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newcombers2024-05-23 02:01 am
newcomod) wrote in newcombers2024-05-23 02:01 am
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May 2024 Test Drive Meme: The First of Many to Come
We will officially be opening our game June 1st at 12:01 AM EST.
Reserves will open on May 28th at 12:01 AM EST.
Applications will open on the 1st at 12:01 AM EST.
Applications will close on the 5th at 11:59 PM EST.
Please follow our Plurk
Our memes are open to current and prospective players alike.
All Test Drive memes are game canon and serve as a lead-up to the following month's event. The first prompt in each TDM will always coincide with the disastrous circumstances of Penumbra's collision.
This disaster will leave unique supplies or conditions for the following month until the reset in time occurs and a new collision invokes new circumstances.
Most characters upon initial arrival may suffer mild amnesia, fatigue, and diminished powers. Memories, energy, and powers will eventually return. Per player choice, this can be quickly or slowly.
You can use your TDM threads for writing samples on your application.
If you are applying for a new character, you can choose to keep your TDM threads canon to your character or not.
Even if our current players do not engage with the TDM, we strongly recommend they read each TDM to be aware of how Penumbra strikes Newcomb every month. We encourage characters to react to this via network or log posts in the community spaces.
Image Descriptions from left to right: First image is a red train pictured along raised tracks set against pine trees in sunlight, second image is a gif of a train explosion as people flee from the destruction, third image is of a dark sky with orange lightning.
Prompt
Once upon a time, Newcomb had its very own train station that was used by students and staff alike. Most students would arrive at campus via the train and supplies were often shipped in through the train. This very train station used to be located by Fitch End and was one of the first out-of-campus locations to be destroyed by Penumbra. This month, it seems as if the reset has brought the train back. For a moment, anyway. One may awaken from a deep slumber in one of the passenger cars, groggy and nearly jetlagged. You will be surrounded by other characters waking up, just as disoriented and confused as you are.
The train ride itself isn't so bad though. The scenery beyond the windows is filled with gorgeous sprawling woods, already tinged with the golds and reds of autumn. The smell of pine and old leather fills the train and you will find your backpack in a cubby just above your head or on the seat beside you.
There is no way to exit the train at this point, no matter how one might try. What is the point anyway? Just sit back and enjoy the ride. Something is soothing about a train ride, after all. You may even feel tempted to fall back asleep. Maybe things will make more sense when you wake up again.
You won't have peace for long. The train jolts violently as if being struck by something, and after, everything descends into chaos. Cars begin to slam together, some smashing upward, shattering glass and doors, crushing seats. Explosions burst from the front of the train, and as it pivots onto campus, it scorches the ground.
Cars break apart, sliding into their destruction here and there against buildings or trees. It feels as though it happens both slowly and rapidly, defying time itself, the sound of a ticking clock somehow overwhelming the symphony of metal scraping against metal.
Oil from the train catches fire across campus grounds. While the buildings are fireproof and resilient, the rest of the campus is not and neither are some characters who may be wandering about perchance. As the disaster comes to a screeching halt, characters will have to help each other from the wreckage and help put out the fires.
The train will remain on campus for June. It can be broken apart for metal parts and explored for small, sentimental items or important weapons that belong to a character. The train will vanish in the blink of an eye as midnight hits on the 31st. The Penumbric siren alerts the campus of the reset and the incoming meteor and its potential new disaster.
You will have to brace yourself for what happens next.
Note on Penumbric Collision Prompts: Characters do not need to arrive in this prompt. You may opt-out entirely by having your character fall through the sky or wake up incredibly disoriented randomly on campus. Arrival to Newcomb should be somewhat physically and/or mentally draining or damaging. Even characters resistant to pain or injury will be temporarily vulnerable to the arrival.
Image Descriptions from left to right: First image is a shadowy humanoid with a black and gray smudge effect concealing the face, second image is a pair of hands covered in a black goopy substance, third image has several clear vials containing a smoky, goopy black substance.
Prompt
A curious boxcar can be discovered among the wreckage of the train. This boxcar was carefully sealed off and kept at freezing temperatures. Inside were metal crates filled with test tubes and Petri dishes containing a mysterious black goo. During the fall, the boxcar's front end was ripped away. Between the raging fires from the crash and the exposure to higher temperatures, the vials and petri dishes thawed. Vials and Petri dishes began to break apart as the mysterious goo essentially "woke up" from its cryogenic state and escaped from the glass containers.
This mysterious goo seeks out living organisms and will subtly attach itself to character bodies. This can be as subtle as a dime-sized speck of mysterious goo behind a character's ear or consume half a character's body. The goo's attachment is painless. It has a tarlike odor and causes a strange prickling sensation the longer it remains attached to a character.
After some time, the goo will naturally slide off a character. Alternatively, a character can apply freezing water or ice to the goo and this will essentially "kill" the goo and slough it off in broken chunks.
