TDM #1

[goneawaymod]

TEST DRIVE #1

So it's your first day at your new job! Welcome to the Jorgmund Family™! It's time to settle into your new workplace on the Piper 90 rig, the coziest place of employment this side of the Livable Zone. A leader in its industry, Jorgmund is excited to have you join them in enthusiastically envisioneering team-driven paradigms.  

The Piper 90 rig's mission is not only an impressive undertaking in terms of impactful customer-oriented deliverables, it's providing a vital backbone to the Livable Zone by creating a safe region for citizens to live, work, and play. Jorgmund's "outside the box" thinking means they understand the importance of wisely investing in their human capital - you! You'll soon find that you'll take pride in this vital work - and the benefits can't be beat.

Rest assured, Jorgmund's multidisciplinary approach to our world's period of recovery means we know how to keep it real when facing this opportunity for restructuring and growth. Jorgmund: Even if most of the world has gone away, we can make a world of difference!

Synergy!

USEFUL LINKS
It is recommended you check out the following links first for info on the rig, rig conditions, game mechanics, and the intro and slideshow your characters would have to endure that takes place chronologically before the Test Drive Meme: 

Welcome/Arrival  | Rig Weather & Hazards | Rig Setting Page | Game Mechanics

SCENARIO #1 - MOVE-IN DAY!

After the bewildering and unpleasant onboarding process, you've finally been unleashed on the rig. (Well. To places you're allowed to go on the rig.) It's time to get acquainted with your new surroundings, process some of All Of That™, and meet your fellow captives - err, coworkers!

a) A BIT OF A MESS
Perhaps you're hungry? The mess hall food isn't amazing, but it does the job. Characters that have higher metabolic needs than your average human might be left feeling a little hungry, though. The worst part is actually the electronic sliding door: a small sign helpfully informs you that if you want inside, you need to smile for the camera! In addition to being patronizing, this may be a problem for characters who refuse to play ball, or characters with sufficiently nonhuman faces the door sensor can't read them. Remember, if then company doesn't see people like you, it's not discriminatory -- it's just indifferent! And that isn't legally actionable!

b) GOING NOWHERE FAST
The rig's elevators are a little off-kilter today. Overhead announcements mention this, but downplay the severity and are easy to miss -- which means you and your threadmate are stuck in here, somewhere between the fifth and sixth floor. You can complain into the emergency intercomm, but it might take from a few minutes up to an hour before the elevator gets rolling again. How do you pass the time?

c) SHOULD'VE TAKEN THAT LEFT TURN
You're really just trying to get somewhere else on the rig, but you've gotten hopelessly lost. Oh well, at least you're not alone! Did you run into your threadmate here? Did you lead them astray? Are they at fault? Even worse, are you somewhere full of AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY signs, mysterious equipment, and a worrying number of security cameras?

d) NEED A HAND?
You've been assigned a room and some relatively spare possessions to put in it. Unfortunately, it seems that the staff assigned to help move in new hires are all busy at the moment. Unless you want to wait around, you're going to need to lug and assemble your new assigned foldable den furniture yourself. Do you team up with another newbie? Do you try it alone and find yourself needing help? Do you come to the rescue of someone else who did that?

e) SPECIAL DELIVERY
Somebody in processing decided to give you two a quick little errand: you're supposed to take a couple boxes of files up to the executive deck. Unfortunately, a skeptical security staffer is giving you a hard time on your way there, on account of your funny-looking face, insufficient ID or sketchy-looking package. How do you deal with this and accomplish your task?

f) BLOW OFF STEAM
You're likely still a bit sore from Jorgmund fitting you with the nanochain, but you were promised a gym and you are going to use that gym, dammit. It looks like you're not alone in deciding to try out the training area. Do you train together? Spar to let some frustration out? Or are you gonna argue about whose turn it is on which piece of equipment and resent your lost solitude? You'll also find you have to contend with the communal showers when you're done.

g) NO REST FOR THE WEARY
It's the middle of the night on the rig. You're displaced from home, it's not very warm, your door doesn't shut because privacy is a "privilege" nobody has earned yet, and occasional mysterious clanging noises ring through the rig. You can't sleep, not yet, and perhaps you're not the only insomniac wandering the crew deck?

SCENARIO #2 - YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO PANIC

Around dawn on the morning of Day Two, something goes wrong. (Wrong-er?) You awake to the sound of alarms, and a voice over the speakers telling you NOT TO PANIC! A Stuff storm has caused a brief and contained leak onto Piper 90. You may encounter strange sights or sounds. Any anomalies should be reported immediately to rig security. Thank you for your cooperation!

