![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
riverviewmod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
quaranmeme2017-07-20 08:17 am
riverview: july test drive meme
riverview test drive memeWelcome 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
premise ● arrival ● setting ● ask a question ● calendar ● navigation
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!
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
no subject
But it wasn't me. [ She says it slowly, like she's working out a problem. ] It was… some other person, with my name, and perhaps my face. [ She was familiar enough with alternate universes, so far as anyone could be. ]
I am sorry to disappoint you. [ And she actually means it. ] But this other Natasha— she deserves to be her own person. And so do you. [ "A spy is very difficult to stop— once she has found what makes her unique."]
no subject
She forces herself to smile, but it's too sharp and standing there the acid rain somehow feels even more oppressive. If it was real rain she could let it was over her face, breathe it in and feel a little less like the knot in her throat was choking her. It's hardly the first time she's been disappointed.
There's something that tenses in her shoulders when Natasha talks about being her own person, but it's something she can't put into words without saying too much. How can she be her own person when she has more of Natasha's memories than her own? When most of the things she's good at are because of her?]
Thanks. For pulling me out of the rain.
[It feels awkward, but she's not sure what else to say, torn between wanting to escape and wanting to hold on to whatever she can possibly salvage of the moment. Though with the rain still coming down, watching as it stings and burns there's not much choice to it.]
no subject
What did you want me to say? [ She could still lie. Natasha couldn't tell what the girl was thinking— something beyond her guesses, beyond her experience altogether. She didn't like that. She wanted to understand. ]
no subject
It's hard. Sorting out her feelings has never been something she's particularly good at and this situation is not exactly something she's used to, even if she'd sort of accepted it as normal in a cursory way. She was hoping that even if the worlds are different there was still-- something. She sighs, shrugging her shoulders.]
It's just... I would never want to force anything on anyone. But, you were one of the few people I trusted. Does that really have to change?
no subject
I don't know. I'm the Black Widow. Not everyone thinks I'm trustworthy.
[ Natasha hasn't felt very trustworthy, lately. ]
no subject
I do.
[It's guileless, a little too honest maybe, but she means it.]
Even knowing things aren't the same. I still think you're worth trusting.
no subject
And do you trust yourself?
[ It's a genuine question. ]
no subject
I guess it depends.
[There's a slight shrug of her shoulders. It's the best she can offer, and she wont try to lie to her. Omit facts, yes, but Natasha's too sharp and she knows that only too well.]
I try.
no subject
Her eyes move beyond Ava now to scan the buildings and roads that surround them, looking for stragglers. There's a man who thinks his cloth umbrella will save him. ]
I have to go, for a minute. [ She tilts her head in the man's direction. She doesn't ask for Ava's help, because she isn't in the habit of recruiting children. ]
no subject
She follows the tilt of Natasha's head and she looks at her for a moment.] I can help. If you'll let me.
[She doesn't think she needs it. But she wants to help.]
no subject
[ But that's just the easy thing to say. The truth is, she doesn't anyone to follow in her footsteps, wants her legacy to be the end of a legacy. But that is too much to explain, and there is not much time.
She darts after the man, knowing that nothing is stopping Ava from following except the hard rain. ]
no subject
[The truth is that Ava was trying not to push. Because even if Natasha didn't know her, she was here and that was something she could work with.
But Ava is defiant and stubborn and the second that Natasha called her sidekick the likelihood of her listening dropped like a stone in water. Of course, Nat had always been good at that. Saying exactly the wrong thing so Ava couldn't help but dig in her heels.
Although in this case, it just means following after her, like a shadow.]