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quaranmeme2017-06-19 09:05 pm
riverview: june 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!
● Reserves are currently OPEN.
● Applications open on July 1st.
● 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
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Whether you've just arrived in the city or you've been here a while, and you have a sensitivity to the spiritual, magical, multidimensional, or anything else outside the realm of everyday normal, you've probably noticed a distinct uptick in weird feelings, strange nightmares, or daymares - hallucinations of scary things that are lurking just behind you.
You're not the only one who's noticed it.
There are rumors going around that the psychological and spiritual disturbances are due to the emergence or re-emergence of a deity. Some people say that it's something new that's come through the portal with the sharp increase in new arrivals recently, and others say it's simply an ancient spiritual presence or some ancient incorporeal monster that's been somehow awakened. Gramarye, the top-tier magic research center in Riverview Quarantine, has been studying anyone who's felt this presence, and have recently confirmed that whatever it is, it's being fed by all the extra energies and prayers and thoughts as the city's population increases. The one thing everyone agrees on is that, if the expanding community is feeding the entity, then the entity has got to go! Teams are being assembled across the city to travel into the Abandoned City or the forests outside the walls and look for anything like an abandoned temple that can be destroyed or that contains a relic that can be broken or pacified by a ritual. You're looking for something that will solve the problem, or for other evidence of a way to solve it. The mission might be dangerous, though - there are the usual dangers of venturing out into the wilds, but this time, characters may also face booby traps, spectral or physical guardians, and if the entity itself gets awoken? Someone will have to kill it.
The mission is open to multiple teams, multiple deities can be named (both made up or from characters' various canons), and there can be multiple outcomes. If you complete the mission in a TDM thread, and all characters involved are apped and accepted, you can submit the completed mission thread to the exploration page once you are in the game!
The problems the city is having this month are not just ethereal - there's something a little more scientific stirring up trouble. Recently, a large research company in the Quarantine has been trying to develop a monster repellent to provide to explorers who are traveling outside the walls, in hopes of protecting them from attacks. Unfortunately, the containment unit used to store the repellent - which is still in its experimental stages, not even yet tested on animals, let alone people - completely failed, leaking the experimental repellent into the environment around the facility. This facility is close enough to the wall that the repellent has permeated the groundwater and soil in the area and leeched underneath the fences.
Even more unfortunately, the repellent seems to currently have an almost opposite effect on monsters than its intended purpose. It's attracted the attention of a large colony of carnivorous plants that has thrived just outside the wall for decades, living by attacking fellow monsters that are dumb enough to try the fence in that area. Now, instead of going for other monsters, the plants are drawn to the failed repellent and are climbing the walls in search of the source, craving more of it. Residents have been asked to both help clean up the tainted soil by the wall and to fight the carnivorous plants in that area.
The carnivorous plants are in the form of vines ranging from the thickness of a pinkie finger to nearly half a foot thick, that grow incredibly fast, writhing together to form thicker tendrils. The leaves are about a foot wide at their largest and have stingers around the edge that cause a painful rash, and the flowers are large and red or orange, capable of spitting thick globs of acid that can cause burns ranging from very serious (red) to moderate or mild (orange or yellow-orange). They can be defeated especially well with fire, extremely strong pesticides, and edged weapons - vines do not grow back once they've been cut.
The carnivorous plants aren't the only ones feeling the effects of the spilled experimental repellent. Recently, an intrepid team went on a mission after hearing rumors of a type of monster outside the walls that might be able to be tamed and used as valiant steeds. The team was successful and the possible steeds, which turned out to be Chocobos!
So far, the Chocobos have been comfortably in training, learning how to wear saddles and carry people, but once they get a whiff of the repellent in the air, or gotten a taste of it in their water, they kind of go a little off the wall. Or, over the fence, as the case may be. Highly energized and unwilling to listen, Chocobos who have been exposed to the repellent will get free of their pens and start stampeding around the city. Citizens, it's time to team up to tame the wild Chocobos! Let the wark games begin!
The local wildlife aren't the only ones affected by the experimental repellent spill. While at first they didn't think it had any effect on sentients, they're having to start reevaluating that particular theory, because residents are definitely feeling it. Whether they're inhaling it in a gust of wind that smells disturbingly of ozone, or sipping a glass filled from a tap in the area of the spill and tasting something like chlorine, it's getting into residents' systems.
