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polymods ([personal profile] polymods) wrote in [community profile] polymeme2021-10-15 03:00 pm
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TDM #4

POLYMYTHOS: TEST DRIVE MEME

TEST DRIVE MEME


Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The island is a Winter Wonderland. Your boat docks alongside a wharf that leads you to a glimmering, snow covered land - good thing there’s a little wooden building right at the end of the wharf where you can grab some boots and a warm coat!

Beyond the icy beach among the snowy hills is nestled a little village that makes every postcard you’ve ever seen look like garbage. It’s so quaint! Strings of twinkling lights are strung up between scalloped roofs and fresh evergreen boughs and wreaths hang from doors and old fashioned lamposts.

There is a little outdoor market selling food and drinks - you can get some hot cocoa, or mulled wine. If you’re cold, you can stay in one of two cozy inns free of charge. How delightful!

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. Any food is safe to eat, and is consumable by non-human entities.

4. These residents of the village are normal humans. Killing them is possible and will affect the colour grading of your Scrywatch depending on the situation.

5. Have fun!



Ⅱ. TOY STORY
The villagers are happy to lend you snowshoes and skis if you grow bored of their little village. They tell you that you can head north or east, but that you shouldn’t go west toward the mountains. That way is too dangerous! (South just takes you back to the ocean.) No matter what direction you choose, it’s best to go with a buddy. You wouldn’t want to get stranded all alone in the snow alone, would you?

If you choose to go to the east you’ll find that you are eventually surrounded by huge chunks of ice that glow a faint pinkish colour. Keep moving into this strange valley and you’ll find yourself surrounded by dozens and dozens of oversized gift boxes.

God, don’t you just love presents?

Whether it’s because you assume they’re all for you or because you’re almost positive you heard something moving inside one of those giant boxes, you untie a bow and take the lid off one of them.

The cheerfully decorated box shivers and shakes, and then out leaps a toy. Not just any toy, either: your toy. Your favourite from when you were a child. It’s almost as big as you are, with a gift tag around its neck that has your name on it and the motto “Introduce me!” Your old favourite toy has also gained the ability to move independently. And move it will, following you around like a shadow. It refuses to leave, actually.

The longer you ignore it the more aggressive it starts to become. Turns out a six foot teddy bear can clock you pretty good, and god forbid you’re being followed by a human sized GI Joe. Leave it long enough and your childhood friend will try to kill you.

Maybe if you explain what the hell this toy is to your companion it’ll leave you alone?

Notes:
1. The toy will stop following or trying to fight your character once they explain to someone why it was important to them.

2. The ‘toy’ can be anything - if all your character ever had to play with was a block of wood, they will be tailed by a block of wood.

3. If your character was never a child, you can instead choose some sort of frivolous object they loved at any age. The idea is to share a moment of imagination or play from their past.



Ⅲ. LIGHTS IN THE SKY
Head north with your skis or snowshoes and you’ll find yourself moving easily over sparkling snow past towering evergreen trees. The air is redolent with their smell and the crisp, clear air. Birds sing and there is a general air of deep peacefulness.


The trees open up and you find yourself in an open area empty save for a cute little shack. Inside there’s a woodpile, matches, and a wood stove. Best to use the first two inside the latter, no? Unless arson is your jam. There are also some surprisingly comfortable wooden rockers. The perfect place to sit a while as the sun fades from the sky; night comes early here this time of year.

Stay even longer and you’ll see something even more beautiful: shifting waves of light dancing across the sky.

Aurora borealis. At this time of year at this time of day in this part of the country localized entirely within this part of the island?

Yes.

As you watch the northern lights, you will start to see figures up there, sketched in light. With a start you’ll also come to recognise at least one of them: it’s you. There’s no way your companion hasn’t also noticed the resemblance. This glowing facsimile of you is acting something out, and you’ll come to realise that it’s reenacting a time you took a lie way, WAY too far.

If you explain what the hell happened aloud, it will fade from the sky. Don’t? Well. It will just keep on repeating its little pantomime until dawn.

Notes:
1. The lie can be as serious or as stupid as you like.



Ⅳ. ABOMINMAL
CW: monsters, possible violence.
You never were the type to follow the rules, or maybe your sense of direction is just terrible; you go west. The terrain grows rougher, and soon enough there are huge snow covered stones jutting from the ground. There are boulders, too, which have apparently rolled down from the mountain you are now at the base of. Some of these have landed so that they are tumbled together, creating pockets almost like caves in between and beneath them.

You continue up the mountain a bit, and you become aware of the fact that you cannot hear or see any animals. No birds sing or flit by low over the ground, no curious squirrels or foxes poke their noses out to see what you’re doing.

