riverview: december test drive meme

[riverviewmod]

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 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

prompt i: winter rescue

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.

prompt ii: a flock of stargulls

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!

[Thanks to Sere for submitting this prompt as a mini-plot!]

prompt iii: mistleglow

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:

RED: MOUTH ● ORANGE: NECK ● YELLOW: CHEEK
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.

prompt iv: snowed in

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!

prompt v: friendr/network

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.

Code to post your character's bio is in the textbox below. An example of how it looks can be found here.

<br><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;"><b>Friendr</b></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;"><br> </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;"><span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Age:</b> your character's age</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Seeking:</b> friendship/romantic/anything</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Preferences:</b> sexual preference or n/a</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Interests:</b> three interests</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Bio:</b> 30 words or less</span> </td></tr> <tr><td></td> <td style="text-align:right; font-size:10px; background-color:#2a2a2a;"><font color="#528887">base code by</font> <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;"> <span style="text-decoration:none; color:#528887;">« ✘</span></td> <td style="text-align:right;"><span style="text-decoration:none; color:#528887;">✔ »</span></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

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

navigation
[the cabin by Izabela Witkiewicz]

Comments

Lucy Mills || Once Upon a Time

[thestoriesarereal]

ii.

[Well...this is new. To say Lucy is in a very weird place is an understatement. She feels like she's in one of Henry's stories--the ones he would retell to her, not the ones that were real. This place seems like it's straight out of a science fiction book. Or maybe some high tech fantasy novel, but what she does know is this.

The tiny birds are cute.

Like any child, Lucy is curious and more content with trying to watch the birds...and maybe try to pick one up.]

What kind of birds are you? [More talking to herself than anything else.]

iv.

Hello?

[The snow was coming down hard. Lucy was bundled up as best as she could, but the way the winds were picking up, she needed to find shelter. While going up to any random cabin wasn't the best idea, there wasn't much she could do. She has her phone, she can send a text to someone to let them know where she was. She was brave, she was strong. She could kick, scream for help if need be...but she didn't think anything bad would happen by going to the nearest cabin and knocking on it.]

Hello? Just a little girl..coming in from the cold. [Okay, not the best word choice, but she was heading in before the snow turned her into a snowman.]

Friendr:

	Friendr
«		»
	» Age: 8 » Seeking: Family, friends, a way to break a curse. » Preferences: What does that even mean? » Interests: Fairy Tales, Heroes, and Happy Endings » Bio: Cinderella didn't meet a Prince, she met a writer and they had me. The End.
	base code by photosynthesis
	Lucy Mills
	« ✘ ✔ »

iv.

[franciscoramon]

[ There are a lot of noises Cisco's prepared to hear, in the middle of a snowstorm this heavy: tree branches cracking, the sound of ice shifting on the river, footsteps passing by the cabin, even a key in the lock if Eddie decided to leave work early and come join him. But what he hears is none of those things: instead it is a soft, yet firm, knock.

Cisco's all bundled up in cozy pajamas, in his sock feet, and he hesitates for a moment. Should he open it? He isn't sure, but the thought that it might be somebody in trouble propels him up and leads him to open the door a crack. And he's glad he did, the moment he sees a little girl standing there, all by her lonesome. The snow is coming down a lot harder than it was the last time he checked, and the wind is blowing hard and icy-cold. ]

Hey, kid, are you okay? You get lost?

[thestoriesarereal]

[Lucy was wondering if she should move onto a different cabin, or attempt to open the door. Maybe the cabin was abandoned. Maybe it was left unlocked. Considering the cabin wasn't decorated with candy, Lucy can fairly assume it's safe. Thankfully, a lot of the guess work is taken away when someone opens the door.

A guy...huh. He looked like he could be related to her mom.]

Lost...displaced. Aren't they the same thing?

[Because that's what she was told when she was 'brought' here. That she was displaced...and she sort of felt like it. But that's something to ponder on later.]

May I come in? [Wait, manners.] Please?

