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

[batbullets]

"I'm from New Jersey," he responds, "but please don't call me a Jersey boy. I'm not, you know, one of those guys." Overly oiled, overly tanned, overly loud - much like how those guys on MTV were a few years ago. He runs his hand through his short, wavy black hair and leans the ladder against a wall.

"Moments like this, I really wish we could say 'there's an app for that' without any irony. Sorry, I'm pretty recent. Still learning the lay of the land. You know. If there's actually a land after this." Which there may not be, all things considered. Depending on how the weather went.

Seriously, where was the Weather Wizard when you needed him? Or his Earth-3 heroic counterpart.

"If hurricanes or tornadoes or - all of that - are the usual around here, they must have something, right?" He looks around and, when someone passes by, reaches out to tap them on the shoulder. "Hey, are you a townie or a - okay, not a townie." He waves the person away and licks his lips.

"For all we know, the locals all took shelter, and all of us here are the...transplants? Newbies? You know what I mean."

[naz]

With a kind smile, Caitlin shakes her head. "I would never," she says sincerely. Even Caitlin knows how insulting that would be. She's seen a few episodes of Jersey Shore. ...okay, a season of it. Just one season. She'd needed a break from science and nature documentaries on Netflix, don't judge her. "You don't look like one of those guys, anyway," she assures him. He's kind of missing the T in GTL.

In spite of herself, Caitlin huffs out a surprised little laugh at that. "Yeah, that would be nice, wouldn't it?" Her eyebrows cock just once as she looks around. Yeah...that's actually something they may have to worry about if the weather gets too bad too quickly…

"Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. If this weather is normal, it shouldn't be too hard to find adequate shelter. If there's a storm cellar around here, it shouldn't be far and it won't be hard to find," Caitlin replies.

Then she pauses, looking around, and chews her bottom lip a little. "Yeah, I know what you mean…and you might be right about that... You think these people have this handled? We could check for a basement and see if we can find a storm cellar," she suggests. "I just think it would probably be safer…"

[batbullets]

It's been so long since Jason has spent any time with his Netflix queue that he doesn't even remember what it's like to need a break from watching something. When he's not out trying to kill the Gotham City crime scene from the inside, he's holed away in his lair underneath the police department, monitoring everything.

...that doesn't mean I'm turning into Bruce, though.

"I appreciate that," he laughs. "I think they're good. Two people less might not hurt them much - at least not if we can find some adequate shelter that helps, right? A storm cellar, a bunker, a cave filled with bats. Something. Anything." Jason surveys the room, his intense navy blue eyes sweeping over everything. The place they're in, the room leads off through a view different ways. He looks at the central of the three options and nods. "Maybe that way."

He still noticeably holds on to the hammer he's been holding, though, as they make their way to the doorway. They're in a new place, and he's weaponless. While he's more than capable of handling himself in a fight, he likes having a little back-up. Besides, in his experience, storms sometimes tend to bring out the crazies. It's better to be prepared, just in case.

As they had that way, he swoops down and grabs a couple of flashlights just sitting around, tossing Caitlin one. "Sadly, we're both lacking for night vision goggles," he says.

[naz]

With a smile, Caitlin nods. "That's how I figure. If we're not helping right this second, that won't take away from the fact that we're helping if we can find somewhere safer for everyone to be." She pauses and gives an awkward soft of facial shrug. "On the other hand, if we find nothing...then I guess we're not necessarily being that helpful, but it's better to try and fail than not to try at all, right?" she asks.

Caitlin watches as he surveys the room. He's probably looking for a good direction to start and Caitlin can't fault that. She probably would've done it already except that she hadn't been entirely sure he'd be interested in coming along and she doesn't feel like venturing outside alone with this sort of weather on the way and in the dark in a largely unfamiliar place is a great idea. She's glad when he seems receptive and even more glad when he chooses a direction and starts toward the door. Caitlin walks quickly to catch up and then matches his stride, taking the offered flashlight.

