THE SKY WENT OFF-WHITE.

[wastemods]

WHO: Anyone and everyone.
WHAT: Our inaugural test drive meme.
WHERE: Anywhere in the world core.
WHEN: Whenever your character arrives.
NOTES: Expect surreal horror and possible violence. Please use common sense when warning for other content.

Art by Basile Godard

THE SUNLIGHT SPLINTERED.

You reach the end of the ash-gray hall at a run, hands fumbling for an antique door handle. And then you stumble, fall, tumble—any number of adjectives, depending on where, exactly, the door opened—into a radio station.

The equipment is old and dusty, but devoid of cobwebs to the observant eye. And it's dark, save for whatever light makes it through the windows. They display disjointed locations; perhaps one shows an upside-down tower, while its neighbors frame the crumbling pavement of a rotting car park and the stripped out interior of a sewer. Whatever the case, peering through one window reveals a landscape that impossibly doesn't connect to the next.

The door is still there, the only exit to this grubby room. It opens somewhere, anywhere else in this distorted world. And once you leave, it no longer leads back whence you came.

Where do you go?

THE LIGHT, DIVIDED.

A sun on one horizon, a full moon on the other. They're luminous but unreal, like they were plucked from a sky and pasted to a flat, starless backdrop. You can see only one, depending on which side you entered; it's essentially random. Both "sides" overlap like alternate dimensions and you can't see anyone who isn't on the same side as you. Light or dark, you walk in the light of a muted sun or an overbright moon. It never feels quite real.

Neither star nor satellite seem to move from their position. The passage of time is at a standstill.

Regardless of which side you're on, you'll find signs that you aren't alone. What someone does on one side affects the other, so moving an item or writing something down will translate to floating items and mysteriously appearing letters. Speech doesn't travel...unless there's a radio. Radios may turn on and off, with voices audible through the white noise. And if you walk past a mirror, the reflection isn't your own. Instead, it acts as a window to the other side.

In-character observations:

• Anyone sensitive to time, space, and related dimensional shenanigans will feel they're distorted. And it isn't something they can fix, at least not with powers.
• It's possible to cross dimensions if a character has related powers, but they'll suffer backlash and significant stress from the transition. Successive jumps aren't gonna fly.
• If a character is affected by the sun or moon, they'll find neither holds sway over them here; e.g., vampires can walk in daylight and werewolves won't shift in the full moon.

TL;DR: Whatever this is, it isn't natural.

THE SHADOW REALM.

Outdoors, there are shadows on the prowl.

Silent and eerily insubstantial, they trail after you like blind spots given form. Staring at them too long is unsettling but, for the most part, they're content to watch you back...if they can watch. They don't seem to have eyes.

When that isn't enough, however, they attack. Stealing the shape of monsters from other worlds, they may lack special powers, but that doesn't keep them from being dangerous. When in doubt, you're safest indoors.

But maybe that isn't good enough for you. Or maybe you just fucked up. Either/or.

RADIO WAVES.

If you aren't wondering how you got here, you're probably at least asking why. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be anyone around who can answer your questions. Everyone else is as clueless as you.

But, some time after you arrive—whether it's days, hours, minutes, or seconds—the dead air stirs. The atmospheric pressure drops and playhouse lightning arcs across the facsimile of a sky. It's a storm that warns of what's to come, as an earthquake shifts the ground beneath your feet. Around you, buildings flood, and water pours out in falls only half aware of gravity. Wind hurls debris at such high speeds, it turns into shrapnel. Rain pelts you from above and below as the temperature plummets. It starts to snow.

Somehow, the sun and moon remain visible through the turmoil. A collection of mirrors scattered through the world don't reflect their light; instead, it passes through them and illuminates the other side. These specific mirrors, all set in ash-gray frames that match the halls, are untouched in the unfolding natural disasters, and standing before them will shield you as well. Consider them havens in the chaos, proverbial eyes in the storm.

In the dark, a radio turns on of its own accord. Is someone—something—talking to you?

INTO ALL OUR DARKEST FEARS.

Welcome to THE WASTEYARD's first test drive! Some quick things to remember:

• Our TDMs tie into the game plot. As such, any applicants can keep their TDM threads as game canon.
• The network is exclusive to in-game characters. TDM characters can only use radios.
• There is a language barrier, so please mention what language your character speaks somewhere.
• We don't have a fixed day ratio; instead, you pace yourself at your discretion.
• Characters may face backlash when using any powers.
• Mark if your character is on the sun or moon side of the divide. The choice is yours as the player.
• If you have any questions, please direct them to our FAQ!

And that's all, folks. So take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!

NAVIGATION.