[franciscoramon]

[ The answer is profoundly weird and not what he was expecting, but then again, when is anything ever normal, in this place? He's just going to assume that is a 'yes', and he peers into the storm behind the girl and doesn't see any adults following after her, so he's going to just assume she got separated from her mom or dad or guardian or whoever.

Cisco's not always the most trusting person (and he's not proud to admit that there is a tiny part of him that wonders if this is some kind of elaborate, horrible trap), but he's not going to leave a kid out in the cold. He stands aside, gesturing for her to come in and then closing the door after her. The snow really is picking up, and judging by the amount of it that is in her hair, she's been out there a really long time. ]

Is there somebody you need to call, to tell them where you are? I have a phone, if you want to use it. And - uh - go sit by the fire, warm yourself up, I'll... make some hot cocoa. If you're not allergic?

[ Cisco is torn between his instinct not to do or say anything that could be interpreted as threatening or stranger danger-y, but at the same time, wanting to make sure this poor kid doesn't freeze and that whoever is responsible for her isn't having a heart attack with worry. He heads over to the stove, getting out a pan and pouring some milk in it to heat up, saying as he does: ]

My name is Cisco, by the way. What were you doing out there all by yourself, in weather like this?!

[thestoriesarereal]

[No, there weren't any other adults following her. She managed to walk out on her own and then got lost. Not the brightest thing to do, but...at least she found shelter! And someone who won't try to murder her...so progress? At least?

She heads inside, shaking her head a little to help get those snow out of her hair. She doesn't keep it tied back or anything, not unless it was for ballet class. Though, now that she isn't with her step-grandmother, she won't have to do ballet class. Huh...a bit bittersweet as she did enjoy dancing.]

Thank you. [She starts to take off her coat, knowing all the snow and ice will make it wet. Her eyes flicker over to the fire, clearly impressed with it.]

I have my own phone, but I can't text my Mom, don't think she's here. [So...there's really no one for her to text. Surprise! She's new.] I'm not allergic to cocoa or...anything, I think. [Not something they really ever went over, but she's focused on going by the fire and warming up.]

I'm Lucy, Lucy Mills. And...I wanted to take a look around? I didn't think it would snow this bad.

[She rubs her hands together, warming them up a little more.]

ii

[thesavior]

[Emma wasn't really the kind of person to stay inside for too long. She had begun taking walks to clear her head, and to keep her body fit. That was what she told herself anyway, the fact was she didn't like being inside all that much. Maybe it was from too many years living out of her car.

She smiled as she thought of her little yellow bug. She had a lot of fond memories of that car, and some not so fond, but mostly it was good memories. The girl caught her attention. Her curiosity reminded her of Henry. ]

I've been trying to figure that out myself.

[thestoriesarereal]

[A little girl should be more observant of her surroundings. Such as if someone was coming up to her, but the birds are too cute to look away from. Their soulful eyes show as much emotions as anything else. There's even a few of them building nests, it's something out of a nature show!]

They're really cute though!

[And that's when Lucy turns to see who is talking to her, and her mouth drops a little.]

Are you...are you Emma Swan? Henry Mills' mom?

[Aka the Savior, aka family member?!]

[thesavior]

[Emma's eyes narrow but her face didn't change at all because she was looking at a kid that couldn't be more than 7 maybe 8 years old. Her eyes went to the birds as she moved closer to Lucy. The question may have surprised her but she didn't let it show.

Emma crouched down and held her hand out like her Mom had always done. When a bird climbed on her wrist, her own jaw dropped. ]

Huh. I am, but how do you know my son?

Friendr

[sonofab]

A curse? What kind of curse?

[thestoriesarereal]

You know, the kind that puts people to sleep, except this curse made everyone forget who they were.

IV

[threatenwithcuteness]

*Lola was humming to herself as she danced around the small kitchen making some soup and garlic bread. Something tasty enough to be worth cooking but also good for fighting off the cold. Naturally, she was not expecting company. Especially not in this storm.*

...Why are you out there on your own? Oh, nevermind, that can wait till you get inside. Lose your boot and coat by the door and pick up the blanket off the couch.

