riverview: may test drive meme

[riverviewmod]

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]

Comments

[dendarii]

It just seems appropriate to tell you upfront, rather than come up later. I'd rather not deceive.

[ Which is to say: yes. He does want to tell her way more than she cares about knowing. ]

[wronganswer]

[ That is the same principle by which she tells people she's psychic early on in knowing them. She doesn't shoehorn it in, but she tries to get it out of the way. ]

You can tell me... or you can show me. Up to you.

[dendarii]

[ Miles jolts a bit at that. ]

You mean - telepathically?

[wronganswer]

If you want to. You'd just have to think about it.

[dendarii]

... Will it be painful? The memory isn't a pleasant one, I guarantee that.

[wronganswer]

Like watching a vid. I'll be fine.

[ She's seen worse. ]

[dendarii]

Then ... all right. Go ahead, then.

[ He's really not sure what to do here, but - he tries to beckon mentally? Open up? Something?? ]

[wronganswer]

[ She snorts faintly and gestures with her hand, flicking a finger at him. ]

You don't need to try. Just think about what you want to show me.

[dendarii]

Right. Er. Just give me a moment.

[ His mental pattern shifts, slowing. Focusing on an office somewhere, militaristic, with the blandest man imaginable sitting in front of Miles at a desk. A chair - and relief, as Miles thinks he might have avoided doom after all - before that indescribably bland man begins to speak. A simple question - asking if Miles had anything to add? - before it all comes spilling out in pieces. Quiet at first, then nearly shaking with disappointment as he outlines Miles' crimes. Miles' medical records. How he'd lied on multiple occasions to keep them buried, both through ImpSec and his own fleet. The edited feed. And medical discharge as a favor, one that Miles had immediately argued with, wth all the weapons at his disposal, up to and including Gregor's favor - though it was the greatest mercy Simon might show Miles at this moment. All the nepotism Simon could possibly manage.

And more, Miles mentally flailing about as he scrabbles to find any way to pull himself out of the hole he'd dug for himself. Up until a memory of green fire and spiralling lights that heralds a seizure. Simon's face after, gray and wan. And Miles' utter despair as he admits defeat, mixed with his not entirely successful attempt not to cry. He cleans himself up, submits himself to the resignation, and goes off to hurl himself into the abyss, mentally.

He's still there now. It yawns under all his mental processes, all that bright and busy activity. Everything he does is a distraction from the fact that he has truly and thoroughly imploded his life. ]

[wronganswer]

[ She drinks her coffee while processing this, completely non-reactive as she automatically runs through an internal assessment. She has to remind herself again that this isn't her jurisdiction, he's not from her dimension, he's already been sentenced. Without that fallback of a Judge's prerogative, she's left intaking all this from a purely human one.

It's... unfamiliar, but not unwelcome. And for the first time the sort of person she is beneath all the necessity that overtakes her shows through: she looks hesitant, compassionate. She gets pieces of feelings with the flashes of events, intrinsic and inseparable in the human mind. Anderson is good at separating herself from others' thoughts, but that doesn't mean she's unaffected. It all comes through.

She sets her empty cup down. ]

You should've been medically discharged, anyway. Before that. You have to find a way to live the way you are, Vorkosigan.

[dendarii]

[ He winces at that; her words threaten to put a hole in the dam blocking off a whole lifetime of feelings about being medically unfit for his chosen profession. ]

I didn't want to be medically discharged either. That's exactly why I lied.

[wronganswer]

I got that, [ she says wryly, though not unsympathetically. She's still tuned to his mind, slowly disentangling herself. It makes the depth of effect from her prior words obvious. ]

But you can't hold a gun if you're having seizures. Reality was going to catch up.

[dendarii]

Reality bends if you're strong enough to warp it. I've never lived realistically.

[wronganswer]

[ She folds her arms and leans back in her chair. ]

Neurology doesn't bend.

[dendarii]

Then don't bend the neurology. Change the conditions you use it under.

[wronganswer]

How's that working out so far?

[ She asks because she already knows the answer; she'd felt it. ]

[dendarii]

[ Miles knows it too, but he's not giving up on this. ]

It got me this far. I shouldn't have made it to where I was, by all accounts.

[wronganswer]

Me, too.

[ It's not a challenge, just an equitable answer. Failing so many times... Anderson knows she's a terrible Judge. She's never contested that. She's determined to make a difference anyway, no matter how much it isolates her, how much she is distrusted for being psychic, hated for being a mutant. ]

I'm just saying... [ A pause. In a quiet tone, ] It's not all you are.

[dendarii]

[ Ah. That gets through to him a bit better; he straightens, meeting her eyes curiously. ]

How so?

[wronganswer]

[ A tiny smile. She likes seeing she had an effect, and her sense of humor is a little teasing. ]

You're questioning the telepath who was just in your head? There's more there than that.

[dendarii]

I meant you.

[wronganswer]

[ Oh, well, none of this is a secret. It's all common knowledge at home, or on her official record. Her good humor fades into nonchalance, affected so many times before it's become almost real. ]

When I said I'm a borderline pass, I mean I'm a fail who was pushed through because they want to use my abilities. Most people in my situation die violent and starving at the edge of the Cursed Earth. I grew up in a slum.

I'm too human to be a Judge, and too mutant to be a human.

But I don't care. They can use me if they want. This is what I've always wanted to do. Those people in the slums-- they don't deserve that.

[ She falls silent. It's a heavy situation to explain, one she's not sure she fully can. That's the best she can do. There's an earnestness to her, and a tenacity, that is impossible to suppress no matter how impassive she tries to be. ]

[dendarii]

[ There's a flicker of understanding anyway - sympathy, of wanting desperately to serve in any way possible. To force the world to accept you even a little in the face of horrible prejudice ... Miles just has the advantage of being a lord to help smooth his path. No slum childhood here. ]

It seems you've already bent reality yourself.

[wronganswer]

[ It's not like she'd be jealous-- things are the way they are. Anderson doesn't waste any time pitying herself when she has real work to do. At least, she always does at home. ]

If you want to think of it that way. I just want to do this job.

[dendarii]

As I wanted to do mine. More than anything else in the world.