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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
[ Did Caleb have dreams of becoming an expert in his field where a title would be bestowed upon him? Absolutely. ]
Do you have a school of magic that you are particularly interested in?
no subject
I am already quite adept at conjuration and illusionary magic. They are my favourite schools and I would like to continue in those fields, though really I would be happy to learn most anything. Do you think this place will have those sorts of lessons? My so-called parents did not inform me as to what kind of school this is, just that I needed to go.
no subject
For those who have a true and authentic desire, there is truly no stopping, the sky is the limit and even then it's but a simple matter to just break through.
[ Oh no, here he was-- waxing poetic about possibility again. Someone stop him. ]
Well I could teach you a bit of Transmutation if you are of the mind, as you've expressed aptitude in one school, it's not much of a stretch to dance into another school. I may also may have a few Dunamancy spells that I could teach though I am not as proficient as I would like; maybe they have books at the library?
[ If he could get his hands on ink and parchment, he would be set. It felt like this was a campus of some scholastic intent so that may not be as hard as thought. ]
no subject
I appreciate the offer, but I am actually well versed in transmutation as well. I just tend to lean more towards conjuration and illusion in the day to day. Unless you know a way to make transmutation less draining? I always feel tired afterwards.
[Dunamancy though, that was a school of magic Loki has never heard of and that is always interesting.]
I am curious about this Dunamancy though. I am woefully unfamiliar with that.
no subject
He'd already reverse-engineered a few spells that he'd seen his purple floating crush cast, because of his precocious mind ]
Dunamancy is a a school of magic that is the Dynasty's best kept secret, as it was described to me divided into two sects- Chronurgy and Graviturgy, the study of Time, Space and Possibility. With it you can control both gravity as well as time itself, turning the tide of battle at crucial seconds. I have access to a spell that allows me to see 10 seconds into the future which, if you've been in the heat of things, much can happen within that time frame.
[ Sorry Loki, nerds are gonna nerd ]
no subject
Beg your apologies, did you just refer to time magic?
[That is something Loki has only ever heard about in theory. Along with the supposed ‘multiverse’ which all seems like nonsense to him. But if this man is proclaiming to know it, he definitely wants to learn more.]
I am sure there are plenty who think 10 seconds is short, but I am familiar with battle and that would be a wonderful tool to have.
[Though Loki is unaware of what a nerd is, he very much is one when it comes to magic.]
no subject
[ Knowledge should be shared, though used only in the correct circumstances. Thankfully spells like Fortune's Favor are the types that it is hard to abuse them too much. Gravity Spike however, not to mention the Time Magic opening up into study deeper and darker where entire timelines could be changed and erased? Well he knows that exists somewhere, he'd have to exert quite a bit of personal constraint not to use it in a purely selfish way.
Curiosity was absolutely one hundred percent hubris. ]
no subject
[Really, Loki isn’t one to share much, at least not with just anyone. He’s felt alone most of his life and as such, often has felt the need to covet all he learns, not that many ask him for his knowledge on anything.]
no subject
Thus he had to admit that forging alliances would not be a bad thing; he was pragmatic enough to understand when he was out of his league here. His magic was starting to re-stabilize, and within a few more days he felt sure that he'd be ready to teach a bit.
He was a born teacher, after all. ]
Life makes for strange bedfellows, and desperate times call for desperate measures. So we should meet and see what we may glean from each other. [ And luckily for Loki, he was reverse-engineering a few more Chonurgy spells. ]
no subject
And if some of that requires playing nice and learning some new tricks, then Loki is willing to play along.]
I cannot say you are incorrect about any of that. We should definitely meet as soon as possible. This is some sort of school, after all. Is it not? I assume our overlords will take pleasure in seeing us teach and learn.
no subject
It was not so much as having the upper hand as using the tools that had been provided, and not squandering information. ]
Then we will figure this out, clearly as we know how to move through circuits such as that, it may give us the upper hand in being able to navigating this new world we've found ourselves within, inadvertently. Unfortunately, those who I were traveling with are not here, and adversity makes strange bedfellows, but within adversity sometimes the greatest feats can be measured.
no subject
Having the upper hand is always the best option so anything I can do to aid in us getting that, I am willing to do. I do not typically work with others, but I can adapt if it means figuring out what is going on.
no subject
[ It took trust, but he was willing to overlook that due to the fact that it seemed to be a player versus environment sort of deal. And as long as they understood each other's mutual goals, there should not be too much of a conflict, all things told. ]
no subject
[Of course, Loki had worked with others before. He’s made enough plans with Thor and his friends before, but they never felt right, never felt like he was ever really apart of what they were doing. Mostly it just seemed like they kept him around because Thor said they had to, never quite seeing his true value. Well, he’d show them, just as soon as he got out of this place.]