riverview: test drive meme

[riverviewmod]

riverview test drive meme

Welcome to Riverview's first 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 March 1st.
● All threads on the test drive meme can count as game canon once the game is up and running.
● TDM threads do not count for Activity Check, but they do count for Activity Bonus Points.

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 ● navigation

prompt i: batten down the hatches

If the sky has seemed a little more yellow-green than usual for the past couple of days, there's a reason for that. Meteorologists have been warning of a particularly nasty storm blowing in from the direction of the Delta in the Southwestern part of the Abandoned City.

The Quarantine is about to be hit by a nasty typhoon, and there's a lot to be done. Whether you're helping sandbag the banks of the river, which is bound to be swollen by the storm and flooding, weatherproofing your building, or just huddling indoors for warmth and helping reassure your friends, family, or partner that everything will be okay, it's time to take action!

prompt ii: monster madness

There's been a lot of talk around the Quarantine about the various predators and monsters outside the fence, and how they've been getting steadily more active, crowding the fences, trying to leap over them, seemingly driven by some kind of mania. There have even been increasing instances of predators that normally mind their own business attacking the fences wholesale, slamming into it over and over as if they're trying to find a weakness.

The good news? The fences have been holding. So far.

The bad news? They won't be holding for much longer.

The Perimeter Guard is in a bad way, and it's all hands on deck. They've also sent out a few of the Perimeter Guard Cadets to post up flyers around the city asking for temporary help in fighting off the beasts. So pick up whatever weapon you're best with, hop onto a truck transport, and head on over to the fences to help drive off the monsters and keep the Quarantine safe.

prompt iii: hold your lover close

With a storm rolling in that's going to keep everyone indoors, that might cause power outages, and is just frankly pretty scary, a lot of the clubs, restaurants, and hotels are doing special events to keep everyone's brains occupied and flooded with endorphins.

There are flyers around the city advertising various couples activities: speed dating, dance classes, overnight pool parties, and all-expenses-paid lovers' nights in.

The catch? The great deals only count if you're a twosome. So if you don't have someone to love, hit up speed dating in the indoor courtyard of Riverview's largest mall, or grab the first person you see and take the opportunity.

prompt iv: solution

After a day or two of storm activity, things are definitely not getting better: the rain is torrential, the monsters are attacking with increased energy and decreased rest times, and the distractions are starting to wear thin. Power outages happen off and on, a very rare situation in Riverview Quarantine.

The government has put out an all-points-bulletin imploring anyone with an exploratory spirit to help.

From what government science techs can tell, the storm isn't natural - after all, even the meteorologists were saying that the pressure systems seemed extremely strange. They've managed to narrow the cause to an area in the delta where the storm seems to be originating from, and are broadcasting the general location so anyone with the guts can head out into the storm and try to find the source of it.

Any characters who decide to penetrate the jungle in search of the source will find a device in the shape of a pyramid, with glowing blue edges about a day's walk into the Abandoned City. The pyramid is a malfunctioning weather control device that is causing wild pressure fluctuations and causing the storm as well as making the animals in the jungle aggressive and erratic. Characters can destroy or deactivate the device to end the storm.

This mission can be threaded out however you would like, in groups however large you would like, and more than one team can accomplish the goal.

prompt v: wildcard/network

Whether you're looking for help with a mission or just want to get to know your fellow new arrivals, your character can make a post to the network.

Or you can choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!

navigation

Comments

[spellslots]

That is exactly what I mean, my dude!

[Assuming that she's watching closely from her perch, Taako holds up a hand, palm flat, and casts prestidigitation.

Sparks dance up from his fingers, bright colors swirling through the air before fizzling out. It's just a cantrip, something simple, but he thinks it'll get the message across.]

[causational]

[Eddie winces when she says she likes her coffee plain with a bit of milk, but it's a humorous expression, and he laughs softly.]

Ouch. You're definitely more hardcore than me.

[But he heads into the coffee shop with her, pulling her along gently by the hand, glancing up at the menu. She mentions that he seems energetic, and he laughs again, shaking his head a bit.]

Not so much. I'm still a little disoriented, you know? But I was cooped up in the hospital after I arrived for a couple of days, so I guess it's probably that. And, you know, trying to keep my spirits up.

[causational]

Oh my god. That's amazing. I can kind of picture it.

Huh. I can't tell if I was really ambitious or really unambitious before I came here.

[pundemic]

[holy shit.

She stares, obviously completely enraptured by this. All caution is just thrown out the window, fuck this, she's an excited fifteen year old. And she finally comes down from her perch.]

No way. What is that? Do it again!

[spellslots]

There you are!

[Taako looks delighted, mostly because this now means he has an audience, which he loves, and he isn't about to get bulleted, which he is sure he would not love.]

