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Entry tags:
Autumn TDM
✖ Test Drive Meme
Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The island looks very much like a cute little seaside town from New England, the sort overrun with tourists in the summer. But it’s not summer anymore, is it? No. Even on warm days the air holds a secret knife-edge of chill. Autumn is here.
The gently rolling hills beyond the little town are alive with reds and oranges and yellows, a riot of fall colours just begging to be used as the backdrop for a Hallmark movie. The town itself is likewise picture-perfect, with a bandstand in the middle of the park at the center of town where sometimes bake sales are held during the day and local concerts in the evenings. Mr. Terwilliger from nearby Terror Lake is even going to put on a one-man performance of the entire score of the H.M.S. Pinafore! Is there a church painted white with a red roof? You bet your ass there is. There’s little restaurants and corner shops that will keep you happily fed, and all sorts of little tourist shops that will keep you up to your neck in shitty keychains and postcards.
Ⅱ. PSL 4EVAH
The Coffee Shop AU is an alternate universe fanfiction trope; in most cases, one of two characters is the barista, and the other is or becomes their favorite customer.
Love it? Hate it? Too bad, you’re living it.
That’s right - succumb to the siren call of pumpkin spice and walk through the doors of C’Ya Latte and you’ll find yourself either in line like a normal customer, or suddenly and inexplicably behind the counter. Hope you know how to work that milk steamer.
Regardless of what role you suddenly find yourself in, you won’t be able to leave the coffee shop until a full shift has been completed. Not unless one of you notices that the tip jar on the counter is suspiciously radiant. Thanks for the tip! reads the sign in bubbly letters that actually sparkle, and yes, it’s a clue: if one of you offers up some heartfelt advice to the other, the coffee shop doors will unlock themselves.
Ⅲ. PUMPKIN PATCH KIDS
CW: Monsters, blood
If you wander just outside of town, you’ll find a road that is lined on either side with trees displaying their autumn colours. There’s a sign reading “this way to the PUMPKIN PATCH!” with a little arrow pointing down the road, and should you take a stroll you’ll find yourself at a quaint little farm. There’s a big red barn, some goats and chickens you can go and gawk at, an apple orchard, and of course the advertised pumpkin patch.
There is a little stand set up by the entrance to the farmyard, and as you pass by the kid manning it will hand you a cellphone.
“It’s for the scavenger hunt,” she explains with a smile, also handing you a list. “You and a partner have to take a picture of each of the things, and then you come back here and you get a photo prize!”
The list reads:
As the sun bleeds out in the western sky, the shadows of the orchard grow long and longer. If you choose to wander out that way you’ll find that the neat rows of apple trees have begun to twist and turn, creating a maze that spirals inward. Sunlight fades from bruise yellow to purple, and in the twilight you find yourself at the center of the orchard.
There is a mound of earth here. If you walk around it, you will find it’s not just any pile of dirt: it’s a barrow. There is an old, nearly collapsed entrance there just barely showing above the ground. In front of this there is a stone into which the following is carved:
“Accept this sacrifice.”
As you read the words, you feel the ground shiver beneath your feet as the barrow splits open and a creature pulls itself from the stinking womb of the earth.
It is ten feet tall with an emaciated body and a grotesquely oversized head. The skull looks pulpy, and the face is a grinning nightmare of teeth and milky white eyes. Its fingers are nearly as long as its forearms, tipped with claws that cut through flesh as easy as butter.
Looks like it’s time for you to run.
But you cannot seem to find a way out of the maze… even if you can fly. You just seem to wind up back at the center no matter what you do. And the creature is always there, moving toward you as soon as you stumble back to its grave.
Accept this sacrifice.
What could that mean? Has someone given something up for you? Now would be a great time to acknowledge it. Have you given something up for someone else, and resented it secretly all these years? Maybe time to get it off of your chest.
Or maybe you’re much more literal. Maybe you carry a sharp object everywhere you go and don’t mind spilling a little blood… yours or your companions.
