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

Link | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

[anticalamity]

Arrival
This isn't new.

He'd woken up practically naked on Eventide Island, and before that in the Shrine of Resurrection, so waking up fully clothed on a beach this time is an improvement. He lays there for a time, staring up at the sky and the few circling birds that inhabit it, listening to the surf and wondering where he is this time. He should probably be more alarmed, but what good would that do? He'll find a way around eventually and get back to Zelda and the others. They have a lot of work to do, after all, and its his duty to help. He wants to help.

He also wants to rest.

Lulled by the sound of waves, Link's eyes slip closed again. He'll get his bearings eventually, but the water tickling his feet is cool and the sun is warm and he can afford a little bit of time now that the world is at peace again...


Network
Whether he's afforded his nap or not, Link's trying to puzzle through this new device that's replaced his Sheikah slate. He's still plopped in the sand, knees in butterfly position and the weird bit of technology in his lap. There's a button, but when he pushes it, it makes a goddessawful loud noise. Sometimes there's voices though, almost like when Zelda would speak to him from her imprisonment, but coming from the thing in his hands rather than inside his head.

Nothing for it but to try it.

LN017K: "Hello? I heard voices."

He's... not the most loquacious.


Exploring
The wilderness is Link's element. He's used to having maybe a few more tools but he's got a bow, five arrows, and the clothes on his back so that's something. Seeing as he doesn't have many, he's decided to use the arrows for defense instead of hunting until he comes across more of them. Instead, he's wandered into the tree line in search of other foraging opportunities.

Perhaps you catch him up a tree, clutching a branch for purchase as he leans out precariously to pick some fruit he's never seen before. Or maybe his head pops up from the side of a cliff as you make your way up the winding cliff. How did he get there? He climbed up the hard way on the sheer rock wall, of course. It's the most direct, after all.

Or maybe, if you're lucky and eagle-eyed, you can spot him crouched in the underbrush, eyeing a hulking boar as it meanders by, stopping every so often to snuffle at the roots of a nearby tree. Very carefully he draws his bow from his back and nocks an arrow, the sinew of the weapon making a soft stretched sound as he draws it back, causing Link to freeze before even aiming. If he hits it in the eye, then maybe he can take it down in one shot...

network; callsign JE573R

[royallyunappreciated]

"Oh, my! I do hope they were friendly?"

[anticalamity]

"I can't hear them very well. Except yours. Who are you?"

To the point!

[royallyunappreciated]

"No one important, really. Just a voice on the radio. And a fellow castaway, I imagine."

[anticalamity]

"This is a radio?" He's never heard that word before. "So you're physically here on the island?"

[royallyunappreciated]

"I could be. But then, I'm not entirely sure." He muses. "Can any of us really be certain we're here, dear boy? A philosophical question for the ages."

[anticalamity]

There is a very long pause while Link considers that existential quandary before deciding that is way above his pay grade. The guy is somewhere if he's talking to him, so he's either here on this island (he's pretty sure its an island) or he's on the mainland.

"So... Are you on the island or not?"

[royallyunappreciated]

Ardyn's sigh is heavy and theatrical. "You're no fun, you know? From what I can tell, I'm on a beach. Possibly an island. I haven't explored terribly much. Have you?"

[anticalamity]

If Link is bothered by being told he's no fun, he doesn't show it. "Not a lot yet. I'm on the beach too."

He looks up from the radio, trying to see if anyone is in view. If it's an island, there's probably beach all around unless there's cliffs. "Where's the sun compared to the trees for you? Over them or over the ocean? Maybe I can find you."

Because when a strange voice speaks to you from a weird device, you go find the person who owns that voice. Everyone knows that.

[royallyunappreciated]

"Ah, but you don't even know me. Didn't your parents ever tell you not to run off to look for strangers?"

[anticalamity]

"I don't remember." Amnesia will do that. But it also means everyone is a stranger so he either has to talk to nobody ever or take his chances. Even so, it's no bother if this guy doesn't want to be found. He'll probably run across him eventually. "But that's fine. I just thought you might need help or something since you answered me but I guess not."

[royallyunappreciated]

"I didn't say that. What sorts of supplies have you found?"

[anticalamity]

"I have two tree branches and the bow and arrows I woke up with." He's gotten by with much less. Thankfully, he still has his clothes. "I haven't gone in the forest yet but there's usually fruit and mushrooms and animals to hunt."

[royallyunappreciated]

"You're certainly not wrong about that. Are you a hunter, young man?" Ardyn expects he could hunt for himself, but that's a great deal of effort that could be left to others. "If so, I think, perhaps, we should consider meeting up. I'm afraid I'm not much use with that sort of thing, but I can lend my knowledge to anything unusual you might find. I have some extensive experience with healing remedies."

[anticalamity]

"Kind of. I do hunt a lot." Really he's a knight, the princess' chosen knight and one of the champions, but even if that's felt more real lately, it's still more or less just words, especially when he's starting to wonder if he's even in Hyrule anymore.

"Magic or potions?"

Exploring

[hawkeskeye]

Keye happens to be eagle-eyed. Or maybe Hawk-eyed, as it were, but she really only spots him because she's there too, tracking the boar with a dagger in hand. Poised by the handle in her fingertips, one of her limited daggers waits for an opportunity to fell what promises to be a decent meal. The leathers of her armor make no sound as she keeps her own breath quiet and waits. If he's a sure shot, having the beast's head turned the right way could bring it down quick, but it might need just a little nudge. It was a risk, but he seemed skilled. No reward without risk, right?

The dagger leaves the rogue's hand with viscous speed and accuracy and buries into the animal's neck, not lethal, but painful and it throws its head back in an arch and screeches.

[anticalamity]

The beast rears suddenly and squeals. Link reacts without thinking, loosing the arrow into the head of the boar. It connects just under the right ear, piercing the skull and making the animal drop to the forest floor and convulse with fading squeals.

He waits just a moment before leaving his hiding spot, crouching in the underbrush and looking around for who had struck the boar first. He'll probably have to split the meat, but it looks like it'll be plenty for two people so he doesn't mind, he just wants to make sure he's not going to end up fighting them for no reason. Yiga are everywhere, after all.

[hawkeskeye]

The bowman drops the beast like it's a sack of potatoes and Keye can feel a bit of the relief in her. No daggers lost today, at least! She waits a few seconds to make sure he's not about to knock another arrow to shoot at a surprise friend and, when he doesn't, she stands from the underbrush with a wide stretch. "Finally! My knees were starting to complain, I haven't had to hold that still in so long! Nice shot, by the way, you seemed the capable sort."

Her usually pristine white hair was a bit more of a mess about her shoulders than she liked, but that was what happened when one forgets to shove their pockets full of things before being kidnapped and she sweeps it from her face as she moves to the carcass.

"Also glad I didn't lose this." She wrenches the dagger from the animal and starts in on beginning to carve it up as best she could. It wasn't exactly serrated. Golden brown eyes flick up towards the young man and back down. "Not to worry, you'll get the lion's share, I'd just like a bit enough to keep on my feet, I don't want to see if I make a pretty corpse."

[anticalamity]

Oh, she's a talker. Good, that means he doesn't have to say a whole lot.

He follows suit to her taking her knife though, retrieving his arrow from the creature's head. Unfortunately, the hide is thick enough that the head of the arrow doesn't come out with the shaft, embedded permanently in the boar's skull. Oh well, hopefully he'll come across a wandering merchant or some supply crates soon.

"It's fine, we can split it. It's pretty big." He would help her, but he doesn't have his sword and tree branches aren't exactly useful for skinning. Instead he just stands and watches, unaware of if that makes her uncomfortable.