May 2024 Test Drive Meme: The First of Many to Come

[newcomod]

"When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long ago.”

Welcome to our first meme!

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 newcomb for updates regarding the opening of our game.

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.

Prompt 1 Prompt 2 Prompt 3 Questions

Premise Taken Applications Navigation

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.

First Train In

Content Warnings.

Violent train crash, fire, explosions, burning, and injuries from such conditions.

Summary

Characters appear in a train that is crashing through the reality rip left behind by the meteor, Penumbra. The train falls onto the campus fields and mostly implodes.

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.

Assimilation

Content Warnings.

Mysterious goo-like substance with parasitic qualities, manipulation of behavior, forced uncharacteristic behavior, very mild body horror.

Summary

A mysterious black goo escapes from a frozen boxcar on the train. This goo attaches to living organisms and begins to influence their behavior. The goo will either naturally slide off after some time or can be rubbed off the skin with freezing water.

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.

Two Truths & A Lie

Content Warnings.

Forced honesty and deciet via parasitic mind control. Implanted knowledge. Potential forced vulnerability.

Summary

Characters are forced to break in their Fermii accounts by publicly posting two truths and a lie for other characters to figure out. This is a network prompt.

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.

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Comments

[astraphilia]

[ the pain in Reno's side only grows the more he moves. it's hard to draw a full breath when doing so makes his lungs expand against the broken place, sending a jolt of white-hot agony up to his shoulder and down his arm; he moves slowly, as a result, careful as he picks his way through flaming rubble and torn-up grass and broken bits of concrete sidewalk. it's only when he's made his way a little distance from the train and the smoke has cleared slightly that he looks up to try and get his bearings, some sense of where he is.

nowhere familiar. on instinct he recognizes it as a school, although Reno himself has never been. the kind of places that produces Archons, he thinks, and then wonders what an Archon is. the locale is certainly not familiar, but the large stone building Reno had earlier identified seems closer now, and so he limps in that direction, slowly, steadily.

he's so focused on the pain and putting one foot in front of the other that it takes him far too long to realize there's someone else on the path with him. there's a crunch of a footstep behind him, boot on stone, and Reno whips around so fast his ribs scream—his e-mag crackles to life in his hand, blessedly, and he bites his tongue to muffle the way he groans at the ache—

but he recognizes this newcomer, this flicker of gold and white. like a phoenix from the ashes, a figure resolves through the wavering smoke and the name under the surface of Reno's subconscious resolves into— ]

Thancred, [ he gasps, and then coughs, and then chokes on another muffled groan of pain. ] Thancred—fuck—are you okay? Are you hurt?

[onlythans]

[Oh, he thinks at the sound of his name, sucking a sharp breath of his own that likewise rattles around unpleasantly in his lungs and threatens to burst back out again with prickling force — and abruptly he realizes what he was looking for, red hair and a catlike stance and a pair of eyes that even amnesia couldn't make him forget.]

Reno —

[They don't call each other by their names; it feels strange to do it now. Wrong, somehow, as though it wouldn't be altogether more jarring to hear loverboy or handsome in the midst of a moment like this.]

M'fine — seven hells, you're alive — m'not, m'not fine, I'm just saying that so you'll not ask me any more about it —

[Like that's going to work. But he picks up the pace regardless of the way his body screams with the pain of it, now spurred on with a clear and present mission before his eyes.]

Inside, now — be mad at me once we both can breathe, aye?

[astraphilia]

[ tactically, taking two steps back the way he came just so that he can be faster to reach out and grip Thancred's forearm is not the right move, but Reno frankly doesn't give a fuck. pieces are beginning to slot together in the jigsaw puzzle of his brain, not quite fast enough for his liking, but better than it had been before. he remembers this man. more than remembers—he knows Thancred down to his bones, has him marked indelibly on every inch of skin. ]

You're not— [ fine, Reno starts to say, until Thancred corrects himself. he's right, of course, that they should get out of danger first and foremost, so that they don't cook to death in the heat of the flames while they're arguing about being self-sacrificial. ] Yeah—okay. C'mon, let's go.

[ he turns so they can make their way together, but makes no secret that he's looking at Thancred from the corner of his eye to assess how bad the damage is. not terrible, at least not outwardly, but not great either—he's visibly limping, and his jaw is set in a way Reno knows means he's in pain and trying not to show it. his chest aches in a way that has nothing to do with his rib, and his grip tightens slightly on Thancred's forearm as they stagger their way up the stairs to the great double doors at the entrance. ]

[onlythans]

[The sleeves of his coat and the high hems of his gloves provide an ample amount of protection for his arms — a good precaution to take when fighting things with teeth that might like to chomp down on an arm that comes up to dissuade them — and so he doesn't hiss when Reno grasps hold of it, any pain that might've sprung from the bruises underneath muted by the layers of fabric between them and the grip.]

You found your e-mag.