The nature of the problem isn't immediately clear, but over the next handful of hours you find yourself embroiled in a bizarre fracas: a Stuff leak has caused numerous inanimate objects on the rig to come to life. Furniture and appliances small and large are roaming the decks. Some of them are docile, but others are aggressive (or just troublesome due to their size). Some examples:

• A rogue photocopier spewing paper and ink
• A mahogany conference table with old clawed feet and a brand new gaping jaw
• A water cooler that scuttles the halls, squirting people with jets in varying temperatures
• Small office supplies like pencils and paperclips that swarm in large numbers
• Dressers and drawers that spit their contents at high velocity
• A room's worth of folding chairs that hunt as a pack
• An emergency fire hose that attempts to ensnare crew members in its coils
• The angriest coffee pot you have ever seen

The objects can be dangerous, but are more strange, troublesome, and determined than deadly. If a foe seems to be incapacitated or "plays dead," even the aggressive conference table or hose will leave them with bruises and move on. Crew members who get in over their heads will be bailed out by security personnel as the incident dies down. Jorgmund staff stresses that the leak has been contained (so no new anomalies will appear), but after the initial surprise it's everyone's job to help hunt down and dispose of the Stuff-altered... stuff. It's gonna be a long morning, and you haven't even been properly briefed yet!

h) GOOD MORNING, PIPER 90
Rise and shine! There are alarms going off, announcements blaring, and people are scrambling around trying to figure out what's going on. You're one of them. Freak out? Spring into action? Team up with someone to shake down a staffer for more details? Run into someone new, perhaps literally?

i) INTERIOR WRECKORATING
You've been ambushed by an animate object that seems to have it in for you, or you've heard the shouts of someone who has and come running to help. What's ruining your morning now, and what are you going to do about it?

j) ON THE RUN
The folding chairs from Presentation Room B operate as a unit, harrying their prey through the halls with much scrambling of legs and flapping of seats. They're after you, at the moment. Can you escape, or perhaps lead them into a trap? Or do you stand your ground?

k) HERE'S THE PLAN
You and your threadmate have found somewhere secure (for now) and are deciding how to deal with a larger enemy. Are you hunting it, or is it hunting you? Are you planning to take it out of commission, or just how to get away from it? Or are you just gonna hide here and lay low until this is over?

l) PROP HUNT
Things are getting back under control, thankfully. Large disturbances have been disposed of, but that leaves the little things like elusive chains of paperclips, a small but vicious stapler, pens and markers that write rude words on walls, and utensils from the mess hall. These anomalies are stealthier, but must still be dealt with, and it's up to you to flush them out.

m) CLEAN UP IN AISLE EVERYTHING
The chaos has passed, and now you've been instructed to clean up a mess. Ink or loose paper from the copier, coffee from the rampaging pot, mopping up after a water cooler, scrubbing marker off a wall, etc. You might get roped into contending with the Yuck Puddle, which is a permanent fixture and not a new development, but someone's always contending with the Yuck Puddle.

OOC DETAILS
➤ Feel free to play around with powers. If your character has powers from canon you want to play around with, go for it. If you'd like to test out possibilities for game powers, also go for it. Feel free to change it up from thread to thread if you need to. This can be handwaved as exposure to Stuff making characters' powers shift a few times before settling.

➤ Potential players may use test drive threads as their log samples. However, at least one post in their thread must fit the requirements for apps, both in length (200 words) and in quality. If you do plan on using a thread as a sample, please make sure the writing throughout your threads is a good example of your writing skills and has some solid examples of the character's voice.

➤ Players can eventually count TDMs towards AC. They can only count towards comment-based AC proofs.

➤ Potential players can opt to keep these threads as game canon when they app in, or start over fresh, based on preference. The Stuff bringing them to the game universe can fog their memories, if players don't want their character to remember TDM threads when introing into the game.

➤ The game is invite-only. Players without invites are allowed to tdm since some of them may know someone in game to ask for one, and since some people enjoy TDMs just for fun in games they don't plan to app into. But an invite is required during the apping process.

➤ The game is at a starting cap at 30 players. Right now the current number of invitees is likely to not exceed the game's 30 slots, but if we go a few over they will still be allowed to app during this first round. Future apps will be rolling apps and will have a wait queue if the cap has been exceeded.

➤ The first game round will be apps only, no reserves. Apps open: Sat 4/11/20. Game start: Fri 4/17/20.

Comments

[heterochrocatic]

Catra's smart reply is cut off as Saturday shifts topics and Catra gives a faint 'ah' of acknowledgment.

"No, uhm. I haven't been through that many portals recently."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Count yourself lucky. Portals fucking suck."

Here, in the brighter light of the mess, it's easier to see that her metal arm goes all the way up to cover her shoulder, and is decorated with engravings depicting, mostly, Saturday: Saturday fighting, alone and with friends, or talking to something depicted as much bigger and scarier than she is.

[heterochrocatic]

"Trust me, I know," Catra agrees, her eyes taking in the details of the shiny metal arm on display. It's a curious thing, covered in little drawings. She leans forward, growing more interested as she spots one.

"...Who are you supposed to be fighting here?"

