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

[trialbyliar]

Rude!

[But judging by his snickering, he doesn't seem genuinely upset. He isn't bothering to correct the misunderstanding, either.]

Buuut let's see... Huh, I don't really remember the year. Must have slipped my mind!

[He's not inclined to be truthful regardless, but it's certainly easier to dance around it then actually explain his situation. It'd just sound like more lies anyway.]

[wingbound]

[ Just ignoring that entirely, water is wet etc. ]

Slipped your mind?

[ You're being hella sus there, bro. ]

Did you get a concussion?

[trialbyliar]

[Oh, thanks for the excuse.]

A concussion? Huh, there was that time I tripped on a loose floorboard and hit my head like a week ago...

[This probably sounds too convenient, and he does tends to talk in an exaggerated manner that makes everything sound like it could be a lie, so he pulls his bangs away from his face to show off a mostly-healed scab right near his hairline.]

[wingbound]

[ MAYBE LEAD WITH THAT THEN!! ]

[ Levi has some conflicting feelings at the moment. Like wanting to get away from a potential threat but also not being keen on abandoning a kid with potentially life threatening injury in a bad situation. Oh, and there's still that murder contemplation -- ]

[ But all of the sudden, he seems more relaxed. About as soon as he lays eyes on that scab, because shifters didn't scab, they just healed right up. ]

A week, huh? [ But that point stands even if it's been half an hour. He knows how Titan injuries look like. There's still a small chance it could be some kind of a new ability, and he's ready for that, but somehow it seems increasingly likely that the kid is shitting with him instead. His expression goes flat. ] What happened to your "regeneration"?

[trialbyliar]

[Kokichi snickers unrepentantly as he lets his bangs fall back into place.]

Oh, that was a lie. I guess I didn't mention it yet, huh? I'm a liar.

[At least this is a familiar and comforting stance to slip back into, one that helps ease the tension in him at this fresh new mess of bullshit he's woken up in. Lying gives him a sense of control. Only he gets to decide what anyone thinks or knows about him, even if it's all negative. And there are benefits to being dismissed and underestimated – and to playing the villain.]

[wingbound]

[ Great. He's stuck with a kid with an attitude. Who is probably not a titan, so he's got that going for him, but he's not off the hook yet. ]

A shitty one at that.

[ A good liar didn't admit they were one, after all. At least not until their final moments. He would know something about that. He knew a first-rate conman, after all. Someone who had managed to sell lies as hope so well he still carried it with him. ]

If you start feeling dizzy, sit down in the shade.

[ Concussions are no joke, and he'd rather be careful about a lie than ignore a truth. ]

[trialbyliar]

Aww, are you worried about me? I guess you're way nicer than you look!

[He says rude shit so cheerfully...

There's no dizziness, but honestly, shade sounds better than just standing here out under the sun. Pale as he is, he'll definitely sunburn easily. So he turns to wander over towards the treeline and flops down in the sand in a shady spot.

It'd probably be good to get a better handle on the situation. He pulls the radio thing back out to look at again, and idly calls over:]

Hey mister, did you find one of these things, too?

[wingbound]

[ He is, in fact, way nicer than he looks. ]

[ He also doesn't deign that with any sort of response. He doesn't usually react much to insults, and this isn't even one. ]

[ They need some kind of a plan, that's for sure. The beach looks safe enough, so he can probably leave the kid there and go look for water. He's confident that he can manage getting attacked by an animal if he's on his own. He slowly starts toward the treeline as well, pausing when Pharaoh speaks up again. ]

Yeah. [ He lifts his own, dangling it from his hand like a disgusting spider. ] Do you know how to use it?

[trialbyliar]

Nope, no idea!

[The peppy denial is kinda countered by the fact that he pushes the button and speaks into it, so Levi's radio crackles with static and a subsequent chirping notification of a new message.]

[wingbound]

[ Just takes it in stride. ]

See if you can figure it out.

[ He's already walking into the jungle when his own device makes a noise, but he just stares down at it for a moment before continuing, mostly because he has no idea how to make it play messages. Oops. ]

[trialbyliar]

[Wow. Nico had thought it was just dry humor at first, but the guy genuinely didn't seem to get the beeping notification. It seems like the kind of thing that should be fairly intuitive to anyone more intelligent and used to living in society than Gonta, and that wasn't a hard bar to clear.

He frowns to himself for a moment, thoughtful, before springing to his feet and giving chase into the jungle.]

What, you never played with walkie-talkies as a kid or anything? That's just depressing.

[wingbound]

[ Well. Looks like the kid is feeling better. Levi doesn't slow down, but he's not purposefully trying to shake him off either; he just wants to scout the nearest part of the jungle and see if he can find anything they can drink or eat. ]

[ Which, okay. Maybe he should have bailed, because now he has to listen to more incessant talking. Not to mention, what kind of a buffoon calls a communication device walkie talkie? ]

No. [ Complete deadpan as he uses his knife to cut through some vines blocking the path that stubbornly refuse to be shoved to the side. ] Guess I was more of a jabbie-stabbies kind of kid.

[ Now that's dry humor. ]

[trialbyliar]

[He gives an exaggerated gasp, adopting a nervous expression.]

Ehh? That's such a scary thing to say...

[...But he only keeps up the bit for a few seconds before a smirk takes over his face and he snickers.]

But I'm lying. Me too, actually! Whoever dragged us here just stole my knife.

[wingbound]

[ He doesn't really react to either declaration -- first because it's not his job to coddle the kid when they're in possible actual danger, and the second because it would just confirm the initial impression he had gotten from him. ]

[ He does make a mental note not to let his guard down, though. Last thing he needs is the teen trying to pickpocket his knife from him. ]

Shit luck.

[trialbyliar]

[Smart move. Pickpocketing is a very real possibility.]

Right?! And after they took my shirt, too... I feel so violated...

[He trails after the man despite the flat response. This is clearly a kid that needs no encouragement or invitation to do whatever he wants.]

[wingbound]

[ He's dealt with little rats before. He's been one. He'll see that shit coming from a mile away. He also doesn't really sleep. Tough luck, Kokichi. ]

...

[ Yeah, okay, people losing clothes while popping up here just sounds weird. ]

Maybe someone else found you while you were out.