polymeme | Summer TDM

Entry tags:

! 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

"You can think and feel though," Malcolm says. That much is obvious based on this conversation. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

He'd hate to make the synth have to relive something traumatic, just as he doesn't enjoy reliving his trauma, though Malcolm has told his own story so many times now that he can get through it without getting worked up. He still can't entirely control his shaking hand when he speaks about his father though.

DiMA's smile widened into something more genuine at Malcolm's insistent that he can think and feel. It was nice meeting a stranger who didn't brush him off as a simple machine, especially one not already in the know about his kind.

"I appreciate the concern, but you needn't worry about me. This was well over a hundred years ago. I've had plenty of time to process everything."

As well as anyone could process trauma they remembered as clearly as the day it happened and was confronted with the evidence every time they looked in a mirror or saw their only family member.

"It's unusual to speak of the Institute with someone who's not immediately filled with terror and rage at the mere mention of them."

It's pretty obvious from talking to them for five minutes that DiMA has both cognition and emotions. Malcolm can see why people might not assume that though. They look more like a machine than a human.

"I've never heard of it," he replies, gently rocking the hammock beneath him.

"They'd no doubt prefer it that way. Many have heard of them, but few know much about them." He said.

"Me and my brother, Nick, were prototypes, a halfway point between the fully mechanical and non-sentient generation one and two synths, and the gen threes which are indistinguishable from a human, even with medical examination.

"I was made first. They allowed me to develop my personality through experience. Nick was not so fortunate. With him, they wanted to upload a copy of a long dead human with an already developed personality and memories. It didn't work as planned. The stress of a mind that was once human, waking up as a robot in a strange place with scientists hovering over him, was too much too bear. He usually shutdown shortly after waking. But the Institute refused to stop. I saw him endure their torture for so long. I comforted him as best I could, while I searched for a way to escape. But once we finally did, he didn't remember me. My brother thought he was the original Nick and attacked me. I was forced to leave him behind. That was over a hundred years ago."

His monologue finished, DiMA smiled bittersweetly, "We reunited recently. He still didn't remember me, but he was doing so much better. He still had the personality and memories of the original Nick, but he was also his own person with friends and a home. I'm so glad I got to see him again before I died."

Malcolm's listens to the synth's story, his brow furrowed. "It sounds like an experiment gone wrong... an unethical one at that." As a man with a degree in psychology, he's pretty aware of the dangers of unethical experiments.

"Can synths die?" he asks, hoping that it doesn't upset DiMA. They obviously have long lifespans, since DiMA indicated that the events with his brother happened over a hundred years ago. Malcolm's just not sure if it's really "death". Was he ever really alive?

"Very little that the Institute does could be considered ethical. I've only scratched the surface of their cruelty. They're somewhat of a boogeyman to the people of the Commonwealth- that's where they're located, deep underground."

He could talk for hours about the horrible things they do. Sole could probably talk for days. She's seen far more than he ever did, being permitted free range of the place by Father.

Malcolm's question didn't offend DiMA persay, but he was a little disappointed. He hoped Malcolm wasn't starting to think of sentient synths as non-living things. DiMA gave him the benefit of the doubt though. Malcolm had been accepting so far. Perhaps he just wondered if they were immortal.

"Synths can and do die. The gen threes are all organic, except for a mechanical component in their heads. Most things that could kill a human could kill them too. Me and Nick, and the gen ones and twos, will cease functioning if certain parts are damaged enough. Although just how 'alive' the models before me and my brother are is a topic of fierce debate. Some believe they don't think or feel, closer to your 'device' than a person. Others feel differently."

_{(ooc: i think that with the right encouragement, gen 1 and 2 synths could become sentient. there's a lot of sentient robots in the fallout universe, why not early synths? they're definitely a lot smarter and more advanced than the robots that are just simple machines)}

"Can anything be done about it?" Malcolm asks. He's guessing not. It sounds like it's part of the government. America's government certainly isn't innocent when it comes to unethical experimentation, but it still distresses him to hear about people getting hurt.

Malcolm's still trying to understand what synths are, since his only schema of them revolves around voices from devices. He'd never think those synths were alive. DiMA, on the other hand, seems very alive.

