TDM #3

[glencolans]

TEST DRIVE MEME #3

Welcome to Glencola Reef's third 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. A SAFE PLACE

Whether because someone else directed you via the transceivers, or someone found you and is leading you there, or just out of sheer luck, you have stumbled your way up the western coastline and run into an abandoned airfield. At least it used to be abandoned; there are obvious signs that the area has seen recent use, from the myriad of footprints in the sand leading up to the ocean, to the racks of drying fish lined along the shattered asphalt of a runway, to the strangely complex water stills and...who even knows what chemicals are brewing in those pots next to the largest airplane hangar? Even if you find the signs of people first, you're likely to run into the inhabitants themselves sooner rather than later, as the airfield has become a surprisingly busy hub of activity in comparison to the bleak isolation of the rest of the island. Maybe some of the more experienced inhabitants will help you figure out what's going on here, or try to rope you into exploring or cleaning out the more run-down buildings lining the runway, like the smaller hangars or the desolate traffic control tower at the far end. You likely aren't the only new person trying to find your way around, either. Hopefully the person you arrived with is more interested in helping rather than just looting the place and running off.

IV. STORM WARNING: REDUX

The weather on this island can be rather unpredictable sometimes. Just yesterday it was sunny and hot, then today, without warning, the sky opened up - literally, like the pale blue horizon was a vase smashed by a hammer and a billowing cyclone poured through the hole - and dumped at least a foot of rain on you in the span of an hour. This wouldn't be the first time this has happened to you, and you doubt it will be the last, but this time the freak rainstorm doesn't let up. Days pass. Did you decide to take shelter in the rainforest, only for the ground beneath you to start sinking with water? Were you camped next to a tranquil stream that has turned into a swelling river? Regardless of the circumstances it's time to go somewhere else before things get worse, and you probably ought to help the person you're stuck with come with you (or maybe you need some convincing yourself).

V. TERRORS OF THE REEF

CW: Shark Attacks

The large coral reef on the western edge of the island, just south of the airfield, seems like it's come straight out of a magazine. The waters are shallow and crystal clear, and the spots that aren't full of vibrant rainbow corals are coated in a soft layer of white sand. Fish of all sizes and shapes and colors swim in shoals along the reef. This seems like an ideal place, then, to do some productive fishing, or to take a relaxing swim in the warm tropical waters. And for the most part, it is.

Except, you aren't the only one interested in the fish. The sounds of struggling prey and the scent of blood in the water draws reef sharks by the dozens - or, if you're further away from shore, tiger sharks that could grab you by the ankle and drag you underwater in an instant. Hopefully someone is around to warn you, or at least pull you away and tend to your wounds, before you become a casualty like the fish.

NAVIGATION

Comments

The Doctor | Doctor Who

[thedreamer]

[ ooc: happy to adapt and match brackets or prose! ]

ARRIVAL

[ While the Doctor can't quite recall ever waking up on a beach like this, specifically, it's far from being the strangest thing to ever happen to him. In fact, it's nearly an ordinary Tuesday as these things go for him. The only truly disconcerting thing about being here is he can't locate his TARDIS at all, and he's missing a few items he'd been wearing before. At least, he thinks so. What had happened just before this? Oh, right, Clara. He was going to help Clara — or, try to work out what she is, exactly. Who she is. Questions for another day, evidently.

He works to brush the sand off his clothes, checks his pockets for a few items, and then begins to quickly look around. He was brought here for a reason, obviously, but that's the strange thing — his TARDIS would have brought him here, generally speaking, and she's nowhere to be found. There must at least be someone else here, somewhere, so he sets off looking for something or anything at all, and he's utterly delighted to come across a person, to whom he waves immediately. ]

Hi, hello, excellent! Just the person I was hoping to see.

[ To be fair, anyone would have been the person he was hoping to see. But he sounds genuinely pleased regardless. ]

Lovely day! Could be better. Could do without what I presume is an abduction, truthfully, I didn't have that on my bingo card. As the kids say.

[ Here, he'll pause for a breath. Amazingly. ]

You okay? Been here long?

STORM WARNING: REDUX

[ Some rain? Okay. A little more rain? Still okay. Endless, unstoppable, torrential, hard rain? Bit less than desirable, under the circumstances. The Doctor can tolerate a lot, has weathered his share of unpleasant situations so often through his long life. This is easy, at least at first, but as the deluge worsens the environment around him quite rapidly, even his patience is wearing thin.

The stream where he'd been keeping relative shelter has turned into a wide, fast-moving river in a matter of what seems like only a few hours, and it makes trying to even escape the area an almost impossible endeavor to imagine. But he likes the impossible! It's also what he does best.

He also realizes he's not alone, and over the heavy rain, he calls out. ]

Oh, good, has anyone told you that you have excellent timing?

storm warning-

[wingbound]

[ It's really pure luck that Levi happens across this spot on his way to higher ground -- and it certainly looks like someone's in trouble. Trouble of their own doing, mostly, because you don't stay near fucking streams in this weather, but he's not about to abandon anybody to their death, so-- ]

[ The person that the Doctor spots is dressed in a dark green cloak with a hood, hiding most of their face and clothes, but they look... kind of small? Or maybe just short? And their voice is -- serious and practically inflectionless. Grumpy, even. ]

No.

[ (Is the river simply nearby, or did the Doctor accidentally end up trapped in a rapidly shrinking island? If it's the latter, the vertically challenged stranger will be climbing up into a nearby tree real fast and throwing one end of a long rope over a thick branch and toward him, while then making his way back down with the other one. He may be able to Tarzan-swing over the roaring waters? Maybe? Is this guy heavy enough to hold the rope steady? Stay tuned to find out.) ]

arrival

[nervouslaughter]

[ Cheyenne looks around, a little confused at who the Doctor could be indicating. When she realizes he's addressing her, though, and telling her she's the person he wanted to see, she blinks at him. And points to herself. ]

Me?

[ Wait, she's the one he wanted to see??? OMG, yay! She loves being the person people want to see!!! Cheyenne doesn't question this at all and eagerly walks over to join him, seeming very pleased! ]

Oh. Uh. I'm okay. I don't think I've been here that long. Probably the same as you. [ She looks down at her wet clothes, and frowns slightly at the way they cling to her body so heavily and uncomfortably, but then she's all smiles.

And since the Doctor seems to be done talking for a bit, Cheyenne takes over! ]

Hey, can I tell you the truth? I'm, like, super freaked out right now. I've never been abducted before. Is this part normal? Because this is not like the movies. [ The Doctor sounds like he has been abducted, probably, so Cheyenne trusts him to let her know if this is a normal abduction or not. ] Do you think they abducted us for ransom money or to turn us into drug mules? Oh my God, what if they abducted us to get ransom money and turn us into drug mules?

What if we're going to have to be drug mules and then they ransom us to ourselves for our own drug money???

[ She looks at the Doctor, full of concern, because in Cheyenne's brain, this is a very legitimate concern!!! ]

Arrival

[solitarysoul]

[The boy with the spear and the army coveralls stops and blinks at the Doctor.]

Y-you wanted me...oh.

[No, that made no sense. It made more sense that this guy wanted help. The babble reminds him a bit of Daan.]

Uh, yeah, a few weeks maybe? I can take you back to ba--to the village. Or try to answer questions, but I don't really know much.