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]

Martin takes his glasses, starts to move the lenses towards his shirt to wipe off, then thinks better of it. He shakes them off as best he can and shoves them on, blinking at the stranger. K. Kay? It's something to call him. "No. I'm- no, I'm all right." He glances down at himself to actually confirm that and spots the knife and something else on the other side of his body. The knife is left for a moment, but Martin picks up the radio.

"Um... is this yours?" He holds it out to the other man.

[obeir]

"Isn't mine," K says but accepts the radio. If Martin isn't claiming ownership of it either, then presumably it was already here. Might be useful. After checking its functions, he tries sending a text.

KD201D: Harley?

No response, but there is a muffled electronic chirp from somewhere nearby as though the message is being received by something.

KD201D: Zephyr?

Again no response, just another muffled chirp. He isn't sure how far the god's powers may reach now, but it's certainly worth a shot; he knows they'll help him if they're at all able to. Glancing back at Martin with his eyebrows raised in a look between mild skepticism and concern, he asks, "What's the blood from?" Back to the radio. "And is that Jon with an 'H'? If he's here too," wherever 'here' is, "maybe we can contact him with this."

[lonelynotforsaken]

"There- Um... there was trouble before I woke up. Jon, no 'h,' he'd just been stabbed. I was holding onto him. That's- I need to find him."

Martin stands with some effort, pocketing the knife as he does so. He looks around in confusion for the chirping and spots... another radio. "Maybe we got... a walkie-talkie paired set?" These don't look like those kinds of radios, but he does trudge over to pick it up. His jacket and flannel get peeled off quickly after he has it in hand and checks it.

"Oh! Y-yeah. It's got your messages on her. I think? Harley and... Zephyr? I guess they're handy. Right. Um... out of the sun, maybe?" There are some palm trees up along the beach they can regroup under. But god, this is awkward. He hasn't dealt with a complete stranger on his own in a while.

[obeir]

Stabbing probably explains the knife he notices Martin pocket. And maybe that should make him more wary than it does, but right now he thinks it's good that they're both armed — or at least he thinks he can feel the familiar weight of his gun in his shoulder holster, so he assumes it's there underneath his coat. Not wanting to seem threatening, he decides against checking while Martin's watching.

"I sent those. Harley's who I was with before I woke up here. And no answers... so maybe you're right." Still, he wants to try.

KD201D: Is there a Jon here? I'm with Martin.

K's own isolated and lonely beginnings make him sensitive to this particular brand of social awkwardness, having struggled with it himself. Still does, sometimes. But he's willing to do what he can to make this easier on Martin, offering him a sympathetic look that's softened even further by his smile. If he ends up stabbed for his kindness, so be it.

"That's a good idea," he agrees, and begins heading for the palm trees. Normally, no matter how sweltering or frigid the temperature may be, it wouldn't bother him. He just isn't affected the same way humans are. But here it feels — uncomfortably hot? The sand in his clothes, against his skin is irritating. There's an unusual pull of fatigue, the likes of which he's never experienced before. He feels... weakened. All of it's disconcerting.

"Do you remember anything about how you got here?"

[lonelynotforsaken]

"Right. Okay." He starts moving up the beach. The sand is uncomfortable and everywhere, which isn't helpful to his current level of awkwardness. He doesn't know how to gauge if this man is a native of this universe or from his own, but the question asked does lend itself to an easy in-road there.

"I-I'm sorry. I was in London with Jon, and then I was suddenly waking up on the shore." He doesn't actually answer the yes/no there. But details will maybe help. This man doesn't sound like he's from anywhere nearby. Still.

"What about you? You said you were with Harley. And who's Zephyr?"

[obeir]

K's accent is too Canadian ambiguously North American to ever be mistaken for British, it's true.

"I was just in Gotham, New Jersey," K offers in turn, hesitating for only a moment before adding what are perhaps the most relevant details, straight-faced. "On an Earth variant I'd never been to before. Harley's homeworld."

It's about the most gentle way he can think of to introduce the fact he's from another universe entirely — because there's no way this tropical place could be part of his homeworld. He's pretty sure it isn't the Meadous, either. It could theoretically be located somewhere in Harley's homeworld, but he has a sinking feeling that he won't be that lucky.

"And Zephyr is..." The fuzzy little eldritch deity he worships. Aware of how that would make him sound to the average person who hasn't gone world-hopping through the multiverse, he settles on, "...complicated to explain. They're sort of our adopted kid." It isn't even a lie, not really. Just not the full truth.

"You and Jon were attacked?" he guesses, wanting to follow up on that stabbing business.

[lonelynotforsaken]

Martin's geography is poor, at best, but he's pretty sure New Jersey is in America. Somewhere on the east side? Sure. His thoughts stop there at 'Earth variant,' though. "Sorry. Um... what?" He's been asked a question, but he'd stopped listening. "What d'you mean... homeworld?"

He doesn't even have to feign his confusion. Is this just some place that people who hop universes end up? Is this man from another world with the Entities that just went through its own apocalypse?

[obeir]

Not answering the question about being attacked might register as more suspicious if not for what Martin stalls on. K had already half-expected that sort of reaction to mentions of the multiverse, so he's at least prepared. Whether or not Martin will actually believe him is another matter, but he chooses to answer with open honesty regardless.

"The version of Earth that she's originally from," K explains without missing a beat. "I'm from an entirely separate version of Earth, a different universe. Probably the biggest difference that I'm aware of is that mine developed artificial intelligence and android technology much earlier in its timeline, and several additional planets have been colonised as a result." Were he fresh from his home universe, he might leave it at that. But having developed a sense of personhood and autonomy over the last few years spent in the Meadous, he feels compelled to clarify: "Humans exploit android slave labour."

He pauses, seeming almost to be bracing himself as he watches Martin sidelong while they walk.

"K's short for KD6-3.7. My serial number."

[lonelynotforsaken]

This person isn't a human. It's hot and humid here, but he feels suddenly very cold. Not human, but it looks entirely human. He... looks human? Martin is silent for a few seconds, watching K right back in sideways glances. Is there anything uncanny about him? Anything Stranger? It doesn't seem like it. The other man looks like... a man. Not some creepy doll or automaton or any other flesh monstrosity Martin might expect to see if this were an avatar or a monster created or shaped by the Entities.

"That's... really horrible," he says at length. "The-the exploitation, not your serial number! Sorry. I just- Um. That's a lot to take in. So you, just... you sort of... hop from one world to another. Looking for places... not like that?"

[obeir]

When Martin finally speaks, some of the tension melts from K's posture. It's a far kinder reaction than anticipated and makes him glad he'd decided to be honest.

"We were both pulled into a place where all different universes can intersect," K clarifies. "That's how we met and spent the last few years, living there. And we weren't unique. Many others also wound up in the same place. When the means arose to freely travel between different universes, we decided to visit her homeworld together." A very simplified version of events, but the details would probably only serve to confuse Martin at this point. It is a lot to take in.

Glancing over the bloodstains on Martin's front again, he asks, "What was it like where you're from?"

[lonelynotforsaken]

"Not like that." Martin's brows knit together. "Jumping from one universe to another is, um... th-that's not something that would usually happen. I mean, outside of books or films. And it-it would probably take a lot of energy."

Sinister, eldritch energy.

"So, it's safe? Bouncing from one universe to the next? And you can do it whenever you want? I-I guess apart from here."