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

[Her words make his eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Sometimes he forgets how easily and casually most people make friends, just chatting with one another without ever wondering if they're safe or what the hidden agenda might be.]

I don't make a very good friend.

[It's low and level, but he's not leaving quite yet. It's not like he can get far, not with that storm raging outside.]

[Bryn lifts an eyebrow curiously, and yes, she notices that he's not leaving just yet. She takes it to mean that while he claims he may not be a good friend, perhaps he wants one anyway. Subconsciously.]

Good is rather a subjective view. There's more than one kind of way to be a good friend so long as you're on the same page with the other person.

[She shrugs.]

We could be the kind of friends who just see each other passing down the street and smile and say hello before continuing on. It's not particularly difficult or demanding but it counts.

[It's that simple to make a friend? Surely not. He's getting more suspicious the more accommodating she is, it seems like any normal person should have shrugged him off and moved on to one of the people who is actually here to meet others.]

You won't see me passing down the street.

[That's not really a lie, he tends to ghost through the Quarantine city without leaving much of an impression anywhere. He holds his bag a little tighter and steps back.]

I should go.

[Is it terrible that she's regarding him as a challenge now? Probably. She looks at him steadily, not even batting an eye.]

If that's what you want to do. Like I said, I'm not stopping you.

[She's not going to beg him to stay if he really wants to leave.]

I'm Bryn, by the way.

[Just so he knows.]

Adam.

[He plucks a name out of thin air, instinct telling him that giving his real name is a terrible idea when he's trying to stay off the grid as much as possible.]

I suppose there's nowhere else to go.

[He can't get out of here until the storm abates, that's why there are all these indoor friend meets.]

[Bryn is careful not to give him a look of triumph that he stays. She merely shrugs.]

You're welcome to stay here as long as you like then. If nothing else it may keep you from finding a parade of people wandering by asking you all manner of questions.

[She does smile again then, a little sheepish.]

Though I have to ask if you have a last name or something I could differentiate you by. You're the second Adam I've met today.

[She has a good point. If it's the choice between one stranger and a multitude of potential strangers, he'll choose the individual. So he finally sinks down into a chair nearby; she might notice that he instinctively chooses one that puts his back against the wall and gives him a fairly good tactical viewpoint of the area.]

Why not Luke, that's my middle name.

[It's not, again a lie, but it trips off his tongue easily. He's more than used to making up aliases along the way.

There's an awkward pause as if he's trying to remember what exactly small talk is and how to utilise it.]

You didn't want to stick with the other Adam?

[She does notice that he's made a point of putting his back to the wall. Bryn adjusts her own seat to face across from him better, an unspoken gesture to him, to discourage others from interrupting them.

Adam Luke Something, however, is curious.

There's something off about the way he says it, but she can't pinpoint it. They're not names from her world, which means that she can't tell if they're unusual together or not.]

The other Adam? [She raises an eyebrow.] He's nice enough. I might see him again another time, but since this is a speed dating event the point is to meet as many people as possible in a short period of time.

[Which really does make this a favor to him, because while she's sitting here talking with just him, she's missing out on meeting others. Then again, he's a mystery enough in himself that she doesn't mind the extra time to try and pinpoint what his whole withdrawn and unsociable thing is all about.]

[There's the faintest look of understanding that flickers across his face, as if he really hadn't known what speed dating was all about and was just now getting it. He had thought it meant that the two people had to fast track their relationship, go steady after only stepping out once or twice.

This made more sense.

He glanced around at the assembled people, still holding his bag despite being sat down as though ready to bolt at a moment's notice.]

Does that mean you want to meet someone else now? Especially since I'm not even here for a date.

[Ah. He doesn't know what he's stumbled into at all, does he? Still, once there's that flash of recognition, it's good of him to offer to go, to give her a chance to meet someone else.]

Settle down, Adam Luke Sadethir. [She gives him an easy smile, making a vague gesture meant to mean that he ought to keep sitting exactly where he is rather than running for the hills.] Right now I'm talking to you, even if you're not here for a date, because I don't care whether I get one or not. I like meeting people, period.

[Even ones who give a middle name instead of a last name when asked.]

[Sadethir? What the hell kind of surname is that? He raises an eyebrow at her, but he doesn't get up to go.]

Okay.

[He's not really sure why he's agreeing to this just yet, eyes fixed on her as if waiting for further instruction. Because he is. He has literally no idea what to do in this sort of social setting now, though he has a very vague recollection of being the sort of man who would already be asking her to a dance hall once upon a time.]

