TDM #2

[glencolans]

TEST DRIVE MEME #2

Welcome to Glencola Reef's second Test Drive Meme! This is a place where anyone interested in applying a character - or just curious to see how their characters might interact with the setting and others in the game - can mingle with one another. General prompts are provided below for inspiration.

TDM GUIDELINES

• Please read the rules before posting to the TDM. These still apply here and will be enforced, up to and including deleting tags/toplevels and prebanning.
• Posts from a TDM are required to apply. At least three tags across any number of threads within a TDM, posted within the last 6 months, must be provided in every application.
• TDM threads can be used for AC. Note that new characters only need to check in for their first AC cycle, but established characters can use TDM tags for their AC.
• TDMs are not considered game canon by default. This is mostly for logistics reasons - due to how characters travel on the map, it's unlikely that non-network threads that take place here will actually happen in-game. However, I won't stop anyone from working out how to make parts of threads game canon if they really want to.
• New TDMs will be posted every three months. Keep checking back into the current TDM for new toplevels!

I. ARRIVAL

You awaken on a tropical island beach, soaking wet, powerless, and without any idea how you got here. Were you carrying something important, or wearing powerful armor? How unfortunate - it looks like only the most basic clothes, items in your pockets, and simple weapons managed to make the trip with you. Are you even physically the same as you remember? If you had superhuman abilities tied to your physiology, you might be stuck in a completely different body that lacks your usual senses. You might've been whisked away from a tense battle or a near-death experience and wake up delirious, or even injured.

Thankfully, against overwhelming odds, you're not the only one to wake up on this particular stretch of beach. You and your companion have a lot of puzzling out to do.

II. NETWORK

Even if you weren't lucky enough to wake up near someone else, at least you've arrived with a military-grade radio transceiver gripped tightly in your hand (or mouth, or other vaguely opposable appendage of choice). The clunky walkie-talkie will start buzzing and crackling for every public message that starts coming your way. Answering them back is as easy as pressing the "talk" button on the side of the device and either speaking into the receiver, or using the keypad to type into the message box that appears on the screen, then pressing the button again to send. A list of ongoing conversations with responses that are less than 24 hours old can be found by scrolling through the menu, identified by the callsigns that are participating in them. It seems that you've been assigned a callsign, too - it shows up in the top right side of the screen, format AB123C. The letters and numbers picked are...probably random.

This is your easiest avenue to communicating, or coordinating with, or complaining at the other people stuck on this island; how you decide to use this tool is up to you.

III. A SAFE PLACE

Whether because someone else directed you via the transceivers, or someone found you and is leading you there, or just out of sheer luck, you have stumbled your way up the western coastline and run into an abandoned airfield. At least it used to be abandoned; there are obvious signs that the area has seen recent use, from the myriad of footprints in the sand leading up to the ocean, to the racks of drying fish lined along the shattered asphalt of a runway, to the strangely complex water stills and...who even knows what chemicals are brewing in those pots next to the largest airplane hangar? Even if you find the signs of people first, you're likely to run into the inhabitants themselves sooner rather than later, as the airfield has become a surprisingly busy hub of activity in comparison to the bleak isolation of the rest of the island. Maybe some of the more experienced inhabitants will help you figure out what's going on here, or try to rope you into exploring or cleaning out the more run-down buildings lining the runway, like the smaller hangars or the desolate traffic control tower at the far end. You likely aren't the only new person trying to find your way around, either. Hopefully the person you arrived with is more interested in helping rather than just looting the place and running off.

IV. STRANGE BOUNTIES

The weather on this island can be rather unpredictable sometimes. Just yesterday it was sunny and hot, then today, without warning, the sky opened up - literally, like the pale blue horizon was a vase smashed by a hammer and a billowing cyclone poured through the hole - and dumped at least a foot of rain on you in the span of an hour. You just barely managed to avoid getting swept out to sea, hunkering down in the relative safety of the deeper jungle, when the storm stopped as suddenly as it started. Dazed and possibly hurt, you stumble back to the beach to get a look at the sky--

--And find the beach absolutely covered in heaps of beach peas. There are so many that you can't even see the sand underfoot, and more of the pods are still washing up with the swollen tide. A flurry of very confused seagulls are already picking at the pile of legumes, but you should be quick about getting your own share - other captives are likely to show up soon, too, and they probably have much deeper pockets and appetites than the birds.

V. HOSTILE STRANGERS

As others have had the misfortune of discovering first-hand, there are entities on the island that have been here for much longer than the active group on the transceivers has been, and they aren't necessarily friendly. One in particular guards their territory fiercely from intruders - or maybe they just enjoy toying with those that wander within their reach. For those exploring the dense jungles in the northeast, this individual's motivations are probably the last things on your mind when you encounter them personally. Minding your own business, by yourself or traveling with others like you, noting the odd lack of animal calls in an otherwise vibrant jungle, suddenly there's the faint whistling noise of a crossbow bolt hissing through the air on a collision course for your vitals. You might consider yourself lucky if you stumble into one of their expertly-hidden rope traps instead and end up dangling by your ankle ten feet in the air. Hopefully, if you are currently traveling alone, someone will find you quickly enough to keep you from being killed outright by this hidden assailant.

