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

The Cat | Tamora Pierce's Tortall

[absentconstellation]

Action

It's getting late on the island, the time when most people are settling in to sleep. There isn't always a camp, per se, and there certainly isn't always a fire, but there is always a person.

Before that person can lie down and shut their eyes, they are approached by a cat. They might not have seen it approach, but it isn't very large. It's a black house cat, on the smaller side. He walks up to the stranger as if it's perfectly natural, coming to a stop in front of them and sitting down. His tail curls neatly around his legs, and he looks up at the person with wide, purple eyes.

He lets out a single, demanding meow. You may pet him now.

Audio
callsign: ME000W

[ This is his first time on the walkie talkies. It took him a long time to find his after he left it on the beach. He didn't really have anything better to do. He doesn't really have anything better to do now than ask the following: ]

What stories do your homes tell of the stars?

Action

[salamanca]

Lalo is laying on his side, listening to the soft crackle of the fire, when he rolls onto his other side and is mildly startled by the sight of a small animal. Of course, he's not startled for long. He smiles a little, and still laying on his side, extends out a hand and starts making soft kissy noises while the cat sits down in front of him. He likes dogs, but he likes cats too. Demanding and imperious, they know their worth. He respects that.

"Hey, there, kitty, kitty," he coos. When he finally gets permission in the form of a chirpy meow, he reaches out to gently run two fingers along the soft hollow of the animal's cheek.

"What's your name? You a boy or girl, eh?" he asks it, not expecting a response. It's not like cats can talk, after all. But Lalo likes to talk, even if the conversation is one-sided.

[absentconstellation]

He turns his head into the rub, but he isn't purring quite yet. He gives a brief, grudging mew instead, as though to scold him for being so silly. Humans make the strangest noises when it comes to animals sometimes.

[salamanca]

The silly noises only get worse in response to the mew, Lalo laughing to himself, his eyes lighting up in the dark and an, "Ohhhh..." escaping him.

He reaches out both hands now, sitting up a little to gently massage both sides of the cat's lower face, where chin melts into neck.

"Ohhhh... who's a good kitty?" Lalo coos in Spanish. "Who's a pretty kitty?"

[absentconstellation]

This man is ridiculous and undignified and the Cat would be giving him such a look if he wasn't starting to purr and twist his head so that Lalo can get just the right spot.

He had been hoping the man might have some food that didn't have to be killed first, but well, that can wait a few minutes.

[salamanca]

"Ohhhh, kitty, kitty, kitty," Lalo continues to coo in Spanish as he reaches out to keep trying to get just that right spot.

Putting up with the indignity of being cooed at by a grown man does pay off though! Lalo stops petting long enough to get up and go over to his supplies.

He comes back with a tab-open can of tuna, which he opens white saying, "Here you go, little one..." and setting it down in front of the Cat.

Kindness to humans is risky and always comes with the possibility for you or them to become a liability. Animals, who lack the socio-political savvy to plot to betray you, pose no such problem.

[absentconstellation]

It's a strange container, but it smells like concentrated heaven. Whatever mysterious method was used to prepare the fish has surely only made it more delicious. He devours the meal as if he's been starved for weeks and not eating his fill of wild forest game. He pauses only when his tongue brushes against a sharp edge to take a closer look at the container and make sure he doesn't cut himself on it.

Having eaten, he licks his lips and stretches luxuriously, then lets out a brief meow that inexplicably sounds exactly like "thank you."

[salamanca]

What a good stretch!! "No problema," Lalo tells his new companion, before he shakes his head and blinks. Talking to a cat? Maybe the island is making him crazy after all. He reaches up to scratch the little kitty's ears.

"What should I name you, eh?" He withdraws a hand to stroke his own chin while he thinks. "Are you a boy kitty or a girl kitty?" He tilts his head, trying to see if he can see the cat's balls, although that might not mean anything if the little guy or girl is neutered.

audio | callsign TN811N

[hyakuoku]

I don't really pay attention to the fictional kind of stories, but I've wanted to be an astronaut since I was a kid. Been hearing about that my whole life.

[absentconstellation]

What is an 'astronaut'?