"Too bad, too, because I bet that would make things a whole lot easier," she thinks to herself with a pang of sadness as she realizes...Cisco would've had something to solve that problem and if he didn't, he'd make it. Once again, she feels a wave of guilt for feeling whatever it was that she felt strongly enough to get sucked here when she ought to be home helping them prepare to save Iris from Savitar.

As they head outside, Caitlin clicks on the flashlight preemptively. "Now let's just hope neither of these crap out on us. That's always a bad sign," she says, only half joking as she starts looking around with a sweeping motion of the flashlight beam and her eyes. If the building itself has a storm shelter, the likelihood is that it'll be nearby. She's never really seen a storm cellar that was more than a football field's length away from the home of the people to whom the cellar belongs, so she can't imagine it'll be a whole lot different in the case of a building, either. That's still plenty of space to house a lot of people, if it's built right, anyway.

[batbullets]

"Knowledge is power," Jason smiles. It's the one thing that's been hammered into him by everyone. Bruce, Alfred, Talia, Ducra - everyone who has ever trained him or done anything. Scout your location, know your exits, know your hidden places, know as much as you can. Granted, more often than not, Jason is liable to fly by the seat of his pants, but this time, there's a storm, and there are way more lives at stake than just Jason's.

Besides, he's already died once.

"Yeah, the goggles would...definitely help." A lot of things would definitely help. Back home, he has safe houses, access to unlimited resources. Here he's a little more adrift. Considering his roots - his parents' lives, having been on the streets fending for himself - you'd think he would be more comfortable with roughing it but - Damn. At some point, I became way too comfortable.

"I mean, on the bright side, we're not...exactly in a horror movie." That wasn't what this was, right? A horror movie? Jason doesn't think so. Granted, if it is, he's fairly certain that he can handle it. He walks through the doorway, flicking his own flashlight on. The twin pools of light illuminate the stark room ahead of them, barely furnished. Light sweeps over the walls, and the ground. "I'm crazy for assuming there might be a hidden passage here or something that leads to a storm cellar, right?"

[naz]

Caitlin grins at that. "I happen to completely agree with you," she says. In her experience, all the raw, natural skill in the world is never enough to beat someone with the right kind of knowledge. Brawn is only so useful without brains to back it up.

"I guess we'll just have to make due with what we've got." Her flashlight is still sweeping the ground ahead of them as they walk and she looks back over at him with a little facial shrug that suggests she hopes he's right, but if she's being honest, she's not actually sure. "Here's hoping. I so didn't sign up for that today."

To his question, Caitlin's brow creases slightly. "Well...crazy is a pretty strong word for it, but yeah, it would be weird if it wasn't in plain view. It's a shelter, not a secret clubhouse…" Her voice trails off as she says so, though, because so far...she isn't seeing anything and that's not exactly reassuring. "It should be close-ish and pretty easily identifiable...every other storm cellar I've ever seen was, anyway…"

[batbullets]

"And this room has nothing," he says. He chews on his lip for a long moment, thinking. "Storm cellars. In the movies - and yes, okay, bad idea to take information from movies, I know - but in the movies, the storm cellar is usually outside of the structure, not inside. And it usually leads away from the sub-areas of the home, I think. So that if the house collapses or something, there's still a way to free yourself." He nods ahead, to the front door of the house.

"How adventurous are you feeling today, Caitlin?"

[naz]

"Movies aren't always wrong," Caitlin points out. "There might not be a basement, which is what I was looking to find an entrance for in here, but you're right; storm cellars tend to be outside," she agrees. "And yes, far enough away...usually no more than, say, a football field's length, in my experience — they still need to be accessible without putting one's self in harm's way for too long to get to them, after all."

As for how adventurous she's feeling, Caitlin gives an awkward facial shrug to match the shrug her shoulders give. "Only one way to find out," she replies. Test the limits. "What are you thinking?"