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]

Okay, so... was there a reason for that? We've got actual dangers here. Worrying about made up ones is just going to put people in a worse spot. Over.

[trialbyliar]

Ehh? What are you talking about? I was totally in mortal danger! And I definitely died.

[His voice is full of mock offense and hurt. But he also sounds fairly young, so that might be an answer on its own.]

[lonelynotforsaken]

[Some sympathy creeps in, but that just makes him worried in a different way.]

I don't doubt we're all in mortal danger, but lying on here isn't going to help. We need to know what's really going on with you.

[trialbyliar]

I can't help it. I'm a liar, y'know? It's like breathing to me? Do you want me to die for real? Jeez, you're so mean...

[But hey, good to know people are taking this shit seriously.]

[lonelynotforsaken]

[Martin just... sighs.]

I'm not trying to be mean. But this is a really serious situation and none of us can see you or get to you right away. If you don't tell the truth you could be putting yourself in a lot more serious danger. People might stop believing you. Did you ever hear the story of the boy who cried wolf?

[trialbyliar]

Whaaat? No, I've never heard it before!

[And just in case his exaggeratedly shocked tone wasn't enough of a giveaway, he adds:]

Oh, that was a lie, by the way.

[lonelynotforsaken]

I'm not going to talk to you if all you're going to do is lie. That's not going to help either of us.

[trialbyliar]

[Abruptly, his voice drops a bit – not drastically, but it's a distinctly less playful and childish tone.]

And how do you know anyone else is telling you the truth? Any of the people blabbering on these things could be in on whatever's going on here. At least I'm honest about my lying.

[lonelynotforsaken]

Talk to enough people, you start to get a clearer picture. This whole thing isn't being set up for my benefit. I'm not nearly important enough for that. So, I have to believe that the majority of other people aren't in on some conspiracy to try to trick me.

[trialbyliar]

Who said anything about benefitting any of us? Maybe there's hidden cameras all over the place and this is being streamed for the entertainment of shady rich people...!

[lonelynotforsaken]

Then it's not them who are lying, is it? And honestly? It sounds like you've read too many YA dystopian novels.

[trialbyliar]

[ his whole life is a YA dystopian novel ]

Who's to say no one here's secretly involved in whatever's going on? And even if they're not, I bet there are people here that'd stab you in the back if they had to to survive. They'd be all nice to your face, but the moment there's not enough food or something, wham!

[lonelynotforsaken]

Then I guess we'll have to work together to make sure there's enough food. Provided we can even find each other. I just woke up here earlier today. I'm damp, uncomfortable, and thirsty, but we're not in dire straits, yet. I think we should be using these radios to let each other know where resources or civilization are, the best we can. That's what'll be best for everybody. Whether they're in on anything or not.

[trialbyliar]

[There's a heavy, overdramatic sigh coming through the radio even before Martin has finished speaking.]

Jeeeez, you're boring. Maybe I don't care what's best for everybody! I'm a supreme leader of evil, after all, not a Boy Scout.

[lonelynotforsaken]

And you're... what? 15?

[He knows children can be awful, but if he's doubtful he's run into another Callum Brodie.]

[trialbyliar]

I'm 26.

[ do i even need to say it ]

[lonelynotforsaken]

[There is, in fact, radio silence. Martin's trying to make a point and stick to his guns. Even if he might come back here if the kid starts calling for help again.

How frustrating.]

[trialbyliar]

[ welcome to dealing with kokichi ]