TEST DRIVE MEME #8

[expiationmods]

Test Drive Meme #8

Welcome to Expiation, a pan-fandom adventure game with elements of fantasy, science fiction, and some subtle horror.

TDM top-levels are open to all, whether you are already in-game or not. New characters, please put TDM in your subject header so we’ll know you’re trying things out! You can also put your top-level in the TDM DIRECTORY at the bottom of the post. New folks are welcome and encouraged to use TDM threads as samples in their application. Current players may use TDM threads as part of their AC proofs.

April's TDM is forward-dated to the end of Gogol, Dara, and Seimei's player plot on April 20th.

You can view our CALENDAR to keep important dates in mind. RESERVES open on April 20 and APPLICATIONS will open on April 23 After this, applications will next open in June 2024.

NEW FOR APRIL 2024: there is now a top level for everyone to post their TDM top levels into! This is for new characters only. Thank you!

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Arrival

You remember a room of blinding white light—so bright that you couldn't make out any details. You heard voices, speaking in muffled tones. It sounded an awful lot like they were talking about you. You were just on the verge of figuring out what they’re saying, you were so close...but what happened after that?

Ah–that's right. You fell into blackness.

New characters are most likely to wake in one of the following locations:

THE DOCKS
You wake to the gentle sound of waves, your body rocking with the movement of the water. Wait—water? Since when was there water beneath you?

Since now, apparently. You appear to be in the lower rooms of a boat…and you might not be alone. There are several of these crafts in the harbor, ranging from larger cruising vessels to small sailboats. The one thing they all have in common is this: they are all half-built, as if someone realized very recently that there is a whole ocean to explore. Wonder where they might be going? Either way, you’d better get out of here, before the construction crew finds you and brands you as a stowaway.

ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT
When you come to, the first thing you hear is the commotion of distant voices and running feet. You feel a warm light on your face…it’s too bright to look at directly, so when you open your eyes, you have to look away. It’s probably for the best. Those stage lights can’t be good for your eyes.

… Stage lights?

That’s right, you seem to be just offstage in an entertainment venue. Someone is fussing with you, powdering your face with some last-minute touch-up makeup, vaguely coaching you on. “You’ll be great! Just get out there and have fun!”

With little room to argue or ask questions, you are immediately shoved out on stage, and find yourself in front of a sold-out crowd. What you find on the stage to help you perform is up to you: a microphone, musical instruments, magician’s tools, a full-blown play, the sky’s the limit.

Break a leg…?

CITY CENTER
“These new statues are so lifelike!” Click.
“I wonder which artist installed all of this? It’s almost eerie, isn’t it?”
“I feel like they could move at any second!” Click click.

You wake in a garden. Not just in a garden—amongst the flowers, almost as if you’re an installed piece of artwork. Are you alone, or posed with someone else? Up to you. You may even find yourself entwined with vines, half-buried in the ground, or subtly hidden beneath a large bush. A few hapless locals stand in front of you, taking pictures. Do they really believe you’re a statue? They’re in for a rude awakening whenever you finally move…

Well. Better dig yourself out of here and figure out what’s going on.

However you awaken, the next time you’re able to stand still and take in your surroundings, you’re approached by a small mechanical creature, which reveals a handheld tablet with a rolled-up parchment within it. Booting up the tablet for the first time brings you the following message:

WELCOME, CHOSEN.
WE ARE SO GLAD YOU ARE HERE.

So…now what?

These new familiar streets

The unexpected expansion of Aldrip means that there's suddenly a vast uptick in things to do. The locals don't seem to find any of this unusual or surprising at all, but the Chosen seem to remember that Aldrip wasn't always like this...how unusual! Well, whatever the case, the city is abuzz with activity…and wildlife, apparently. Thanks to some recent events, there seems to be a surplus of poisonous snakes slithering haplessly through the city, as well as, perhaps, a few lingering pockets of miasma. Best to watch your step…

i. This smells like a sidequest
Businesses and individuals all over town will be giving out quests ranging in size, scope, and request. Any of these will net you a prize from the right requestor. These prizes are mostly just silly little knick knacks, and they don’t seem to have any value, but the locals are adamant that they are quite important! At the same time, some locals may offer more useful rewards, such as money, clothing, food, or even a month’s rent at the local inn, especially for newcomers. Either way, you might have to team up to complete some of these challenges. Grab a partner!

