TDM #1

[glencolans]

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

Welcome to Glencola Reef's first 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. EXPLORING

For a place that appears, by all signs, to be an equatorial island in the middle of a tropical ocean, the local environments are surprisingly diverse. Beaches range from idyllic white sand to storm-swept pebble crags to cliffs with waterfalls cascading off the edges; the interior forests can be thinned from sandy soil or dense jungles full of prickly underbrush and with towering canopies; and the central mountain peaks, perilous enough to climb on their own, terminate in ravines and sinkholes that are hidden by thick foliage until you already have one foot over the edge.

The animals that make their homes here are equally as varied, and sometimes just as dangerous. The standard Earth fare of tropical fish swim right up to most shores, especially where reefs have grown, and a multitude of seafaring and jungle birds make their homes in ocean-facing cliffs and trees. Any one of these creatures would make for an easy snack. But you're not the only opportunistic hunters here; sharks prowl the waters, big cats stalk the jungles, and feral boars raid any camps that smell enticing. And that's just the stuff that looks like it came from modern Earth. Your improvised fishing rod might have captured a trilobite, or maybe that deer you were stalking has rounded on you with a set of alien mandibles full of sharp teeth. Or maybe, among the plants and animals completely foreign to you, you've stumbled across one that's strangely familiar to your home and no one else's.

There's a lot to figure out about this place. At least, in this instance, you aren't doing it alone.

NAVIGATION

Comments

[lonelynotforsaken]

There's a bit of a pause. "Um... that's... really precise?"

[metalicarus]

"Thanks." Completely deadpan. "Just don't move, I'll be there soon." Relatively.

Also cautiously, he wants to see this guy first, check for any of the usual evil scientist tells that come with people kidnapping him. What he spots as he rounds the curve of the beach is...not that. Unassuming. Normal, if surprisingly a little taller than him. Probably just another victim...still, he spares a small wave as he calls.

"Martin?"

[lonelynotforsaken]

Martin watches along the beach until a handsome young blonde man turns up. His own wave is hesitant before he starts walking toward the other man. Probably the most notable thing about him is that the front of his shirt and his thighs are covered in blood stains. Far too much blood to be from him, given how easily he's walking.

"Yeah! Hey, Jet. That was a lot quicker than I was expecting. Um... nice to meet you? Not... under the circumstances, I mean, but y'know? In general?"

[metalicarus]

He knows bloodstains when he sees them and even if the telescoping aspect of his eyes seem to be as on the fritz as the rest of his cybernetics, he doesn't feel he'd need a closer look. So...a little more than normal, maybe.

"I walk quickly." Which wasn't a lie, he just should have been able to be here much sooner. Or away from here entirely, if he'd wanted. "Sure. A friendly face is better than no face at all. I'm plenty happy to meet you too."

Dressed in a bomber jacket with captain's bars on the shoulders and patches on the sleeves and front indicating U.S. Air Force, he's sure the image he comes with as he gestures towards Martin's clothes. "You get into a fight or something? That's a lot of not-your-blood going on there."

[lonelynotforsaken]

He glances down at his own unpleasantly moist clothes and grimaces, the memory of Jon's many eyes, the terrible request to stab him. Martin shakes his head. "No, this is- Um... I'm looking for my boyfriend. We were together right before I woke up here. You haven't seen anyone else, have you? His hair's going gray. M-more than mine. And he's got pockmark scars all over him."

There's a part of him that's desperately hoping the answer is 'no.' The alternative is that Jon is here, and Jet found a body. Unless Jon just ran off into the jungle like some sort of wildman.

Not impossible, granted.

cw: brief 1950s and military based internalized homophobia reference

[metalicarus]

Boyfriend still catches in his thoughts in a way he hopes will one day go away, but he's at least mastered keeping it off his face how he almost feels the need to flinch and look around. They were on a deserted beach, there was no one around to get upset and try to pick some fight. Or report to.

