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quaranmeme2017-10-20 08:26 pm
riverview: october 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 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
premise ● arrival ● setting ● ask a question ● calendar ● navigation
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
Use the wildcard prompt to choose your own adventure and do whatever else you like in the setting!
no subject
And hey, he did a lot of stupid things as a kid. Including barrel rolls around the Yavin gas giant at age three but that one he only has his dad's word on.
He offers her the plate of melon slices again, studying her face, trying to read something from her expression or voice. ] Figuring out if we can even get there from here is definitely the first problem to tackle.
[ He's not convinced of this other universe stuff, not yet, not entirely.
Poe brightens distinctly at the prospect of the three of them sharing a living space, or at least a living vicinity. He's a sociable person, and before he ran into Finn the prospect of being here on his own was a bleak one. He would have managed, met people, made friends--he can't help himself--but it's so much better this way. ] You want to?
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But then he may want to hear a story or two from her childhood...and they weren't the most pleasant things. However, she did trust him and she had some good memories.
There's a soft hum of agreement from her. She reached out to take one more piece of melon.] I've been trying. There isn't much material to work with, and no droids. There's someone who has a knowledge of robotics, but nothing close to building an actual droid. [She's referring to Tony Stark and her mind goes back to Jim with his shuttle, she wouldn't take that from him.] We'll figure something out.
[There isn't any doubt in her mind about that. The three of them together could figure something out, and maybe rope either Tony or Cisco or Jim into this..Assuming they'd want to help.
The conversation turning to them rooming with one another is enough to make Rey smile a little more.] Yeah, I wouldn't mind. It's to quiet on my floor. It doesn't really feel like anyone else lives there.
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[ Before he can say anything else, though: SPEAK OF THE DEVIL AND HE SHALL APPEAR. IE there's a robotic babbling in the hall and BB-8 comes rolling in, chattering to himself in binary about the annoyance of stairs.
--And then he lays his photoreceptor on Rey and gives an overjoyed trill, leaning forward to charge across the room at top speed and narrowly avoid ramming into her legs.
Poe grins.]
Welcome back, Bee.
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[The people are nice enough, especially the ones she's made friends with. There are two more bites to the melon slice before it's gone.
To her surprise a certain orange and white droid comes down the hall, rolling in and makes Rey freeze. BB-8! Her little friend! Possibly the only friend she made on Jakku. If he knocked her down, she would've been fine with it.
No, she is not about to get emotional over seeing the droid. Nope.]
I didn't think he was here! [And now she's kneeling down, inspecting him, making sure he's all there and no bent antenna. Oh, he was sorely missed too.]
I can't believe you're both here.
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And she's right about the chatter on D'Qar. There was that one time Yolo Ziff made his life difficult and made wanted posters really easy to make, for example. Poe has had dalliances, too, sure, but never within his own ranks and always with the understanding that it was short-term fun. Mostly, though, he's just too busy. Too busy for romance, too busy to care about his looks.
He grins at BB-8 and Rey's reunion, leaning against the counter with one hip. ] Little guy was on his own here for a few days before I found him.
[ BB-8 buzzes a negative and chirps a correction. ]
Sorry, when he found me.
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[Please, he has to care a bit about his looks. The way he does his hair is proof of that. No one has hair that's all nice and spiffy like that. One does not roll out of bed looking the way he does.
But, she is in the same boat as him. There wasn't time for romance. Only time to survive, to work, and to live another day. They had that in common at least.]
Where was he roaming around? If I had known, I would've looked for you--both of you.
[She rises to her full height feeling...happy. She hasn't felt happy in a very long time. She's with her dear friends, and now the hope of actually leaving this place is growing. It's getting brighter and, once they're gone from here, they can go back to helping the Resistance.]
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BB-8 lets out a rise-and-fall chorus of chirps that list of locations, businesses, parks. ]
He kept himself busy. [ Poe shakes his head. ] You've been here two months? I saw you off to Ahch-To right before I got here.
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How she not have known BB-8 was around?! Someone would've posted about the droid on the network at least.]
I can tell--! [And now her attention turns to Poe. Her eyes slightly widen hearing when he last saw her...] You remember that? [So they were from the same time period.]
I was on my way to Ahch-To. We were almost there when I was transported here.
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[ How is that even possible???? ]
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No, we.. [Give her a moment because being dragged from one dimension to the next, and also having your memories shared with someone else can make your own head a bit fuzzy.]..We had just landed on Ahch-To. I was going to find Luke, and instead I'm here.
[...There are quite a few things that were possible here apparently.]
I told them, the people who provide that welcome, that it was a mistake. I wasn't feeling displaced or anything.
no subject
BB-8 swivels his head dome back and forth between the two of them, making a noise that roughly translates to 'wordless concern'. ]
So did I. Told them, I mean. [ Poe scratches his chin lightly, frowning. ] There wasn't much after you left. I was on my way to the infirmary to check on Finn and then... [ A gesture at their surroundings. ] Didn't even get that far.
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They said they'd try to fix it, whatever that entails. [She wouldn't trust their solution. No, they messed up once, and the idea that they could be sent back is one thing, having it actually work is another.]
