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quaranmeme2018-04-20 06:40 pm
riverview: april 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 25 Character Slots available.
● Applications are currently open and will close on May 7th at 10:00 pm EST.
● 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
For the past month, the flooding in Riverview has been out of control, and the attacks of strange mutated creatures from the swollen river haven't been helping much. While the water level has stabilized over the past couple of weeks, the river is still way, way out of bounds and keeping a large number of people in relief shelters or put up with volunteer families, causing significant damage to riverside properties, homes, and businesses. While residents have done everything they can to try to correct the situation, from machines and tech to magic and appealing to the River Spirits during the yearly Flower Festival River Spirit Procession, nothing has made any real meaningful difference.
On the 20th, almost a month to the day after the river started swelling out of control, anyone looking at the rushing surface of the water will start to see a strange glow just underneath it, and as the day progresses, glowing white tentacles start to rise from the surface of the water. As the tentacles rise from the surface, members of the Perimeter Guard will be setting up a protective barrier around the area to keep civilians back until they figure out what's up with whatever's in the river.
In the meantime, the presence of the glowing thing is driving the last of the nasty giant mutated crocodiles, carnivorous toads, and other monsters out of the river in droves. While the Perimeter Guard is still holding the line, volunteers are being called for to take out the monsters as they exit the river, menacing the rest of the city. Whether your character is a member of the Guard in training, helping keep the civilians safe from the possible new threat in the river, or a volunteer helping take out the fleeing monsters, their help will be more than welcome.
After a few days of study, Gramarye Magic Research's strongest mages have banded together and found a way to communicate with the glowing presence in the deep, using a wide variety of nature-based magicks from different realms. And what have they learned?
The presence is not just one creature, it is many, and they are awakening from a long, long sleep. Possibly almost as long as there have been people on the moon - it's hard to tell, when the creatures 'speak' so slowly. What the mages have managed to get from them is that it is their awakening and movement that's causing the flooding in the river, a combination of blocking up the river's exit through the fences with their bulk and an overflow of elemental water magic that is causing the river to swell with more water than it can hold. The creatures, who call themselves the 'Guardians of the Deep,' are eventually ruled to be completely benign, and their only request is to be helped on their migration to the sea - a trip that they usually take once a year when they are not in hibernation. The problem is that, since their last migration, the river has become a much more dangerous place, plagued by monsters and clogged with rubble from the Abandoned City.
Any resident with nature magic of any kind and who can communicate with the creatures, who is a fighter or member of the Perimeter Guard, or who has abilities that can help to clear the river of any debris or blockages, is invited to aid in the attempt to escort the Guardians of the deep down the river. Once they reach the delta and waterfalls, their path will be clear and they will be free to explore the ocean until they return to the city in late fall.
ETA: In response to a player question, the Guardians look like very large glowy amoebas.
The Guardians of the Deep are slow-speaking and they are also slow-moving. For a period of at least two weeks, they will be making their way from the center of the city down the river with the current, and as they travel, they'll be having a rather...interesting effect on anyone who is sensitive to their influence. This sensitivity is something a character may be aware of through a strong connection with or love of nature or animals, it may be a spiritual or magical sensitivity, it may be an emotional one, or it might simply be something a character is not aware of until they are affected. However, no matter what a character is or where they come from, they may be susceptible to the aura of the Guardians.
And what does that aura do?
Starting on April 20th and intermittently continuing throughout the next month, any characters with a sensitivity (feel free to make one up that affects your character, or have them be immune as per your choice) will lose an important sense. While sight is the most commonly lost sense, others may lose hearing, taste, touch, smell, or other senses unique to their physiology (whether biological, mechanical, or otherwise). The only relief from this loss is for the character to make direct contact with another character - any other character, in any way, as long as there is no clothing, material, or other matter blocking contact. As soon as contact is broken, the loss will return.
The effect can last for as long or short a time as each player wishes, and affect whatever sense is desired. Reprieve from the effect comes with skin-to-skin (or equivalent) contact with another character, and is not limited to just one other character - it doesn't matter who else is being touched, as long as it's someone.
During this year, there's been an influx of people from a dying reality consisting mostly of living plant people, and they've really taken the Flower Festival as a great opportunity to introduce one of their most honored traditions to the people of their new adopted world. The tradition involves sharing various types of flowers with strangers, with each type of flower having a different meaning and effect on both the giver and receiver - the bond of the exchange can spark emotion as well as physical responses that function in a unique way that affects almost everyone that participates, whether animal, plant, or even android.
Some of the flowers have been used up, but a few types still remain. Any characters exchanging the flowers with other characters, whether friends or strangers, will experience emotional/psychological effects, physical effects, or both once the exchange is complete. Effects can last for as short or long a time as the players involved want, and are as follows:
● Baby Blue Eyes - Trust/Healing the Inner Child
Emotional Effect: Either an inexplicable trust in the person the flower was exchanged with, or a generalized paranoia.
