goneawaymemes | TDM #1

Entry tags:

*test drive meme

TDM #1

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"There's more overlap than people reckon." Saturday almost smiles at that, before it pulls down into a frown as she remembers, again, that her people aren't here and she's all alone. So instead she finishes off her plate, and contemplates trying to sweet-talk more out of the servers or just coming back later.

The way he tilts his head agrees with Saturday, even if he doesn't say it out loud. He'd never call himself a hero, but he's certainly been in the business long enough by now.

He finishes his food as well, though not with much interest. The food's kinda terrible. "I ever served dis back when I did short order, I'da been outta a job."

"This is actually better than the last few I've had here. That or I'm getting Stockholm Syndrome." Saturday stands up, pushing away from the table. "All right. I'm gonna see if they'll give seconds. They got this weird thing where like, they'll only give you so much in one go, but if you wait an hour and come back you can have the same amount again? It's damn stupid. Wish me luck."

Remy watches her. "Good trick to know. 'Cause I can definitely see dat I'm gonna have issues here." He had a stupidly high metabolism. The ability to get some more food would be a good thing.

Alas, Saturday's luck is just as good as it was the last five times she tried this. She charms, she cajoles, she flatters, she sweet-talks. Remy isn't even in the blast radius and he probably feels persuaded; she has fifteen social dice and she's using every one of them.

It is to no avail.

Defeated, Saturday returns with nothing more than a cup of mostly sugar and milk with some coffee added.

"Fie," she mutters, as she sits and sips it.

Remy watches her and shakes his head. "Well. Dat's gonna put a crimp in my...e'erythin'." If he didn't have to use his powers, he could maybe manage a bit better. But it would depend on what they needed to do.

"Jorgmundr internal R&D have spent years refining our delicious recipes and generous portion sizes to provide more than adequate nutrition to our valued essential workers," Saturday mimics nasally, and then looks glum again. "Goddammit."

"Sure. Dat works great. If'n all you got is de regular pencilneck office jerks." Which was...a lot of the Jorgmundr workers, really. The ones that they had already dealt with. "But dat ain't gonna hold real well for dose of us whose bodies are a bit more...highly tuned."

"Tell me about it. You got any idea how many calories punching through brick walls burns? I've been eating like six times a day." She slumps over, nursing her coffee. "Assholes."

She does look a little underfed, come to think of it. Not severely, but her jawline probably isn't supposed to be that sharp, and there are growing hollows under her eyes that her mobile face and smiling mouth almost completely distracts from. But not quite.

"Know a couple hommes I could ask, but non, don' know de number off de top of my head." He looks her over carefully before shaking his head. "Got a similar issue. Jus' go 'bout punchin' through walls a different way."

"Oh? This is the mutatation thing, right? How'd your genetics treat you?" The coffee is thick enough with milk and sugar to almost be a meal, and at least caffeine suppresses appetite.

He raises one shoulder in a half shrug. "Coulda been worse. Had de eyes since I was born, or so I been tol'. De rest came in when I was a teen." Looking around a moment, he finally grabs a napkin, balling it up. "De way I had it explained, scientific'ly, is dat my body generates a biokinetic field dat lets me cause a chain reaction in somet'in' I'm touching an' causes it t' build up a charge." He's still watching her, but the napkin in his hand goes pinkish-purple with a squeal of contained energy. "An' I can t'row dat an' it'll explode."

He grins, though, as the glow cuts out. "De way I 'splain it? I touch de t'ing, I t'row de t'ing an' dat t'ing goes boom."

Quicker demonstration this time as the power flashes over the napkin, the glow far weaker this time as he tosses it upward. It's less an explosion than a soft paff with a little ash, but it serves for the sake of demonstration.

Saturday watches him and the napkin carefully. When it explodes, her face lights up.

"Oh, cool! How big can the boom be?"

She swipes up some of the ash, examining it. Normal ash - and no astral disturbance she could see when he did it, though to be fair she'd never been great at assenssing and her third eye had been on the fritz since arrival.

"Are there limits on the size, or material? - shit, can you do that to organic matter? And how fine is the control?"

Saturday can't help the way her mind starts turning over tactical possibilities. A 'splosion in the right place at the right time...

" - oh, and feel free to ask rude questions about me, too," she adds, remembering that they're still strangers.

It's just her luck that Remy likes showing off. From time to time. (Read: all the time.)

