Test Drive Meme

[nashiramods]

Info: Setting ⭐︎ Key Locations ⭐︎ Full Navigation ⭐︎ Monster Info
Prompts: Awakening ⭐︎ By Daylight ⭐︎ By Starlight

WELCOME TO CHALRA CITY!
You live in a bustling modern metropolis situated on the coast of the Everwave Sea. Lively and ever-changing, it’s been riding the wave of the recent techno-economic boom, and business has never been better! The city has thawed into spring, bringing with it the balmy breezes and blooms of April, although the mornings are still chilly and damp. Students and their teachers around the city are settling into the new school year a little under a month before its start, and with the weather turning warmer, the city seems even livelier in anticipation of one of the hottest music tours of the year.

awakening
You lead a more or less ordinary life in the bustling Chalra City — this is the world you live in, and it’s the only world you know. And then one day you feel something stir in you — perhaps it comes to you in a dream, or you receive a vivid waking vision upon walking into someone else — and in the back of your mind, you hear a voice that sounds very much like your own, uttering a wish with its dying breath.

You awaken to your destiny as a Nova Knight, a reincarnation of an alien from a dead planet who once fought against the Abyss. With your new transformation charm in hand, it's time to go supernova and, with the help of your comrades, save the world.



by daylight
Now you lead two lives: your everyday life as one of the many citizens of Chalra City, and your life as a reincarnated magical crime fighter. Will you manage to balance the demands of your double lives, or will you buckle under the pressure? Will you trust your fellow Nova Knights, or will you keep your identity a secret? And when your back is against the wall, who will you call for help?

PLAYING PLOT-MANDATED HOOKY
Real life means real obligations, and you're at one right now — whether it's work, school, or a family gathering, you're expected to be there, and you can't just leave without raising a few eyebrows (or questions).

Unfortunately, the ship's computer Nautis has been blowing up your phone with texts, urging you to ditch your responsibilities so you can take care of an urgent threat: innocent cityfolk are mysteriously disappearing under a famously haunted overpass, and it’s most certainly the work of the enemy. The person next to you is also a fellow Nova Knight, and they're getting the same messages. The question is, do you know each other as Nova Knights, or only as colleagues or classmates? And either way, how are you both going to manage to sneak out and take care of business — without being seen transforming in broad daylight?

SUSPICIOUS SCALPER
The entertainment industry in Chalra City is booming, as evidenced by the fact that most of their performance venues are booked year round. And one of the hottest new artists on the Atlace scene has arrived at the Chalra City stop of their nationwide tour! Indie sensation the beautiful unit., comprised of Jana The (vocals and acoustic guitar), Eliza Beautiful (upright bass), and Blair Unit (shakers), has made its mark on Chalra City's pop culture scene before they've even arrived. The tour has attracted enough attention from smaller nearby cities that every light rail car is packed, making an already busy commute even more hectic for the locals, and many a local shop is cashing in on the craze by selling unlicensed the beautiful unit. merch. There's even a new ticket reseller downtown selling tickets to the sold-out show at astonishingly low prices. It seems too good to be true, but some fans' loyalty outweighs their common sense, and on the day of the show, the line goes out the door and halfway around the block. It probably wouldn't hurt to investigate… Wait, with all the tickets they're reselling, does the math even add up?

by starlight
A CAPTIVATING AUDIENCE
When night falls, the curtain rises on the beautiful unit.'s highly anticipated show in the Four Clover Stadium. After a seventeen minute silent intro, the crowd breaks into a roar when Jana The plucks the first note on her acoustic guitar. But as the show goes on, some fans seem to be a little too amped up. Any the beautiful unit. fan who bought tickets from the suspicious new reseller will begin to turn into a blacklit monster, the light sticks clutched in their hands now transformed into fearsome weapons. Before long, dozens of fans have transformed into monsters, and more are following with every beat. The band keeps on playing as the monsters advance towards the stage — it looks like they're trying to kidnap the beautiful unit.!

You can fight off the monsters' advance with your powers, but they outnumber you and they're closing in fast. These monsters are still people, though, and those people are the beautiful unit. fans through and through, so maybe if you can get the band to play a track off their unreleased new album, they'll turn back to normal.

