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quaranmeme2018-07-20 05:01 pm
riverview: july 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 62 Character Slots available.
● Reserves are currently CLOSED and will open on August 15th. Applications are currently CLOSED and will open on September 1st 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 ● exploration progress report ● ask a question ● calendar ● navigation
It's definitely not unusual to hear strange things from the jungle north of the city - the stomping and crashing of massive creatures, the mating calls of smaller animals, the sounds of nature at its most deadly and most alive outside the safety of the city's walls. But for the past few days, and continuing on into the month from July 20th, there's a new sound that's rising in intensity and volume over the others. At first, it is a soft, plaintive whimpering noise, the sound of a person or animal in distress, that comes on the evening breeze and echoes with the sound of rustling leaves in the trees.
As the week goes on, though, the sound gets louder, more prevailing, filling the air with the sound of whimpers and cries of distress that would drive even some of the least empathetic people to want to help - or at least just shut it up! It doesn't take much time or effort for the Guard to start recruiting people both from inside its' ranks and outside them, calling upon anyone who is capable of doing so to form troupes or teams to head out into the jungle to search for the source.
The jungle is dangerous, and full of wild beasts, and at this time of year, just following the rainy spring season, there's bound to be a few sinkholes and quicksand pits as well, hidden between the trees and behind decomposing logs. But the further into the jungle that explorers go, the louder the sound becomes, until it becomes all-encompassing, a humming cry that drowns out everything else as teams reach the source...
As the noise reaches its fever pitch, the exploring teams enter a small clearing in the jungle, and the sound stops, silence falling for just a moment before it's replaced by the oddly peaceful sound of leaves rustling in the wind, birdsong, and the soft whuffs of animals breathing.
In the center of the clearing, draped with vines and covered in moss and leaves, sits an out-of-place piece of the modern world, a three-storey-tall creation that's set up like an installation, but which obviously has four large, thick legs. It's made to move. For all that it's obviously not a natural part of the scene, it seems to blend in strangely well, especially since it's covered in not only foliage, but perching birds, lizards, sugar gliders, bats, monkeys, and all sorts of other creatures. Across the side of the machine is painted a code: 5561A-T4M3R.
With a bit of fiddling, exploration teams will find that it's possible to open up a holographic display that allows them to turn off the whimpering noise and get the machine up and moving, and after a check-in with the home base, the orders are clear - escort the T4M3R back to the Inhabited City for study. It won't be easy, because the T4M3R is very large, and the noise it will make attracts monsters, and all the dangers that explorers faced on the way out will be that much harder to avoid with the giant mech in tow.
The T4M3R isn't the only thing that came back to the Inhabited City with the exploration teams - the whole way, the mech has been trailed by a massive flock of little rodents that look much like sugar gliders but in a wide variety of colors from regular old brown and gray to blue, purple, red, pink, and just about any other color you can imagine. At first, they're annoying and just mildly threatening, gliding from tree to tree, chittering away with bright little voices in a massive storm that could easily cause some serious problems for the teams of explorers and the city residents if they took a turn for the feral. But as time goes on it becomes obvious that they have nothing bad in mind. In fact, they just seem drawn to the T4M3R.
And they stay that way.
Even as the old mech is taken to a bunker in the Perimeter Guard paddocks to be studied and examined, the sugar gliders hang around for a while, as if waiting for their robotic friend to return. Slowly, though, they disperse, abandoning the Perimeter Guard area, and spreading throughout the city, jumping down from buildings and landing on unsuspecting residents' heads - still doing no damage. In fact, some of them seem to be getting attached to certain people, following them home and chittering at their windows and doors begging for food.
After a couple of weeks of study, the reason ends up announced on screens and flyers throughout the City - the T4M3R is a discontinued project, put on the back burner when the city's resources had to be redirected to taking care of the epidemic. It is a device that emanates a particular sound wave frequency that is intended to tame animals, an attempt at a non-violent solution to the problem of monsters outside the wall. And while the project was never entirely successful, it did have some small measure of success this month.
Sugar gliders in all colors of the rainbow are now permanently tamed, and available as common pets for any resident of the city to adopt without any cost in Activity Points. Welcome your new flying friends, Quarantine!
What are the odds? Of course the portal is next to impossible to steer to the worlds of people who want to go home, but on the early morning of July 20th, it opens to a world that may be familiar to long-term residents of the Quarantine.
