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

[fibrillate]

Oh, hell. Hope is paying almost complete attention to the encroaching threat and does not feel like engaging, but... damn it. It would be so easy to just run. It used to be so easy to just run, but now they have this power that's supposed to make them feel braver, more empowered—whenever they aren't themself. They grit their teeth and clench their fists.

"Get out of here," they say to their new friend, and they are not equipped to fight at all, but they're going to try. They need to try, because Nautis saw something in them, and because this person doesn't even know their name and if anything goes bad then they'll be safe. Probably. "I'll hold it off until help gets here." And to the encroaching creature, they say, "I don't dance."

"I know you can!" it says with a massive smile on its face, and as Hope throws a punch, it grabs their hand and does... does something to them. The music isn't as bad anymore, is it? The buzz and thrum and the ache in their gut, they all don't matter so much, do they? No, the only thing that matters is the rhythm that's pulsing through their chest like a second heartbeat as their feet start to move, nearly independent from their body.

They can't hear anything over the new beat, but they cry out while they can still talk, "Go! Now!"

[theriflespiral]

Her hand clutches, at last, that warmth.

She hears it now. So clearly. So long as I can be with them... I shall walk this burning path!

And she slowly stands, pulling forth... a charm on a lanyard. She didn't quite know what it was, and wasn't sure what to do with it, but she did know one thing for sure:

When all else fails, muddle through on instinct and flow. "Shine, o distant beacon! Stars' Light!"

There is a flash, and in her place... one whose hair looks like the night sky, whose skin is near pale as marble, whose eyes are colored like the sea. Her clothes seem made of stone and gold, but flex like cloth. At her chest, a star-shaped jewel, the color of her eyes. She's still going on instinct, calling on that holiness to consecrate her body, first and foremost. "You tread on sacred ground."

[fibrillate]

The creature lets go of Hope's wrist as soon as it can tell that there's something interesting happening. Hope, unfortunately, remains chained to the rhythm, dancing idly off into a corner without paying as much attention to things as they would like. When their feet turn them around, though, they see—

Holy crap, it's a Nova Knight. Oh god, they aren't alone here after all. They still can't transform themself, not until this dancing fever passes them by and their body starts responding the way it should, but there's relief creeping up behind their eyes.

It's a mirror to the sick glee building within the guy putting the "disco" in discontent. "You're the one treading on sacred ground—the dance floor! Come on," he-or-whatever says, and the antennae start to vibrate, pulsing out a number of rhythmic circles in stark black and white. "I know you Nova Knights can get funky with me."

[theriflespiral]

She does not ask what the hell a Nova Knight is. Obviously, it is her-- and whatever that actually means when it's at home is a question to ask someone who knows.

"Oh, I can certainly dance." Her body moves with the rhythm to close. The ground shakes slightly with her approach. She bats aside a warding hand and aims for a textbook low kick to center kick combination.

The low kick connects, but the alien hops back on one foot, causing Neos's second more decisive blow to miss. "Yow! Someone wants to mosh, huh!?"

"With what you're doing to people? Certainly."

[fibrillate]

It seems like this guy taking even just one hit is enough to knock Hope out of that dancing stupor that they'd been placed in, and as their senses return to them and their feet settle back down, they look between the Nova Knight and the weird alien—

—the alien doesn't seem deterred yet. It knows a little bit about what it's fighting now, but that kick could have just been a lucky shot. It slams one strange palm against the ground, trying to cause a little bit of an earthshaker of its own, and sends out a line of squares that explode one after another in rainbow, discotheque lights. "Come on, baby, all I want to do is show the people a good time. Cut loose! Be who they really are! It worked with you, didn't it?" A too-wide grin spreads on its face as it says that last part.

And Hope takes the chance to shake out their feet and bolt away, towards the exit, with barely a "sorry" shouted over their shoulder. The sounds of their footsteps are the only thing they leave behind, and even though they do have a plan, it sure doesn't seem like they do. The alien's grin deepens. "I'll get her later."

[theriflespiral]

Neos raises a single eyebrow. Not at Hope leaving-- that's entirely expected. If she hadn't suddenly discovered that she could stand against this, she would have fled as well!

But at the fact that stranger shouted an apology? That implies that that one knows more than they're letting on. Eyes on the fight--

The wave is sidestepped by millimeters, close enough that one catches her in the armored shoulder. Neos, however, is focused on the words The Evil Dance Instructor Your Mother Warned You About is saying.

And, without changing her slightly raised eyebrow, says, "Ah. You are an idiot."

"Wh--"

Neos is caught in the beat, moving with it, even as she delivers a punch to its midsection. "Even if there were such a thing as a true face--"

She leans away, a razor-sharp compact disc carving a chip from her armor. "And even if this is mine--"

Ah. Handplant kick.

