imaginarymods: (Default)
Imaginary Island Mods ([personal profile] imaginarymods) wrote in [community profile] imaginaryooc2020-03-20 04:04 pm

Test Drive


Welcome Back, Reclaimers.
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It's still home... isn't it?


Perhaps you have, as many before you, been pulled from your universe. Perhaps you've been here a while now. Either way, the moon base is just as it always has been since it was landed gracefully by Lucas down to the land of Faerun.

Except that it isn't.

It isn't the Moon Base at all, and even if it was, you can't quite seem to recall what the Moon Base was. Faerun is the furthest thing from your mind.
You wake up on a beach feeling as though you've just gotten quite the kick in the head, your memory foggy and jostled within your soupy brain. It's a pretty beach, at least, the water kissing the shores a sparkling shade of blue, the fresh scent of sea salt on the wind, the rustling windchimes of palm leaves. It's idyllic, even with the occasional flash of static in the corner of your eye.

Wait, the what?

Is... Is the water in the distance a repeating texture? What? No, that couldn't be possible. Besides, it's so far out, you wouldn't want to go check... would you?

It looks like there's a few abandoned cabanas where the green meets the sand, and there's quite a lot of land beyond it to explore. Why not get your bearings and meet up with some friends? Assuming you recall they're your friends, anyway. You'll need the shelter when night comes, after all; temperatures drop fast when the sun drops and the ocean breeze keeps blowing.


Supplies and Status
On the island during the tutorial drive, you'll have access to your BIAS, including everything you've had on your person up until this point. During the game we'll provide instructions on how to regain your other items, but feel free to handwave it for the drive. Characters are encouraged to pick up any sort of tropical supplies you can think of for the drive, though we will provide more ideas and guidelines during gameplay!

As explained in the Q/A session, personal memories are yours to decide when your reclaimer will recall them. For the duration of the test drive and the game, memories of just how anyone got to this island, what the relic is, and where Lucretia is will not be accessible until they are revealed by reclaimer's efforts during the adventure. There will be no feeling that your personal memories have been tampered with or removed, but reclaimers might feel as though they've recovered from something physically traumatic. They will not be out of commission at all physically and may use their path actions as soon as they wake up.


Tropical Tutorial
Further inland from the beach you've woken up on, there's a few accessible areas, and the general shape of the island becomes clear. It's kind of... foot shaped. In the middle of the first portion of the island is a saltwater pond that appears to have a tacky swim-to bar set up. Just past that is a forest, and in that forest is a land bridge to the next island.

The second island seems to be oddly foot-shaped. At the ball of the foot there are some ruins, where you'll find the only other person on this island- Angus! He's made himself a little camp there, and doesn't give you any reason to suspect danger in the ruins.
It doesn't seem as though the 'toes' of the foot are too far to paddle to, but if you attempt to, you'll find yourself unable to get past the halfway point, as if there's some sort of invisible barrier. Your path actions won't be able to detect its nature; all it seems is as though it's just a part of how things are.

Speaking of the way things are, they sure seem strange. You might not remember what you ate for dinner last night, but you do recall what trees and grass look like and how doors should be attached. It looks like things might need to be debugged.


Debug Dafuq?

Harmless havoc is everywhere, even in those abandoned cabanas! Floors are ceilings! Ceilings are floors! Stairs going up lead to a lower floor, and downward ramps take you only a few rooms to the side. Static in the ocean, transparent-textured trees; it's starting to look like a hacked video game in here.

You get it by now. Things just aren't the way they're supposed to be. You've been around long enough to know what the moon base is like and This Ain't It. Perhaps you can fix it, though. Get those d20s ready or just choose-- can your Reclaimer do anything about these glitches?

Perhaps you've come across someone locked inside a cabana room-- because, well, they might be standing perfectly upright inside their room, but outside you are very certain their door is halfway into the ground. Will your rogue skills help you pick the hinges of the lock? Will your barbarian strength help you knock that door down? Or perhaps your technomancer skills can hack into that door and turn it upright?

