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TDM #1

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

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ARRIVAL

All things considered, Chloe is pretty excited to be alive. Being caught sneaking around a paramilitary camp is bad enough without falling off a cliff in the ensuing firefight, and despite being thoroughly waterlogged she doesn't even feel half drowned, which is amazing. Couldn't have asked for a better outcome.

Except not being caught, maybe. Oh well.

Chloe gets to her feet, groaning, then freezes halfway through trying to redo her ponytail so she can see anything through all the wet hair stuck to her face when she spots the silhouette of another person.

"Who's there?"

EXPLORING

Okay, so this place is looking less and less like it's anywhere near Malaysia by the minute, which is obviously making finding the way back to Nadine and the jeep a bit of a difficult proposition. Not to mention that this stupid radio will not stop beeping, and no one using it seems to sound remotely like either her enemies or her partner.

She's just starting to cut her way into the underbrush, arguing animatedly out loud with herself about whether she's lost or not (she's not; it's fine, but what if she is? What if Nadine gets hurt trying to find her? What a joke, she's tougher than anyone) when she accidentally disturbs a colourful ground bird in its nest.

The bird opens its beak to make its displeasure known and Chloe finds herself shrieking and falling on her ass in a very uncool way as a thin stream of fire shoots from its open mouth.

Leaving what friendly face he'd found wasn't his first choice, necessarily, but not exploring the island at all seemed beyond dumb. A little walk into the brush turned into following a slight path and then the sound of a female voice...talking to herself? Maybe. It was potentially another friendly face, so he was going to take the direction while he had it.

He's just about come up behind her when there's a stumble from her ahead and a shriek and Jet's instincts kick in, sending him rushing forward...and almost directly into a stream of fire. "What the-!"

He looks down at the angry colorful bird and the tumbled branch near its nest. Ah. "Yeah, I might spit fire too if someone almost crush my home."

Jet turns towards the woman and offers a hand out to her as he moves to put himself a bit more between her and the bird. Not all of his cybernetics seemed to be functioning how they should, but he was reasonably sure his fire-resistance was still working. "Hey. You alright there?"

“Yeah.” Chloe’s still breathing hard, trying to recover from the shock. “Think I singed my eyebrows. Christ.”

She gets up on her own - she's still holding her knife but also this guy came out of nowhere - and peers behind him.

“Was that the bird?”

He shrugs and shoves his hand into the pocket of his bomber jacket, its air force and squadron patches on the sleeve and chest and bars on the shoulder, but otherwise unarmed himself. He looks over his shoulder to the bird that seems to issue out a little spurt of warning flame at them before beginning to clean their nest area.

"Seems like. Lucky it wasn't a fire-breathing snake, I guess." That might have gotten closer first.

"It looks real, but it could also just be really well made. You headed somewhere specific or just in?"

Chloe looks at the patches maybe a little longer and more obviously than she should, but paramilitary guys are after her and she's trying to be smart. No tri-colour Shoreline logo so she's probably fine.

“Heading up,” she replies. “If I can get to a good tree, or tower or something, I can get the lay of the land. What are you doing here, anyway?”

He watches her out of the corner of his eye, but keeps his focus on the trees around them. She didn't look like the type of person who would usually be out for him and his team, but that didn't really mean anything. Wariness wasn't without its place.

"I had a similar thought. I'm used to getting a taller view, but seems that's not much of an option right now and the beach isn't offering many more clues beyond 'equator' and 'hot.'"

And if they're going the same way...he gives her a glance over. "Maybe two heads are better than one?" He offers a small smirk, some wry humor slipping into his tone. "Either that or you can keep upsetting the local wildlife."

“I thought I was still in Malaysia, but now I don't know.” There have been a lot of little nagging things, but a fire-breathing bird kind of clinches it.

Chloe nods and starts walking. The quicker they can figure things out, the better.

“How long have you been here? I just woke up.”

He shrugs. "Dunno, people with lots of money and too much technology at hand could put a fire breathing bird in Malaysia, but I think you're right that's not where we are."

He follows her path readily, only stepping forward to help with the under brush as needed.

"Only been awake for a couple hours at most." Two hours and thirteen minutes, if the read-out at the corner of his vision was still accurate. "Met a guy on the beach and then decided I'd head more inland to see who or what I could find. Which reminds me...did you wake up with a radio too?"

Edited 2023-05-12 18:22 (UTC)

“I've met some guys who would try that sort of thing, but I doubt they'd release it unmonitored into the wild afterward.” They'd be trying to make super soldiers, or executing people with it or something.

She's got a knife with her, but it's getting pretty dull from cutting so many ropes with it, so the help is appreciated.

“Yeah. I had a radio before, though. Can't raise any of my people on it and there’s a lot of panicky civilian chatter.”

“Same thing on my end. Should have at least a direct connection to my team, but they can’t hear me and a lot of my usual tech seems to be on the fritz.”