Once ingested or inhaled, the repellent can have two effects on an affected character: an overaffectionate mood, or an anti-social mood. The effects can vary in type, swinging from affectionate to cranky and back again at the drop of a hat, and they can also vary in intensity and manifestation - it all depends on body chemistry, both within an affected character, and in the interactions between two characters. So whether or not your characters liked or disliked each other beforehand, maybe their chemistries are very compatible or not compatible at all, and feelings might be a little...out of the ordinary.
Affectionate moods can range anywhere from a casual 'I love you man' to romantic or even carnal ideation; anti-social ones can range from being nervous around crowds or other people to being outright aggressive with other people. The repellent does not remove inhibitions and characters are able to control themselves. Emotions might be heightened, but these effects should not be used to facilitate things that would normally be completely out of character. Please put content warnings in subject lines.
Whether your character is posting up a silly word game to distract people from the dangerous mission going on, 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.
Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!
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[ He gives a second bow, this one much more flowery, with an arm gracefully flung out to the side, lace dripping over his fingertips. ]
I am Jean-Claude. A vampire. [ Dramatic, over-the-top, him? Always. ]
I wondered if perhaps you were some other variety of undead.
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A what.
Steve's surprise is obvious and instantaneous. And - yet, not quite disbelieving. He's met literal Amazons; it stands to reason he might meet a literal vampire too. ]
With - fangs and everything?
[ Said rather faintly. ]
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Of course. [ His smile widens, deliberately flashing his fangs. They are delicate, a natural part of his mouth, completely belying how deadly they are. An instant later, he is back to being ethereally beautiful, no trace of danger. ]
I would be a poor example otherwise, non?
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And you drink blood. Don't like running water or stakes. All of that.
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I do. Your reaction is... amusing. We are legal citizens of the United States. None are so surprised to see us. [ Enraptured, outraged, suspicious, all of those-- not surprised. ]
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Yeah, well, you're the first one I've ever seen.
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Not all of us live on this side of the law.
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[ And the opposing, implied question: does Jean-Claude behave himself around humans? ]
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Precisely. In other words-- [ Another smile. ] Do not always trust a pretty face.
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[ And the opposite as well - not to automatically distrust a pretty face. ]
So - do you have the option of food at all, or is it all blood?
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Sadly, food has lost its sustenance to us. The taste is of ash. We are sustained on blood only.
[ And for Jean-Claude, lust -- and along with it, sex. Some vampires have a secondary 'food' source, although it is a rare ability. ]
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Gathering up volunteers?
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Accordingly, his gaze grows sharper, and he has to keep his ability to ensnare humans with his eyes firmly locked away. He is not desperate yet. ]
Ideally, yes. For those who are not averse to some of my... other powers, there is no pain. It is an immensely pleasurable experience. [ His voice caresses the words. ] I am accustomed to having no shortage of such volunteers. [ In other words, he's used to being not just well-fed but choosey. ]
no subject
Not quite up my alley then. But don't starve either.
[ If Jean-Claude can indeed be choosey, then Steve won't volunteer. But if he's short on resources, well ... ]
no subject
Would you prefer it to be painful? It can be that as well. I simply take no satisfaction from harming my donors.
[ Jean-Claude is not naturally cruel, but also, why would you hurt your food source? ]
no subject
[ Look, Steve is used to a lot by now, and gay people exist in the 1910s! Amazingly enough! But he also doesn't think shacking up with a vampire, literally or not, is the world's best idea. ]
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I am not propositioning you, Monsieur. Although some can bring release with their bite, [ and by some he means pretty much only Asher and Belle Morte, ] I am not one of them. It is only... like being very pleasantly drunk.
It will cause a hangover, also, if the fluids are not replaced.
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Drunk I'd be all right with. I've been drunk before.
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His eyes gleam. ] Is that an implicit offer, then? Let there be no misunderstandings.
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Long as you need it and don't have better options. Don't go hungry.
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I see. That is a kind sentiment. It is my hope that it will not take long to gain my footing here, and that your noble sacrifice will not be necessary.
[ A little mocking? Just a little. And he says all this while simultaneously planning on lying to him about it in the future. Yes, Jean-Claude is a bastard. ]
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That's not - look, I'm just saying you might find people who are really into it. Or maybe no one. Dunno what this place is like.
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I do not know, myself. [ Truthfully, he's more than a little concerned about it, but that's not something he would show in a million years. ] I expect I shall have to explain myself many times, regardless. If vampires are not unique here, we are very uncommon.
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Perhaps I shall. I am accustomed to some... notoriety. St. Louis is a place of significant vampire tourism; our reputation is cultivated.
[ And by cultivated, he means cultivated by him. ]
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