He sets that aside for now. "No, I haven't. I've been wandering a bit after I woke up and decided to try and find a place to wait for nightfall instead when your voice came through the transceiver. Whoever else is here wasn't on my path." But... "But I could help you go looking, if you want? Beats standing around here ramming my head against a wall."

[lonelynotforsaken]

A mix of relief and worry swirls through him. No bodies. That's good. That's very good. "I'd appreciate the help. But... why were you waiting for nightfall? Just for the heat to die off? It's hot here. Like... we've had summers getting out of hand with global warming, but this is humid and awful and-" He's whining. "Sorry. I-I'm just used to- I'm not used to this sort of weather."

[metalicarus]

Jet blinks at the...observations and huffs a laugh again. This guy...

"It's gotta be around the equator, only place this kind of weather makes sense. You said Lond, yeah? One of my family's from there, not surprised you think it's unbearable. He'd probably be complaining too." At least G.B. would make him smile if he were here.

Or Jet would want to throw him in the ocean, it was about a 50/50 shot there. He gestures around them.

"Your..boyfriend more likely to walk the beach to look for you or go into the jungle, do you think?"

[lonelynotforsaken]

There's a question. Martin frowns slightly as he considers it. "Neither of us are super outdoorsy. He might have stuck to the beach just because it's less to try to fight through. But then there's actually shade up there..." How sensible would Jon be in getting out of the sun? Irritation would probably drive him over any particular wisdom.

"Why don't we walk along the tree line? It'll let us keep an eye on both sides. And an ear. Maybe spot some freshwater, too. Were you with anyone before you got here? Military... people?" Martin can recognize that's a uniform, even if he doesn't know what branch it is.

[metalicarus]

Jet leads them up towards the treeline once they've got a heading and it affords him a moment to think on his answer. That's a bit of a loaded question, isn't it? "Sort of."

Yeah, that's about what he's got there.

"I was waiting for night time to see if I could identify the constellations and figure out where we are, roughly."

[lonelynotforsaken]

"That's... clever. Like amazingly clever. You're really smart, aren't you?" First the measuring distance thing, now this. "I'm not sure I'd be any good at that sort of thing. I know Orion's Belt? Um... and the North Star? Ah... you can tell direction from the sun and stars, too, can't you?" He pulls out his radio, pressing buttons to see if he can pull up a clock on it as they walk.

[metalicarus]

There's a moment of surprise and then unease that flickers through Jet's expression and he brings a hand up to the back of his neck. "Oh...thanks."

It was either pretend he actually accepted the compliment or admit it was half thanks to computers and cybernetics in his eyes. Martin didn't fit the usual monologuing scientist he was used to, but that didn't mean it was safe to just admit what he was.

"Military training. If a plane goes down in an unknown area, gotta know how to start walking again if you can." Which wasn't a lie, at least. "You typically can. Harder if this is the around the equator, cause the sun will sort of just hang there for twelve hours and then go down for another twelve." Anyway... "You didn't mention your boyfriend's name."

[lonelynotforsaken]

Martin's gaze flicks briefly over to the other man at the verbal stumble. Bad at taking compliments. So noted. Jon could be the same way sometimes. Best to file that information away for later use, if needed. It's sometimes a good way to trip someone up if they're spinning or digging too deeply into something personal.

Jon, thankfully, is a topic Martin's willing to go on about at length. "Jon. Jonathan Sims. He's properly from the south, so he's got a fancier accent than I do. And he's smart, too. Really, really smart. I think he swallowed an encyclopedia when he was a kid and then started in on wiki deep-dives." There's a fondness in his tone as he describes the other man.

[metalicarus]

He opens the door and his new pal-of-convenience certainly steps through it. He tries not to think about how the descriptor of 'swallowed an encyclopedia' makes him think of a certain silver-haired German and his stupid, smug, know-it-all face. Still, Jet's lips pull up into a slow-growing smirk.

"I know someone a little like that. You're really keen on him, huh? Sounds sweet, hopefully we can find him for you."