There's no end to the possibilities with your path actions, which means no end to furthering the glitching either. Took a hard turn on that lockpicking roll? You might unlock your arm right off your shoulder. Got a little too wild with your wildshape? Wow, that dog sure has a long neck.


Café Calamari

So that saltwater pond. Weird, right? What's weirder is, there's a squid there right in the middle... and if you were on a certain mission to Lyrabar, you might even recognize this cephalopod. It seems pretty excited to see new customers, beckoning reclaimers up to its bar with its long arms. Grab a seat and chat with friends! There's plenty of room, and it doesn't seem like there's much other company to be had.... nor is there much else to visit just yet.

The Squid appears to be manning a tourist-trap of a swim-to bar, though occasionally you might catch him having to upright a recently-reversed roof. While you can order anything from Bender's menu from this Squid, it would seem he doesn't notice some of the dishes are not quite what they were before; a completely inedible salad made of die-cut paper leaves, a donut that's actually just milk-sweetened rice pressed in a donut shape, a cup of coffee that doesn't pour out no matter how many times you try to drink from it.


This Tree has Bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S



Just past the saltwater pond is a forest with trees unlike you've seen in Faerun so far. While coconut palms grow to the outer cliffs and near the beach, the more inland one goes, other bright-yellow-green trees grow, as well as bold red-flowered trees. Each of these trees seems to bear a different tropical fruit-- mangoes, bananas, guava, breadfruits, starfruit. There's even pretty bushes full of hibiscus.

But just like the areas you've been to so far, things are a little out of whack. You're pretty sure hibiscuses aren't supposed to grow made of glass, and that fruits generally aren't hollow, air-filled, and bouncy. You're definitely sure tree bark shouldn't be the gray-and-white checkerboard of a transparent digital canvas. For whatever reason, though, the bananas seem to be perfect. There's probably a joke in here, somewhere.

Of course, no one's around to stop you from trying to pluck these fruits! You might even be successful in doing so, if your hand would just stop clipping through some of them. If you manage to pick one, why not take a bite? They might be strengthening… or might dull your powers altogether. Maybe they'll grant low-level fire breath (try not to aim it at the trees) or generate more static than usual. Not feeling brave enough to test out any mystery effects? Take a fruit or two back to Chef Squid-- he might cook them up into something more palatable (and with fewer status effects).


Where's the Fire, Angus?

There is one other familiar face around the island. It looks like Angus has set up camp near the ruins, but just like the other things on the island, it seems glitched in such a way you can't get anywhere near his tent. What's up with that?

Every once in a while you might catch young him running to and fro, excusing himself from chatter with a "sorry, I'm on very important business, sir!" or a "Pardon me, m'am!" and hurrying away to talk to… a tree? Or a building? Or to puzzle over a bench that's buried half-way diagonally into the ground. "This just isn't how it's supposed to be," you might overhear Angus say, and perhaps if you listen long enough you'll catch him having a one-sided conversation with one of these glitched structures. "Sir, I know you're just trying to help," he'll say, "but have you ever seen a tree before?"

No matter what you say, it appears Angus can't be distracted from whoever he seems to be keeping up with. It might feel a bit lonely now; he's the only non-Reclaimer member of the Bureau left around. Leon, Bender, Davenport, and most importantly, Lucretia, can't be found or magically detected anywhere on the island.


Ruined Adventure

Just past Angus's impenetrable camp is an assortment of strange stone ruins. They seem to be different floors dug deep into the ground in an expanse a bit larger than a football field, rubble and dirt covering the bottom. There are rising towers within the stone-walled pit, but despite its desolate nature, there don't appear to be any monsters in it quite yet.

What you will discover, if you decide to enter, are well preserved and brightly-colored murals. Each of the murals, if you study them enough, depicts how to perform different path actions! Though it would appear those path actions are performed by... little animals? Weird.

Unfortunately, some of the murals seem to show static, or are depicted out of order. Maybe you can debug these too, and use them as a guide for re-learning path actions-- or try them in the steps shown. Who knows what'll happen.

Those path actions could come in handy down there, as in the desolate corners of the ruined city spawn low-level monsters. They're not quite threatening enough to most reclaimers, but they'll be great practice for getting back into the swing of things. And hey, meat.

