polymeme | Summer TDM

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! test drive meme

Summer TDM

✖ Test Drive Meme

Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
You land on an island, no surprise there. It’s not particularly large, this island, but what’s really more of note is that the entire thing is a beach. White sand stretches out in every direction, the only greenery being palm trees and impossibly fragrant bushes of flowers that resemble hibiscuses.

Allergic to the sun? Don’t worry, there’s plenty of canopies set up so that you can get some shade. There’s also changerooms with toilets and showers, and also free swimsuits that fit you perfectly! There’s plenty of food stalls - try a corndog, or the fish and chips at “America’s Scrod Basket!” Groovy! Once night falls, you can relax in one of the many hammocks strung up between the palm trees, or catch some Zs on the surprisingly comfortable beach chairs all over the place. All of your basic needs are met, Traveler!

Notes:
1. Please remember to mark threads appropriately with Content Warnings when necessary.

2. These prompts are a jumping off point - how they affect your character and their development is up to you.

3. Have fun!

Ⅱ. BEACH BLANKET BINGO!

All of the residents of this island look like they’ve stepped off the set of a 1960s beach party movie. Catalina Caper, maybe. They’re all extremely friendly, and BOY do they love to dance! Which they do. Frequently.

In fact, did you notice the live band? Because there’s a live band! A few, actually - they rotate through the day and into the evening, although you never actually see them switch. That’s pretty weird.

The island residents will drag you into one of their many, many dance parties whenever they can. Sometimes they’ll just form around you like a horrible flash mob, twisting and shaking like they’ve downed a gallon of redbull.

Maybe you want to get as far away from the water and the parties as possible. Venture further inland and you’ll find yourself still surrounded by sand and a few tropical plants. There’s bound to be a few other Travelers about, but at least it’s quiet.

Wait. What the hell is that, a lawnmower?

Surprise! As you stand there, a dune buggy comes plowing over the hill, spraying sand everywhere. Inside of the buggy is a group of young people, all smiling broadly at you and any other Travelers nearby.

“Hello, friends!” they cry. “Want to take a ride? Charlie’s got a ton of these, you can borrow one!” So if you really feel like careening all over the island, this is a great way to do it!

Notes:
1. These residents of the island are normal humans. Killing them is possible and will affect the colour grading of your Scrywatch depending on the situation.

2. The food is safe to eat, and is consumable by non-human entities.

3. The short creepy guy who has the keys to the dune buggies might be a little pissed if you trash them, but he can be mollified if you listen to his shitty music and tell him it's good.

Ⅲ. SURF'S UP!
CW: drowning, possible death.
As with all of the islands you will visit, you will either see the island as floating either in a horizonless sky, or in the middle of a wine-dark sea. Regardless of which you see, you soon discover that you can go surfing in it.

That’s right - there’s a bunch of boards set up down at one end of the beach. Wander down and you’ll find yourself suddenly embroiled in a surfing contest! That’s right, it’s you versus another Traveler - first one off of their board is the loser! Win and you’ll be the most popular person on the island for the duration of your stay! People will lavish attention and gifts upon you. Lose and you’ll be ridiculed! They’ll probably even make fun of your mom!

Whether or not you care about winning, once you’re in the middle of the contest you and your fellow Traveler will see someone swimming not far away from you. Or they were swimming - now they seem to be going down and popping up, looking terrified. The realisation comes to you suddenly: they’re drowning.

You have a choice here - you can forfeit the win to save this stranger, or you can leave them to their own devices. Your opponent will have the same choice. Be a hero, or be a winner?

Notes:
1. Obviously, the decision to save the swimmer or not will affect the colour of your Scrywatch. Both parties may decide to save the swimmer, or both may decide to continue on with the contest. Your reason for saving them can also make an impact - are you saving them only to be considered a hero by the island residents?

Ⅳ. TERROR AT ROCK-OUT BEACH!
CW: unwanted romantic attention from a monster, optional sexual themes.
You’re just sitting there minding your own business when you suddenly realise that you’re very nearly alone. In fact, it’s just you and another Traveler, maybe a few. Where did everyone go?

Suddenly a shadow falls over you. You turn and are greeted by what looks like a man in a vaguely fish-like costume; it has flat webbed feet, a body covered in what appears to be rubber seaweed, and a triangular head with huge rubber gills sticking out to either side. Its immobile mouth has pointy teeth, and its bug-eyes appear to have pupils merely painted on.