[He's not sure if that's reassuring or not, to come from a set of circumstances so barren of weapons, only to discover their new ones handing them out like candy. Still, he'd rather have them than not, any day of the week.

Together, they stagger into the building that he'd thought was a library, but upon crossing the threshold proves to be quite the opposite. Newcomb Hall is built like an institution that's meant to welcome visitors, not usher them in and expect them to be silent as soon as they've set foot within, and his gaze rapidly sweeps the available rooms, looking for a quiet place that isn't likely to be too flammable.]

There — the Safety and Security Office. I like the sound of that.

[astraphilia]

[ the comment makes Reno look down at his e-mag, clutched in his other hand, and then up at Thancred, who is wearing— ]

You found your gunblade. [ another layer of strangeness. in the last place they'd been, weapons had been few and far between, improvised from knives and croquet mallets and electrical tape; that the both of them found their own weapons, either in the train or in the wreckage afterwards, is an odd portent of what might be coming for them.

but that's not the point, right now. right now, the point is getting themselves into the hall and then closing the door behind them, firmly, before they limp toward the office Thancred identifies. ]

I sure as fuck—wanna be safe and secure—right now. [ the twinge of his ribs has Reno's words hitching oddly, but there's less smoke in here and it's easier to breathe, which helps a little. he lets go of Thancred's arm, but stays close as they make their way across the empty lobby and into the set of rooms labeled Safety and Security Office.

only once that door has been closed, too, Reno turns to look at Thancred. to really take him in, the head to toe of him, dressed in his usual body armor, wielding his gunblade, battered to hell and back, grimy with soot, scrapes and bruises aplenty and yet still somehow the most beautiful fucking thing Reno has ever seen. he steps closer, his knee protesting the weight he puts on it, and reaches up with his right hand to cup Thancred's jaw. ]

What the fuck, [ he says. ] I'm gonna hug you, but real gentle, okay, 'cause my rib's fucking—broken, probably.

[onlythans]

[Two intelligence experts walk into a room labeled the Safety and Security Office, and it sounds like the leadup to a joke, only no one's laughing. It's significantly cooler in here, at least, and the infrastructure seems sound; whatever destruction might be spreading outside these walls, it does seem at least that they've found some reasonable shelter from it within them.

That's not the only welcome addition, though; he's not overly familiar with the exact purpose of the riot gear or the firefighting equipment, but he's got enough of an eye to guess at what "some sort of armor" and "large transparent shields" might be indicative of. And then there's the cameras, a bank of which seem to be displaying the whole of the campus grounds —

There's information here, good solid information. And he ought to care more about all of that, except that Reno is here too, and that means everything else will just have to take a backseat because there are many definitions of the notion of the job, but it always starts with the priority that is him.]

Damage assessment...?

[It feels almost sleepy, the way it slips from his lips — the way he's so preoccupied with backing his beaten, aching body against the nearest wall for some much-needed support, because he knows Reno is going to lean on him and there's a better chance of them both staying up if he braces them first.]

Whichever one of us is in better shape gets first crack at chastising the other, all right?

[Maybe he's just sentimental, or maybe it's just his dark sense of humor bleeding through a little, along with all the...y'know. Blood.]

Come here, you. What the fuck, indeed.

[astraphilia]

[ Thancred leans back against the wall, and Reno leans against Thancred. he's careful about it, at least—puts his good side against the wall, tucks himself under Thancred's arm, leans against him at an angle instead of right against his chest. then he puts his face into Thancred's shoulder and exhales a breath that has no right to be as shivery as it is.

it's just—fuck. right? Reno's sense of time is broken somewhere in the middle, somehow like it's been only hours since he last saw Thancred and also like it's been months. it leaves him off-kilter and prickly for it as he resists the urge to bite down on the meat of Thancred's shoulder just to prove to himself that they're both still alive. ]

Broken rib, sprained knee probably. Burned my hand on somethin' earlier, getting up. Misc contusions. [ yes, he says "misc" that way. misk. ] Light concussion, I think. Nothin' major. You?

[ he's seen the way Thancred was limping, and Reno can tell that he's got aches and pains aplenty. he knows Thancred, so he knows he can push through a lot, which is what makes it so concerning that he's letting his pain be visible. or maybe it's just because it's Reno, and Thancred knows he doesn't have to pretend to be fine. ]

I think I'm gonna win this one, but I'll go easy on ya.

[onlythans]

[Reno likely is going to win this one, not least of which because the only method of judging this little contest is for the two of them to decide upon it, and Reno's already made his decision and Thancred knows better than to dispute it. Still, he can indulge a little bit of getting fussed over, he imagines; it's really what Reno needs in a crisis, anyway, is to be able to assert himself over the chaos and bend it back into a form that makes any sort of sense.]

