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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
It's tempting to see if she might be able to leave, or if the pair of them would be able to leave together. It's doubtful it would be so simple. "I know this is going to sound bizarre but... the areas we travel to, they tend to have... tasks." As 'task' sounds slightly better than 'test'. "Lessons, if you like. Something to facilitate our growth." As explanations go, she realises it doesn't offer much. Adjusting to the islands is a task in itself and so she doesn't want to overwhelm him with immediate tales of what has been thrown at the Travelers thus far.
"You might find yourself in places you didn't expect or not exactly knowing the how of it... But there are a lot of lovely people in the same situation and they're very helpful to one another." She gives a little nod. If nothing else, he has Connor and herself around. Wonderful as her new friends are, the presence of her fellow androids is settling.
no subject
"And who is assigning these tasks?" He has had luck recently with going straight to the source and pushing said luck. Inaction is how he ended up where he was. It's not in his nature, not his true nature, despite how Elijah Kamski created him. He created both of them personally for specific reasons.
Markus takes her at her word though and he looks around, focusing where he can, following the paths around that might get them to the answer of this particular 'lesson.' It's strange that he didn't notice the tip jar glowing until now, but that may be by design. He tilts his head curiously. "Thanks for the tip?" Just saying it out loud does not seem to do anything.
no subject
"There's a being named the Ancient. The mechanisms are the subject of some debate." For a brief moment, her lips curve into a half-smile. Yes, there are plenty of theories but not much in the way of anything concrete. "I have some thoughts on it, if you might find them useful? Not that I'm saying they're accurate in the slightest." She might only make matters more confusing with her unfounded notions. Her urges to dissect it all is something she's trying to rein in.
Her smile grows a little, becoming more genuine. The glowing jar is definitely a good spot. "I would say that showing monetary generosity would be too easy... Especially as I seem to find myself in the role of barista." Had it been one of the townsfolk as a server, it could have been a more likely possibility. "What sort of tip could it be looking for, do you think?"