This monster waves its arms threateningly. “Gaaaaah!” it says. Its voice is muffled. “Gaahhhhhhhhh!”

Somehow it is a lot faster than it looks, and the next thing you know it has enfolded you in its embrace.

“You will be Flupper’s bride!” the monster shouts, regardless of your gender identification. It looks at whoever happens to be in your general vicinity. “Who this?”

Struggling, you realise that Flupper is stronger than any creature you’ve ever encountered before. You can’t seem to get it to let go of you, and it's rocking against you in such a way that it makes a sound like the soles of sneakers on a gym floor. On the plus side, it doesn’t have any genitals so at least it’s not as bad as it could be. Still, desperate times call for desperate measures! “That’s my partner!” you claim before you can think about how stupid an idea that is.

“You bride? LIES! Flupper can tell!”

“We can prove it!”

“Oh yeah? Tell something only bride would know!”

Oh shit. Now you’re stuck - you and your fellow Traveler have to admit to something true about love or intimacy, under the guise of it being about the other. Flupper’s lie detecting abilities are good enough to call you out on untruths, but not good enough to know who you’re talking about.

He’s not letting you out of his squeaky embrace until you’ve convinced him that you’re a couple.

Notes:
1. It’s up to you how much of this back and forth it takes to convince Flupper that you are ‘brides.’

2. You can choose to abandon someone in Flupper’s grip - this would be reflected in your Scrywatch colour. Probably negatively, unless you feel strongly about the morality of fishman marriage via kidnapping. The ‘bride’ would then be forced to attend an extremely dull ceremony lasting three days and three nights. For the duration of your stay on the island, you would now be married and expected to bring Flupper its slippers and pipe every evening.

3. You can try to kill Flupper. Unlike the other residents of the island, it is extremely resilient and strong. It is possible, however.

4. You can keep this completely G rated - maybe all you know of love is that time in first grade when you got a Valentine card from the cutest kid in class - but if you DO get saucy, please mark your thread with a Content Warning.

Greetings, prospective Travelers! Welcome to the Summer 2021 POLYMYTHOS test drive meme and thank you for your interest in our game! Our next application round will run from June 25 - July 2, 2021. For the months of June, July, and August, we invite you to use this TDM to explore but one of many, many islands within the Endless Isles; use it as an opportunity to introduce and familiarize yourself with the game, form connections with other characters, and just have some fun. (Perhaps while also getting some solid samples together for your application!)

Use the prompts provided below as-is or feel free to write your own set within the environment detailed in each. You're even welcome to access the network via your character's ScryWatch. While there will be some inevitable changes, TDMs may count as game canon and some islands may be revisited in the future. Be mindful of your surroundings -- you never know how you and your fellow Travelers might affect this place in the long run.

Hang ten, Moon doggy! Seeking those killer jams?

Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not all gingers have to avoid the sun. No, some of them manage just fine, thank you ever so much. (Some might call them Daywalkers.) However, it's true that pale skin and red hair usually means sunburn is likely on the beach.

Kyle spots Liara's hair and ambles over to tell her that hey there's sunblock available, but stops when he notices that that flower sure seems to be reacting to her.

"Dude! Do the plants listen to you?"

She may think that she doesn't have to worry about the sun, but she would be wrong. Yes, she spends nearly all of her time outdoors so long as it's warm enough. But it's mostly among the trees, where the light is filtered and nowhere near as strong as this beach.

Maybe that's part of the reason she gravitated toward the greenery. The palm trees do break up the light ever so slightly. She looks up at the voice and for a moment nearly laughs. They look so similar, they could be siblings.

"In a way," she replies, pulling her hand back. She's told so few about her magic. You never know who you can trust, though this guy seems to be excited by the prospect.

"Is that bad?"

"Nah, totally not bad." He stands a few feet away, peering at the flowers like they might suddenly go Little Shop of Horrors on him. "Just really neat."

A person who can talk to plants is not the strangest thing he's ever seen, although he still seem quite surprised in spite of that.

"I've never seen that before."

She smiles, relieved.

"It's a long story, but I'm the first human to possess this magic. So I'm not surprised you've never seen it before." And he never would have, if they both hadn't appeared here.

