knows he has. This wasn't it. There was more, he'd come from somewhere else, he'd known other people, even if he couldn't remember anything more than vague outlines of bodies and places.

He'd hardly gotten his entire barrage of questions out before he'd been hauled off in handcuffs, processed and then thrown into a dingy jail cell. ]

You didn't even tell me what I did! Hello?! You can't just lock me in here without any explanation! [ Right? The laws in this town were backwards as far as he could tell, maybe they very well could just throw people in jail for absolutely nothing. It wouldn't have been the weirdest thing he's experienced since arriving.

"Waking up". "Recovering". Whatever they want to call it.

Turning on his heels, he drops to take a seat on a slab of concrete jutting out from the wall -- what he assumes is supposed to act as the worlds most uncomfortabe bench. -- wedging himself into the corner and crossing his arms over his chest tightly. It's then that he notices someone else and he perks up slightly. At least he's not stuck in this place alone all night. ]

"Disturbing the peace", too?

( four: on the network )

[ There's a lot of silence and obvious fumbling with the reciever on the other end of the line, quiet curses and the sounds of buttons being accidentally pressed. He still hasn't quite gotten the hang of this thing yet. Was it pound-megaphone-pound? pound-pound-megaphone?

Eventually, a voice comes on the line. ]

Hello? Is this even working? How do I--

[ More fumbling and the message ends abruptly. ]

[Fortunately for Noah, the fur-clad girl in front of him seems more than willing to help him out - even if there might be a bit of a misunderstanding about what the problem he's having is.]

Oh, sure. No problem, I did well in my 'Intro to the Written Language' class.

[One of the few things she can actually remember, funnily enough, was her report card - although the details of the classes themselves are all part of the haze.]

It says "Do not leave. Do not discuss the past. Do not discuss your life before. Always answer the phone if it rings. Work hard, be happy and enjoy your life in Wayward Pines."

[ Initially, the phrase confuses him. He's not exactly sure what an 'Intro to the Written Language' class had to do with anything. Noah isn't even sure what an Intro to the Written Language class is. Isn't written language something that most people had a handle on long before there was course devoted to it?

Maybe it was for foreign languages.... Not that that made much more sense either. The sign was clearly in English, wasn't it? Maybe the Accident had messed with something in his brain that processed language, the doctors hadn't really elaborated what happened. Just that the smudgy black mark high on his cheekbone should go away. ]

Oh, no. [ He shakes his head, both of his hands waving back and forth in a dismissive gesture. ] I know what it says. [ Soft laughter echoes out of him. ] It's just kinda weird don't you think?

[ He finally turns his head to look at the oddly dressed girl next to him, giving her a confused once over -- compared to everyone else in the town, the girl stood out like a sore thumb, like she doesn't belong here in the same way that Noah feels like he doesn't belong. ]

Oh. Oh! Sorry, I thought you meant you couldn't read.

[Not every she knows has picked it up, is all. Nothing personal, Noah.]

Yeah, it's pretty weird. But honestly, this whole town seems weird, I don't know if this is the weirdest part. I mean, have you seen the buildings around here?

[Or the way people dress. Or the utter and complete lack of dinosaurs. Seriously, what the heck?]

It's like I woke up in some kind of backwards place, where everything is wrong.

[ It's a strange statement because for all of the time that Noah had been alive, he couldn't remember ever meeting another person his age who couldn't read. Then again, he couldn't really remember much outside of the past few days. There weren't any concrete memories that he could conjure from before that, but there was a feeling of something more there. Something that he knew should have been there, but exactly what that something was, he'd yet to uncover.

It's probably one of the most frustrating things about the strange place. And one of the weirder things about it, too ]

They seem pretty normal to me. Kinda dated, but... [ He shrugs, glancing down the block in one direction and then the other.

Definitely dated. Like something from an old sitcom. ]

Exactly! I feel like... [ And because he's actually a little worried about someone overhearing them, he lowers his voice to a whisper. The sign in front of them is more than a little ominous and who knows exactly what happens to someone who decides to break the rules laid out. Noah surely doesn't want to find out. ] ... Like we're in some kind of weird time loop. Or we're part of some reality prank show.

[ And as a few other townsfolk rush by them very obviously unnerved by the conversation they're catching bits and pieces of, Noah lifts his chin to motion to a small camera above them, pointed directly at where they were standing. ]

Edited 2017-01-17 11:49 (UTC)

Normal? Dated? What are you even talking about?

[ She looks at the man like his words were utter nonsense. Mostly because they kind of are. ]

Have you seen places like this before? Because everything in this town is so bizarre, but you don't seem surprised by any of it.

[ He talks about a time loop, but she honestly can't see how that could come into play at all. Everything in this place is so strange to her. The concepts are the same - phones, cars, houses, etc - but the form they take is an alien one.]

Like... why do the houses all look like this? Why is the road the only thing around here that looks like it's made of rock? [ She taps the window of the shop in front of them, with the sign taped up on it.] I don't even know what this is written on!

[ She could honestly either be referring to the glass of the window or the paper of the sign. Both are completely foreign. To her.]

Nothing here feels like a loop to me - it all looks completely new! And it's really weird that no one else seems to think so!

You know, like we're stuck back in the 90's again or something. I don't even think I've seen one person with a cell phone.

[ Okay, he's remembering something, so that's a good sign right?

