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

Levi - Fear & Hunger 2: Termina

[solitarysoul]

II LV464J

[He'd seen these transceiver things before, but never used one. Or even gotten that close to one. They were usually reserved for higher ups than him, but the use was basic enough that after hitting a few buttons he figured out the basics of sending a message.]

Hello?

[Wait no, this had to be something official. His voice shifts over to solider mode]

Request information on local and inhabitants.


III

Finding an airfield in this place didn't make him feel any less like this wasn't some weird military experiment. So far it'd seemed much more pleasant than any military anything he'd seen before, but Levi assumes that just means its ramping up for something horrible. The airfield seemed...deserted? though. Or, at least, he saw signs of people but no actual people. He should be more careful and look around, but instead he spots the racks of drying fish and makes a beeline towards it.
He's not certain when he ate last, especially since he's not sure how he got here, but his stomach feels empty. He grabs one than hesitates before grabbing another to awkwardly shove in a pocket. As he turns away from the rack, though, Levi realizes he's not alone. He freezes, eyes going wide and flicking between the person and anything that could be considered an escape route.

[meadqueen]

How people named Levi keep sneaking past their perimeter scouting is a question best left for later.

The woman watching him is wearing roughly made blue clothing - it was an underlayer until this island took everything else - with an array of strange items including a radio like his (except blue with a cheesy palm tree design on it), a travel water bottle, and a child’s red plastic pail containing what look like small pieces of scrap metal hanging from an intricate leather belt.

There is an ornate war hammer at her hip, and although her hand is resting on the pommel, what she says is, “I mean you no harm if you come in peace.”

[solitarysoul]

His eyes go to her weapon, but the fact that she hasn't drawn it isn't lost on him. She's talking to him, and not just threatening him, so he relaxes somewhat. A sane person, then. Good.

"I do. I'm not here to hurt anyone. I was just hungry."

He has so many questions for her, but best to see if she's likely to answer anything first.

[meadqueen]

The sound of his voice surprises her. This is a child, likely close in age to Kokichi - or Ceolbert, but she's not thinking about him - and despite the fact that she had been a blooded raider by that age herself, it relaxes her stance a bit.

“It's all right. We provide food and clean water to others who were brought here as we were. My name is Randvi, and I founded this village nearly a month ago. Have you just arrived?”

[solitarysoul]

Was he that easy to pin down as a kid? He's 18, and he really hoped people would stop treating him like one. The army coveralls usually stopped it, at least where he came from. Then they didn't treat you like anything at all.

"You were brought here? Uh...yeah, I just woke up on the beach. This is the first place I found."

[meadqueen]

She does this to Steph and Senku too and they're both 19 so RIP I guess

“Yes, I awoke at the base of the cliffs to the northwest. I thought I had been abducted by bandits and left for dead, but this is something far stranger. There are people from many different realms here.”

This multiverse situation is a lot for someone who doesn't even know what a planet is.

[solitarysoul]

"Different realms?" Like different countries? "Is there anyone from here?"

[meadqueen]

“Yes. Depending on where you come from, many of your customs and concerns may be completely unfamiliar to the others who have been abducted alongside us. You may also find that some of your own abilities have been… diminished… although it was not so for me.”

She's still very disappointed that K can't turn into a cat anymore.

“I'm not sure whether anyone here now can claim to have originated here, but there were people here before us. There is a village to the east made up of the descendants of people who had survived a shipwreck of sorts -” they'll get into 'do you know what an airplane is' later - "and there are people hostile to us living in the foothills to the northeast.”

[solitarysoul]

"I don't really have many, ah, abilities." Especially without his rifle. Or did she mean more like the things Marina and O'Saa could do? He guesses he picked up a few...tricks...during the festival. It'd be fine if he couldn't do those anymore, though.

"...tell me about the hostile ones."

[meadqueen]

“That's all right. It will likely make adjusting to living here a bit easier.” Not that they want to get used to it, but at least he won't find himself trying to lean on an ability he doesn't have access to anymore.

“We have not seen these people, but they have killed several of our own before. They seem to be armed with crossbows. At least one of them lives in a cabin in the foothills, and they don't appear to venture outside their territory.” Randvi hasn't exactly been circumspect about the location of their village and none of the crossbow people have ever confronted them there.

III

[wingbound]

Speaking of people named Levi sneaking past Randvi's perimeter --

Just kidding. Levi hasn't been sneaking for a while now, becoming something of an established... not a member, not really, but an ally to the airfield team, pretty much, so nobody bats an eye when he's around for some reason or another.