"That doesn't change that you--" She catches it, wincing a little. Even partially stopped, toe-to-toe, this thing packs a wallop. "just make people your puppets!"

She hauls it up and slams it into the floor as the bass drops, cracking the concrete.

[fibrillate]

And, having found some other place to transform, Nova Pandora rushes in, hair a natural green, eyes a vibrant purple, dressed in form-fitting clothing that makes them look like they walked right out of a cyberpunk rave. Their sword, black metal with glowing blue lines snaking up the blade, is ready at their side, and their boots hit the floor heavily as they get back to where the action was.

"Bindin—" they start, but it descends into mumbles as they slow down and come to a stop. The other Nova Knight absolutely had it handled, huh? This thing's head is flat now. And the floor is broken, which will eventually be its own problem, but they'll just have to... uh. Well, they aren't going to think about how to resolve that yet.

Nova Pandora laughs in relief and runs a gloved hand through their hair. "I followed the sound of the crystal here, but it looks like you have it covered. My mistake."

[theriflespiral]

"Please, stay. I want answers." She paused, not sure how to approach either Nova Pandora or the subject. "The crystal that bit me, the strange way people are acting, That thing, it called me a Nova Knight. I..."

She shakes her head. Her hands speak her nerves and distress for her, even as her expression remains hidden. "This is all related. You know something. Tell me."

[fibrillate]

There's... not a lot that Hope, or Nova Pandora, or whatever the difference is can say to argue against a plea that genuine. They notice this woman's hands, the way that they're shaking, the way they tell a much more complete story than her voice does. And they remember how confusing it had been when they'd awakened, and how they had needed to figure a lot of things out themself. And they just... don't want to see someone else go through that.

"Sure," they say. "Yeah." And they sheath their sword on their hip and walk closer, leaning against the wall when they finally settle. "I'm still figuring a lot of it out myself, but you're something that... we, I guess, call a Nova Knight. You've been given the power to protect this world from creatures like that," and they gesture at the unconscious thing, "Who want to do everything they can to overrun it with darkness and evil." They decide to hold back on the reason they'd said this world for now; best not to overwhelm her. "You're not the only one. There's a few of us in this city. My name's Pandora—Nova Pandora, but just Pandora's fine."

[theriflespiral]

She catches 'this' world, regardless, but beyond that, she nods. Presumably, they'd get to leaving this planet eventually? When the battle is lost or won?

"They seem to be doing a fine job so far," she notes, flat, but sardonic. Where was this power years ago? Where was it when-- her hands twitch, but she gets back on the topic. "I'm... Nova Neos. And I have no idea how I know. Some sort of post hypnotic suggestion perhaps...?"

Now she's crossing her arms and thinking, carefully. "-- The crystal--"

She goes to pick it up, and, unsurprisingly, in contact with the consecrated ground that is herself, it crumbles away to nothing.

Neos says something that would have her mother scolding her. "I needed that! It's evidence!"

[fibrillate]

Nova Neos. It's a nice name, they think. "We just know it. I knew it the first time I transformed without ever being told." They're talking idly while Neos looks for that crystal, and then as they watch it disintegrate, they can't help but grin the tiniest bit.

"What do you mean evidence? Who else are you going to tell about any of this?" they ask, and it's a leading question, sure, but they're actually curious of Neos' answer. Maybe she knows something that Pandora doesn't. (Would that be so far out of the question?) The grin fades, and their voice gets a little more serious as they push off the wall. "I think the only people who actually believe stuff like this are the other Nova Knights. We'd look crazy if we brought this to the police."

[theriflespiral]

"Hoh. A fine joke, the police. No, I... I was gathering evidence because-- someone needs to know, even if it's me. What's happening. Even my memory isn't limitless; I may. Forget, or misremember. Evidence, however, is right there. Circumstances. Facts. Carefully stamped and recorded." She hums. Why else? Who was she going to tell? "A case to present, to. Wake others. Or. At least warn them. Isn't that important? Protecting people from being hurt?"

[fibrillate]

Pandora nods and stays silent the whole way through, looking serious as she realizes how much this matters to Neos. "Well," they say, "I can't do anything about the crystal, but my phone has a camera on it if you want me to take some pictures. They all have timestamps by default, too, so you'll be sure exactly when it happened." They offer a small smile, hoping that it's enough to help Neos feel more secure. "And that it happened. Would that help?"

[theriflespiral]

"Please. There's surely other crystals in the PA system." Neos pauses. "... If this one has puppeted the rest of the people through those crystals, I need to do something about it."

She already has her suspicions that Hope and Pandora are the same person, but she leaves them to rest for now. This is hardly the time. "Should we exchange numbers, then?"

