bumfuckidaho | TEST DRIVE MEME, JANUARY 2017.

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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.

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into the woods.

[Ellie runs off after the scream. Of course she does. Besides someone possibly being hurt, someone needing help, she has to know the reason someone could scream like that. It could be nothing. They could have tripped. It could have been an animal. Or it could be something else, like the infected.

She has enough experience with hunting, and surviving, and... well, hunters to understand that some sort of struggle went down, but not much more than that. After looking over the scene and not finding much of anything, Ellie starts walking further into the woods, determined to find the source of that noise, or at least some clue as to what happened. She doesn't have her gun thanks to the stupid sheriff, but she has her knife. So she isn't too worried. She can handle it.

She's expecting a deadly animal, or infected. Hell, even hostile people wouldn't really surprise her. She's not expecting her own body to start fighting her. Pretty soon Ellie knows she should turn back. She needs to... rest, or something. Something away from here. But then she sees the fence up ahead. All she wants to do is collapse onto the twigs and leaves at her feet, but there's no way she can ignore that. If there's a fence, there's gotta be a gate... right?

She ends up almost falling down to her knees about two hundred yards away, finger and thumb massaging her forehead ineffectively.] Holy shit...

[So, maybe part of her is regretting getting this close. She's so out of it she can hear - footsteps? Someone close by? She turns, swallows, and tries to shout, but it comes out in more of a whisper:] Who- Who's there?

you done hecked up.

[Ellie does not like being in a cell of any kind. She doesn't like being locked up. So as she's being led toward the occupied jail cell Ellie isn't exactly coming quietly.]

Shit, shit, getoff- This is bullshit! [She's struggling, enough to give the person handling her a bit of a fight to get her into the room at all. Ellie doesn't have her knife, but couldn't reach it if she did. She's pushed forward, landing heavily on her hands and knees. Angrily, she swerves straight back around, but the keys are already going back in the sheriff's pocket as he turns away from the locked door. Ellie begins shaking the door.] Fuck, fuck...

[She's pulling at the bars fruitlessly, looking around the ground near by for any sign of something she could use to get herself out of here. It's only as she turns to look further around the cell that she notices she has company.]

Oh. Uh, hey. Don't suppose you've found any bright ideas on how to get outta here?

[A part of him finds the intense fatigue rather familiar. While this in and of itself doesn't alarm him, the fact that he feels weaker with each step, combined with the scream earlier, brews the suspicion that he must be wary of what lies ahead.

Ahead is the fence.

His legs, however, are weary. Just when they threaten to give out, he hears a murmur and presses onward to find a girl. His words tumble out slowly in a quiet, indoor voice as he hangs onto the last vestiges of his strength by propping himself up on an arm against a tree.]

I didn't realize that there was someone ahead of me . . . I advise you to turn back. It would be dangerous to advance any farther.

Thanks for the advice... [Not the time for sarcasm, Ellie. Even murmured, exhausted sarcasm. She tries to stumble to her feet, looking back at the fence ahead.] I thought there might be a- a gate or something.

[Wait.]

Were... Did you scream - before?

[He almost shakes his head, but the effort would be too great for the energy he has left as he takes a heavy step forward. The same goes for the sarcasm.]

No . . . I have no idea who or what that was.

[If nothing else, this confirms likewise for the reverse. This girl was not the source of that disturbing cry.]

You are in no condition to look for a gate, if there is one . . . As am I.

I intend to return to town and reassess the situation there. You can join me . . . It'll be safer with the two of us than alone.

Yeah... [Ellie stumbles forward, resting her weight against a nearby tree before nodding.] Yeah, okay, maybe... coming back when I'm not likely to pass out would be better.

Undoubtedly.

[Pushing off from the tree, he staggers before regaining his footing. He turns back toward the direction he'd come from, his shoulder pointed toward Ellie.]

This way.

It's a crazy idea, I know, but hear me out.

I figure I'm gonna try not kicking off so bad they have a reason to keep me in here.

[ It's dry, but she can't help have sympathy for the kid. It is bullshit. It's bullshit that Aranea's in there just for asking questions, and it's double-bullshit that they're apparently okay with putting kids in cells with adults.

