riverview: test drive meme

[riverviewmod]

riverview test drive meme

Welcome to Riverview's 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 April 1st.
● Providing all parties are amenable, threads on the test drive meme can count as game canon, as the plot in the prompts presented is game canon.
● TDM threads do not count for Activity Check, but they do count for Activity Bonus Points, so long as all characters involved are accepted into the game.
● Since this particular TDM is plot-heavy, current players are welcome to do their own top-levels to interact with the plot. However, since it is still a TDM intended to help potential new players get involved, there will be a special additional +25 Activity Point bonus for any thread submitted by a current player that involves a potential new character rather than focusing on existing CR, for this TDM post.

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. Thanks to player-created plots, this month's Test Drive is set to effect the game setting for the next few months, so please enjoy!

information resources
premise ● arrival ● setting ● ask a question ● calendar ● navigation

plot overview

After just over a week of increasingly serious blackouts and brownouts around the city, the team in charge of the structural integrity and defense of the wall has found the source of the problem, and posted a network entry explaining that the issue is caused by a large quantity of lizard-like monsters that have compromised the underground infrastructure of the city, and requesting volunteers to help do a full-scale manual extermination of monsters and assess the damage and do urgent repairs.

prompt i: a call to arms

The most urgent request presented is for people to help clear out the monsters in the underground tunnels - and there are a lot of them! With estimated monster numbers in the area of 500-1000, ranging from adult to juvenile, there's a lot of work to be done to clear out the underground infrastructure of the city. The Perimeter Guard will have a steady stream of transport trucks going to escort any fight-capable residents who want to volunteer out to the tunnels. They will also provide weapons of various varieties as well as short training sessions on how to use them safely in a confined space for anyone who doesn't have their own.

Whether you fight with a weapon, your fists, magic, or poison darts, your help is more than welcome down in the tunnels. The only real request is to keep seismic or explosive abilities or attacks on the mild side, and to be careful not to poison the city's water supply! Other than that, go wild.

prompt ii: into the depths

Clearing out monsters is all well and good, but they have definitely done some damage to the city's infrastructure. So it isn't just the brawn that needs to step up to help the city, it's the brains. There's a call for anyone with any kind of special ability that would help with emergency repairs. Whether it's engineers, chemists, anyone with first aid, runners to distribute supplies, or any other special ability that would help out in the underground tunnels and fix some of the damage that's been done, anyone is welcome to help. And if you think it's just scientists who are needed, think again - magic is a well-known if not-well-understood facet of life in Riverview Quarantine, and some of this stuff works on a more arcane level than a mundane one.

And, of course, all of these brainiacs are going to need a little backup, so any bruisers to act as escort and protection are also welcome.

prompt iii: trapped in a...

Not everyone has the skills or desire to head out into the jungle and fight for the city, and that's perfectly fine. Inside the Quarantine walls, life is carrying on as normally as it can. That is, aside from the ongoing blackouts.

Wherever you might be in the city, you run a pretty decent risk of getting trapped somewhere for a short period of time. Whether it's trapped in an elevator, a tram car, a store, the housing you share with someone you barely know, or anywhere else in the city, it could happen to you. This could be the start of a beautiful friendship or a meet-cute to tell your grandkids about...at least, that is, if you get along with the person you're stuck with...

prompt iv: friendr/network

Whether your character is posting up a silly word game to distract people from the dangerous mission going on, trying to get hold of a friend, or putting out feelers for people to go out into the fray with, the network is going strong.

Alternately, an offer for a new, free app is popping up on people's devices - Friendr is a friend-finder and/or dating app. If characters choose to install it, they will fill out a short bio and parameters for what they're looking for, upload a snap of themselves, and then proceed to browse for matches. This is a typical swipe-left-or-right type app.

Code to post your character's bio is in the textbox below, or you can just do a text version of the information in the app. An example of how it looks can be found here.

