riverview: june test drive meme

[riverviewmod]

riverview test drive meme

Welcome 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
premise ● arrival ● setting ● ask a question ● calendar ● navigation

prompt i: don't wake the deity

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!

prompt ii: monster miscalculation

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.

prompt iii: wark games

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!

prompt iv: attraction repellent

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.

prompt v: friendr/network

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.

Code to post your character's bio is in the textbox below. An example of how it looks can be found here.

<br><center><table style="width:300px;"><tr style="border-bottom:1px dashed #528887;"><td></td> <td style="padding:20px; padding-bottom:0; width:300px; font:38px Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; text-transform:uppercase; color:#c4c4c4; text-align:center; letter-spacing:2px; background-color:#2a2a2a; border-top-right-radius:50px; border-top-left-radius:50px;"><b>Friendr</b></td> <td></td></tr> <tr><td style="font-size:70px; vertical-align:middle; text-align:right; padding:0; color:#528887;">«</td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a; padding:20px; padding-top:10px; padding-bottom:0; width:308px;"><img src="IMAGE URL - 300px WIDE OR LESS" style="border-radius:20px;"><br> </td> <td style="font-size:70px; vertical-align:middle; padding:0; color:#528887;">»</td></tr> <tr><td></td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a; font:12px arial; text-align:left; padding:10px;"><span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Age:</b> your character's age</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Seeking:</b> friendship/romantic/anything</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Preferences:</b> sexual preference or n/a</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Interests:</b> three interests</span> <span style="color:#c4c4c4;"><b>» Bio:</b> 30 words or less</span> </td></tr> <tr><td></td> <td style="text-align:right; font-size:10px; background-color:#2a2a2a;"><font color="#528887">base code by</font> <a href="http://photosynthesis.dreamwidth.org/" style="color:#528887;">photosynthesis</td></tr> <raw-code><tr style="border-bottom:1px dashed #528887;"><td></td> <td style="background-color:#2a2a2a;font:20px Helvetica, Tahoma, sans-serif; color:#c4c4c4; text-align:center;">Character Name</td> <td><td></tr><tr><td></td> <td style="border-bottom-right-radius:50px; border-bottom-left-radius:50px; background-color:#2a2a2a; text-align:center;"><table style="width:100%; font:30px Verdana;"><tr><td style="text-align:left;"> <span style="text-decoration:none; color:#528887;">« ✘</span></td> <td style="text-align:right;"><span style="text-decoration:none; color:#528887;">✔ »</span></td></tr> </table></td> <td></td></table></raw-code></center>
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.

prompt vi: wildcard

Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!

navigation
[jungle palace image is signed and was found on artstation.com]

Comments

[mansplane]

So are you. Fast on your feet too.

[ Not a soldier, nor a craftsman, not with those hands. A lot of control over his facial expressions. So ... ]

Who are you spying for?

[ An admission as much as it is a question. Byerly wins this round. ]

[vorrutyer]

Spying?

[ An innocent blink of his long-lashed eyes. ]

Spying is a little grandiose for what I do. Snooping. Who am I snooping for, I'll accept. And to that, the answer is, well - myself. And my curiosity.

[mansplane]

How's that working out so far?

[vorrutyer]

Well, it made you turn a little pale. Which was a rather sweet look for you. So - I'm happy with the results so far.

[ Is he allaying Steve's suspicions...? Hard to tell. ]

[mansplane]

[ Hmph. Well - he knows what he's dealing with, but he doesn't feel very allayed right now. ]

I meant your curiosity.

[vorrutyer]

Ah, do you fear for the life of a poor curious cat? I'm alive so far. How about you, my dear feline? How many lives has your curiosity cost you?

[mansplane]

[ Should he say anything? His instincts scream no. His sense points out that there's no point, who even cares except this guy? But the part of him that enjoys this sort of thing ....

Hmm. Let him figure it out. ]

How many d'you think?

[vorrutyer]

Hm.

[ A tilt of his head. ]

For me to judge, I'll need a little more information. For example - what is a life, as far as you're concerned? What makes a proper lived experience?

[mansplane]

Good question. Reckon you don't get the answer til after.

[ He eyes Byerly in turn - the guy isn't disheveled he way Steve is, presumably, so .. ].

How many times've you lost everything?

[vorrutyer]

Me?

[ An unreadable smile. ]

More times than I can count.

[mansplane]

[ A shrug. ]

Trade you?

[vorrutyer]

Oh, gladly. You first.

[mansplane]

Nope, I get to call it this time. Call it a handicap since I lost round one.

[vorrutyer]

I didn't know that there were winners or losers in our game. I thought we both simply benefitted from the warm glow of growing intimacy.

[mansplane]

And what, part of that warm glow doesn't come from scoring?

[vorrutyer]

What - you would make me a competitive man. And here I am simply one who loves peace and harmony amongst all. But all right, very well; at your insistence, I will go first.

[mansplane]

'course. Nothing but harmony all around. Just so we know who's the most harmonious.

[ He makes an "after you" gesture. ]

[vorrutyer]

[ A bow, half acknowledgement and half thanks, as though that wave had been an introductory speech instead of a simple gesture. ]

Yes. My experience of loss...Well. I lost everything when I was disinherited, you see. Then after that, I had very little, so any turn of ill fortune would mean that I lost everything once again. And I had many turns of ill fortune. So - the loss of a friend, when that friend was allowing me to sleep in his home - the loss of a plate of food because I was kicked out mid-meal - the loss of a bottle of brandy because I'd drunk it all down to the bottom - everything was losing everything.

[mansplane]

[ Huh. Steve takes all that in thoughtfully - at Byerly's word, temporarily, until he knows more. After all, the man is likely just "snooping" as he claims, much the same way Steve has no one to spy for either. ]

Disinherited? From what?

[vorrutyer]

From fuck-all, if I'm going to be quite honest.

[ He waves his hand dismissively. ]

My father's oldest brother was Count Vorrutyer, so if all four of his brothers had snuffed it he'd have been Count, but all four of them weren't going to snuff it. Though they tried rather hard, actually. We reached, what, two out of four...? Anyway. Father had no money, just a house, so really the only thing I lost was the crumbling pile and the possibility of being Count if all fifteen claimants in my way were to die all at once.

[mansplane]

[ He's still a little bit impressed. Being American and very far away from royalty of any sort. A low whistle. ]

Closer than I ever got to any kind of title. Did he kick you out too?

[vorrutyer]

Why, he did indeed. And so I set off to make my fortune in our fine capital city of Vorbarr Sultana, only to find that no fortune was to be made. And so I went to plan B: figure out how to get drunk on the cheap in Vorbarr Sultana. I found I ended up being quite good at that.

[mansplane]

So how'd that turn into spy work? The military pick you up or something?

[vorrutyer]

Dear man.

[ His eyes crinkle up in a picture of warmth. ]

I'm flattered by your assumptions, truly I am. But I'm really no spy. I'm just a drunk, rapidly approaching middle age, with a great love of sticking my nose where it doesn't belong.

[mansplane]

Snooping around getting into some guy's business for no reason at all?