Whatever you do, you better do it fast or the creature will sink its talons into you and pull you back into its final resting place.
Ⅳ. CRAFT FAIR
There is of course a town hall in a town this quaint, and it of course is host to a craft fair! It is, after all, right before the holidays! What holidays? Well. All of them! Look, just come get your uncle some salmon rub and your mother-in-law a candle or something.
The hall has tables end to end, and there’s plenty to buy: jams and jellies, honeys, tea blends, and even locally roasted coffee. There’s jewelry and scarves and knockoff UGGS, knitted toys and home decor that reminds you to live, laugh, and love.
There’s also a row of tables near the back of the hall where you can actually sit down and do some crafts yourself!
There’s a few stations. A lot of locals seem to be making some sort of masks out of straw and twigs and burlap - there doesn’t seem to be any room for you there, though.
More accessible and less unusual are stations to make friendship bracelets at. There’s bright coloured thread and easy to follow instructions! It’ll be fun! No, really - as you work, you’ll start to feel quite relaxed and pleasant. Whoever you’re working next to will also seem super easy to talk to. Who knows? By the end you might have a new friend to give your bracelet to.
Greetings, prospective Travelers! Welcome to the Autumn 2021 POLYMYTHOS test drive meme and thank you for your interest in our game! Our next application round will run from August 27 - September 3, 2021. For the Autumn season, 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.
Killer idea: pumpkin spice playlists!!
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The island looks very much like a cute little seaside town from New England, the sort overrun with tourists in the summer. But it’s not summer anymore, is it? No. Even on warm days the air holds a secret knife-edge of chill. Autumn is here.
The gently rolling hills beyond the little town are alive with reds and oranges and yellows, a riot of fall colours just begging to be used as the backdrop for a Hallmark movie. The town itself is likewise picture-perfect, with a bandstand in the middle of the park at the center of town where sometimes bake sales are held during the day and local concerts in the evenings. Mr. Terwilliger from nearby Terror Lake is even going to put on a one-man performance of the entire score of the H.M.S. Pinafore! Is there a church painted white with a red roof? You bet your ass there is. There’s little restaurants and corner shops that will keep you happily fed, and all sorts of little tourist shops that will keep you up to your neck in shitty keychains and postcards.
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. 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.
4. Any food is safe to eat, and is consumable by non-human entities.
5. Have fun!
Ⅱ. PSL 4EVAH
The Coffee Shop AU is an alternate universe fanfiction trope; in most cases, one of two characters is the barista, and the other is or becomes their favorite customer.
Love it? Hate it? Too bad, you’re living it.
That’s right - succumb to the siren call of pumpkin spice and walk through the doors of C’Ya Latte and you’ll find yourself either in line like a normal customer, or suddenly and inexplicably behind the counter. Hope you know how to work that milk steamer.Regardless of what role you suddenly find yourself in, you won’t be able to leave the coffee shop until a full shift has been completed. Not unless one of you notices that the tip jar on the counter is suspiciously radiant. Thanks for the tip! reads the sign in bubbly letters that actually sparkle, and yes, it’s a clue: if one of you offers up some heartfelt advice to the other, the coffee shop doors will unlock themselves.
Notes:
1. A full shift is eight hours, regardless of what time you may have wandered into the shop. Both customer and barista are trapped for the duration.
2. Yes, the barista gets free drinks.
Ⅲ. PUMPKIN PATCH KIDS
CW: Monsters, blood
If you wander just outside of town, you’ll find a road that is lined on either side with trees displaying their autumn colours. There’s a sign reading “this way to the PUMPKIN PATCH!” with a little arrow pointing down the road, and should you take a stroll you’ll find yourself at a quaint little farm. There’s a big red barn, some goats and chickens you can go and gawk at, an apple orchard, and of course the advertised pumpkin patch.
There is a little stand set up by the entrance to the farmyard, and as you pass by the kid manning it will hand you a cellphone.