<center><blockquote style="width: 220px; margin: 0; padding: 0px; background-image: url('http://i42.tinypic.com/2uf53s4.jpg'); font-size: 12px; font-family: verdana; border-radius: 20px; text-align: center;"><div style="padding: 10px 0 0 0; text-align: center;font-size: 25px; font-weight: 900; font-style: italic; color: #528887; text-shadow: -2px 2px 2px rgba(150, 150, 150, 1);">F<span style="font-size: 16px;">RIENDR</span></div> <center><img src="ICON URL HERE" style="border-radius: 50%; width: 70px; height: 70px; box-shadow:-3px 3px 2px 0px rgba(82, 136, 135, .75);"></center> <center><div style="width: 210px; background-color: #528887; color: #fff; padding: 5px; font-size: 14px;">Name of Character</div></center> <center><div style="width: 210px; background-color: #528887; color: #fff; padding: 5px; font-size: 11px; text-align: left;"><b><small>AGE:</small></b> ## <b><small>INTERESTED IN:</small></b> Male/Female/Any <b><small>SEEKING:</small></b> Type(s) of Relationship(s) <b><small>ABOUT ME:</small></b> Blurb goes here, can be as long or short as you wish.</div></center><br> </blockquote></center>
Many thanks to mistojen for coding this especially for Riverview!

prompt v: wildcard

Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!

navigation

Comments

[naz]

So then you're one of the aforementioned species. I suppose that makes sense considering the question posed.

Care to share with the class, or not so much?

[greyjane]

has been so far. seems like a lot of people just can't wait to leave it, though.

so. hanzo, right? i'm shai.

[spellslots]

[Well. He had a spell on the tip of his tongue for that thing, but clearly Shai rolled a higher initiative than he did.]

Ehhhhh.

[The most non-committal answer, partly because he doesn't know, partly because he's not sure just how much he wants to share with a complete stranger, even if she has been helpful.]

It can learn spells and do it's own thing, I dunno if it really gives a shit about me.

[About making him more powerful or whatever. Though it has saved his life multiple times.]

[flowlikewater]

[ A vast difference from years ago, when his movements were awkward and stilted as if he fought against every simple gesture. Genji waves a hand easily. ] You are kind to offer but you needn't worry about me.

( and you're fine, no worries! )

[flowlikewater]

I have been checking all I can find when I notice an outage. It appears that staying outside for now is the safest option.

Unless there are other cyborgs I have not met yet, it does seem to be the case.

[bloodycrown]

Sounds interesting. You from a version of Earth?

[bloodycrown]

I don't mind if you tell. I wasn't planning to keep it a secret for long. It's just not sustainable, I do need to feed.

Vampires are turned, if you're human and die with vampire blood in your system you wake up again, then you have 24 hours to drink human blood and make the change permanent. Otherwise you die.

[bloodycrown]

Yeah, that was the deal.

[bloodycrown]

Most people think we're fiction in mine too. And thanks, I was expecting more antagonism, it's nice to be wrong.

[bloodycrown]

Witch isn't really a species, technically.

I'm a vampire.

[trashmammal]

[Oh God. Oh God, she knows exactly what she's talking about, and that recognition sends a bolt of dread shooting down her spine. Her posture doesn't change much, but her grip on her teacup tightens like a vice.]

That's... I think I understand. It's hard to get all the right words for it.

[Her head hurts just thinking about it. Something about an absence, something that was there and just isn't anymore. A hole in the center.]

[threatenwithcuteness]

I'm glad I've found someone with a normal world.

Everyone else is from places that are so weird, or old, or both.

[bloodycrown]

I'm a vampire, and so far people have been curious. It's going much better than I expected.

[kuyamu]

Commander Shai Ebbisaryn, I assume, from your choice in username.

II.

[leadintheyoung]

[ A break from running? Lí will take that and the rather unwieldy light yielding object that's passed into her hands. She grasps it firmly and holds it where the man is looking without complaint. ]

And what are we looking at?

[ Because she is in fact looking and with all the innocent curiosity one might expect from a child, only it's intensified and she looks a tad perplexed by all the wires and -- well, all of it, actually. Such a strange construct. She shifts her gaze between the man and the box again curiously. ]

[flowlikewater]

[ He had gone for the bruises intentionally, wanting to make sure his assumptions about his brother's state of being had been true. And he would be lying if there hadn't been a small part of him that was eager to get the words out, to put into the universe and finally put to rest all the rage that had once been pent up inside him. "Someone you murdered."

But not anymore. Despite everything, he knew there was a good man in his elder brother. If there was one thing he would go to his grave believing, it would be that. Things will never be what they were— but that can only be a good thing.

When he responds with that familiar arrogance, the nostalgia hits him all over again. He's smiling unseen, hands still behind his back. ] No, they are not. Speed is an advantage indeed.

