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

[summersaint]

Though Holland's unfamiliar with the term cantrip, the context is easy enough to grasp.

He makes a small, non-committal hmm, absorbing the information. A day ago, he had sacrificed his own magic to seal away a shadow king, leaving him powerless and dying. Today, his magic has returned, at least enough to blacken his eye and let him use one small piece of his blood magic to free someone trapped in the wreckage. But the other man is right; there's a blockage. He can feel it, like a damp mist over his skin, quashing his magic.

The fog is too thick to see beyond the campus they've found themselves on, but the thing that draws his eye is the massive clocktower in the middle of it all, a basilisk of stone wrapped around it.

"Interesting that you say blocked and not drained," Holland observes, thoughtful. "If it was a case of there simply being no magic here, it would be easy to diagnose. Instead, people with magic are finding themselves unable to access it. I wonder if there's a technology here that's blocking it."

[zemnianjoy]

Caleb Widogast can certainly admire this man's critical thinking skills, he hmms at the conjecture that this man brings up; in fact the way that he carries himself-- the wizard is drawn to the similarities that he seems to have with another such wizard of his acquaintance, which allows him to engage with him far more seamlessly. Collaboration was something that the ginger-man could easily get behind.

His eyes stray to the clock tower and he makes a clucking sound with his tongue, shoving his hands into the pockets of his duster while he regards first it and then back toward Holland. "I can feel the magic is still there, it's assuredly not drained-- it's just gotten ah, more chaoptic, I would say?" unpredictable to read and harder to delve into.

"Even though it is not comfortable that the magic is gatekept, it at least feels promising that others seem to recognize it. The more people who understand that this is a problem, I think the faster this problem will be solved." and then Caleb gives a nod, not offering his hand yet; he has a feeling that perhaps the hand would be looked at and not taken, so he does not chance it.

"My name is Caleb, by the by." he did not ask for Holland's name though he left the option open in case Holland should want to give it.

[summersaint]

Holland, too, can still feel the presence of his magic. He can see it in his reflection he'd caught back in the train, and the return of his black eye. He has some... minor confusion about why he has his magic once more, but that's largely outweighed by the bigger confusion of why it seems to be blocked here.

"Holland," he replies, and if he sounds blank and unfriendly then at least he's being marginally less blank and unfriendly than usual. "When I was new to magic, it sometimes took me a few minutes to be able to grasp it again after traveling between worlds. That's another option. We might be blocked because of the physiological shock of travel we weren't prepared for."

He pauses, scowling.

"Or we're being deliberately blocked by a malevolent technology. I prefer the first option, but I'm willing to deal with the second."

He hasn't tried walking between worlds, yet, largely because he has a sense it won't work. Later, he might dig out his White London token and give it a try.

"I've never heard of a technology that could block magic like this, though," he admits. "I know of small things -- objects that can block it when they're touching the user -- but nothing that could suppress it over such a wide area."

[zemnianjoy]

The good thing was that he was used to these magical conjectures and in fact thrived on them, this presented a wholly new mystery for him to dissect; so it was nice to have someone of a critical thinking persuasion to assist in unraveling it. The scowl did not scare him whatsoever, he'd faced similar scowls from Eadwulf so that was easily weatherable.

"I have a theory though I've not been able to test it, that when one undergoes inter-planar travel, one's abilities tend to go into shock as it accustoms itself to the new rules of the world." he tucks his spellbook safely into his holster and then puts his coat back in place.

"I've not been able to test it because while I have read up on multiverse travel, I've never had the ability to indulge."

He looks to Holland then, "I am assuming the rules that guide this place is attempting to enforce themselves on our abilities, in which it stands to reason foreread is forearmed, so perhaps finding the nearest library would not be amiss whatsoever."

[summersaint]

Caleb's theory would seem to make sense. Holland has traveled worlds extensively, though only to four connected worlds, all governed by the same magic rules. This place feels different altogether, a place entirely outside of his world-group, and the magic rules are doubtless different here.

"Research would be prudent," he agrees brusquely. "It's either that, or find some locals and get information from them."

And Holland... would probably prefer the books, honestly. Though talking to locals, if there are any, would likely result in getting better information faster, as well as a better idea of the culture here. Holland knows he's ill-equipped to do that, though. Whatever charm he might have once had has long since been lost under a brittle mask and a magic aura full of broken lines like broken bones badly reset. Can he count Caleb as an ally? Can he trust that any information Caleb relays to him isn't a lie? He has a friendly face, though that usually means little.

A tentative ally, maybe. A man who wants to know the same things he does.

"How are you with people?" he asks at length, cautious. Cautiously hopeful, maybe. Cautious of a lie.

Insight = 10 + 8 which settles at a 18

[zemnianjoy]

It was Caleb's turn to observe Holland; and if there is one thing that a distrustful man can recognize, it is another distrustful man. The thing with Caleb was that he'd learned to build a life around it, so while it was innate within him-- he'd had to fight against it when dealing with people. To understand that not everyone was trustworthy, but conversely not everyone was worthy of distrust either.

The question gives him due cause to consider and ponder.

So this magic user needed someone to act as a 'face' to interact with people. He could do that, of course he could. He did possess quite a strong vein of charisma, and that was perhaps due to self-preservation more than anything else. Con people before they have a chance to con you, but by this point in his evolution, he very carefully utilized it and only with a clear information goal in mind. "I am interesting in understanding the blockage, but most importantly how it is happening, and I think the only way we will be able to do so is to engage with whatever narrative this place is attempting to sell us. As I have gleaned, you are too." he tapped against his wrist with his forefinger, perhaps a nervous gesture.

"As we both stand to gain from this, it is a fair and even trade ja?"

And for men like them, it was easier to approach things by such a measure.

[summersaint]

Engage with the narrative. Holland hadn't even come close to considering such an idea, or even thinking that there was a narrative being sold -- and now that the idea is introduced to him, he rebukes himself internally for being too distracted by death and injury to have noticed. The peaceful train ride, the crash, what looks like a campus. There is intent here.

Did someone bring them here? For what purpose? And how? A dozen different questions spin inside his mind, so sudden and abrupt that he's in danger of getting a headache.

Yes; having an ally here would be wise. Especially if Caleb can talk to people, and trade information with him.

Holland nods, a terse little dip of his chin. "I agree." He crouches down, then, and presses a hand to the grass and the earth, concentrating. His awareness of the elements has increased somewhat, only marginally, but it's something. "I suspect the blockage may be lessening somewhat. Perhaps over time, magic may be regained."

[zemnianjoy]

"Gott sei Dank--" Caleb murmured, lifting his hand to rub against his temples even as one eye was open as he watched the way that Holland was acting, settling himself closer to the earth to make an assessment. "If that is the truth then that means that things should settle very quickly back to a pendulum's starting positional-- we are just waiting for the back and forth dance to complete."

He is rummaging into his pack to make sure that his components pouch is there, very good-- that meant he would not be completely stranded by a lack of supplies, though he knew that he would have to figure out a way to obtain more eventually.

"By what nature does your magic manifest, if I may ask?" He had a feeling that Holland may be more of a sorcerer, though there was something achingly familiar about him; that subtle terseness. He already knew that he was staring at someone who was intensely gifted, maybe a bit of the tragedy about him.

Often times they said that magic and the procurement of such came with an unenviable price; he'd already paid his-- in fact was still paying it. Though he did not ask for a backstory, he was not nearly so gauche as that.

[summersaint]

The question makes Holland hesitate.

Wherever Caleb is from, there's no Antari there. It's an obvious enough assumption, because if there were, Caleb wouldn't need to ask that question, he'd know what Holland was capable enough as soon as he saw his black left eye. He's not ashamed of the answer, nor is he scared of it, but after a lifetime of being singled out for it, he is cautious.

So, he keeps his answer simple. "Elemental," he replies blandly, and stands, dusting his hand off on his trousers. It's partially the truth, at least.

"Yours, on the other hand," he continues, thoughtful, remembering what he'd seen Caleb doing at first sight, "involves books and reagents? I'm unfamiliar with magic that relies on such things."

[zemnianjoy]

Caleb nods sagely, familiar with the Elemental scope of things-- of relying on Elementals, Evocation was all about Elemental magic at it's core; his own school he'd picked fire as a base because there was nothing more transmutative then fire, to his own way of thinking. It was from the fire that one was forged; and his school was a forge.

"Ah yes, my magic does rely on books and components; unfortunately I am not gifted nor inherent in magic." Perhaps augmented but he'd rather not get into the brunt of the scars on his arms; he tried not to think of how much power those residuum granted his spellcraft, that would've given his abuser too much power over him. "It's all been paying attention and copious amounts of study." he would not talk down to those people who skills were innate, it was a different pipeline in essence, and there were more than one route that followed to a location.

Though his perceptive eyes did catch the way that those eyes seemed to shutter as if to throw off any additional questions which he was fine with. Everyone was entitled to their privacy. "There are several routes to magic from where I am from, and spellbooks and spellscrolls are but one of those routes.."