Noah seems just as visibly confused as the girl standing next to him. For as strange as she might find it that Noah seems hardly fazed by everything around him -- except for the fact that everything looks just a little too picturesque in a way that makes him feel slightly uneasy -- he finds it equally as strange that she's so puzzled by it. ]

I mean, I haven't seen any place exactly like this, but there's gotta be something like a million towns in the country [ a slight exaggeration, maybe. ] maybe this is just how this one looks.

[ And as she rattles off question after question, Noah becomes even more visibly confused. She could read the words on the sign, but didn't know what it was printed on?

So, he chimes up. ] Probably posterboard. Or laminated paper.

[ He pauses for a beat, his head tilted to the side curiously. She was dressed pretty.... differently, and with just how worked up she was getting over the things that he would have seen any day of the week. Well, that makes him feel unsettled in the same way that everything in the town did. ]

You've really never seen anything like this?

The 90's? Wait, a million like it?

[That doesn't sound real. She comes from the year 80,016 BC, so the nineties are another decade and a half. The nineties that he's referring to, however, are about a hundred thousand years away.]

No I really haven't - you really have?

Probably not really a million, but somewhere in the thousands, I'd guess.

[ He probably should have paid attention more in Geography, he thinks -- and even if he can't fully remember where he'd gone to school, the memory that he's at least gone to one has to count for something, right?

It feels like a win to him, even the vaguest and fuzziest of memories are better than nothing. ]

Of course I have. [ There's an underlying confusion in the sureness of his voice. ] What are you used to seeing? [ And the question causes a few hushed whispers from people who are rushing by them -- he's very clearly toeing the line when it comes to these "rules". ]

Edited 2017-01-19 07:15 (UTC)

I don't know. A lot more stone, I guess? The houses should be made of rock, the cars are all made of rock or wood.

[She's beginning to notice the harsh whispers around them as well. Clearly this conversation is ruffling some feathers - but she doesn't seem to care all that much.]

And where are all the dinosaurs? I haven't seen a single one since I got here, and none of the crap I've seen around uses them. It's... eerie.

[ Cars made out of rock and wood? Noah's brows furrow together in confusion, trying to make sense of everything that the girl was saying. It just didn't sound.... real. Was she making all of this up? ]

Houses made out of rock? You mean bricks? And I don't think I've ever seen a car made out of wood... Maybe a carriage or something....

[ But even that wasn't something very common.

And then she mentions dinosaurs and Noah's eyes widen. Dinosaurs? They were about 65 million years too late for dinosaurs. ]

Dinosaurs? [ He can't help but laugh softly, muttering a quiet apology a moment after. ] You've seen an actual dinosaur? How? They've been dead for millions of years.

[She squints at him. Okay, this is where she puts her foot down, this boy is clearly messing with her.]

Uh, everywhere? [She can't think of any examples right now, but that's not the point.] They move stuff for people, and and do things for them and sometimes carry them off if you're not careful.

[The term 'pterodactyl net' comes to mind, although she can't remember why.]

They definitely aren't all dead? Dinosaurs are really big, how would something like that even happen?

[ Now Noah doesn't remember much (though, it's coming back to him, slowly but surely.), but he's pretty sure that if dinosaurs were roaming around helping people with basic tasks, he would remember it. ]

Move stuff around? Help people do things? [ He shakes his head. ] You mean, they're not just going around eating people?

[ He honestly can't fathom a world where dinosaurs just roam around helping people with daily tasks rather than just eating them up like a midday snack. ]

It's not really proven or anything, I think, but they say that some huge meteor hit the earth and wiped them all out. [ Noah shrugs a bit nonchalantly. ] I mean, I guess lizards and stuff are pretty closely related to them, if you wanna get technical

Well, I mean, sometimes. [Kids still get carried away by pterodactyls, and there's the occasional Tyrannosaurus mauling, but hominids aren't being killed en masse by predators anymore - at least, not in her experience.] But big rocks kill people too, but we still use those to build things. It's just part of civilization.

[For the most part, though, they're pretty well domesticated. Or, at the very least, well-trained.]

I don't think I've heard anything about a meteor, though. But then, there's a lot I'm having trouble remembering right now.

[She rubs her head, annoyed.]

Edited 2017-01-20 06:03 (UTC)

[ Confusion never leaves his face as he gives the girl another once over. Nothing she says makes any sense, but not in a way where it feels like she's talking fantastical nonsense and rather in a way where Noah feels like he's simply missing one vital piece of information that connects everything. ]

Well, what do you remember then? [ He pauses only long enough to shrug his shoulders. ] Maybe that'll be easier?

Not much. It's kind of... hazy, and a lot of stuff is missing - the doctors said it was because of the accident.

[She pauses, and gives him a skeptical look. She's pretty sure she knows where this conversation is going.]

I know what a car is supposed to look like, though. I'm not mis-remembering that.

[ Well, at least there's one thing that they can agree on. A lot of stuff is missing and Noah has that same hazy feeling that she's talking about.

And then she mentions an accident. Maybe it was just coincidence, but he's not really sure he believes as much. (There's actually a garbled sort of voice in the back of his head, like a memory of someone saying the word 'Coincidence' when it wasn't, but he can't seem to put a face or a name to the voice.) ]

Wait... you had an accident, too? Did they tell you what happened?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only