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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.
Hata no Kokoro | Touhou Project
[ Kokoro appears on the train just shortly before its crash, not having enough time to get her bearings before it derails. A new place, unfamiliar environs, and then it all explodes around her.
When the chaos ends, she's sprawled out on the floor, blinking blearily at what's left of the ceiling. After taking a moment to untangle her limbs, she pulls herself to her feet, quickly finding that one of her ankles can barely support any weight without shooting a spike of pain up her leg, leaving her leaning weakly against one of the seats. No problem, she can always fly... huh? Flight isn't working, either. That's a bigger problem. ]
Is anybody else alive? I need to get out, but I can't walk.
[ It's supposed to be a cry for help, but its vibes are left a bit confusing by its total deadpan delivery. Is she really in pain? ]
- Assimilation -
[ Fortunately, Kokoro heals quickly. Unfortunately, curiosity pulled her too close to that black goo, and it took the opportunity to attach itself as a dark splotch across one side of her face.
Unfortunately, Kokoro's emotions are a bit chaotic even under normal situations, and it's only destabilized further by the goop's influence. Mind filled with a dark haze, she wobbles unsteadily through the campus, not sure where she's going or what she's looking for. As she does, the mask on her face flickers unsteadily, disappearing every few seconds to be replaced with a different mask, in a different orientation. Each one has a wildly different expression, but the actual face behind them remains totally blank.
All in all, the campus is left with a mysterious pink-haired figure, drunkenly wobbling down the street as masks appear and disappear from her face. Sometimes, the wobbling gives way to outright dancing, spinning erratically but with an enthusiasm that doesn't match her bland expression. If approached, there's no telling how she might react. ]
- Two Truths & A Lie -
1. I once started a religious war!
2. Zeami, the great genius of Noh theater, is my father!
3. The thing on the front of my head is not my face!
[ Mysterious. ]
Assimilation~
He pspspsps'd for a moment, attempting to get her attention.
But very carefully, he was not very strong and by his own strength score even a young girl could easily take him out of she landed her punch hard enough. His voice would come out, quiet and methodical with a hint of accent to it. ]
Hallo.. Ja, I have coffee here. It's strong and black, might even set you to rights, but also there is sugar packets, I took twenty of them. [ He was not one to judge anyone's sugar intake ]
no subject
I've heard of coffee, but never had any. [ Her voice is a bit slurred, but that's just the goo's influence. ]
no subject
[ He could handle it, he wasn't sure if this pink-haired girl could. But he'd been surprised before by brightly coloured girls. ]
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Her mask is replaced by a different one, with a comically exaggerated expression of shock, as she strikes a theatrically surprised pose. ]
It really is strong! [ The exclamation point is a bit of exaggeration - her voice is just a little louder than normal. ] I can see why you'd add sugar to it.
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Ah, yes.. coffee is very delicious but also very strong. You will find yourself energized after a few moments; I do not know why-- it just happens. [ Caleb was a wizard, not a sciencer ] But do you mind if I ask about your mask? Is it cursed?
no subject
[ Kokoro does a spin, a ring of floating masks manifesting around her. ] I am the menreiki Hata no Kokoro, a spirit born of sixty-six theater masks. As they were used for hundreds of years, the emotions of the characters they portrayed gathered within them, they merged together into one spirit, and I was born.
So, it would be better to say that I am the masks, and the body you see is just there so that they can be worn.
no subject
So you are in essence an effigy which contains the masks innate sentience?
[ That may not have made full sense, but he was likewise sinking into scholar mode. ] Also since you liked that coffee so much, there is a coffee stand down the street? They had other flavors but that is a bit weird to me.
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[ Now he was asking Kokoro questions, but perhaps it was just so that he could keep her moored into the land of the living, which he had noticed there were a lot of people wandering in a zombie state, even he too had done so until his innate helpfulness had kicked in when he'd seen Kokoro in a spot of disorientation. He'd probably still moping around muttering about his lack of magic. ]
no subject
[ Her face is obscured by a new mask; while there's no canonical depiction of it, it probably looks something like this. ]
(no subject)
first train in / two truths and a lie
Here -- [she has her backpack over her shoulder, and her air mask already on. it's a surprise to see a very different type of mask floating near the young girl's face. she doesn't find it that unusual as an exotic fashion accessory, but it's not something she expected to see on the planet she doesn't remember leaving.
she doesn't question the girl's delivery. anyone raised in the hexarchate knows that people have many different responses to pain.]
Can you take my arm? I'll help you outside.
[later, on the network, she pauses at the child's entry. the mask question sounds like too-implausible-to-be-false bait, but it's hard to choose between the other two, since she's never heard of Zeami but has managed to cause more than a few wars in her time.]
If it's not your face, whose face is it? [she's willing to be wrong if it means learning more.]
First Train In /
Where are we?
no subject
[she can't remember and it's getting aggravating; maybe hearing it from someone else will remind her. either way, this child -- a teenager, she thinks -- needs to get out of here.
she looks around to grab the girl's backpack -- everyone seems to have been traveling with the same kind she found at her own seat, the one that had the suspiciously handy air mask, and she's carefully not thinking about what that might mean.] Can you breathe all right?
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[Kokoro hadn't noticed the backpack at all. She glances back when Chris grabs it; if she appreciates the gesture, it sure isn't showing.]
I can breathe. It's just my ankle, and something's wrong with my magic...
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You should put this on until we get out of here; there's too much smoke. [She offers the mask, wondering what 'magic' means. had the child been trying to do card tricks?] What's wrong with your magic? Did you hurt your hand?
I'm Cheris, by the way.
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[Everyone knows that being able to fly is a basic rule, right?
But she takes the mask.]
My name is Hata no Kokoro.
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What should I call you? Your whole name? [probably not, but it's an invitation for the girl to say what she'd like as Cheris helps her to the door.]
/ two truths and a lie
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Then maybe you didn't start the war, but you did finish it?
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Finding out about all that was the first time I felt something so strongly that I could express it with that face. I was just that angry.
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Were you never angry before?
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That must have been surprising, to have your face do something new because of what you feel.
First Train In
He sighs dramatically and all but skulks toward the voice.)
Coming. (His tone is just as deadpan as hers, drawling and bored. He shoves aside a chunk of metal rather effortlessly, and stands before her, staring down with a bland expression on his face.)
Can you see well enough? (Nope, not even asking her if she's okay or offering a helping hand. Yet.)