He nods at DiMA's explanation. "As I said, I believe that you can feel emotion and pain. The things you've told me are enough for me to draw that conclusion."

It's clear to Malcolm that DiMA thinks and feels, so by extension, and without other synths to examine, he's assuming that other synths can do that as well.

"As a matter of fact, yes." DiMA said, his demeanor improved a bit. "There are many people fighting back in their own way. The Railroad is an organization that helps escaped synths by smuggling them out of the Commonwealth. Me and two others lead a settlement where escaped synths can live in peace without hiding what they are, far from the Commonwealth. A friend of mine has a high position in the Institute and is working from the inside to better them. To name a few examples."

As awful as things were thanks to the Institute, it wasn't all bad. The Commonwealth wasn't defeated. DiMA truly believed that one day peace would be achieved. He just hoped the Institute wouldn't need to be wiped out for that day to come. He was perhaps alone in his strange attachment to their creators, but he sincerely hoped they could change for the better.

When Malcolm repeated how he felt about synths, DiMA was pleased. He was glad that his new acquaintance still believed in a synth's personhood.

"I'm glad you feel that way. Not everyone is as accepting of my kind as you are."

Edited 2021-07-20 02:28 (UTC)

"I'm glad to hear that," Malcolm tells him. "Back home, I help the police catch killers. It's not exactly the same, of course, but I want to help any kind of victims of injustice."

"What other... beings are there in your world?" he continues. "Humans?"

"That's very noble of you. Nick catches dangerous people too. He's a detective." DiMA said, "He doesn't usually work with the law enforcement in his home though. People come to him with cases that are outside the city's influence."

"There are many kinds of people. Humans and synths of course, but also ghouls, super mutants, and a few other robots types that are more than just machines." He explained, "It's possible there are other intelligent species throughout the world. I wouldn't be surprised."

"What I do is kind of similar. I was trained by my country's federal law enforcement agency, but now I do freelance work." A nicer way of saying that the FBI fired him because they thought he was too intense about his work. "I've been working with my city's local police department."

"Animals?" Malcolm asks. He's trying to get a picture of the place where DiMA comes from.

"Freelance but works with the police too. You must be very busy. Or rather..." He looked around at their surroundings. "You were very busy. I'm not sure the locals here know what 'busy' means." he chuckled.

"There are animals, yes. Supposedly there used to be a great many more, but that was a long time ago."

Countless species were wiped out by the Great War and the irreversible damage it left behind. The biodiversity of the world was so small now, but it was all DiMA had ever experienced so it felt normal.

Malcolm nods. "They remind me of people in old movies. There used to be a genre of beach movies that was popular." Not exactly his cup of tea.

He swings slightly in the hammock, letting his toes drag slowly in the sand. "Are you from Earth?" Malcolm asks. He's a bit scared to ask the question and find out that DiMA comes from a future version of his home.

"I've never been fortunate enough to see a movie."

Malcolm has seen movies? Such a thing is so rare, DiMA finds he wants to ask all sort of questions about them. Where did he see movies, was it on a tape or projector, how many has he seen, etc. Then he's asked if he's from Earth and is brought back to the current topic.

"I am. Are you from Earth as well?"

A sigh slowly escapes Malcolm's lips. "Yeah, I am."

As cool as it is to know that living synths exist in the future, it sounds like society has become somewhat dystopian. That's ultimately not that surprising, but no less disappointing.

"New York."

"I've heard of that place. Nick told me about it. He has a few memories of the human Nick visiting. It sounded spectacular."

DiMA could tell that Malcolm was upset. He could simply be missing his home but DiMA's Earth might be worse off than Malcolm's. Maybe the bombs never fell where he's from or maybe he was brought here before the Great War.

"Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," he responds with a shrug. "It's a bit unnerving to hear about the future."

Especially when it sounds dubious. New York is apparently a place that doesn't exist anymore? That's so hard for Malcolm to believe.

"I'm sorry. It's not all bad. There's still good in the world." he said reassuringly.

DiMA understood how distressing the current world could be to prewar people. It was hard on everyone, but it must seem like hell to someone who experienced what it was like before the bombs.

"If it makes you feel any better, it's possible that we're not from the same Earth."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Summer TDM

no subject

really wish i had more icons lol

aww

tw: psychological torture

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject