Summer TDM

[polymods]

✖ 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

Comments

II - Well hello there

[helpdesk_hero]

At least David isn't the only one not all that impressed by the performance here. In fact, he wasn't impressed by a lot of things going on here. But the beach was familiar, it was like home, like Krakoa, and when other people went to party at night there, David was prone to finding somewhere quiet. Hell, he'd done it a few times in the imPort world.

He does notice someone moving into the water and David found himself looking up at them, and he nodded at the man.

"Nice night."

Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii hi! :)

[extrasensory_problems]

He looks up, surprised to see that he's no longer the only one enjoying the cool evening water. "Yeah it's really pretty down here."

Carter smiles and motions towards the party which he can still hear going on in the distance.

"Did you also get tired of the party?"

Carter deserves this wreck as a friend.

[helpdesk_hero]

Pretty water, so of course he was here instead of a raucous (or nearly raucous) party that was going on. Not his taste.

"I'm not the greatest at parties."

aww they can be wrecks together

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter nods, "Understandable. I don't mind them usually but this one is kind of....weird? Everyone seems way too happy and I kept expecting something horrible to happen, like for the lead singer to suddenly announce that 'The sacrifice will be happening in 10 mins but till then let's get groooovy'."

David shows up and makes friends with Kyle and Carter. Yep, very wreck life.

[helpdesk_hero]

"This much happiness and I assume something is controlling them, happens a bit back home," David offered. But hey, sacrifice would suck. Not the weirdest he's heard actually.

"See, if this was home, I'd expect that."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter raises an eyebrow, "Controlling them? Are you from somewhere where there's a lot of cults or something?"

[helpdesk_hero]

"Not cults. Just the usual things. Like vampires, magic, reality warping, and telepaths of course," David admitted, shaking his head.

HE's never been in one specifically, but he's definitely done a lot of things in his life.

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter just looks at David for a moment, quietly trying to process the list he just ran off. Telepaths and reality warping he knows, rather intimately unfortunately, and his time on these bizarre islands has at least somewhat opened his mind to the idea of magic and monsters but it still is a bit strange.

"Huhn. Well....not all telepaths control people." He muses and looks out at the ocean, his brows knitting together in concern.

[helpdesk_hero]

"Yeah, not everyone is Emma Frost," David agrees with a mumble. But then he looks to the water.

"I know, I have telepathic friends. I just... It's the sort of thing some of them do."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Well, I don't." Carter says with a sigh and turns to David, offering him his hand as well as a teasing smile.

"I'm Carter and I suffer from telepathy."

[helpdesk_hero]

David looks at him, a bit interested at that statement. He takes the hand and shakes it.

"David, psychomimetric. It's a far weaker form of telepathy. No putting thought out, just taking knowledge and skills in."

[extrasensory_problems]

"It's nice to meet you David." He says and then raises an eyebrow. "So psychomimetric eh? Hrm that's kind of interesting....are you a mutant or did you get it from like, a chemical spill or radioactive something or other?"

[helpdesk_hero]

The fact that someone went there so fast was shocking. Which probably meant it was someone from a world near him.

"Mutant," he said, tilting his head to look at the other man. "Yeah, definitely not a mutate."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Cool, same here." He says simply and then glances at David, meeting his eyes. "Uh so, this might be a dumb question but how are you doing? Like...with this whole situation? You don't seem very freaked out by it."

[helpdesk_hero]

Well that's definitely a question, and David has so many more. He wished he had his full mutant ability, but really, he realized as soon as he wished it that it was fruitless. He could never get past a telepath's shields.

"This isn't my first time some power has taken me," David answered. "So I guess I'm a bit more used to this specific sort of mess."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Oh shit, really?" Carter says and shakes his head. "I guess that's...kind of good? Sort of?"

He shrugs and moves his feet around in the water a bit, "I was pretty freaked out when I first arrived. Within like an hour of two I had some sort of weird monster licking me, it was gross."

[helpdesk_hero]

Only kind of good, only sort of. It's all something he doesn't know how to put into words. But the weird monster licking him is something David nods along to.

"Never had that in the world that took me. And I'm lucky enough that I never had anything in the field when I was kinda sorta a hero back home end up with me getting licked. That seems more something that would happen to Captain America."

[extrasensory_problems]

"You're lucky then, because it was super gross." Carter says, making a face. He can remember the Bicorn, a grotesque and stupid looking thing. A part-panther, part-cow creature with a human-like face that stank. "This thing was butt ugly and all it would do was chase me, fart and then sit on me and lick me."

[helpdesk_hero]

"But why?" David asked, tilting his head. What a life to have lived. Yeah, no, he'd like to avoid that.

"You know what? I'll stick to alien plant invasions and inter dimensional parasites. That sounds pretty uncomfortable."

[extrasensory_problems]

"Because I'm kind hearted." He says and then explains further. "There was this weird book on one of the other islands and it had all these mythological beasts in it and when you read about one out loud it would materialize."

"So my dumb ass read about the Bicorn and the passage in it said that it 'devours kind-hearted and devoted husbands.' So I guess it decided to just lick me since I'm not married...."

He pauses and then raises an eyebrow at David, "Inter dimensional parasites? Ew, sounds nasty."

[helpdesk_hero]

Oh geez, David has to laugh out loud at that.

"You should never get married to spare yourself that fate. Which would be horrible I'm certain. And yes, Mother was horrible."

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter smiles when David essentially laughs at his monster misfortune, he doesn't mind as it's a pretty funny story now.

"No worries there, I don't think I'll ever get married so looks like I'm safe. So the parasite's name was Mother? That somehow makes it even grosser."

[helpdesk_hero]

"She was known as Mother. Often took the appearance of the mothers of those she was after and mind controlled parents. It was bad."

And the world almost ended.

mom icon because its cuuuute

[extrasensory_problems]

Carter's smile fades and his expression hardens a little, if there's one thing he's sensitive about it's mothers. He lost his when he was thirteen and can't even imagine how fucked it up it would be for a parasite to use her image to try and control him.

"That's...fucked up. I hope someone kicked its ass."

[helpdesk_hero]

"Yeah, a friend of mine did. Destroyed her, which was a good thing. Basically saved the universe. But she WAS trying to eat him and his power."

Because that's just the life of mutants.