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

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve looks at the man before him and he recognizes him. This man means a lot to him, he knows that much. He's in a lot of those pieces of memories, though he looks a fair bit younger and with longer hair, and a close shave. Steve reaches over to grab him by the shoulder, see if he can move up himself and leave on his own two feet.

"Buck," he says, the name coming out of his mind like pulling one from a hat. But still, he's confident it's the right one, somehow.

"Come on, let's get out of here." He gets the distinct impression that they've done this dozens of times, that either one of them has been in a scrape before, and needed to lean on the other. Actually, he gets the feeling that he's the one that gets in trouble, mostly. It's a weird hunch.

[staringproblem]

There's a small nod at his name, and he lets Steve help him up, the dizziness slowly diminishing, but not enough to walk on his own, for now. Slipping his arms around Steve's shoulders for support, there's a stray thought that crosses his mind, of how much bigger the blond's grown since the last time he's helped him walk like this. Or maybe not? The scene feels like a deja vu, and the fog in his brain is annoyingly familiar, as if trying to remember his past is something he's done before.

But deep inside, he knows he can trust Steve, and he nods at his suggestion:

"Yeah, let's," he starts, his voice hoarse from the smoke inhalation, "I don't think there was anyone else in the car with me when we crashed." And it would probably be best to get out of the wreck before the fire spreads.

When they're finally at a safe distance, Bucky slowly walks to a bench and lets himself fall sitting on it, giving their surroundings a sweeping look, instincts kicking in in the form of noting the buildings, the high points of view, the people amassing closer to the wreckage.

"Do you have any idea where we are?"

[pursuitofcappiness]

Steve walks with him, carefully. This part feels familiar, somehow, but that might be because Bucky was in his dream of before. He was in his dream a lot, even when he wasn't physically present in it.

"We're at Newcomb University," he says, guiding him away from the crash, walking with him over to the medical center. "I'm supposed to come here and teach today," he says, though he can't remember the details of how he'd gotten hired or taken this job.

"I think you were, too," he adds, though he sounds less sure about that.

[staringproblem]

The name of the university is ringing a bell in his mind, and Bucky shrugs lightly, his cracked lips carefully curling into a small smile:

"I knew that," he says, unconvincingly. Part of him knows he has classes to get to, assignments to grade and students to help, but it feels...strange. Like this is the dream and not the other way around.

"I know that," he reiterates before he looks up at Steve, "but it doesn't feel real, you know? Like. I'm not supposed to be here."

And most importantly, like Steve isn't supposed to be there either. There's this bittersweet feeling that settles heavily in his belly, as if this reunion isn't supposed to be happening at all.

[pursuitofcappiness]

Something about everything Bucky says is so right, like he couldn't have done better to pluck it out of Steve's thoughts. He has no idea how he could have done that, like he'd read his mind.

He knows this man is important to him because he'd seen it in the dream. They'd grown up together, though everytime he reaches for a solid memory he gets snippets of a life as if someone else had lived them. But the feeling is there: solid, dependable.

The memories come in and out but how he feels about Bucky is unmoving. "I know I can trust you. I don't understand how, but I know I can. Let's figure this out together."

[staringproblem]

Once they get to the medical center, Bucky sits on one of the seats there, but waves away the nurse that quickly comes to try to help, much to her annoyance. He can feel the blood dry on his forehead and nose, and somehow he knows his injuries are not as important as some of the other patients that are being rolled in.

He mulls over what Steve says and he nods: "Yeah, I think that too. Feels like I've known you all of my life," he says, even though Bucky can't quite recall how he and Steve met. Something about someone defending someone else against mean kids?

"Do you remember anything before waking up in that train? Because all I can recall seems to be a dream. but it doesn't feel like a dream, you know?"

[pursuitofcappiness]

He nods and looks at Bucky maybe a little longer than he means to. Only because it's like trying to place someone in his memories. He knows this man. He trusts this man. But anytime he reaches for a memory to why, it disappears, trying to recall a dream.

"Yes," he says. But he's getting conflicting memories - fighting each other, saying goodbye to him among some goats, but then two kids with missing front teeth and laughing, covered in warm sun.

"We're from Brooklyn, I think." He also feels guilty for some reason, like he shouldn't feel bad about forgetting his memories.