THE DEATH JITTERBUG
The the beautiful unit. craze is inescapable. From banners to badges, you can't turn a corner in Chalra City without seeing their logo (the beautiful unit. in an Arial variant designed as part of an artistic collaboration with the band). You don't even need to go to a show to hear their music — the shopping center at the train station is blasting all their best singles, such as "It's Time To Talk (About You (And Me))" and "Let's! (Family Restaurant)", a jingle originally written for a diner in their hometown that stayed on the Top 40 charts for a record-breaking nine weeks. Their music is popular for a reason, though, and plenty of shoppers are dancing along to the beat. The only problem is…they don't seem to be able to stop!

If you investigate, you'll discover that the small crystals attached to the shopping center's speakers are draining the energy of anyone under the hipster dance curse. If you destroy the crystals, the shoppers should go back to normal, but you never know which one of them is an appropriately themed monster in disguise. If you're not careful, you might find yourself in for a serious dance off.

⭐︎ ⭐︎ ⭐︎
MONSTER INFO
Here's some convenient info about various monsters for use in TDM threads. For the purposes of the TDM, there aren't hard and fast rules about how they work, so have fun and go wild!

tbu. GROUPIES: Those desperate fans who bought suspiciously scalped tickets will turn into monstrous versions of themselves upon reaching a certain hype level: some of them grow in size; others grow claws, fangs, or hand-crocheted beanies; any fan merch on their person becomes a grotesque weapon. Somehow, they always look like they're under a blacklight, and if you listen closely, their seemingly meaningless grunts comprise an infinite chorus of I was into them before they got big. They're still fans at heart and will probably turn back to normal if you can get their favorite band to play an unreleased single!

THE SOFT SHOE STINGER: Anywhere people seem to be compelled to dance, there's a human-disguised monster in the crowd, poised to attack if any Nova Knights show up. Once unveiled, it's clear from those brightly-colored antennae and compound eyes that this guy is allied with the enemy, and his dance moves truly out of this world. You can defeat this monster by winning in a dance-off, but if enough of you just pummel him with your powers he'll leave. Either way, it's a win.

GROOVE GHOSTS: Any time people are possessed by the spirit of dance, whether at a concert or under the influence of a monster's spell, these guys might show up to jeer at your pitiful moves and heckle you about being off-beat. They can be dispelled by Silver-level powers, but if enough of them gather, it might take a bit more coordination to beat them all.

Note: While the TDM has some specific prompts, you are not limited to these options for threading! Please feel free to use any elements of the setting you see in the info pages.

Comments

kalim al-asim ☀️ nova sunbeam | twisted wonderland

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

quick AU info for kalim in this game:
• he attends the Everwave Academy for Distinguished Youths
• he's just as stupid rich as in canon but in this AU his family are involved in organised crime rather than legitimate business, which he does his best to ignore most of the time
• he still spends the majority of his time being babysat by Jamil but he's generally more worried about getting shot than poisoned
• if your character is from a similar or adjacent background or goes to the same school you're welcome to assume that they know him!

i'll match format if you'd prefer to do brackets <3

i. Kalim has always taken a lot of comfort from the fact that a lot of the small business owners around town know him. In the day-to-day, it's just nice to be able to say hi to friendly faces – and if there's an emergency, it's nice to know that there's always someone around who can come to his aid for his family's sake. But... ever since he became a Nova Knight, it's gotten to be a little bit of a pain!

Of course it's great that there are so many people around looking out for him... but sometimes he really doesn't want to be looked out for! If any of those guys saw him transform into Nova Sunbeam his family would definitely find out about it really quickly, and he's pretty sure his parents wouldn't be okay with him doing this stuff. Jamil is barely okay with him doing this stuff.

So he's pretty anxious as he ducks into this alleyway – the shop across the street is run by a guy who knows his dad, but if Kalim wants to respond to Nautis's alert, he needs to transform as soon as possible.

It's possible you're someone he already knows is a fellow Nova Knight, but maybe not. Either way, he looks a little relieved when the two of you make eye contact.

"Hey, could you do me a favour?" he says, a little out of breath. "Can you check if the guy at the counter in the video store across the street is looking this way?"

