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riverviewooc2017-03-20 10:20 am
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
Many thanks to
mistojen for coding this especially for Riverview!Choose your own adventure and do something else in the setting!
Letha Regis | OC
[Letha snuck along with one of the waves of volunteers going into the wilderness, careful to stay away from the guards she knows and hiding her pregnant belly until they're out there and it's a little late to drag her back. It's getting harder as she goes into her fourth month, but she's always had a penchant for being found where she has no business being.
She breaks off from the main group, taking out her Phantump to help her with battling. He's not the strongest thing around, not by a long shot, but he manages to kill a monster and that's really all she needs. So if your character finds her now, she's sitting neatly over the corpse of a monster, holding her hands over it as she tries to raise it from the dead.]
iv
[The lights keep flickering around the communal hall, but she's used to using candles at night anyway. She's kind of happy to get the opportunity again. The network still works, and that's the only technology she even uses. She brought her tablet home from work to chat, but since the lights are currently out and she's relying on candle-light, her video feed ends up looking pretty spooky.]
Whenever the nights were cold and rainy like this in Thornwell, I'd overhear the peasants telling ghost stories and tales of the unknown. A lot of them were about necromancers and never made much sense, but I do miss the tradition.
All that being said - do any of you have stories like that from your worlds? I'd love to hear them.
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There's a solid half a minute of blurred movement and shuffling sounds mixed with muttered cursing before Mae finally has her laptop right where she wants it. The room's dark, lit only the glow of her monitor, and she might be sitting just a liiiittle too close for comfort.
This'd be so much easier through text but WELP.]
My grandpa used to tell me a lot of ghost stories, but I can't really remember a lot of them off the top of my head. Not like he did. I swear the dude had them all memorized.
Wait, necromancers?!
mae is perfect i want 30
You're a cat!
[Yes, brilliant observation, Letha. She clears her throat awkwardly.]
Sorry, you must be new. My name is Letha Regis. A necromancer is one who communicates with the dead, and I come from a long line of them. Our servants don't quite understand us, so they like to make up silly stories about us killing people.
[Silly peasants. The Regis clan are patient enough to wait for them to die from childbirth and terrible sanitation.. it only takes around 30 years.]
...I hope you're not the type to be scared by necromancy.
too bad, you only get this one
[What the hell is with everybody calling her a cat? She is clearly a human being thank you very much.
Okay she can kinda see the resemblance, but they got other stuff to talk about. Mae's listened to enough metal and read enough crappy fantasy to know what a necromancer is in a really basic sense, so no problem understanding that.]
Not scared, just kinda... startled? I didn't know that was a thing, that you could be, for real.
darn, foiled again.
[She hesitates.]
Although I've only met one person with similar abilities here. I must ask - are you magical in any way? Or do you simply look odd?
she is a unique treasure
[Oh shit this is, like, super insulting isn't it? She actually backpedals away from her computer a little, holding her hands up and shaking her head.]
Not you though! Yoooou look great! Really!
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Have you never seen a human before? By human standards I've heard I'm very pretty.
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I just haven't seen anything that looks like you before.
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[This whole "human" thing is getting kinda uncomfortable kinda fast. Just gotta find a good enough segue and forget the whole thing ever happened and that'll be fantastic.]
So, ghosts! You seen a lot of them around lately? Like with your necromagics and all.
[nailed it]
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I don't believe they exist, personally. In my world, no one can leave the Netherworld once they're dead. But I like hearing stories about them.
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[She shuffles back a little, tucking her legs against her chest, trying really, really hard not to think about all the stuff leading up to that.]
So you can talk to them but they can't, like, go anywhere? That's really sad.
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[Trust Letha to make necromancy sound like a noble cause. Because it really is, at least the way she does it.]
If you ever find yourself outside of the perimeter, I'd really like to bring back any corpses found out there. I'm sure they must be very upset to be lost out there.
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/gets back to this like a billion years later orz
no sweat :V
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i
This man, in boots and jeans, a western shirt and a holster resting low on his hips, finds the woman kneeling or sitting by what looks like a corpse. It turns his stomach with nerves to see the dead. His instinct is to damage the brain so it doesn't rise again and he has to remind himself that the dead don't reanimate here.
Instead, he focuses on the woman, stepping closer to he to see if she's injured in any way. ] Someone you know? [ Asked of the corpse she's kneeling over. ]
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No, but that's no reason not to give them attention.
[In fact, she considers it an improvement. She's not big on the dead people she knows personally. And... well, hopefully Rick won't be too freaked out by the corpse slowly struggling to its feet, following Letha's lead as she gets to her feet with her hands still raised with her palms out to it.]
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Of course, he figures her attention is saying words over the dead, which is all well and good, until the dead start rising - which, is just Rick's luck that it starts to happen right here and right now.
Rick draws his colt and aims for the head as the thing starts trying to get up. ] Get back! [ He's really trying to help. ]
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I'm sorry, I didn't realize you disliked this sort of magic! I mean to say- well please don't shoot, I can disanimate it, I really don't want any trouble!
[Being startled made her zombie a bit twitchy, as she's having trouble keeping tight control on it. The absolute last thing that she wants is for it to go rogue.. because unlike most conventional zombies, her kind aren't affected by losing their brains.]
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However, when the Walker doesn't immediately go down, his eyes narrow and his head tilts in confusion and consternation. He fires again. A second bullet in the brain. The Walker staggers, but doesn't go down.