[fibrillate]

"We need to do something about it," they return, pulling their phone out of the little holster it connects to as the hilt and pommel of their sword. "Two Knights are better than one when it comes to dealing with these things... and if we're honest, my powers don't really work on their own," they add, looking away and handing their phone over, open to the contacts screen. (There aren't many in there. "Dad", "Delivery", "Netcafe", "Vet". They don't think about how empty their directory is. It just makes them feel bad.)

"Besides, I would feel bad leaving you to yourself when you know about as much as I did when I became a Nova Knight." They glance over past their glasses and try to smile.

[theriflespiral]

She pauses, realizing her phone is in her blazer, which... she... does not, in fact, have on her.

Maybe she can summon it? She holds out her hand, and an ornate book, leather-bound, parchment, and carefully illuminated, appears in her hands. The illuminations are modern in subject-- Neos herself features prominently on the front page, in armor unfamiliar to her, with dragons' wings and a background of a constellation she does not know. "... i look like that...?"

The pages ruffle and turn to a small guest-page. ("Mother", "Father", "Ilya", and "Advisor" feature on the facing page.)

[fibrillate]

Oh, a book—and a pretty impressive one at that. It makes Pandora feel like their phone's a little inferior, but if they focus on that too long then they're gonna feel like garbage about that, too, and they really just want to save the day without having brain problems about it right now.

"Impressive. Well, you just have to enter it into my phone, but do I just write it down? Or if I tell you, will it appear in there?" They give it a shot anyway, digging into some of the useless knowledge they've accumulated to try speaking an entry into existence. "Pandora, ASCII non-breaking space, ASCII stress outlined white star, ASCII almost equal to," and then read off their phone number and wait to see what happens. Maybe they've just made an enormous fool of themself.

[theriflespiral]

"What would be more impressive is if I actually had my phone," she said, poking it gently, as if this would reveal answers to anything important. "I have no idea how I'm going to call someone with this thing."

> Pandora *≈ +xx xx xxxxxxxxx

"... Yourself, impressive, eh?"

[fibrillate]

They laugh, amazed that their wild swing actually worked. "Wow, it understood exactly what I meant. Not to belabor the point," they say, and they flick their eyes back to Neos, "but it's pretty impressive. I bet you could use it like it's some kind of touch screen or something. Or if it recognizes voices, maybe just say, like. 'Call Pandora'," they try in a very clear, over-enunciated tone.

A beat. "You know, just so it doesn't get confused. I mean, it's worth a try, right?"

[theriflespiral]

She snaps shut the book before it can respond, just a little bit too panicky about it. "Let's-- Let's avoid accidentally making calls, how do I..."

She starts flipping through the book and--

"who is nautis and what are all these"

[fibrillate]

And again, the only thing they can do is laugh, but at least this time it comes out of surprise—and at finally seeing what they imagine their own face looked like when they first noticed Nautis blowing up their phone.

"That's our computer. We have a secret hideout, too. Nautis is... needy," they say. "She really, really wants to make sure we're paying attention to the things she wants us to do. You know, she was blowing up my phone before I got here—that's not how I found you, but it's close enough. You learn to tune her out, in my experience. She means well." But she is annoying. "I don't think anyone's figured out how to stop her yet."

[theriflespiral]

"Given what just happened to me, I can understand why." She paused and shook her head. "I have been a puppet too often as it is. Still..."

She pages through them. "I more meant... these symbols are strange. Well. They're iconographic at least, but..."

[fibrillate]

Ah. Well, they can't say they don't understand the feeling of being puppeted, but they wish other people didn't know it. They find themself wishing a lot of things. "The good news is that this feels a lot less like you're someone's puppet," they say quietly, trying to put the most positive spin on it as they can without overselling it and peering at Nautis' missives.

"Oh, you mean the emoji! They're a more high-tech version of what I tried to do when I signed my name." They sound... a little more excited to talk about this? The things that they have some kind of passion about are an enigma even to their own mind. "There's probably a shooting star emoji, but I like going old school if I can. I just think it's more fun to see what you can do with text instead of taking a shortcut and just putting the picture there."

[theriflespiral]

"Ah. I see." Her hair shimmers and sparkles with the stars in them as she turns and begins to pace a bit. "Let's see... Hm. Like a rebus, perhaps...?"

She blinks. "There's more like us?"

[fibrillate]

"Oh! Yeah," they say, once they realize that Neos is doing some multi-track drifting, and they fix her with a slightly embarrassed smile. "There aren't a lot of us, but enough to count on two hands. I don't really know who was first or how it all started." They remember... well. They don't know if they have to go into that right now.

"But from what I can tell, if you can turn into a Nova Knight, you'll find out in a really stressful and dangerous moment. It's a pretty big risk. I don't want to know what the first of us had to deal with and how scary that must have been."