riverview: test drive meme

[riverviewmod]

riverview test drive meme

Welcome to Riverview's first 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 March 1st.
● All threads on the test drive meme can count as game canon once the game is up and running.
● TDM threads do not count for Activity Check, but they do count for Activity Bonus Points.

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 ● navigation

prompt i: batten down the hatches

If the sky has seemed a little more yellow-green than usual for the past couple of days, there's a reason for that. Meteorologists have been warning of a particularly nasty storm blowing in from the direction of the Delta in the Southwestern part of the Abandoned City.

The Quarantine is about to be hit by a nasty typhoon, and there's a lot to be done. Whether you're helping sandbag the banks of the river, which is bound to be swollen by the storm and flooding, weatherproofing your building, or just huddling indoors for warmth and helping reassure your friends, family, or partner that everything will be okay, it's time to take action!

prompt ii: monster madness

There's been a lot of talk around the Quarantine about the various predators and monsters outside the fence, and how they've been getting steadily more active, crowding the fences, trying to leap over them, seemingly driven by some kind of mania. There have even been increasing instances of predators that normally mind their own business attacking the fences wholesale, slamming into it over and over as if they're trying to find a weakness.

The good news? The fences have been holding. So far.

The bad news? They won't be holding for much longer.

The Perimeter Guard is in a bad way, and it's all hands on deck. They've also sent out a few of the Perimeter Guard Cadets to post up flyers around the city asking for temporary help in fighting off the beasts. So pick up whatever weapon you're best with, hop onto a truck transport, and head on over to the fences to help drive off the monsters and keep the Quarantine safe.

prompt iii: hold your lover close

With a storm rolling in that's going to keep everyone indoors, that might cause power outages, and is just frankly pretty scary, a lot of the clubs, restaurants, and hotels are doing special events to keep everyone's brains occupied and flooded with endorphins.

There are flyers around the city advertising various couples activities: speed dating, dance classes, overnight pool parties, and all-expenses-paid lovers' nights in.

The catch? The great deals only count if you're a twosome. So if you don't have someone to love, hit up speed dating in the indoor courtyard of Riverview's largest mall, or grab the first person you see and take the opportunity.

prompt iv: solution

After a day or two of storm activity, things are definitely not getting better: the rain is torrential, the monsters are attacking with increased energy and decreased rest times, and the distractions are starting to wear thin. Power outages happen off and on, a very rare situation in Riverview Quarantine.

The government has put out an all-points-bulletin imploring anyone with an exploratory spirit to help.

From what government science techs can tell, the storm isn't natural - after all, even the meteorologists were saying that the pressure systems seemed extremely strange. They've managed to narrow the cause to an area in the delta where the storm seems to be originating from, and are broadcasting the general location so anyone with the guts can head out into the storm and try to find the source of it.

Any characters who decide to penetrate the jungle in search of the source will find a device in the shape of a pyramid, with glowing blue edges about a day's walk into the Abandoned City. The pyramid is a malfunctioning weather control device that is causing wild pressure fluctuations and causing the storm as well as making the animals in the jungle aggressive and erratic. Characters can destroy or deactivate the device to end the storm.

This mission can be threaded out however you would like, in groups however large you would like, and more than one team can accomplish the goal.

prompt v: wildcard/network

Whether you're looking for help with a mission or just want to get to know your fellow new arrivals, your character can make a post to the network.

Or you can choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!

navigation

Comments

iv

[usandthedead]

Rick is a problem solver, or at least he tries to be. If nothing else, he knows he can fight off just about anything so that the real problem solvers can do what they need to do. He's in the thick brush outside the walls trying to track the broadcast location when he spots the guy in the strange suit - flying - landing. Rick has seen lots of strangeness in his time, so it doesn't necessarily surprise him. It's the flying part that has him startled.

The guy lands and Rick only hesitates a moment before rushing past him to slam his machete into one of the creatures that was about to pounce on the guy. And another beast, Rick draws his colt and fires. Then he looks back at the man, blue eyes momentarily wild as anyone who's survived what he has would be, before they settle into something calmer.