Physical Effect: De-aging. Characters can become a younger version of themselves, physically, mentally, or both. Whether or not their normal selves are of age, de-aged characters may not participate in adult prompts unless they're de-aged to something above 18.
● Rose - Friendship/Beauty
Emotional Effect: Openness and a desire to make new friends, or excessive competitiveness.
Physical Effect: A temporary glamor that makes both participants in the exchange appear as the most beautiful possible version of themselves, and improves their charisma.
● Valerian: - Relaxation/Heart-Opening
Emotional Effect: A near-complete erasure of anxiety and stress, or a dramatic inexplicable increase in it.
Physical Effect: Forced honesty. Both affected characters become incapable of lying. Whether they're compelled to blurt the truth or if they can keep their mouths shut or talk around the truth is up to player discretion.
[Flower meanings used in this prompt come from this site.]
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!
Pidge Holt \\ Voltron: Legendary Defender
[Pidge isn't big enough to do heavy hauling, but she's agile enough to get to places others can't and then get out safely, and she's brave enough to jump to wherever she needs to be. That's useful, because clogs in the river's flow don't happen only where they're easy to get to.
Of course, it can take a certain amount of yelling before anyone's willing to let her do what she can to help, but in the end, it's easier to help her than stop her.
She's shimmying out on an overhanging tree limb, focused on a spot where a bunch of nasty-looking debris is caught up on a rock in the stream. The more it grows, the more of the river it blocks up, and the more stuff it catches. Feedback loops are nasty things. But she's thinking hard as she inches her way out. She hangs sloth-like from the underside of the branch, legs and arms hooked around it.]
Okay! Toss me that big branch near you! Or a pole, or -- I don't know, whatever! I think I can loosen up the whole thing if I can poke it just right...
[That also requires her letting go of her grip with at least one hand, to catch whatever tool she gets tossed her way. No worries, right?]
v. friendr
» Seeking: new friends -- or interesting robots!
» Preferences: n/a
» Interests: tech, computers, saving the universe
» Bio: if you can build it, I can hack it and make it better.
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Just to be safe, he had Red on standby to fly out and pull her free if needed.]
You couldn't do that from the shore?
[He glanced around, looking for something long enough. He'd rather not actually throw something, but hand it to her instead. It would be a little less life-threatening for her, at least.]
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I tried -- I couldn't reach it. Don't worry, I'll be fine. This tree's good and sturdy!
[Well, she hoped it was. After all, in a flood, nothing was truly stable -- but it wasn't like trees just fell over when you pushed them hard.]
Besides, I can get a better look at it from here. There are a couple weak spots in the clog.
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He frowned and finally found something that seemed long enough.]
Alright... try this...
[He held on to the tree as well for balance, and then stretched as far as he could, holding the long branch out to her. It wasn't exactly light, so he didn't want to throw it and risk her falling off into the water.]
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Got it!
[It definitely was heavy! But she wasn't going to give up now, not when she'd gotten this far. She got a solid grip on her improvised weapon and eyed the clog thoughtfully.]
Okay, if I just start with here....
[First shove. The whole thing quivered promisingly, but only a little bit of debris shook loose.]
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He took a second to glance back over his shoulder at Red, and the Lion was ready... just in case Pidge needed help.]
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More prodding, and then she braced herself and pushed as hard as she could -- and very nearly went into the water as the core of the obstruction collapsed, a surge of debris creating a brief mini-tsunami in the swollen roar of the river.]
Wh- Whoa!
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[That was all it took. Keith didn't have to say anything to make it happen. Red was in the air and moved in to try and catch Pidge.]
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I'm okay! I'm okay!
[Although having Red ready to catch her was reassuring. She reached out to give the lion a thankful pat.]
Thanks, Red. Glad you've got my back too, since Green's not here.
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ii
[ He's grinning, of course, hands cupped around his mouth as he calls from the roots of the tree -- but there's a worried edge caught in his teeth. His eyes flick from her swinging, then back to the river. ]
Remind me which level of plan this is. Plan A, plan S?
[ Implied: where are their alternatives? Surely they could come up with at least twenty-four plans better than one that features all these unnatural gymnastics. ]
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[Oh, there are probably better plans. But that involves standing on the shore and thinking about them instead of jumping up and doing something, and as smart as she is, patience isn't exactly her strong suit.]
It's called plan "this thing is getting worse as we speak," that's what plan it is! Just toss me something I can use to break it up!
[Now she's actually letting go with one hand, making a demanding motion toward her brother.]
All it's going to take is one little nudge, and it all comes apart.
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[ But he's making best use of his snarkiness, hefting up the branch she'd pointed out as he talks, swinging it like a bat to check its sturdiness, before he turns back. ]
All right - just give me a minute. And hold tight while you're at it.
