riverviewooc | riverview: test drive meme

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meme: test drive

riverview: test drive meme

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i | batten down the hatches

[ It shouldn't be a relief when the call goes out for storm prep. But this... this is familiar. This he knows how to do, more than he knows how to deal with sipping odd drinks at overnight pool parties. With pretending nothing's wrong to a city full of strangers, cross-dimensions away from the home he should be protecting.

It stands to reason that the falls might be a trouble spot for flooding, so he catches a ride and heads down there first. If nothing else, it's an excuse for recon in civvies. To throw himself into doing. ]

Here, let me give you a hand. [ He says to one of the civilians, or possibly to YOU, fellow bystander. And yes or no he'll disregard the answer as he's cupping a few of those sandbags to his chest. Then he launches himself up with a light-footed hop, up and over the steep rock face with an elaborate little twist. Standing knee deep in rushing water, he places the bags carefully, one after another. ]

I miss anything? [ He steps back, and only then does he have to catch himself a little as the change in current shifts around him. ] Feel free to shout if there's a gap.

ii | monster madness

[ Nightwing doesn't once move to finish one of the beasts, but he's fast enough through the first wave that you'd almost miss it. A drop kick becomes a spinning flip becomes a strike that silences a snapping mouths. Closes up snapping jaws.

By the time it's winding down he's come out bleeding, a limp body tossed aside as he pries sharp teeth out of his gauntlet. ]

Now comes the hard part. [ He swipes at the bloody side of his face, but his attention is wholly on whoever had just happened to fall in at his right. Lucky you. ]

If we want to cut them off at the pass we need to move on two fronts. Think you make a straight sweep down in that direction?

[Fighting monsters is not so different from fighting men. Monsters are, if anything, more predictable.

Where Nightwing is all surety and grace and mercy, though Flint's not yet taken note of that, Flint is a cold, hard, unstoppable force. He is not prepossessed of monstrous strength, but he is utterly, ruthlessly efficient.

Creatures lie dead around him. He too is not unblooded, but he wipes his brow and seems disinclined to cease the fight to tend to his myriad small injuries. He doesn't have the benefit of nomex and kevlar, but he's certainly borne worse.

He glances askance at his masked companion, raising an eyebrow at the utterance of orders. Yet, Flint doesn't waste words. It's a sound plan, though he's privately amused someone other than himself has announced it aloud. He simply nods, flicks blood from the edge of his sword with a sharp downward motion and stalks off in the direction indicated. They can stem this tide with little effort, but holding this spot while the creatures prowl beyond the wall will be harder.

One monster leaps at him, he turns aside and puts a boot against its neck, pinning it to the ground as he just pulls out a pistol and shoots the fucking thing. He turns away from it, ready to step back into line when he sees it: another creature leaping towards his companion while their back is turned.

Now: Flint doesn't honestly care if he lives or died. Battle is not enough for him to forge a camaraderie worth saving. But the man is an exquisite fighter, and that he appreciates. He aims.]

Down!

[His voice is a harsh, gravelly bark. One word, but in it is a clear sense of expecting to be obeyed. Regardless of whether or not he is, though, he's gonna shoot that fucking thing.]

[ Knowing when to give an order and when it's time to follow one is part of staying alive. It's the first lesson he'd learned as Robin, and it's how he lasted a decade in the field with an R-shaped target on his chest. It's how he kept his team alive against odds that should have laid out all of them. In a flash he's all forward motion, dropping ahead of the gunshot while the claws miss him by inches. He hadn't demanded an answer. And as he watches the body fall, something in his chest tightens up.

They're animals. Aggressive, violent, dangerous animals, all posing a risk to innocent people. There's a lot... a lot here that he doesn't know about the situation, he knows that. Maybe there is no better option. Maybe they don't think or feel.

But he doesn't know that. He doesn't know, and there's a difference between watching the back of a man shooting them down and being the cause of death for a living thing. It's his fault it came to that. He'd been too slow, too distracted. It's what Batman would say.