He can't help but laugh, shaking his head as he settles back. "Oui to bot'. Back home, I could charge up to a small car, but dat'd take me a while an' I'd be wiped afterward. Prefer small t'ings I can t'row. Can't be livin'. Can't charge people or plants, f'instance, but paper an' de like are fine."

Please don't ask if he could charge a zombie. He's done that thought experiment before.

"Control is good. Wasn' always, but ain't dat al'ays de way wit' somet'ing new?" A shrug. "Can delay a charge a bit, but not too long. Mos'ly use it when figh'in', t' be honest."

He leans forward a bit, looking her over. "'M guessin' you're augmented somehow. 'Cause you don' look like you'd be able t' take out a wall on a regular basis." Which might have been the fact that she wasn't eating correctly, but he'd let her confirm. "Strengt'? Anyt'ing else in dere?"

She grins at him. "Right in one. I got the magic in my fists - real strong, real fast, real tough, and I see in the dark and around corners."

She rethinks that with a frown. "Well, sight isn't exactly the mechanism - perceive is probably better. Also got a magic sword." She pats her arm fondly. "Applications include deflecting bullets, punching through walls, and returning grenades to sender. Plus martial arts."

She tilts her head, thinking, and then asks: "Hey, would a zombie count as alive?"

"Huh. Dat's useful. I got a skeleton dat don' bend quite right. More flexible dan mos'." Which was damned useful when he wanted to twist out of the way of something in a way people wouldn't expect. "Ain't so strong m'self, but what I got, I'm good at usin'."

And that was without bringing the bo into the equation.

The last question gets a huffed laugh out of him. "I dunno. T'ought 'bout it more dan a few times." Because he's from New Orleans and it's a THING. "Might depen' some on how ol' de zombie is. But I ain't ever tried chargin' a dead body, neither. Ain't de sorta t'ing you t'ink 'bout when dere are bodies 'bout."

Well, Remy didn't think about it. That didn't mean others wouldn't.

One of those people is definitely Saturday. She can think of some situations where turning dead bodies into ordnance would have been pretty useful.

"I wouldn't mind a bout one day, if you're up for it. I bet you can make the field a real interesting place for anyone who ain't quick on their feet."

The last time he'd been around enough bodies for that to make a difference, he really hadn't been in the right place mentally to be able to do it.

Also bleeding out, but that was a little thing. Really.

He grins at her. "Jus' gotta fin' some stuff t' use. Normally use cards, but only got one deck wit' me. Rather not use dem up right now." Not until he knew he could get more.

"Hmm. Well, c-suite has an executive lounge where I steal all my smokes; maybe they have something there? Or you can probably requisition some when they send us into the field. Cardstock can't be that hard to find."

Saturday thinks over what she's seen lying around. "Would ordinary paper work, if you folded it thick enough? Or paper clips or something like that?"

"Mos' anyt'in'll do, 'long as it ain't livin'. Paperclips might be a bit small, but I can make do wit' dem." Since they'd probably be easiest to get. "Or a buncha copy paper, card stock. Can make do wit' a lotta stuff, really. Part of de powers is dat when I t'row somet'ing, it flies true."

Saturday sighs in envy. "Damn, that's useful. Only the charged stuff, or any old thing?"

"Only de charged stuff, but I got one hell of an aim, too." As long as it was heavy enough to to overcome wind resistance, it wouldn't be a problem without being charged.

The more Saturday hears about this mutant power stuff, the more she wonders if it isn't some kind of magic thing that they're just not calling magic because they don't know better - mana levels rising caused the genetic expression of metatypes, maybe on some other world it works differently. And she's pretty sure that when the magic came back, people looked for scientific explanations right up until Ryumyou did his Fuji flyby - and after.

"Hope I get you on my field team, then. I'm strongest at short range."

"Guess we'll have to see what dis place holds in store for dat." He leans a little forward against the table. "Still. We en' up doin' field teams, should let you know dat I'm generally called Gambit by teammates."

Often times, it gets included in the introduction. But they'd only traded first names.

"Oh." Saturday blinks. "Sorry, I thought Remy was your handle, like the fox or whatever." The fox is Reynard, Saturday, but Maggie isn't here to correct you.

" - uh. Saturday's mine. My handle, that is. I don't usually give out my wallet name on first meetings. Uh. Sorry."

A crisis of etiquette. Oh no.

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you said not to so that means I gotta

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