"I'm Liara. Have you been here long? Do you know where we are?"

"Like a chosen one or something?" Forgive him, the guy loves his fantasy novels.

"I'm Kyle. Yeah, I've been doing the island hopping thing for a little bit. It's pretty weird. This place seems... okay? Like it's a nice beach, there's decent food. The first place I landed on, there was a medieval village or something? And the villagers totally chased me with pitchforks. It sucked."

That sounded like a bit of a downer, so he adds, "Uh, but the last place was... kinda neat? Oh, shit, I gotta ask: is there Netflix where you're from?"

She shrugs a shoulder. "Almost. My mother was the chosen one. She was a dryad, but she had to give up the magic in order to become mortal and be with my father. Nobody had ever done that before so no one knew that I would end up with it." Her mother had been so happy about it, though, and teaching her how to use it had brought them even closer.

She laughs a little and nods. "Yes, we have Netflix." She's pretty relieved to have ended up here and not the other place he described. She's getting warm, though, and realizes that while she's not wearing the pajamas she had on when she went to sleep, she is at least wearing her own clothes. Her favorite skirt, actually, hitting her just above the ankles and a flowy white blouse. The sun is strong and she wishes she had something to tie her hair back.

"Do you know if there's somewhere I could get a hat?"

Kyle knows what a dryad is. Not because he's ever met one - he sure hasn't - but because he's a nerd. So his eyes go round and huge. "Oh, wow," he says. "That's... actually that sounds like a LOT of responsibility. Human parents are bad enough with the pressure to succeed, nevermind throwing magic in there."

He looks relieved at that. "Okay, cool. That's my metric right now for how different places are, because I've met some people from very, very different worlds than mine. So I'm leading with Netflix."

He gestures over at a collection of tents and kiosks. "Yeah, they have a bunch of beach stuff over there. Towels and sunblock and stuff. I definitely saw sunhats, because I legit considered one." He elected not to get one only because they were all rather ladylike.

She wonders just what his experience was that would make him say that. Her parents were wonderful and had never put any pressure on her to be anything other than what she wanted to be. They were as close as three people can be and she still misses them so much that it hurts.

"Would you walk over there with me? I... I don't think I'm ready to be on my own just yet."

Edited 2021-06-29 22:55 (UTC)

Kyle's parents were very well meaning, and very... interesting people.

"Oh, sure!" He smiles readily enough. "It's creepy, the whole random island thing. Plus I don't trust the locals, they dance and smile too much. That usually means they're in a cult or something."

"Yeah. Creepy..." At the very least. Disconcerting. Terrifying. Befuddling. Upsetting.

"The locals?" It's then she hears music in the distance that gets incrementally louder as they walk toward the cabana.

"I wonder if they're having some sort of festival. In nature there are a lot of plants that can create euphoria, and they've been celebrated for centuries. Maybe there's something special that only grows here..." She's getting more curious, the more she thinks about it. Maybe some happy time is exactly what people need when arriving in a strange place with no explanation.

"Maybe," Kyle says, thinking privately that if the residents of the island are on anything it's probably speed. Way too upbeat for weed or something.

"They all look like they're from the past. Like the hair and the clothes and stuff. And they sound like an old movie." A really stupid old movie, at that. Something with Elvis maybe.

"But it could be some sort of festival, yeah. Which is a little concerning only because I still think it's a cult and so we're all gonna wind up Wicker Man-ed."

"That sounds less like a cult to me and more of a theme party." She's beginning to suspect that Kyle is being just a little melodramatic. They reach the cabana and she decides to ignore the Wicker Man reference, mostly because it goes over her head.

"Wow, there's so much here! And it's all free?" There's swimsuits, coverups, hats, sunscreen, drinks and snacks... anything and everything a person could need during a day at the beach. Now that they're closer to civilization, so to speak, she can see that there are many people milling about. Most are swimming or lying in the sun. There even seems to be a surfing contest going on.

"Wow, are all these people natives, or people brought here like us?"

"Okay, that's a possibility." It's also much more logical, which might say something about Kyle's thought process that he didn't even consider it.

"Totally free," he affirms. "And I think about a quarter of em are like us. The hair is the giveaway, I think. The locals all have it all shellacked and stuff."