Drawn by the warmth of the rising sun, a massive swarm of rainbow-colored fireflies once again emerges from the portal into the quarantine. Unlike regular fireflies, though, they are bright enough to glow even during the day, and these bugs have bite! While generally harmless aside from stinging a little, the bite of the rainbow fireflies causes certain kinds of emotional response to become heightened, depending on the color of the firefly in question. While scientists have had a chance to study these bugs, they still have no idea why the bites do what they do - they can cause this effect in any kind of sentient creature that is capable of emotion, including androids and characters that are usually unaffected by substances. The effects on emotions are as follows:
| ● RED: Lust/Anger ● ORANGE: Honesty/Openness |
● YELLOW: Fear/Anxiety ● GREEN: Jealousy/Envy |
● BLUE: Sadness/Grief ● VIOLET: Love/Affection |
When a character is bitten, the effects on their emotions can last anywhere from an hour to a week, depending on the character's psychology and resistance to certain emotions - for example, if a character has a hard time dealing with their grief, the effect of a blue firefly may last longer than other colors. How the characters manifest the heightened emotional response or sensitivity is up to the individual player, as different body chemistry or other circumstances might change how characters are affected. Red firefly bites have a 50/50 chance of affecting a character with lust or anger, though characters who have not reached sexual maturity (underage characters) won't get get the lust effect. Effects of the fireflies can layer, so characters can be affected by more than one firefly at the same time.
PLEASE NOTE: Red fireflies with the lust effect don't make characters incapable of controlling themselves or strip their inhibitions, they just heighten feelings of arousal or desire.
Firefly effects can be easily avoided simply by avoiding the fireflies. It won't take long for some of the geniuses in the Quarantine to start making and distributing firefly repellent (this batch has become immune to the repellent that was created last year), and characters can expect sales of mosquito tents to skyrocket.
These alien fireflies have a lifespan of around a month, and they are unable to procreate outside their native environment, which means the last of them will be dying off around AUGUST 20th.
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
[People have different tastes for life, and he can respect that, unlike some of the close minded individuals he had to deal with back home. Having grown up a peasant, Billy was used to not having much. Then all those years serving under the Master had left a bad impression; anything too fancy would remind him of the Master and the cruel upbringing he had to endure while living under his roof. Billy was far more comfortable outdoors, which was why he didn’t mind working at the farm. (It still felt kind of strange being able to make an honest living instead of hustling people’s money from the quick draw ring, but Billy wasn’t about to complain.)]
Depends on what you prefer. Would you like a bird’s eye view? Or to see the skyline reflected off the surface of the river?
[He nods his head to let Csevet know he pronounced the word correctly. It’s still better than some of the other attempts at Korean he’s heard from people.]
They had different appearances, some tall and some short, but all were said to be fearsome and mischievous. Many stories have them either playing pranks on humans, or helping them in some way. There are stories of some evil dokkaebi, too, but not as many as Western goblins. While the Western countries of my world almost always depict goblins as villains, we saw them more as tricksters than malicious creatures in Korea.
[The difference had surprised Billy quite a lot when he first came to America as a child. He still remembers the pictures from the storybooks that the Master’s little son would show him, depicting short, grotesque creatures with long ears, hooked noses, sharp teeth, and ugly fingernails.]
no subject
[His expression is fond as he says it, and he glances up at the other man while he speaks, his voice quiet and genuine.]
Bearing up under the demands of nobles in defense of an Emperor that we deeply care for is no burden, and that is why we enjoy it. Though we admit that we are also not in a place to judge what others like.
[His eyes are bright when he looks at Billy, and then makes a considering sound about the options given him. Mouth curving into a warm smile, he steps closer.]
While both sound lovely, perhaps tonight we would enjoy the reflection of lights on water. Will you escort us?
[It's an invitation to start walking as they keep talking, and he rests a hand against Billy's elbow while they move, attentive to the explanation that the other man gives about goblins. Tries not to be distracted by the faint scent of him, the warmth of his body under the fabric of his clothing.]
In sooth, goblins in our world are much the same as elves, though with different customs. They vary as to temperament and nature, just the same as elves and, we imagine, humans. They are not creatures, but simply other people. We find it slightly strange to think that in so many other worlds, elves and goblins are wonder tales rather than real people.
[Csevet is still smiling, looking at Billy thoughtfully, and his voice doesn't sound upset, rather pensive.]
no subject
Your Emperor sounds like a very lucky man to have such loyal subjects. I hope he is a good man worthy of it.
