TDM: Mega Throwback Edition!

[polymods]

✖ TEST DRIVE MEME

Ⅰ. ARRIVAL
You can read all about your character's arrival in the game lore.
The island you find yourself on is a tropical paradise. The hair is heavy and humid, and a thick flowering jungle encroaches on the white sandy beach. As far as mysterious islands go, it could be a lot worse! Maybe there’s a bar with some Mai Tais set up here somewhere…

As you walk towards the jungle you become aware that something is moving in the bushes. Some sort of animal, probably - maybe your mind goes to jaguars, or monkeys. What comes running out onto the beach, though, is not remotely mammalian: it’s a dinosaur.

Just a little one - it’s about the size of a small dog, running along on its hind legs. Aww, he’s kinda cute if you ignore the sharp teeth and claws! Lucky for you it’s busy chasing something else and soon darts back into the bush unless you do something to grab its attention.

Listen closely and you’ll find that sometimes you can hear sounds that are distinctly mechanical. Whatever this place is, it at least sounds like it’s inhabited by something possessing intelligence. You could definitely go and find out. Just be careful!

Or maybe you think, hey, I’ve seen this movie, I’m staying on the beach! You could, but unless you’re good at diving for fish you might have a hard time finding food.

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. The people on the island are normal humans unless otherwise indicated. The dinosaurs are animals and can be killed. I mean, good luck with that, but.

4. Have fun!

---

Ⅱ. CRETACEOUS PARK
CW: Dinosaurs! Violence, possibly against dinosaurs!
The jungle is thick and it takes a lot of effort to move through it. You’ll have to crawl under vines, climb over felled trees, and just generally pay a lot of attention to your surroundings. This is the sort of situation where having someone with you certainly makes things easier. Occasionally you will hear animals calling, and you’re bound to see some of them eventually. Maybe you’ll luck out and spot a herbivore like one of the armoured dinosaurs, just chewing on plants and not likely to attack you unless you piss it off. Maybe you spot something about your size with a decidedly less vegetarian diet and you have to decide between hiding or trying to scare it off.

Eventually in your wanderings you come across an unusual sight: a dirt road. It cuts its way through the trees and ferns, and to the south you can hear what is probably a familiar sound: engines. And shouting.

It’s getting closer.

Suddenly there are cars and motorcycles rushing down the road toward you - try not to get hit! One of the cars slows and a guy with a ragged blonde beard hangs out and tells you to get in the back. At close to the same time a truck slows and another guy tells you to climb aboard and grab a gun.

Why would you need a gun? The answer presents itself almost immediately: big daddy T-Rex is stomping its way down the road towards you.

You can escape with the first car, or pitch in and try to shoot the dinosaur with the second. Or you could try and prevent them from hurting the animal entirely, or just run off into the jungle by yourself. Better decide quickly, though. That T-Rex looks hungry.

Notes:
1. You determine your level of dino encounter! And what kind - nobody is going to get on your ass if you pick one from the Jurassic period instead of the Cretaceous. It’s a magic island for crying out loud.

---

Ⅲ. SETTLEMENT
CW: Kidnapping.
Whether you throw in with the humans or maybe stumble upon it by accident, you wind up at their encampment . It’s definitely the safest place to be - there are high walls around a series of small buildings mostly cobbled together from wood and tin. But there’s cots, and food. Outside the perimeter wall are tripwires and very basic motion sensors that will alert the settlement if any sizable animals are prowling around.

You’re informed that mostly the dinosaurs leave the camp alone - too much effort for not enough food.

While you’ll be welcomed the first night, as soon as morning rolls around it will be made abundantly clear that you’re going to be expected to pull your weight. Pitch in with the cooking or cleaning, or if you have some mechanical skill you can help fix up some of the rattling vehicles parked around.

From what you can gather, this is just one of a few different settlements on the island. Some of the others have small farms, and if you can drive you will be asked if you’d mind running over a delivery to one of these.

Agree, and you’ll be handed the keys to what sure looks like a 1970s era Cadillac. The mulleted gentleman who has asked this favour of you hands you a piece of paper upon which a small map is drawn, along with written directions. A note at the bottom reads, “don’t look in the tunk.” You think he means ‘trunk.’

“Package is in the trunk,” this gentleman confirms. “Don’t open it, sunlight’ll mess it all up.”

With that he sends you on your merry way. Best to take along a buddy for safety!

Partway through your journey you will come to realise that whatever is in the trunk is making a banging noise. You can ignore it and keep driving, passing the keys off to the people at the farming settlement, or you can pull over and investigate.

