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riverview: april 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.
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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
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Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!
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[ He's half-tempted to use an illusion to wear the spandex suit once more. That had been fun too. ]
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Actually? It wouldn't hurt.
[That doesn't mean he won't take an opening to push back when he gets it.]
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Oh, but it could hurt. I would not want to lay waste to the sanctity of the order.
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Very funny. How about you do it as a gesture of good faith?
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[ Loki makes a show of checking his nails. ]
After all, I have no faith in you. The man under the ice who slept the century away when his friends needed him.
[ Parachutes, apparently, were a bad idea. ]
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I'm not the one that tried to hurt innocent people.
[Okay, he held out for a little. But Steve is in a bad mood for games.]
What would you want from me?
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[ Not then, not now and not ever. He had tried his hand at the dutiful son. At Steve's question, his brow furrows. ]
I want nothing from you. I believe that is quite clear.
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[He's stubborn even about things like this. Even in playing fair with Loki.]
I'm asking for one from you, so I want to know. What would it take to get it?
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You must be joking.
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Do I look like I'm joking?
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[ But his interest has piqued. What should he make of this? Loki purses his lips in thought. He has no conquests to plot, certainly not here. Perhaps it is time for a new tactic. ]
A favor then. It will not call for blood, deceit or pain.
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He does balk at the answer he gets. Steve was expecting Loki to turn him down with some haughty answer. But now that it's on the table, he is forced to take it seriously. He wants to refuse, but he has to be the example. Take the first step.
And even if he's not, then Steve doesn't think he can be the one to break trust first.]
One favor. Nothing that will hurt anyone else.
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As you say, Captain.
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[because he feels that really needs repeating. Somehow, this feels far too easy.]
This is a show of good faith. I expect you to hold up your end of it.
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Isn't it amusing, Captain, that we have never met, and yet faith is so tenuous between us?
[ Faith. As if what Steve is offering can ever be construed as faith. No, it is meant to be a kindness, a mercy for a stranger who bears the name of Loki and spouts a few words. Men never change. ]
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Steve takes a breath, pulling back because he has to put at least a little distance between them. Even if that means moving the phone back.]
I'm just reminding you. Since we just met.
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Unless I've committed some injustice of which you are aware of, I do not believe you have room to remind — [ And here, his tone is a perfect mimicry of Steve's ] — me of anything.
Don't you ever get tired of playing gatekeeper?
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Sometimes. Yeah, I do.
[He can lay that truth down too. Maybe a bit recklessly.]
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Then perhaps you should consider a fresh start.
[ Not that Loki has room to talk, but he is too far tangled in his own flaws. He knows it. He won't escape it. ]
After all, what else do you have to lose?
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And might just be truth too. Truth he doesn't necessarily like hearing, but truth.]
Everything I am?
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Captain America has carved out his space. Where is the space for Steve Rogers?
[ Loki could never pursue such a thought. His life, his memory is so fragile, so contingent on the dynamics around him. Hated, reviled . . . he thrives off it. It's the closest thing he has to a complete existence. ]
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Captain America is what gave Steve Rogers his place. And I'm glad that it happened. What about you? There's no Asgard here. You could start over.
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And do what, precisely?
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[Steve responds to the derision with more confidence, because to him it sounds like a challenge to meet, and he'll always meet a challenge.]
You have the ability to be whatever you want. Haven't you ever considered changing your place in things?
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[ His smile is wintry cold. ]
But as you might surmise, it did not end well. Though I suppose your advice would be to try and try again, no doubt.
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