TDM 2

[hownkai]

SEPTEMBER TEST DRIVE MEME

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ABOARD THE MOIRA

Whether adjusting to space travel has been difficult or not, there is always something to be done. From working to leisure, the Moira offers a multitude of opportunities to get to know your crewmates a bit better. Exploration of the ship is highly encouraged, but as another planet grows closer to being docked, things start to get a little hectic. You'll notice a slight change in the artificial gravity as the Moira is pulled into the planet's gravitational field; however, more noticeable changes can be found in the overall morale as you prepare to descend.

☄ in the mess hall:

Things have been pretty smooth sailing thus far. There haven't been any unexpected horrors or accidents, and no one has gone missing. Later in the evening, you find yourself hungry and decide to check out what's on the menu. Making your way toward the mess hall, you discover that the door is closed and a sign has been posted directly in the center. It reads:

We don't know who did this or why, but action will be taken if it is not fixed immediately.

At the bottom, in very small print, it is signed by the captains. Venturing inside, you find something irregular about the room, and it's not what you might have thought. Finding the culprit, however, is hardly on anyone's mind. In fact, the kitchen has been closed until everything on the tables has been "fixed". Decadent foods and desserts from many of the planets explored in the past are laid out like a feast. There might even be liquor, but who knows how strong that stuff is. Consider this a thank you for all the hard work and effort you've put forth as a valuable crew member. Whoever said the mess hall wasn't for messes was sadly misinformed! It's party time.

☄ on your own:

There are plenty of other communal areas on the ship to explore! Pick a place, and see where it takes you.

PLANET EXPLORATION

Unlike some of the previously found planets, this one is populated. However, the majority of the natives are located in one central area near a very large body of water. At some point, it might have been a lake, but due to some abnormal constructional designs, it has been transformed into a well-maintained connection of underwater cities. Still, accessing them may prove to be difficult. Your MID warns of no pollutants in either the air or water. Yet, it has problems translating the language spoken between these humanoid beings—if they even speak at all. Most of them appear friendly, more than welcoming, but what's to be said about someone (or something) that doesn't wish to talk?

☄ the submerged:

I would like to be the air that inhabits you for a moment. I would like to be that unnoticed and that necessary.

Exploring the surrounding areas, which consist of marshes and some small trees, doesn't yield much. There are little resources and no fauna to speak of. The natives continue to lure whoever dares to follow closer to the water, their gestures open and curious. There is nothing to hint at the dangers that await anyone who wanders within arm's length of the shore, and if you do... Hopefully you weren't traveling alone and a friend is there to attempt dragging you away from the tight grip of the thing suddenly yanking you into the murk of that lake. They will fight to keep you, sink their hands and fins deep enough to draw blood; it calls more of them up from the depths to bring you down. For they need you like air, are desperate to call you their own, and if you surrender, how are you to ever describe the the last thing you see?

Is that what happened to the all those ships found crashed here and there, buried beneath mud and moss? Is this what became of the people aboard them? How ironic the dead say even less than the things that got you.

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OUT OF CHARACTER INFO

FAQ | LOCATIONS | RESERVES | APPLICATIONS | NAVIGATION

For mature or graphic content, please label. Test Drive Memes are not game canon but can be used as samples in applications. For questions, please direction them to the FAQ. As always, be kind and have fun!

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JASPER | STEVEN UNIVERSE

[stompadour]

MESS HALL

[stompadour]

Jasper is familiar with the concept of food, although it’s been a while since she’s come face to face with any. The delicious smells are lost on her, but if they weren't she probably wouldn't be any less pleased about this. The skin around her nose wrinkles in disdain as she picks up a sandwich in her meaty orange hand so she can give it a cursory, unimpressed once-over.

“Waste of resources,” she rasps with palpable scorn, slapping it moistly back down on its plate. This sandwich is suffering.

[neveroutwrenched]

[Well it wasn't the best thing he'd ever eaten, sure, but a waste of resources? Ratchet was just happy that they'd upgraded from the green pancakes and the boozed up water.]

Ah...food? Food is a waste of resources?

[He raises an eyebrow at the uh...well, whatever she was. Far too large, and far too orange to be a human, that was for sure.]

[stompadour]

[She looks down at whatever the heck this creature is, raising her own eyebrow in response.]