"Probably easier by air. But if you're after what I'm after, I think we're close." He says, holstering his pistol again but keeping hold of the bloody machete that's become his weapon of choice.

[keepitup]

Ray is great a technology, maybe even a genius. But when it comes to hand-to-hand combat and the instincts that requires, he's ... let's just say he's not a genius in that department. Which is why, when he sees a man run out of the brush towards him, he's not even sure if the guy is trying to rush him or something else, but by the time he's figured it out, there's a stabbed beast to his left and a shot one on his right.

He's speechless for a moment and he just stares, as Rick talks, until finally.

"Y-Yeah, I think so too ... Thank you for ... you know, saving my life right then." Holy moly did he just nearly die? Maybe the monsters wouldn't be able to get into his suit, but Ray hasn't come that close since this all starter. He can't be sure. "I'm Ray."

He glances down at the machete, then up at the man, then into the distance where his suit has alerted him to something incoming. This time, Ray is ready. He uses his wrist to aim, and bam a blast of energy shoots out from his arm, and something thunks to the ground in the distance. If he was being really honest, he doesn't hit every shot, but he's pretty pleased he hit this one.

[usandthedead]

It's possible that their differences are what makes them the perfect team. Ray can handle the tech part of the mission and Rick can keep the wild creatures of the area off of him to the best of his ability. Rick, sadly, wouldn't even begin to know how to fix the problem that they both know needs fixing. It would be frustrating as hell. Now there's Ray.

"Ray." Rick says with a nod, blue eyes intense and assessing as he studies Ray for a brief moment with a look down and then back up. What kind of uniform is this guy wearing? In the end, Rick decides that the man is friend and not foe so he returns the introduction with another nod. "Rick."

The blast of energy gets Rick to duck, flinch, watch wide-eyed and confused. He's never seen anything like that and can't even begin to explain how it just happened. What he does know is that Ray can be an asset as much as Rick can. The dead creature is proof of that. Color him impressed, and pleased that Ray might be an ally and not an enemy.

He stows his questions for the moment and gestures in the direction of the device on the map. "I'll watch your back if you watch mine." He offers.

[keepitup]

"Nice to meet you Rick." Normally, words like that are said like the pleasantries they're meant to be, but Ray says them like he's genuinely glad to be meeting the man in front of him. Again, he did save his life just now. Ray's convinced of it.

But it's hard not to catch the way Rick spooks though, when Ray's energy weapon goes off, and he glances over for a moment before he realizes that of course, even back home, plenty of people had never seen a metahuman, or uh, um, billionnaire vigilante, up close before. Much less one with a suit with energy weapons.

"You got it," he says, with a sure nod. "Let's go."

The jungle has become soaked with the rain that's been pouring down on it, and as they make their way further into the thick of it, Ray sees now why Rick has a machete with him. Having sharp objects to cut through the brush is clearly a good idea.

[usandthedead]

Meeting people isn't Rick's forte really. He doesn't always give the best first impressions. But what he is good at is making things happen and seeing a timid but mutually beneficial alliance when it's placed in front of him so squarely as Ray has been. He might not be technologically smart, but he wants to help anyway.

As he leads the way through the brush using his machete for what it was intended rather than what he usually uses it for (killing Walkers), he thinks about what he'd seen. Ray, landing on the ground from above. Flying. He'd been flying, right? And then the electric gun. Is it electric? He has no idea about that really.

"You're different." He knows nothing about meta-humans aside from a few comic books he and his son Carl used to keep up with. But the term still isn't forefront in his mind, even now. "Hovering or... flyin'." He thinks it could have been either. Hovering seems more realistic than flying but again, he's new to this.

Rick glances back to Ray and down to the gun before continuing to hack through the brush. "And the gun." There's unspoken questions here, formed as statements of the truth of what Rick has seen just now. He hopes Ray gets that he's asking.

