| test drive |

[attribution]

Welcome to The Lottery’s test drive meme! Before we get to the prompts, here are a few things to note:

Though you may only have ONE active character per round, you are free to play as many characters you wish on the TDM. Later, you will have the opportunity to bench characters if you want to try another, but only after you’ve been accepted.

Please be sure to thoroughly look through our FAQ so that you have a good understanding of the game’s mechanics. Also be sure to browse the information provided on both The Attribution Study and Shiroiwa for a better idea of the setting.

The date for the next round of Reserves is: February 29th
The number of currently available character slots is: 25

Important Note: A thread of 9 comments in the TDM (with at least 5 comments from your character) will count towards both sample requirements in the application. Consider this a special bonus for getting your feet wet in our community!

If your thread does not reach the required amount of comments, it may still be used as the In-World Sample in your application.

Flashback/Background threads in the TDM may be reposted to Shiroiwa Academy’s Community if both players were accepted into the game.

Provided below are some sample scenarios, but please feel free to plot and play whatever you’d like!

Sample Scenarios:

Sample 1:

You’ve just transferred to one of the three grade levels in Shiroiwa Academy and have yet to make any friends. Sure, people showed you around, but nothing has quite stuck yet. So as the lunch bell goes off, you pull out your bento and prepare to eat alone when another student saddles up beside you. Perhaps they’re being friendly or perhaps they simply want to mooch off of your food. Whatever the reasoning, you’re now stuck in some form of communication whether you like it or not.

Sample 2:

Everyone just loves partner projects, don’t they? Your teacher has randomly assigned you a partner, and now you both must come up with a presentation to show the class. Are you the type who does all the work? Do you push for fair exchange? Or perhaps you have no plans to do any work at all. Whichever it is, your partner is now moving their stuff to sit at the desk next to you. Better gather your might and prepare to weather the oncoming storm…

Sample 3:

It’s March 14, 20XX. You have been kidnapped and taken to the island, given your randomized duffle bag, and are now either desperately seeking shelter or methodically preparing to hunt down your weaker classmates. Whatever it is, you stumble upon another student - whether you know them well or not doesn’t matter. The rules have already been made clear to both of you - only one person gets to win. You need to either escape, kill, or attempt to make a truce with this classmate. What will you do?

Sample 4:

Your weapon broke. Perhaps it snapped as you embedded it into the skull of one of your classmates, or perhaps it was simply a stroke of bad luck. You return to the hideout you created for yourself, seeking a weapon you’d taken from a fallen student. But as you near the space, you realize something is off. There is some telltale sign that another has been here… Are they still around? Will you investigate? What if your stockpile has been pilfered by another student?

Comments

[boogerflinger]

[To see the other's nose wrinkle in disgust upon meeting his gaze - the telltale sign of preemptive annoyance for whatever was about to spew out of Gintoki's idiot mouth - that was normal. It should have been normal.

But not even Gintoki could shove away the circumstances that stifled the air between them. That made even their typical reactions stiff and strained to the slightest degree.]

And then?

[The albino's shifts his weight onto the balls of his feet as he takes in an exhale. He had no idea. The information they had been give had almost been too much to take in all at once. He wet his lips.]

Figure something out, I guess. There's got to be. something, right?

[But when he looks at Takasugi again, it's not the other's eye that catches his gaze. Instead he catches the blinking light on the collar around the other's neck. The red light that burned as a reminder to just how fragile their lives were in this mix.

Burned this reality into his retinas. He can't look at it anymore. He averts his eyes.]

And you? Don't tell me you have a plan.

[toukai]

[If being annoyed with Gintoki was the only requirement for 'normal', nothing strange would ever happen to him.

Why, then, did standing here, branches spidering crooked to confine them, feel so wrong? He didn't have the time or energy to find that answer. To grapple with an answer he already knew.

As Gintoki spoke Takasugi raised his jaw, looking down at the other with clear judgement on his face. No plan - that was what he thought. Letting the albino crash and burn was usually one of Shinsuke's favorite hobbies, but now...]

Me? [He glanced down at his knife, turning his wrist to watch the glint of the metal in the moonlight. He made sure to flick that ray of light to Gintoki's face - a reprimand for not looking at him. This could be the last they see of each other.] I wouldn't tell you, would I? [He'd let that sink in, give Gintoki a moment to realize that he absolutely intended to fight, in the very least.

And then he'd wrench the subject away.] What's your weapon?

[boogerflinger]

[The glint of metal has Gintoki jerking his head upward. He blinks a few times before his gaze locks with Takasugi's. His heart clenches, any playful air he'd retained in hopes of keeping this "normal" melted away as quickly as Takasugi's rush of adrenaline had.

Takasugi isn't the only one with the realization that it could be the last time they saw each other. Gintoki moves to take his weapon out of the bag - pulling the neck of his shamisen out first. The instrument's bell gives a hollow thud as he hits it to the ground.]

What, you want to trade?

[Gintoki tilts his head a bit, a little annoyed that the other wouldn't give him anymore info than some edgy bullshit like "why would I tell you?"]

Cause I like this one too much. Pretty much my style, huh? So maybe I can play myself into some sort of solution to this mess, right?

[Come with me. Don't die. Let's figure something out. Don't leave. Let's get Zura. We have to go back. These thoughts continued to crop up into his head, but he couldn't force himself to spit the words out. He knew it wouldn't be like that. It couldn't be like that.

But, shit, did he want it to be like that. So there was a point in trying - right?]

[toukai]

[There, now you're paying attention. Now you're feeling the gravity of the situation weigh your shoulders down. A playful mood wasn't going to make it anymore. Even your tune would sing it's final strangled notes when you found your hands wrapping around someone's neck and eliciting the same ugly sound.

Or, maybe they wouldn't have to wait for such piercing noise.

Takasugi regarded the shamisen with almost as much foreboding in his gut as he'd felt tangle when the video played.

Gintoki could fight with anything. Gintoki was strong. Even without a real weapon, he'd make it Gintoki was terrible at any form of music. One strum on that thing, and even the more pacifist members of their class would want to kill him.

Any amusement that thought could have given him was stifled by Gintoki's implication that there was a happy solution.]

The only mess will be your fingers if you misuse those strings. [He tucked his knife away.]

We both already know the solution, don't we? No reason choke on it. [Yet here he was, hesitating to give Gintoki the opportunity to spit out the words they both knew needed said.

Stay alive.]