Food is inefficient. [But she's willing to accept that lesser life forms need it to live, so whatever. But; she gestures at the fancy ass sandwich:] This is extravagant.

[neveroutwrenched]

[Okay, well that's not an incorrect argument. Ratchet takes a bite out of the sandwich in his hand, shrugging.]

I dunno, I mean, maybe it's a meant as a morale boost?

[Because nothing says, 'we appreciate you' like a mountain of grilled cheese. It was definitely worlds above the MREs and having to scavenge in the forests for maybe-edible-maybe-poisonous plants like the last crew.]

THE SUBMERGED

[stompadour]

Jasper’s physically incapable of drowning, but with the fuss she’s kicking up right now that might be hard to believe. One of the planet’s natives has her by the wrist, too close to the water, and her enraged bellowing can be heard for a long way around. She slams the first of the lake denizens against the ground hard enough to make them go limp, but there are more of them, wrapping their clammy hands around her thick arms, and she’s bigger and stronger than they are individually but she can’t fight the overwhelming, irrational panic rising inside her so easily.

“Get your hands off me!” she snarls, trying and almost succeeding in keeping the fear out of her voice. This is what she gets for being so certain she’s equipped to explore this planet solo: her literal worst nightmare.

[petrifiedshadow]

After his own close encounter with the lake denizens Starflight had been staying high in the air, safely out of reach of the water. Scouting from the air was also more effective, right? The need for supplies meant they were still planetside, and at this point Starflight just wanted to finish and get back to the ship as soon as possible. If it had been his choice, they would have left already.

A disturbance near the perimeter of the lake caught his attention, and swooping lower he recognized one of the crewmembers who had left the ship with them. The swarm of aquatic locals around her made him hesitate for a moment, but someone had to help, and as far as he could tell he was the closest. He couldn't let her get dragged under.

He dove toward her location, wings snapping open a the last moment to slow his descent. He whacked a few of the aliens away with his tail, but it wouldn't be long before they tried to grab him too. He wrapped his claws around the gem's waist, wings beating frantically as he tried to pull them upward and away from the water. ]

I'm here to help, just hold on. [ He panted, struggling to get airborne. Starflight wasn't the largest dragon after all, and Jasper was almost as big as he was. ]

[stompadour]

"What–?" Jasper's first reaction to being seized by a dragon is to struggle, but she soon realises Starflight's trying to help her. She's grudgingly impressed that he manages to lift her, and she can't pretend she isn't tremendously relieved to be hauled out of there – but she sure as heck isn't enjoying this.

"Alright, alright, put me down–"

[petrifiedshadow]

Starflight was more than happy to oblige, as soon as they were safely out of reach of the creatures he dropped her and collapsed onto the muddy ground, trembling from fear or exhaustion. Or both, was difficult to tell.

"Are you alright?" he asked, after taking a few moments to catch his breath.

[stompadour]

"Of course I am," Jasper replied, all the panic from before gone completely now that she was a safe remove from the lake and its inhabitants. She did still look kind of ruffled, but being hauled into the air by a dragon will do that to you.

She raised an eyebrow, watching him trembling and struggling to catch his breath. "You okay there? Going to be able to get out of here alright?" She didn't sound worried, exactly, or even really concerned, but Starflight was obviously more of an asset than most of the other organic life forms around here.

[petrifiedshadow]

Starflight nodded, scrambling to his feet. He stretched out his wings, trying to shake off some of the excess mud and marsh grass sticking to his scales.

"I'll be fine, but I really think we should get back to the ship," he said, glancing the surface of the lake nervously.

[stompadour]

"Hm," said Jasper, following his glance towards the lake. "Maybe you're right." By which she meant, I for one am in favour of putting myself as far away from this body of water as is practical.

"You can manage that on your own, right?" She didn't much want to have to return that favour... Although she'd probably have had an easier time carrying him than the other way around.

[petrifiedshadow]

"Yes," he replied quickly, a slight note of panic in his voice. Please, please, please do not pick him up. If he wasn't so worried about getting dragged into the lake, he would prefer to be much farther away from this enormous scavenger (human maybe?) than he already was. At the moment though, safety in numbers seemed like the better option.

"We're going to have to circle the lake to get to the ship, but there's a lot of bogs on the way. Do you think those things are in the smaller bodies of water, too, or just the lake? Because if they are we're going to have to be extra careful."

