riverviewmod: (Default)
Riverview Moderator ([personal profile] riverviewmod) wrote in [community profile] quaranmeme2017-07-20 08:17 am

riverview: july test drive meme

riverview test drive meme

Welcome to Riverview's test drive meme! Feel free to dip your toes in on the test drive meme to try out your character in the setting, play out a mission, and get samples for your application at the same time!

● There are currently 5 Character Slots available.
Applications open on August 1st and will remain open until such time as there are 30 or more character slots available at one time. Applications will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis. Any applications in excess of available spots will be placed in a queue and processed as drops or activity sweeps happen.
● Providing all parties are amenable, threads on the test drive meme can count as game canon, as the plot in the prompts presented is game canon, and may continue while applicants are waiting on the queue (including spanning multiple TDMs).
● TDM threads do not count for Activity Check, but they do count for Activity Bonus Points, so long as all characters involved are accepted into the game.
● Threading on the TDM is intended for prospective new characters, so top-levels should only be posted by players of these characters. Since the events in the TDM are considered game canon, characters currently in the game are free to use the TDM prompts for logs and posts on the regular communities.

Feel free to use the prompts below or create your own scenario. The setting is built to be flexible, so feel free to make things up as you go.


information resources

premisearrivalsettingask a questioncalendarnavigation


prompt i: tropical thunder

So you thought that the impending summer and the great weather meant the end of the stormy spring season? Not so much. Just like the storm back in February, though, this one isn't exactly natural.

Early in the morning on July 20th, the portal switches to a different reality, and almost immediately, an ominous greenish mist starts to seep through. Though the Perimeter Guard tries to contain the spread, it's next to impossible to stop an intangible foggy mist, and as it rises, it contaminates the clouds. By the early afternoon, a storm is brewing. As the rain falls, it's the same musty, unnatural green as the mist, and it quickly becomes obvious that the rain burns any living creature like acid. Thankfully, it's very mild acid - a few minutes of exposure will only result in non-living biological matter disintegrating, like hair, fingernails, and the outer layer of horns. But stay out in it much longer than that, and any exposed skin will start to itch and peel and then burn and sting like a bad sunburn. Feel safe with your umbrella or raincoat? Good luck, because stay out in the rain for more than 15 minutes and it will start to erode even synthetic fabric and plastic, though it seems completely ineffective against metal, stone, glass, and plant matter like leaves and wood.

Unless you're really creative, the only safe places are indoors, under the eaves of buildings, inside vehicles with solid tops, and anywhere else with a solid roof - hope you're sharing the closest hidey-hole with someone you really like!


prompt ii: lights out!

Unfortunately, while most of the electricity in the city runs through metal wires, a few key components of the power grid involve synthetics like plastic and other materials. About 25 minutes into the storm, right when these materials start to be eroded away by the acid rain, rolling power outages start to occur at random in the city. While the whole city isn't affected and the fences remain at full power, many places will suffer a complete drop in power. As the storm intensifies, the temperature starts dropping until it goes from a nice warm summer day to something distinctly chillier.

Here's hoping your characters can keep themselves warm and entertained until all the digital comforts of the modern world return - time to break out the candles, board games and cards, or swap some stories. And maybe swap some body heat.

Bonus: there is a ton of free ice cream being handed out before it melts? Not helpful?


prompt iii: basic problem solving

Thankfully, with all the genius minds in the city, someone was quick to come up with a solution after a couple hours of examining an acid rain sample. It's pretty rushed, but as the storm clouds coalesce into a sickly green-and-charcoal swirl in the sky, an experimental machine is put together that will blast a compound into the sky that will nullify the acid storm. It only takes a short time to put several more units together, and then the Perimeter Guard is recruiting heavily through every channel available for teams to take the devices out into the woods so they can be aimed properly to shoot their payload into the clouds.

Teams can consist of anywhere from two to six people, one of which should be a driver, and the rest of which will be needed to help clear any fallen trees. These teams will be fitted with coveralls and helmets that will (hopefully) protect them from the rain while they're outside of the vehicle.

Two canisters full of the compound straight into the eye of the storm clouds are expected to clear up the ever-building thunderhead clouds and stop the rain, but more definitely won't hurt.


prompt iv: basic bouncers

Isn't going out into the woods dangerous? Oh. Right. It definitely is. Each team of explorers trekking out into the forest is going to need some protection. A call is also going out to the general population requesting that anyone who is a strong, experienced fighter please accompany the teams out into the forest to protect them from monsters that are willing to risk the rain in search of a lightly acid-tenderized exploration team shaped meal.

