riverviewooc | riverview: may test drive meme

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riverview: may 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 June 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 for 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

prompt i: search & rescue

Following rumors about a magical healing spring deep in the jungle, a group of intrepid explorers ventured out to verify whether it existed or not. After finding the spring inside an ancient temple overrun with tree roots and flora, they brought samples back and discovered that the spring did, in fact, have healing properties. Just like the rumors said.

Until the authorities decided what to do with this information, no actions were to be taken, nor information revealed to the public at large. Unfortunately, the news leaked and spread to the alternative science communities as well as the top minds at Gramarye Magic Research. With interest piqued, several more unauthorized expeditions set out beyond the fence in search of the spring. And once the information leaked beyond these scientists and scholars? Everyday citizens also launched their own excursions into the jungle, many bringing ailing family members or friends along for the ride.

This month the mission is to deploy teams of skilled citizens into the jungle to rescue some of the less fortunate, unsuccessful parties. Some of these people will be trapped or set upon by monsters, unable to move forward to the spring or back to the safety of the city. Others have simply run out of supplies and need the teams to restock them so they can continue their trek. And some groups have managed to reach the spring and collect their own samples of the spring water, only to find themselves struggling to return to the city before the samples lose efficacy. Feel free to create your own party to rescue, and get a team together to do so!

prompt ii: death from above

Normally, living inside the Inhabited City is a pretty safe bet. You can go day to day without running into a monster or risking any kind of danger requiring a fight. Generally, the tall, laser-fenced walls keep out anything particularly dangerous.

The problem with walls? They only go so high.

While usually assault from airborne monsters isn't a problem that's on the map, there's a few weeks during late spring where a swarm of flying monsters not unlike feathery pterodactyls are migrating back to another part of the moon. They're only in the area for a couple of weeks, but during that time, residents can expect occasional attacks by swooping monsters if they should see easy prey. Usually, a good sturdy dark-colored umbrella is enough to keep them from seeing a potential victim or meal, but sometimes the attacks still happen. So the Perimeter Guard sends extra details, calling in all the reserves, to patrol the city and keep an eye out for citizens in distress. There's also a general call for anyone who's experienced at fighting to help protect their fellow citizens. Whether your character is being attacked or protecting someone else, be prepared - these monsters are quick and have very sharp teeth.

prompt iii: homesick bazaar

Over the past couple of weeks, the portal has seemed really fixated on food. Almost every time the portal changes location, new bundles of food are near the entrance, ripe for the Perimeter Guard Orientation Team to pick up and drag through. As a result, the Orientation Team has set up a free bazaar outside City Hall. The Bazaar lasts from the 20th until the 31st of May, and is completely free, featuring tables and booths laden with food taken from the other side of the portal. Many of these foods will be familiar to characters in the City, whether it's that special brand they're totally addicted to or a plate of grandma's family recipe.

Everything at the Bazaar is totally free, and anyone joining in on the feast is encouraged to share (read: gently not allowed to leave until they do) and to tell stories about the origin of the foods from their own home. It's a multidimensional foodie's paradise!

prompt iv: prijata pregaming

Prijata is a holiday in Riverview celebrating platonic love - essentially, it's a celebration of friendship, geared at showing appreciation for existing friends and finding new ones. While I won't spoil the rest of the prompts for the introductory mingle, one of the main staples of Prijata is gift giving, and the Government of Riverview gets into the spirit of it by giving small gifts to everyone who's arrived since the last Prijata.

This prompt can be used to give a quick idea of what your character is into so other characters or players can suggest gifts to be given them (or to give them) if they are accepted! More information can be found in the Prijata Pregaming modpost.

prompt v: 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.

<center><blockquote style="width: 220px; margin: 0; padding: 0px; background-image: url('http://i42.tinypic.com/2uf53s4.jpg'); font-size: 12px; font-family: verdana; border-radius: 20px; text-align: center;"><div style="padding: 10px 0 0 0; text-align: center;font-size: 25px; font-weight: 900; font-style: italic; color: #528887; text-shadow: -2px 2px 2px rgba(150, 150, 150, 1);">F<span style="font-size: 16px;">RIENDR</span></div>
<center><img src="ICON URL HERE" style="border-radius: 50%; width: 70px; height: 70px; box-shadow:-3px 3px 2px 0px rgba(82, 136, 135, .75);"></center>
<center><div style="width: 210px; background-color: #528887; color: #fff; padding: 5px; font-size: 14px;">Name of Character</div></center>
<center><div style="width: 210px; background-color: #528887; color: #fff; padding: 5px; font-size: 11px; text-align: left;"><b><small>AGE:</small></b> ##
<b><small>INTERESTED IN:</small></b> Male/Female/Any
<b><small>SEEKING:</small></b> Type(s) of Relationship(s)
<b><small>ABOUT ME:</small></b> Blurb goes here, can be as long or short as you wish.</div></center><br>
</blockquote></center>

Many thanks to

mistojen for coding this especially for Riverview!

prompt vi: wildcard

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

navigation
[river market image is by Tyler Edlin]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Okay, that gets a stronger twitch of her lips into a half-smile before it fades into a generally affable expression instead. She doesn't normally touch the minds of those around her-- she has strong enough control that being in a crowd is no trouble; it'd have to be, or she couldn't do her job-- but earlier she'd touched a few, just to verify this was all real and she wasn't trapped in some weird hallucination, and the lingering high excitement has affected her a bit.

