quaranmeme | riverview: july test drive meme

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!mod meme: test drive

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
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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.

<center><table style="width:300px;"><tr style="border-bottom:1px dashed #528887;"><td></td> <td style="padding:20px; padding-bottom:0; width:300px; font:38px Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; color:#c4c4c4; text-align:center; letter-spacing:2px; background-color:#2a2a2a; border-top-right-radius:50px; border-top-left-radius:50px;">Friendr</td> <td></td></tr>
<tr><td style="font-size:70px; vertical-align:middle; text-align:right; padding:0; color:#528887;">«</td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a; padding:20px; padding-top:10px; padding-bottom:0; width:308px;"><img src="IMAGE URL - 300px WIDE OR LESS" style="border-radius:20px;"> </td> <td style="font-size:70px; vertical-align:middle; padding:0; color:#528887;">»</td></tr>
<tr><td></td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a; font:12px arial; text-align:left; padding:10px;">» Age: your character's age
» Seeking: friendship/romantic/anything
» Preferences: sexual preference or n/a
» Interests: three interests
» Bio: 30 words or less
</td></tr>
<tr><td></td> <td style="text-align:right; font-size:10px; background-color:#2a2a2a;">base code by <a href="http://photosynthesis.dreamwidth.org/" style="color:#528887;">photosynthesis</td></tr>
<raw-code><tr style="border-bottom:1px dashed #528887;"><td></td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a;font:20px Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; color:#c4c4c4; text-align:center;">Character Name</td> <td><td></tr><tr><td></td> <td style="border-bottom-right-radius:50px; border-bottom-left-radius:50px; background-color:#2a2a2a; text-align:center;"><table style="width:100%; font:30px Verdana;"><tr><td style="text-align:left;"> « 
 ✘</td>
<td style="text-align:right;">✔ 
 »</td></tr>
</table></td> <td></td></table></raw-code></center>

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Done better how? [For a moment, he levels a tired glare towards Undertaker then looks back down at his tea. It's not steaming as much now but it's still warm at least, and it eases the tightness forming in his chest as he sips at it again.]

And how is that funny? [He has only questions now and Undertaker is being cryptic. Or, it seems cryptic to him. What is he supposed to figure out?]

[The tea in his cup is starting to cool all the faster the less of it there is, so he finishes it quickly and almost wishes he hadn't, if only to intentionally stall. The aftertaste is awful and the hot water in the pots that he'd used to make it is likely not hot enough to make another with any decent heat to it in this mess.] Done better to learn just what it is that you're dealing with. You wouldn't need to ask why he'd feel out of place if you had. It's not like the Earl Phantomhive to be so naive about such things, is it?

[He turns his head toward the boy, relentless.] You surviving worse before that butler came along is what. What about your life was so bad it made you smile like you did then, eh?

If anything, he would because he's my butler and has no master to serve. It clearly isn't enough though if he hasn't shown up. [He'd asked for the most power, a contract that would keep them connected regardless of distance. Prey that can never escape, Sebastian had told him.]

I'm not naive. [What good does the earldom do him here?

He shrinks a bit. Smiling... had been so much easier back then. Of course Undertaker would remember that.]

That wasn't what I meant. [Softly.]

[He grins and shifts his chair and the one unoccupied to his side so that he can put his feet up.] Aye, and there's the chain on him, for whatever it means between worlds like this. But that didn't start here, did it? That started yeeears ago, and not a one of you knew what you were getting into back then. [Looks like he'll have to spell it out a little.] He probably thought you were just a quick fix.

[He folds arms over his chest and looks out at the windows again.] You've still got a long way to go, if you can make it that far.

I knew enough. [He really didn't. He still doesn't but in Sebastian's own words, his soul was damned the moment he summoned him and nothing would change that. What difference did it make then? And, in the end, he'll have the satisfaction of humialating the people who attacked him family, of being the one grinning over them, no one to shield them just as he'd been left with no one..]