Some of the wreckage fell on my leg. Lacerations — from flying glass, I think. Aches and strains. I was moving rather a lot of the debris, looking beneath for —

[Oh. Mm. He falls silent with that thought unfinished, abruptly loath to linger on the notion of searching under fallen, flaming debris any longer. That's the sign that he's lost the competition, moreso even than the injuries. He's hurt worse, because it will give Reno an excuse to fuss, and that's what they both need right now.]

Right, then. Be merciful.

[astraphilia]

[ oh, yeah, Thancred loses the competition all right. the war wounds Reno is sporting are nothing in comparison, and he's had far worse in the field. and so when Thancred acknowledges his win and grants Reno the right to lay into him, Reno draws in a breath like he's going to start scolding—

and then exhales it again before he shakes his head. ]

...Nah. [ fuss, absolutely yes. scold, no. Reno tucks his own mania back down into himself and straightens up a little, giving Thancred a proper once-over the way he hadn't managed when they were en route from the flaming wreckage, noting all he can of the visible damage. ] Let's get you sitting. Broken or just bruised?

[ he means Thancred's leg. either way he should get off it, should get it elevated so it doesn't start to swell. Reno pulls away and goes in search of a chair, one of the rolly ones, which he brings over for Thancred to use; after that it'll be a matter of finding something to prop his leg on that's higher than his heart, maybe the edge of a desk or similar. ]

Do you remember anything in between?

[onlythans]

...Well. I can put weight on it.

[That's not actually a valid assessment of whether his leg is broken or just bruised, but it's pertinent information nevertheless. If it's bad, it's not so bad that he can't function — and a lot of people, knowing Thancred even superficially, would assume that means he still intends to function, and in most instances he would, but...

But not this time. Not because Reno of all people will catch the layered meaning of what he's really saying. The fact that he can implies an I will, but not necessarily an I must.

It's a relief to get off the wall, off his feet. He sinks gratefully into the chair a little too hard, and it bobs a bit from his weight with an administrative squeak.]

...I remember riding the train. Looking out the window, feeling as though...I knew where I was going, I think, but for the life of me I can't recall where. Then the crash, then...feeling as though I needed to find someone. You, mayhap.

[astraphilia]

[ there's no doubt in Reno's mind that Thancred can do quite a bit, and would if it became necessary—but he hears, too, what Thancred doesn't say, that he won't without real cause. and, at the very least, the fact that he can walk on it (even if he won't, for now) tells Reno that whatever the problem is, it's probably not his femur. which still leaves quite a number of bones it could be, but the femur is the riskiest and also the most important, so it's a relief to know it's likely not that.

it's also a relief that Thancred gives in to his fussing without much fussing in return. once he's seated, Reno finds another chair for him to put his leg up on, this one piled high with a couple of cushions supported atop a stack of manila folders to get some elevation. ]

And you remember me. Which means you probably remember what came before that. [ their hellish empty city and the little life they made there, against the odds. ] I can't remember gettin' from there to the train, though. Can't even really remember being on the train, just...

[ he waves his hand vaguely in the direction of the crash site. he remembers that, definitely. ]

Woke up and knew I needed to find you, too.

[onlythans]

They must've had their fill of us and let us out, but...

[But who were "they", really? What motive could they have for snatching them up, bringing them together, keeping them like pets in that skeleton of a city? And did that have something to do with their seeming change of hands now?

It's hard to think in a straight line, and it's hard to say whether that's from the seeming amnesia or the smoke inhalation or the ache in his bones or some mixture of the three. But the two of them are together, and that's something. If there's one thing he does remember with vivid recollection, it's the ease with which they'd settled into each other's rhythms, taking up halves of a whole matter without even a word needed between them.

They're safe, and they're not on fire, and they're hurt but they're not dead. He eases his leg up into the elevated position and groans audibly as it settles, and he's not sure whether it's from ache or relief or both.]

Out of the fryer and into the fire, mayhap. Though this all looks promising.

[He gestures at the security camera feeds. Recalls a taste of a memory from very far away, of a dark-haired man writing behind a desk and two others aching on leather couches like he is, and that room had been full of screens, too.]

I don't suppose you know how to work them?

[astraphilia]

[ probably both ache and relief, or at least that's how the groan sounds to Reno. he allows himself the brief indulgence of running his fingers through Thancred's hair, then pulls away so he can go take a look at the computer screens scattered around the room. ]

Probably can. Gimme a few.

[ he has to figure out how to turn the system on, first, but after that it should be small potatoes. Reno's no hacker, he's not responsible for the sysadmin stuff that happens in the General Affair offices, but he knows his way around a computer well enough and besides, this place doesn't seem like it's the type to have real heavy cybersecurity.

once he's found and turned on the actual computer, Reno picks a station near-ish to Thancred's position and takes a seat so he can work on getting into it. it is password-protected, but lucky him—when Reno pulls open a few of the drawers in the desk to his right, he finds, among other things, a sticky note with a password written on it. ]

Shit. No network security, these folks. [ but at least it gets him in, and after another minute he's able to call up security feeds on the bank of monitors to their left. ] There. Security cams.