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riverviewooc2017-04-20 11:42 am
riverview: april 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 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
premise ● arrival ● setting ● ask a question ● calendar ● navigation
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....
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.
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.
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.
Many thanks to
mistojen for coding this especially for Riverview!Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!
armitage hux; star wars
[This isn't the most glamorous job Hux has taken--far from it, but he understands the necessity of the mission, and if he's going to be stuck in the Quarantine for the foreseeable, he might as well contribute with the utmost seriousness.
It's better than sitting by idly, in any case.
As the lead of his group, his planning is thorough--before the trek into the jungle begins, he rolls out a map with their targets marked. It's easy enough, even if the behemoth bait they're transporting smells foul.
Once in the thick of the jungle, Hux realized that this isn't quite as simple as planned--though he isn't surprised. Of course there are hungry predators out there looking for easy pickings. By this point, it's just a matter of staving off the creatures.]
Protect the bait. [The order is barked, his blaster drawn and fired at one of the creatures once it makes its presence and intent known.]
iii: rainbow bite
[So far, he's managed to avoid being bitten by one of the fireflies, but it's a matter of how long it can stay that way. Eventually the repellent he's applied is going to wear off, but in the meantime he's collecting specimens.
The insects are well out of the scope of his scientific expertise--weapons engineering and technology--but he's curious anyway. Possibly useful for research.
Standing near a swarm of the fireflies, he has a box of small jars nearby for captured flies. Anyone who comes by and lingers too long is getting roped into his project.]
Hey! Do not just stand there--grab a karking jar and capture that firefly. [Which one? Just follow his hand gesture.] I have not seen one that color.
iv: friendr
no subject
[Said in a manner that suggest the netting isn't necessary--he knows it can be useful, but it would be utterly inconvenient. He'll take the risk for now, and in the meantime it gives him a reference for the repellent's effectiveness.]
Yes. I need multiple samples of each variation.
[Once Axel has caught the bug, Hux reaches out for the jar with the intention of briefly examining it.] -- Thank you.
no subject
[The jar goes into the box, in a small section that has filled jars--there's still more that are empty than filled at this point.]
No. [It's a simple enough answer, but not one that answers any potential questions Axel may have.] Research and development.
no subject
[Which is possibly too defensive, but he's almost always prickly.]
It's classified. [Clearly the best at conversation.]
no subject
[It's intriguing--and he wonders what the limitations are. Does this affect all species the flies interact with?]
Both not long and too long, depending upon how you want to interpret it. We all have places we would rather be. [Or perhaps not, but he certainly does.] Do you have any prospects?
no subject
[It's not something he's thought a lot about over the years--proof that he really doesn't think he's missing out on anything; home for him is among the stars.]
I can think of a few myself. [Dead, in enemy hands--in that order.] Still, it's a bit inconvenient. [It's the understatement of the year, and for a moment his mind drifts back to what was left behind. The timing really could not have been worse.]
[For a brief moment, Hux is quiet as he appraises Axel, trying to decide whether the other man has any sort of inherent value.] Programming?
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
iii.
Even with the repellent, she had put on her entire exploration uniform to avoid having to risk another bite, not fully trusting the chemical to do for her what her protective gear could.
She tilted her head at his shout, turning her gaze and head to follow his gesture to the blue firefly blinking and fluttering out of the area in a meandering path.
She grabbed a jar, despite her reluctance to anger the small creatures further, scooping it into the glass before screwing the lid on tight and studying the trapped and blinking bug through her goggles before offering it back to the man for his collection.
Only then did she tug the cloth covering her face down and slide the goggles up to give him a calculating look, her face slightly scrunched up in an obvious perplexed expression.]
You're collecting them - Why?
.
But now they're both here.
At present, Hux cannot ascertain whether she recognizes him from any of his broadcasts, or from Starkiller itself, so he proceeds with caution. There could be an advantage here if she doesn't know who he is.
And if that's the case, it's one he won't hesitate to exploit.]
It's a hobby of mine.
no subject
[She sounds curious more than anything, stepping away from another meandering firefly to give it more space and leaving the capturing to the man who was clearly, for one reason or another invested in this.]
I am not sure they will live for long in those jars.
no subject
They haven't been bothered so far.
[Though he knows it's not out of the realm of possibilities--he'll deal with it when he gets to that juncture.]
The jars are temporary, until I can get them into a ventilated tank.
no subject
How many of them are you trying to catch?
[The more he gets in his jars, the fewer that will be left lurking round waiting to bite her or someone else.]
no subject
As many as possible.
[He needs a decent amount for a good sample, after all.] Ideally, I'd like to fill all the jars I brought.
no subject
Do they have netting or mesh in the city? It might be easier to catch them in numbers with something a bit wider.
[Even so, she scoops a small cluster of blue and green fireflies out of the air into the same jar. Hux can separate them himself if he is that particular. Rey is more interested in trying to get numbers than colors.]
no subject
It is likely that they do. [It would be strange if they did not, but--] The only ones I was able to find were better suited for larger specimens; anything useful to this particular endeavor seems to be sold out.
i/ii
She's well used to fighting alongside someone using ranged weapons, having fought beside Star-Lord as one of his Guardians. When a beast tries to get the jump on Hux from behind, rather than shout warning, Angela shoves him out of the way, meeting the attacker with her blade and felling the creature. ]
no subject
The problem lies in that she shoved him--regardless of whether it was to aid him or not, he's unhappy about it. Once he finds his grounding again, he fires at another one of the beasts while shooting a glare in her direction.]
Do not touch me again.
no subject
It has been some time since she fought under someone else's leadership, but she remembers how it's done. And so there's no argument from her, merely an adjustment in how she fights. ]
iii.
I hope you're working on an anecdote.
[With all these jars full, it would provide people with enough to research and get the job done. ]
These things are going to cause people to tear each other apart before long.
no subject
[Hux isn't inclined to be forthcoming with many things in general, much less someone he doesn't know, so it's as close to an answer as she's going to get. Nevermind the fact that he's the one who roped her into helping.]
Hopefully enough preventative measures can be taken before everything descends into chaos.