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quaranmeme2018-01-20 07:58 pm
riverview: january 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 2 Character Slots available.
● Reserves will open on February 15th. Applications will next be open between March 1st to March 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
Starting around the 20th, residents of the city will start hearing some pretty disturbing rumors circulating - the rumors originate with some members of the Perimeter Guard who are returning from patrols, pale and a little panicked. They're reporting that a herd of terrifying beetle-like behemoth monsters lumbering toward the city - one female leader clocking in at 60 feet long and about 20 smaller male companions, each around 30 feet long. Unlike the Behemoth who showed up earlier in the year, these ones are nasty, sporting horns and big enough to knock over trees and displace even the bigger monsters in the usual crowd, and they've already breached through the wall of the Abandoned City and are heading toward the city itself. A herd like this could cause some serious damage, maybe even enough to compromise the wall of the Inhabited City. Thankfully, the Perimeter Guard has a nice big ace up their sleeves in the form of a small fleet of mechs, but the problem is that the mech are still in beta-testing, prone to breaking down, and there aren't enough to go around. This means that there's going to have to be some serious support on the ground.
The attack on the behemoth beetles is two-fold. The first order of business is to send out anyone with big powers or big guns to wear them down, beating on them the old-fashioned way, with brute force. The second is to circle around behind and, while the monsters are distracted, try to herd them away from the city using bright flares, fireworks left over from the Festival of Light, and even more big guns. Volunteers to do the shooting and supplying the brave souls going out into the jungle are welcome!
What do you use to fight a giant monster? A giant mech. And thankfully the Perimeter Guard has been working on something just like that - a new fleet of 20 three-story-tall mech suits meant to be manned by two people. With the behemoth herd approaching, the Guard is calling for anyone with piloting experience, or even people willing to take a quick course in it, to help man the fleet and head out into the fray, stomping through the brush and fighting the behemoths either in the Abandoned City or the jungle outside it. The goal is to take them out, take them down, or at least help the ground teams herd them away from the city and discourage them from returning.
Mechs are piloted by two people working together - while it's not exactly drift compatibility, the two characters need to act together, with one directing where the mech goes and keeping an eye on the terrain, and the other one manning the guns and keeping an eye on the mech's defenses and energy and ammunition levels. This takes a lot of concentration and cooperation, and this day is bound to forge a lot of new friendships....and probably a few mortal enemies. On top of the difficulty of working with someone who may be a total stranger, don't forget the mechs are in beta-testing and are only being used as a last resort, which means they have a bad tendency to break down in unexpected ways.
Each mech is fitted with two large canon-style guns that can be semi-automatic or automatic with a limited amount of ammunition, one plasma sword, and a force shield that can take four serious hits before it is depleted. They have a finite amount of energy storage and are able to be in continuous use for 3 hours maximum before shutting down. Out of the fleet of 20 mechs, the mod only expects about 5 to still be functional at the end of the battle, so feel free to have characters destroy them in threads. If any player (once accepted to the game) is interested in having their character take over the mechs as a project going forward, feel free to PM the mod account and we can talk it out!
Once the city is safe enough that it isn't in poor taste to advertise fun outings, residents will start seeing ads for a new attraction in the city - the Crystal Caves. Presented as an excellent date spot, the caves are beautiful natural formations only recently discovered just a short walk outside the city. With the path cleared and patrolled by hired security to ensure that the trip there is safe, happy couples (or singles, but why go alone when you can bring a special friend or two?) can walk through the caves.
Inside, characters will enjoy a short walk along a twisty cave path where the walls appear to be made of semi-opaque crystal that shimmers with different colors, looking almost a little like the Northern Lights. After this path, the caves open into a series of beautiful caverns that seem to be made of pure crystal, with jagged crystalline formations in wide varieties of colors, some of which look almost like they've been slowly melting for decades, molten and shimmering. Visitors can find booths offering rock candy crystals on sticks and other treats, souvenirs, and for those without as much exploratory spirit or patience, guided tours that point out some of the more beautiful formations. There are also a few smaller caverns that have been converted into overnight camps where groups can stay the night and enjoy a catered group breakfast in the morning!
If there's one trait that entrepreneurs in Riverview Quarantine all seem to have in common, it's jumping the gun and opening attractions or releasing new products before taking the time to conduct enough tests. The Crystal Caves are no different, unfortunately, though in this case the effects are a little less distressing. Residents who traveled to the caves will find themselves tossing and turning at night anywhere from a few days later to a week later, depending on their mental fortitude, and slipping into incredibly strange dreams. Varying from wild flights of exhilarating fancy to personalized nightmares depending on the personality of the dreamer, the dreams are incredibly vivid and realistic, with everything feeling, smelling, sounding, tasting, and looking completely real.
The strangest part of the dreams, though, is that anyone who'd looked at the same particular crystal as another person and seen their reflections in it will experience the dream with that person as an equal participant, able to share the same dream-granted abilities and experiences, able to work together as a team or hinder progress. Whether that person was a partner, a friend, an enemy, or even just a stranger observing the same formation at the same time, if their reflections appeared on a crystal together, they will find themselves sharing each other's dreams off and on for about a week. Some dreamers might even find that just thinking about a particular person they know as they fall asleep can pull that person into their dream, even if they weren't in the caves together.
