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

[wingbound]

[ Levi drags over some more leaves while watching Lalo fidget with the branch. They don't really have any tools to shove it deeper into the ground to make it more stable, but he's quite sure he can at least make an improvement from the current situation, so he walks over and wordlessly reaches for it, raising an eyebrow slightly. May I? ]

[ ...Great. More questions he doesn't want to answer, but judging from the fact that the other man doesn't seem to recognize the name, he's probably not an immediate threat. ]

Sure. It's also infested with giant, people-eating scumbags.

[ Or, well, it was. They'd sort of taken care of it by now, but the issue had lasted for over a hundred years before that. ]

[salamanca]

[ Lalo, also wordlessly, releases the branch so Levi can take it. He gives a slight nod. Knock yourself out.

He sweeps a hand over his forehead to wipe away beads of sweat while Levi works on the branch.

A place being infested with scumbags isn't an uncommon thing for Lalo, but it's the "people-eating" that catches his attention. There's a very slight but obvious widening of his eyes. ]

"People-eating?" What, like cannibals?

[ Congratulations, Levi. You've actually found something that spooks even Lalo! ]

[wingbound]

[ Levi wiggles the branch experimentally, then pulls it away from the ground only to smash it back into it with one fluid motion. He's not as strong as he normally would be, hasn't quite felt right since he woke up here, but the damn stalk still sinks into the earth some inches more than before, making it stand rather steadily. ]

[ If they do the same with a few more and ties the rest together, it should be reasonably sturdy even if the wind and rain picks up. ]

Worse. [ He really should have paid the attention to the "giant" part. Speaking of which, Levi peers at him again, eyebrows slightly raised. ] Have you never encountered a Titan?

[salamanca]

[ Lalo gives a low, impressed whistle at the way Levi is able to stick the branch so forcefully into the ground. ]

Nice!

[ He sounds impressed, almost enamored. His face breaks into a grin.

It's not to last, though. The "Titan" comment confuses and flummoxes him. It sounds like a mascot from a sports team, but he can tell from context that's not what the other man is talking about.

He shakes his head. He sees no reason, right now, to pretend he knows something he doesn't. He can't see any benefit to that right now. ]

What's a "Titan?"

[wingbound]

[ Luckily for him, Levi apparently decides to continue with the... making a rough frame for the lean-to, though he does momentarily pause to give Lalo one of his Looks when he questions him. ]

[ Either he's lying or he's the luckiest man alive. Shit's been weird enough that he's still willing to entertain the latter. ]

A piece of shit beast. [ He's not sure how to explain it using as few words as he feels like sparing, but he tries anyway. ] Four to fifteen meters tall, hellbent on devouring every human they encounter.

[ They also used to be humans. He's not sure if he wants to discuss that part right now, though. It's been... hours since he was forced to slaughter his own former squad. ]

[salamanca]

[ For once, Lalo is genuinely, completely speechless. Nothing about Levi suggests he's insane. On the contrary, he's practical and measured and calm. So.

What the fuck. Is this just some weird cult mythology that gets pushed onto all the little kiddos at whatever cult this guy grew up in? He's not saying he's actually... encountered... anything like that, is he? ]

This, this is something you've-- [ disbelieving pause ]-- something you've seen?

[ He has momentarily given up on being productive to just stare, stunned. ]

[wingbound]

I've fought them.

[ He says, offhandedly, like it's a Tuesday and like he's not the most effective anti-titan weapon in existence to date, and wedges another piece of wood into the dirt. ]

[salamanca]

[ .... ]

Okay. So. Let me get this straight.

Where you are from, they have "Titans."

These are huge animals that devour every person they see.

And you've seen them.

You've fought them.

Do I have all of that?

[wingbound]

They're humanoid.

[ That seems to be his only correction, so yeah? He's got the rest? ]

Sounds like "Mexico" got lucky.

[salamanca]

[ Lalo has spent a lot of time around people who are unstable, prone to emotional outbursts, or otherwise just not all there mentally. However, this is the first time in a while that he's ever had someone calmly, in a very reasonable tone of voice, tell him that they fight giant, humanoid monsters that eat people.

He blinks a few times. Then he starts to laugh. He gives Levi a point. ]

Ayyyy, that's a good one! You almost got me there. Ever considered getting an agent? I'm serious. You're a good actor. You could probably do movies, if you wanted!

[wingbound]

[ He looks at Lalo. Looks at the camera. lean-to he's building. Shoves a few more branches into place and starts weaving some vines through it for stability without deigning whatever the hell that was with a reply. ]

[ Or, at least, it seems that way for a while, until there's an inevitable, quiet, grumpy; ]

"Movies"?..

[salamanca]

Right. They, uh, don't have movies on the compound, eh?

[ His laughter is forced, his expression increasingly and uncharacteristically nervous. ]

[wingbound]

[ "Compound". That's a funny way to call the Walls, but he supposes it's not... inaccurate? Just on a really large scale. ]

Not that I know of. [ Maybe they call it something else. He sure as hell doesn't know what fancy shit goes on in the capital city, let alone in the outside world. ]

[ He's definitely noticing that forced laughter and that creepy-ass expression, though. ]

What's with that face? You look like you need to shit.