[hyakuoku]

Someone who goes into space. Not really to the stars themselves. We can't actually travel far enough to reach a star yet where I come from. The farthest humans have gone is the moon, but astronauts do regularly go up into space.

[absentconstellation]

Humans have traveled to the moon?

[ He's surprised, but also amused. From the start they have always been an indomitable breed. ]

I hope they were not disappointed by what they found there.

[hyakuoku]

Yeah, a long time before I was even born. They haven't where you're from?

[ He laughs a little, like always. ]

I'm gonna get us back there too, ten billion percent guaranteed. I don't think anyone was ever disappointed. It's too amazing just to think about going up there at all.

[absentconstellation]

Humans as I know them have yet to imagine such a thing might even be possible. They dream, of course, but that is all.

action!

[wingbound]

Levi doesn't sleep much. He's probably still sitting by the smoking remains of a fire when the cat walks up to him, and he regards it for a moment.

"..."

He's seen cats before. Plenty of them on the island, even in the Underground. Not usually out in the wilderness, though, and this definitely looks like a normal ass cat. What is it doing here? Did someone actually kidnap a cat on purpose, or perhaps it escaped from one of those crashed airships?..

The cat meows, and Levi thinks he knows what it wants because everyone in the Underground were usually vying for one thing; food. So he breaks off a piece of the fish he cooked earlier and offers it to the animal.

[absentconstellation]

Food is, in fact, better than pets. He accepts the bit of fish daintily and lies down to enjoy it in comfort. Cooked food always tastes better than raw, humans certainly have that much right.

He purrs to indicate his appreciation for the meal.

[wingbound]

Oh. It's purring. Levi hesitates for a moment, because he shouldn't be touching stray animals, surely, who knows what kind of parasites they may be carrying -- but cats were usually clean, weren't they?

So he wipes any resident fishiness from his fingers and once he deems it nonoffensive, he reaches out to scritch behind the cat's ear.

Maybe they both wanted some company tonight after all.

[absentconstellation]

How rude. Parasites wouldn't dare touch this impeccably noble body.

He presses back on the fingers, leading Levi to just the right spot to scratch. Some places are so hard to reach, it really does require a human touch.

He likes humans, anyway. If he's stuck in the Mortal Realms, he'd much rather be around people. They're so much more interesting than the Beast People. The night will be much warmer, too, with another body nearby.

[wingbound]

Wouldn't they, though? Who knows what nasty things might be hiding in this jungle--

This is... nice, almost, aside from the fact that they're stuck fuck-knows-where. Levi lets the cat arrange his hand the way it wants, giving it a few more encouraging scratches and pets. The animal is warm and seems happy with his touch; it must have been living with humans, either here or before that.

He does consider that it might belong to some local people, which would mean there should be a settlement not too far from here. He hadn't seen any other signs, though. But then, kidnapping a cat certainly seemed to make less sense than kidnapping people.

His hand ends up sort of resting on the cat absentmindedly, still giving its cheeks a rub every now and then as he looks up at the night sky. There's one questionably good thing about this place and it's honestly how clear the stars are at night, even if they look different from back home.

2

[lightnovelexperiences]

(From callsign YM-2299:)

On Earth, they talk about nuclear fusion, balls of hydrogen so huge that they ignite under their own weight.

On MUNDUS, they talk of the candles that Mutan set adrift, so that the Sun, Aurora, could find her way through the night.

[absentconstellation]

It may be that both are true.

Who is Mutan?

[lightnovelexperiences]

One of the Great Gods of Mundus, the changing moon and the guide to the dreamlands.

There are small gods, too. My job there was to bother them with mortal affairs, bribe them with vows and offerings into helping the people.

[absentconstellation]

Why does such a position exist? Do your gods not hear the prayers of mortals?

[lightnovelexperiences]

There are so many people with so much to pray for that it became important for Clerics to learn which god to pray to, for what purpose, and what sacrifices they found worthy.

They are experiencing an unusually high number of prayers. Your vow is very important to them: please stay on the line…

[absentconstellation]

How curious. The gods I know hear every prayer, and simply ignore those they deem insignificant. Most mortals know better than to call on the gods frivolously, in case it might displease them.

Tell me, do your gods ever show themselves in the Mortal Realms?