[lonelynotforsaken]

"Yeah. We've been through a lot together the last few years. Rough times. I just- I need to make sure he's okay." What with... stabbing him. But that can't mean Jon's actually dead if Martin is here. He's so much stronger and the Eye had to have done something. Or the Web. Jon has to be okay. If he isn't, then...

Jon has to be okay.

"We're in it together, y'know? And he's terrible at taking care of himself. The sooner I find him, the better. Need to keep an ear out on these radios, I guess. If... if he has one. Finds one? It's weird this thing just washed up with me. Was it the same for you?"

[metalicarus]

"Yeah...I get it." In it together, no matter what. That was how it was supposed to be. He'd been the one to walk away from them all, his family. Then they'd welcomed him back easy as anything. And now he was here.

He hopes they're not. Maybe they'd come looking for him...or maybe they'd think he fucked off again.

"It was practically on me, but I haven't had one of these in-" Don't show your age. "In a while. Good for airplanes since they're less likely to break in a crash, but I definitely wasn't flying last I remember. If he's got one of these too, we should be able to pick it up if he tries. It seems like an open signal. Although..." That puts another thought in him that makes his lips press tighter together.

"If it's an open signal, anyone should be able to pick it up and respond if they're passing the frequency."

[lonelynotforsaken]

"So, that means if there are any pilots flying nearby, then we should be able to talk to them, right?" That sounds like a good thing. "Um... provided they speak English? Or French. I could probably do a little French." He mumbles the last bit to himself, "Ask them where the loo is in Polish?" None of these seem like languages that would be incredibly helpful around the equator.

French, maybe? Probably the closest thing to useful, and he has elementary levels of vocabulary and grammar for that.

[metalicarus]

"I should be able to talk to whoever." Should because if his jets are on the fritz and some of his HUD isn't working, did that mean his universal translator was shot too? One way to tell. He chooses Mandarin, a comfortable familiar as he continues.

"I'm fluent in every human language you can think of. Can you understand me?"

[lonelynotforsaken]

There's a long, confused pause. "Uh... yeah? But I don't speak- H-how did- What?"

Martin's fairly certain that was some Asian language, even if he isn't sure of the specifics. But he'd understood it. That shouldn't work. That's a thing Jon can do as the Archivist. That's never been in Martin's repertoire.

[metalicarus]

Uh…shit. He hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Jet looks intently at a break in the trees. “Great, then we’re set no matter who flies by. Hey, think there’s a break in the trees up ahead. Might be a good place for shade or a way through the trees.”

Just don’t worry about it, Martin.

[lonelynotforsaken]

Martin stays where he is, his tone cutting just a little harder. "I'm not stupid, you know?"

[metalicarus]

Jet stops and gives a sigh, a hand coming up to run across his eyes.

“No, you’re not.” He turns back to face him. “It’s…let’s call it tech. It lets you know what I’m saying too. Makes it easy if I’m in some other country.”

[lonelynotforsaken]

"What branch of the military are you? Because that-that's Star Trek levels of nonsense. Universal translators." Only someone high up in the special-est of special forces would have something like that, right? Which... leads to the question of what someone like that is doing here. He'd thought this man had been dragged through with him and Jon somehow.

He's beginning to doubt that. Maybe he's a native to this world.

[metalicarus]

He pauses a second, but decides half truths is better than more bullshit or full truth. For now.

“Air Force for a while. NSA after that. Not the kind of tools a lot of people are meant to have.” He buries his hands in his bomber jacket, his tone turning amused. “Star Trek had some good ideas, you know; technology’s not that far off.”

[lonelynotforsaken]

"I'll take your word for it. Sci-fi's not really my thing." He's more about the retro, thank you very much! "Okay. Fine. But I just want to be clear that that's... weird. Not a bad weird. Just... weird. And you should tell people before you just do weird things that involve them.

"Sorry, this isn't you, but I've had it up to my eyeballs with mysterious things and cryptic responses lately."