The protection teams should expect most of the danger to come in the form of giant, ravenous monsters that look like either massive elk or boars, and seem completely immune to the rain - probably because their backs are protected by thick layers of grass, moss, tiny saplings, and thick slabs of bark. With their backs all coated in moss and grass, they're also well-camouflaged in the murky green fog and rain, so they seem to appear out of nowhere, bellowing and trying to either spear the teams with their horns and tusks, or eat them whole.

Armed with super stylish full-body suits that should (theoretically) protect them from the ravages of the acid rain, these fighters are exactly the muscle the exploration teams need.


prompt v: friendr/network

Whether your character is posting up a silly word game to distract people from the dangerous mission going on, trying to get hold of a friend, or putting out feelers for people to go out into the fray with, the network is going strong.

Alternately, an offer for a free app is popping up on new arrivals' devices - Friendr is a friend-finder and/or dating app. If characters choose to install it, they will fill out a short bio and parameters for what they're looking for, upload a snap of themselves, and then proceed to browse for matches. This is a typical swipe-left-or-right type app.

Code to post your character's bio is in the textbox below. An example of how it looks can be found here.


Friendr base code is by photosynthesis.
The code in the textbox is for the default color scheme, but the Friendr app has a wide variety of themes, so feel free to customize with colors and patterns as you see fit, but do not remove the credit line out of respect for the creator of the code.


prompt vi: wildcard/recovery

Whether or not this month's mission solution is actually threaded out on the Test Drive Meme, the acid rain will let up in the late evening of the 20th. Blackouts will continue for a few days afterward, and there will need to be considerable time spent cleaning up the city in preparation for this month's celebration. Feel free to thread out any of that, or use the wildcard prompt to choose your own adventure and do whatever else you like in the setting!


navigation

[SP New Old World image by ANTIFAN-REAL at DeviantArt.]
latrodectus: (три)

[personal profile] latrodectus 2017-07-24 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
{ So like James. Covering up his own insecurities with idiot stubbornness. ]

That wasn't what I meant.

[ It has to be time travel, or alternate dimensions, or one of those other problems outside her usual pay grade. She should get it put on her business card: not interested in reality warping of any kind.

But then, she has found herself here. ]


You stole it from me, remember?

[ Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. If there's something sharp in her tone, well, it must be a trick of mask's distortion. ]
anotheroldsoldier: (talking again)

[personal profile] anotheroldsoldier 2017-07-25 04:42 am (UTC)(link)
['You stole it from me, remember?' Of course he remembers. There is a slight softening of his posture again, though something remains in him that is wary and uncertain. He mentally berates himself because he should be able to tell if this is his Natalia, shouldn't he? But her reactions are not... exactly what he expected. He wonders what might have gotten between them, what he doesn't know. It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle with only half the pieces and trying to see the picture.]

I wasn't sure if you remembered that.
latrodectus: (пятьдесят два)

[personal profile] latrodectus 2017-07-25 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
[ She laughs at a punchline he probably doesn't hear. ]

I remember more things than most people give me credit for.

[ He could relate to that, she's sure. But she isn't sure what to do next, or what else to say. How could she tell him that she'd just sworn to kill Captain America? Because of him, because of James. She hadn't let herself feel the shape of that loss, only familiar numbness, a cold that sat practiced on her features. ]
anotheroldsoldier: ([cap] head down)

[personal profile] anotheroldsoldier 2017-07-25 06:52 am (UTC)(link)
No, I- didn't mean it like that. [He busies himself checking his weapon, for lack of anything else to do with his hands in this stupid suit. The last thing he wants is to make a mistake, and fuck this up.] There was another Natasha here. She didn't recognize me at all. [He shrugs his shoulders once, a sort of 'what are you gonna do' gesture to mask his thoughts about how badly that encounter had gone.]

It's- some alternate universe thing. Different timelines. I don't... want to mistake you for someone you might not be. [God he has no idea what he's doing. His slight smile is back, a little bare and helpless, a peace offering if he's messed this up already. A statement that says he will respect her individuality if she isn't the Natasha he knows and longs for.]

This is all so far above my paygrade.
latrodectus: (шестьдесят шесть)

[personal profile] latrodectus 2017-07-25 07:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ Natasha doesn't pray, was raised a godless Soviet, but if she did, she'd thank providence for the graceless mitts and plastic visor that covered her up now. ]

You're Captain America. There's nothing above your paygrade.

[ Oh god, she can't tell him. Oh god. Even if it was some other James, one she didn't really know. ]
anotheroldsoldier: (tee hee)

[personal profile] anotheroldsoldier 2017-07-25 07:37 am (UTC)(link)
[It's funny how two sentences can wreck him like these do. It's that kind of grounding support that he's missed, her faith in him that always helped him feel like he could do this. If he was a crying kind of person, it might bring tears to his eyes, but as it is, he just stands a little awkward in his ridiculous beekeeper suit, smile growing, as if the ice around his heart has cracked again.]

