TEST DRIVE MEME

[eluviomods]

// TEST DRIVE_ Welcome to Eluvio's first 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. Test drive threads can be used as game canon if both parties agree and the thread fits with what's going on currently in the game. 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, it might not be eligible for becoming game canon but it would still count as a sample. 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.

PLEASE USE OUR NEW TDM HERE!

Comments

[genice]

[ (Makkachin is the best kind of nonsense name that everyone should use when it comes to canines.) he doesn't protest her hand on his back or the way she steps back around in front of him. if he doesn't have some measure of faith in adults to at least know something of themselves, he'd be inviting a bunch of useless worry he has no time or energy to actually handle. that was, even if he connected well with people on a personal level.

but trust? sure. not because it feels great nodding and agreeing; ]

Keep your audience surprised.

[ but because he can recognise a necessity, and his plan is one he knows he can act on. thus he firmly moves toward the door, holding back from a run because creating two moving points of interest feels like a bad plan.

fast walking, however, feels perfectly necessary. his hand finds the handle to the access hatch. a backward glance at Sombra is all he gives before pulling up on the handle and shoving Makkachin and himself through.

he doesn't close the door behind him. depending on what she defined as catching up, leaving it open might be what he needs to do. in the meantime, he calls to his dog and takes off at a loping run back up the curving hall, heading straight toward the communication terminals he knows are spaced closer toward that end of the ship. what a day to have his own communicator down...!

Sombra is left with her not-quite-friend lurching to the side, head whipping around at the sound of the opening door, but light is more attractive than the shapes slipping away into that dully-lit corridor. the lights of her body mods are far more captivating. with a shuddering sigh, it tromps on forward, reaching out and making a frustrated sort of garbled verbal response. it wants, and doesn't know how to say that; wants the light more than it even wants to eat. ]

[doxing]

(the scarf seems a bit ludicrous now, when the alien charges, a titter of a laugh at what may possibly be her last fight...

yeah, right.)

I guess good looks can be a curse, huh, big guy? ... I mean, you can't relate.

(and sombra's fast enough to dodge—impressively so—as a slick knee-slide takes her out of this lumbering saurian's direct path of engagement, giving victor and the well-groomed mass of curls liberal room to work with (really, she can't help but huff at the speed walk, perfectly capable of finding the shred of humour in a very grim situation). just short of the door, too lucky, it plants great limbs to skid and stop and stare around.

she'd be upset at the unfair match-up, pushing up with her legs to step lightly around its scaled flank, if its its recovery time was slower. but, for a brute, she has to give credit where credit's due. surprises the hell out of her, when a thick tail swings in abject fury at the shiny plaything bent on escaping, catching her shin when she tries to jump.

there goes her balance.) —Mierda.

(it's not long after he accesses the terminal that victor will hear, through the mouth of the conveniently human-sized access hatch, a rapid spray of bullets. machine pistol, over forty rounds no one will ever bother counting, the flash of a firefight and the howl of unspoken, guttural dialect leaving nothing to imagination. far more worrying is the silence that follows. there has to be a winner and a loser, if "winning" carries a loose definition and includes eventual escape.

thankfully, there's the eventual clatter of a glowing device being tossed up the corridor, scratching metal as it spins to a stop.)

[genice]

[ punching a call through to security has him waiting on the line, fingers tented against the terminal hard enough that his knuckles have all gone white. Makkachin barks just once when the shooting starts, trembling and cowering between Victor's legs and the terminal itself. it's only when everything goes silent that he pushes his head out, staring down the hall, and eeks forward. he's not going to leave his person entirely undefended now that the assault on his ears has ended.

for his part, Victor is tense, reaching down to hold Makkachin in place.

he frowns when the clatter of the glowing device comes up the corridor, leaving the connection open as a kind recorded voice continues to inform him that this call will be answered as soon as an operator is available. there are aspects of this future that are far too familiar to what constitutes as the past.

cautious, he heads toward the still device (... please don't be a bomb, that would just, that would blow) to cast a look further down in search of the woman to whom which it belongs. ]

[doxing]

(fourteen seconds is how long it takes for her to finish up, the silence interrupted when the translocator finally activates within the last second of its duration and she's suddenly there, dropping onto a knee above it. the burst of light fades in her wake, once-mirage of a teleported body quickly restructuring with a colourful curse.

that wasn't exactly sombra's idea of a good time, fight fairly one-sided by the way she favours her left arm. doesn't stop her, scooping the the beacon up, smacking it back where it belongs affixed between her shoulder blades, and rising to her feet.)

Never again. (a quieter huff, smoothing back a mop of ombré hair, finally glancing to victor and his dog.) Hah, you stuck around after all. Did you happen to get a hold of anybody from Eluvio, or are we stranded in this glorified test tube?

(this exit is blocked by a raging alien she only managed to piss off. who knows what the other exits have behind their doors?)

