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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!
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He just nods. ] I know. I was not surprised to learn they had all but erased me from the family tree.
[ Hanzo Shimada, the only son and proper heir. Of course. He'd been so furious becaue, of course! Isn't that what they'd always wanted? What his dear big brother had always wanted? For him to not even exist?
But no. His brother could have stayed and had everything he ever wanted, the entire world at his fingertips and he just. Left. His chest still gives a squeeze when he thinks of it.
Genji meets his eyes and is glad for it. He nods again. ] I could not stay either. In Overwatch, I mean. When they no longer needed me for taking down the clan, I ran as far and as fast as I could.
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so he's relieved, but he doesn't understand. he can't predict Genji at all, now. still, he keeps his attention on him as much as he can without walking into anything. ]
How very like you. [ it slips out so easily, as though Hanzo can make such jabs like he has any right. there's a flash of dismay across his expression, and he quickly changes tack: ] Where did you go?
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He tries not to snort at the comment. It's entirely true because if there was one thing he was good at before, it was running away from everything. He ran away when their mother fell ill and he just... never stopped avoiding dealing with anything.
At the end of the day however, it seems they were not so dissimilar in that regard. ] Everywhere and nowhere. I traveled with some Bedouin for a while and I eventually ended up in Nepal. [ His tone change is noticeable, sounding calmer just a the mention of the place. ] I found peace there.
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if he had been trying, he would have done something more like Genji did, wouldn't he? why would he be excused for doing less?
but he can't admit that to Genji. can't open his mouth and say I didn't manage to do anything. I'm sorry. I failed you. instead, he gives Genji a searching look, like the cyborg chassis might be able to show something of this drastic change in attitude he's gone through, and he takes a different path of honesty, less raw. ]
I cannot picture the brother I knew finding any solace in temples and meditation.
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And yet. ] I met a Shambali monk by the name of Zenyatta. And I cannot tell you exactly how it happened, brother, but the things he said to me eventually made sense. One day I woke up and my mind was just— calm. Like a river. No more storms.
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[ perhaps he shouldn't be so surprised; Genji had been newly forced into a cyborg body, essentially an omnic himself to look at him. it could be that there was kinship for him there, with the Shambali. it's reflexive of him to recoil, though, because for him and Genji both, their early childhood took place during the Crisis. they were raised to feel nothing but disdain for omnics, as most were. Hanzo has never before had cause to challenge that view.
he still doesn't, really, but he has no desire to start an argument about it. there are a great many things he and Genji could fight about, past and present differences, a dozen unsolved problems of their youth. the fact that Genji was able to find peace with himself isn't one of those things. ]
—No. [ it's said with a sharp shake of his head: an indication to disregard his outburst. instead, his voice softer and fiercely honest: ] I am glad, Genji.
[ he wants that to be known, before Genji eventually strikes him down. even if he can't admit that he's proud of his brother, too many years of conflict and seeing him as a disgrace, he can say this much. this is how things should be; Genji is alive and whole, and Hanzo has sunk like a stone with the weight of his sins, unsalvageable. better left to rot.
so although it's sincere — because of the context in which Hanzo means to say it, the words come out unusually grave. ]
no subject
I had much the same thought but I had nowhere else to go at the time. They welcomed me so easily. [ Genji shakes his head a little. ] It was the only place that ever did. Even Numbani did not feel as welcoming for me.
[ He's getting lost in his thoughts and he snaps himself out of it, chuckling a little self deprecatingly. ] I still talk too much, don't I?
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I suppose there are limits to how much a person can change.
[ still. a monastery, of all things. one day, when Genji himself isn't a wound in Hanzo's chest, he'll laugh at that.
for the moment, he's saved from agonising over the familiarity growing between them — wondering whether he should be colder, distance himself so that perhaps Genji will stop toying with him already — by a shuffling noise further down the tunnels, claws scuttling across stone. Hanzo pauses and nocks the arrow he has in-hand; looks to Genji. ]
Would you like to deal with this, or shall I?
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[ He hears the noise at the same time as his brother and the change in his posture is instant, grabbing for his wakizashi and turning his head. His tone gets a little cocky, a little more youthful. ] Why not side by side? It will go faster.
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and in light of that— ]
You could not possibly trust me so easily.
[ whatever ease Genji had managed to bring out of Hanzo is gone, tension creeping back in, his expression pained. Genji letting his guard down like this, the two of them talking together, is one thing; to let Hanzo fight alongside him, especially to watch his back with a bow and arrow that could be turned against Genji in an instant — there is no way. he cannot be that naïve. ]
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Geni turns his head to him and looks for a few heartbeats. ] Brother. [ He says it seriously yet gently, knowing he feels cornered. ] At Hanamura, I had my blade at your throat.
[ He turns forward again as the sound of the lizard rustling and rumbling about gets louder. ] If I had no hope or if I thought you were dangerous, that night would have gone much differently.
[ "You are not worthy to speak his name." had been when he's fully cemented his decision, his impression. That his brother would demand respect to some no name assassin... there was a part of him that was still young, with bright green hair and demanding attention at all times that felt vindicated. ]
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he had been relieved.
you should have killed me back then. the compulsion to say it is so vivid that it feels a physical thing caught in Hanzo's throat, his breathing restricted by it as if he could gag on the words. he's only held back by the shame of his own desperation. he has disgraced himself enough; to admit aloud that at times he wishes Genji had slit his throat would make it a very real thing, another dishonour on Hanzo's head, and he will not show himself to be such a coward. ]
Then your judgement is still as poor as ever.
[ but in one swift movement, he draws back the string of his bow and fires an arrow down the tunnel, where it strikes with a meaty thunk! and a creature's shriek. ]
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[ With that, Genji sprints ahead in a burst of green light. The creature yowls as he slices into the flank of it, Hanzo's arrow causing it to lose its senses and stagger in place. No point in letting it suffer any longer. ]
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Hanzo looses another arrow, this one through the neck of the lizard as soon as its head is turned away from him. he calls out to Genji: ]
I have my doubts that my assistance was needed to make this any faster! You seem to be more than capable yourself.
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[ With an other flash of green light he jumps and slices down on the beast's neck, opening a large gash. With shriek that turns into a gurgle, the poor beast flails and slumps over.
Genji sighs and bows his head. ] It is a shame they must be killed, really.
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[ Hanzo is genuinely perplexed by the idea. he's taken human lives and not considered them worth a thought, especially given that he tries to keep his assassination jobs focused on the corrupt and the dishonourable. he can't imagine feeling any pity for a mindless animal like this.
he comes to stand beside Genji, with the creature at their feet, and considers it. both of his arrows are deeply embedded in its flesh; impossible to retrieve unless he cuts them out, which he couldn't do even if he wanted to. he doesn't carry a single blade. even holding a knife makes his hands prickle with an awful static feeling, sometimes. ]
These are nothing more than a waste of arrows.
[ he'll have to have more crafted somewhere in the city. ]
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[ Genji regards the arrow and offers it to his brother. ] It is probably too dulled to reuse.
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for now, he slides it back into his quiver. better to keep a dulled arrow than to run out entirely. ]
There does not need to be any joy in it. [ he looks at Genji, brow furrowed in confusion. ] We do as we must.
[ he doesn't outright say, there does not need to be joy in anything. he wouldn't put it in those words. but it's there, in the lack of understanding plain on his face, and in all of their history together. ]