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TDM #1

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

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Arrival
Martin can't recall the last time he was in the ocean. He's fairly certain he's never been in a tropical ocean. Or the tropics, in general. The crashing of the waves is what clues him into the ocean part. The balmy air against his salt-encrusted skin points to the latter. He opens his eyes and finds his glasses have come off at some point, which means the world around is a smear of colors. He sees someone nearby and forgets about the glasses entirely.

"Jon? Hey, hey, are you okay?" He's assuming this is his boyfriend. He really hopes it's Jon.

Network
"Um. H-hello? This is- My name's Martin. I'm-I'm on a beach? God, that's not helpful. Sorry. I just- I-I'm alone. Is there anyone out there who knows what's going on?" A long pause. "Uh- Oh! Over! Over."

I. ARRIVAL

"You've gotta be kidding me--" Shaw mutters darkly under her breath, pulling her wet gun out of her jacket pocket and looking at it in dismay. Scooting off the sand and onto a patch of beach grass, she shrugs out of her leather jacket (also wet) and spreads it out as best she can on the ground, using it as a makeshift mat to disassemble the gun on.

It's only now that she finally looks up and acknowledges her companion. A girl has her priorities, and they go gun first, then talking to strangers.

"Hey, uh, stupid question; do-- do you know where we are?"

II. NETWORK

[As is probably inevitable when a large group of people are given free rein with walkie-talkies, not everyone is going to use them strictly for business purposes. Maybe you're one of the people having a long, public personal conversation and/or argument and/or phone sex session, or maybe you're just another bystander. Either way, you're bearing witness to callsign TO994M breaking in with--]

Oh my god, can you shut up already? My fingers are cramping from having to scroll through this crap.

"Uh, nope," says Shaw, reminding herself sternly that John is a very common name, and the odds are low that this guy is looking for the one that she'd very much like to find. "Wrong person."

The way he's squinting makes it pretty easy to figure out what's going on, though, and she immediately drops her gaze to watch where she's stepping, not wanting to inadvertently crunch the guy's glasses.

"You haven't been moving around a lot, have you?"

That's definitely a woman's voice. Martin's heart takes a tumble. Where is Jon? They were supposed to be dragged... wherever this is together. Did they just get flung into the ocean? Is he still out there? Before panic can set in, he realizes there are more immediate concerns that he can actually do something about.

"N-no. My glasses. I'm so sorry, but-but can you see them? Or... anyone else on the beach? I'm Martin." As he sits up properly, it may become apparent that he looks like he's already survived a shipwreck... and maybe murdered someone? He's sporting a scruffy beard and mustache, his hair is a bit wild with some gray shot through it in spite of a relatively youthful face. The front of his flannel shirt is stained dark with blood across the chest and stomach, down to his jeans. At least the sea water seems to have done a bit for the blood, but the remnants of that are still there.

Edited 2023-05-01 21:35 (UTC)

"Are you injured?" she asks, as she paces (still carefully!) closer, getting a better look at those bloodstains now. Introductions and niceties can wait; if he's in physical danger, that's more important than even the glasses.

Martin's a little concerned about getting up and stepping on his glasses, so he stays where he is, squinting at the figure as she approaches. "I don't... think so?" Which, considering the circumstances, that's somewhat alarming. Apart from some bruising and a few scrapes that aren't from here, he feels... fine. Confused. Worried about Jon.

"Sorry, but are you from here?" Wherever this is.

"No," she says, crouching next to him and peering at the front of his shirt. It's hard to tell how fresh it is when it's wet, and it's also hard to tell how much there used to be, before the seawater (presumably) washed it all away.

And then, of course, there's the fact that it might very well not be his blood. That possibility isn't lost on her, either.

"There's blood all down your front, and I'm pretty good at field medicine. Can you lift your shirt and give me a look?"

arrival (contains drv3 spoilers)

[He was supposed to be dead.