[keepitup]

With the rain coming down and the helmet muted some of the sound around him, Ray nearly doesn't catch what Rick says at the very beginning. Which is why he moves up a little closer to make sure he can hear what Rick says next.

"Oh uhh-"

Yeah, okay, he gets what's happening here. At least, what he thinks is happening, and Ray's mind is already changing gears so he can code switch into not using jargon in his language. It's never been in this kind of jungle-hacking, storm-investigating, super-heroing context before, but Ray's done his rounds in tech support. He knows what it's like when someone is struggling for the right words to use.

"Flying," he confirms first. "Back home, I'm an engineer- and an inventor. I made this suit, as well as the weapons that come with. And yeah," he explains, gesturing with his hands even though he's behind Rick and therefore the guy probably can't even see him doing it, "it's basically a gun, what I have on my arms. It's like a ... like a gun that shoots pure energy."

That was layman enough, right? Even if it's a little ... unbelievable.

[usandthedead]

When Ray moves closer, Rick is better about splitting his attention between what's in front of him and what's behind him. It isn't that Ray has given him any reason to think he might try something with him. It's just that distrust has become as much a part of Rick as his blue eyes or brown hair. He's more accustomed to people turning on him than the alternative, unfortunately.

As he listens, he continues to hack away. It's a startling realization that Ray made the things he did. An engineer. Yeah, that makes sense. But making things like that is a little unreal. "You made a suit that lets you fly and shoot energy?" Even as he says it, it sounds crazy. But he'd also seen it with his own eyes.

One of the beasts leaps at them to the left and Rick draws his colt and fires. His shot is true, hitting the creature right in the brain. Then he hacks a few more times before sheathing both weapons and using his hands to tear at the last bit of the brush.

"Guess that makes you pretty smart, right guy for the job." Because the pyramid in front of them with the malfunctioning device on it is well beyond Rick's expertise. What he can do is make sure Ray is safe enough to give his full attention to it.

[keepitup]

"That's not even the best part," he responds, chuckling inside his helmet, which lends a certain static-y sound to it. "But you really won't believe me if I tell you. I'll just have to show you if the opportunity arises."

He could also just shrink now, he supposes, but that seems impractical, given the fact that they're constantly being attacked. Right when he finishes that thought, too, Rick shoots and a creature falls.

But the brush gets cleared and as soon as Ray lays eyes on that pyramid, he already wants to get his hands on it too. He nods once to Rick as he steps forward, into the clearing, as if their plan needs no discussion.

"I'll try to be as fast as possible. But I won't have any idea what we're dealing with until I get over there." He takes another step forward, like he's ready to go, before turning back to Rick. "If something happens, and we need to get outta here, yell okay?"

After that, if Rick agrees, Ray walks into the small clearing and kneels down.

"All right little guy. Let's see what's going on."

[usandthedead]

There's more? As in a better kind of more? Idly, Rick wonders how a suit like that would stand against a horde of Walkers. The flying would come in handy. It's unclear whether or not the electricity would affect the brain of an already dead thing. Rick has killed Walkers a lot of ways though, so it might work.

He likes the way Ray seems to operate. Rick is a man of few words on a daily basis. But also, back home he and his people use minimal words during a crisis. They've become a well-oiled machine over time where they can speak with looks and hand gestures so as not to attract unwanted attention. With some it comes easier than with others. Ray seems to get it once they get to the pyramid.

He nods at Ray and then puts his back completely to him for the first time as he walks backward behind him to watch their flank while Ray gets to the pyramid. That in itself shows a level of trust that Rick doesn't easily give out so easily.

After a bit, he glances back at the other man. "It look like it's fixable?" He doesn't even think to look at the malfunctioning contraption. He wouldn't know one end from the other. Too high tech for him.

[keepitup]

It's maybe one of the few times his experience with Oliver Queen's less talkative side is working to Ray's benefit. He and Oliver are fine now, of course; Ray might even call them friends, but their personalities are nothing alike. Oliver prefers not to talk, whereas Ray sometimes can't stop talking, and the clash has given him some stray experience in picking up on certain cues. He's not exactly good at it, but he's not totally oblivious either.