Quests and requests can include, but are not limited to, ideas such as:

A local art collector looking for striking photographs of local flora and fauna
The neighborhood food cart owner on the hunt for new and interesting ingredients and recipes
Your neighbor’s search for their missing cat
Requests to clear monsters out of certain areas
Scavenger hunts to find local landmarks, such as murals on the side of buildings, a specific statue, or a hole-in-the-wall business

You're free to use your imagination, the setting, and local NPCs to come up with whatever ideas your heart desires.

ii. Should’ve waited for the patch
This sudden change is going fairly well, but it could be better. Some areas of town will be subject to something that seems like glitches. These effects could range from things going missing or suddenly changing (your favorite lipstick just changed from red to blue?? how odd!) to streets and doorways going into places they logically shouldn’t go to. Your front door isn’t supposed to be at the end of the dock, is it? Better watch your step, because strange things seem to be afoot.

Day and night life

While it’s not an official festival by any means, the beginning of spring is the cherished start of the planting season for the farmers outside of Aldrip, and the entire city comes together to promote it! Chosen are encouraged to take part in the planting process if they desire, but there’s plenty more to do, for those who don’t have a green thumb. Flyers can be found all over town for various competitions, shows, businesses, and events. Just be careful—the city has grown rapidly in a short period of time, and that means crime rates have grown as well. It’s unwise to linger alone after dark. Who knows what someone may find down a dark alleyway…or who knows, maybe they should be more afraid of you.

iii. Iron Chef: Aldrip
Fire up those pots and pans! The highlight of the town center is a huge cooking competition, where locals and Chosen alike are encouraged to bring their finest culinary skills to the table and create a spectacular dish. Those who would rather cheer from the sidelines, or even act as judges for the competition, are encouraged to do so as well. Anyone may enter—and we do mean anyone, so judge at your own risk.

iv. This is not Aldrip’s Best Friends Race
Many local businesses in the Commercial and Entertainment Districts are putting on all sorts of shows and competitions: talent contests, arm-wrestling competitions, fashion shows, dance exhibitions, the sky's the limit. Local business owners will tempt the Chosen into participating by offering rewards: free items, the option to keep costumes they put you in, trophies, all manner of comforts that could entice wary newcomers into volunteering.

Chosen who own or work at local businesses are also encouraged to participate by starting their own shows or contests. They’ll be rewarded with an uptick in business and free advertisement.

The Events Center will be hosting a lavish and well-advertised drag show and competition, and some locals will encourage participation from Chosen of all genders. Most of them will lay off if the Chosen are really not interested (they’re not putting their lives at risk for this!) but some of the more determined and charismatic ones might not take “no” for an answer.

Wildcard

Just because it’s not in the prompts doesn’t mean it can’t happen. We encourage you to look at our new setting page for Aldrip, as well as the world map. Anything that looks interesting there is fair game, so have fun with it!

♡

Comments

[battlefieldbrat]

Oh yeah. One of your better qualities.

[he jests, he jests. he starts methodically knocking balls around, mostly getting them into the pockets.]

I don't know how your plan is going to pan out, though. Knowing my luck the first mark you sucker into a game will be some kind of shark.

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph laughs a little. ] Right?! If they're gonna fall for it, they deserve it.

[ That's her general mentality, anyway. She kicks her feet lightly like a little kid as she listens to Kakashi practicing. ]

Okay, so the way this works is that we have to lose sometimes. You just do your best and be yourself and I'll fix everything, including making it believable.

[battlefieldbrat]

Okay...

[he's a little dubious, but not that much so. toph is pretty incredible, after all.]

I think I'm as practiced as I'm gonna get. Not promising to win my first game or anything.

timeskip?

[fieldtrip]

Actually, it's better if you don't. We gotta establish you as a dumb kid who's just learning how to play.

[ Toph hops down off the table. ]

We'll play a few games where I don't do anything. It'll help you get the hang of it so when you start winning it makes sense.

sure!

[battlefieldbrat]

Whatever you say, boss.

[he's not sure how she plans to cheat at pool, but he knows better than to underestimate her.]

[fieldtrip]

[ Sure enough, Toph lets him play a few games completely unaided, taking the part of clueless bored sibling hanging around to spectate. She'd practiced it with Shinjiro last time and there's no reason to change it now.

After a few rounds, she rubs her hands together eagerly. ] Ready to start cleaning up?

[ Kakashi may get more of a tutorial on effective cheating than on effective pool playing with what follows. This is far from Toph's first rodeo, and it doesn't take more than a shift of her foot, maybe a light tap against the ground under the table, to make a pool ball roll the way she wants it. Doing it subtly and fooling people is what makes it entertaining for her. Sometimes shots Kakashi narrowly misses sink anyway, sometimes the opponent's shots slimly avoid their intended target.

