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.

code

Comments

[learnedfool]

Des, is your Sight working?

Not reliably. But...

He couldn't see much about the book, and he didn't know if that was because of him, or a problem with Caleb. "It might be better for me to observe you trying to use it, if this is mostly a mnemonic."

"We have saints, who are granted their abilities by having space for a god to place some of their power. Shamans, who bond with the spirit of a great beast. And sorcerers, who find themselves with a demon. Shamans and sorcerers have to learn how to use their gifts, but no one is born with a gift for such things. Or can gain it just by study."

Pen didn't clarify which he was, of course, and he wondered what his new friend would make of it.

[zemnianjoy]

Caleb would cast Mage Hand however he was uncertain as to what the effects, and he would not want to have this person being accidentally punched by a fisted orange flaming fist, would not do at all. So he propped it up against the branch of a low lying tree and then he was reaching into his component pouch for the pearl, he located it and then he was attempting to cast the somatics.

For a moment it looked like he was playing an elaborate Cat's Cradle game, and it almost appeared as if he would smoothly cast, except then the threads started to tangle up, the winding time of the sigils going backward and the pearl richochet'd hard and fast out of his fingertips and hurtling toward the bench.

Where it lodged with a crack right into the back of it.

"Arschloch!" The wizard muttered and then he turned to Pen with a rather helpless expression on his face. "That is a prime example of what could happen however I think the possibilities are endless." and then with a shrug. "Do you have any examples of how your spells have been misbehaving?"

[learnedfool]

"What was that supposed to do?" Pen could get glimpses of the energy flow, and that was fascinating, because it seemed like Caleb was just pulling it out of thin air, or his apparently normal human self, and everything Pen knows about how things should work suggests that isn't possible.

"Let me try a basic exercise." He had grabbed a bit of twine, and held it up. "Typically I have had students practice cutting twine or thread. Safer than lighting candles, but a similar principle, magically speaking." He held his fingers in the middle of the length, pinching, and drawing on Des's chaos to push things downhill, towards greater disorder.

The power was slippery, and had to coax out. It slipped away, Pen mentally grabbed it back, and the piece of twine didn't so much cut as puff into fluff.

"That's a better outcome than some. It all stayed in the twine."

And a mental check with Desdemona told him that she was going to need him to keep trying, because the chaos would otherwise build up.

[zemnianjoy]

Pushing the general frustration aside, Caleb walked over to the bench to see if he could pry the pearl out from the crevice that it had forcefully made for itself, then he spoke; the few moments that it had taken was enough to get himself back to ground zero where it came to not being frustrated. "That was supposed to imbue the pearl with magical energy, enough that it would allow me to see 10 seconds ahead, usefully when you are fighting and every step matters, but also I have used it in deciphering human nature or perhaps avoiding an altercation by choosing an alternate route."

It was absolutely time hijinks.

He did pause to take a look at Pen's own ministrations, the twine was basic gear, not the magical threads that himself and Essek pulled via evocations, but still-- it appeared that it was a stress test of sorts. "It's safe to say that the magic is building up in new and unique ways, I actually shudder to think of how the magic will come out when it's unchained."

There may be some mitigation that needed alignment.

[learnedfool]

"Concerning on my part. Sorcerers -- my sort, not yours -- need to dump the energy we accumulate somewhere," Penric said. "I've already been noticing more accidents around me. It probably means we're also shedding it into my own body."

Sorry.

Pen stopped to mentally reassure Desdemona that this was not something she could control, since it was apparently happening to everyone. And if all else failed, he could start setting fires somewhere damp enough they wouldn't spread.

"But... that pearl is not something I've ever heard of anyone doing where I'm from. At best, sorcerers can seem to act quickly by our demons changing how we perceive time moving at."

[zemnianjoy]

"Ah, it appears that I have much to learn about other world's magic then."

Not a huge problem, as Caleb Widogast was not someone who would scoff at all about learning new things, the more knowledge gained-- the wider and more vast the world and all of it's mysteries became. So he stuffed the pearl back into his component pouch, mentally thanking the stars that it had not been expended, this pearl cost a pretty penny and he only had a limited amount of them (until he found a reliable way to obtain components).

"Unfortunately, I have little experience with Sorcerers; but a demon? In our world, a magic user that has access to the patronage of either demons, devils or a being of greater/higher power are called Warlocks. I understand though at this point, it's merely semantics."

He sounded apologetic, and in essence? He was. "Right now, we are all magic users with access to our powers augmented in varying shades."

[learnedfool]

"Exactly," Pen said. "And, once Desdemona and I -- Des is my demon, and I should introduce her -- get this straightened out, I have had good luck learning to mimic other types of magic with my own. Not always efficiently, I'm afraid."

Shamans pay blood for their abilities. Penric trying to duplicate it pays rather a bit more.

A mental poke reminded Pen. "Penric kin Jurald. Sorry, I got a bit carried away and didn't introduce myself first. I am capable of being sociable, I promise."

Caleb has clearly found a fellow scholar. Fitting at a university.

[zemnianjoy]

"Fascinating." and the tone in Caleb's voice stated that he meant it, that it felt like a different magical system that was complicated but also vibrant, relying on the rules and regulations of other worlds. Magic was not a straight forward study, no it possessed so many weaves and colours, schools and thoughts-- ways to channel it.

"You are fine, ja-- my name is Caleb Widogast, just a humble wizard that has found himself in a strange place at a rather unsettling time." and then he gestured around as if to illustrate the point-- then he offered his gloved hand in a shake. "I'm highly selective in sociability, I feel like my social skills go up when I am provided with copious amounts of books and ideas." there was a wry smile.

They were likely going to get along just fine.

[learnedfool]

Penric took Caleb's hand, shaking it. "Same. Though too much and Des gets restless."

Penric's facial expression and tone of voice shift, as Des adds (using Pen's voice), "but I still prefer talking to people than watching him read books all day."

Pen's facial expression reverts back seemlessly. "Master Widogast, meet Desdemona. She doesn't have a way to talk to others without borrowing my voice. The people around me get used to it. My children even picked it up quickly."

[zemnianjoy]

That was not something that the wizard saw every day, the idea of taking over someone to communicate. He could take over Frumpkin at times, here or there but it was one of those complete bridges of trust; perhaps that was not so dissemiliar.

In fact, hew as drawing a few hypothesis within that quick-thinking mind of his.

"In your world, are demons more familiars then they are demons?"

That was just a standard question, and he had to really quickly hold up a hand as if to say that he meant no offense by it. "I am only speculating, I hope that did not cause consternation, I would not want to cause any offense to either you or your companion."

[learnedfool]

"You're going to have to define both those words for me, then," Penric said. "How you use them. But..."

"Demons start as chaos elementals, which appear from the Bastard's Hell. They can't survive without a body, and they imprint, like clay in a mold, on the mind. Usually it's an animal first; Des's first body was a wild mare. But when the body dies, they jump to what mind is more complex. It usually means that once they can jump to a human, they do. I've met a few sorcerers who are their demon's first human riders. You start to see the demon become an actual person, very like the sorcerer.

"After a few lifetimes, demons tend to develop their own personalities, beyond just a copy of their prior riders. Des is her own person, but she can mimic some of her more recent riders if I need their experience in particular. It's also why she is a 'she' -- I'm the first man she's worked with. Typically the Temple tries to match sorcerer-candidates to sorcerers of the same sex."

And honestly, Penric is surprised that it doesn't go wrong more often than it actually does. The Bastard is the god of exceptions to rules, and those who do not fit.

[zemnianjoy]

"Well, in my world Demons are creatures from the Nine Hells, so are Devils-- they are not automatically one in the same; whereas Familiars hail from the FaeWild, usually they forge a pact with the summoner and then when that pact is fufilled they leave." he gestures vaugely at no one in particular.

"I have a familiar by the name of Frumpkin, he specifically takes the form of a cat but I am rather sure that is not his true form but the one I myself am more comfortable with. So that is what I meant by Familiars I suppose."

He rakes a few fingers through his bangs, "The lore for your world is very interesting though, it appears your magic deviates from mine just enough that it is unique though it would be interesting to see if we share any sort of tenants."

[learnedfool]

"Well, Des can't take a physical form at all, which is why she's in here with me. She's also limited by the body she has to work with. A demon in a cat would have a cat's level of intellect. But your familiar sounds like more like a cat shape than an actual cat."

Penric wondered what they would be able to see if they got a look at Frumpkin. Des's Sight mostly was tuned to souls, but they did have some awareness of matter. Useful for things like medicine, where problems could be hidden.

"I would be interested in that. I also know how shamans operate, for comparison. I spent some years studying with them, after an interesting case. Saints... they operate by channeling their god. I went to seminary, but there is only so much one can learn without direct experience."

And while Penric has been in the presence of a god more times than most -- both in the company of saints, and when a god has a chance to deliver a message to an ordinary person (in as much the gods thought anyone was ordinary) -- it is still not something he can describe in words.

[zemnianjoy]

That was verily the truth, one could not learn without some sort of hands-on experience, and it felt like most of Caleb's knowledge had been gained from that. He'd learned much at Solstryce, but there had been other things that had learned that-- eventually, seemed to push all other lessons to the side. Once he had escaped the Asylum, he'd read every scroll he could get his hands on and built up his repertoire that way.

"So here is a theory.. and this may actually have sort of validity to it; but this world is attempting to stabilize itself from the many various forms of magic that it has had to adjust it's gravity toward, in fact it's likely..." he glanced upward, surveyed the campus they were on. "It's still attempting to find a center point with which to come back to.. a space where all magic can be contailed."

[learnedfool]

One of the basic principles of a working sorcerer is knowing which way was 'downhill' -- downhill magic was easier, while uphill magic produced far more chaos that would need to be shed. So natural to assume this world is trending toward 'downhill', whatever that means for things.

"And what would that mean for people like us?" Penric said. "Is it pushing towards a state where our abilities will work more like they do at home, or where they will stop working at all."