If you choose the second option, you’ll find that your ‘package’ is a person. Not a human one - this person has scales and huge, bulging eyes above small nostrils. They’re bound hand and foot and gagged, staring up at you with terror.

Well, jeez. Now what?

Notes:
1. If you open the trunk and discover the Crazy Frog-esque figure within you can continue on to the settlement and deliver him as promised. If you choose the former, the people at both settlements will be angry and turn on you unless you can spin a very convincing lie about your prisoner escaping.

2. If you choose to free your froggy friend, they will indicate that you should follow them through the jungle to their home.

3. If you skip the delivery mission, you can still stay at the camp. It’s very bare bones, but there’s food and cots and bathrooms at least.

---

Ⅳ. REPTILIANS
Whether it’s because you’re led there, or because you find it by accident, you find yourself in a village - the houses are smooth stone, curving elegantly under sprawling vines and beautiful blooming flowers.

Upon your arrival several humanoid lizard people emerge from their homes and watch you, silent. One of them, stooped and wizened with age, moves to stand directly in front of you. When they speak, you realise that you can’t hear them with your ears; they communicate through telepathy.

You are welcome to stay in our village if you pass our Test of Bravery.

You’re half expecting that they’ll make you fight a velociraptor or something, but no - this village elder leads you and your companion both to the center of the village where there are several large flat stones ringed around one much larger stone. You’re both instructed to sit. More of the reptilian people approach, watching you.

Tell us a story of your bravery, the elder tells you.

You’ll have to dig into your memories to find a moment where you think you acted bravely, and then you’ll have to tell everyone assembled about it. You might be tempted to embellish a little bit, or to outright lie.

But if you do…

The moment you start fudging the truth, a different memory will play out just above the large center stone like a hologram. This memory paints you much more poorly: it's one of your most cowardly moments. Definitely not what you wanted to share with a village full of people.

When either your story or your memory is finished, the village elder will look at you with their strange eyes and pronounce whether or not you’re allowed to stay.

Notes:
1. Whether or not you are allowed to stay is not based entirely on how brave you were - how you react to having to share (willingly or not) these stories also plays a part. For example, if you ran away from a fight but in the present you don’t try to justify it with bullshit reasons, you will still be invited to stay.

2. The Reptilian village is a blend of nature and advanced technology. Frankly, it’s a nicer place to stay than the human settlements. They have a lot more creature comforts, like nice deep baths and soft beds.

---

Greetings, prospective Travelers! Welcome to the POLYMYTHOS test drive meme and thank you for your interest in our game! 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! Apps are always open!)

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

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Peter Parker | The Amazing Spider-Man

[threeterparker]

[ ooc: as it has not quite been one full month since No Way Home released, I will be keeping Peter's canon point vague for now, but the intent is to app him from post-NWH. please let me know if you would rather avoid spoilers entirely. I will match prose or brackets. HMU @ millennialfalcon if you want to plot a different starter! ]

I. BEACH?! 🏖️

[ As he steps off the Ferryman's boat, Peter is full of questions. Questions that he tries to turn around and ask the Ferryman himself, but the boat has already started sailing away, having deposited its passengers on the beach. ]

Wait! What do you mean, "walking the line between reform and annihilation!?" You can't just drop a word-bomb like "annihilation" and not expect me to have questions!

[ The Ferryman either doesn't hear him, or chooses not to answer his shouted question, in typical 'mysterious spiritual guide' fashion. Peter just stands on the beach, looking a little lost, shaking his head. ]

I... don't know what I expected.

II. DINOSAURS!! 🦖

[ Peter isn't a jungle kind of guy. But he's a jungle guy more so than he is a stay-on-the-beach-forever kind of guy, so into the jungle he goes. Things go alright for him for the most part, climbing trees to try to get a sense of the layout of the land ahead. He isn't able to tell a whole lot from the view (man, he misses skyscrapers already!) aside from seeing the occasional Apatosaurus head peeking above the treeline. Which he has to admit, is pretty cool.

Finally he sees an indentation in the trees that he thinks must be a road, so he heads for it. Not long after he finds the road, the cavalcade of vehicles comes racing towards him. He dodges out of the way at the last second, deftly avoiding becoming road pizza.

When given the option to either flee or stay and fight the T-Rex, Peter chooses the latter, but he turns down the offer of a gun. Instead, when the king of the beasts arrives, he runs and leapfrogs off of the trees lining the road, up into the air, and loops around to land on the back of the T-Rex's neck, hanging on for his dear life.

It is at this point that he remembers that he doesn't have his web shooters. ]

I— Uh—! [ He hangs on for dear life as the angry dinosaur tries to dislodge him from its back. ] I really didn't think this far ahead!!

