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

[hedone]

Are you?

[ illya's voice is completely deadpan; solo's takes on a decidedly delighted lilt instead, something that is reflected in his expression. illya kuryakin, joking. ]

How do you feel about an omelette instead of fried eggs with the breakfast? Surely there are mushrooms and some spring onions in this well-stocked fridge of ours. [ is he already feeling proprietary about the kitchen? of course. ]

[nikolaievich]

[Illya doesn’t mind at all. It’s not that he doesn’t appreciate good food, but if it’s up to him he always just kind of… survives on whatever there’s around or lets someone do the cooking for him. So Solo enjoying playing chef every now and then works out for both of them, as long as he lets Illya play sous-chef whenever he’s bored.]

I do not have preference. [He says, even if it isn’t quite… true. He’d rather have fried eggs, but he feels like he shouldn’t be picky when he isn’t the one doing the cooking. It’s Illya’s way of being considerate, even if it probably comes off as being inconsiderate.

He goes over to Solo with the mushrooms.]

You do not seem worried we cannot leave.

[hedone]

Of course. [ lightly. a moment later: ] So, fried eggs for you, then? [ solo isn't quite as adept at reading illya as he would like to be (yet), but sometimes, an educated guess pays off rather well and solo is willing to bet this is one of those times.

as to illya's comment, he shrugs. ] Let's just say I don't see the point in raging against what I can't immediately change. I'd like to learn more before I try to bust out of here.

[ which is surely what illya must be thinking. solo knows that much, at least. ]

[nikolaievich]

[A beat, and the fingers on his right hand twitch slightly. He knows Solo reading him is a good thing- good for the team, good for them working together, good for U.N.C.L.E. And he knows he should appreciate that someone managed to get close to him despite… despite everything. But it’s still a little unnerving. He doesn’t know how to react.]


...Yes. [He figures being the closest he gets to thankful is a safe bet.]

And I did not try to bust out of here. [Even though he really wanted to. Wants to. ...Even though he probably would bust out of here if he anyone gave him an excuse.]

[hedone]

[ solo thinks he should take that twitch of illya's fingers as a victory of sort—and there is a certain satisfaction in knowing that he was right, that he managed to read his partner correctly, but watching illya lose control isn't quite the entertaining past time it was, sitting in a cafe in berlin. ]

You didn't. But can you honestly tell me you haven't thought of it? [ solo asks it idly while setting out some pots and pans, some utensils. ]

[nikolaievich]

[He’s not losing control, not quite. He was closer to lose control earlier, left to deal with security not letting him out of the house on his own. Solo may be annoying and irritating and a long list of ‘and’s, but he actually manages to calm the red peril down if he really wants to. Illya lets out a non-comital kind of hum, which is ‘Yes but I don’t want to admit it’ in Illya-nese.]

It is not fair, to be stuck here. It is already not fair be kidnapped here, this is cherry on top. [He glances at the fridge.] But it does have perks.

[hedone]

[ solo is never quite certain if he is truly becoming more fluent in illya-nese or if he is closer to a broken clock, right twice a day. his success rate when guessing implies the former rather than the latter, at least. the flipside of it is that he thinks peril must be growing more adept at reading him in return, and the thought of being known is as appealing as it is frightening. ]

You might have heard the capitalist saying, even behind the wall: life isn't fair.

[ he points a spatula, headmaster-like. ] Do pass the bacon, would you? And chop the mushrooms, if you wouldn't mind.

[nikolaievich]

[llya kind of wants to take offense at being ordered around because the only person he takes orders from is his boss… and even one those orders he’s broken recently. But as usual Solo doesn’t actually bark any orders at him, it’s more like a suggestion of sorts.

He ends up handing him the bacon.]

That seems like a depressing way to see life. [And yet he doesn’t deny it’s kind of true.] How small should I cop the mushrooms?