And now, see, I could do that again, but prestidigitation is only a cantrip, babies could do it. [And he's a level 12 wizard so like!] Tell me your favorite animal.

[pundemic]

[She doesn't even care about the fact he looks like he wandered out of a comic book anymore tbh.

Also: she knows what some of these words mean. Individually. Maybe.]

Uhmmm-- can you do a giraffe?

[spellslots]

Can I do a--? Can I do a giraffe?

[He looks insulted, or like he's trying to be insulted but he's too busy grinning.]

You're only talking to one of the greatest wizards in Faerûn.

[No he's full of shit on that front, but he does cast a glance upwards to check that he's not going to smack his head into a tree once he gets taller, and then snaps his fingers.

The umbrella drops to the ground, since he no longer has hands to hold it, because in place of Taako Taaco, flip wizard, there's a normal looking giraffe.]

'Sup.

[pundemic]

[This is terrifying but also: amazing, and Ellie's sense of self preservation has fucked off to some far-flung corner of the universe.

There was a time when everything seemed so bleak and hopeless she had a hard time reminding herself to breathe, and seeing these animals up close, so beautiful, completely untouched by the Infection, by everything, it was just-- it was how she kept going.

She raises a hand reflexively, like she wants to pet him, and then thinks better of it. Her fingers curl downwards against her palm instead.]

That's... this is really cool.

[spellslots]

Hell yeah it is.

[A talking giraffe is probably not what Ellie expected from her afternoon, and Taako didn't really expect it for his, either, since he doesn't use polymorph all that often. But it's a free spell, so at least he's not burning slots on amusing a kid.]

'Fraid I can only do one a day, so I hope you're happy with your choice.

[pundemic]

One-- animal? Like a change? Why only one?

[Her immediate thought is something like bullets, or resources or something, because she always frames things in her mind in terms of scarcities like that, but she's still curious enough to ask.]

[spellslots]

[After briefly toying with the idea of sitting down like this - and dismissing it because it'd look undignified as hell - Taako drops his giraffe head down so he's a little closer to Ellie.]

That's just how it works, short stack. Whatever animal I want, but only once a day. Wizards aren't all powerful, just pretty damn rad.

Ivar "The Boneless" Ragnarsson | Vikings

[ragnarsson]

I. batten down the hatches

[Ivar watched the skies grow dark and ugly looking. This looked to be a bad storm, even worse than the one that had destroyed the boat he'd been on when he and his father had gone to England. But the storm brought a feeling of fierce joy to the young Viking. It reminded him of home and of the gods. Could they still see him here in the strange new place? He hoped so. Maybe it was Thor sending down a message right now.

He'll move to get indoors eventually, but for right now, Ivar is seated outside on a bench, head craned back as he watches the skies. Anyone who observes the teenager will notice two unusual things about him. The first is that the whites of his eyes are tinged blue as well as his irises. The second is that his legs are tied together with several strips of fabric.]

II. monster madness

[Hunting and killing real-life monsters? Ivar was definitely there. All he needed was his ax and he climbed onto a truck. Really, getting inside some wagon that didn't need horses to run off of was more terrifying than whatever he was about to face. He got a few strange looks from people as he crawled off the truck, but then, he'd been getting them his whole life. By now, he'd ceased caring.

He watched as one of the monsters, a spindly-legged thing with far too many teeth, scrambled right over the fence. It immediately made a beeline for the Viking. Calmly, he picked up his ax, and waited for it to come in view. The minute a clawed hand reached out to grab him, he lopped it off. Then he went for the feet, taking them out so he could bring it down to his level. Wary, the creature and he went back and forth, each trying to deal out damage to the other. Suddenly seizing an opening, Ivar brought his ax down right in the middle of the creature's head, killing it stone cold dead.

He wiped the gore off of his blade, a manic grin on his face as he looked around for his next opponent.] That was fun. Who's next?

IV. solution

[The jungle was hotter than any place Ivar had ever been in his life. He wasn't going to complain though. That would make him seem weak in the eyes of everyone else. Instead, he wiped the sweat off his brow, and continued crawling through the brush. The vehicle that had brought them this far had to be left a few miles back, but Ivar was keeping up fairly well with everyone else, considering all the brush they had to make their way through.

The blue glow is what caught his attention first. Hacking a hanging vine away, he looked up to see a pyramid in front of them. It was still a bit of a walk's away, but it was clear that this was a source of power. Being a Viking, Ivar saw only one logical solution to the problems it was causing.]

So how do we destroy this thing?

V. wildcard

[Want to do anything else? Let me know here!]

[detia]

"Like superheroes?"

He can't help the slight excitement in his voice as he asks. Superheroes have always been icons to him, role models he could never match, being a normal, boring human himself.

