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quaranmeme2017-12-18 08:58 pm
riverview: december 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 13 Character Slots available.
● Reserves are Open. Applications will be open from January 1st until January 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.
● 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
Going into the last week of December, the city experiences an abrupt and unexpected dump of snow - several feet of it, in fact. Usually, it wouldn't be a big deal, since most people and most exploration teams could just hole up and ride out the storm and snowdrifts. And that's what most of the city is doing.
Unfortunately, this is the week that some of the Perimeter Guard Cadets have decided to go on their Winter Expedition - a sort of camping trip slash exploration expedition into the Abandoned City just outside the walls of the Inner City. While the goal wasn't to get too far away from the walls, with the snow starting up in force, the groups of Cadets have gotten turned around in the inclement weather and are stuck outside the walls, unable to return to the safety of the Inner City.
A general call has gone out to anyone willing to brave the snow and storm to rescue groups of Cadets between the ages of 12 and 17 who are trapped outside the walls in their camps.
During the last half of December, residents might start noticing the appearance of cute, trilling little birds with soulful eyes (very mild spoilers for the most recent Star Wars movie in the link) throughout the Quarantine. Perched on tree branches or the corners of awnings and eaves, they will keep multiplying in number until December 20th, when a positive swarm of them will come through the portal.
Welcome to the Quarantine, Porgs!
These little lovable birds (spoiler-free image) will be settling in to roost just about anywhere you can think of. Outside your window, inside your kitchen on top of your fridge, under your bed, or anywhere else. Whether residents consider them a nuisance or a potential new pet, they're bound to cause a stir. The Porgs will be out and about in the city until the end of December, when most of them will find their way back through the portal to whichever world they came from, though a little colony of them will remain in the City from now on. Porgs will be added along with domestic foxes and Pokémon as creatures that can be found or caught in the city as pets without the use of AP!
Some residents may remember that back in September, a love-drunk and confusion-spell-addled newlywed mage from Gramarye Magic Research let loose some pretty little fairy lights that trapped people in the city in little invisible bubbles until they kissed (and any kind of kiss would do). Well, the same slightly-less-newlywed but no less romantically-inclined mage happens to really, really enjoy the winter season, and thinks it's totally romantic. That particular sentiment is pretty common in the Quarantine - while Hygge is the celebration of familial love, the residents of the Quarantine all agree that that family often includes partners and lovers. Besides that, the folklore of mistletoe as being representative of love and friendship is something that the Quarantine has in common with the universes many residents inhabit.
So, as the last week and a half of December rolls around, residents around the Quarantine will see the result of the resident romantic trying to share a bit of Hygge love - small, glowing sprigs of mistletoe will be floating around the Quarantine, ready to trap people up and make them share a bit of affection. But how does it work?
Two or more characters walking under one of these glowing, floating sprigs will get stuck for one hour, trapped inside an invisible enclosure with an approximate three foot radius. The only options are to either wait out the hour, or to kiss! Characters will know they're meant to kiss, because part of the magic spell is the sudden and intense knowledge that they should kiss in order to break free. There is no compulsion to kiss, just the knowledge that that's how to get free. This time, instead of any kind of kiss working, there will be different types of kisses that will work to release the trapped residents depending on the color of mistleglow:
GREEN: FOREHEAD ● BLUE: HAND ● VIOLET: BUTTERFLY
Trapped residents will not know what kind of kiss will work for each color and may have to experiment before finding the right one.
Remember those Hygge Cabins that the City set up all along the banks of the river? Little cabins with enough space for a small kitchen, a table to eat at, and a lounge area in front of a fireplace, meant to be shared in celebration of familial love and found family during Hygge? Well, the sudden onslaught of snow that trapped the Cadets outside the city are also serving to isolate people who are in and around the cabins.
With the river nearby, the heightened humidity in the area of the beaches where the cabins are set up, the snowfall is even heavier than it is throughout the rest of the city. Anyone who's down by the water will find themselves quickly driven out of the open and into one of these cabins, whether it's inhabited or not! Whether these weather refugees are sharing a cabin by choice, after having a lovely dinner together, or unwillingly, in the form of an intruder on someone else's holiday or by being driven into the same cabin with a stranger, they're going to be snowed in for a while!
Whether your character is 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!
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Chandrila. Five years after the battle of Yavin.
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( His reply makes her smile. )
Funny. You don't act older than me.
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AND ALSO HANG ON. ]
Mara Jade. [ Nope, name doesn't ring a bell. ] Uncle Luke [ Spitting that name out like it's poison. ] is unmarried when... where I'm from. How unfortunate.
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( Yeah, and she's a daddy's little girl. Though she's become closer to her mother since the war started.
Funny how that works, right? Jaina raises an eyebrow, wondering just where that animosity is coming from. Though she can't help a wicked little smile. )
They just had a baby six months ago.
