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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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[He says with no small amount of pride as he picks up one of his knives to sharpen. Unless she's from the stars or a completely different reality like some of his friends, she'll likely know what that is.]
I did the arrows yesterday.
[The bow and quiver are propped up in the corner. It's a massive bow, far beyond what most people would be able to handle.]
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Whoa.
[This is amazing and incredible, and just...
She has to stick out her hand to him. Her mother raised her to have good manners, and if she were in a dress she'd curtsy.]
Lucy Mills, pleasure to meet you Mister Viking.
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Ivar Ragnarsson. Other Vikings call me Ivar The Boneless.
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...Or climbed up the stairs or something.]
The Boneless? [She doesn't go for the obvious, there could be any number of reasons why he's in a wheelchair, but her imagination is running wild right now.] Is it because after you kill your enemies, you take all their bones?
[Oh, her mother and grandmother, and dad probably would be horrified that she'd ask such a thing, but hey! She is a curious kid?]
no subject
Lucy's guess gets a soft chuckle out of him.]
No, although I might have to start doing that now. [There's a good idea for intimidation!] They call me that because I can't walk. It was meant to be a cruel nickname, but I decided I liked it.
[That was the simplest explanation he could give a child.]
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You made it your own. [Turned something bad into something good. Sort of like Regina when she was/is the Evil Queen.]
You could make, like, a hundred different stories from the 'Boneless' part alone! Bet they would make scary Halloween stories.
[She doesn't dwell much on his lack of ability to walk, rather, she's more interested in him being a Viking.]
How did you collect so many weapons? Did you make them all yourself?
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[He'd always felt small pieces of his father clinging about when men told tales of Ragnar Lothbrok.]
I had a few with me when I came here. The rest I collected over the months I was here. [He selects a few knives and one throwing axe covered in ancient Norse runes.] These were the ones I made with my own hands.
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Have you thought about putting those stories in a book? That way, the details are right, and people can reread your stories over and over again.
[Lucy looks over the weapons he's collected, her eyes drawn to the one with those runes and different carvings on them.]
That's so cool. They don't go over how weapons were made in history class. [And...with Henry being cursed, she can't really ask him how swords were made either.] How long did it take you to make these?
no subject
[He's working on his illiteracy but it's slow going.
This is a curious child. Not many her age from the modern era would be interested in weapons.]
A while. I'm particular about the blades I make.
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[Those people were called..scribers? She couldn't remember the term for it.
She is a very curious child, interested to know a few things and keep her mind off her family.]
Like...how sharp to make the blades? Or...? [What's the harm in telling a child the art of weapon making?] There's really nothing like this from where I'm from. Except textbooks and museums.
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[There's a slightly humorous tone to his voice. It's still interesting to him that, in the future, almost everyone can read.]
It depends on the type of metal. Those that are forged correctly don't need to be sharpened as often as those made with shoddy materials. I sharpen mine after every couple of uses.
no subject
I could! If you want me to.
[ Theres a faint nod of her head.]
And what do you use them for? [ Innocent question...]
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[Though he's certain that not all of them are appropriate for the ears of a little girl to be hearing.
At the question about his weapons, Ivar shrugs.]
Oh, you know, monsters, sworn enemies, people who annoy me...
[The usual types that need a good stabbing.]
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[So, no big deal, really. She'll type everything out and then help him with making a book.
...say what?]
There's actual monsters here? Like Trolls?
[...and also ignoring the whole 'people who annoy me' part.]
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[Alright, he could grow to like this little girl very much. Why can't he get along with adults as well as he seems to do with kids?]
Yes. Outside the walls, there's many of them. I'm on the Perimeter Guard and I fight to keep them out of the city. There was one I found a few months ago that was enormous, with green fur that made it look like grass, so it disguised itself as a grassy hill when it laid down.
[Now there's a tale that could definitely be put down as a story.]
no subject
[Spoken like the daughter of an Author. All stories have their own twists and turns, and the chance for people to change and grow.
Lucy seemingly hangs on every word that Ivar tells. She wants to know more details, what he did. What did the monster look like, did it breathe fire? Did it have claws that could shred a person into pieces?]
And then what happened?
no subject
[Ivar's more than willing to tell her the story. Stories were one of the few non-violent things that Vikings could appreciate.]
Its hindquarters were lower to the ground then the front, so it hunched over. It looked a little like a giant bear, with little ears, big, sharp teeth, and long claws. When it stood up, its back touched the branches of trees, and broke them off.
I was prepared to fight it, but I knew I would need help. My friend Nico, the son of a god, he summoned a couple of zombies to help us kill the beast. And then we began to fight.
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[Lucy sits there, hanging off of each word he says. She can picture the beast in her mind and she feels like in addition to her writing his story, there needs to be pictures too. Though, she should try and memorize everything he's telling her so she can write it out later.]
You're friends with a demi-god too? [Whoa, his stories keep getting interesting.
Wait, son of a god who can summon zombies (cool and gross) so then...]
Your friend, is he the son of Hades? Like the Hades?
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Yes, he's a demi-god, and son of the Greek god Hades. He can raise the dead with just a thought and I've seen him do far worse to people. The zombies were definitely needed to take down a beast of that size.
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And then what happened? The zombies--were they gross looking? Did they walk all stiff like? Or were they coherent and crabby because they were woken up or? Was this the first time you'd seen Nico rise an army of the undead?
[It's cool, really it is, even if zombies are a bit gross....but it's all part of a good story!]
no subject