If I were quick, I doubt he would have offered the contract. He must have expected work to be put into this.

[Ciel finally looks back up and watches him.] Haven't got much of a choice here, have I?

[The look on what of his face Ciel can see says it all. He still doesn't believe a word of it. More of that bluffing he's come to expect from the high end of England's society, though really it was everywhere, he supposed.]

Is that really what you think demons are all about? [He'd said it in such a way that it might be taken as serious curiosity or snark.] If it is, and no, you don't have a choice yet, then you do have a lot to learn. Hm.

[He took gave his empty tea cup a nudge back closer to the middle of the table and settled in his seat again, but this time it was the boy who had his focus.]

[Ciel's not sure he'd call it bluffing so much as straight out lying, to himself and Undertaker. If he tells the lie often enough, it'll be true eventually, right?

It's probably not a can of worms he wants to open but the weather is still chilly and miserable, and he's miserable with that same cold an ditching hands. So he eventually asks-] What if he after then? He's had chances to just take what's he's wanted, he never needed to offer the contract but he did. I was weak and tired and alone.

[He chews a little on the stirring stick he had used earlier, feeling the chill of the outside starting to leech in even further. The heat of the machinery in the store would last a bit longer, but only so much. For once, he wished he hadn't left his phone at home. Maybe someone out there knew what was going on.]

Far be it for me to know his motivations. Maybe he was bored with what he was getting, maybe he likes the taste of damned souls better. But that's what he wants. That's the price of every demon contract. One soul.

[Then, almost as an afterthought.] Do you have that phone device they gave us when we got here with you?

Perhaps. [William's words from Noah's Ark come to mind, unbidden:

"He doesn't look very choice to me."

He probably isn't but Sebastian is putting work into this, maybe that makes it all the more appetizing, the work put into a 'meal.' How should be know? Why would he expect Undertaker to know? Ciel hasn't considered his soul worth anything in years.]

Mmhm, I keep it with me all the time. Just in case. [Just in case what, he doesn't know but it's there in his pocket and he'll set it on the table in case Undertaker needs to use it.]

[He could go on and on about demons and souls. He's seen it enough in his time to know his way around them, now and then at least. But for now, they have more pressing matters. Like just how cold it's getting in this room. He can see and hear the rest of the staff and the other few patrons in the shop, some of them, getting closer together to ward if off. It's starting to feel like the end of fall in here.]

[He lifts a finger and points to the phone, opting not to take it and try to figure a whole new device out all over again to get to this network that connects them all, even if it does look almost identical to his own.] Anything on that that might explain what's been going on out there just now?

[Ciel's just barely keeping himself from shivering by this point and it's all stubborn will that has him succeeding even a little. He's probably not fooling anyone but he's certainly going to try.

Watching Undertaker for a moment, he takes his phone back up and turns on the screen, browsing through the messages people have put up, eye scanning each one quickly until he's covered everything for the day.]

Nothing. It seems nobody is as concerned as they likely should be.

[No power, no heat, rain that burns and itches.]

[He makes a soft sort of amused sound, almost a scoff, at that.] Funny, that. They praise these things for communication and can't live without them, yet in times when they'd be of the most help, there's no one who thought to use it. Did all of these devices in the whole city suddenly run out of power except for yours?

Rotten luck for them if they have.

[Undertaker has a very good point. Nobody is without these things, even him, but he keeps it purely for communication. He's seen plenty of people with their noses stuck in them for one reason or another.]

You'd think more people would be concerned but perhaps they give the people in charge of this place too much credit, think they'll repair the damage before it becomes bothersome.

The same people who got us into this mess to begin with? [His grin is not exactly kind.] I wouldn't trust them, but I'm not sure about this place. For all I know, this is what rain in this world is like. Quite unusual weather.

I don't trust them at all. The closest we've really gotten to see them were the people who gave us the orientation. And that case worker they assigned me. They could easily assign any victim such jobs though, if they'd accepted this place.

[Trust? What's that?]