A Note from your Navigators

Welcome, Island-dwellers! We'd like for you to take this test drive as an opportunity to go as wild as you like. Want to roll your own d20s to determine how good or bad debugging goes? Go right ahead! Want to create a new meal to order from the Squid Bar? Get cookin'! The Tutorial Test Drive will not be mandatory for application, nor will the events that transpire be canon or remembered during the actual adventure.

code bases by tricklet
aceso: (Default)

[personal profile] aceso 2020-03-30 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
Are there any plants among the grass that are actually real and not something glitched out? Christine would like to use Herbalism on them to determine if there's any medicinal value to them (if there are any to start with)!
eudaimonikos: (out of my body)

Michael | Balance Transfer | OTA

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-03-30 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
i. rolling around at the speed of sound

[Michael wakes up with a fuzzy head and an unpleasant taste in his mouth.

He rises, shaking the sand out of his suit irritably. Great. He's wearing so many things, he is never going to get all of this out. He's coming up short on a lot of facts right now, but he does not like sand.

As it happens, he doesn't remember much of anything right now. But that doesn't feel like something to panic about; it'll probably be fine. There's more important things. A couple of very specific more important things. He doesn't remember it, but he can feel it: there's somewhere else he's supposed to be. He looks up and down the beach. He has a good feeling about one way...and also about the other. Maybe there's a couple other places he's supposed to be? If one of them is more important, he can't tell, so he just picks a direction and starts walking.

The magic he's got feels utterly natural. Why wouldn't he have powers? After a few minutes, he just casts Haste on himself. You may see him Sonic-ing his way along the perimeter of the island in a navy-blue blur.]


ii. the squid

[Michael steps out of the treeline, and stops short abruptly.

Were his memories in order, he would understand what he's feeling. He'd know enough to hide it and carry on like normal, so nobody ever suspected anything. But right now, all he knows is that his stomach flips unpleasantly at the sight of the Squid. It makes him feel sick and anxious, like he wants to just go away and hide until he can forget the thing even exists.

(That...is that revulsion? Is it gross? He thinks it must be gross. It looks like it stinks.)]


Woah, hey. [Seeing someone about to approach the pond, he reaches out to stop them.] Don't go over there!


iii. wildcard

[ w/e man ]
autumncoming: (🗲 lets fall its weight)

ii

[personal profile] autumncoming 2020-03-30 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
[Clear neither likes nor hates it here. Clear feels thoroughly neutral about this island paradise, and she has absolutely no idea why. There's a frustrating hole in her understanding of her own emotions. It shouldn't be there. She knows that much.]

[She's not any more frightened of or irritated by the squid . . . thing than she is by anything else here, at least. If anything, she's curious, approaching it but not too quickly or too close.]

[Then someone's using exclamation points at her. She jumps away from the encroaching hand like a startled cat, shooting its owner a glare.]


What? Why?
eudaimonikos: (critique of pure reason)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-03-30 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, I don't know. The giant squid monster?

[it's visibly terrible, who would possibly want to be near it?]
autumncoming: (🗲 in their singing)

[personal profile] autumncoming 2020-03-30 04:20 am (UTC)(link)
. . . Yeah?

[She. Looks from him, to it, then back again. Clearly puzzled. Kind of annoyed.]

Is it dangerous? [She's pretty sure squid don't eat people, but this one is enormous.]
eudaimonikos: (so please come through)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-03-30 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
I don't know, maybe! And it's hideous. Why would you even want to go near it?

[He doesn't really get why she's so chill. Are they not seeing the same thing? He can't imagine why anyone would ever want to spend any time near a thing like that!]
autumncoming: (🗲 with the same sweet shock)

[personal profile] autumncoming 2020-03-30 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
It's just a squid, man.

[This hatred of squid is weird. Is there such a thing as a squid phobia? What would the word for that be? She looks back at the squid, which waves gently and holds out an onigiri.]