“It’s for the scavenger hunt,” she explains with a smile, also handing you a list. “You and a partner have to take a picture of each of the things, and then you come back here and you get a photo prize!”
The list reads:
- one of you holding a pumpkin! :)
- you holding hands while one of you goes down a road/path!
- feet with autumn leaves!
- apple cider or hot chocolate (you can find these at our concession!)
- something you think is truly beautiful!
- you holding hands while one of you goes down a road/path!
- feet with autumn leaves!
- apple cider or hot chocolate (you can find these at our concession!)
- something you think is truly beautiful!
As the sun bleeds out in the western sky, the shadows of the orchard grow long and longer. If you choose to wander out that way you’ll find that the neat rows of apple trees have begun to twist and turn, creating a maze that spirals inward. Sunlight fades from bruise yellow to purple, and in the twilight you find yourself at the center of the orchard.
There is a mound of earth here. If you walk around it, you will find it’s not just any pile of dirt: it’s a barrow. There is an old, nearly collapsed entrance there just barely showing above the ground. In front of this there is a stone into which the following is carved:
“Accept this sacrifice.”
As you read the words, you feel the ground shiver beneath your feet as the barrow splits open and a creature pulls itself from the stinking womb of the earth.
It is ten feet tall with an emaciated body and a grotesquely oversized head. The skull looks pulpy, and the face is a grinning nightmare of teeth and milky white eyes. Its fingers are nearly as long as its forearms, tipped with claws that cut through flesh as easy as butter.Looks like it’s time for you to run.
But you cannot seem to find a way out of the maze… even if you can fly. You just seem to wind up back at the center no matter what you do. And the creature is always there, moving toward you as soon as you stumble back to its grave.
Accept this sacrifice.
What could that mean? Has someone given something up for you? Now would be a great time to acknowledge it. Have you given something up for someone else, and resented it secretly all these years? Maybe time to get it off of your chest.
Or maybe you’re much more literal. Maybe you carry a sharp object everywhere you go and don’t mind spilling a little blood… yours or your companions.
Whatever you do, you better do it fast or the creature will sink its talons into you and pull you back into its final resting place.
Notes:
1. If characters complete the photo scavenger hunt, they will each receive a photograph of an important memory.
2. The only way out of the maze is to either cop to a sacrifice - the character’s or another’s - or spill some blood in front of the creature.
3. You can try to fight the creature, but it is extremely difficult to kill. It also has a tendency towards not staying dead, and might pop up again later during your visit on the island when you least expect it.
4. No, you don’t get to keep the cellphone.
Ⅳ. CRAFT FAIR
There is of course a town hall in a town this quaint, and it of course is host to a craft fair! It is, after all, right before the holidays! What holidays? Well. All of them! Look, just come get your uncle some salmon rub and your mother-in-law a candle or something.
The hall has tables end to end, and there’s plenty to buy: jams and jellies, honeys, tea blends, and even locally roasted coffee. There’s jewelry and scarves and knockoff UGGS, knitted toys and home decor that reminds you to live, laugh, and love.There’s also a row of tables near the back of the hall where you can actually sit down and do some crafts yourself!
There’s a few stations. A lot of locals seem to be making some sort of masks out of straw and twigs and burlap - there doesn’t seem to be any room for you there, though.
More accessible and less unusual are stations to make friendship bracelets at. There’s bright coloured thread and easy to follow instructions! It’ll be fun! No, really - as you work, you’ll start to feel quite relaxed and pleasant. Whoever you’re working next to will also seem super easy to talk to. Who knows? By the end you might have a new friend to give your bracelet to.
Notes:
1. You can purchase things from the fair, but if you can’t fit it in your bag it will not come with you off-island.
2. Eavesdropping on the locals making masks, you’ll hear them talk about ‘the holidays’ a lot, but that’s the extent of it.
