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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
We shouldn't wait around -- I can smell fire from here, and it's only going to spread. [Plus, Koby has the worst-case-scenario doubt that anyone's going to come for them.] Can you walk, do you thik?
no subject
He nods and gets up cautiously, like he expects to crumple to the floor. Standing, he tries moving all of his limbs.]
I'm fine. [Said with some relief. But then he looks around. One door leading out of the car is past the smashed up middle, and he's pretty sure that the other door leads in direction of the fire. Still he approaches it carefully and puts the back of his hand against it. He pulls it back quickly, frowning.]
It's hot.
[He looks to Koby, frightened.]
We're trapped.
no subject
Except Iggy's right -- they're trapped. The door is hot, which means the fire's very close, soon to be inescapable. Koby breathes in, coughs a little on the smoke, then makes several very quick decisions.]
The window. [There's one close, smashed, a hole in the center surrounded by jagged glass spikes. Koby tugs off his jacket, wrapping it around his fist, his arm, then quickly, methodically, starting to punch at the glass so it breaks further, widening the hole enough that they could slip through without gouging themselves too much. It's slow going, the glass thick, tempered, and he's soon sweating -- both from the exertion and the approaching fire.] Let me -- know when it looks -- big enough.
no subject
Okay, yeah, that's good. That's good! We gotta go. Let's just hope our twinkish physiques will save us.
[He looks at Koby and notes his height.]
I'll boost you up so you can pull yourself out. Come on.
[He's not athletic. But he can make a step with his hands, at least - the window was close enough to smash, he's really just giving Koby a little extra height to make the exit easier.]
no subject
Then, shaking it off --] Right. Okay. That's -- it'll be good enough. [The angle and the fact that he was punching up, with hardly any leverage, means that Koby's not wholly satisfied with the size of the hole. But they do need to go, so he hops up onto Iggy's folded hands, reaching up and holding onto the edges of the hole, wincing slightly at the jab to his palms.] Okay, ready? Lift me up --
no subject
Smoke is definitely curling under the door now.]
Go, go!
no subject
Come on, grab on! [His hands are bloody, but he's much stronger than he looks, years of swabbing decks giving him a surprising amount of arm strength. He lifts, and the smoke curls under the door and the fire has the other windows in the train car cracking, threatening to shatter.]
no subject
On top of the side of the car it's easier to breathe, but it's probably not a great place to linger. Iggy scoots over to the edge and looks down.]
Oh my god, do we have to jump?
[He looks around, gaze falling on the tree the train car has smashed into.]
Oh! I bet we can climb down there?
no subject
There's another explosion, this one close enough that the whole train shudders, nearly sending Koby to his hands and knees, as nimble as a lifetime around ships has made him. But he keeps his balance, not letting himself exhale until they're at the tree, until he's pushing Iggy to climb down, get away first.]
Go, go go go, faster--
no subject
He drops the last few feet, stumbling and then falling to his ass.]
Hurry! I'll help you!
no subject
The ground wobbles under Koby's feet as he lands, crashing into Iggy in a very undignified way, which he will 1000% blame on the explosion.]
Sorry! Sorry, are you okay? [Things are still exploding; apologize later, Koby.]
no subject
He grabs one of Koby's hands then and tugs. The train is making all sorts of distressing noises now - crackling flames, creaking metal, and hollow booms. Iggy runs faster than he ever has before in his life, trying to get as far away as possible. He hangs onto Koby's hand the whole time.
Eventually, he lets go and stops running. He puts his hands on his knees and pants harshly, eyes squeezed shut tight.]
Ohmygod. No more. No more, I'll barf, seriously.
Are you okay?
no subject
Instead they run, and they run and run and run, and while Koby is surprisingly strong for someone as scrawny as he is, he's also out of breath by the time they stop. Not nearly as bad as Iggy is, though, prompting a deeply concerned frown.]
Are you?
no subject
[He lets himself just sink to the grass. Lay down. Lament, baby.]
I'm gonna have to give up smoking if we gotta run around like that all the time...
[He looks up at Koby.]
You saved my life.
no subject
You helped save mine. Thanks for the boost.
no subject
[He is not dying, he is overdramatic.
He looks up at Koby and beams.]
You're very welcome. We saved each other, so we don't owe one another our lives or anything. That works out nicely.
What do you like to be called, sweetie?
no subject
Oh. I guess so, yeah. I wouldn't say you owed me anything anyways, that isn't why I helped.
Koby. What about you?
no subject
[Iggy sits up.]
Well, no, you helped because it's the right thing to do, right? But isn't that the thing where like, if someone saves you you have to save them back?
Iggy.
no subject
He sits back on his heels, exhaling heavily, feeling the adrenaline start to fade.] Right. That's -- yes, that's why I did it, because it was the right thing to do. And...maybe? I guess?
Nice to meet you.
no subject
Likewise!
...so. Where do we go from here? [He looks around.]
Is. This a university campus? Huh. Well.
Wanna find the cafeteria?