This effect can be shared between just two people or larger groups, and the dreams themselves can belong to any character affected or be a combination of all of their dreams. The dreams themselves tend toward the positive more than the negative and the fanciful more than the realistic, but where they fall on that spectrum depends largely on character temperament and personality. Characters affected simply have to have looked at the same crystal in the caves, even if it was on a different day or at a different time, or for characters who would not have gone to the caves, be thought of by a person who has while they fall asleep.
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
She wasn't ready to go there, not yet.
But of course she wasn't going to allow the dig from her twin to go unanswered. "Oh please," she dismissed as she toggled a few switches trusting that she wasn't going to blow themselves up given everything. "There is no way that she is as bad as me at that age. You maybe, but definitely not me."
Leia had already put it together that he was from later in the timeline than she was (and honestly when had she started thinking that way?!) especially because he knew Rey well enough to have that read on her. Maybe it was something that Leia had always thought was simply a Skywalker trait, but maybe it was a Force user one: they were all a pain in the ass.
But there's something that he needs to know if he's not connected with the Force and she looks at him with her very intent General Organa stare. "Ben is here too."
no subject
A single ill-thought decision and everything came crashing down. The glue of their family pulled apart.
His expression softened when they took the path of least resistance, the easiest topic of conversation that united them both. He flipped a few switches and fired up their chariot, which chugged and rattled dramatically. It wasn't an X-wing that was for sure. He shot her a sour look all the same. "Don't you dare put her in the same class as me. I reserved that for myself only."
He was manually testing the controls for motion and turned his head slightly at her admittance. Another difficult topic it would seem. He met her gaze, his lips pursing for a moment as he considered that and nodded his head. "Have you spoken with him?"
no subject
In more ways than one, in the way that she believed that she could save Ben in the same way that Luke had believed that he could save Vader. And of course there was the fact that they could both be stubborn asses as well. There was always that. In all honesty, people probably wouldn't be in Leia's life if they weren't stubborn asses in one way or another.
His question about Ben made her find the control panel all the more important before her before she just nodded. "I did. Once." The fact that it was only once stung, considering this was the closest that they'd been in decades. But he was still there and still gone, almost like a ghost. Almost like Han was. There was a little bit of a beat before she went on however. "He said to ask you what really happened that night."
no subject
"I think you sent her to me in order to punish me," he said loftily, getting their mech into a faster motion, which made it rattle and lurch violently. He had to slow it back to the original pacing a moment later. "It was revenge for that time I said you needed a hair cut, wasn't it? One comment and you send the most annoying person to interrupt my vacation."
It was interesting how the conversation flowed, but in a way, there was little that they had felt the need to hide from each other. Time might have extended the period between their conversations, but he still could read her like an open book at times. His own control panel was very interesting because of course Ben would focus on that above everything else. "It was the night where he had no reason afterwards to hide how far to the Dark Side he had gone. The night I destroyed something precious, but also the night where Ben embraced trying to be like Vader."
no subject
"Because the three of them are definitely more of a match for annoyance than the three of us where." Four of you counted Chewie, which Leia did because he was a constant. And apparently always had been with the Rebellion.
While they were talking, Leia made herself comfortable with one of the guns and she casually shot one of the things that were trying to get them out of the machine out of the sky. Really she had learned to trust her aim even more as she had gotten into her advanced years.
But then she stopped and simply just stared at him. "What did you do?"
no subject
That was moot now. He was drawn into this place and considered it both a punishment and a reckoning.
They were closing on the giant insects, and he was flicking controls to stabilize their balance so that Leia had clear shots and could take them. Piloting gave him something to concentrate on when the question fell, and he didn't even need to be Force sensitive to know it was on its way.
He swallowed hard and continued to stare straight ahead; he was unable to look at his twin. He had been dreading this day for many years. "I reached into his mind when he was sleeping and see how far Snoke's darkness had taken him. I don't know why I did it - especially considering how I viewed Vader so long ago - but I lit my light saber and before I could withdraw and consider what to do, Ben woke and all he saw was me with a lightsaber and... he was frightened of me. When had Ben ever been frightened of me? Then it was over... the Jedi temple was done. Ben gone. My greatest shame."
no subject
She was struggling with it for more than one reason: people whom she'd thought had unshakable faith in her had been lost if only temporarily. Hopefully, temporarily, because Leia didn't want to imagine a galaxy where she lost Poe Dameron forever. But it had been because she had chosen Ben, even knowing what a monster he could be. Knowing the things he'd done.
And the things that he would go onto do, somehow that was even worse.
But if there was one thing Leia Organa was good at, it was compartmentalizing, and for a moment, she locked her thoughts in those boxes as she fired at the insects, because they weren't going to die just because she lost focus. At the same time, however, Leia went very deadly still, as if she was debating turning the guns on them both, because for a moment she was.
Her voice was that quiet angry that she got when she was completely livid and doing her best not to lose it entirely. It was an old coping skill, back from when she had needed to hide the force from everyone and she didn't even know that she was doing it. "All this time, I have been blaming myself for sending him with you when he didn't want to go. All this time, I had been thinking that it was entirely Snoke, but how would you have responded, Luke if Obi-Wan had been above you with his lightsaber drawn when you had woken up?" She wanted to ask him how. How he could have done that to her son when he was a child, and yet he had forgive Vader when he had killed billions.