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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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Who are you?
[Laughing, Lup shakes her head in bewilderment. Her brother, dating a goddamn cop. Going on dates. With a cop. Dating. Gods, now her stomach hurts from laughing rather than fear.]
Fuck, Taako... and there's a kid here? This is so weird.
[Surreal, even.]
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Her name's Ellie and she's rad as hell. She's like, sixteen? [He flops back on the bed, looking over at Lup, his expression softening a little.] I didn't wanna move outta the communal housing and get some place alone, and Ellie seemed like a good choice, she's quiet and doesn't get into too much shit. So... here we are.
[He's very fond of her.]
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Listening to him talk about the girl he was roommates(?) with, Lup groans again and leans back.]
I can't believe it, my sweet innocent brother, pulled into the claws of domesticity!
[She's so damn happy for him.]
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[Unlike some people, even if turning into liches might not be the picture of domesticity, it's still a lot more dramatic than anything Taako has done so far. Turning into undead beings together is probably even more dramatic than getting married.]
Speaking the fuck of, though, guess who went on a date with the lit-er-al grim reaper?
[NOW WHO'S MORE GOTH, LUP????]
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[Why do you have to upstage her every time with your shit, Taako? So rude.]
Bullshit! You did not!
[Of all the weird things they've seen, Lup still things her twin is messing with her. The grim reaper?
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[His heart aches at how normal and natural this feels, as if Lup hasn't missed over a decade of his life. It might not be much, in the grand scheme of elves, but it seems like a lot that she hasn't been around for, that he needs to fill her in on. It's a fucking miracle that all the words don't just tumble out in a rush.]
Nah, jokes, I didn't fuck the skeleton. He's super handsome when he's got skin on, though. And when he's not trying to kill us cause we're a bunch of assholes who've died heaps without, you know, actually dying.
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[Jokes are good. Jokes makes things move more easily, and fuck if that wasn't needed right now.]
Anyway, he sounds... interesting. I mean, it might be the the most unusual man you've dated, but still. Not the first one that wanted you dead, though.
[If she ever gets back she's going to slap the bony bastard, that's for sure. Still, it feels so weird to not know two guys her brother has dated. Who usually got all the details after each hookup? Poor old Lup.]
So how about this guy here? Is this something serious?
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[No he doesn't, not even a little bit, but he's not going to admit that he didn't realize the pun potential there before Lup pointed it out.
Although he'd rather admit that than try to answer her question honestly; Taako sighs, grabbing the pillow back so he can pull it over his head. He'll answer, though, because it's her.]
I don't fucking know, Lulu. It's not as if I've got any plans to stick around in this place, so like, getting attached is real fucking stupid.
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[Still, she watches Taako as he struggles, pulling the pillow over his head like an embarrassed teenager. She lets him hide for now, if it makes it easier for him to tell her.
It's about what she expected, too, so she nods a little bit even if he can't see it.]
I get you. Still, it's not as if feeling shit has any respect for situations.
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[Yet another blatant lie, although this one comes closer to the truth, in a lot of ways, maybe even more since he spent a decade and an imagined lifetime without having Lup to temper the harsher sides of himself. Acting aloof and distant is a talent that he's honed almost to perfection, and most of the time he can shut any gross feelings down before they get too complicated.]
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Still, Taako had changed a lot. She had missed so much, and he had been all alone without her. Even if he didn't remember her - and fuck if that didn't hurt like hell to know that someone could just take her away like that.]
Anyway, you know I'm going to have to give him the shovel talk. I'll bring a shovel and everything. Maybe set it on fire.
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Please do not give him the shovel talk, he's a squishy human and if anyone's gonna be breaking hearts, it'll be me.
[He has to believe that, because the alternative is not one to consider.]
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Of course, but that doesn't mean I can't put the fear of Lup into him. It's what big sisters do, you know.
[Yeah Lup you're like 2 minutes older.
Still, she was always they protector when they were young, and that shit didn't really change when they got older. Even if Taako had magic now, there were still things she needed to make sure didn't hurt him.
Like certain emotions.]
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[The real concern is that if Lup gets all up in Eddie's grill about not hurting Taako, he might say something like... heartfelt and genuine and that'd just ruin everything.]
Also: two fucking minutes. We're twins.
[It's in his twin contract that he has to argue with her every time she brings up the fact she's older.]
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[No fire, no sappiness. Just Lup and the stare. That should be enough for this cop to be aware that fucking things up with Taako in any way would be painful. Including being clingy if her brother wanted to get away.]
Besides, how often do I get to do this? Like... once?
[She shrugs a bit and then rolls her eyes at the expected retort regarding their age difference.]
Two blissfully calm minutes, yeah. Then you came along and probably screamed a lot in my face.
[Two probably very odd and lonely minutes when they were not in the same world.]
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He wants to keep joking like nothing is wrong, like they've just been apart for a couple of months, but his chest hurts and when he finally speaks, his voice is too tight.]
Hey, you would've already been screaming, that's on you.
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Sorry.
[She leans her forehead to his again.]
I... it's hard to imagine that you've been alone.
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I had a cooking show, like a traveling thing, it was pretty rad while it lasted.
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Really? Shit, that's pretty awesome.
[It sounded like it suited him. Cooking and showing off.]
What kind of stuff did you make?
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[Fantasy France food, mostly.
It feels like there's so much to tell Lup, he doesn't know where to start, but a sudden detail sticks out.]
Magnus and Merle got married. [wait; he laughs a little shakily.] Not to each other, gross. Merle's got kids though, which like... can you fucking imagine?
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UGH I can't believe you made me even think that for a moment.
[She likes them both but geez.]
So they got married, and Merle has kids? That is really hard to imagine, shit. Did you meet their spouses? What about Davenport and Lucretia? And... Barry?
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[It had just been a fact of Magnus's past, something that he suspected from pieces of information dropped during their travels but hadn't pried into. But now that he remembers a lifetime of being practically family, with Magnus, the sympathy extends so much further.]
I dunno about Merle's, he was always cagey about it. [He sort of moves a shoulder in what could be considered a shrug.] Lucretia and Davenport are working-slash-running a secret organisation trying to do good shit for the world.
[Well... it's not.... untrue.
The last part is the hardest, and he hesitates a second before deciding to go with the truth.] Barry's uh, I mean, he's all lich-y, but you know. He's around.
[Nailed it.]
no subject
Merle being dodgy was easier to swallow. So was the idea of Lucretia and Davenport running some kind of secret organization.]
Not surprised. Is it working out okay?
[Then there was Barry, and Lup bites her lip slightly. If Barry was lich-y it meant she was as well. It was still a weird feeling, no matter how much thought she had put into it before.
...yet there was another thing.]
So... I'm missing.
[Taako was alone. Barry was alone. Where the fuck was she?]
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This is so much harder than he expected it to be, and Taako is quiet for a few long moments before he can speak.]
We, uh, we found your skeleton but... you know. The lich thing.
[He'd been so fucking terrified, when she told him what she was going to do, and right now he doesn't know if it's made things better or worse. All he knows that he's still terrified that he's going to lose her forever.]
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[Shit, that was... frightening. Even after dying so many times during the cycles, it still felt really weird to think of herself as a skeleton. Her body...
Fuck.
Lup shuts down for a moment, closing her eyes and holding her brother close.]
I'm sorry, Taako.
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i couldn't resist making this joke im sorry
omfg i love you
i havent been able to stop thinking about that since i saw it
it's so Taako
shrugssss
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