About an hour or two later, Toph decides to call it quits while the quitting's good and slaps Kakashi heartily on the back. ]

Wow, you got really good at this! [ she says cheerfully, in her long-suffering sibling persona. ] Let's trade these in and do something to celebrate.

[battlefieldbrat]

Not as good as you, apparently.

[ah kakashi, dry as always. but he smirks as he says it.]

Celebrate? Like what?

[fieldtrip]

Yeah, but I can't do it without you, either.

[ True sign of Toph friendship: sharing the credit. ]

I don't know, what do you usually do for fun when you aren't living in the woods?

[battlefieldbrat]

Well, I suppose after a successful mission the tradition is to grab food together. Know any good places?

[fieldtrip]

I know a few. What do you like?

[ She's still waiting for an answer to that!! ]

[battlefieldbrat]

I don't really know what's around here...after missions back home we always used to get ramen. [a beat.] It's like a soupy noodle dish.

[he normally just eats stuff like stir fry carry out back home but he doesn't even know if that's a thing here!]

[fieldtrip]

Noodle soup I can do. [ She doesn't know ramen specifically, but there's about a million versions of noodle soup back home.

Toph sets off, exchanging their chips for cash and getting a little more introspective by the time they're outside. Having fun with Kakashi helped settle her nerves, and her thoughts, and she feels ready to maybe talk about something that's been bothering her. ]

Hey... did you get involved at all when that snake spirit got her organs stolen? And there was this cursed miasma everywhere?

[battlefieldbrat]

Not directly. I wanted to help search for things, but I got pretty sick, I guess from the miasma. Rusty too.

[rusty being, of course, his personal dog. that's not to speak of the dogs he found on the street that were suffering.]

Did you?

[fieldtrip]

Yeah, I looked with Miller. ... You and Rusty okay now? What kind of sick was it?

[ This is actually exactly what she wanted to talk about, but Toph edges her way into it, wanting to make sure she doesn't make this out to be a big deal. ]

[battlefieldbrat]

I had to check into the clinic for a bit, but it turned out okay. I don't usually get sick so it was kinda weird...

[he seems to ponder her question.]

It was just like everything stopped working right. Aches all over, my nose wouldn't stop running, I had a pretty bad cough. Wouldn't want to do it again.

[fieldtrip]

It got me, too, but not like that.

[ She pauses, a little hesitant, her stride slowing to a normal person's pace instead of Toph's usual no-holds-barred march down the street. ]

Miller and I were fighting all these snakes, and as they died they released more of the miasma, and it's like I got... I don't know, dosed all at once or something.

[battlefieldbrat]

[kakashi slows as well, feeling a sudden rush of concern.]

Did you lose your senses again?

[that's the only thing he could think of that would make her pause like that.]

[fieldtrip]

Ugh, no.

[ She hadn't even considered that, and the idea makes her disgruntled. Toph doesn't typically use denial as a coping mechanism, but it's seriously tempting to pretend that could never happen again. ]

My bending was fine, it was just... I lost control for a second. [ Her voice turns quieter, more introspective than normal. ] I never lose control.

[battlefieldbrat]

So, your bending was out of control? Or...were you just upset?

[he has a feeling toph wouldn't appreciate being overwhelmed by emotion.]

[fieldtrip]

I don't get out of control because I get upset, [ Toph huffs, miffed at the implication but not really able to refute it given that she'd been the one to bring it up and suggest it. It's true that she would not like being overwhelmed with emotion to the point that she acted on impulse, but that wasn't exactly what happened... ]

It's like -- I was fighting, and everything was fine, I was handling everything like normal, and then it felt so easy to do something I wouldn't normally do.

[battlefieldbrat]

I see...so your inhibitions were lowered.

[to put it plainly, that sucks.]

How long did the effect last?

[fieldtrip]

[ That makes it sound so simple, though maybe it was. Just because it was simple didn't mean it wasn't distressing. ]

It was a lot of miasma, [ she admits, ] so a while. But I was able to keep a lid on it once I knew it was happening. I just-- don't like that it happened at all.

[ She prides herself so much on her measured, impeccable control, and then this... ]

[battlefieldbrat]

[he makes a noise of agreement.]

That's rough. I can't imagine what I'd do under the same circumstances.

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph lets out a breath at the sympathy, picking up the pace again as they start to near a noodle place. ]

Normally if I'm not happy about how something went, I'll just practice until I'm great at it, but how am I supposed to practice against mind powers?

[ There's a clear note of complaint. ]

[battlefieldbrat]

You can't, really. I know of a technique to throw off illusions, but I don't think it's the same thing.

[this didn't sound like someone directly attacking toph, more like...a side effect of the atmosphere.]