[She doesn't give him instruction. Not yet. He hasn't questioned the last name she tacked on, which she finds curious. She knows she's the only one here from her world, the only one who would know that it's a last name traditionally given to Aspurran orphans kept in the care of the priests and priestesses of the Twelve. A surname to give them all a sense of family if they don't have their own. And, in her line of work, a name given to an unknown entity. Someone, like this Adam, who hasn't given a last name, or none at all.

He's a curious element for her, one reason among many she doesn't mind forgoing meeting more people if it means unraveling a bit of the mystery that he presents.]

Is this world similar to yours at all?

In some ways.

[His answers are carefully chosen to give her the information she's asked for without over-sharing anything that could be dangerous. He's too used to holding things back to just chat without care.]

Technology is similar in a lot of ways, buildings too. The rest is different. Is it similar to where you're from?

[Bryn nods. His world is probably close enough to the level of tech here to not seem noticeably different. It seems that way to her, based on his answer anyway.]

The technology is close to ours. More advanced than ours in some areas, less advanced in others. The architecture is different a bit. Less magic, however. No deities wandering around either, but that's more unique to my country and a couple others than our entire world.

[She shrugs. It's commonplace for her.]

[That earns more than a small furrow in his brow, interest and wariness rising to the surface in equal measures.]

You have deities in your country? Which ones?

[Could it be Thor and the other Asgardians?]

[Bryn begins rattling off a list, the first ones coming quickly and the ones after a bit slower as she tries to make sure she isn't repeating herself.]

Oh, well, there's Sheiva, Jhirem, Pel, Lahun, and Nimaht...and Ishar, Anath, Moirae and Briella--as well as, ah, Freiderin, Karpha, and Nimaht. They're the original twelve, but there are dozens of lesser deities that reside in Askoupur as well.

[She doesn't know if he'll have heard of them--in fact she very much doubts that he has--but there's still the hope that one of them may ring a bell for him.]

[He's shaking his head slightly before she gets halfway through the list, but he lets her finish completely rather than interrupting.]

I've never heard of them. They're real Gods? Not just a different species from another planet or realm?

Honest to goodness deities.

[She shrugs.]

No one here has heard of them but that's what they are. They've been caretakers for our country for hundreds of years now. They weren't native to our country of course, not initially, but they're still from our world.

Who are your deities?

[That's so strange.

He's always been taught that faith is the essence of God. It's what they told him at Sunday school when he was a kid - at least, he thinks it was - that to ask for proof was blasphemy.]

I don't have one.

[He lost his faith in God a long time ago.]

[Bryn doesn't get to boast of having any particular special relationship with her deities. She pays homage to them all in her own way, even having her favorites and having attended the parties of both Sheiva and Jhirem. Still, to have none at all is almost inconceivable. Knowing how enriched her life is even peripherally by their presence in her life, she can't help but feel that having them gone would make her feel the hole in her life all too well.

And thinking about it now only reminds her that they're not here. She's more on her own than she ever thought before, and it's unlikely any of them would come searching for her.]

I would offer you ours but it's very hard to have a connection with someone who isn't here.

That's how all the Gods work where I'm from.

[Well, maybe not all of them. There are cults out there who worship charismatic leaders and believe them to be divine, but they're always just human beings trying to get power over one another.]

Faith in the unknown, that's how belief in God works. Apparently.

[Bryn wrinkles her nose, she can't help it.]

There are a few countries on Teru that are like that, faith in a god or goddess or several who aren't even present but I admit I don't get it. I mean, how can you have faith in a being that won't make themselves known? That holds themselves above you like that, when you know that there are other countries whose gods are there, or at least make contact.

[And a whole world where there is no contact at all...is it faith in absent deities or are they without divine presence and care completely?]

None of the Gods of my world make contact, there's no proof there are any Gods at all anyway.

[He used to be a good Christian boy, not so much any more. It's hard to keep faith through all the things that have happened.]

Are there Gods here?

[It's difficult not to judge. She understands that not everywhere can be so blessed, but if there are deities there she thinks less of them for holding themselves away from their people.

Assuming they aren't somehow blocked...assuming that the world isn't completely bereft of a divine presence.]

If there are, I haven't spoken to them yet. In this regard this place may be more like your own home than mine.

Would you want to meet them if they were here?

[That's an uncomfortable question, but he shakes his head pretty much immediately.]

No. I don't believe in my own God any more, I don't need to meet anyone else's.

[He sort of remembers believing, perhaps a little, but that sort of belief is long gone now.]

riverview: test drive meme

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