Sprawled on the ground, Kokichi just lays there for a while, processing. He's no longer laying on the cold metal of the hydraulic press, but on...sand? No longer inside at all, and not even anywhere outside he recognized from the school – insofar as any of that really counted as "outside" anyway. The sky is real. There's an actual breeze and the sound of waves. He's soaking wet for some reason.

But he's pretty sure he did, in fact, die. It's been quick, but he remembers that split second of intense pain before everything went dark. Could that have been faked somehow? After all the inconsistencies and fuckery he'd noticed in the killing game, "real" seems a lot less obvious than it should be. And more bullshit is way more likely than just being in heaven, at least for him.

He should be moving. Figuring out what fresh new hell this is. But given the circumstances, he can probably be forgiven for just...laying there on his back for a while, staring at a sky he didn't think he'd ever see again and unsure how he should feel about being alive. He licks his lips, and grimaces at the taste on them.]

Ugh, salty...

[Saltwater?? Why is he soaked with saltwater???]

network

[None of the voices he's heard are familiar. That's wild enough on its own. Kokichi spends a while just listening to the messages coming through, trying to get a clearer picture of the situation. When he finally decides to make contact, though, of fucking course he can't be normal about it.]

Mayday, mayday! SOS!! There's a huuuge snake trying to eat me!

[His screaming is pretty dramatic for someone just sitting peacefully under a tree at the edge of the beach.]

exploring

[This is his own fault. He manifested this.

He's only delved a short way into the jungle when he practically trips over it – a thick rope of a scaly body sticking out from beneath the undergrowth. Kokichi goes down with a yelp. And as he's pushing himself up, he freezes as he hears the hissing sound only a few feet away.

Oh no.]

A blush blooms across his cheeks as he holds up a hand in a stop motion. "N-no. That's not- It's fine. That's not mine." A pause. "God, that sounds terrible. M-my boyfriend. It's my boyfriend's blood. We were kind of- a lot was happening before I woke up. Kind of confused about that. I thought you were him, though. You can't see any bodies along the beach, right?"

[Oh, god!]

Okay! Okay, don't panic. It's like some sort of python, right? Can you- you need to protect your neck.

Ah.

She gives Martin a sharp nod, then pulls back again, giving him space.

"Right. Jon." Not John Reese; not the man she'd like to track down herself. Just another stranger.

Pulling herself to her feet again, she lifts a hand to shade her eyes and scans not just up and down the beach, but out towards the expanse of the ocean as well. At first, she thinks she might see something, but-- no, it's just a piece of bobbing driftwood, body-sized and a little bit body-shaped but definitely not actually a body.

"There's no one else here, alive or dead. And, just checking, but you don't have any idea where we are?"

The news she can't see anyone else is both a relief and deeply anxiety-inducing. He's not been around anyone apart from Jon for any significant amount of time for the last... long while. Is he going to be hanging around some strange woman until they find civilization? She seems nice enough, but he'd rather have Jon.

Still, Martin puts on his friendliest mien as he shakes his head. "No. I'm really sorry. I was in the middle of London, last I knew." What used to be London. But if this place has other people, they're probably going to be on a resort around the beaches. If you can help me find my glasses, we can walk along and see what we can see, Miss...?"

"Shaw."

Her attention turns back towards the sand as she paces a slow line away from Martin. At first she sees nothing, but then--

"Here you go," she says, scooping the glasses up and shaking the sand off of them before handing them over. "Sorry about your boyfriend."

He takes his glasses with a tight smile before standing up. "Thanks, Ms. Shaw. Or-or just Shaw?" Is that a first name? He doesn't think it is, but maybe? "Okay. Right." He gets a better look at their surroundings as he does his best to rub the sand and salt crust off his clothes and skin. He still feels damp, which is incredibly unpleasant. And thirsty. Which is more concerning.

At least the apocalypse had come without the need for food or water. "How are you doing on... everything? We should probably try to walk along the tree line up there." He points up the beach. "Stay in the shade. I haven't got any water on me."