III.-IV. LIZARD PEOPLE?? 🦎

[ Peter doesn't stay in the human settlement long. He's too antsy to stay in one place, but he does want to make himself useful. Which is why he ends up volunteering to accompany someone on the car trip to the other settlement. Him, drive? No thanks, he's a city boy. He has his license, but definitely doesn't feel comfortable behind the wheel of a car. Heck, he'd feel more sure of himself surfing the roof of it than he would driving it!

At the sound of banging coming from the trunk, however, Peter would strongly encourage whoever is driving to pull over so they can check it out. And once they discover what their precious cargo is? ]

Mm-mm. No way. I am not going to be a party to human trafficking!? [ He spares a glance at the now freed captive. ] ...Frog person trafficking, excuse me.

[ And so he follows the rescued frog guy back to his village. He's a little weirded out by a whole community of reptilian (and amphibian!) people, given his unfortunate experience with Dr. Connors trying to turn all of Manhattan into giant lizard people, but he gets over himself once he hears one of them speak into his mind, quickly realizing that this is it's own whole thing.

When led to the test of bravery, Peter is expecting a fight. Honestly, he would have rather fought someone or walked across hot coals or something than toot his own horn with a tale of his bravery. ]

Uh, I mean, what can I say? I really haven't done anything special, or-or anything worth talking about.

[ Part of it is that he is humble, but another large part of it is that he would like to at least try to maintain his secret identity, even here, so far removed from anything resembling his home turf. He doesn't really get that chance however, as a scene from his memory plays out in the air above them... A scene of himself as Spider-Man, unmasked, saving a boy from a falling car. Peter is speechless, seeing the secrets he now has no hope of keeping hidden laid bare for everyone to see. ]

I, um. I would argue that Jack was the brave one there, actually...

IV

[detectivemiracle]

[ Chloe, by dint of also categorically refusing to participate in a kidnapping, is also here, and also preparing for a test of bravery - when the young man shows up, and - oh. Well, that is pretty brave. She supposes there are probably worse things to be forced to share, though it's still a little invasive, pulling memories from people.

Still, she can't help but smile faintly at the guy. ]

Seems like you were both pretty brave. Uh, I can't say I have anything that even comes close to that.

[ Which is kind of a lie, though she doesn't see it that way. Which of course means that now he gets to see one of hers. She frowns slightly at the memory, not sure what to make of it. ]

[threeterparker]

[ As embarrassed as Peter is, and inwardly freaking out about his secret identity being leaked, at least this woman isn't making a big deal of it.

And then, oop— Looks like his isn't the only memory being played out. And after he watches it, he offers her a warm, apologetic smile back. ]

I don't know, that looked really brave to me. Talking him down like that, when he had a gun trained on you. [ Peter should know, he's been in similar situations more times than he would like to count. The only difference is, he's pretty sure this woman doesn't have superpowers. ]

How, ah. How long ago was that, for you?

[detectivemiracle]

[ She's waaaaay past the whole "omg superheroes?!?!" thing. Like, is the spandex suit a little silly? Sure. But her boyfriend is literally the Devil, so she's hardly one to talk.

What she appreciates, is a person willing to help others. ]

Ah, a few years ago. I guess I didn't think about it, because I was just doing my job. But you... seem kind of young to be doing the whole... hero... thing. Is that normal where you come from?

[threeterparker]

[ The idea of other superheroes is still relatively new to Peter, so while she might be beyond the "omg??!?!" stage, he isn't quite there yet. But he does have a lot of respect for police officers, both from working alongside them, and also for dating a police captain's daughter.

He shrugs, bringing up a hand to scratch shyly behind his ear. ]

Nnnot exactly normal, no. It's pretty much just me.

[detectivemiracle]

Oh. That... seems like a lot to take on, for just one person. I mean, you can't be everywhere at once, I would assume.

[ She says that not without sympathy. He just seems pretty young! That's way more responsibility than she'd ever want to put on anyone's shoulders, especially someone younger than her. ]

[threeterparker]

[ He lets out a hollow laugh that just sounds tired. ] No. No I can't. Even just trying to cover New York, I can get stretched pretty thin.

[ He's honestly not as young as he looks— Spider-healing means he shows the years less than he might normally— but it is definitely still a lot to put on the shoulders of someone who was still in high school when he started all this. ]

( I )

[dothelokimotion]

[ new arrivals were always so . . . fussy. loki waves his concerns away. ]

The fact that you expected anything means you're bound to have a bad time.

[threeterparker]

[ Peter turns to the man near him, still too wrapped up in his confusion to take his words to heart. ]

Do you know what he meant? "Reform and annihilation?"