While the goo is attached to characters, it will cause uncontrollable, unusual behavior. On a less severe end, symptoms may include disorientation, difficulty walking, slurred speech, confusion, and clinginess even to strangers. On a more extreme end, the goo may cause characters to act in ways contradictory to who they typically are: they may be prone to fits of violence, hysteria, flirtation, cruelty, or even for some, abundant kindness and outgoing friendliness.
The goo will automatically make characters want to interact with other characters whether positively or negatively. It uses these interactions as a way to migrate from one host to the next.
Image Descriptions from left to right: First image has a playing card and two white dice, second image has a text bubble that reads, "I'm not a Soft Gay I'm an Anger Gay. I love dogs and burning things." Third image shows a field of grass and wildflowers with a free-standing picture frame with torn canvas, the torn spot revealing a city scape image.
Prompt.
Who isn't familiar with the bizarre urge to overshare to total strangers online? It would appear that the mysterious goo has an intimate understanding of this instinct and intends to capitalize on it.In other words, the mysterious goo's influence is not limited to in-person interactions. Even characters unfamiliar with technology will have the burning desire to get out their new phone and create a public post to all Fermii users containing two truths and a lie about themselves.
These can range from embarrassing and silly to serious and incriminating. Characters will continue to feel an itch to respond transparently to those who correctly guess which is which. Even the most sophisticated and chronic liars cannot resist the force of the mysterious goo's presence.
The urge to overshare will ebb away the more truth is exposed.
Ironically, this may be a minor blessing to those unfamiliar with smartphone technology. It would seem that the mysterious goo has managed to assimilate the knowledge of how smartphones work and helpfully pass it into the mind of its host. However, the price of exposure might not be worth the shortcut to knowledge.
no subject
You are most welcome. I believe I saw some healer types treating people just over there. [He lifts Clint easily, propping him up with one arm around his back while being careful of all visible injuries. It's almost like he's helped people with injuries before. Of course usually they weigh a lot more than most humans.]
no subject
(He's wobbly enough that he doesn't need to fake anything, but he doesn't deliberately stoop that low anyway.)
(Yet.)]
Sorry if I bleed on you. Blood's s'posed to stay on the inside, generally speaking. Most of the time.
no subject
Do not worry about it. I have been bled on before. I cannot tell you how many times I have helped patch up my brother and his friends.
[He may not be a healer, but with proper supplies, Loki is capable of setting bones and staunching blood loss... at least when it came to Asgardians. He has no idea how a human would react. It's entirely possible with his strength he might accidentally (or not so accidentally) make things worse.]
no subject
Some people get squeamish. [Clearly not the savior he's clinging to.] Thanks. You're such a big help. I'll have to repay you later.
no subject
And then the moment passes and he feels calm and oddly content once more. This is a much nicer feeling from what he’s used to and as such, he doesn't want to examine it too closely.]
Please, think no more of it. I am not squeamish, nor do I mind. You are hardly heavy. Though we should find some supplies or a doctor. I would not want this to get worse.
no subject
[Probably all comes off as the ramblings of a delirious person in need of some blood or at least a lie down. But Clint (thinks he) means it.]
no subject
[It’s not long before Loki finds them a small patch of grass near what looks like some triage set up. He sits Clint down before he falls down and looks around. The doctors all look busy for the moment, so Loki steals some of their supplies before returning to Clint and sitting next to him.]
Okay, which part hurts the most?
[ooc: Just wanted to say, I noted that on his knees line and we can totally come back to that anytime. 😀]
/fingergunssss
Loki slips away while he isn't fully paying attention, and there's a spike of anxiety at letting that happen, what is he going to do, where did he go, how could he let this happen--and when Loki sits next to him, the panic eases. Help's still here. Not abandoned. Didn't let him go forever. Why does that feel kind of weird...?
Clint offers up his busted arm. That's the most important injury that he's aware of. Kinda needs that!]
Tried to break my fall. At breakneck speeds. Didn't work super well, but 'm still alive, so that's something.
Heh. 😉
Loki is only gone a moment, but it’s clear when he returns that Clint is a little more worried than when he left, though Loki is unsure why. Not really knowing how or if he should say anything, he decides to ignore it and instead pays attention to the injuries.
He takes the offered arm, that is at a bit of an odd angle and gently runs his fingers over it, feeling for the worst of it.] Well, I suppose better to break your arm than your head. I believe I can reset it, but it will be painful and I would not blame you if you wish to wait for a proper healer. Otherwise I can at least wrap it, giving you a sling that should help.
no subject
Dunno if you could hurt me any worse at this rate. [Which is rhetorical, of course he could, but if there's worry about doing something rather than nothing--well, Clint would prefer Loki do something, rather than nothing.]
no subject
Loki responds with an eyebrow raise that clearly says you must be joking.] Well, I doubt that, but I suppose we shall see.
[Without further warning or preamble, he applies pressure in the correct area and snaps the bones back into place. He’s guessing that taking him by surprise will take some of the worry out of such a procedure. It has worked for him in the past at least.]