Even if you don't know him, he doesn't seem particularly concerned about what an insanely suspicious request this is...


ii. Great news! Nova Sunbeam is filling up the magical girls only group text channel with irrelevant chit chat. Again. This is happening before the the beautiful unit. show where everything gets definitively messed up, but weird stuff has been going on with ticket scalpers... Not that this guy seems to have noticed that, or that it's what he's here to talk about. As far as he's concerned being teammates means you guys are all best buddies.

hey are any of you guys going to the concert??
ive never listened to the beautiful unit before but so many people want to go it seems like its going to be a really good time!

i :)

[wood_sorrel]

No
>Maomao has left the group chat.
>Maomao has entered the group chat.
>Maomao has left the group chat.
>Maomao has entered the group chat.

[ Maomao desperately wants to stop receiving texts from this guy but Nautis keeps adding her back. She really doesn't know anything about computers but she is wondering if it's possible to infect an alien computer with an Earth computer virus. ]

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

wow r you ok?
did something happen to ur phone??

[wood_sorrel]

[ UGH ]
It's fine.
What does the concert have to do with anything?

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

huh? i just wanted to know if any of you guys were going!

i. i realize now i put the wrong number for maomao but im too lazy to change it

[check123]

Mutsumi is a little relieved, too. She understands this is something she has to do, but the thought of going it alone makes her a little uncomfortable, and even if Mutsumi doesn't always do well with people like Kalim, his confidence is heartening, and he never seems to worry about saying the wrong thing. He just goes.

She realizes Kalim's probably looking for the same thing she is -- a safe place to transform. She nods in acknowledgement, then looks at the video store. The clerk seems to be getting into a heated argument with a customer about the video store's rewind policy, so she gives Kalim a nod of affirmation. The coast is clear -- for now.

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

Kalim clenches his fist, relieved.

"Score! Thanks, Mutsumi!" he says in a stage whisper. He grabs her hand to tug her further into the alley. "Let's go!"

rubs hands. im here to cause problems

[check123]

Mutsumi almost stumbles, but she manages to keep pace with Kalim. She can already hear her own heartbeat, a little spike of nerves, but she's not alone. Kalim disappears around the corner unseen, but unbeknownst to Mutsumi, the video store clerk looks up just in time to catch a glimpse of her.

There are a couple of dumpsters that make for the perfect cover for transforming, but before Mutsumi can duck behind one, she hears something that stops her in her tracks.

"Hey, isn't that Minami Mori's daughter?"

"Look, it's Wakaba's kid! Mutsumi, right? You out shopping with your parents?"

"Mutsumi, what are your thoughts on your mother receiving the award for Best Actress this year? You must be so proud!"

Mutsumi finds herself frozen. Now the sound of her own heart is starting to drown out everything else. Her mouth is dry, her palms suddenly damp. She must not have been fast enough. Kalim is probably fine, but how does she get out of this?

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

Kalim hears the commotion and turns around. He thinks about leaving without her, but...that wouldn't be very friendly. A second later he's trotting back over and slinging his arm around Mutsumi's shoulder.

"Oh, hey, do you know these guys?"

He looks between her and them, electing to remain obliviously cheerful – sure, his friend looks kind of uncomfortable, but he's not going to make a whole thing out of it when he doesn't know who these people trying to talk to her are.

ii

[fibrillate]

I don't know many of their songs
I know their fans get very mad if you don't put the period at the end
Even if you're speaking it out loud, they can tell
But they seem fun and I haven't been to a concert in a while so I may as well go
What sort of music do you normally listen to, if not t.b.u..?

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

no way!!!!
i basically never put a period on here so itd be weird to do it just for these guys
and hmm i like anything with a beat you can dance to!

[fibrillate]

Neither do I
I think it's much faster to hit enter when a sentence is over, and everyone can use context clues to figure out that it's finished
But this small little dot is apparently extremely important
I don't know much about dance music, but I haven't ever heard of a DJ being this particular

Are there places you like to go around here?
You don't have to answer that
I'm just looking for more places of interest than the same two or three blocks that I stay inside

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

oh i like to go all over!
living in the city is SO cool theres always something going on!
i think if you only go to two or three blocks you should just pick a direction and start walking youll definitely run into something neat that way
thats what i like to do!

II.

[archivalquality]

I looked up their discography and am only passingly familiar with some of their music.