[ The tree rustles with the impact of a boot scraping the first foothold it can find. Hope it's sturdy enough for two. ]
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[Arguing about Archimedes in the middle of a raging flood. Only these two.
But she's hanging on, all right, and wraps her arm a little tighter around the branch as Matt starts to carefully work his way toward her. Good thing neither of them is particularly large.]
I told you to throw it! What are you doing, get back!
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[ When in doubt, take refuge in semantics. The squabble helps, too, in keeping his eyes away from the churning waters. One grim, clinging handhold after another, he makes it to the right branch, and stops there. What had begrudgingly taken Pidge's weight doesn't look at all likely to support two Holts, no matter how poorly fed. ]
Sorry, Pidge. Noodle arms, remember? I don't know if I can actually trust my aim with something this heavy.
[ It's only a bit of a lie. Pidge is innovating, which means it's up to Matt to hedge her bets. Clinging to the trunk, he holds out the branch - just far enough to look like he's straining properly (mostly true), and still close enough to require that she scoot towards the trunk to grab it. Even tree sloths deserve a chance to learn operational safety. ]
Can you reach this yet?
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[Yes Matt, don't look down. She might be sounding confident, but she's not exactly staring into the churning, muddy abyss either.]
Oh, noodle arms is right... Fine, let me scoot back a bit.
[Which is a terribly undignified thing to do, but the point here is really not dignity. She's still focused on needing to get the job done -- and it wouldn't help matters if he tossed the stick and missed -- or worse, tossed the stick and hit her! She can't exactly dodge where she is.
She scoots back a little way, then sticks out her hand again.]
Think you can make this little toss, Mister Noodles?
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[ Talk is still the best distraction - their only distraction - and perhaps not quite enough to hide the fact that he still isn't throwing anything, but instead just straining to press it into her hand. It's a long reach, and he barely makes it. ]
Got it?
[ But, feeling the thud of what he assumes to be a solid grip, he rushes on. ]
Hold on a sec - don't move back just yet.
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[So maybe this is not the best time to be having this argument, especially since it's a losing argument. She can blame distracting circumstances.]
I got it. Why not?
[She's suddenly suspicious that he's going to try something. Because he is, isn't he?]
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Feel free to drop if this is too late!
No worries! :D
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ii
He stood on the bank watching her, knowing full well that in this situation she was more suited to it than he was. If he tried, he might break that branch. There was also Black sitting next to him on the bank, watching the youngest of the paladins]
Sure thing.
[He turned back to grab the longest stick that he could find, moving as close as possible to hand it to her. He didn't want her fumbling for it and ending up in the water]
Be careful there.
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Got it! And don't worry -- I always make it in one piece.
[She shifted her grip on the stick for optimum poking, and then shimmied out a little farther on her branch, now moving more slowly with one hand otherwise occupied. Just a little closer...]
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I know you do.
[But that was
space dadthe head of Voltron speaking there. He had to make the reminder, but also let her do it herself.He did wait with baited breath as he watched her move further out on the branch to try and get to the spot to poke. His eyes kept scanning the water running beneath her, watching to see if there was something moving around that he needed to be concerned about, for his, hers, and anyone else's safety]
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She found the spot she wanted and dangled there, carefully eying the mass to break up. From this angle, things looked different... but she was convinced she still had the right idea. If she just poked... right...
THERE!
It took more than a poke. In fact, she needed to give it a good hard shove, awkward with only one hand, but the log that was hung up against the rocks in the river gave way, twisting to the side where the torrent could push it off downstream.]
Hah! Got it!
[Of course, that didn't fix all of it... but the rest didn't look nearly so bad.]
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Doing dangerous and useful things were about par for the course of being a paladin so Shiro let her take the lead on this, ready to help if he needed to. But he didn't think that he would actually need to. He already knew she wasn't as reckless as certain other paladins so if she had a plan, she had probably thought it through as much as anyone else could.
He smiled as she got that jam in the river broken, one step to getting the river clear]
Good job. Now come back and we can keep going, see if we can find anything else.
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Well, fingers crossed.]
Catch!
[She made an effort to toss it back to Shiro so she could have both hands free to sloth-climb her way back to shore. Not the greatest throw, but enough to give him a solid chance to catch it. Going backward was definitely harder than going forward, but she did make it and clambered carefully back to solid ground.]
That's a big one down! On to the next.
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Good catch there, bud.
[With his hands free, Shiro was free to make sure that Pidge was able to make it back to solid ground, ready to catch her if needed. Of course she didn't need it, but always better to make sure]
Yes, on to the next.
[He took the stick from Black and handed it back to Pidge]
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Thanks, buddy.
[And she offered a smile up to Shiro.]
There, that wasn't so bad. Hopefully most of the rest are closer to shore...
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