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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
“Every time I think I’m getting used to being the normal person that weird stuff happens to, something even weirder happens and I realize I wasn’t prepared, like, at all.”
She might be a miracle or whatever, but she still considers herself normal. Compared to some of the people she knows, she is.
no subject
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So she doesn’t balk at the question the way she might otherwise. Instead, she snorts faintly.
“Well, there are several contenders, but the fact that my boyfriend is literally the Devil is probably the weirdest.” Or at least, the source of all the other weird things.
no subject
He knots some thread, then looks at Chloe. "Are you Catholic? That would probably make it really weird."
no subject
But, after all, they're here, in this weird-ass place that doesn't seem to exist on the earthly plane, or Heaven or Hell, for that matter. So why should anyone be surprised or upset or dumbfounded by what she just said?
"No, and no. And also, no," she says, absently braiding some yarn together. It's purple. "He's bi. And tall, but like, six-foot-three tall, not outrageous. He's not usually red, and his wings are big and white. And I've never been religious. I still don't think I am."
It should feel weirder for her to be saying this to someone, especially a stranger. Linda is the only human she can really talk to about Lucifer's celestial nature, after all. But the stuff about his wings is just as easy for her to say, somehow, as the stuff about his sexuality and his height. The purple yarn makes her think of one of his suits, actually, lined in a silky purple fabric just this color. She misses him.
no subject
He offers Chloe a grin. "You're not religious," he repeats, "but you're literally dating Satan. That's kind of hilarious. I love it." He starts giggling. "Oh my god, you would drive Evangelicals nuts."
no subject
She adds a few beads to the bracelet she’s making. It’s very amateurish work.
“Evangelical heads would explode,” she comments lightly. “I met God. I told him off for being a bad parent, which, he was. Lucifer is all kinds of messed up because of it. He tries so hard and gets so little credit.”
She’s just a woman, who loves her boyfriend enough to stick up for him to, well, everyone. Up to and including God.
no subject
He laughs. Well, cackles, really.
"You too?! I've also met God! He's really, really weird looking. His other kid - Jesus, I mean - has a call-in show in my hometown."
He gives Chloe a sympathetic look. "Man, you MUST love the guy to go up against your supposed creator."
no subject
She holds the bracelet up to inspect it a bit. More beads? More beads.
"I do. Love him. As crazy as that sounds, being in love with the devil. He's sort of the reason why my life is so weird and crazy, but - he's worth it."
Even with her recent loss, she knows she wouldn't trade Lucifer for anything.
no subject
He puts his chin on one of his hands. "I mean, yeah, that would complicate your life, I'd think. But like... Love is good. I really believe that, even if it's unconventional."
no subject
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He shrugs lightly. "I dunno. Does he love you back?"
no subject
Because he may be emotionally constipated - he may have himself convinced that he's incapable of love, but Chloe knows better. She knows him, and she knows how she feels when she's with him, what he has done for her and will always do for her, the way he looks at her - she believes he does, even if he never manages to say the words.
"And when I get back home," she says with equal confidence, "he's going to become God, and I'm going to help him make the world better."
no subject
At that he laughs. "I mean... If you can? I guess I support that. But I gotta ask, are you gonna restructure every world religion?"
no subject
That's what she wants to do, that's what she hopes she and Lucifer will be able to do.
no subject
He frowns as he tries to organise his thoughts better. "I guess I'm just like, if you're god, tell us to stop killing each other over that stuff. But yeah, nobody would, would they?"
no subject
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He sighs and unknots some of his bracelet.
"I appreciate that you guys really don't care, though. Or at least you don't. Do you get to be immortal if he becomes god?"
no subject
Amenadiel told her, once. That knowledge has comforted her a lot since.
She blinks at his question, though. "Me? Oh, no, I don't think so. I'm still just me."
no subject
It's good, he thinks, to have some closure when it comes to your dead relatives.
"So you'll like, get old and die and he'll stay young and hot?"
no subject
no subject
"Although if the afterlife is real, he could just meet you there anyway. Goddamn, life is SO weird."
He looks up again. "You'll be fine here, then, I think."