It's not something she usually feels, when she reaches out and touches others' minds. It's a little bit amazing. ]

Sure. [ Anderson's not picky; she'd grown up poor, for one thing. She makes her way over and accepts the food with a nod and a Thank you. ] Do you have festivals like this, where you're from? [ Presumably they'll want to do the actual eating somewhere not directly in front of the stall, and Anderson might as well make small talk in the meantime. Plus, she's genuinely curious about other worlds. Who wouldn't be? ]

[ He does likewise; an event like this means it draws in a large crowd, and there's no time for dawdling in line when it comes to free food. So, he accepts his portion—a far cry from what he normally eats, and he idly wonders if his stomach will be paying for this later—and steps aside, taking a cursory glance around. Now, where's a good spot to sit... ]

Sometimes, but they're not free. And the food doesn't come out of portals, either.

[ There's a small wild-growth styled garden off the side of the road, with a stone and metal retaining wall at hip height. A little high for sitting, but doable, and all the benches are taken, so Anderson veers off in that direction. ]

That's for sure, [ she agrees. ] Everything's very strange here, to me. I had to have come out of a portal to get here.

[ And he follows, now that they're in this together. But the company is nice, especially so from someone thrown into the same wild circumstances they're currently in. Even if she looks like she's dressed to kill, or something.

Yuuto nods his head in agreement. ]

Some things are familiar– [ In very general ways, because for the most part, they're in a typical metropolitan city when you ignore the weirder bits. ] –but it's still a strange place. I'd bet everyone else like us feels the same.

[ She's absolutely dressed to kill, in a very literal way. In fact, as they approach the retaining wall, she sets her food down on top of it first and peels her black gloves off, tucking them neatly into one of her many equipment pockets. Sitting with a gun on your hip isn't exactly comfortable or the finest in gun safety, so she shifts it to a different holster at her ribcage before hoisting herself up and recovering her food.

She'd never thought about other worlds before, but maybe just because it'd be too painful to imagine something other than what she'd had. Certainly if she'd known something like this was out there, and not only that but that hers is the odd one out, the weird one, she'd have... taken it hard. Something.

It's not something she'll say out loud, but she's already wondering how she'll manage to swallow it when she has to go back, even if everything she knows is being a Judge and there's no room for that here.

Anderson has been looking up at the sky as she thought this, plate immobile in her hands, but not for too long. Noticeably thinking, but not drifting. She says: ] Strange as it is, I wonder how many people end up staying here after all.

[ As she shifts and adjusts, he watches her nonchalantly, leaning against the wall with his hip. He doesn't mind standing and eating, especially if it means not being too friendly and casual by sitting next to her. Either way, she does pique his interest by some, and he's left to ponder what type of person she is and what kind of world "doesn't get much fresh food".

He lets out a thoughtful hum in response. ]

Out of choice?

[ It isn't an option he considered anyone taking. ]

[ Anderson assumes by default that no one's trying to be friendly with her, so if there's liable to be mixed signals, it's absolutely going to be the other way. If anything, she's remarkably slow on the uptake for normal social overtures about her genuine well-being. ]

Yeah. Some people... probably don't have much to leave behind. [ She's not actually talking about herself, here; she's picturing all the people whose minds she's read at home, and what had driven them to their crimes. Or the thoughts she'd seen in reluctant witnesses. Anderson knows that a lot of people in Mega-City One really have nothing left to lose. ]

Huh.

[ He takes a moment to mull over this, popping some of his lunch in his mouth as he does. ]

... No, I think you're right.

[ On the flip side, he does a lot of entering the hearts of those who have everything to lose—but because of those people, there's always someone out there without hope. Someone desperate. Escaping to other dimensions normally isn't an option, however, so it hadn't even crossed his mind until she mentions it. ]

No one knows you here. It's a chance to get away.

[ She smiles very slightly. No one even recognizes her uniform. But she doesn't say that, because she's not sure she wants to go into it, not sure she wants to dwell on that any more than she already has. She'll answer questions if asked, but...

Maybe for just a moment, she can leave Mega-City One behind in the other world where she'd left it. A futile wish, but she'll try. ]

Even if you intend to go home, it's not a bad vacation. [ She finally starts picking at her meat, her earlier curiosity returning. ] Plus... free food.