He vaguely realizes that the woman has said something. His mind had been swimming with this new reality that Walkers exist here too - that his son is here worlds away from the horror of their lives back home, and he still can't keep his son safe from these beasts.
Magic. Disanimate it? She animated it? Why would she do that? Why make a Walker?
His gun lowers and he holsters it before pulling the hatchet from the other side. He doesn't go after the Walker again. This time he looks at her. It's a hard lesson he's had to learn before - the real monsters are people, not the dead. The dead are doing what they do because they have no choice. People choose to be evil, to hurt other people just to get ahead... or maybe for no reason at all. It's a hard lesson and he's more disappointed than anything. ] Why? Why would you do this?
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Letha ends up on the ground as well, breathing hard and crying because the absolute last thing she expected was to get shot at for testing her magic. She was just trying to have fun. And when he questions her, on top of the dead person beside her questioning her and the fact that she now has to explain what she was doing and why that person's poor head is all blow to pieces... she's overwhelmed, and just hides her face in her hands and curls up defensively.]
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After a quick glance around to make sure they're momentarily safe, he leans down closer to her. He doesn't touch her because he doesn't want to freak her out any more than he clearly already has. He thinks of Lizzie Samuels, the girl with them during their stay at the prison who had tried to treat the Walkers like they were people. His world really messes people up. But the thought of Lizzie makes him try to treat this moment with kid gloves, while still taking care of the living, not the dead. ]
Hey. You alright? You been bit? Let me see if I can help.
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You idiot! You could have gotten us both killed! You nearly scared me half to death, if I'd lost control- no one can fight a loose risen, they just kill and kill until they get tired and it takes days! Days! We might have lost half of the quarantine by then! If you'd just given me a moment to explain instead of flying off the handle-!
[Her eyes are streaming with tears during all of this, and at this point she starts scrambling to get a handkerchief from her bag and dry her eyes. She's shaking head to toe now from some overwhelming mixture of rage and fear and the dead person is still trying to get her attention. Abruptly she turns to look at the mangled corpse.]
Will you shut up, you pathetic little man. [It quiets him for a second, at least, but Letha really isn't handling this pressure very well.]
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It only solidifies the fact that he'd done the right thing - saving not only her, but the entirety of Quarantine, from the inevitable when people dabble in things they shouldn't.
Her anger isn't lost on him though. Clearly they're coming from two different ends of the spectrum and he knows that this place brings in every kind from every place imaginable. With the immediate threat dispatched, yes, he can see that.
He's about to explain his side of things and maybe ask a few questions, when she goes very, very low and calls him a 'pathetic little man'. His dad once told him, before he was killed by one of the very things she brought to life, that people who spew out words in anger are hiding other insecurities. That's how he sees her now.
Instead of saying anything, he pauses, jaw flexing around any words he might have said but won't because you just don't talk to people that way without good reason. He nods as if to say 'you're welcome' for any number of things, and turns to walk off.
Only then something occurs to him. He pauses, turns back to look at her. His voice is calm and deliberate. ] I know what those things are capable of. My son's here. You put him in danger by doin' what you did. I'm not okay with that. You can be angry all you want, but I'd do it again. Those things have killed too many already, too much of a risk to bargain on one person's ability to - control them, by lettin' them live, if you can call it that.
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My child is here too, and I'm tell you neither of them are in danger if you don't shoot at me while I'm doing it! I've been training since I was twelve and they've never lost control! You put your son in danger by raising a gun to people when you don't give them a single chance to explain themselves!
[And once again the corpse is speaking to her, so if Rick isn't under the impression that she's crazy the fact that she's now briskly addressing the corpse will probably be the bump.]
Let me speak for a second- this man broke your skull open, I'll have to mend it when I get you back into the quarantine. No, it's fine. I said it's fine, I've done it before. Or... Mary has but I watched her, and it's not hard. Now will you let me talk to him? I can explain more later.
[And then she turns to Rick, as if this is still all his fault.]
Look at that, you scared him too.
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But a shriek means someone might be in trouble, so he comes all but sliding around the corner only to find Letha, some random guy, and an unfortunate looking corpse.
Taako doesn't raise his umbrella at anyone, not when he isn't sure exactly what the deal is here, but it's held tight in his hands.]
What's going on, pumpkin?
[He's addressing Letha, rather than Rick, although the latter does get a slightly wary glance.
The undead don't particularly bother him, and he knows where Letha's talents lie, so the corpse isn't really registered as a threat just now.]
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What he does want to make clear, is this: ] I wasn't shootin' at you. I was shootin' at it. [ It. Not him. The Walker. The dead thing that should stay dead rather than even risk the mass destruction Rick knows, and she knows, it could cause. Why even risk it? ] I thought... [ No, she's way too angry to understand what he thought.
Of course, then she starts talking to it and he's pretty sure she's a few eggs short of a dozen. It's happened before. His world has driven some people crazy - so full of the dead. Rick has had moments where he's been on the brink too, having seen so much death - his wife, for example.
He's starting to back away, nodding at her to let her know he's just going to leave it be when the new person arrives. He's all too happy to leave this guy to deal with 'pumpkin' while she continues on doing... whatever it is she's doing. Caring more about the dead rather than the living, from Rick's point of view. He really has a severe compulsion to find his son and check on him, tell him to watch out because of what he's seen here today. ]
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