nashira_ooc | Test Drive Meme

Entry tags:

!tdm

Test Drive Meme

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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..."

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."

"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?"

"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."

"So, for instance, something trying to take control of your body." She didn't elaborate. "No, this is... entirely understandable, though in that case, I find myself uncertain as to why it didn't..."

She shakes her head. "No, that's not important. More important is-- where did I put that ladder..."

Edited 2025-04-23 05:05 (UTC)

"Yeah, something like that," they respond, their voice getting a little softer. That wasn't a metaphor, the puppetry thing. They shouldn't assume so much. But...

"Are you okay?" they finally actually ask. Neos is hard to pin down right now, and everything that she's been through has to have been pretty intense. They reach out tentatively towards Neos' upper arm, but they don't touch her yet. "Don't worry about the ladder for now. We can clean it up later. I want to make sure you're holding up after all of this."

She's aware. She's unfortunately very aware. She is speaking of other stressful and dangerous times.

"Why would I not be?" Is her response. "I am uninjured and can maneuver just fine, injuries superficial, there is work to be done."

Whatever she's feeling might as well be an alien language for all she's cone across and felt.

Pandora drops their hand and tilts their head. "Right, you didn't really take any physical damage, but... you've been through a lot in the last five minutes or so. You're sure you don't need a second to sit down and sort through how you feel?"

Maybe it's just because they have an unbelievable amount of experience thinking and overthinking their thoughts, but they... sometimes feel better after giving themself a moment. "If the answer is still no, we can get to cleaning this place up, but I don't want you to push yourself too hard if you need a break."

She pauses. Shakes her head. Her hands briefly ball into fists, but she lets them go. Even this moment of peace is marred by the fact that something urgent is going on right now.

So, she says in the tone of someone rushing themselves to keep from feeling, "even if I could, I do not have time."

"You have as much time as you need," they return, trying to be gentle, trying to be kind. Trying to be the kind of person they want Nova Pandora to be. "Promise. If you have to head back into that supply closet and change back or something, I'll keep watch. Or you can do it," and they take a few steps away to find where, in the middle of everything, the ladder had clattered to the ground and folded back on itself, "While I'm putting this away."

They're lucky it didn't knock anything off the shelves or punch any holes in the walls. They already have the cracked floor to worry about, after all. "Or whatever it is you want to do. I'm not interested in telling you what you can or can't do, Neos."

It's blatantly obvious she does not know how to respond to this in the slightest, even as Nova Pandora follows through on her threat to put the ladder away.

It hits hard enough that, in the end, her Neos form shatters. Natalia is herself again. But... Why...? There's still so much to do. Far, far too much to do.

She slowly walks over and collects her satchel. What does this mean, then?

The ladder is back in the supply closet where it belongs, and by the time Pandora comes back out, the girl from earlier is standing there again. It's not an especially hard deduction to make as to what happened while they were out of sight. They walk slowly over to the other girl and, carefully and loosely, place their arm around her shoulders.

"Hey. Do you want to go somewhere less busy and talk about anything? You can say no," they are absolutely certain to add.

Normally, there would be a space of two tenths of a second where her trained reflex would take over, and she would already be preparing to throw Nova Pandora. Based on their relative positions, it would have been an over-the-shoulder hip throw. This does not, in fact, happen.

Instead, she just grips her shoulder strap tighter for a second. She wants to. She wants to. But she can't make the words come out. So. She nods.

And Pandora nods and says, quietly, "Let's go." And they look around for some kind of exit that won't take them through the throngs of people, and they spot a door in the back of this back room ajar just enough for a little natural sunlight to slip through. They guide their apparent charge over with them and press against the open door to let the fresh air from outside rush in. As it hits Pandora's face along with the sunlight, they smile and breathe deep.

"All right." And they look around—nobody's here, which is a good sign; maybe they all already beat it once the commotion started. They see a doorstop on its end, wedged into the path of the closing door, and assume that this must have been the way the employees set it up for breaks, which means there should be somewhere relatively pleasant to chill out nearby... and so there is. They spy some benches near the shade of a tree, away from the dumpsters and generally out of sight. "C'mon, let's head over there and sit down. I'll do my best to answer any questions you have."