Something he’d have to look into at…some point.

“So what about you? Not a civilian? You got a name?”

Chloe shrugs. “What's it called when you're not military but half your team used to be, and paramilitary weirdos keep trying to kill you?”

Rhetorical question.

“Chloe Frazer. How about you?”

“Shit luck.” And apparently only worse if she’s here.

“Jet Link, previously Air Force and other government institutions. Nothing now.” Sort of. “Also full of shit luck, so maybe we’ll come across an ice breathing tiger next, between the two of us.”

“They called you Jet in the air force?” Chloe snickers, sorry dude. That would be like if everyone had called her Van in her getaway driver days.

“Honestly wouldn't say no to some ice breath right now. It's really hot here.”

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metalicarus - 2023-05-15 05:30 (UTC) - Expand

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desperate_times_right - 2023-05-15 05:43 (UTC) - Expand

The silhouette of the human is admittedly poorly defined beneath the completely waterlogged yellow robes he's trying desperately to pull off over his head, but the shock of another voice makes him bolt upright, and that apparently is what was needed to free his head from the voluminous material.

It's a man, in a three-piece suit (equally soaked as his robes), with dark hair plastered across his face as well, and a look of shock that quickly turns defensive as his eyes flick wildly across the gap between him and Chloe.

"I-I, I--" he swallows thickly, and tries again, more of a bark and less of a panicked stammer. "I could ask you th- the same fucking question."

The tone of voice almost immediately makes Chloe feel better - not very likely that a guy wanting to kill her would catch her unawares like this and manage not to be smug about it - but at the same time it puts her in an awkward position. Is this an unlucky tourist? In a suit and one of those yellow sailor raincoats or whatever?

Chloe slicks her wet hair back with one hand and frowns. “Oh no, we are not doing that. You snuck up on me. Not very polite at all.”

Whatever the fabric is of for the yellow robes (now a muddy sort of brown from being waterlogged and covered in sand) it certainly doesn't fall like a rainslicker. Rather more like a curtain, or a hessian sack.

Arthur brings his own hands up to push his hair back - it's longer than it seems, trying to curl where the thinner parts are already drying - and his worried tension turns hard, annoyed. "And how do you propose I snuck up on you, miss? I just washed up here."

Chloe’s nostrils flare at that ʼmissʼ but on the other hand at least it's not ma’am.

“You're walking around, stripping or whatever, and I'm just standing here.”

"Oh, yes, yeah-- me clambering my way out of a goddamn cultist's robes, very fucking sneaky." Not to mention how they are - were - a very obnoxious shade. Like an evil banana, not that Arthur can appreciate it.

He flaps an arm in her general direction with a cutting motion. "What about you, running around yelling at people like you own the bloody beach."

“Running ar- I am literally just standing here!”

The rest of it though... There were not supposed to be cults this time.

“Why are you dressed like that, anyway?”

"Because I was infiltrating a damn cult and it went to- fucking- shit-!"

The curses come with a furious kick at the robe, which half-misses the easy fucking target, causing a sleeve to whip his ankle and make him stumble back in surprise. He lets out a harsh grunt of a breath, and shakes his sleeves out to try and loosen the wet fabric as he lifts his hands to comb his hair back, gritting his teeth as he does.

"It doesn't fucking matter now."

Huh. Maybe someone actually is having a worse day than her.

“You fall off a cliff too or what?”

He did that yesterday.

"I've had a rather busy few days, which I'm not particularly fond of recounting it to a fucking stranger." He starts dusting off his suit, which mostly just results in him sloughing water off it instead. "Look, just- do you know where the nearest fucking city is. Or a-a bus stop, or something. Fuck."

“Do I look like someone who knows where -” At this point Chloe’s only really continuing the argument because this guy gets on her nerves, which has the unfortunate effect of prolonging the conversation.

“Look. Last I knew I was pretty close to Kuantan. You might not have fun while doing it but you can probably walk there.”

There's a sharp comment on the edge of his tongue, something to the effect of 'do I look like someone who knows how to see' but he really doesn't want to give the game away any more than he has.

"Right. Fine. Which way, then?" He glares in her direction, eyes flicking across Chloe's form without ever really lingering - but then something in his expression shifts, and the frown seems more confused than annoyed. "W-wait, you said-- w-where the fuck is Kuantan?"

Sorry dude, she doesn't think you're blind, just kind of a loser who is bad at tantrums.

“Oh, is that how we’re gonna play it? 'I escaped a cult and washed up on a mystery beach without even knowing what part of the world I'm in?' What, were you meeting on a cruise ship? Come on, man.”

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

TDM GUIDELINES

I. ARRIVAL

II. NETWORK

III. EXPLORING

Chloe Frazer | Uncharted

Exploration

Re: Exploration

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Sorry for the delay, moving house!

Oh RIP

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ITS ME YA BOY MANIETTE HELLO AGAIN

YOOOOO

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