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Riverview Moderator ([personal profile] riverviewmod) wrote in [community profile] quaranmeme2017-10-20 08:26 pm

riverview: october 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 31 Character Slots available.
Applications are open but the application and reserve cycle will resume with apps closing on November 7th.
● 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: high voltage!

Over the course of the past couple months, something has been changing in the Abandoned City, the part of the Quarantine that was abandoned over a decade ago after the great Epidemic that decimated the population of the sprawling city. It hasn't been independent or spontaneous either - Quarantine resident Ava Orlova has been practicing with her energy production powers outside the city in a way that has had some interesting side effects.

With burst after burst of glowing blue energy surging through a spur of one of the abandoned and neglected transit train lines, something has started stirring. The line was connected to a long-dormant hydro-electric power relay station located near on the river just before it connects to the waterfalls (see the crudely-drawn map here), and with all that power being pumped through the train line and ending up in the station, the backup generators have wheezed to life.

What does this mean for Quarantine residents?

Providing the station can be secured and brought back to full power, it means that the overall electrical grid in the city will be much more reliable, the fences will be more secure, and new methods to try to direct the portal to send mistaken arrivals home can be explored. Most importantly, the part of the Abandoned City surrounding the newly-activated power station will be much easier to tame and inhabit. The possibility of expansion is very important for the Quarantine - with new arrivals coming through the portal almost constantly, overpopulation has been a bit of a concern of late.

With all of this at stake, the Perimeter Guard and the Government of Riverview are teaming up to make sure that this new area gets explored, secured, and made useful in as short a time as possible. Anyone with even an inkling of desire to explore will see ads, fliers, or Perimeter Guard Cadets talking up the exploration mission out to the new power relay station. Head over to the Perimeter Guard Headquarters to receive a free package of exploration equipment courtesy of the Government of Riverview (complete with comfortable camouflage jumpsuit, tactical belts, and a lightweight pack with a survival kit including food, water, first aid, flares, and other similar supplies) and be issued a weapon to follow the train line out to the power station and ensure the route is safe.


prompt ii: standing ground

It isn't just the route to the power station that needs to be cleared - with all the activity and the thrum of energy and light at the station, a swarm of interested monsters and creatures has come toward the area. The exploration team and any techs interested in helping to get the station fully operational will need protection, and the station itself will need to be cleared of all threats and secured so the engineers, electricians, and technical geniuses can safely work on establishing a power grid in the area.

Join in the fray, and back up your fellow explorers to get the area safe, secure, and able to be used!

Almost any type of monster is possible, including monsters featured in previous Test Drives, monsters that players make up on the fly, and even monsters from individual character canons that could have conceivably come through the portal. The fight, however, is totally worth it. Once this area is cleared out, there's going to be a lot more space to move around and a few interesting new locations...


prompt iii: ghosts of october

During the 10th month of every year on the moon, due to a complex series of chemical, electromagnetic, and magical forces that no one has ever exactly distinguished or completely understands, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead are weakened almost to the point of nonexistence. During this time, residents of the moon are able to see and interact with the dead - ghosts, manifesting in ways that run the gamut from being a strange sense of being watched or being visible or audible all the way to more corporeal spirits that can affect the world around them. The barriers are weaker in some parts of the city than they are in others, with some areas experiencing little to no ghost activity, while others are so populated with these ghosts that residents can barely go a few feet without running into one. The ghosts are generally the unsettled dead, people who died violently, or who were lost, seeking a place to call home, and their behavior is as varied as it was while they were alive. Some ghosts are angry and vengeful, some are simply lonely and lost.

While some people tend to interact with the ghosts only a little and as necessary, others avoid them as completely as possible, and yet others actively seek out souls who are suffering and try to ease that so they can stop coming back year after year. There are other people who have found that ghosts from their home worlds have come through with them, following them through the portal when they arrived, even if they did not die on the moon...

Whether facing death or making peace with those who have died, this is a time to reflect.

A Few OOC Guidelines:
● Characters may see or interact with ghosts from the Quarantine's past. These people will be as varied as the NPCs, from a multitude of different worlds, and characters are welcome to either engage or avoid, as players wish.
● Most Quarantine-based ghosts will have died in either the Great War with the neighboring reality or in the Pandemic that wiped out the population of the Abandoned City years ago.
● Characters may also see or interact with ghosts from their own or other characters' canons, providing the character in question is dead in canon and is not currently being played in the game.
● Canon-based ghosts should not be simply transplanted into the game as they were in canon - they are ghosts, and therefore 'not quite right,' and should not be used as an excuse to NPC a canonmate for a month. These ghosts are there to be used as plot devices to open up new avenues of CR, to create angst, to help a character make peace with their past, or other similar reasons.
● Ghosts should not be complete corporeal physical presences indistinguishable from living people, but barring this, how strongly the ghosts manifest and how much they can interact with the world around them is up to player discretion. Ghosts shouldn't be present the whole month straight, but can disappear and reappear at random times.


prompt iv: making memories

Since October 9th, the residents of the Quarantine have been having a stranger-than-usual experience that's been drawing them closer together (or pushing them apart). The machinery in control of the process that's used for canon updates has gone haywire and is releasing nanites that usually function to restructure characters' bodies to match the updated information. The nanites are doing something different, though - they're sharing memories between characters.

