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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!
no subject
You could! I don't know my aunt's recipe, but if you need help baking, I can do it. And the food truck was coming along. I think Aunt Sabine had it painted already. It just needs a few more things.
[Okay...the hair changing color part leaves Lucy speechless. It's seemingly a simple thing, but to her it's magical. Which makes her wonder if Lola has magic--people in Canada could have magic, right? It's something to ask about later.
After having some cocoa and trying not to think about her family. You don't give up on family. But what if they gave up on you? Not on Lucy but in other ways and things.
She takes the mug from Lola, nodding her head a little.]
I think I'll focus on the new friends part... [There's a weak attempt at a smile before she takes a sip of the cocoa...and decides to focus on something else.]
So is your hair magical? Or are you the only Canadian that's magical?
no subject
*This place doesn't like reasonable and orderly. Then again, Lola doesn't either so that's probably why she's lasted so long. Still, she hopes she got the explanation right, so Lucy understands how things might get complicated.*
Well, finding the right ingredients is usually a chore. Not everything from Earth is as widely available as I'd like. So occasionally I have to improvise. But since you'd know how they should taste better than me, you can totally help.
*Lola can smile at Lucy's choice to focus on new friends. Waiting forever for people that might never feel as lost as this portal likes is a sorry way to live, Lola's going to just make herself at home until she leaves, or until someone comes to find her.*
It's actually not magic, sorry to say. It seems like magic but its a super advanced sorta technology this moon has. I got it for my seventeenth birthday right after I arrived. But don't let that fool you, I'm pretty magical otherwise.
*Lola stop using magical to mean amazing on a moon where actual magic exists. That's just asking for confusion.*
no subject
[Cause swords are cool, not going to lie.]
Yes! I'm good at finding things too, well, most of the time. Like my mom's keys. But, why isn't everything available? I mean, do they have things that are sort of similar?
[...oh so it's not magic, just technology, but Lola's magical? Well, Lucy leans in a little closer, almost inspecting just a bit.]
...Maybe..or maybe not. [The magical part that is. Lucy hasn't seen magic play out outside of her own world--the real one. The one she still remembers.] I mean...can you do real magic? Not just tricks, but actual magic like the Evil Queen?
no subject
*Ivar prefers knives, that's just a thing.*
Well, we're on a moon orbiting an alien planet, not all plants grow here, not all animals are kept and cultivated here. And there are a lot of alien plants and animals that exist. So sometimes I have to use the alien version of onions or strawberries. Usually it's just they're a different color or they're slightly different, like how apples and pears aren't the same.
*Give Lola a moment to figure out the kid's serious. Oh also Lola is eating, so that takes a few moments too. She watches the kid for a long moment.*
Oh, you mean real magic. No, that's not a thing I do. I don't think. I mean if I accidentally gained magic here I wouldn't know how to test it anyway. ...Why did you start with an Evil Queen? Why not ask about fairies or wizards?
no subject
[Tell her all about the Viking, please!] What about bows and arrows? Or any other weapons?
[She nods and listens, getting a bit of a lesson about this place. Okay, what Lola's saying does make sense. It's a Moon, it can't grow the same types of plants as Earth. And the same applies to the animals...okay.]
That makes sense. Substitute things for other things.
[Lucy is waiting with anxious breath, waiting for any sign. Maybe a wand, maybe fairy wings to suddenly appear...but no. Her food is forgotten for the moment, looking a bit disappointed. And without missing a beat, she answers Lola's question:]
Because she's my grandmother--Regina. She's not evil anymore.
[She starts to have some spoonfuls of her soup.]
no subject
*Lola's never really watched Ivar do his thing. It's not really her nature. He did show up in her diner covered in blood more than once, that's been a thing. As for here and now, she can't really get lost in Lucy's disappointment Lola isn't some sort of magic fairy thing because she's just too confused over the other stuff.*
So your grandmother's former title was Evil Queen, and your step-grandmother has a personal chef. Is this a usual thing for Seattle?
*Lola's feeling like she's missed something. Which happens more than she'd care to admit.*
no subject
[Lola, you keep getting this little girl so excited. First a viking with swords and such, and now monsters. Are they really on a Moon and not in some space fairy tale realm?]
Ahh...no..
[Lucy looks down for a moment, trying to gauge if Lola would believe her or not. Considering how weird slash cool this place is...might as well give it a shot.]
You've heard of fairy tales...right? Like Snow White and the Evil Queen? Rapunzel? Lady Tremaine from Cinderella?
What if I told you...they're not stories, they're real?
no subject
*Sound life advice, Lola. Tell the kid not to touch the dangerous thing. That'll totally work. The rest of it Lola listens to, casually sipping her cocoa as she digests the information. Like, it was weird, sure. But not the unbelievable weird exactly.*
Um... I'd say you're probably from a different Earth than the one I'm from. Someone would have probably sued Disney if all of that was real. Wait... does that mean your Earth doesn't have Disney movies?
*Lola's priorities are astounding.*
no subject
[Yes, tell the kid not to go to the dangerous thing and she may or may not avoid it. It's hard to tell at this point.]
Disney? Like...Disneyland?
[It sounds familiar, but it's at least giving Lola a hint that Disney does exist in her world.]
Well, in my world, there are other realms and fairy tales are real. So...when I say my Grandma is the Evil Queen...I mean it.
no subject
*People Lola is friends with, but aren't things Lola is any good at.*
Yeah, they made movies about all those stories. Kinda old, but super important. So... Evil Queen means... the one who was after Snow White right? So, wait she had a kid? I don't remember that.
no subject
[Lola, you're going to get this kid more hyped up on the magic aspect than the sugar in her cocoa.]
Depending on who writes the story, the information changes...but no, the Evil Queen didn't have a kid--in the literal sense. But, she did cast a curse on Prince Charming and Snow White and they had a kid, she was known as the Savior. And the Savior was taken to a world without magic, saving her from the curse. Well, the Savior had a kid, and that kid was Henry, and the Evil Queen adopted Henry not knowing he was the Savior's son.
So...my family's history is pretty complicated. And the Evil Queen isn't evil anymore.
no subject
*Lola makes a note to switch the kid to decaf... and then remembers this isn't coffee, it's hot cocoa. Drat.*
So you're Snow White's great granddaughter, and also the Evil Queen's granddaughter. Because even fairy tales end up with weird multiparent households?
And even if her title is Evil Queen she isn't evil. She probably should think about rebranding.
no subject
[Oh my gosh, that is so cool! Can anyone go to magic school? Was magic really a requirement?]
Yeah! Though, Snow White and Prince Charming live elsewhere, and Henry, my Dad, and my Mom and I live elsewhere. And Regina too. There's also other family ties, but like I said it's complicated.
[There's a small laugh.]
Actually, the title works more in her favor these days. It carries around a certain...distinction?
no subject
*Not crushing all hope, but some hope.*
Well, you're still in the US, most people don't live with their parents and their grandparents and their great grandparents. It'd be weird if you lived with all of them in Seattle.
*Something ticked away in the back of Lola's mind. She was a good listener, but not the best at figuring things out. There was something in there she hasn't put her finger on.*
Wait, don't you live with your mom, or your step-grand- oh! Your mom is Cinderella isn't she!?
no subject
[She'll figure it out. Even if she could just WALK on the campus, that would be amazing!]
So...the thing about who I'm..was living with. It was with my Mom, and my Aunt Sabine. It's...complicated, but the best way to put it is, everyone's cursed and they don't really remember who they are.
[Lucy is doing her best to explain everything and not get someone too confused over thins.]
Yes! My mom is Cinderella! I nearly found a piece of her glass slipper too, once..