( Her expression turns unreadable as the memory of Anakin wondering if all babies were that ugly rises to the fore of her mind. )
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[ The baby revelation doesn't trigger any outrage, if that's what she's expecting. He just cocks his head a little, curious about this other universe, even as his response is still dripping with resentment. ]
For the child's sake, I hope he's a better father than he was a Jedi Master.
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( ...yay? Jaina is mildly disappointed not to have gotten a rise out of him, but what she does get piques her interest as much as it confuses her. )
What happened?
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Did he train you? Your brothers?
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( A memory rises to the fore of her mind: I always wanted to know how a lightsaber worked. Can I take apart yours, Uncle Luke?
She tilts her head. )
He did train you, didn't he?
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There's no masking the anger in his eyes, even as he tries to keep his voice level: ]
For a time. My training with him was cut short. [ By a
huge misunderstandingviolent falling out. ]no subject
Her eyes narrow in thought. )
What happened?
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Ren won't give the full answer, but he'll skip right to the conclusion: ]
There came a time when I still saw him as my uncle, and he could only see me as a monster.
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And all throughout her childhood, people had looked at her and her siblings and wondered when Vader's grandchildren would turn.
All of that is one thing. It's another for Luke Skywalker, who forgave a monster not to countenance it in someone else. )
Mara Jade was the Emperor's assassin and spy; his Hand. The Uncle I know went on to work with and then marry her.
So, I guess I'm wondering why the one you know is different. And why he'd be so afraid of you.
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Underneath it all, however, is a sense of hurt.
Perhaps it's because I'm more powerful than Mara Jade. More of a threat, he almost retorts. But instead: ]
You'd have to ask him. [ jfc Ren just give a straight answer for once. ]
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On either side. She pauses a long moment, the grief and longing she still feels for both the brothers she had loved and promised to protect causing her to say: )
We'd feel it if he were here, and chances are pretty high that what he'd have to say would be different, anyway. I'm asking you.
( Because she wants to understand. Because she has nothing here. No family, no friends, no job. No war. No vengeance. No purpose. She's going to lose it. )
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His own parents hadn't. Luke Skywalker certainly hadn't. Neither could Rey, really, not completely.
So when Jaina pushes, he does let some of his walls down, his demeanor softening. ]
I never feared the Dark. That frightened them-- [ Leia, more than Han. Perhaps because she could feel his struggles through the Force. ] --so they sent me away, to train with him. To learn control and stay with the Light Side. As I grew older, I questioned his teachings, more and more. We'd argue, but... [ It never escalated or anything, despite the whispers he'd hear from that voice, his constant companion, telling him to strike his uncle down. He'd been tempted, certainly, but he fought it. ]
I woke up one night to find him standing over me, lightsaber ignited. [ He looks at Jaina on the other end of the connection, schooling his expression into something cool and distant, to stamp down that hurt, betrayed, confused, and enraged boy inside. ] He was going to kill me. Perhaps he thought I would grow to surpass Darth Vader.
[ It certainly became his ambition from that night forward. ]
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She listens, and a big part of her is surprised that she can manage the patience given her own state of being lately. But she does. What she hears is a story about a Luke who really can't be like the uncle she knows. Who'd forgiven Kyp Durron for destroying an entire star system, married a former dark jedi. )
Then that's not him. He doesn't give up on people. Oh, you'll bet he wouldn't be happy with you for that. I think he'd be pretty steamed.
( Her brows knit together, and her breathing evens. )
Dark, light—Anakin and Jacen wasted so much time wondering about that. People would look at us when we were kids and wonder when we'd rain down terror and black lightning or something less creative than that, even. Does it matter? If the Vong hadn't invaded, I might think it does. But they did, and I felt their monsters take my family away from me. Now all I want to do is make them pay.
( She shakes her head. ) I don't know if he hit his head or got sick, or what happened. But being like dear old gramps isn't anything to aspire to. He wasn't happy. He was alone.
If you really are my brother, then I'd never want those things for you.
( Just as she hadn't for Anakin and Jacen. )
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As Ben Solo grew older and realized his affinity for the Dark was as much a part of him as the Force itself, he began to feel adrift and at odds with his own blood. It was only the revelation that his grandfather was Darth Vader that managed to anchor him again, because at least he knew, finally, that he wasn't some freakish aberration in a bloodline of heroes and legends.
Vader may have been miserable and lonely in life, but at least he helped his grandson feel like he wasn't alone in the galaxy.
But he doesn't fight Jaina on this. As she listened to him, he listens to her. More than their shared heritage, it's the talk of other people's fears and perceptions, wondering when the grandchildren of Vader would turn to the Dark Side, that truly strikes a chord of solidarity. It was the same for him, after all, though it came from his own family, instead of strangers.
He wants to ask her about the Vong, and about the Dark Side-- it must tempt her now, all things considered. Instead, his voice is soft as he asks: ]
What happened to your brothers?
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( Her features lose all expression, and there's a faraway look in her brown eyes. )
Only nine of us survived. Anakin and Jacen didn't. There's... a place in my heart that's always been Jacen's. He's my twin. I felt a surge of pain, and then nothing.