I want to know why it's here. There's a bunch of stuff that's here that doesn't make sense. I want to know why. Big squid like that are supposed to live out in the ocean, not here.
aceso: (081)

christine delacroix | balance transfer | ota

[personal profile] aceso 2020-03-30 04:45 am (UTC)(link)
{ debugging adventure }
[ Christine can't help but feel a little queasy after several attempts to ascend the stairs turns into something out of an Escher drawing. Taking a seat on the bottom step, she closes her eyes and breathes deeply to calm her stomach. When she opens her eyes, the walls are the ceiling and floor and she grabs onto the banister for dear life. ]

Anybody there?

[ Because it's becoming rapidly clear that she can't easily walk back out the way she came in. ]

Could someone help me out of this room, please?


{ café calamari }
[ Having arrived at the Bureau after the Lyrabar mission, Christine isn't familiar with the friendly squid bartender, but she gets the sense that this is far from the weirdest thing she's going to see on this island, so she swims out to the bar stool and hops on. ]

Hi, uhh, I guess I'll just have coffee?

[ Surely this can't go wrong. ]


{ plucking fruit and flowers... or trying to }
[ Drawn towards the hibiscus, Christine intends to pick one to place above her ear, but finds that it's made of glass instead. That's not the type of delicate she was expecting, so she turns towards the fruit instead. They shouldn't depend on the squid for everything, especially since the meals aren't coming out correctly right now either. But when her hand glitches through a fruit, she finally snaps in frustration. ]

If we're trapped here, we should at least get food that's real!


{ ruined adventure }
[ It's incredible how the murals in this place survived the test of time when the rest of the place hasn't. In fact, it's a little suspicious. Surely whoever keep these murals looking fresh could have taken care of the rest of the building too? But nothing here is as it seems, so she looks through the path actions, hoping for some kind of clue. ]

Why are they animals?

[ That should be the least of her worries, but it's what jumps out at her first. ]

We haven't even seen any animals on this island yet. It's like... what Angus was talking about out there. Someone's never seen a tree before. Someone doesn't know how stairs work. Someone draws animals doing these paths. Who's done all this?


{ wildcard }
[ Anything goes! Throw a scenario at me, and let's do it! Hit me up at [plurk.com profile] fairandbright or megan#2520 on discord if you want to toss around ideas first! ]
eudaimonikos: (dualism)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-03-30 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
They should live where other people don't have to look at them.

[He looks away from her and the squid both, shoulders hunching. He doesn't understand his own feelings entirely, either - they're far more intense than he could have predicted, and more than he really knows what to do with. He feels sick, like...like he's done something wrong, for some reason. He doesn't even want to see her looking at him.

Clearly it's that awful squid's fault.]
autumncoming: hollow-art (Default)

[personal profile] autumncoming 2020-03-30 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
[Ah.]

[Tucking her hair behind her ear, she studies this guy for a moment. He's actually really upset, isn't he? He looks like he's going to throw up, maybe. She glances at the squid, a puzzle she really does want to solve, but . . .]

[Nah. It's not that pressing.]


You're right, let's get out of here. We should go look at the sideways buildings instead. Those could fall on somebody if nobody fixes them.
aceso: (019)

i

[personal profile] aceso 2020-03-30 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Christine stands on the beach staring down at her hand as Michael whizzes by. The abrupt appearance causes a beam of light to shoot out of her palm as she needed some sort of shock of surprise to kickstart her magic again. ]

Hey, that worked!
eudaimonikos: (mechanisms)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-03-31 01:59 am (UTC)(link)
[For a second, he blinks at her without responding. That's it? They can go? He guesses he could've just left by himself - he was about to - but he didn't really expect she'd come. That's...he shouldn't question it.]

Oh - yeah. Yeah, okay.

[let's get the fuck out of here!]

Which buildings?
eudaimonikos: (theodicy)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-03-31 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
[Oh, shit, hold up - Michael very quickly dashes back to Christine. From his point of view, he's just walking at a normal pace, but time is still weird around him. Which also makes talking weird:]

Ohheythatwascoolwhatwasthat?
aceso: (053)

[personal profile] aceso 2020-03-31 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, uhh...