[ Honestly, he'd prefer to take a rain check on the vacation. Knowing how things were when he'd unwittingly left it all behind makes him antsy the longer it remains untouched, and he was so ready to tackle it head-on, too.

But it's nervousness he hides well. ]

Free food and no homework. I could get used to this. [ Because that's how an everyday teenager would feel. He tilts his head, hinting at her food. ] Any good?

[ For Anderson, there's nothing left back there for her but the seventeen thousand serious crimes reported every day in the megalopolis. There's always something, neverending. From this vantage point, this strange luminous place outside of time, it seems eternal: the smog and grime and violence of the meat grinder that is Mega-City One.

She can't touch it, will never be able to do more than eke out tiny changes, chipping away with each case she takes. It'll be there forever. She can always go back.

But what can she do here? ]

Hm? Oh. It's fine. [ A short pause. ] Definitely... not chicken.

[ Ah. She's very distracted by something, it seems. Understandably, he supposes; life in this city feels as though it goes on normally enough, though it's still an overwhelming situation, especially if it's all strange to her. ]

Definitely not chicken. [ Yuuto nods, sagely. ] I always do say beef is better.

[ Oops. That was unprofessional of her. She might be a crappy Judge, and she might not even be a Judge here, but Anderson has some pride.

She refocuses on... what is a completely ridiculous conversation. It only adds to the surreality of being here. She definitely doesn't have inane conversations like this at home. ] I'm not that picky. I'm Anderson, by the way. Did you just get here, too?

Yuuto. Nice to meet you.

[ He can be polite, if nothing else. ]

I got here yesterday. It was too busy then– [ From arriving, wondering what the hell was going on, getting situated and the like. Took up nearly the entire day. ] –so I decided today would be better to start looking around. [ With a clearer head and all, and more rested. ]

[ Politeness, what a novelty. Anderson doesn't quite realize to return it. She's not standoffish, just out of touch with casual conversation. ]

Found anything interesting yet? I've been picking off the reptilian birds.

[ Not an activity that lends time for leisurely exploring. ]

Nothing as interesting as reptile birds. [ Leisurely? No. But he's all about the thrill of the ride too, so there's zero judging here. ] You're able to handle those things?

[ He says, with a hint of awe in his voice, because surely a kid like him wouldn't be capable of that, right? ]

[ Something twigs a little odd to her at that-- she knows what she looks like, Judges are walking arsenals constantly set to lethal-- but he hasn't done anything suspect, so she lets it go. What does she know about reading people from other dimensions the normal way, anyway? ]

Sure. They're just moving targets. [ Anderson picks at her food. ] They're... weird, but they're not creative.

[ Not like killing people, she means. Ha ha ha. ]

[ Definitely not. They're not nearly as aware and responsive as a Shadow is either, so in comparison, they really are easy targets. Dangerous to the normal civilian, but nothing to someone with the know-how. ]

True. Still, that's impressive. [ He takes a moment to size her up again. ] But you don't look like a typical officer, anyway.

Apparently.

[ It's a pithy comment. Truthfully Anderson isn't a typical officer in a lot of respects, but at least her uniform and general presentation isn't considered odd at home. It's her youth, her lack of helmet, her psionics. She doesn't feel impressive at all.

Anderson isn't the faceless force of the law that Judges are supposed to be. But no one here knows that she's off that way-- they just think Judges are atypical as a whole. ]

This is a standard Judge's uniform, [ she tells him. ] Nothing special.

A Judge. [ He echoes, as if it were a new concept to him. Not that it is, entirely, but her idea of one is... obviously different from his. ] The kind that deals with law?

The kind that can sentence criminals and dispense justice. Yeah.

[ After a beat, there's something about her words that tugs the corners of his mouth into a subtle smile. Still, he can't help but wonder how earnest her words truly are; Yuuto hopes they're genuine, but he has very little faith in the system these days. Despite his thoughts: ]

That kind; got it. It sounds like hard work... but it's still pretty noble.

[ She's done enough mind reading that even when she isn't tapped into someone's head, Anderson's gotten pretty good at noticing cues and facial expressions, and sees him smile.

She leans back onto one hand and looks out at the crowd, all the people milling around, laughing, arguing, totally confident in their personal safety. ]

It's not. Noble. People should feel that someone is looking out for them.

[ It is hard work, though. ]

Well—I do agree with that. [ It's a big part in why he and the rest of his gang took up the roles of phantom thieves. They wanted to give people hope that there's someone out there fighting for their sake. ] Not everyone gets to feel that way, and it isn't a job that most people would take up, so I think it's an important one.

[ Anderson's not totally comfortable talking about herself as someone laudable, so she tries to flip it around: ]

What about you? Is it a job you're willing to take up?

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