[genice]

( beg pardon, because the moment she teleported in over her translocator, Victor had one hand thrown out in a stopping gesture, and the other hand up and covering his mouth as he gasped. what the hell was that? two emotions war for dominance in that moment: intense wonder, and intense excitement. enough to temporarily shove the tenuousness of their present situation to the background as he exclaims: )

Wow! You teleported! Just like in a movie!

( sorry, Sombra, he just couldn't help himself. (is any of this not like a movie? that's the better question, Victor.) at least he and his dog both look back to the terminal with a frown at her question, visibly wrenching himself away from the momentary distraction of teleportation right in front of him. he can hear the hold message continuing to play. he shakes his head, gesturing behind himself. )

No one's answering. We can keep trying to call on the terminals as we pass them, if we want to trust the halls are open.

( the friend she left behind is not sounding so friendly down the hall. Makkachin pads toward Sombra, tail held low, sniffing as he goes, looking to see if he might merit a pat to the head before he ducks back off to cling to Victor's side. is their new friend okay? )

[doxing]

(wow! you're adorable!

pain in her straining arm — it feels dislocated, but she can't tell offhand, she needs to sit somewhere quiet to assess — goes ignored when the praise comes freely, victor's face comically excited over something so... stolen, it's not exactly hers. sombra sniffs at it, cracking a smile. that's more like it, a little recognition for the backflips she does for the unworthy...

the dog goes un-pet, a local tragedy that will make the headlines of every newspaper. not that she doesn't like them, but there are more important things to do (um, fucking when) and she pushes on by them with a mission.)

Pretty cool, right? The future's bright, plata. (hands pressing to either side of the terminal, listening to the hold message, sombra hisses a sigh and wishes she could take back the statement — the future is fucking lame.) I can't believe they'd ignore their own staff. We should be higher priority.

(a startling slam back at the far hatch they came through is a little worrying. glancing to it, then back to the terminal where his nails tap at whatever applications she can find.)

—In any case, we can't stay here. This computer should have something in the way of a map...

[genice]

( give him a few moments to pick up on how she's favouring her arm. he won't say anything about it right away, but he's successfully shifted gears away from his excited, out of place outburst. there are other concerns. much more important concerns.

though he does wonder if she keeps calling him a plate. (spanish certainly is not one of his languages.) the echoing slam has him frowning, Makkachin pressed against his legs once more as he moves back to the terminal and reaches past Sombra. )

They do, though the app —

( it's not quite an app, but he thinks of it that way, and the program he activates brings up a cutaway version of the fleet's layout. ships as they relate to each other; selecting the ship they're on brings up a cutaway of the levels, themselves a blinking, bright neon dot of green. sadly, no motion detection is going on, so nothing else is identified. the neon is just for their terminal. )

— hah. Not quite GPS, but better than nothing. How bad is your arm?

( he makes a small gesture toward her arm before letting her take over adjusting the map to pull up an accurate hall layout for them to try and navigate by. )

[doxing]

(being basically overridden by this russian leaves a bad taste in her mouth. the map she could have easily found without outside help, pride leaving her wondering if sticking around to see how these two die is really worth it — but sombra takes a relaxing breath in and tries not to focus on the irritation from her bad arm.

the layout is workable, seeing as they weren't given much of a breakdown of the planet they're currently trying to leave as quickly as possible. she glances over at the question.)

It's fine, let's move out. (sombra places a gloved hand over the "map", having a feeling there's nothing any of them can do about the state of her... so it's better to let it go ignored until they can find a med-bay, or somewhere they feel they can rest.) I've uploaded the schematics, we can check our location as we go. 'Kay?

(if they're the green dots, then enemies should be red (by obvious logical breakdown), and their destination... making a picture frame with her fingers, sombra draws them apart to pull up a holo-screen of the layout they saw on the terminal.)

I think our shuttle's back this way, but I could've gotten turned around. Remember which direction you came from?

[genice]

( let a guy help when he can, there's so much here way above his nonexistent paygrade... as it is, he accepts the non-answer ("it's fine") alongside her statement about uploading schematics. why not? she teleports with technology, of course she could upload schematics without looking like she has at all.

he glances at the holoscreen and basically prevents himself from exclaiming over it by pressing his fingers to his mouth, his other hand touching the top of Makkachin's head. wait, right, he has to drop his hand away again to respond, but at least it's saved on another exclamation that really, seriously merits a better time and place than this one. )

Yeah. Right along here.

( he reaches out to tap on a hall that's outside of where they are now, but generally leads back toward a main throughway. )

This hall off to the left. We didn't run into anything as we were coming in from there.

( doesn't mean it's still clear, but it's a better shot than running around blind, right? maybe? hell if he knows. he's more than prepared to follow Sombra's lead on this. )

The shuttle was further around to the right from there, but it's back that way.