She looks through the swimsuits, eventually picking a modest enough bikini in an emerald green that she knows will compliment her hair and a matching tropical print sarong.

"Like Barbie dolls?" That's the image that pops into her mind - a Ken doll with perfect blond molded plastic hair.

Kyle can appreciate a redhead who likes green - he does, too. But never ever mention that it makes them look a little leprechaun-y.

"Yeah!" Kyle says, eyes lighting up. "Just like that. God, maybe they're actually robots. Although I've seen them in the water, so maybe not." He shakes his head. "I must sound super paranoid and super stupid."

She chuckles a little, not exactly at him but at his tendency to head straight to the wildest theory possible.

"They could be, I guess. From what you've said, just about anything is possible. Robot or real, as long as they're not trying to hurt me, I'm okay." She tries on a few hats and various pairs of sunglasses.

"I didn't see any lifeguards. I'm tempted to go swimming but I've never been in the ocean before..." She can swim, but it's always been in a lake or a pool.

"Yeah, good point. They might be totally nice even if they are robots."

He brightens. "Dude, I'd go with you. I know basic lifeguard stuff and first aid! I was a camp counselor in high school, I had to make sure no kids drowned."

"In a way, them being robots would be kinda comforting. Robots have programming, right? They stick to what they've been told to do. So if they're dancing, they're just going to keep dancing. No need to worry about them suddenly turning on us." And suddenly, his 'crazy' idea doesn't seem so crazy.

His offer sounds too good to be true. Almost as if whatever power that brought her here also sent her exactly the person she needs to get acclimated.

"Really? You don't mind?"

That's an extremely good point, and Kyle nods as she talks. Although part of him is always going to be awaiting a SkyNet situation when it comes to AIs.

"Really!" If there's one thing Kyle likes more than learning, it's being able to help somebody else learn. He's a bit of a dork that way. "Nah, I don't mind. I mean, we're here for a while, you know? And you're awfully nice." He grins. "Also: ginger solidarity."

She grins a little crookedly and nods. "Ginger solidarity." She spies a curtained area in the corner and uses it to change into the swimsuit and sarong. She's not self-conscious about her figure, per se, but she's not accustomed to wearing so little around other people. She has to take a few breaths before stepping out from behind the curtain to pick up a bottle of sunscreen with the highest number on it.

"Do I look okay... like I fit in?"

If there's some sort of swimsuit competition happening on the island, Kyle sure isn't winning it. His body type can kindly be described as 'lamppost.'

He looks over at Liara and grins. "Totally," he assures her. "And I mean, whatever, even if you didn't? There's way weirder shit on these islands so far than a magic redhead." He gestures at the ocean... which could also look like the sky, depending on the Traveler's perception. Either way it's swimmable. "I almost never get to go swimming somewhere that isn't a pool back home."

She smiles, sufficiently reassured, then starts to cover herself with surprisingly light spray-on sunscreen.

"The ocean near me is too cold to swim in. Where are you from?" She realizes that she never asked, but if they both pass his Netflix test, then they must both be from similar places. Somewhere he has access to a swimming pool, obviously.

He smiles a little. "I'm from Colorado, so. Just pools, for me. I was going to school in Boston, but the water there is freezing, too. You?"

He decides he could use another layer of sunscreen. Because ginger.

She nods, completely understanding.

"Washington state. I've only been to the coast a few times and it was nothing like this." It's pretty painful to walk around on the beaches she's known - full of rocks and shells, you're more likely to cut your foot than actually enjoy yourself. When she sees him start to put on more sunscreen, it makes it easier for her to ask for help.

"I'll get your back if you get mine?" she asks.

"Oh no way, my best friend moved to Washington. Portland, actually."

He looks at the bottle of sunscreen and grins. "Oh, yeah! Thanks. I apologise in advance for how gross and sweaty I am." He hands it over before turning around.

"So I gotta ask, with the plant powers and stuff, is that something you have to keep totally secret back home or is it like... unusual but not THAT weird?"

Summer TDM

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Sorry for delay, heat has melted my brain

omg mine too, this heat dome suuuuuucks

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Sorry (again) for lag... going back into the office is taking an emotional toll on me

never apologise! and yeah I bet it is

Re: never apologise! and yeah I bet it is

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