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

"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."

"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.

"I don't know. The Horde sounds like the kind of place a person would grab the first ride out of. She never came back for you, never tried to get you outta there?"

Saturday's tone is as neutral as it's been throughout. Just the facts, ma'm. There are a lot of possible reasons for the facts she's hearing, and with the ganger kids it was always important not to get worked up about what they told you. Even if it made you wanna go break heads.

This... she doesn't want to admit it but she knows that if she doesn't, it's just lying to herself. She swallows, eyes fixing on the table as she starts to scratch again, etching a meaningless pattern.

"...She did," Catra admits. "But I was... she had seen how the Horde hurt me for our whole lives." Her voice grows taut, anger seeping out. Anger and hurt and frustration.

"And she left because she suddenly realized the Horde was bad when she saw them hurt people who weren't me. After saying we'd always be there for each other."

Saturday shrugs. "Could be she didn't see a way out before then. You said the Horde didn't let people leave, right?"

With any other person, Saturday would have reached a hand across the table, expressed comfort of some kind. But Catra doesn't seem the type. So Saturday just takes a few more bites, thinking, and the nods to herself.

"Reminds me a little of me and my brother. I was the good kid, he was the bad one - except Pops actually really did love both of us, Sol's just a friggin' dumbass."

"They didn't." Rather, they told them lies so they wouldn't want to, but it was all the same to her.

"...Well, she was the good one. Went off to be the big hero. I stayed and ruined everything." Catra looks miserably unhappy at that comment. Adora had been right, of course. Catra had been too hrut and angry to see it then.

"How so?" Saturday finishes off her coffee. "Seems t'me like you were both in the kind of situation where people aren't at their best, or makin' their best choices. Sol just thought Pops was the kind of person it sounds like Shadow Weaver actually was, and that was hard enough going."

Catra groans and lowers her head to the table. WHy is she doing this? Why is she telling anyone about what happened? Maybe because Saturday has no idea about any of it. There's no preconceived notion of things, just... Catra telling her story.

"I decided I was going to be better than her. I help run the war effort. I was a Force Captain, then second-in-command for a while. I hurt people. I lied. I betrayed people who were my friends," Catra says, listing off her myriad transgressions.

"...I pushed away the one person who still cared about me because I didn't want to get hurt again. And she went and joined Adora."

Despite Saturday's best efforts, there is a slightly smile hovering around the edges of her mouth by the end.

"I wish Sol was here. You and he would have a lot to talk about, I think."

She also doesn't seem that put out by the list of bad behavior. "Do you regret it?"

"Yes." The word spills out of her before she has time to think about it.

"I did all of this stuff because I wanted to hurt her, but it just... It wasn't just her that got hurt. And..." God. What does she say? How does she say it?

"I think I still care about her. A lot. But everytime I see her I just feel so angry!"

"Have you tried telling her that? Like in those words. 'I regret what happened, but I'm still really angry, and I don't want to be enemies, but I don't know if we can be friends again."

Saturday has gotten a lot of mileage out of clear, calm communication lately. No one ever expects it.

"I mean, it sounds like you got a right to be mad. A lot of bad shit happened, and you're processing."

"No." Catra admits. "I didn't think about it before. I just wanted to hurt her. To make her feel weak. And helpless." She stares at the table.

"It was how I felt."

Now Saturday reaches over, not touching Catra, but her hand is out in a comforting fashion should it be needed or desired

"Like I said. Sounds like you were both in a shitty situation where no one could be their best self. It's okay to be disappointed and regretful about what you did, but don't beat yourself up for what you felt. No one can control that."

Catra looks at the offered hand and feels a wave of revulsion. Not for Saturday, but for herself. Does she deserve to be offered that kind of help? That kind of support? She was too soft to be the a villain, too messed up to be the hero... She curls in against herself, drawing her arms in.

"Whatever." She doesn't know what else to say. She grips the table, claws starting to dig. "It's not like it matters."

"What makes you say that?" Saturday raises an eyebrow, keeping her hand out.

"Because it's done," Catra says sharply. "And I just. Proved Shadow Weaver right."

"So? You should care what someone like that thinks you are? You should let her decide who you're gonna be?"

"No!" Catra replies sharply, indignant. "But what if I'm... what if I'm just bad and there's no way of fixing me?"

"Then you wouldn't feel lousy about what you've done; you wouldn't want to change it if you could; you wouldn't been torn up over the idea that you might be a bad person." Saturday is calm and relentless in her logic.

"Anyone who tries to tell you you're not free - that you're trapped by some, I dunno, immutable law of nature in a certain situation or way a' thinkin' and being - is a liar who doesn't have your best interests at heart."

Catra runs both hands through her floofy, frazzled hair. She's not sure what to think. Or say. Or do. She hadn't expected a midnight conversation with some stranger to lay her so bare or to drag all of the pain and hurt and confusion out of her so readily.

"What if she won't forgive me?"

"Then you hurt. A lot, probably for a long while." Saturday isn't gonna sugar coat it. "But it'll hurt if she forgives you, too. Cleaning out a wound always does. The question you gotta ask is, is if what might happen is really worse then what's definitely gonna happen if you just stay in one place and do nothing."

She shrugs, her hand still extended. "But I mean, you seem all right, if a little touchy. You might lose one friend, but learning how to apologize will make you a lot more than one."

"She was my only friend," Catra snaps peevishly. "She's the only friend I've ever wanted or needed. I didn't want anyone else. That's why it hurt so much when she left me."

"I've never dealt with this crap before."

"Sounds like you put a lot of pressure on her," Saturday says mildly. "It's hard to be someone's everything, impossible, actually, and I can't imagine being in a pressure cooker like the Horde with that Shadow Weaver character made it easier."

"Oh, so it's my fault?" Catra glares, her anger flaring up again at Saturday's words.

"I'm saying she probably has regrets about how it all went down, too." Careful going, that's the trick. "I'll keep saying it til I think you believe it: neither of you were in a place where you could be your best selves or make your best choices. You needed each other, and didn't have anyone else. That ain't healthy or right. I can see the scars it left from here. It's not fair, and I'm sorry it happened to you."

She takes a breath

"Setting right what's within your power to set right is your responsibility. But that they went wrong in the first place is not your fault. Or hers."

TDM #1

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