Greetings, prospective Travelers! Welcome to the Autumn 2021 POLYMYTHOS test drive meme and thank you for your interest in our game! Our next application round will run from August 27 - September 3, 2021. For the Autumn season, 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.
no subject
Honestly, she didn't know what she was. All she knew was people talked about millennials like they were young people, and she was a young person, so it only made sense that that was what she was. Unfortunately, she had not googled it, like, ever and now she couldn't so...oops?
"Well, I like avocado toast too?"
Hey, it was a point of connection! Maybe!
"Well of course not. I'm Princess Powerful!! Did you get a good picture yet? Or was I making a goofy face? I wanna make sure it's a good smile..."
no subject
Oh, also she forgot to snap a picture, because she was so startled by the show of strength. Though the name Princess Powerful just reminds her of Trixie again. It's exactly the sort of superhero name her daughter would give herself.
"Try again. Smile for me."
She holds up the camera, offering the girl a smile of her own. See? Super strength, no big deal!
no subject
Molly puts on her biggest, brightest smile, which isn't hard because overflowing with positivity is another unspoken superpower of hers. Even when she's accidentally rude, it's hard to dislike the kid. Maybe she really would be besties with Trixie if she met the girl. Heck, if she was half the actual devil, it wouldn't even matter to Molly because she was friends with all types.
"Okay, your turn!! I went for the biggest, so we gotta find the cutest for you now. Or the most interesting. Some have really funky warts, and that's kinda cool."
no subject
"Right, pumpkins. Maybe we should find one of the warty ones. Sometimes those are the most interesting." She starts hunting around, rolling a couple on their sides to see how misshapen they are, if there are any weird lumps on them. "You could carve some really cool looking jack-o-lanterns from these."
She holds one up, definitely interesting and definitely warty.
no subject
Molly searches high and low for a good warty one. They are a bit harder to find, as it's hard to find a good warty one. The regular ones are easier in that regard - there's a standard shape. However, the warty ones are usually not the ones first picked, so there's a greater selection at least. When she sees Chloe hold one up, Molly straightens and tilts her head.
"I like that one! It's weird in the right ways. Kinda looks like it has horns. If you squint, it even looks like a devil face winking at you!!"
no subject
"Yeah," she says finally, holding up the pumpkin with a smile so Molly can snap a photo. "Looks like he's about to get himself into trouble." That is par for the course, anyway.
no subject
Molly makes a show of doing her best to get just the right exact PERFECT angle. Then she takes several to make sure she captures it. As she stares at her handiwork, she glances between the screen and Chloe.
"Your smile is really pretty, but kinda sad. Are you okay, Miss Chloe?"
no subject
Of course, Chloe isn’t about to dump her grief and guilt on a child, any child, but she knows from experience with Trixie that it’s probably not a good idea to lie, either.
So what she offers is part of the truth, the part she thinks Molly will be able to understand and relate to:
“Well, I miss my loved ones back home, and I’m worried about them. It was pretty scary, showing up here with no rhyme or reason.”
no subject
She takes a deep breath and lets it out in a long sigh. Then she walks up to Chloe and hugs her around the middle.
"Me too," she whispers.
no subject
"C'mon," she says after a moment. "We've still got to do the rest of the list. You can tell me about your friends back home, too, if you want."
no subject
But it was also really nice. The autumn, the pumpkin farm, the pumpkin spice everything. If it was all fake, it was at least a nice kind of fake.
"Okay!" She offers Chloe a big grin. "But before I get started on that...how do we get a picture of us holding hands? This phone looks ancient. Like, what even has actual buttons any more? Do you think it can do a delayed picture? It looks like it's from, like, 2002 or some super old time like that."
no subject
"We might have to think outside the box a bit on this one. Maybe we just snap a picture of our hands, and the road?" She holds the cell phone up, angling it towards their feet.
no subject
Chloe didn't know it, because she'd only just met Molly, but Molly somehow managed to have a different kind of hat or head covering every single day. She was somewhat underselling herself as a creative type, but not on purpose. She just didn't think of coming up with new hats to wear as a creative thing because her horizons hadn't expanded quite that far yet.
