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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
Come with me. [Old habits be damned. Alexiel links their fingers and turns to walks down the hill. The beetles have calmed, it seems and she smiles at them briefly as they pass.]
I like them even more.
no subject
They may prove useful. Who are your friends?
no subject
[Frankly, she is tired of watching others die. It is entirely natural and expected, but she wants to avoid seeing it and causing it while here.]
no subject
Human existence is short and fleeting. If they want to risk their lives or lose them to have meaning instead of dying old and infirm and having done nothing of value, then so be it. No one benefits from a life unlived.
no subject
[Only assisting them.]
I know the value of choosing one's last stand. [Had she not asked him - a lifetime ago - to end her life with his sword?]
no subject
Maybe they have people they love that they'd rather not see trampled to death by a rhinoceros beetle the size of an actual rhinoceros. If you have the strength to lift a sword against a threat, then you do it, to protect those who can't.
no subject
[Because, honestly, when it comes down to it, Alexiel has a soft spot for most of humanity.]
It doesn't matter if I'm gored.
no subject
He stops in his tracks and looks over his shoulder. He doesn't even really dignify her words with any of his own, just a look that so intense it could make a stone roll over to hide. He is too much in control of his feelings to lash out at her, though, in spite of the callous and even thoughtless way she mentions tossing her life away--as though she was worth nothing. Then, impassive, he turns his face forward and begins walking again. ]
The willingness to self-sacrifice for love is one of the few noble aspects of any spirit. I would not have that changed, even if it may mean their death.
[ The freedom to live and die by one's principles; it's not a right he would compromise on. ]
no subject
Are you speaking of them or yourself? [She knows he must be - in her experience, he is not a selfish being. Far from it!] Who do you love?
[Is he like her? Like Adam Kadamon? Or can he focus that emotion on one? She thinks she must be capable of it, but she hasn't had a chance to put it into action.]
no subject
Just as it is her nature to not see what is plainly in front of her very eyes, it is in his to obscure, confuse, and flat-out lie. The words come pouring out of him too fast to stop himself, a stream of conscious comprised of old, bad habit. ]
You mistake admiration and fascination for love. I feel no such thing for them. [ But no lie feels right without the right amount of truth, and so he throws into the mix a bitter grain of truth. ]. Nor do I hold a monster such as myself in such high regards. Do not fool yourself into thinking that I followed you those years for any reason other than the fulfillment of my own selfish ambitions.
As for the last...
[ now there is just a hint of amusement in his voice, not that she could confirm whether it was real or just her imagination, with his back to her. ]
... When you know the answer for yourself already you may ask me again.
no subject
She is fiercely - and stubbornly - independent and it is not until recently that she has begun to understand the effects of her actions on others. His answer does not upset her, per se, and she mulls over it before her gaze sharpens at his next comment.]
Are we two monsters, then? [He is pulling away and she finds she doesn't like that one bit.] You need someone to love you because I hardly think you love yourself.
[Can he feel her eyes boring a hole into the back of him? She studies him and then murmurs pensively:]
No, we are not monsters; we are fools.
no subject
He looks over his shoulder to examine her face. ]
I only said that I was a monster, not you. Nor do I believe it has made the classification "fool" null and void. I do not see a particular reason you should covet or assign yourself such a label, but I suppose that is for yourself to decide.
no subject
I am dyed crimson by the blood I have spilt. I have lived and died for love. You may not think that monstrous or foolish, but - [She shrugs, breathing in deeply.] I am still in love.
no subject
To hear her say that she sees herself as monstrous is not unexpected, though. Just saddening. Though perhaps not as saddening as to hear her say that she is still in love.
His foot catches on the rocks of the hill that they climb strangely, sending a large stone clattering down and there is a small falter in his step as he stumbles and catches himself. Of course. It should be expected. She would have learned, through Setsuna, how to feel such a thing. He does not have it in him to feel jealous, that would require feeling that he was worthy of such a thing.
But that does not mean he cannot feel regret or sorrow that he does not and will not ever.
His voice remains steady, even though he feels that his stomach has joined the rock he's sent tumbling away. ]
There are those who would have become monsters gladly to earn such favor from you. If it is Djibril that your heart seeks, though, you will have to wait some time longer. I have not felt her presence within this reality as of yet.
no subject
Or even a teenager. But she understands what she feels...for the first time. It is a deep, terrifying realization and it is entirely unrelenting. His stumble startles her and she moves to his side without a sound, a hand reaching to steady him.
Yet she doesn't touch him. Her fingers stop short.] I am not Setsuna. He loves that soul and I love another.
[Revealing her hand feels like a reckless move and so she asks, instead:]
Do you know what it feels like? One moment, you feel like you could do anything for them; the next, your heart feels like it has been stabbed.