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

[pundemic]

I can be dedicated.

[For something this cool? Seriously, she would walk through an entire room of Clickers for it. But--]

Can you fight? [That's important. No sense learning something just because it's fun, or for show. Which-- actually, reminds her. Her eyes widen a little and then in a hushed voice,] Can you fly?

[diagenesis]

[Yet some people will accrue wealth faster than others. People with useful skills, marketable talents, business or banking savvy. At least then it's on the backs of work they've put in elsewhere and not something they were just born to, a creature of happenstance. He can accept that.]

No.

[He leans his elbows on the table, his drink is held idly in one hand with a few careless fingers. He sloshes the liquid left in it, it makes waves against the edges of the glass like a violent tide.]

Would you tell me of this Denerim of yours? I've not heard of it.

[spellslots]

Hells yeah I can fight.

[He isn't going to give a demonstration of that because most of his spells for battle are pretty damaging, and he doesn't want to break too much shit.]

Whether I can fly depends on how technical you wanna get. I can levitate, or turn into a bird, and there's featherfall in my umbra staff.

[He gives the umbrella a little twirl, to indicate that's what he's talking about. He figures "featherfall" is pretty self-explanatory, this girl seems smart.]

[diagenesis]

[He's unfamiliar with the idiom, but contextual clues have been remarkably helpful in discerning how to navigate these conversations. Flint withdraws at the outset of that handshake, and refolds his arms. This man, a fucking cacophony. He wasn't wrong to think it. He changes directions faster than a fickle headwind.

Now, what the fuck is chocolate? His jaw ticks off to one side. The word cake is identifiable, certainly, though what he has in mind when he thinks of it is drastically different to the manner in which it's evolved over the centuries. Flint has no tolerance for sugar, and the fact that everything seems to be all but saturated in it has lead to his diet in Quarantine being rather sparse and mostly meat and vegetables. The size of a modern chicken is damn near startling by comparison. Bread, however, and all associated forms of it have proven too far outside his realm of taste for him to even attempt it now.]

Whiskey. Generally.

[pundemic]

[She just presses one palm against her forehead and shakes her head in Utter Wonderment. Is this the best day of her life? As long as no one ends up dead or bitten or turned at the end of the day, it's at least a contender.]

And-- an elf, right? That's what's up with the ears?

[signifies]

Clark. Nice to meet you, Curtis.

Is there a Keystone City in your world?

[spellslots]

That's what's up with the ears for sure.

[It explains the silvery hair, too, since that isn't exactly a natural colour on most people.]

Your turn. [For the questions; Taako gestures to the rifle.] Is that a bullet?

[pundemic]

[Oh. Right. Well, she figures turnabout is fair play. She's talked his ear off for at least ten minutes now, might as well.

The rifle is bolt-action, she pops the bolt to drop the shell into her hand and then leaves the chamber opened, which is the next best thing to putting the safety on.]

This [She holds the .223 cartridge aloft for him to inspect.] is a bullet. Big thing's a gun. Gun fires the bullet.

[spellslots]

[He should probably feign boredom at this, to not mess up his very definite image as being Too Cool To Care, but he's seen these things (weapons?) around and figures it's only smart to learn what they are, in case he ends up on the wrong end of one.

So he bends down a little to inspect the rifle.]

Like a canon, then? But it's tiny! How effective can that be?

[spellslots]

[In the interest of not being too mean to Flint, let's say that Taako is the one doing the approaching this time. Not for ulterior motives, he's just bored and Flint looks kind of rough and tumble (even though he's scrubbed up for the dancing) which reminds him of Magnus and maybe, okay, he misses his stupid friend a little.]

You're quite the charmer, aren't you?

[He'd noticed Flint dancing with a couple of the ladies, something that Taako so far has not done (he hasn't danced with anyone, he's here because someone told him there would be free food).]

You must be making someone happy, when they're so eager to get us to socialize.

[He's not stupid, he's noticed the focus on pairing up.]

[diagenesis]

[God help him, he's half-endeared. There are two reasons why young men will run their mouth like this: bravado stemming from insecurity or a complete removal of consequence from the course of their lives.

Instinct would have him intuit the former over the latter, here. This boy doesn't hold himself like old money. Flint has known too many foul-mouthed cabin and powder boys to really hold it against him. If you don't act tough in the face of adversity, it swallows you.

James turns the book over in his hands so that the cover is facing upwards, and he rubs a thumb across the engraved Cyrillic. His mouth is turned up at one edge when he speaks,]

Some. [Enough that he understands what's asked of him, at least, though he continues in English.] Though what I do know is out of date by several centuries.

[Ѧ was replaced by Я, for but one example. Apparently he has Peter the Great to thank for the reform that's rendered so much of his knowledge obsolete. By the time he was changing the alphabet, James McGraw had already left London, and the alterations were slow to crawl across the globe.]

[pundemic]

[Well, he demonstrated. She hates the idea of wasting bullets on something like practice, but-- it's not like there seems to be a shortage here. She hasn't had to scavenge for them, pull supplies off corpses. One shot won't get her killed. Hopefully.