NAVIGATION

Comments

nobara kugisaki | jujutsu kaisen

[kugisaki]

I. ARRIVAL

[ don't mind the sand on her cheek when she finally comes to, or the groan that leaves her when her eye opens— wait. no. when her eyes open. plural!

oh.

ohhhh. is she dead? surely, that is the only possible explanation!

did the afterlife wash her up on the shore of an okinawan beach with both eyes and her school uniform? not her choice of a vacation, but it's fine. it'll do. what won't do is the burning at the back of her throat, no doubt due to dehydration. it doesn't help that she's hungry on top of being thirsty. wait, isn't she dead??? these things shouldn't matter. best for her to ignore them then. 🤡

for whatever reason, she has her hammer and it appears that she's been holding onto it for dear life even in an unconscious state. so of course she's going to swing the mallet in the direction of whoever nudged her shoulder. ]

II. NETWORK

[ there's static, complete silence and then the crackling of even more static combined with a string of broken, inaudible words. one can assume whoever's on the other end of this channel is continuously pressing on the Chan button.

a few seconds later, it is the voice of a teenage girl that comes through and it is Incredibly Irritated. ]

...what the hell, does this thing even work? Stupid—

[ followed by a thudding sound. she's knocking the transceiver against the palm of her hand. maybe it'll work??? ]

III. A SAFE PLACE

[ a girl with no manners points to the nearest person by the dry racks with her hammer. where this girl got this hammer, you have no idea. she seems attached to it, though.

maybe you'll notice, maybe you won't — but in her other hand, she has a nail tucked between her index and middle fingers. ]

Oi! You there! What is this place? Is this a cult?

i;

[1797]

[Ren backs up fast, hands out in front of him—both as a ward and a clear message: no weapons. He's a mess, hair frizzier than normal and the jacket slung over one shoulder stained with salt, bruises yellowing on his face.]

Sorry. The tide— [his eyes flick towards the water for half a second] —it comes in pretty soon.

[kugisaki]

[ the hammer swing is more of a dangle. her arm feels like jelly and she had to turn her entire body to make that swing, so — she's lying on her side now, facing Glasses Guy™.

nobara squints at him and doesn't say a word for a good five seconds before she pushes herself up to try and stand up because it is Embarrassing to be found in such a state, more so in front of this nerd!!! ]

Oh. [ a pregnant pause— ] Thanks, four eyes. [ —and then more squinting. ] Are you the grim reaper leading me to the afterlife or something? You know, I've always imagined grim reapers to be more intimidating.

II. AP251C | voice

[desperate_times_right]

Girl, just hold down the button.

callsign: K07GS8 | this wouldve been helpful huh

[kugisaki]

[ garbled noises ] ...never actually used one of these things... Facetiming would be so much easier—can a girl get some food around here?

[desperate_times_right]

God, yeah, I miss my phone, but this is what we've got.

As for food, depends on where you're at. YL and I spent like a week living off dragonfruit, but if you're in the southwest and don't mind a bunch of do-gooders putting their noses in your business they've got fish and stuff at the old airfield.

[hyakuoku]

[ What the hell is it with people threatening with weapons! First Levi and his intense paranoia and now this? OFFENSIVE. Senku looks offended. He has a knife on his belt, though it's in the back so she probably can't see it. He doesn't look at all intimidating, though, and he doesn't use that knife as a weapon anyway. ]

You think cults hang out in abandoned air fields? That's a hell of an imagination. Surely they'd hang out somewhere weirder.

[ What does he know about cults though. ]

You wake up on the beach here? We're like you. We all woke up here a couple weeks ago.

[kugisaki]

What? [ that earns him a scoff. ] This is pretty weird, you giant scallion!

[ this is the perfect place for a cult to call home. a secluded base far, far from civilization. is he their leader? she doubts it. anyway— ]

A couple of weeks ago? [ her stomach drops, but so does the hand holding her weapon. ] Were there people here before you?

[hyakuoku]

[ If Senku rolled his eyes any harder, they'd fall out of his head. Wow, like he's never heard an onion joke! Though usually it's leeks, so this one is sort of new. Anyway, he doesn't care if people call him names, as long as they don't treat him like he's stupid. ]

We're not a damn cult. We're trying to survive after we all woke up here, like I said.

[ He doesn't move any closer, but he doesn't move further away, either. He can't fight her; he's not a fighter at all. He can outsmart people or dazzle them with chemical tricks, but he'd prefer to just deescalate, all things considered. ]

Other people...sort of. There must have been at some point, but the people who seem to live on this island are descended from survivors of a plane crash.

[ And a couple hostile entities but now is not the time for that. ]

I'm Senku. This is Team Science's base. We're trying to keep everyone alive while I figure out how the hell we got here and how to get us back home.

[ He says I like it's all up to him. He knows it's not, but it's his goal: save everyone. ]