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Riverview Moderator ([personal profile] riverviewmod) wrote in [community profile] riverviewooc2017-04-20 11:42 am

riverview: april test drive meme

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 May 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 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

premisearrivalsettingask a questioncalendarnavigation


prompt i: baiting the behemoth

Recently, a team of skilled explorers went out into the jungle to the Northwest of the city to follow up on several sightings of a giant lizardlike behemoth that's been skulking around outside the walls, a creature whose level of aggression (and therefore how dangerous it might be) was unknown. The team, while not exactly as stealthy as they were supposed to be, did manage to find the creature, which they found to have about the intelligence and temperament of a very, very, very large dog. And whom they named Liam.

Having established that the behemoth (which is around the size of a blue whale, snakelike in shape, but with four legs, brown striated scales, large claws and teeth, bad breath, and an affinity for face-licking) is not an intentional danger to the city, the authorities could not rule out the idea that it might cause accidental damage to the city, walls, or crops around the city. As a result, research has been done and a new mission has been drafted and recruited for - baiting the behemoth. The objective of this large-scale mission is for many small, quick-moving teams to take behemoth bait deep into the jungle for the purpose of luring the massive but mostly-harmless creature away from the city and hopefully to a new, less-inhabited feeding area. There is room for many different teams, and all of them should be heading deep into the jungle heading directly away from the city, going Northwest. The authorities in question have come up with a wide variety of food and pheromone scented lures that range from mild to truly stinky, so which type your team gets is up to you.

Each lure is small enough to fit in a cage-shaped canister that can be carried like a backpack by one person with average strength, and each lure-carrier will need to be accompanied by at least one or two fighters. Why, when the behemoth is peaceful? Well....


prompt ii: pest control service

The behemoth might not be aggressive, but unfortunately it's picked up some unwelcome companions. After last month's near-disaster where a colony of lizardlike monsters had taken up residence in tunnels under the city, wreaking havoc in the power grid, and were subsequently either killed or flushed out of the underground, some of the local fauna has been bumped down the food chain.

The fauna in question is a very large pack of mammalian six-limbed creatures that usually live in the trees and hunt oversized insects in the underbrush. When the lizards escaped the underground into the surrounding jungle, and drastically reduced the population of the insects the mammals usually feed on, the predators became parasites, attacking the only thing left that is more docile than the insects they usually feed on - the behemoth. These creatures are quick-moving, well-camouflaged in the jungle with mottled brown-and-green fur, and sport massive teeth and long tongues that allow them to stick to whatever surface they land on.

Hungry as they are, they will make no distinction between the behemoth's juicy hide and the lure-carrying teams that are trying to help it. Hopefully, their ranks can be thinned enough that the behemoth survives the trip to its new home.


prompt iii: rainbow bite

Not everyone is cut out for missions into the jungle or cleaning up angry predatory parasite monsters, but that doesn't mean that staying home means being safe from the weird things that come out of the portal. In the early morning of April 20th, drawn by the warmth of the rising sun, a massive swarm of rainbow-colored fireflies 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 never run into these bugs before and have no idea how it works, 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.

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, 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 May 20th.

CLARIFICATION: In response to a player question, the effects of the fireflies CAN layer, so they can be affected by more than one at the same time. Red fireflies with the lust effect don't make characters incapable of controlling themselves, just heighten feelings of arousal/desire.


prompt iv: 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, or you can just do a text version of the information in the app. An example of how it looks can be found here.


Many thanks to [personal profile] mistojen for coding this especially for Riverview!


prompt v: wildcard

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


navigation

[jungle image is by Armand Serrano and Paul Lasaine]
findingbalance: (⚖ 012)

[personal profile] findingbalance 2017-04-21 01:14 am (UTC)(link)
Rey watches the creatures advance before quickly scanning the jungle around them, tense and ready for a fight, her grip comfortable but tight on the largely defensive weapon in her hand.

She had taken on groups before, creature and fellow scavengers alike. She could do this, and she was sure of that, but not cocky enough to want to take them on alone if she didn't have to.

Adaar's plan was a good one, and Rey took a deep, steadying breath before nodding, her hand on Liam's hide for balance and to try and calm the behemoth under attack.

"As long as you keep their attention, I'll do what I can." A last check over her shoulder at her partner, and she jumps off the other side of the large creature, knocking another of the mammals under the jaw and backwards with a snap of her staff. They were by no means a joke of a creature on their own, but she had found their jaws especially to be sensitive weak points.

She vanishes at a quick pace into the trees, arcing around to where she hopes the creatures will be by the time she reaches that point. She has to trust Adaar and the Force that she will not end up the one with one of those flaming arrows in her.

When she emerges, she uses her speed more than her strength to slam into the left most beast, bowling it into one of its companions and swinging her staff up and under them to keep the movement going, rolling it almost completely onto its back and knocking the second one enough off course to have the two of them momentarily attacking one another with angry, frustrated noises.
vitaars: (pic#11309142)

[personal profile] vitaars 2017-04-22 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
A nod -- it's the least she can do. While Rey gets into position, Adaar moves into their line of sight, making herself loud enough to keep their attention while not scaring them off. Not for the first time, she wishes someone like Blackwall or Cassandra were here, so that they could keep the attention of the creatures and have them fully blind to anything else. She didn't think it was possible to miss her companions, the way she always felt at odds with them -- towering above them, having them reassure her that she was not like others of her race.

Adaar sets the thoughts aside, refocuses.

Rey is far preferable than anyone else for the moment, and Adaar drops to one knee to aim her bow, pulling it taught as she watches, waiting. Rey is far enough away, and the two beasts close enough together, that she lets go once she is sure -- they're fighting against each other, and in that moment of confusion the arrow strikes true -- embedding itself it one and setting it on fire, followed by another that does the same.

It's in the brief lull that Adaar calls out to Rey. "Where'd you learn how to fight?" Most staff fighters are mages where she's from, but Rey is no mage. At least not that she can tell, and normally they're very obvious about what they can do in any battle.
findingbalance: (⚖ 002)

[personal profile] findingbalance 2017-04-23 07:28 am (UTC)(link)
It's a relief to have been paired with someone not only more than competent, but who didn't leave Rey in a dangerous position when things heated up. She takes a moment to stamp out a stray flame before she responds, not wanting to see the jungle go up in flames, though as wet as it often was, there wasn't too great of a risk.

"Jakku. I taught myself. There weren't many other options, and I didn't have to trade for ammo." It's offered easily, as Rey moves away from the carcasses to rejoin Adaar. There seems to be a lull, however brief a moment it might be, and she takes the opportunity to let her gaze search over Liam's injuries. Nothing that looks like it might be a mortal wound, which is good. She'll be the first to admit none of them should have grown attached to the behemoth, and it might have been easier to find another way to get rid of him, but she was fond of the giant, lumbering creature and much less so of unnecessary death.

"Your aim is impressive." Hers, at least with a blaster, was not. The staff was far more comfortable a weapon, and it fit her style of fighting better, though it would not help her much against the creatures here, determined as they were to get to Liam. It would be harder than knocking them around until they gave up.