There is however, a certain innocence to way that Ray already trusts Rick, because he doesn't even give a second thought to his own back when he kneels down and fully immerses himself in the blue glow of the pyramid. And he takes Rick's trust for granted too, because he's still new to doing heroics and Ray ... sometimes Ray doesn't remember the lessons he learned in the boardroom when he's out doing good with other people.

"I hope this blue light doesn't suck out my soul or something," he says, smiling and mostly to himself, when he reaches with a gloved hand to pick it up. What an interesting little contraption. The pyramid itself seems to be some kind of container, but given the way it's vibrating Ray can already tell that what he can see is just a shell. This is definitely tech of some kind.

"X-ray scan, please." And as he holds it up, his heads up display begins to scan the device. A few seconds later, he can see inside. It is definitely tech.

"Gimme a second!" he responds back, not quite a full yell but his voice a little louder since he's lost track of how far away Rick is now, and he isn't interested in pulling his focus away from the pyramid. "I wonder if there's some way to..." He's pushing, poking, turning, trying anything to see if it'll unlock.

[usandthedead]

In a way, Ray reminds Rick of Tara, always there with wit and sarcasm to fill any silence. Although, thankfully she knows when to be quiet too since sound draws Walkers in any direction. But the wit and jokiness of Ray is making Rick miss Tara and her own humor. It's both nice and not for different but obvious reasons.

As Ray works, Rick can't help but have half of his attention on the area around them and half on what Ray is doing. That suit of his is some kind of engineering marvel the likes of which Rick has never seen before. It's interesting. He's curious. But watching Ray use it to his benefit, displaying the amazing things it can do is almost a distraction. He has to remind himself to pay attention enough to keep Ray safe enough to work miracles.

Rick knows how to fix an engine or even hot wire a car, but beyond that he's useless when it comes to stuff like this.

Thankfully, he gets to prove his usefulness when two creatures come running into the clearing, all fangs and claws. Rick dispatches them quickly enough. One with the hatchet and the other with his pistol, both head shots cause that's a tried and true method of stopping most anything.

"I think they're gettin' more agitated as time passes." And they both know that this thing is what's causing it. "Not that they'd be friendlies on a good day, but... they're probably not always so aggressive. Most animals I know have a survival instinct." These are just... wild and rabid.

As Rick's said this, he's come closer to Ray again, peeking over his shoulder to see what he's doing.

[keepitup]

There's a lot for Rick to look at, if he wants to look. The colors on Ray's suit aren't incredibly vibrant — it's built more for stealth than for style, but there are lots of self-moving parts. When Ray adjusts his body position, the bolts on his joints turn on their own and parts of his suit periodically emits a faint glow.

The shot that Rick fires into a creature let's out a bang — whether it's a moment of serendipity or fate is a question Ray isn't prepared to answer, but as the shot rings out, he simultaneously presses on all three sides of the pyramid and a line of tiny metal bricks crack open.

Rick's already talking, but Ray turns around in a moment of excitement. Having left the shell on the ground, his hands are now holding what looks like an advanced circuit board with an antenna, powered by ... he isn't sure yet, but he knows it's small. He's excited because it's so small, but the device is still vibrating in his hands. There's two ways to disable it. The first, which is to basically bash the device until it stops working, isn't a solution that even crosses Ray's mind. The second then, is to figure out a way to disable it. There isn't an obvious red button, or off switch, but Ray thinks that if he can just manage to break access to the power, the whole thing will go down. He needs to be able to cut something tiny, and his energy beams are too big, at least as his current size. His eyes glance over to Rick's hatchet for a second before nah, a blade like that can't possibly work.

"Okay Rick. I know how to disable this — uh, I think — but I'm going to need you to guard it for a minute. Just make sure nothing comes over and ... um ... eats it or anything like that."

Which, really begs the question of where exactly will YOU be Ray? But he doesn't seem to realize that it's something he needs to explain.