[dothelokimotion]

I thought he was quite clear.

You have to improve or this place will take measures against you. A purgatorial rehabilitation process.

[threeterparker]

Improve how? What measures? The whole thing is so... vague.

[dothelokimotion]

Self-improvement is always vague.

[ if there were clear, easy guidelines then well . . . issues wouldn't exist. ]

That is where you have to seek initiative, is it not? Besides each island offers its own . . . situational problems to tackle.

[threeterparker]

[ He's got a point. Peter rubs at his wrist where his new bracelet sits, nodding idly as his mind works through the words he's hearing. ]

Situational problems. That's... Okay, that's not impossible to deal with, right? We just take each new thing as it comes.

[ He shakes his head. It's beginning to seem like he's stuck here for a while yet, and won't be going back to his universe until he can 'reform' himself, to whatever arbitrary standards are set for him. Sighing, he at least offers a hand to the guy to introduce himself. ]

I'm Peter, by the way.

I

[foxtrots]

[minsu is also full of questions for the ferryman...how many of them were actually relevant to the situation at hand will just have to remain a mystery, in part because he's suddenly more curious about peter.

and also because they're being left behind.]

That was rude, right? He was rude to ignore you. I could never do that to someone.

[threeterparker]

Yeah, thanks. [ Peter paces a bit on the beach. ] That was rude. I mean, who just steals people from their universes and plops them down on a beach after nothing but a spooky speech about reforming themselves?! Who does that?

[ But, there's no point in getting down on himself for something he has no control over. He sighs, shaking his head and rubbing a hand over his face. ]

Whatever. Guess we're on our own now.

[foxtrots]

[minsu crouches down, tracking him with his eyes and nodding in agreement more than once. it's never happened to him before either! it's the part about "reforming" that makes his shoulders go a little bit stiff.]

It's okay! It'll be okay! [he pops back up again, ever the optimist.] There's gotta be fish in the sea! I've never fished before but I've always wanted to try. And there-

[he half-turns to point in the direction of the jungle.]

I bet there's lots of things to hunt in there. We won't go hungry!

[the thought of going hungry is minsu's biggest concern right now. and always.]

I'm Minsu.

[threeterparker]

Peter. [ He says offhandedly, a little thrown off by how immediately Minsu jumped to the idea of foraging for their own food. ]

Um. Yeah. We should probably... Try to find a way off this beach, right?

[ And if they run into some huntable animals on the way, well. They'll cross that bridge when they come to it. ]

[foxtrots]

[he hasn't eaten in....possibly hours. maybe three. it's a tragedy.]

Ah, the water does smell good here. [minsu takes a moment to just breathe in the air and the scent of the nearby water. it's so different from the swamp, warm in a different way too. there's a pang of...something. minsu doesn't really know what homesickness is.

but he still smile and nods after opening his eyes again.]

There might be more people who are just lost in there. Maybe even people we know!

[threeterparker]

[ The beach is nice. Peter has never been anywhere like it before. He wishes he could share it with Aunt May... If anyone deserves an island vacation, it's her.

Speaking of... Peter turns to Minsu with a curious look. ]

People we know? What makes you think that?

I

[helpdesk_hero]

Yeah, you get used to the ominous statements. Sometimes.

[What? David really thought you did get used to it. He was used to it. Right? Maybe? He had sat next to Peter on the inbound, and now he was just stretching, not bothering to pay attention to the retreating ferry.]

Don't expect answers. We haven't had any for a while.

[threeterparker]

Sometimes. Right.

[ Peter lets out a long exhale, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes and leaning back. Then, feeling successfully hard-reset, he shakes his head, and looks over to the guy who seems to know what he's talking about. ]

This isn't your first drop-off, then?

[helpdesk_hero]

Not even close. I've been on and off the boats for a while now. I needed a minor break from a creepy island so here I am, with this instead.

[One of the perks of being around for a while, you learned some of the secrets. And this? This was one of them.]

[threeterparker]

So it's voluntary? You can change islands whenever you feel like a change?

[helpdesk_hero]

"Not really," David admitted. Not like that at all.

"Sometimes these places are where people arrive to, people like you. People like me. And when that happens, you're sometimes going to get a chance to go there yourself. We don't know why. Or at least I don't."

He turns to Peter and smiles, offering him his hand.

"David, by the way."

[threeterparker]

"Huh. Okay."

Peter is getting the sense that there's going to be a bit of a learning curve to catch up with this whole grand island adventure. But for now, he takes David's hand and shakes it, his grip firm but careful not to be too strong.

"Peter. Peter Parker. Good to meet you, David. Thanks for answering my questions."