// TEST DRIVE MEME_

[eluviomods]

// TEST DRIVE_ Welcome to Eluvio's Test Drive Meme! Whether you'd like to try out a character in the setting, get some samples for your application, or just mess around and have fun, this is the place to do it. If you're getting samples together, remember that you need at least four comments made by you in the thread for it to count. Pick any of the scenarios below or make up any of your own. This is space! There are infinite worlds and possibilities. If you'd like to thread out hijacking a ship, do it! If you'd like to get stuck on a remote planet with only one other person for company, do it! Take the wheel and guide your own adventure! The most important thing is to have fun! ➣ SCENARIO 001. It's a normal day aboard the Eluvio. Maybe you're on your way to work. Maybe you're hanging out with friends. You can even be up to nefarious misdeeds. Whatever the case, you're having a relatively uneventful day. And then you see it. From a distance, it looks like a ball of fur. Up close, it looks like a ball of fur. If you touch it, it will chitter at you. It will vibrate and purr. Where this is coming from is anyone's guess because even if you turn it over, there's nothing to see but more fur. It's pretty harmless, though. Leave it there. Take it with you. The choice is yours. As you continue about your day, you'll begin to notice more of these little furballs. On the ground. Sitting on tables. Here and there at random intervals. By the end of the day, they're fucking everywhere. Good luck! If you get overwhelmed, maybe go talk to that bald starship captain who showed up last week. He might know something about the furry invaders. ➣ SCENARIO 002. Congratulations! You've been selected to be part of the team being sent down to the planet around which the fleet is currently orbiting. Initial scans of the surface show that oxygen is in abundance, temperatures support carbon-based life-forms, and there aren't any large quantities of poisonous gases that might pose problems. Your mission is to secure a landing site, set up a camp, and locate edible flora and fauna. Stores aboard ship are running a bit low on food and it's projected to be another three weeks before the fleet reaches a station large enough to replenish supplies. Once identified, larger parties will be sent to the surface to help hunt and gather. The good news is, scans show fruits, vegetables, and animals are plentiful. The bad news is that once your ship lands on the planet, everything goes sideways. An unexpected ion storm sweeps through the solar system, shorting out communications between the fleet and the team. It wreaks havoc with the electronics planet-side too, temporarily shorting out the smaller craft's navigational array. Until it passes, about six standard days, you're stuck down there. And the bountiful harvest isn't without its dangers. Even the most docile looking animal will attack. Sampling the fruits and vegetables will cause temporary paralysis, hallucinations, and psychosis. Inhaling pollen will bring out a person's baser instincts. The planet itself is predatory, you see. Everything on it has evolved to entice visitors from nearby systems and kill them. And the fleet's unwittingly taken the bait. ➣ SCENARIO 003. It's been a rough day. Everything's going wrong. Machines are breaking down everywhere. The owner of your favorite business wasn't there today and the store was closed when you stopped by to pick something up. A coworker didn't show up for work, leaving you with an interested workload. And now it feels like you're being watched. It started about ten minutes ago, but whenever you turn to look, there's no one there. The feeling doesn't go away, though. No matter where you are, it feels like eyes are watching. Did you hear something? A quiet, scuffling scratching sound just for a second? Maybe you did. Maybe you didn't. But it came from the misshapen monstrosity that just punched a hole through the bulkhead right beside you. The creature makes a low, wet gargling noises and darts toward you: six to seven feet tall, vaguely humanoid, and covered in strange growths over which is stretched bubbling grayish-brown skin. Maybe you notice tatters of familiar clothing hanging off of it. Or there's enough left of its eyes to recognize the shape and color. Or maybe something about the noises it's making sound familiar. It's your missing coworker and it looks like the unfortunate soul ran afoul of that weird slimy creature the science team brought back from that jungle planet a month ago. The good news: you can kill it. The bad news: it can kill you. It's fast, it's hungry, and it reproduces at an alarming rate. A single bite can transfer the parasites in its bloodstream to you. Then you'll be just like your buddy. And that shop owner you like so much. And all of the people on Level 12. And... ➣ SCENARIO 004. You're welcomed and encouraged to make up your own scenarios. As you can see, there will be a wide variety of the types of things your character will encounter in this game. So feel free to make your starters as horrific, sexy, lighthearted, action-packed, or slice of life as you'd like. Make up a planet, make up a location on the Eluvio, make up a ship in the fleet, fight off a zombie alien invasion, NPC Captain Picard, there's no limit to what you can do on the TDM.