He does, however, when he sees a person he hasn't seen before strolling across sand, and for a moment, he's alarmed, but then he sees them grabbing the fish, and well. When you see somebody stealing food, no you fucking didn't, unless it's from your personal stash in which case you shank that fucker but that's not the case here.

"Didn't see shit," he reassures the flighty looking kid, pausing in his tracks to maintain a comfortable distance just in case. His voice sounds inflectionless, almost monotonic. "And anyway, it's for everyone."

[solitarysoul]

The other Levi's demeanor instantly puts him at ease, or at least mostly at ease. He's no stranger to stealing food and would never rat someone out about that. There were so many reasons people couldn't just buy or hunt it.

"Thanks. Can I ask you about this place?" Oh, maybe that was asking too much... "If no that's okay."

[wingbound]

Many reasons and many circumstances. Back where Levi grew up, there was no way to grow or hunt anything, save for maybe the rats coming down through the sewers. The whole undercity survived on what the merchants deigned to drag in, usually overpriced, with MPs watching them like hawks and making stealing nearly impossible, too. Nothing like misery to make people feel camaraderie.

At least Levi Jr seems to relax somewhat. Probably a good sign.

"Go ahead," he encourages, though his tone remains flat. "But I don't exactly know much, either."

[solitarysoul]

"Where are we?"

Best to start off simple.

[wingbound]

"On an island."

Ask simple questions, get simple answers. Unfortunately, there's not much more they know about that. Well, he does have some statistics at least.

"We don't know where it's located or what it's called. It seems to be about ninety kilometers across," he'd estimated that from the map he found and what he perceived to be his trajectory from one point to another on it, "and there's around twenty confirmed people who arrived here from someplace else."

In other words, just like them.

[solitarysoul]

He looks annoyed for a split second at that response, before the older Levi elaborates.

"What are the points of interest? Anywhere I need to know about?"

Easier than expected, he's slipped into recon and debriefing mode. Analyzing the area was easier than figuring out how or why.

[wingbound]

"This is one," Levi tilts his head slightly to indicate the airfield. Recon and debriefing seems to be a preferred conversation mode for him too, at least when it comes to their current situation. "There's also at least one well-armed hostile in a cabin at the north east portion of the island. Several abandoned holding cells between here and there. You can speak to a woman named Randvi if you want to see a map."

[solitarysoul]

Right. Of course an abandoned base would be interesting. And a map would probably be nice, but he gets hung up on something first.

"What sort of hostile?"

[wingbound]

Well, it's not entirely abandoned now, seeing that people have turned it into a community of sorts, but they're not exactly using it as intended, so it does nothing for the disarray and decay of the military(?) aspect. Although he's been told this was a base for 'tourists'. Whatever.

"A hunter of sorts. Very familiar with terrain, judging from the fact that nobody has seen them so far. One guy who ventured too close was killed, a few others got shot at and rapidly changed course."

iii

[hyakuoku]

[ Senku comes out of one of the hangars, probably to check something at the clay oven where he's distilling ethanol, but stops when he sees someone he doesn't recognise. Newcomer, he figures, unless this bedraggled guy is one of the plane crash descendants…? Nah, those people don't come over here. ]

"It's fine, that fish is community property. But if you're feeling guilty, we can always use some help around here."

[solitarysoul]

[The idea that people are giving away free food is a bit wild to him, but he won't question it. He's not feeling guilty, but he wouldn't mind doing something to pay it back. He relaxes.]

...okay. What do you need?

[hyakuoku]

[ Senku is fairly generous with what he has, regardless of who he's sharing with. As far as he's concerned, survival is a group effort. And to get people on board with that effort, they have to eat and drink.

But he's also not above a little casual manipulation to get people to do grunt work on his experiments or whatever. ]

What I need right now is someone to help me patch up this clay distiller. Hope you don't mind getting your hands messy.

[ He grins, which might seem just a little manic. ]

You can eat first though.

[solitarysoul]

Patch up a what? [He asks around a mouth full of fish.] I don't mind getting messy.

[hyakuoku]

It's a distiller. I've been using it to make ethanol for disinfecting things. You don't need any fancy knowledge. We just get more clay and slap it on there, more or less.

[ He points off in the distance. ]

Problem is, the clay is all down by the river so we have to haul it back.

[ This guy doesn't look all that strong, but surely together they can manage. They don't need as much clay as they needed to build the ovens, so...it's fine! This is fine. ]

What's your name? I'm Senku.

[solitarysoul]

A distiller?

[You used those to make alcohol, right?]

Oh, okay. Just lead the way. I'm Levi