Memories can be shared in several forms:

First Person: This is experiencing another person's memory as if it's your own, seeing through that person's eyes in all its detail. This option wouldn't clearly expose the identity of the person whose memory is being viewed unless the memory includes that information specifically.
Dreamscape: Mostly happening during dreams or with shared flashes during the day, this is watching the memory as if it were a three-dimensional movie, during which you can meet and talk with the person whose memory is being viewed.
Network: These are memories shared through the network by accident, either as audio/video uploads or text-based descriptions transcribed to the network. These would be posted with the ID of the person whose memory is being shared.

● It is up to individual player preference how much feelings can be used in the memory, but knowing the other character's thoughts is not permitted.
● All memories must be from your character's canonpoint or earlier.


prompt v: friendr/network

Whether your character is accidentally sharing a memory, posting up a silly word game, 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

Use the wildcard prompt to choose your own adventure and do whatever else you like in the setting!


navigation

[jungle relay tower by Robin Bouwmeester]
poundsign: With placeholder lyrics ♪ (Default)

[personal profile] poundsign 2017-10-30 08:07 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well, that settles it then. After some struggling to figure out how to gently place his tablet back into the dog backpack he's been strapped into by the perimeter guard, he sets out scent-tracking the park until he's close enough to smell the frozen waffles. And a few minutes later he's there, nosing at her arms in an obvious ploy for pets.]

Hey, sentinel kid. My name's Koda. D'you still have waffles?
elleggomyeggo: (pic#10773629)

[personal profile] elleggomyeggo 2017-10-30 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[Eleven is still somewhat surprised that the dog came right up to her. The cats never liked her in the labs, and even when she'd escaped, the strays she'd see outside never much cared for her either.

Maybe they just smelled monster on her.

But there this dog was, nosing right up to her. And as inexperienced as she was with animals it was easy enough to follow those urgings, a hand tentatively reaching to brush through the fluffy fur framing his face, a smile starting to grow.]


Pretty.

[She tapped her own chest with her free hand.]

Eleven.

[Waffles? Of course she does! She just pulls the box around, and pulls one of the waffles out, holding it out to him. Eat up pup!]
poundsign: With placeholder lyrics ♪ (Default)

[personal profile] poundsign 2017-10-30 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yeeeessss yes yes yes yes! Koda may startle her with his enthusiasm, as his jaws snap down on the waffle and drags it out of her hand to gobble it up in quick, harsh chomps. Still licking his lips he shoves his nose into her hand, tail a blur as he searches for any crumbs he might have missed. And unfortunately, Koda wasn't raised around kids so he's not particularly gentle about his approach. At least he does his best not to actually bite her.]

Thanks, I haven't eaten all day... forgot what it's like searching for scraps outside of the rehab center. Where are your parents?
elleggomyeggo: (pic#10773638)

[personal profile] elleggomyeggo 2017-10-30 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well, she can't help but jump at the sudden quick movements, but clearly the poor pup was hungry. So she drops her hand again, fishing out the last two waffles to offer up.

She knows what being hungry is like and it's Not Fun.]


Rehab center?

[A small shake of her head at the question that followed.

Papa is dead. No Mama.

[As far as she knows, anyways. But whatever the case, one of those thick furry ears is getting thorough rubs. She's honestly kind of fascinated with how soft Koda is.]
poundsign: With placeholder lyrics ♪ (Default)

[personal profile] poundsign 2017-10-30 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[The waffles disappear just as quickly, and he licks his lips with a wide yawn as he sits back on his haunches.]

The rehab center is for our kind when we lose our sentinels, they take care of us until....

[Until... he lost his train of thought from those good ear scritches, and he tips his head to give her more room while his tongue lolls out playfully. That's it,
this is the best person.
]
elleggomyeggo: (pic#10773629)

[personal profile] elleggomyeggo 2017-10-30 09:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[While her vocabulary is still a work in progress, her reasoning skills are pretty good. He'd called her a sentinel kid, and was talking about them like they were friends, or family. Stands to reason that sentinel is what dogs called humans.

Whatever the case, she can't help the smile widening on her face as she continues the ear rubbing, bringing up both hands to go at it with gusto seeing how happy it seemed to make Koda.]
poundsign: With placeholder lyrics ♪ (Default)

[personal profile] poundsign 2017-10-31 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Well, remember how Koda doesn't quite know how to handle kids? He is now laying on the ground and wiggling enthusiastically, and that means squirming right into her lap and possibly hitting her with his elbow or head. Once he's settled with his front legs and his head on her lap, he's content to just sit there being loved on.

What were they talking about? Whatever it is, it's completely left Koda's mind. This is much more important.
]
elleggomyeggo: (pic#10773633)

[personal profile] elleggomyeggo 2017-10-31 11:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[Eleven is figuring this out. She's seen pups squirming into their people's laps when they could get away with it, especially the kids. She's not overly bothered by an elbowing while Koda's making himself at home, far more fascinated by the warm weight of him sprawled over her lap, the soft fur under her hands.

Whatever the case it only takes a few moments for her to shift, leaning over to put arms around his furry neck for an almost shy embrace.]