On the other hand, maybe it's a sign of payoff for her current plan of acting like it's all a big mistake, officer, you can definitely trust her.

Maybe. ]

Tch. [Fair point? Maybe. But give her a break, there was no way she was going to walk into jail quietly when there was even a tiny chance of escape.]

Not a bad plan, I guess. But if you're in here they already have some fucked up reason to keep you.

Disturbing the peace. Apparently I asked too many questions, and the Sheriff decided I could use some time to calm down. Can't hurt to hope that the calmer I act, the sooner I get out. Shame I didn't bring my yoga mat.

[ Spoilers: Aranea does not now, never has, and never will own a yoga mat. ]

How 'bout you, freckles?

It's Ellie.

[She leans back against the bars, shrugging.] Yeah, I might have asked a question or two. Gone where I shouldn't? I don't know, of all the ways I remember getting into trouble before.... this one is probably the most bull.

[Probably. Memories are fuzzy things at the minute.]

Ellie. Aranea.

[ Ellie seems like a little pistol. Full of rage when the shit's hitting the fan, but not flinging it now that things have settled. That's cool. ]

Just how much trouble do you remember getting into?

[The woman sitting on the floor, opposite the cell door stares at Ellie for a moment. The bags under her eyes are large and dark, and there's a several second pause before she actually responds to Ellie's question.]

Still thinkin'. I'll let you know if I come up with a plan.

[She could have tried to rush the sheriff while he was throwing Ellie in the cell, but there's more than one cop in this shitty town. Even if she'd managed to fend him off and tried to get away, there's no telling how many deputies would come running at the sound of a struggle.]

You remember your name, kid?

Edited 2017-01-16 22:28 (UTC)

[She nods, and continues looking slowly around the cell for gaps in security. She pauses briefly before offering her name.]

Ellie. Pretty sure it's Ellie. [Many things are fuzzy, but at least that's not up for much debate.] You?

Corstine.

[She nods at the kid. Half greeting, half as an affirmation that she also remembers her name. Her voice lowers a bit before she continues, and she gestures for Ellie to come a little closer.]

Keep an eye out for now. [She points up at her functional eye for emphasis.] But don't do anything just yet. You gotta wait for the right time, and I don't want to end up in even deeper shit just because we got impatient.

Biding our time. Right. [Ellie nods slightly, glancing again around the cell to the small room outside of it.]

What're you in here for anyway? [She's guessing some similar bullshit reason as she's in here, but she'd rather know if Corstine actually murdered someone or something.

Not that Ellie has much room to judge if that's the case, but she'd still rather know.]

Asked some questions. Bothered some folks.

[And took a swing at the first cop to approach her about doing the above, but y'know. Details.

She wants to add something along the lines of "Nothing as bad as what I'm gonna do, when I figure out who decided to get the cops involved" but she holds off. The police station isn't that big, and she's smart enough not to say something like that when she might get overheard.]

What about you? Lemme guess: You killed a million dudes, right?

[Wow. This scene looks familiar.

Or Poland assumes it looks familiar at least, from the Sheriff's perspective. He'd been thrashing around similar to this girl when they'd thrown him in here two days earlier. Not that Poland was a stranger to "bullshit" incarceration or anything, but he'd grown rather accustomed to showering every day

Poland can't help but snort derisively at Sheriff's decision to throw her in the cell. She must have been a serious threat to the peace to end up here, looking all of what... twelve, maybe? Super good to see "justice" being served.]

...

[Poland startles visibly when she turns to talk to him. He wasn't much of a conversationalist when first meeting people. So instead of working on this he just avoided meeting people. Given the size of the cell they were sharing, however, this probably wasn't even the slightest bit feasible and he was going to have to socialize.]

Um... [Poland gestures around him. Would he be here if he'd figured that out?] Noooo...?

[Ugh... This is a worse punishment than not showering.]

Edited 2017-01-18 04:15 (UTC)

[The Griffin had collapsed much earlier than Ellie did, but managed to drag himself closer to the fence. His wings were sprawled out on both sides of his body, leaving grooves in the leaves. Quite frankly, all this makes him sound like something out of a horror movie.]

It's me. Forgive me for not approaching, but I am trying to get closer to this fence, and would rather not use up my energy moving in a different direction.

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