It bothers the hell out of him, whether it's fair or not. It bothers the hell out of him that it's still Batman he's thinking about first. ]

Wasn't what I asked. [ A little sullen as he rolls back to his feet, brushing at the dirt on his shoulder. ]

Edited 2017-03-08 01:17 (UTC)

[The woman on his right barely makes a sound of acknowledgement, too busy staring at her clenched fist and muttering to herself under her breath. She's wearing nothing but a tank top and pants that look ill suited for the environment but strangely enough, fairly clean (if soaked through) considering how far in they are.]

—work you stupid piece of—come on, just work for me, please, please don't do this, not right now. [Her eyebrows are drawn together and she uses her other hand to press her fist close to her heart, her whole body tense and her face getting paler by the second. Then in a belated realization, she focuses on Nightwing, momentarily distracted from whatever mental battle she's fighting by the sight of his uniform that she takes in with a confused expression.]

You're Nightwing. Um. [What'd he say before? Her throat is too dry and her heartbeat is deafening in her ears but she tries to ignore it, to focus on the vaguely familiar hero before her. Her gaze shifts to the direction he's talking about and she feels shame curl around her heart.]

I...I can. [She pauses and doubt swallows her for a second.] No, it's better to ask someone else. [This is not a good time. She needs to. To focus. (No, she needs to run, to get away, she isn't good enough for this, she's going to fail, people will die, she'll die.)]

Edited 2017-03-07 08:39 (UTC)

[ So a sudden lapse of confidence. Alright, he's been there before. It's understandable, probably even expected given all they've already had to deal with today. It's also dangerous as hell in a situation that's already a crisis.

He steps in closer, intending to reach out and lay a hand on her arm. Steady her, ground her. And place himself strategically so that he can shield her with his body, if it comes to that. ]

Hey, take it easy. We're not in a rush. [ At least not, you know, right this second. ]

Is that- wow, is that a power ring?

Edited 2017-03-08 01:21 (UTC)

[There's a sound that might have been a shock of laughter just edging on hysterical and she bites it down before it can grow. He recognizes her ring? Of course he recognizes her ring, he trained with Batman. And also probably knows Hal and all of those other guys. (Also it's a bright green ring, Jess, it's not exactly subtle.)]

It's supposed to be. [Right now it's about as useful as a ringpop what with her complete inability to make it do anything for her. She'd been fine up until a few minutes ago but it's like the coming storm had been in sync with her anxiety and she'd finally reached her tipping point around the same time she came out here to help.

Now she's fighting a battle on two fronts and losing ground on both.

The thing about these things is that they run on willpower and well, there isn't anything that drains her willpower faster than an impending panic attack. She can't power up because her goddamn fuel source is running on empty.

Jessica puts a hand over her eyes and counts to ten, trying to calm her breathing.]

Just...give me a minute.

Sure. We've got time. [ Which every instinct says is running out fast. The beasts are snapping again at the edge of the fence. Dick shifts his stance as subtly as he can, edging himself between her and the probable break. She looks scared. Terrified. ]

I didn't realize we had a new Lantern. [ And she recognizes the suit, which is a start. ]

[They really don't though, and she knows it. He's trying to make her feel better. Because he knows she's weak? Maybe he knows how ill-equipped for the job she is. It would be hard not to realize by now. She shuts down that train of thought, somehow willing it away. This isn't...this isn't a mistake. She can do this. And this isn't a battle (yet.) There really is time to. To what? What could she possibly do?

Remember. Jessica Cruz, you have the ability to overcome great fear. Time to remember this isn't a mistake. She's supposed to be here. Isn't she?]

You didn't? I just figured Batman...I mean, he was there. When I...you know, when the ring came. [He was also there when she finally got the ring of Volthoom off. He was the reason it came off. He saved her life and restored her free will.]

I'm Jessica. Green Lantern of sector 2814. [Which, duh. But the thing is, saying it out loud makes it suddenly a little easier to breathe. She can do this. And just like that, the ring glows brighter and she's no longer in her pants and tank, instead decked out in full uniform. Jessica breathes a sigh of relief even as she knows the struggle isn't over. She still has to manage a construct.]

[ That's actually the first thing that clues him in to the fact that something isn't right here. Batman's been radio silent for months. Beyond, you know, a thirty second phone call that he'd used to order him into Blackgate with no backup. As if he hadn't left them all wondering almost since the quake, seemingly without a thought. As if Dick's life is still his to uproot, to tear apart whenever it suits him.