Everything is still.

You’re just starting to think maybe you ought to turn back when something roars. The sound is a deep, resonating bass sound full of fury and you feel the snow beneath your feet shiver with it.

A huge, hulking shape is rushing down the mountain toward you. Vaguely simian and covered in white fur, it has fangs and claws and seems all too eager to use both of them on you.

Looks like you only have a few seconds to decide on a course of action.

Notes:
1. The Yeti is very fast, but if your character is on skis they may be able to get ahead of it. Oh, they took the snowshoes? Uh oh...

2. The Yeti is a flesh and blood creature. It is superhumanly strong, but it can be fought and killed.

3. Hopefully there’s just one. And hopefully all that noise doesn’t cause an avalanche…



Greetings, prospective Travelers! Welcome to the POLYMYTHOS test drive meme and thank you for your interest in our game! Our next application round will run from October 22 - October 29, 2021. 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.



Network · Logs · OOC · Memes · Plurk

danserai: human (75)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-16 02:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ oh a topic change that ahiru can latch onto and pretend this never ever happened. ]

The people who live here said it was normal . . . But the world's big. Maybe it happens in other places too?
snowburned: ([swordy girl])

[personal profile] snowburned 2021-10-16 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe. Who knows what cause such a phenomenon?

[Not so fast Ahiru]

What kind of dancing is that?
danserai: human (98)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-16 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
[ fakir would know. rue would know. but ahiru wouldn't. because she's just a duck. she's not that smart. thankfully, she gets distracted by rukia's next question. ]

Oh! That's ballet.
snowburned: ([soft eyes])

[personal profile] snowburned 2021-10-16 03:28 am (UTC)(link)
Ah. I haven't heard of it.

[Clearly the manga she'd read in Karakura hadn't been sufficient research. Well, her time to study had been limited, hadn't it.]

No, I'm certain that's meant to be you. How strange.
danserai: human (68)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-16 03:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ noooooooooooo. ahiru looks stricken because now they know the awful truth (not the duck thing, that's a different ALSO awful truth) but she's a terrible dancer!! ]

Is. Is it.

[ oh wait, maybe she can work in a new angle! ]

Maybe it's an illusion or a copy! Or a twin! Yes, that is my twin!
snowburned: ([...you may have me there dr. watson])

[personal profile] snowburned 2021-10-16 03:43 am (UTC)(link)
Do you have a twin sister?

[It sounds like an obvious, badly done lie, but she's only just learned herself that she had a sister. Who is Rukia to judge.]
danserai: human (14)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-16 03:44 am (UTC)(link)
No, but I could have one? Maybe? She could be a secret sister or maybe she lived in a different place or maybe this is making no sense anyway and I should stop trying to hide it . . .
snowburned: ([no shit sherlock])

[personal profile] snowburned 2021-10-17 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
Let's stick with 'no.'

[Honestly she feels for the girl. Being able to cover up embarrassment with a frosty facade is a valuable skill that apparently no one has ever taught her.]

Do you have any idea why the dancing lights look like you?
danserai: human (105)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-17 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
[ THE JIG IS UP. ]

N-No, they just appeared that way . . . To mock me, I guess . . .
snowburned: ([royalty by happenstance])

[personal profile] snowburned 2021-10-17 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that's rude.

[It's not like she has a better explanation.]

It's too bad you can't punch the sky.
danserai: human (20)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-17 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
Ehehe . . . or make it change shape.
snowburned: ([angel underneath])

[personal profile] snowburned 2021-10-17 01:42 am (UTC)(link)
If you were capable of that I expect it wouldn't be mocking you to start with.

The dancing isn't bad, honestly.

[She actually has no idea what good ballet should look like, it could totally be bad.]
danserai: human (02)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-17 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
That's really all my friend, Rue. She's so good at ballet that it makes my dancing look good too.

But my dancing is really bad . . .
snowburned: ([swordy girl])

[personal profile] snowburned 2021-10-17 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
Wait, so this really happened?

[Huh]
danserai: human (98)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-17 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
Mmm, a few weeks ago.

[ so much has changed since then. rue has changed since then. even though ahiru firmly believes rue is still there, buried under kraehe's possessiveness, it has been hard. ]

It happened in my ballet class.
snowburned: ([royalty by happenstance])

[personal profile] snowburned 2021-10-17 02:47 am (UTC)(link)
I call that an unforgivably invasive display, then. You were in class. You were learning. You can't be expected to get everything right the first try.
danserai: human (14)

[personal profile] danserai 2021-10-17 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, it's fine. In and out of class, my dancing is terrible . . .