It doesn't make any sense..it really doesn't. [And it's frustrating, very frustrating. But maybe..maybe she should tell him. Maybe it would be for the best...] Time seems to work very differently here, but you don't remember anything else? [Nothing of this place from before?]
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[ That's what it seems to come down to. He can't piece together what she wants him to say, or what she thinks he should be able to say. Time working differently, things not making sense. That last part at least he can agree with.
BB-8 tilts his head dome to nudge Rey lightly, as much a motion of encouragement as friendliness.]
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That you've been here before. That we've been here before.
[The words are uttered softly but in a serious and stern manner. She hasn't told anyone else of this, that she was here before or at least that's what Poe said when they met up when she first got here.]
When I first got here, you were here, but you only remembered crashing on Jakku, not of going to Starkiller Base. You knew me because I was here with you at some point.
no subject
That isn't funny.
[ BB-8 makes a loud, disapproving noise, directed entirely at Poe. Poe looks at the droid, then back at Rey. ] You're serious.
[ He looks around, like somehow something in their surroundings will trigger the missing memories. Send them floating to the surface like silman eels.
She wouldn't lie about something like this. It's not the kind of story someone would make up. For one thing it doesn't make sense. ] I've never been here before. Never. I remember crashing on Jakku, I remember escaping the planet, I remember that. I've never been here.
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Why would tell you all of that, if I wasn't being serious?
[Why would she even bring it up? Why would she try to get him to remember things that she didn't even remember!]
But you were and apparently so was I. [It should be impossible, really it should. This place was making her more upset and frustrated than she had been in a while. Not since she was first dropped on Jakku.] The you that was here, told me I was here before but only for a brief moment. A few days, but you have been here before. I saw you and when you left I was worried what happened and having you suddenly come back...
[It was a relief, but it brought about more questions...and it would explain the long hug.]
I don't know what to make of this place, but trust me. I wouldn't be telling you any of this, if it weren't the truth.
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[ BB-8 makes what is essentially a fart noise. Poe's lips twitch. ] Being an ass.
[ Even the droid's insult can't lighten things, though, not for more than a moment. ] I believe you.
[ He massages the bridge of his nose for a moment. ] I'm trying to. I will.
[ Mental meddling. That's the only thing he can think. Someone has been in his head, someone has been in there, again, and this time they didn't just take information. They took whole chunks of his life.
It's enough to make him want to throw up. ] These people, the ones who brought us in, did they say anything to you about you being here before?
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Yeah, you are. [Being an ass that is. At least BB-8 can see it too.]
I don't know if those memories will come back, mine haven't. I've tried looking through different books and things, but nothing. If they don't, that's okay. At least.. [She took a deep breath.] At least you're okay. I wanted you to be back with the Resistance, but..you're okay. [Safe, whole, and not broken or dead.]
No one mentioned it to me, and P--you seemed to be the only one who recalled that I was even here before. [So from what she gathered, she hadn't been here too long, just long enough to run into Poe.]
I don't know if this is the 'will' of the Force, but..we'll figure it out. [And looking at him now...he doesn't look well.] Do you need to sit down?
no subject
Still.
Still, she doesn't need him to come apart. He can't afford it, and she doesn't deserve it.
So he rubs his face with both hands, finding the part of himself that's Commander Poe Dameron. It's equal parts Kes Dameron's solidity and Shara Bey's legend, an ideal to live up to, a force to project.
He smiles at her, crookedly. ] I'll be all right. And we will figure it out.
[ Starting with what the kriffing fuck these people did with his memories. ] I'm not going anywhere. Not without you and Finn.
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Her eyes continue to look over him, concern clearly etched on her face. If he came apart...that was fine. She could be strong for both of them. Hell, she's had to be strong all her life. She reached out to him, placing a comforting hand on his arm. As confident and reassuring as that smile was...it didn't reflect too much in his eyes.]
We will, that I don't have any doubts on.
[But it pains her to hear he wasn't going anywhere. He shouldn't say things like that. Not when it's happened once, and could possibly happen again. But she has to have faith, and hope that it won't.]
no subject
There's no question that he admires her willingness to be a comforter. There's no question that he believes she can find Luke, take up the mantle of Jedi, help them bring Kylo Ren down. But he's a ranking officer in the Resistance military, and she is, for all intents and purposes, a new recruit. She's his responsibility.
(The idea that there might be more than one of them will come as a strange relief, when and if it comes at all. There are enough people here from different universes, enough people here from parallel universes, that it won't take him too long to consider the idea. Until, then, though. Until then, there's something new to keep him up at night.)
He reaches over the ruffle her hair, back on solid ground for now. ] You want something more substantial than melon?
no subject
The idea of being protected by someone...it was a foreign one. It was why it was touching to have Finn come for on Starkiller Base. Besides, she was meant to be a Jedi. Wasn't she the one who was supposed to do the protecting? Using the Force and other things?
Her nose wrinkles having him ruffle her hair. Her three buns were still in place with no strands of wisps of hair falling out. Odd...the way he wanted to show affection was...odd. Or maybe he was trying to secretly comment on her height.]
No, I have enough food of my own. But... [She reaches into her pack, taking out a small bag of different colored tiny bears.] Try it, it's gummy bears. They each have their own flavor. It's pretty good.