[ She suddenly feels a little awkward about it all, which is ridiculous because she was just out in the open trying to make this happen. But it's the magic she gained accidentally at home and the cause of a lot of headaches for her because certain dangerous people don't want her to use her magic on them. Meaning vampires, because shooting sunlight at them? Not a good time.

But what does any of that matter here? Especially when her power isn't as strong as usual. She extends her hand and finds the light appears in her palm easily now. She just needed to get over the hump, so to speak. ]


It's just this thing I can do. It's sunlight.

[ There are also thin, white scars running down her fingers and across her palm, but she doesn't acknowledge them. ]

What are you doing? The whole speed thing?
akash: (09)

debugging

[personal profile] akash 2020-03-31 07:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Something about the nature of how everything is wrong is unsettling to Korra. Unfamiliar. She doesn't remember much, but it's a gut feeling, like she's never seen anything like it before.

Still, she's— supposed to help people? She thinks. She's trying to come down the stairs as Christine is attempting to ascend them, and pitches forward, thrown off-balance when the scenery shifts around them. When it— breaks? Around them. So she hears Christine call for help and whirls, searching, but with everything all topsy-turvy it takes a few moments to find her at the...bottom...? Of the staircase.

She calls back as she makes an attempt to hop down the stairs—]
Hey! Are you okay?

[—and then on her first step, falls through with a yelp to a ramp that's on a floor below Christine.]
shellfishnature: (don't need no crystal ball to tell me so)

ii

[personal profile] shellfishnature 2020-03-31 11:39 am (UTC)(link)
[Ruto turns to look at Michael, her gaze starting at the hand he's reached out and travelling up his arm until it gets to his face, her eyebrows arched high in a nonverbal excuse me?

She sets a hand on her hip, chin tilting up haughtily as she frowns.]
And why not?

[Nobody tells her what to do without a very good reason!]
eudaimonikos: (consequences)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-03-31 03:37 pm (UTC)(link)
OhI'mnotgoingfast, you'rejustgoingveryslow. Ithinkitletsmemovethroughtimedifferently.

[He thinks for a second - he's never used this before, that he can remember, but it doesn't feel long-lasting.]

Ithinkit's wearing off. It would be a little much if it lasted as long as I liked.
aceso: (023)

[personal profile] aceso 2020-03-31 04:48 pm (UTC)(link)
I— Oh!

[ Christine's head whips around when the newcomer disappears, and she finds her below her now. Where did that floor come from? ]

Yeah, yeah. I mean, not hurt. Yet. Feels like I'm about to knock my head off a wall or floor in a hot second. Do you know where the exit is?
aceso: (067)

[personal profile] aceso 2020-03-31 04:51 pm (UTC)(link)
You can move through time differently?

[ She swears she once saw some superhero movie with a character in it like that, but details are all around fuzzy right now. ]

Oh, there you go. You're not talking as fast anymore. Listen, this is going to sound crazy, but do you know where we are? I'm kinda having trouble remembering at the moment.
akash: (11)

[personal profile] akash 2020-04-01 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
[Physical spaces in the world aren't supposed to do this, and Korra groans irritably as she rights herself, but... She's not as disoriented as she could be. The behavior of the space reminds her of...some other weird place? Maybe.

She looks around again, searching the broken scenery until...]


Uhhh.

[Peering up to Christine, and then pointing across the new floor she's found herself on. To a door that is lodged about three quarters of the way into the ceiling. Dryly:] I didn't, but I think I found it.
eudaimonikos: (compatibilism)

[personal profile] eudaimonikos 2020-04-01 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
No clue...I'm not sure I remember a lot, actually.

[This seems like it should be worrying, but he thinks it's all going to be alright. He'll figure it out.]

But I've been pretty far along this beach, and I haven't seen any boats or anything.
aceso: (077)

[personal profile] aceso 2020-04-01 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ Christine follows the pointing finger and groans, resting her temple against the banister she's still clinging to. ]

Great. Not even acrobatics can get us through there. Not unless we can get it unstuck.
aceso: (044)

[personal profile] aceso 2020-04-01 03:26 am (UTC)(link)
Well, that doesn't sound good.

[ A pause. ]

I'm sure we know each other, though. Don't we?

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