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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.
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
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Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!
no subject
...is great. There's a few seconds of pause as Eichi processes this, decides he likes the title, and then lowers his cup before he seems to perk up entirely.]
Fishing? That sort of whoosh casting your line and reeling it in fishing? [What other fishing is there? He made hand motions.] How exciting. ♪ I've never seen anything like that before. Have you caught many large fish? Do you keep them or let them go?
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What other fishing is there? [js,] If you can't eat them or sell them, it only makes sense to let them go... The biggest one I've caught was probably like, I dunno- [He holds his arms out at his sides, teacup and all, gesturing with his free hand.] Maybe more than that?
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My, you're speaking like an entirely different person. I believe this is what they call passion. Seeing this transformation with my own eyes is something special indeed. [He just says things like this sometimes, but moving on— He leans forward a little, like he's inspecting that size of fish.]
I've heard that fish can in fact be that large, but wouldn't they drag someone like you right off the dock?
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aaaaa...] Right. Yeah. Passion.
—Well anyway, I'm tougher than I look.
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[Little does Noct know a reaction like that just encourages Eichi further. He leans back into his own space, at least, enjoying his leaf water.] Saying something like that, I'm expecting you to back it up somehow.
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After this moment, he shifts forward to lean his elbow on his knee. Hmmmmmm.]
Want me to catch you a fish?
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Somehow.]
But since I wouldn't be able to do anything with it, I wouldn't want it to be wasteful. Perhaps I could accompany you and watch you catch it myself. If it's large enough, I'll be impressed.
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You don't eat fish? [eat his weird river fish] You can still come and watch. Maybe you'll learn something.
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[What would he do with a big fish? Anyway!! Watching this pretty boy fish, hmm. He guesses he has nothing else to do.] Though I won't refuse if you cook it, as well. Fufu, at the very least, I'd like to watch. Educate me thoroughly and I'll view fishing in a new light.
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I dunno about cooking it myself... I can give it a try. [It's all going to fall apart during that phase of the plan, but it's fine, he'll be impressive before then.] But you'll see what the big deal is, for sure.
[He won't get a turn or anything though because what if he lost Noctis' fishing gear?? No.]
no subject
Then let's go right after we finish this tea. I can't wait. If you could, please also look after me on the walk to the water. I'm not used to defending myself in this way, so it would be a problem if we ran into anything troublesome.
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Not a problem. Like I said- I'm tough. [He says, holding a teacup.]
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[He can't help but laugh a little, but it's not at Noct or anything. It's out of excitement! Enjoyment! Hanging out with others like real teens do is so fun. Anyway, he's already finished with his tea and having a second cup?!
He loves this stuff.]
no subject
Right. You'll be just fine. [Look, he'll even give Eichi a pat on the shoulder. Eichi has now joined the party, uselessly.
But how much tea is he going to have.] Don't tell me you're gonna drink that whole pot.
no subject
[And it seems that tough Noct-kun here can't handle some leaf water, so he's going to be the one having to drink it all.] I normally drink it quite often, so it's not so different compared to usual.
no subject
Sure... Enjoy it, then. [But quickly.]
no subject
But finally, he's finished all that he'll be having. he's cleaned up and everything he's keeping is packed away into the shopping bag. With it looped over his wrist, he picks up the umbrella with the other hand, ready to open it up again.]
Lead the way as soon as you're ready.
no subject
It's fine. He Loves Tea. Ugh.]
Lucky for you, I already know the best spot to go fishing. [Lucky, he says. But anyway, don't question his Day 0 knowledge of fishing spots, he's a genius with good priorities. He will indeed lead the way, presumably under Eichi's goofy umbrella again because that seems to be how Eichi functions.
All the way down to the fishing-appropriate area near the river they will go. Noctis deposits Eichi at a safe distance from his fishing adventure, and it's time for step one he totally didn't mention this whole time: summoning his fishing gear out of thin air. With crystal glitter.]
no subject
W-what was that just now? Magic? [He doesn't actually believe in real magic, but can this be explained by science? There were sparkles just now!!]
no subject
Something like that? It's kinda my thing.
no subject
[What the heck... He doesn't know what to think about this. He's still holding this umbrella over himself, watching from this safe distance.]
Well, despite that, I am interested in seeing you catch something large. Let me see your passion at work. ♪
no subject
Alright, alright. Sit tight over there, then.
[For this... very exciting fishing episode. Unlike in video games, fish don't bite after 0.5 seconds, so Eichi will have to wait for a while to watch Noctis actually catch a fish. The first two aren't anything special, so he just lets them go with some disappointed grumbling to himself, but he's getting more charged up!! About fishing!!
Mercifully, the third fish he catches is actually somewhat sizable, and he holds it up enthusiastically with the fish control tool to turn around and show Eichi. Look at this!!!!]
no subject
At least until he turns around with that fish and such excitement. It's surprising, after all of that waiting, and a laugh bubbles out with surprise before he raises his hands to politely clap. One, two.]
Is that the biggest you can catch?
no subject
No way! I don't know what the biggest fish here is, but once I find out... [fish goals.]
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[A long, elaborate way of saying it's cool, he guesses.] Something like that would pull me away for sure.
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