[ Genji watches him change posture carefully. He's still not quite used to not seeing a blade at his hip; the bow was always secondary. (Genji himself was quite terrible at it.) But he can't help a huff at that, the slight voice modulation in his helmet making it sound more like a burst of static. ] I volunteered to assist, not for the challenge. I did eventually learn discipline.

[flowlikewater]

[ Another faint laugh. ] I know your name, I have decided people were interesting with far less.

[ He is indeed and he's quite enjoying himself. It's like riding a bicycle again, all this playful banter. ]

[bloodycrown]

[ This is the second person he meets who is not vampire nor werewolf but who's definitely more than human. She seems less invested in actively hiding it, though, and Marcel can't decide if that's good or bad. ]

Just trying to keep up with you.

[ He smiles, setting down a crate. ]

[bloodycrown]

The supernatural make people (understandably) nervous.

Vampires are undead who feed on blood.

Werewolves are humans who turn into wolves when it's a full moon.

Witches are humans who can do magic.

[greyjane]

you make it sound so formal when you put it like that. ;)

but yes. i'm a commander in an interplanetary peacekeeping corps. off duty, if it wasn't obvious. i use proper punctuation when i'm acting in capacity.

[kuyamu]

[ there's no cruelty in Genji's voice, but nonetheless Hanzo's brow creases and his gaze drops, expression drawn with shame. to assist, was it? and yet the thought had barely crossed Hanzo's mind, this endeavour nothing more than a useful distraction from himself. all these years Hanzo had decided that he was living his life in atonement for taking Genji's — and here is Genji now, come from the grave to dispel any such foolish notions. as always, Hanzo is... insufficient. (he hasn't felt this way in years.)

Hanzo hasn't changed at all. once he might have even considered change to be nothing more than a ruse, but Genji has changed so much, and perhaps, then, Hanzo is the one that is simply incapable of it. ]

Did you. [ it comes out thin, pained. he shakes his head as if to disregard it, and goes on in a more level tone: ] I suppose someone had to succeed in teaching it to you eventually.

[ it's not biting, or bitter — it's a miserable thing. because Hanzo, of course, had failed. he has known that for a long time now; that the blame for how things ended between them lies with him alone, because if he had been able to bring Genji into line, if he had been able to make him understand... but he hadn't. Genji's death is his burden for more than the fact that he was the one to wield the blade, and now Genji has finally learnt what Hanzo was too weak to make him see. ]

[greyjane]

See, now that makes you interesting. Turnabout is fair play, I suppose?

[She gestures for him to follow her along in the darkness, she's heading for the electric panels that run this place, intending to see if she can suss anything out about their failure.]

[leadintheyoung]

Supernatural. That's an interesting term if ever I heard any.

The concept of vampires is foreign to me. To my knowledge, the dead stay dead save in the occasional tale and I would think it a good thing lest we be overrun by fierce warriors with an unquenchable thirst. By undead, do you mean they died and somehow returned to life? And why would they feed on blood?

Werewolf is a new term to me as well. The Isle is home to many skilled in the art of changing their shape, but I've never heard of any practitioner being confined to any cycle of the moon. It is a magick that requires learning. Why does the moon invoke such a change in those you are presumably familiar with? And why that particular form? Why not another?

[ Curiouser and curiouser and her mind is just a-ticking away. ]

As for witches, all Nemedians would be counted among them if it's simply the ability that defines the title. I wonder if it's the same, though.

[greyjane]

and how does that come about, exactly?

[The concept of it doesn't bother her as long as everyone's consenting. People have a wide variety of preferences. But the explanation is-- curious.]

so you could, theoretically, change people here? does it impact inborn abilities at all?

[She's not asking because she's worried, more just curious. She doesn't run into new concepts like this very often.]

[leadintheyoung]

Líadan.

[ It's a fair exchange and she's pleased for it. She tends to have good luck with people who have names on the shorter end of things. Mae's enthusiasm earns a fair laugh from Lí, who nods in agreement. ]

A roof party it is. I'll race you to the top!

[ She might not win as it takes her a moment to get comfortable with a cable of her own, but she won't be too far behind once she gains her bearings. It's different from climbing the great trees. The lack of moss and potentially angry birds is helpful when attempting to navigate available footholds, though. She'll pause a moment to observe Mae, nodding once, twice before she makes another jump. Upward and onward, upward and on. ]

You're really good at this, you know. If you don't beat me, I'll be surprised!