[wheyoftheadept]

"Eh?" Saturday glances at her arm. Catra is staring at one with the troll, when she was four. "A troll."

It shows Saturday - well, presumably Saturday, there's not a lot of detail besides the pointy ears - kicking a troll in the neck. She looks a lot smaller than she does in the other pictures. Younger.

[heterochrocatic]

"Oh," Catra says, as if duh, she should have known that. She stoops to peer at the etching a little closer, tail flicking.

"...Why do you have all that stuff on your arm, anyway?" She's curious, and the fact that Saturday (gasp) respects her boundaries seems to be drawing her out of her shell a little.

[wheyoftheadept]

"That's a long story. The short version is - my arm is actually a magic sword I'm kinda like, spiritually bonded to. It has a personality, we care for each other like family, and 'ni-chan likes to brag." She gestures to the engravings.

"He decides what goes up here, really."

For just a moment, her arm gleams in light that isn't actually there. Like metallic smile or wink.

[heterochrocatic]

"Oh." She just said it, but that's all she can think to respond with. Catra knows someone else with a magic sword. A magic sword that also disguises itself as an arm-thingy. She looks at it, her face falling into a sort of uncertain pensiveness.

"That's... neat?"

[wheyoftheadept]

"It is now. Things were kinda rocky at first. Like you and your other person from Etheria - it's complicated."

She shrugs.

"Anyway, when I lost my arm, 'ni-chan took over the job."

[heterochrocatic]

"It's not just armor? It's a replacement?" Catra isn't exactly shocked. She knew that Hordak had his own form of mechanical aid in the suit he wore (which Catra had trashed).

"Better than having no arm, I guess."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Way better. And yeah - it uses components of my original arm, I guess, but 'ni-chan stitched it all back together and keeps it running. And brags about me."

She shrugs. "Not happy about losing the arm, but I like that no one can take my sword from me now."

[heterochrocatic]

"Well, that's why I have these. Kinda hard to take..." Catra lifts a hand to show off wicked retractable claws and grins.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Woof - nice hardware. They come cherry or did you have then installed?" Saturday admires the gleam of them, without needing to feign. They are very sharp.

[heterochrocatic]

"Born with them. Drove Shadow Weaver crazy when I scratched up stuff, so I just did it more." There's a cackle of amusement as Catra flexes her hand and admires the claws herself for a moment. Some memories weren't so bad.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Who's Shadow Weaver?"

Saturday has already quietly braced herself for more horrible information, but who knows.

[heterochrocatic]

"Oh. She was like, the second-in-command in the Horde for a while? Basically raised me and Adora. She hated me." Wait, crap. She said Adora's name. Stupid.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Who's Adora?" Saturday asks in casually. "And did the Horde usually raise kids? They don't sound like they were great at it."

[heterochrocatic]

"There were cadets, you know?" Catra says by way of explanation. "I think Adora and I were the only two they really raised, but... I don't know." She goes quiet, claws digging at the tabletop surface for a moment as she tries to decide whether to answer the question or pretend not to have heard it.

"She was my, uh. Best friend."

[wheyoftheadept]

Saturday notes the reaction, and the past tense.

"I'm sorry for your loss," she says, leaving Catra space to gloss over or elaborate as she chooses. "Where'd the cadets come from? Conquered territory?"

It does amuse her somewhat that politics is the safe conversational option, here.

[heterochrocatic]

"Yeah. Loss." She's not going to mention that Adora is here or why they're not friends anymore.

"I guess so? I never really asked where they came from."

[wheyoftheadept]

"Not the done thing?" Saturday is probing again, looking for the information around the really, really, screamingly obvious wounds. "Tell me about 'em."

[heterochrocatic]

"About Adora? Or the other cadets?" Catra perks an ear. Best to clarify, though she's starting to feel testy and on edge again.

[wheyoftheadept]

"Both, either." Saturday shrugs. "If it helps to talk, talk. If not, we can be quiet. No problem for me either way."

[heterochrocatic]

"Adora. She was my best friend, you know? I said that. Ugh." She puts her chin in her hands again, frowning.

"She couldn't do anything wrong, according to Shadow Weaver. She was always the best, always perfect. I got blamed anytime she made a mistake, because, you know, I was clearly being a negative influence on her." Catra rolls her eyes, affecting a disdain that she doesn't quite feel. It's more... sadness.

[wheyoftheadept]

"And she was your best friend?" Hoo, boy. Saturday had had her fights with Maggie, big ones even, but no one had ever been setting them against each other.

"Sounds like Shadow Weaver didn't like you very much."

[heterochrocatic]

"She hated me. Adora did her best to keep her from hurting me but. you know. We were kids." The only thing Adora could do was be perfect. And no one was perfect all the time.

"And then Adora left. And it was my fault. Again. So I had to protect myself because she abandoned me. For strangers." Bitter? A little. And she knows that's not entirely true. Knows why Adora left. But she still hurts and doesn't know how to process it except that anger.