So she nods to something off in the distance, a tree-branch that's already split and is hanging by scraps of wood and bark to the tree.]

See that? Cover your ears.

[She closes the bolt with a round chambered, puts the rifle stock up against her shoulder, braces her body for the shot. One eye closed, sight down the scope, squeeze the trigger gently as you exhale and--

The shot is a thunderous, deafening thing. She's used to it, she just rides the recoil out and then slides the bolt back to punk out the smoking shell, which she scoops and collects with her jacket down over her fingers to stave off the heat of it.

The tree branch is now completely severed, and has crashed to the ground with rather less noise than the shot itself.]

Tadah.

[snarkbark]

[And a flash of teeth, mouth down-turned unkindly. ]

Guess that's what happens when you act like Diana, huh.

[diagenesis]

[Flint absolutely raises an eyebrow at this new company. At... everything this new company entails, more specifically. From the hair, to the ears, to... well.

Eyebrow. It's a thing.]

Beg your pardon?

[Flint is hardly disingenuous enough to play stupid by any respect. He's noticed it too, he's only asking for clarification.]

[prisonking]

I'm not a big drinker.

[ Michael has a complicated relationship with hard liquor. Drinking makes the noise go away. Dulls the sharp edges. Turns down the lights. After a couple shots of tequila, the world becomes a softer, kinder place, where he isn't under constant sensory assault.

After watching his brother lose himself at the bottom of a bottle, Michael isn't about to make the same mistake.

He picks his way across the room to the refreshment table, sliding between the dancing couples with a casual, effortless grace. A byproduct of constant, tireless awareness. Michael doesn't wait for James to survey the refreshments. There's a lot to look at, and it's been a while since he's had the luxury of picking his next meal, never mind taken the time to actually taste it.

He loads up on a couple tarts, some chocolate covered pretzels, and of course, the biggest slice of cake at the table. He's long past being ashamed. ]

No whiskey, but there's punch.

[spellslots]

[Sometimes you just have to take people's advice on things, and since Ellie seems to know what the hell she's doing, Taako complies when she says to cover his ears, and oh boy is he grateful.

At least his assessment about not handling a bullet was right, that would kill him, he's pretty sure.]

Fuck! [It's kind of a breathy exhale, his tone between amazed and concerned.] That's a hell of a lot more impressive than an arrow, my dude.

[spellslots]

[Yes he's amazing, he knows, try not to pass out from how great he is.]

All this, dancing, pool parties and speed dating - which sounds wild, sign me the fuck up - but it's a little suspicious, don't you think? I mean if they're into it that's cool, whatever, but they really should tell people before getting them involved in their kinks.

[barksnark]

Does that mean I get to bite your finger off now? Because that's what Diana would do.

[bespredel]

The hell it isn't!! Put it the hell back, make your own damned money and get the fuck out of my house!

[ Yuri's wound up tightly, waiting for the inevitable, waiting for the other to make a move- so that he can make his. ]

[pundemic]

[She lets the gun down in its strap so it's crosswise against her torso, muzzle pointed down.]

I've used both. I mean... arrows are quieter, but let's just say bullets have more stopping power.

[spellslots]

Yeah, no shit.

[He's got spells that can cause that much damage, but those are limited, they require his own power to fuel them and he has to study to get them up to scratch. He cant just put a tiny fragment of metal into a gun and kill someone.

He's already thinking about what spells will work best to counteract it, just in case.]

Were you hunting out here?

[For like, dinner.]

[pundemic]

[Well, you could put a fragment of metal into a gun and kill someone. That's how guns work, jeeze. But she nods a little, to the question.]

Yeah. I dunno, thought it might be nice to have some fresh meat. Nobody turns their nose up at deer, right?

[And nobody asks questions. About why you left. How long you were out. She doesn't think she has answers to at least the first of those. Isn't sure she'll have answers ever again. Sometimes she just needs to be gone, to disappear. It's hard to feel like she's herself when she's surrounded by people and noise, like she's being pulled in too many fucking directions. She'd be all right if Joel were here, but without him she still can't swim.]

[spellslots]

Some might, I'm vegetarian after all!

[Not that he gives a shit about people hunting or killing animals, it's not a morally based choice, so much as after you watch forty people die from eating poisoned chicken, you kind of go off eating meat.]

But I do think I saw a butcher, save you all the trouble of killing and skinning the thing.

[diagenesis]

[He makes a rough, low sound in his throat, some sort of laugh that has no real cause to escape him. Of all the people here he might have expected to be suspicious, this one is perhaps the least surprising to him. Max, after all, does the same thing running her tavern and brothel in Nassau. A pretty face is never to be underestimated.]

I think voyeurism is the least of all their sins, frankly.

[spellslots]

What's your pick for the worst, then? Kidnapping people or the utterly terrible decor?

[That's not a serious question because the answer is so obvious, and yeah, he also doesn't buy that bullshit "it was the portal" excuse.

He's got some experience with different planes, they don't work that easily.]