PREMISE
RULES
FAQ
ACTIVITY
APPLICATIONS

TAKEN
HIATUSES & DROPS
CANON UPDATES
REWARDS
TPC CLAIMS

WORLD
EXPLORATION
DEVICES
QUESTS
INFORMATION

CALENDAR
SUGGESTIONS
MOD CONTACT
SETTING INBOX
CODEBOOK

Comments

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar sighs in a resigned manner. Of course it'd be just his luck to end up in a different world where they spoke something completely different from him. Robbie goes about the right way of dealing with him, even if Ivar still looks outwardly like he's still in a murderous mood. When all else fails with the bad-tempered Viking, go slow and speak soft, as one would with a very angry guard dog.

It does mean Ivar can't ask anything but the most rudimentary questions and hope that the other man will understand him.]

Hvat leika þinn namn? ['What is your name?' He points to himself.] Minn namn ir Ivar. ['My name is Ivar.' The way he pronounces that sentence makes it sounds like a cross between German and English. He repeats his name a couple more times, trying to get the point across.]

[calculo]

That's...your name? ( it's gotta be name. ivar sounds like a name, at least. more than any other word that he'd heard does. he nods and then points at himself. ) Robbie.

( so, they'd managed introductions. anything too complicated was right out but they were going to have to find some way to communicate. he slides his tongue along his lower lip, thoughtful. )

Hm. ( robbie thinks a minute before he points down at the ground, trying to indicate this place as a whole. ) Have you been here long?

( he points at ivar, then at the ground and gestures all around him. he has no idea if that's going to parse but it's the best he can do. )

[ragnarsson]

[Well, at least now they know each other's names. Ivar watches Robbie gesture around them. He thinks he's asking where he had come from. So he kneels down, no easy task given the leg braces, and pulls out a knife. He starts drawing in the dirt.

Ivar draws one, two, three, going all the way up to nine ovals. One could almost think he was drawing planets, in which case the Norse were a lot more evolved then people gave them credit for, but really he was drawing the Nine Realms that Norsemen believed in. He taps the fourth one.] Midgard. Minn heima.

['Midgard. My home.' He wasn't sure what realm they were in now, but at a guess, he'd say Vanaheim, considering no one knew particularly what that realm actually looked like.]

[calculo]

Midgard. ( he thinks he's heard that word somewhere before. it's old though, not something that's thrown around in regular conversation these days. but, it's still recognizable. he nods, though. wherever midgard is, it's not here and he thinks they can both agree on that. )

Los Angeles. ( he presses a hand to his chest to indicate that's where he's from though he doesn't expect ivar to know the place. he doesn't reach for the knife either to try and illustrate because he's not an idiot. )

Far away from here. ( he waves a hand in the direction of the sky, pointing in some random direction to show that they're nowhere near los angeles or anywhere. )

I don't know where we are. ( he points down at the ground again and shrugs. no clue what this was. no clue why he's here. no clue why the rider isn't making his presence known to get him out of here. it's all confusing. )

[ragnarsson]

[Alright, so they've gotten names and where they're from out of the way. Anything else they try to say to each other is going to be slow going. Ivar watches him intently as he speaks, trying to figure out what Robbie is saying.

He gets the gesture when Robbie waves a hand around. Alright, so he's not from here either. Ivar's beginning to wonder if there's any people that are native to this place. Still crouched on the ground, he hovers his knife over the sixth circle.]

Vanaheimr?

[He says the word with a question in his voice. He's not sure, it's just a theory. Most of the Nine Realms have a distinct appearance that is told of in the Norse tales, but Vanaheim has little to no information about what it looks like.]

[calculo]

Vanaheimr? I don't know what that is.

( so, maybe ivar's right. maybe this is vanaheimr. not like robbie can say otherwise. it's a place that he's never been before, never even heard of and now he's stuck there with someone who seems to be in the same predicament. )

You all right? ( he gestures towards ivar and nods. not the greatest way to try and get across what he means but he's trying. ) Are you, uh, injured?

( he robbie points to a small cut on his wrist, picked up at some point while he'd been here and then gestures at ivar. anything like that on you, man? first aide needed? )

[ragnarsson]

[The first question gets a blank stare from Ivar. He's unsure of what's being asked. When he's asked a second time if he's alright, it finally clicks in his head. He shakes his head no.]

Ek sakeyrir.

['I'm fine.' The words come with a rather frosty tone, his eyes hardening. That's not Robbie's fault. Ivar's just too used to people treating him as if he was some little weakling that needed help all the time simply because he was a cripple.]