"I don't think either of us are in a state to stand on formalities," she says, dryly but with no sense of hostility, as she both nods at his bloody shirt and gestures to her get-up (leather jacket over sopping wet jeans and a t-shirt, hair pulled back into a messy ponytail). "Just Shaw's fine."

She'll watch him carefully as they head up towards the treeline, checking for limping or dripping blood as he walks - a lot was happening before I woke up can mean a lot of things.

"London, huh. I was in New York."

Agh, i-it's too late...it's got me...

[This is followed by several theatrical strangled noises. It gets progressively less believable as it goes on.]

Martin grimaces a little as they walk, feeling like he's lumbering a bit. It's mainly from the sensation of the sand and the salt rubbing inside his clothes. And the heat. If he'd have had his backpack here, at least he could have changed. It's also too warm here, even if that's probably better overall.

"Oh! I've never been to New York. What's that like?" He asks it with an earnest interest. He'll keep his eyes out for any signs of other life... and potentially some actual fresh water, but he can lend an ear. Might as well be polite.

[The first cries are met with alarm. What can he even do? Is this person being swallowed? But the sounds keep going, and he's pretty sure it doesn't take that long to be eaten by a snake if it's going for your head, or something. He frowns at the device in his hand. His tone is mildly annoyed when he asks:]

Are you dead, yet? Over.

"Love it. It has a lot more corner convenience stores than this place. Could get ourselves some hats, some sunscreen, a change of clothes..."

Off in the jungle, she hears a faint rumbling sound that might - might be a waterfall, and she stops for a moment, straining her ears to listen.

"You actually like smalltalk?" she murmurs, eyes trained on the trees.

"Well... we've only just met." He pauses along with her and glances toward the trees. "And the circumstances are kind of awful. But... y'know? No harm in trying to make the best of it. I mean, as long as you're okay with that. Sorry. We don't have to talk. I don't have to talk."

It's been too long since he's had to act like a normal person. He's probably mucking it up royally. Is he being creepy? It's probably creepy. Martin makes an effort to slouch a bit more to seem smaller. He knows he's pretty big and that can put some people off.

There's a moment of pause from the other end as Jet starts for the sudden voice from the speaker of his transceiver. That's promising.

An faded Bronx accented man's voice comes over Martin's device, exceedingly calm despite his own internal storm of confusion. "Hey, Martin. Never used one of these before have you? Keep calm and looks around. See any rock formations out of the water or distinct trees nearby?"

Shaw sighs heavily, and flicks her gaze up towards the sky for a half-second - annoyed, but aimlessly so, the feeling directed at whatever the hell is going on rather than at Martin himself.

"I'm not trying to hurt your feelings," she grunts more than says. "Just-- you give anybody any reason to drug and kidnap you? You have any enemies, you mixed up in anything?"

Martin takes a long moment to scan the area around him. "There's a big rock out in the ocean that's sort of like... Have you seen, um..." The next few words are mumbled more quietly. "'The Little Mermaid' movie? It's like-it's like Ariel's rock. The one where they do the big splash at the end of 'Part of Your World.'"

There's a huff of laughter and Jet nods to himself. "Yeah, I've seen it." In theatres, he does not add. Jet looks around as he walks.

"Alright, I don't see it yet, but I'll keep walking. Can you tell me anything about what you remember?"

There's a bit of a pause before he shakes his head, putting on his best poker face. He doesn't expect telling her why he's here, specifically, would be a good idea. Not until he finds Jon, at least. "Not that I know about. Jon's really- He's the only important one between the two of us. I don't think anyone would bother with me. Not to drop off on a random tropical island.

"It feels like they're setting us up for some sort of reality show or something."

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TDM #1

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

TDM GUIDELINES

I. ARRIVAL

II. NETWORK

III. EXPLORING

Martin Blackwood | The Magnus Archives

Sameen Shaw | Person of Interest

Arrival

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Kokichi Ouma | Danganronpa v3

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network

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Network

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