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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!
no subject
[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.
no subject
[ 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. ]
no subject
[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!
no subject
[ 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?
no subject
[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?
no subject
[ 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.
no subject
[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?]
no subject
As soon as it seems reasonably clear that she's got a good hold, Matt lets go of the branch. A quick patdown gets him from hood to the hanging folds of his burlap cloak. He frowns at the cloak's strap, ugly but durable cloth, looped three times around his waist, before he tugs it apart. Some quick wrangling knots it into a little noose, which he holds out. This, he might even be willing to throw. ]
Pull this tight around your wrist.
no subject
[She shoots him a disbelieving look.]
Matt, getting us both in trouble isn't going to do anything! Besides, I'll be fine.
no subject
[ Swing swing goes the noose, swaying like a pendulum towards her. ]
If you're fine, you can make fun of me later. C'mon - you said it yourself, we need to hurry. Can't let the sediment build up to our detriment.
[ He's pronouncing it with the particular inflection of someone trying to make it rhyme. It still absolutely doesn't. ]
no subject
[But she does reach out and grab the thing, slipping it around her wrist like a leash.]
And the first thing I'll go after is that horrible not-rhyme you just made.
[Just as long as she can still make it out as far as she needs to go while she's on the stupid leash. That's all that matters, getting this thing done.
She scoots back out, carefully testing to make sure she doesn't put too much tension on the strap connecting her with her brother. If nothing else, Matt just made sure she'll be extra careful!]
no subject
[ What terrible meter. At least Matt can blame it in part on the fact that he's only speaking between every new fistful of branch she takes out to the edge. He's got a firm grasp on the tether and the trunk, and his eyes hold fast on her progress. ]
no subject
[She gets herself to a good handhold, tests the grip she has on her branch, and then reaches out with the poking stick to prod at the first of the weak points she has identified. The blockage quivers promisingly, and a few pieces of debris break free and swirl off downstream.]
You could at least call me a monkey or something, that'd be accurate!
Feel free to drop if this is too late!
[ He's using his most reasonable voice, which is probably a solid sign that nothing he's said is remotely close. But it can't be helped - his gaze holds steady on the blockages too, and he only talks when she isn't focused on jabbing pieces free. ]
Can you even think of anything besides 'clunky', 'junkie', and 'spunky'?
No worries! :D
[Prod, prod, prod... and there it goes, the log she'd spotted forming the core of the blockage abruptly giving way and sending a wave of debris downriver.]
Hah! Thought that was most of the problem.
no subject
[ It's not the sturdiest tree - there's definitely no room in these branches for shame. Matt squints into the waters, then tugs on the makeshift harness once, twice, an inquiry more than a real test. ]
But hey, nice work. Ready to head back to solid ground?