After a minute, when she's sat down, she slowly lowers her satchel, pulls out her shitty flip phone, and opens it to reveal Pandora's contact. "I should start with. My name, I think. I am Natalia Koutolika. It's unlikely you heard of me, but possible. I arrived here in Chalra City about six weeks ago, and I was the only foreign transfer in my high school."

That this is the incredibly prestigious Everwave Academy is likely to not need saying, given she was disgracing the uniform by doing crimes in it. "I've noticed so much that's strange during those six weeks. Back home, something like this would never have come to where I live. I would have seen the lights in the distance, cutting the sky, and wondered what they meant."

Once, those lights were hers. Once. "This place, it feels like... A facade, a fake over the real Chalra City, and I keep trying to find... The trick. The trap. I am sure it is here, somewhere."

It's a nice name, they think, and knowing that she's not from around here makes a lot of the so-called weird behavior click a little more easily. They don't transform back when they say what comes next, but they don't think they need to. (Besides, it's different when Pandora is the one doing the talking.)

"What a coincidence. Everwave's least reliable substitute teacher, Ms. Carassia, reporting for duty," they say, and it's less embarrassing to admit, but they still have this ball of shame in their chest. "You can call me Hope." They look at Natalia with some tiny caution, wondering what exactly she could be talking about specifically, but with everything that's just happened, what exactly is off the table?

"If there is some place underneath the real city, I think we're there. I think we might have found it. The Nova Knights, the monsters, the annoying computer." They think it's all a good thing, certainly, but who can tell what anyone else would consider it? "And I don't think there's any going back."

"It does make it easier to understand how a place can be so..." She pauses. "How it can live so vibrantly."

"How is it you're able to hold on to it for this long?" She hesitantly reaches for Pandora's costume. "I didn't will myself to stop. It. Broke?"

Pandora laughs a little, not quite sure of the answer themself. "I guess I just have more practice with it. Being Nova Pandora is a lot better than being myself ever was," and they try not to focus on how sad that probably is. "As for what happened to you... my best guess is that it's tied to our emotions, and I said something to you that hit you so hard you couldn't maintain Supernova anymore."

"You are. Kind. Kinder than you think." She paused. "I... Am not used to tutors and mentors being kind."

And that's all she'll say about that. "My parents took me here in the hopes I would be able to... Do something. Something better than my future back home."

No need to say more. They don't have a ton of personal experience, but they understand. They keep their hands folded in their lap. "My parents put a lot of pressure on me, too. Even now, when I haven't seen them for... six or seven years. I'm sorry." They don't really know what to say, but something bubbles up from their heart anyway. "You should get to be the one in control of your own life."

"... Yes. My mother, she says," and here, she fades to an impeccable imitation of a middle-aged Russian woman. "'Natashenka, you deserve better than this country. It is cold, and making you colder.' And... Well, that was the end of it. We escaped."

"Oh!" Well, that's their fault for assuming a bunch of stuff. A few more things to piece together from that, though. They hold their tongue from anything too indicting. "Do you think this place is better for you so far, then? Or are you still trying to figure out the catch behind why you'd even end up here in the first place?"

Edited 2025-04-25 02:45 (UTC)

"I am. What, I get to fight monsters with same skills eej and Danno taught? Something genuinely good to do with all this I have developed? No, there is... Something more here." She pauses. "Tell me, who was this 'me' who was not 'me'?"

"Incredible question," they say, and they sigh and tilt their head back and lean against the bench. They close their eyes, and Nova Pandora vanishes and is replaced by Hope Carassia. Back in the drab clothing that doesn't define their form, the sloppy and fading hair dye, the dull contact lenses when they do open their eyes again.

"I don't remember much yet, but I feel like it has to come back to me eventually." Hope's voice is weaker, less confident, has a little more fry in it than it did before the transformation. "I don't think the lives these people used to have ended well. I think it was a really... intense, dark death. For all of us, or them, or whatever you want to call it."

"So you trust that it is reincarnation?" Natalia asks, point blank. She sighs. "... Though, if it isn't, I suppose I must next ask what the actual explanation is."

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