I will not be attending the concert. However, if you choose to go I hope you have a good time.

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

thanks buddy! i think maybe i will go
i mean when you get loads of people together like that with some music its gotta be fun right?
you should think about coming too! you could do with loosening up a little!

[archivalquality]

I will consider it.

[Orion considered it for half a micro-second. He would not be going.]

Even so, I would rather the spot go to a more dedicated fan who would better appreciate the atmosphere.

[alisaidthat]

It's like as not to be loud and extremely chaotic.
I can't imagine they're going to have enough seating for as many tickets as it seems they're selling.

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

seating huh...
i dont think that matters so much! when im listening to music i never want to sit down!

[alisaidthat]

[She can't help rolling her eyes to herself.]

Some people might, though.
And there are rules about that sort of thing.
Fire marshal regulations for safety.
The venue, itself, could get in trouble if there's an incident and they let in more people than they should have.

i

[theriflespiral]

Natalia didn't know Kalim. But... figuring that this is, in fact, the least she can do-- staying in the good graces of someone who casually asked favors-- tended to mean you can call them in later. As long as you made sure it was small.

This was a thing she had learned not long before leaving for Chalra City in the first place. "... Line of sight from the counter is obscured by one of those awful promotional posters, do what you want."

So what happens when she turns around...?

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

Natalia you have NO idea. You don't need leverage on this guy. You don't need to make sure it's small. In time you will learn it is almost embarrassingly easy to get Kalim to do stuff for you.

For now, though –

"Awesome, thanks!"

When she turns round, he's like halfway stepping towards the back of a dumpster, but he pauses, like something has only just occurred to him – it would be really bad to transform in front of someone who knows him personally and might tell his parents, but transforming in front of a random stranger... is also no good!

"Oh, um," he rubs the back of his head sheepishly, "are you gonna...stay there...?"

[theriflespiral]

"Don't mind me, I just wonder what all the secrecy's for. You're not meeting anyone, or you wouldn't have put me on lookout." She doesn't even hum, simply rattling things off. "There's been a lot of suspicious activity lately, surrounding the beautiful unit., and you appear to be neither their staff nor their agent."

She is-- kind of right, but in several other, more important ways, dead wrong. "Add in that petty crime is suspiciously low, and I really do have to wonder what you're doing, and if you're sabotaging a rock band for mercenary reasons. Which, not my monkeys, I just want to know what I'll have to tell the cops."

[parillegal]

Look, Kalim, it's your childhood acquaintance who definitely is not also involved in crimes ever. Luckily, Maya's a real one, and when a friend is in need of something, she'll usually oblige, whether or not she really knows who Kalim has ~become~— after all, he isn't the only one getting alerts.

If another Knight needs the spotlight, Maya's inclined to give it to them. So she looks across the street to the video store owner, then back at Kalim, before—

"You in need of a distraction?"

The quirk of her brow suggests she's already thinking of ways to keep eyes on herself, and not on Kalim. After all, she's a not the one with an image to worry about.

"I can get you a couple minutes!"

[istandwithmycancelledwife]

"Yessss, thanks Maya!" Kalim really appreciates a bud not questioning anything (he'd do the same, obviously). Keeping a secret is really tough, but he's determined, even though he'd really love to tell Maya what's going on. "I just need to make sure he's not looking – ah, actually it would be great if no one's looking, but that guy especially!"

dispenses stupidity upon ye

[parillegal]

"No one, huh?"

Maya sighs deeply and overdramatically, clapping Kalim on the shoulder.

"You totally owe me for this though, big guy."

She books it toward the video store and stops right in front of it, right in the view of that video game store. And she waits. And when she hears a car coming close enough, she takes a breath and runs out with her hand out to stop the car, as if she's stopping it on behalf of, say—

"Wait, wait, wait, there's a cat!"

While this is largely a stupid move, it somehow works? The car stops short, and the driver even gets out to check on this supposed cat. Suddenly, there's a commotion, as Maya pretends there was totally a cat here and now it's gone and the folks around her start to take notice.

Even the video store owner comes to check, asking at the door if it was a specific cat— apparently there's a few that hang around the area.

Of course, as Maya swears up and down that it was exactly that cat, she looks around, checking to make sure she doesn't still see Kalim.