"We just need the perfect stretch of road as a backdrop. It's gotta be the most autumn possible. Like, totally like something you'd see as a background for a Starbucks PSL ad."
no subject
She offers her hand for Molly to take. "I'll trust your eye, to find the best spot."
no subject
Of course, she really, really liked beating up bad guys. If she was sure they were bad. That was always the tricky part, because she didn't have the same rigid expectations for good and bad that most of the tights crew had. She tended to assume and see the best in people first, and then if they were mean punch them really hard. So her "good and bad" was a lot more like "nice and mean".
And you better not mess with her friends.
Molly takes Chloe's hand and smiles. It feels really nice to hold an adult's hand. She hasn't gotten to do much of that in a long time. Then she starts walking around, looking for a good spot. Eventually, there's a path with blown over leaves and a pumpkin that someone picked up and then abandoned.
"Here! This is great! And the leaves are freaking awesome!!" It was a good possibility that she had never experienced much in the way of fall leaves.
no subject
"I bet you're good at lots of things," she says instead. "For instance, you're really good at keeping me company. I bet you're really, really good at being a friend."
And she smiles at the backdrop Molly has found.
"You're really good at finding a good spot for a pic, too."
no subject
Now there's a thought. She didn't have a clear memory of how she got here. What if she'd chosen to leave her friends? She thought really hard, searching her memory, and the last thing she could remember was Karolina having to leave them for space, and Chase getting dragged off into the future. Her literally pushing him into the future. It was enough to wilt the smile a little more.
But she puts it back on again for Chloe's compliment. "It's hard not to be here! This whole place is made for pictures. Well, except for that," she says, gesturing at the festering eyesore of a maze that obviously leads to a creepy monster in the center. "But the rest is amazing!"
no subject
She grips Molly's hand, using her other hand to position the camera, squinting at it and the angle before snapping the pic. "How's that?"
no subject
Molly peers at the picture, then nods once with a grin. "You know what's even better? You got our hands and our feet, and there's leaves!! This is a really clever two in one! Do you think they'll take it?"
no subject
"And I bet we can convince them to accept it for both," she adds with a wink.
no subject
Molly may not have a complete or accurate picture of what she's talking about there, but the sentiment is in the right place at least. Kind of.
"YEAH!!" Now she pumps her fist in the air in triumph. "We just need to find something really beautiful, and we're done!!!" A pause. "Oh yeah, and cider or chocolate!! But we can get that on the way back no problem. That's like the dessert reward anyway."
no subject
She's come to believe some pretty weird stuff over the past few years.
"What do you think is beautiful here?" she asks after a moment. "I've always liked sunsets, myself."
no subject
She thinks for a few moments. "It all seems nice here, like one of those celebrity rehab getaways. I'm not sure why I would need to improve like they claim I should try to," she jingles her bracelet for emphasis, and the color is a firmly happy one*, "but anyone who wants people to be better seems alright. I just don't like that I don't remember how they got me, and that I don't remember agreeing to it, and that all I have is the word of a creepy boat dude to go by but..." She shrugs and kicks at a rock. "It's a fun adventure, at least. I guess I'll give it time."
She glances around, and sure enough, the sun does appear to be moving towards setting territory. The shadows are growing long, turning the fall trees from delightful explosions of color to imposing figures in scary stories. A little ways away, some of the people who work the farm are preparing a big bonfire - perhaps to pass hot drinks around and tell exactly those tales. And of course the creepy orchard maze thing just sits there with a malignant air.
"That sounds amazing! And it's your choice. I've been choosing a lot. You should get to choose too. If it's a pretty sunset and you wanna take a picture of it, we just need to get a great angle."
no subject
She lifts the phone, and snaps a few pics of the sunset, the warm golden autumn colors making filters unnecessary.
"Hm. Not bad. I miss the sunsets back home, though," she says after another moment. "LA has the best sunsets."
no subject
After a moment, she pops up beside Chloe. "Lemme see! I do too. My house used to have a really good view of them."
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