[peridork]

Somehow, the two of them have managed to completely miss each other back on the ship. Because of this, Peridot doesn't really believe what she's hearing when Jasper's bellowing rings out across the lake, particularly because it has a very uncharacteristic note of fear in there.

Unable to resist investigating further, she hurries her way through the mud over to where the voice is coming from. Even when she claps her eyes on the bizarre scene of her former escort struggling against the lake creatures, she can barely believe her eyes.

"Jasper!?" Peridot's unmistakable nasally tone rings out from the scrub that she's peering out of, a bit louder than she intended. What the FUCK is going on here.

[stompadour]

What.

Jasper freezes in the middle of slamming her fist into the face of one of the locals. She didn't even know the whiny little technician was here. Here's hoping she didn't notice how embarrassing this is–! Haha, jk, this is intrinsically embarrassing. Better just act like it's normal.

"Peridot," she shouts. "What are you doing? Get over here and help me!"

[peridork]

"Help??" she shouts back, incredulous. What does Jasper expect her to do, get dragged down instead? "You're the warrior type here, what do you need my help for!?" she argues back, eyeing the situation up warily. What gizmos does she even have that can assist in this kind of situation?

[stompadour]

Jasper is actually so frustrated by that feeble response that it distracts her entirely from how freaked out she is by the prospect of being dragged into the lake. With an irritated snarl, she summons her helmet and beats the nearest lake-dweller into the ground; she tears one of them off her arm and throws them at another two, and after a couple more minutes of this they're dragging themselves back into the lake and away from her fury.

Scuffed and unkempt, she stomps over to Peridot, grabbing her by the robot arm. "Don't you have multiple weapons in here?"

[peridork]

For the record, a scuffed up, frustrated Jasper is EXTREMELY HIGH on the list of things that Peridot never likes to see stomping in her direction. She stumbles back a half step or two before the much larger gem latches on to her.

"I've never even used half of them before!" she snaps hotly, face flushing a darker green around her cheeks as she tries to tug back out of Jaspers grip. "And get your grubby mitts off me, these things aren't easy to replace, you know."

[stompadour]

She lets go angrily. "Then maybe you should think about getting some practice in," she snaps. She is in such a bad mood.

[waterwings]

The water lapping at the shore begin to pull back unnaturally far, like the beginning of a tsunami ready to be unleashed. It goes unnoticed by most of the creatures, but a few stop in curiosity at the strange occurrence.

Their curiosity turns to shock when the pulled back waters rear up into a formidable wave, casting a shadow over Jasper and all of the creatures pulling at her. It slams over them in a roaring rush with invisible hands under the surface that drag all the creatures off her and back down into the lake away from shore. It happens so quickly and not even a few seconds pass that the beach is empty when the water returns to normal, save for Jasper.

Lapis steps out from the shadows of the treeline, frowning.

"You're too loud."

[stompadour]

Jasper's eyes widen as Lapis emerges. She wants to back away from her, but that would mean moving towards the lake –

She wavers in place, waterlogged and torn, looking like nothing so much as a dog whose owner is trying to coax it to walk past a Mean Cat.

"Lapis Lazuli," she hisses, furious. "What did you do that for?" As if Lapis didn't technically just do her a favour...

[waterwings]

Lapis soaks it in. This feels good, seeing Jasper brought down like this... it's fulfilling.

She smiles and walks towards Jasper despite noticing her distress, both hands behind her back. When she's close enough she reaches out to pick a string of errant seaweed from her hair and drops it to the side still smiling. "You're a mess, Jasper. Should you even be down here?"

[stompadour]

"I was fine until you showed up," she insists, jerking her head away from Lapis' hand. She sounds like a stupid whiny baby, and she knows, and she hates it. She huffs, stepping back, away from Lapis, away from the lake, and mutters, "Get away from me."

[waterwings]

She doesn't seem to react to Jasper's violent jerk and her lips pull into a slight frown. "Were you? Hm."

Clasping her hands back behind her she lets her gaze follow Jasper, seemingly amused now. "Would you rather I bring them back? They're sitting at the edge waiting for you, Jasper. You could use some more friends."

[stompadour]

Honestly, Jasper feels like she'd rather deal with the lake denizens than with Lapis – but she doesn't much want to tempt fate and end up dealing with both, so she declines to comment on that. She scowls down at her, and then abruptly turns and, stiffly, starts walking away. "I'm going back to the ship."