Comments

[bird_boy]

[ Tobias has seen this guy around, too, and of course he and Ax and Marco had gone over everyone else in the place, discussed who they are, what they know about them, how much of a threat they might be. Was that weird? Probably. But it's what feels natural to them, after so many years fighting their secret, desperate guerilla war.

So he knows at least that this is a man named Cassian, knows Marco's opinion of him. But Tobias also knows Marco well enough that he feels like he should probably form his own opinion, separately. And right away, the fact that he talks to Tobias without any nervousness or hesitation is a good sign. Clearly he's observant, and willing to roll with the punches - even if those punches include talking hawks. ]

<Not sure. Have you seen any girls go by here? Long blond hair?>

[ The words are not spoken; Tobias communicates almost entirely in thought-speak these days, sometimes even when he is in human morph. But the voice in Cassian's head probably sounds like a young man's - quiet and a little uneasy. ]

[ouzel]

No, I haven't.

[ Cassian's eyes scan the area then flick back up to the bird. He's a little surprised that the bird sounds like a young man, but only a little; Marco and Aximilli seem roughly the same age, or at least close in maturity levels. Perhaps their entire resistance group is full of youths.

Impressive, possibly, but also depressing. ]

Did you eat any of the native foods? People have been acting weirdly.

[bird_boy]

[ Tobias remembers his manners a few moments late, hops down to a branch closer to Cassian's eye level so he doesn't need to crane his neck and squint up into the branches like that. Of course, Tobias had been able to see him perfectly from where he'd been perched, but he knows he ought to have pity on this man's comparatively feeble eyes.

He takes the news that he is probably just hallucinating pretty well. Then again, it's easy for Tobias to hide his emotions. One of the benefits (but is it really a benefit?) to being a hawk full-time. Still, he rustles his feathers, and admits: ]

A shrew.

[ It's a more complicated answer than it might sound: with it, Tobias is admitting that Cassian might be right, that he may be compromised the same way some of the others stranded here had been. Exposing weakness is always, always, always a risk. He was also admitting that he is not just pretending to be a bird: that he hunts animals, eats them. That he is a predator. And it is that part of him that gives him the sharpness and courage for his next question. ]

What do you know about me?

[ Is it the berries making him paranoid? Maybe. But Tobias wants to know just how much Marco and Ax had revealed about him to this man. ]

[ouzel]

[ Cassian appreciates that the hawk moves closer so that he's not squinting into the trees or putting a crick in his neck looking up; to that end he gives a little nod of thanks, but also to acknowledge that the hawk has eaten a shrew. It is what it is. Who is Cassian to judge what people eat? ]

I know that you're probably like Marco and Aximili in that you are able to change shape, so you aren't limited to always being a hawk, if you choose to be something else. I know the process is neither uncomplicated nor comfortable.

Also Aximili has communicated with me in this way before, so that's not entirely unfamiliar either.

[ Which are all things he learned by watching, not by being told anything else. ]

Beyond that? Very little.

[bird_boy]

[ Tobias listens to Cassian, his stare intense and unblinking. Not too much to surprise him, here - Ax had told Tobias about the whole flea thing, so he'd known Cassian knew about morphing in general. The one thing that does catch him off guard is the fact that Cassian seems to think morphing is painful. That is a lie that has Marco written all over it; Tobias can't imagine why he would choose not to tell the truth about that, but probably there was some convoluted and cunning explanation that Marco would lay out as if it were the most obvious thing on Earth.

Still, from the sound of it, Cassian knows some things about morphing, and almost nothing about Tobias as a person. ]

<I'm Tobias.> [ Introducing himself is the right thing to do now, isn't it? After so many years living on his own in the woods, Tobias's social skills are pretty rusty. And they were never all that good to begin with. ] <Nice to- don't move!>

[ His greeting is interrupted, voice suddenly going sharp and harsh as he stares past Cassian; Tobias had spotted movement behind him, something creeping silently beneath the ferns, towards Cassian. He catches a glimpse of sleek fur, of strong shoulders that look like they belong to some kind of big cat. A panther? Something else? Definitely a predator, whatever it is. And moving in for the kill.

Tobias stretched his wings, ready to take flight. There was no way he could kill on a big cat on his own - not without morphing. But if he made the first move, went for its eyes, maybe he could discourage it, drive it off to find weaker, easier prey. He was just about to launch himself into the air when...

It was gone. There was no panther there. Tobias thought he has lost track of it, scanned the area for any sign, but there was none. None at all. ]

<Nevermind. I thought I saw...>

[ A wave of dizziness hit him, and he suddenly had to flap his wings just to maintain his balance and not fall off the branch. He wobbled, but he caught himself. Barely. How embarrassing. ]