But for him to be finding the time to drop in on a new Green Lantern while Gotham lies in ruins... ]

Batman's been a little behind on his correspondence. [ A blink-and-you'll-miss-it grimace, then he's back to business. He extends a gloved hand with a smile. ]

It's good to meet you, Jessica.

[Even in the current mess of her mind, something about that feels...off. She knows very little of Nightwing outside of "Gotham" and "Batman," in spite of her many forays into superhero tracker and fan forums over the several years where the internet had been her only source from the outside world. (She'd never been a huge fan of those ones given their tendency to veer into ultra creepy stalker fan territory, but when you didn't leave the same apartment for four years, one was bound to get bored enough to check out a number of questionable sites.) In any case, even those sites had had very little to go on in the case of the Gotham vigilantes.

It just seemed like Batman would be the kind to keep his people informed about new superheroes on the scene. But then again, it's not like she really knows him—or any of the others for that matter—very well, what with being the newbie and all.]

Oh, uh, you too. [She shakes his hand but doesn't meet his eyes, embarrassed that this is his first impression of her. Some Green Lantern.]

He's not exactly super chatty in person either.

[ Well that sounds like Batman, alright. Already he kind of regrets letting that slip; if she trusts Bruce then undermining him is probably the wrong way to go for establishing a good working rapport here, which they're going to need if they're getting out anytime soon.

That, and Bruce is still family. No matter how little he seems to reciprocate the feeling these days. ]

I wouldn't take it personally. Batman's never been much for small talk. [ There's a winning Grayson Smile to go along with that. ]

I'm the chatty one.

[She doesn't mind it, honestly. She knows Batman has a certain reputation with the league but. Well. Her first impression of him—the first time she'd talked to him, he'd let her in in a way. In hindsight she knows it wasn't because there was anything special about her and he did what he needed to do to help her get Volthoom under control, but that didn't make it mean any less to her.]

I don't mind it, he's a good teammate. [The sound of a growl brings her back to the present in an instant and she winces at her distraction. One glance at her ring still burning bright reassures her that at least its holding up. (At least she's holding up.) Turning her attention away from Nightwing, she aims her ring at the approaching beast and takes several deep breaths. It's okay, you can do this. Courage, Jess, it chose you for a reason.

For a second there's nothing, and then all at once there's a burst of light, a dozen wispy green arms picking the creature up and taking it far away. It isn't really a construct in the traditional sense, but it's effective enough.]

[ Teammate. He's about to say something there when the burst of light appears, and he really has to take a minute just to watch in open admiration; tilted back, hands on hips. He's never seen anything quite like it. ]

Yeah, about that... [ And he's back in action, all smooth motion and speed, landing a sharp kick on a snout and a hard blow towards legs. ]

We should, uh- talk. Whenever we're done here. [ He's keeping half an eye on Jessica, hoping it's not... too obvious on the surface that that's what he's doing. But for the moment he's confident that he can protect her if that's what it comes down to. ]

Talk? [The nerves are instantaneous (though they thankfully don't reach her "constructs.") People don't say they need to talk when they have good news, they say it when you're doing something wrong, and since she was kind of a major failure there a minute ago, he's probably going to tell her she shouldn't be doing this or something.

Then again, they're also superheroes on a different world fighting monsters so it's entirely possible he just means talking about that stuff and she's way overthinking it.

Sometimes she really wishes she could just shut her brain off.

Another monster gets swept up by her light and she takes the second without an opponent to turn to him and nod.]

Yeah, uh sure, we probably should. [While she's turned to face him, she gets the opportunity to watch him fight and wow she has never seen any other hero fight so gracefully. It's kind of hypnotic. It's also nothing like Batman or what she would have expected from one of his protégés. All that grace combined with all that power and it's completely different from any of the others on the team. She's left feeling humbled and awed, because how could she possibly be fighting alongside people like him?

How is this her life now?]

It looks like they're starting to back off some.

Dick Grayson | DC Preboot

ii; came in like a wreeecking balll etc etc

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