[Little does Billy know he's already spoken to the Emperor, and their conversation had been pleasant. He smiles at Csevet.]
Of course. It'd be rude if I just left you alone.
[When he sees Csevet reach for his elbow, Billy holds it out more for easier access to link their arms. He can't remember when was the last time he walked with someone like this, but it feels nice--the closeness, the warmth of Csevet's hand seeping through his coat sleeve. Billy's scent is like that of petrichor, pleasantly earthy, almost sweet, though some of the sweetness might also be from the opium-laced cigarettes he smokes. Jina trots along behind the pair, not at all bothered by Csevet's presence.
He listens to the way Csevet describes the elves and goblins of his world with intrigue, looking just as thoughtful.]
And I still find it mind-blowing how there aren't any humans where you're from. In my world, that's all we have, but we all look different from each other since there are many countries. The name of my birth country is Korea, so I'd be referred to as Korean, or Asian if people wanted to use something more general. Asia is the continent Korea is a part of.
[He may not have a formal education, but Billy knew his geography fairly well.]
no subject
[Generally, Csevet is not given to speaking much, but with the warmth of the bite from the firefly coursing through him, with the kindness that Billy has shown him so far, he's feeling more comfortable with opening up. It's a rare thing.]
We hope you wish to join us out of more than politeness.
[It's gently chiding, but when he says it, Csevet looks up at him from under pale lashes, and the expression on his face is flirtatious, his eyes warm. He's very aware of the warmth of Billy's body and finds himself drawing unconsciously closer, inhaling that scent, like the air after a rain, refreshing and calming. He thinks, perhaps, it is not just the firefly's bite making him feel the way he feels - there is no denying this man is attractive, with his strong jaw, his warm brown skin, his dark hair.]
It is a lovely name for a country, Korea. We would certainly be interested in hearing more about it, and the differences between humans.
[A slight pause, and then he tilts his head.]
We admit, our unfamiliarity with humans can be disconcerting at times, as the body language is quite different without the movement of the ears.
[Lifting his free hand, the one not curled against Billy's elbow, lifts to indicate one of his own ears.]
no subject
[He chuckles at being chided.]
Perhaps.
[He can't help but tease a little, a coy smirk on his lips. He does nothing to stop Csevet from leaning closer and taking in his scent. In fact, he returns the favor while Csevet is still close enough. He wasn't even bit by the fireflies thanks to the spray, but Csevet is too lovely for Billy to remain unaffected by his own desire. He also likes the contrast between them, it's as though all of Csevet's bright and light-colored features are balancing his own darker ones.]
And I would like to hear more about the elves and goblins of your world as well. Everything about your world, really.
[To hear the genuine interest in Csevet's voice is quite refreshing to Billy, compared to the disdain and sneering he had to deal with in America. At the pause, Billy turns his head slightly to look down at him curiously.]
Well, you see how small our ears are compared to elves, so it'd be hard for us to move them. [Another chuckle.] We prefer using our hands to make gestures while we talk. Sometimes you can tell a lot about a human by their eyes, too. There's a saying that the eyes are the windows to our souls. I'm no religious man, but I can say there have times where I felt as though I was being drawn in deep just by looking into another person's eyes.
[Such as this very moment, Billy's dark brown eyes staring into Csevet's, a mixture of grey and green and blue.]
no subject
When Billy responds with only 'perhaps,' Csevet laughs, softly, his eyes bright.]
Well, if there is any uncertainty, we will do our best to dispel it.
[He accentuates that comment with a delicate bump of his body against Billy's, enjoying the solid warmth of another person close to him. When Billy leans in as well, Csevet's smile widens and he ducks his head - his own scent is faint, like incense and fresh air - enjoying the contrast as much as his companion is.]
We would certainly enjoy such a conversation, and we certainly appreciate the advice regarding human body language. For us...for elves in general, we mean, much of it is involuntary, in the way the ears are held, and is quite easy to determine. We find it something of a disadvantage here, in situations where reading body language would be a benefit.
[When he glances up, he sees Billy looking at him, meeting his eyes and holding them, and it feels both bold and welcome at once. For a second, Csevet finds his breath taken away, and his cheeks and ears flush more deeply. When he speaks his voice is a little softer, a little throaty.]
Ah...now I certainly understand.
[The change in the level of formality is purposeful, an intentional move closer.]
no subject
Hey, you didn't refer to yourself with "we."
[It won't be long before they reach the spot that gives them the best view of the city skyline from near the river, but they still have time to appreciate the sight of each other.]