"That's... awesome. We have nothing like this back home. Just you know, comic books. But if we have anyone like this with us here, in Quarantine, that would be so useful."

Obviously, it would make Adam himself completely useless, but he's willing to try and deal with that, help however he can. Like Captain America would. Surely there's still stuff he can do, even with superheroes around.

"Damn. We have aliens, back home, but nothing as cool as superpowers."

[detia]

You would?

[Listen, he's already having a hard enough time with this whole speed dating malarkey, he really doesn't want to try and find more people that are interested in talking to him. It's genuinely difficult and he's feeling a bit raw already.]

I mean, what's got your attention in all these activities? [Because it can't be all about him. He's pretty sure that's a thing.]

[detia]

Well, someone's kind of a dick.

[And he's not talking about himself.]

[livingsymbol]

Thornwell. Is that a town?

[He doesn't recognize the name, but that doesn't mean anything. It could be a city where she is from and it might be from another world or simply out of the way. It's more her appearance that sets her apart.]

What is it like there? Maybe we can trade stories.

v.

[prosecutorial]

[Oh my God is that Curtis? Please actually be Curtis, please actually be a familiar face.]

Given my experience in Star City? I'm putting my money on B. Though, also given Star City I feel like it's WAY more complicated than that.

[bespredel]

Bullshit.

[ His mother language returned, swearing at the other loudly enough to be heard, no mistake that he meant for the other to hear it, but not shouted as before. Yuri has bigger things to worry about in that moment, after all. The monsters are still coming over the fence, and if he lets himself think too hard about anything else- he's not sure what he'll do. He's still not sure how to compartmentalize what he's doing; that he killed something. And he did, the corpse is right there- off to his left, his spear bloody, his shoes bloody.

He loses himself to the rhythm of it, his arms shaking with effort, losing strength by the end. His strengths have always lay in his legs, and suddenly he's realizing the importance of arm days, after all. There comes a point where it's all he can do to continue to pick his spear up again. It becomes lodged in the corpse of a dead monster, and he can't manage to pull it out. Another monster comes for him, snarling and snapping and all Yuri can do is shout, levering himself off the embedded spear to kick out, hitting it so hard in the jaw that it's head snaps to the side, momentarily stunned. The action had looked more like a gymnasts move; a dancer's. But it won't be enough to keep him alive. ]

[uglyminded]

[ She barks a laugh. ]

Whatever gets the job done, Adam.

[anotheroldsoldier]

[The momentary lapse back into English was automatic - battlefield snark in Russian doesn't come nearly as easily to him, because on the battlefield in Russia, he was not allowed such things. It was much more common in his American army career.

He just offers the swearing a quick two-fingered salute before he leaps back into the fray. The monsters seem to keep coming, for much longer than he expected them to, maybe hearing the noise or smelling the blood in the air. Bucky fights like a machine, relentless and ruthless against non-human opponents. Remorseless. He saves his sympathy for his human victims.

His suit is sprayed with greenish blood by the time the flow starts to ebb, his shield is caked in gore and the clip in his gun is empty. Bucky's head whips up when he hears the commotion, the shout. It takes about a second to assess the situation - Yuri's spear is stuck, and while his foot connected but good with the creature's jaw, it wasn't a hard enough hit to disable it for long. Bucky grabs up the shield and he rushes the beast from the side, hard, like a battering ram, knocking it out of Yuri's path.

It reacts quickly, gnashing teeth and lunging, and Bucky catches its snapping jaw on his prosthetic arm, delivering a hard punch to the throat with the other.]

[advanced]

I know he's looking for me.

[He doesn't bother to specify back home or here, because he's pretty sure that both are true.]

I'm not ready for him to find me, I'm not who he thinks I am.

[advanced]

[He's not much of a one for socialising, so he chooses instead to just nod without further comment and slip back outside.

Unfortunately, he chooses not to return and keep the jacket.]

[advanced]

[His eyes narrow slightly, more at the language than the weapon, and he too shifts into Russian. It has the accent of a native, definitely near Siberia, but it's not a strong accent.]

Then if you're getting an allowance, you can afford to buy more. Put down the lamp and move aside.

[advanced]

[Bucky doesn't have any of the weapons that they provided, he always carries a small arsenal with him wherever he goes and he's much better with the weapons that he's familiar with.

He lunges forward, left arm raised to block the strike of the leg. It glances off his sleeve, tearing deep rents in the fabric to reveal the glint of metal beneath. Not that he pauses, reaching to grab the deflected leg with his other hand immediately to pull himself up. Climbing hand over hand to reach the main body.]

Shoot it!

[He should be causing enough of a distraction to let Eddie get off a shot, but he has a gun in his waistband if not.]

[advanced]

[That makes him bristle a little, brow furrowing.]

I can handle it.

[He can do it by himself, Steve!]