*Lola's not great at kids but she'll just remember what her dad said to her or her friends when they came in after a snow in Toronto. Lola glances back at her tiny kitchen and goes to work keeping things from burning. Your timing is awful kid, she was busy.*

Got a name? And make sure that door is closed closed.

[thestoriesarereal]

[Something good was coming from the kitchen. Something warm and had the faint scent of garlic. Lucy's stomach started to rumble, already missing the food her mom and Sabine made. She was feeling homesick, but she couldn't really think about it too much. Not when she was still outside.

The door opens to show a young woman with blue hair. For a moment Lucy wonders if she's looking at a fairy, but people did dye their hair weird colors in Hyperion Heights.]

I wanted to build a snowman?

[Okay, not the best excuse, but at least this woman was letting her inside. Lucy does as she's told, taking off her boots and her coat, being careful to place both somewhere easy to reach. The door is fully shut and even locked for good measure.]

I'm Lucy. Lucy Mills. Thanks for letting me inside. What's your name?

[threatenwithcuteness]

*Look, given all Lola's dealt with over the past year, she has no reason to doubt that story. She could believe people had pet dragons, she could believe children building snowmen.*

I'm Lola.

*She's got one of those personable, energetic attitudes, she moves around the kitchen pulling out plates, bowls, and utensils, now pulling out enough for two. Fortunately Lola is a firm believer in leftovers, so there was usually a little more food than she ever needed at a single sitting. Habit from living with more than just herself of late.*

Why would I leave you outside? That storm isn't anyplace for... how old are you? Anyway, there'll be cocoa in a few minutes. You get warm there.

*Lola hummed to herself as she finished ladling soup to a bowl, grabbing a spoon for it, and then setting a pot for the cocoa to heat on. Small kitchen, not enough burners. She wandered over and handed the bowl to Lucy.*

iv

[ragnarsson]

[Ivar's busy warming himself by the fire when the door opens unexpectedly. On instinct, he reaches for the knife at his waist. Oh, it's just a little girl. The teen in the wheelchair has fierce, sharp eyes that seem to miss nothing as his hand eases off the knife. For Vikings, hospitality is a sacred thing. To turn someone away in need would mean possibly condemning them to death. While it may not be as dramatic here, Ivar hold true to his culture's ideals.]

Come in then and warm yourself by the fire.

[Ivar's dressed strangely, still in clothes more from his own time than the more modern ones of the city. There's weapons strewn out in front of the fireplace along with a whetting stone.]

[thestoriesarereal]

[So there isn't a big, scary, hooded figure here. No, just a guy wearing funny clothes and swords. Lucy stands by the door, having already shut it and locked it. The figure by the fire looks a bit intimidating to an eight year old child.

What was that thing that school taught her? Stranger danger?]

Thank you...

[She sounds a bit unsure, but her eyes go to the other weapons he has. She should be scared of them, but she hasn't seen weapons like that in ages.]

Are those yours?

[ragnarsson]

[Alright, so while usually Ivar is flattered when people are intimidated by him, he's not particularly looking to scare a child right now. He gives her a smile, one of his actual ones, not the shark-like smirks that so often cross his face.]

Yes. I'm dividing them up by category. [He points to each in turn.] Knives, axes, and swords. Then I'm going to sharpen the dull ones.

[...He's not a serial killer despite what it might look like. Just a Viking.]

Friendr ✔

[stantheman]

Are you really trying to break a curse?

[thestoriesarereal]

I was, yeah. Don't think I can if I'm here.

[stantheman]

Why?

friendr

[jolting]

[what is this even]

Your father's name wouldn't be Henry, would it?

[thestoriesarereal]

Actually, it would be.

Why? Do you know him?

[jolting]

I've known him since he was a baby. I guess you could call me the family doctor.

friendr

[royalpassport]

Mills. As in Regina?

friendr

[thestoriesarereal]

Yup! You know Regina?

[royalpassport]

Unfortunately.

I'm seeking the same things you are.