I really missed you.
latrodectus: (тридцать)

[personal profile] latrodectus 2017-07-31 07:28 am (UTC)(link)
Of course you did.

[ She's told him that before. She could remember the Siberian forests, the feeling of the cold air touching red to her cheeks, the snow melting in her hair. It had been longer, then.

Natasha swallows the bile rising in the back of her throat. Maybe that's a side-effect, from the sickle-and-hammer conditioning Novokov had put her through. She isn't supposed to remember. A question echoes in the back of her mind, like a dissonant chord. Doesn't he see how wrong this is? Doesn't he see the pieces that don't fit? But of course, she has been through too many drills to let her thoughts show on her face.

It doesn't occur to her to let herself be happy. ]
anotheroldsoldier: (sheepish)

[personal profile] anotheroldsoldier 2017-07-31 08:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Something is off between them, but he doesn't know what it is. He can't put his finger on it, this distance that sits between them heavy and silent. Maybe it's just Riverview, or maybe he's missing something. He doesn't lose that little smile, though, because even despite that, he's happy to see her. It's a simple pleasure just to stand beside her again on the cusp of a mission. It will be a simple pleasure to fight alongside her.]

After we're done here, let me take you to dinner. Somewhere nice, no pancake houses. We can talk.
latrodectus: (тридцать шесть)

[personal profile] latrodectus 2017-07-31 08:28 am (UTC)(link)
[ The last time she'd seen James, she'd pushed him away. She'd had the mission to think about, and that was what she'd said, and it hadn't been a lie. But underneath: she was still putting together how she felt. She'd needed more time; he was the one who always rushed into things. ]

We still have a monster to kill, you know.

[ A pause. ]

Please don't tell me they have pancake houses here.
anotheroldsoldier: (shit-eating grin)

[personal profile] anotheroldsoldier 2017-07-31 08:39 am (UTC)(link)
[His smile comes a little easier, a little closer to his 'normal'. The way they had been before - before Novokov, before Sin, before the trial. That and Riverview is all he knows.]

Won't take long. [They just have to escort the team with the payload out a ways, kill anything that attacks them on the way. As far as missions go, it's an easy one.

He laughs quietly as they head out into the forest, following the other team.]
The great thing about pancake houses. There's one just about anywhere you go in the universe.
latrodectus: (девяносто восемь)

[personal profile] latrodectus 2017-08-01 08:21 am (UTC)(link)
And in several others, apparently. [ Her footsteps go quiet as they move into the forest. She's glad for the leaves and the shadows, the thudding percussion of the rain. It's easier to think about than his dinner invitation, or maybe it's easier because she doesn't need to think much, to do a job like this.

The suit is a bit of a distraction, though.

In the distance, something that isn't her falls to the ground with a thud.]


anotheroldsoldier: ([cap] head down)

[personal profile] anotheroldsoldier 2017-08-01 08:51 am (UTC)(link)
[The suits are annoying. Bucky still manages to move silently through the underbrush, into the cover of the trees, alert to whatever might present itself as a threat. He's been out here several times before; he recognizes a couple of landmarks from Perimeter Guard patrols and rescue missions, but that doesn't mean anything when it comes to the beasts they're here to take care of. The creatures are outside their own territory, looking for easy meals.

When he hears the thud, Bucky's hand goes to his gun (thank god the rain doesn't seem to corrode metal) and he looks over at Natasha, a silent 'Did you hear that, too?' It's easy to fall back into old patterns of working together, at least for him.]
latrodectus: (девяносто семь)

[personal profile] latrodectus 2017-08-01 03:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She nods, but realizes that maybe won't translate, in these anonymous suits. So, keeping hold of her own gun, she raises one hand to her ear. A hand-signal for "listen."

Unlike James, apparently, Natasha had never been in these woods, and didn't know what to expect. ]
anotheroldsoldier: (roger that)

[personal profile] anotheroldsoldier 2017-08-05 10:48 am (UTC)(link)
[He stills, mentally sorting out the sounds of the jungle. Beneath the white-noise patter of the rain and the normal sounds of the wilderness, he can hear nearby rustling, the snap of a twig. Bucky raises a gloved hand and counts off one finger, two, twists his wrist to point ahead of them. He counts off another and points more toward their left. Two from ahead, one from the side is his guess.]
latrodectus: (девяносто девять)

[personal profile] latrodectus 2017-08-06 01:26 am (UTC)(link)
[ She holds her gun ready, and moves toward the people they're meant to be protecting, not turning her back on the sounds in the distance, or on James.

Part of it is natural caution— she really isn't sure what to expect to come out of these trees. But part of it is that it's easy to play defense when James is with her. He likes to go charging into things. If things go south, she can hang back and clean up his mess. ]