[calculo]

( even if he doesn't understand the words, he does understand that tone and robbie does nothing more than nod in acceptance. robbie's fine, ivar's fine, they're both fine so they don't need to dwell on that which is exactly what robbie's gonna do.

he spins in a circle, looking around, trying to figure out what direction to set off in. they can't just stand here and hope the world builds around them. there's what looks like a few older buildings off east so he points towards them and looks back at ivar. )

You coming?

( he crooks a finger at him. come on, let's go, let's not separate. ) We shouldn't split up or anything. Might not find each other again.

[ragnarsson]

[He recognizes the action if not the words that go with it. This place is strange and it's better to stick together then to go it alone. He nods and then limps after Robbie.

It's going to be slow going. Ivar can't move fast at all. It's a struggle to walk every time he moves one of his legs. But he's stubborn and proud, unwilling to accept any help even if it was offered. He's already gone into the mode of thinking practically. First things first: finding food, water, and shelter.]

Vit nauð-syn til forvitnask gjǫr en watn.

['We need to find food and water.' He mimes drinking and eating something to make his meaning clear.]

[calculo]

( you're not going to find any kind of pity or over the top concern from robbie, ivar. his brother's in a similar circumstance and the first time he'd tried to do something that gabe knew he could do, he'd gotten chewed out.

he knows better know. so, he doesn't say anything. he slows his pace to match ivar's but otherwise, he says nothing and doesn't offer help. he figures if ivar needs it, he'll ask. )

Watn.

( that sounds close to a word he knows, at least. ) Water? Food and water, right? ( he nods his agreement. they're not going to last long enough to figure out what this place is if they don't do that. )

I haven't seen anything like that around here. ( he gives his head a shake and gestures to their surroundings. nothing like that in this area. ) You seen anything like that while you were walking?

( he points at his eyes and then mimes eating. probably no food trucks around here, huh? )

[ragnarsson]

[It appears at last he's hit upon a word similar enough for him to be understood. This cheers Ivar up slightly. Maybe there will be more. It would be nice not to have to resort to pantomime for everything. When Robbie says the word right, it sound similar to the Norse word réttr. Yep, there's some vague similarities between the languages, superficial as they are.

He shakes his head when Robbie asks if he's seen anything, pretty sure that he knows what is being asked.]

Nei. Nei watn. Nei gjǫr.

['No. No water. No food.' Ivar lifts his head up and scans the landscape around them. He's never been in such an urban landscape before, but these buildings look similar to castles to him. If there's one thing Vikings knew how to do, it was scavenge. All too often, there wasn't enough supplies for everyone to around since they lived in such a barren place.

He looks around him for a place that would most likely have food. There's a building turned on its side, with the doors and broken windows horizontal instead of vertical. It might have been a small store like a 7/11 at one point. It looks as likely as any.]

þar?

['There?' He asks in a questioning tone. Might as well start searching.]

[calculo]

( nei. he can guess what that is. no sounds pretty similar in any language. it's disheartening but unsurprising. he sighs and nods. it would have been too lucky for him to know where a conveniently placed corner store was. so, they were going to do this the hard way.

he's trying to think of where to go when ivar points out a building that he hadn't seen before. had it been there before? god, this place was fucking with his head.

but, it's there now and it looks halfway intact so yeah. time to check it out. )

Yeah, let's give it a try. Just...be careful.

( he's seen those shadow things before and this place doesn't look very structurally sound so...they both had to be careful. he gestures ivar forward, taking slow, careful steps to avoid disturbing anything that might want them dead.

the building looks nondescript from the outside but inside, there's a lot of...stuff. things scattered. it looks promising as long as all that stuff isn't just random junk. )

[ragnarsson]

[Going into a building on its side is quite disorienting. There's stuff all over the floor, so Ivar has to be careful not to trip and fall. He doesn't need to have his experience here in this strange place start off with breaking one of his bones. He lets Robbie do his own thing while he goes down a different aisle.

He decides water is more paramount then food right now. Maybe there might be something they can hunt, but he's not seen any natural water sources. He goes down the aisles, made much shorter with the shelves standing vertical instead of their normal horizontal positions.

He sorts through the junk with his crutch, not finding anything of value until he finds a small backpack, one of those cheaply made ones with shiny rainbow butterflies on it usually meant for kids. While he's never seen a zipper before, he quickly understands the concept. Alright, this will be useful. They will need bags or sacks to carry anything they find in. He loops it around his free arm and continues down the aisle.

Reaching the end he comes to the cases which once held all the drinks. Anything made of glass has mostly shattered, but the plastics have survived intact. He sifts through them. The multicolored drinks he doesn't trust, so he leaves those be. Finally, he finds some clear plastic bottles with what is most definitely water inside. He cracks one open. It's lukewarm and has that plastic-like taste like it's been sitting there for a decade or so, but it is indeed water. He calls out to Robbie.]

