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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!
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.]
no subject
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.]
no subject
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.
no subject
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.]
no subject
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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[And while she's yelling this, here comes Taako and at least his presence manages to make her relax a bit. At least someone will understand what she's going through, trying to educate this dumb mundane man. She stumbles to her feet, hugging herself as she moves a bit in Taako's direction. Honestly, she wants a hug but that can wait until her perceived danger of the man with the gun is gone.]
I was testing my powers and this man pulled a gun on me, and I tried to explain myself and he tried to shoot me! And now this poor corpse's head is all broken and I need to fix it and I can't just leave him here now but no one will want him to come back to the community hall and... [She bites her lip, and alright maybe she's being over-dramatic for the sake of sympathy but she's started crying again.] ...I was just trying to help...
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It clicks pretty much instantly, once the momentary annoyance fades over the fact someone aimed a gun at Letha, regardless of whether there were undead corpses involved. Taako has been pretty unlucky in his dealings with necromancy, or at least, the kind that bring undead things back to life, so he isn't surprised that someone acted a little rashly.]
Listen, Letha, I know this shit is what you do, but a lotta people aren't gonna be cool with the whole necromancy deal, it's a little scary. [He holds an arm out towards her, universal gesture that he's offering a hug, or at least for her to come tuck herself against his side, since he's not taking his eyes off Rick until he's sure the situation is under control.
Which is why he looks to Rick, addressing him:] You're not hurt or anything, right? You good to get back home?
[It's pretty clear that Rick is on his way to bailing, which Taako isn't going to discourage since it'll give him a better chance of calming Letha down without worrying about the guy's motives, but he does feel like he should at least make sure Rick isn't hurt.]
no subject
Given the familiarity between the two, Rick merely shakes his head when she says he tried to shoot her. He doesn't expect a friend of hers to believe that he didn't. He wouldn't believe a stranger over his people either. So he doesn't even try to defend himself.
He is surprised by the levity from the newcomer. And he files the name Letha away for further reference, also the word necromancy. The levity is welcome. And if Letha will listen to the newcomer then Rick is all for that. As for himself, he feels bad and he isn't sure why. He wouldn't undo what he did. He wouldn't even do it differently. But the woman is clearly upset and he's the cause of that for some reason.
When he's addressed personally, he shakes his head. ] Nah, I'm fine. You can take care of... this? [ Of Letha. Of the whole situation. And what the hell is necromancy? He doesn't let himself ask or say anything else because he doesn't want to push the woman even further. ]
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Now that she's got Taako to ground her she relaxes pretty quickly, almost as if the murderous rage she was feeling before never happened. Well.. to be fair, she is a pregnant teenager. This whole affair is making her tired... and now that her head's cleared she realizes she has no idea where Sprig went, so she's going to have to find him before they can worry about the corpse. Great.]
no subject
I got this covered. Try not to shoot at anymore of my friends, yeah?
[He's familiar enough with Teenage Dramatics that he hasn't taken Letha entirely for her word on the shooting thing, but the warning still feels important.]
no subject
The parting jab from her friend is fine too whether the guy means it or not. Again, he wouldn't believe a stranger over his people either. But clearly the guy is more qualified to help Letha than him, and Rick has things he needs to see to right now.
He nods at the guy and backs away a few steps until he feels he's a safe enough distance away to turn and walk away. He's going to find Carl first and foremost - then, the police station. He's also got to see what he can learn about necromancy. ]