I suppose we'll have to be careful. [Wait.] Would it even hurt you like it does me?

[He shrugged, a light wave of goosebumps breaking out over his skin under his uniform as he did. The room was getting colder by the minute.] Seems they did. One of the people I met here supposedly works for them. I wasn't given an option to decline the invitation myself. Can't say others were.

[He considered that, shrugged again with a soft sound.] It might irritate me. I've not got an inclination to go out dancing in it though to find out. [He pointed at the boy's hands. From his place, what injuries had been sustained weren't visible to him, but he'd seen the scratching.]

[It was cold. Unbearably so for Ciel but he continues to hold himself as still as possible to hide that it's getting to him. The last thing he wants right now is any kind of pity. Not that he can really hide everything.]

I was keeping the rain out of my face. [It could have been worse if he hadn't, even if his hands itch something fierce, to the point that they burn a little.]

[He's cold. If he's cold, he knows the boy is cold, but there's not much he can do about it. The water in the pots behind the counter is likely lukewarm by now. Hardly worth the effort of a second cup.] Nothing for it. No one on the network knows anything, we know it's not quite safe out there. Might be there's some ointment in the first aid kit they keep here, if you need it.

I can keep from scratching them.

[Mostly. Even if he had absently scratched a few times already. It is tempting though, if only to offer some relief to the burning itch and keep him from forcing any more of his skin to peel from it.

It was gross.] I suppose putting something on them couldn't hurt though.

[He tilted his head back toward the little hands on the table, watching with interest even if he couldn't see them with all clarity. He pushed his chair back and slipped out of it, gathering his cup and the tea bag he had used as he did, and almost immediately felt the cold attack the warm places against his back where the chair had been able to offer him some protection against the chill. A faint shiver went through him, one he hid as he moved to toss the spent bag and set his cup in the sink and found the first aid kit. He returned quickly and offered the tube of ointment to the former Earl.]

There you are. Don't know how much it will help you right off, but it's meant to speed the healing process. Interesting what they've done with medical advancements since our time.

[Ciel watched, a little surprised as Undertaker got up and thinking he was leaving. At least, until he returned with the ointment and handed it to him. Looking it over, he read the use and directions, more cautious about what this place offers than Undertaker giving it to him.]

It doesn't seem like it would hurt. Thank you. [He's said that a lot so far and it might not be the last time, considering he's the only familiar face he has here.]

A shame we can't just take some of this back. [He unscrews the cap and puts a bit on, focusing on that for the moment before finishing and setting it down between them.]

[He slipped back into his seat, feet propped back in the other chair he'd moved, and gave his head a little shake, long hair shifting with the movement.] I'm not familiar with it myself so I can't speak to its effectiveness, but they keep it around for just these kinds of things. Looks like something we had back home, what's in that, but it has no scent I recognize.

[It wasn't something he would need for himself, but he'd taken the time to read the directions on each of the items in the shop's first aid kit just in case. Safety first and all.]

I'm not sure myself, we didn't really keep a lot in the manor. I wasn't terribly accident prone when I was younger and Sebastian, you know, wouldn't allow anything to reach such an extreme as to need one for me.

[It feels at least a bit better, having some way to treat his hands, and the urge to scratch has greatly diminished.]

I ought to invest in a few more things while we're stuck here. I hadn't given much thought to the little things like injury or illness.

[That got another grin out of him, short lived though it was.] Big a house as that was what with you and your poor mother around and you didn't keep many medical supplies on hand. Well, no thought on it. I imagine your father had one of the best doctors on call if ever he needed one.

[Of course Vincent had. His position and wealth could have afforded him almost anything he wanted. That was just the way of it and really no business of his.]

[He freezes for a moment but then relaxes. Of course Undertaker knows, he'd been at the manor often enough, saw them all often enough. He'd see the differences.]

Madam Red always made herself available if we needed her. M-mother and I always had help if we were too ill for father or Tanaka to handle.

Edited 2017-09-04 03:13 (UTC)

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