Watn!

[Then he sets the backpack down, filling it up with as many water bottles as will comfortably fit in there.]

[calculo]

( thank god ivar had better luck than he did. he'd found a few opened bags of chips that he was not going to eat and some old lighters that he pockets but nothing that might help them survive. so, he lets out a relieved breath when he hears ivar's voice and then moves to help the other man. )

Nice job.

( he crouches down and takes one bottle for himself before helping to move more bottles into the bag that ivar's carrying. smart man. robbie has his jacket that has a few pockets but he wasn't going to get many bottles in there.

so, the bag is the best thing they could use. )

I found some old food. ( he gestures to his mouth and then shakes his head to reflect that it wasn't good. ) This is good. We're halfway there.

[ragnarsson]

[He guesses from Robbie's motion he wasn't able to find anything to eat. So they still have no food. Well, at least they won't die of dehydration anytime soon.]

Veiðr?

['Hunting?' He suggests. He mimes using a bow and arrow to shoot at something. If they look long enough, they might be able to find something living around here, even if it's just some small rodents. Those always seemed to gather in more urban areas.]

[calculo]

( it takes robbie a second but he picks up on what ivar's talking about and nods. it's a good idea even though he doesn't have any weapons. he's actually wishing that the rider would make a freaking appearance because that would be helpful right now.

but he doesn't. he stays quiet.

so, the only weapons they have are bits of rock and glass. that might do against some smaller animals...which they would have to find. )

Veiðr? ( his pronunciation is probably terrible but he tries. ) We have to find something to hunt.

( he gestures to the ground and mimes running with his fingers, hoping to reflect an animal and that they should be on the lookout. if it kept them from dying, he'd eat anything. )

[ragnarsson]

[The pronunciation of the word gets a brief chuckle from Ivar. He'll give him points for trying at least. Now comes the task of trying to figure out if there's any creatures around here to hunt.

After a moment of hesitation, he reaches into his vest, and pulls out a knife. One has to wonder how many weapons he's got on his person, considering only the axe strapped to his back is visible. He holds it in a forward grip for a moment before using a fancy movement to flip it around in his palm so that he can offer the handle to Robbie.

Most of the time, Ivar is all business with weapons, but one doesn't use them for fourteen years without picking up some tricks along the way. During battle, they're useless, but showing off during moments like this is his way of showing that he's able to handle himself with them.]

[calculo]

( he's not phased by the knife but his eyes do widen the tiniest bit at the flip. okay, ivar's got some moves. he'll have to remember that so he doesn't end up on the wrong side of that blade. the hell demon usually protects him from injury but the hell demon's also being quiet so he has no idea what might happen if he does get run through. )

Thanks.

( he takes the blade and gives ivar a nod before folding his fingers around the handle and letting it drop by his side. his chain would have been even more welcome but a knife'll do. )

We've got the weapons. Now just need the prey. ( that's...not going to be easy. he sighs and looks over at ivar before gesturing him forward. if this place would stay still, he'd look for forest or some kind of greenery to head towards but there's really nothing. )

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar's pretty certain of what Robbie had just said, so he can give the proper response without too much guesswork.]

þú'st vel kominn.

['You're welcome.' He's putting a lot of trust in someone he just met and can't really communicate with, but Ivar's low on options. He's not very good for the task of hunting himself, lacking the necessary speed to run anything down. All he's good for is blitz attacks to surprise animals with.

Now comes the arduous task of seeing if they can find any in this strange landscape. Ivar hasn't seen any thus far, but he's certain there has to be something out there. It can't be completely devoid of life entirely around here.]

[calculo]

Trees. We should find trees.

( he's from los angeles, a place where the only animals that you tended to see were the domesticated pets, rats, and the occasional lost bear or something. if they wanted rabbits or anything that might make decent food, they'd have to find forestation.

he tries to gestures to something tall but it's not easy to mime trees. ) Forest. Uh. Fuck, I don't know.

( maybe he'll figure it out but he gestures ivar on with him anyway. maybe there were woods somewhere around here. )

[ragnarsson]

[The gesture that Robbie uses to try and use for trees goes beyond Ivar's ability to guess and he just gives up after his first two guesses on what it could mean.

Well, it doesn't really matter. They're both on the same wavelength about finding food and that's all that really matters. Ivar limps out after Robbie, letting him take the lead on this one. If they find anything that needs to be chased after, there's only one of them that's going to be able to do so.]