Pen knew which one he preferred; even if his own survival depended on Des being able to bleed off chaos in a controlled fashion, he'd spent half of his life as a sorcerer. He could live without it, but he didn't want to.

[zemnianjoy]

"There are many ways that we could theorize, but perhaps it is a wait-and-see situation. I think that it largely depends on how this plane takes all the foreign bits of magic it has assembled and cobbles it together."

This happened to be one of Caleb's favorite points of debate; magical. A bit exciting too, dare he say that he was not sure exactly what would happen, like some grand experiment that had no clear hypothesis on outcome. "It may very well be either of the two that you mentioned, but I would not be surprised by a secret third option."

Caleb raised his hand, attempting to summon a flame, there was a spark and then nothing, another spark as he concentrated. The intent almost like attempting to fire off a lighter that was being particularly stubborn. "How each person's magic seems to be blocked and or limited, it seems to be highly specialized, there's something underneath the surface, it feels like it's trying to rewrite the bylaws of how magic should operate."

[learnedfool]

Penric observed the process as best he could with Des's Sight coming in and out. Starting fires is something he can do as well, so he is trying to compare and contrast what he sees with what Caleb is doing. Which doesn't work so well when he feels like one sense barely works.

"Just as long as you don't burn your own hand practicing. We can get some candles. But... magic with similar effects, like starting fire might be a useful test. Especially as the process is difficult."

Pen didn't have to speak or gesture to do so, though he did as a habit.

[zemnianjoy]

"Ja, that would be a good idea. I am hoping that whatever haze that is blockading how I approach magic will be brushed aside soon." he said almost apologetically; the jury was out if it was more toward himself than it was to Penn. But also, he did miss the quiet companionship of Frumpkin, and if he could summon the other Familiar.. perhaps he'd feel less lonely.

"So library, and perhaps some minor supplies."

Caleb had not checked the backpack yet, he'd been much too busy being preoccupied with his magic to do so.

[learnedfool]

"An excellent plan, though we may also have to include some food in there."

Penric did a mental check-in with Desdemona, on how she was faring.

Don't mind me. The sooner you figure this out, the sooner we go home. I can tolerate being bored while you talk to your new scholar friend.

The upside to Des not having a body was that she was always here. This was also the downside. One got used to it.

"Finding the dining hall would also be a good time to look for places for me to bleed off chaos. Hopefully in ways that turn out better than we currently are doing."

[zemnianjoy]

So it would appear that the scholars were going to band together, that was a thing but also it was probably for the best considering that they were all looking toward the same goal. He settled the survival pack over his shoulder and then looked toward the Campus in question.

"I figure that there should be some sort of food and lodging located in those buildings, so perhaps it would be best to perform a bit of reconnaissance." In a day, his Keen Mind would be back and then he would not get lost so easily; right now however? It bore all of the results of being wiggled around in a glass bottle. "Best though to prioritize survival-- afterwards comes the shop talk."

[learnedfool]

"And I'm not explaining to his wife that I let Pen skip meals."

"Unfortunately, the people in my life know me too well. Desdemona just appreciates having backup that she didn't have when I was single. Which will mean that you will be eating if you stick with me."

Look, Caleb also seems like the sort who both will cut his food budget to buy more books, and forget when meals are served without someone reminding him. Penric knows his own.

[zemnianjoy]

Wow, was Caleb 'Mathilda' Widogast (don't ask, a nickname from his dearest friend Jester) was absolutely called out by this fact. He certainly would do both, because 1.) being a wizard in Exandria was absolutely expensive, the cost of ink, parchment and scrolls alone was a stiff drop in the bucket and 2.) he burned the midnight oil quite regularly because that kept the nightmares at bay.

The less you slept, the less you were plagued by trauma-induced dreams.

"Oh? Do you have someone at home?" he inquired, politely-- he had a few crushes back in Exandria, quite a few people that would miss him if he were gone, but no one, and with good reason, he wasn't even sure he'd make it back from Aeor alive. "You are right though, I am woefully bad at keeping myself fed."

[learnedfool]

"A wife, and three children, Florina, Llewyn, and Otta. Four if you count that we adopted Otta after she ended up with a fresh demon, who Rina named Atto. Otta's father is a Quadrene ship captain..."

Oh, Pen is going to have to explain that. "A different set of beliefs, regarding the god who, among other things, oversees demons. Quadrenes believe the Bastard -- that's the god I mentioned -- is inherently evil himself, so they don't allow sorcerers."

Best not to go into how the religion typically handles sorcerers, especially when it comes to a child.

"Even if they did, an untrained sorcerer is a danger on a ship."

[zemnianjoy]

Well that was complicated, he knew very little about this belief system inherently tied to magic and yet it was coming together piece by piecemeal. Easy enough to push it away so that he could share in the happiness of a family back home. "To those we've left behind, hopefully temporarily-- and even more hopeful, that they remain safe and do not worry too much about us."

He knew his friends would be just fine though; without him.

[learnedfool]

"From your lips to the gods' ears." Pen makes a blessing sign -- a quick hand gesture along the center line of his body, ending with two taps of his thumb to his lip.