TEST DRIVE MEME #9

[expiationmods]

Test Drive Meme #9

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.

June's's TDM is forward-dated to June 20th.

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

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?

Summer Solstice (June 20th)

The summer solstice, also known as the longest day of the year. Aldrip may have received a big upgrade in size recently, but this special day still calls for celebration amongst the locals, who have a long tradition of celebrating various celestial phenomena. For this occasion, the entire city will be throwing a Midsummer celebration! The festival itself takes place from June 20-24, with the solstice happening the evening of June 20. There will be celebrations before, during, and after the festival as well!

On the shortest day of the year in December, the Chosen were told to stay indoors until sunrise. The opposite holds true for the summer solstice: all are encouraged to remain outside from dusk until dawn, and locals throw a festival to keep everyone entertained through the wee hours of the morning!

The streets of the commercial district are lined with sun-painted lanterns, lit as dusk starts to fall and kept glowing until sunrise the next day. Those lanterns illuminate a lively street bazaar featuring exotic food and drink, curious wares, and lawn/party games of all kinds. The Chosen are encouraged to either participate, or occasionally wager bets on other people who may be competing against one another. May the odds be ever in your favor?

As the sun begins to set, locals light large bonfires. There will be music and dancing—Chosen are encouraged to participate in whatever way they’d like, whether they want to perform or lead a line dance. If they’re not inclined to join in, the fires and music still provide a perfect backdrop for a little relaxing conversation and meeting new friends.

After dark, a large fireworks show begins. All in attendance are encouraged to bring (or find!) blankets to lay out so they can watch the show. Clinking glasses with good friends at the height of the show is considered good luck, so it’s not uncommon to see some folks having a drink during this time. As Aldrip is so close to the ocean, some locals even offer discounted boat rides to get a different view of these fireworks.

At dawn, the locals finally tuck in for a few hours of rest. But don’t worry—the Midsummer festival continues even after the solstice is done!

Midsummer Festival (june 20-june 24)

Locals begin prepping for the festival days in advance, and while they won’t drag others in to help the same way they have in the past, they still won’t turn down an extra set of hands. You’ll even get paid for your troubles, either in money or in favors (free meal vouchers, rent at the inn, etc). There’s no shortage of work to be done, from dragging tables around to stringing lanterns or even collecting sticks for bonfires. Just be careful, locals tell of strange whispers coming from Pessiria Forest at odd times of day and night…

The festival itself has different activities and happenings depending on what area you visit. Most of these activities can be done on any day of the festival. Most of the games and contests outlined here are examples—you’re free to make up others if you feel so inclined!

BEACH EPISODE!!
The beach is a prime location in the month of June, and locals really go all out for this particular occasion, setting up a large beach party with food, drink, and brightly-colored umbrellas to provide some shade.

There are various sporting activities such as beach volleyball, windboarding, surfing, and a large, built-up dune for sand surfing. Most of these are just for fun, but if locals see some really good contenders, they might urge a competition between them.

For those less sporting, there are all sorts of activities and challenges. Kite flying, sandcastle building, and scavenger hunts are particularly popular with the locals. Maybe they’ll ask you to bring back a certain number of round seashells, or to make friends with someone sitting under a pink umbrella…the possibilities are endless, really. There will also be official competitions for kite flying and sandcastle building, so put your best foot (or shovel) forward!

Some enterprising locals have also set up boat tours to take locals and Chosen through the nearby waves. In some places, the light makes it seem almost like you can see something in the distance…but it’s not on the map, right? Maybe it’s just your imagination. Hmm.

HAVE A FIELD DAY
The rolling hills outside of the city make a perfect place for various races and games. Bring your competitive spirit, because there will be medals awarded for winning races! Some common games include: bag races, “wife” carrying (gender, spousehood, and pre-existing relationship not required, of course!), three-legged races, relays, baton passes, and foot races.

It’s not all sporty competitions, though! Some older locals will lead more relaxing activities, such as stretching, meditation, and recreational group dances. These are volunteer-led groups, of course, so if those volunteers have to sit down or step away for a bit…well, they’ll have to ask someone to take over for them.

Those with good animal handling stats are not forgotten either, of course! There will be animal races, as well, on horses or even chocobos. There may or may not even be a petting zoo, pony rides, or other fun, relaxing activities with animals. Sometimes you just need to sit in a pen full of bunnies, okay.

Please do be careful, though: increased activity could make some of the monsters roaming outside the city a little bit curious about what’s going on this close to town…

WHEN YOU’RE DOWNTOWN
The green spaces of Aldrip have been decked out in their very finest, and floral season is in full bloom. Some enterprising gardeners will be unveiling new garden designs in honor of the festival: hedge mazes, giant sculpted topiaries, and elaborate fountains.

While it doesn’t hold a candle to the Ketsoran diplomatic masquerade, the event center will also be hosting several nights of dining and dancing during the festival. It may be a little less lavish, but it’ll nonetheless be quite glamorous—and the food will probably be good, too.

The bazaar from the day of the solstice continues throughout the festival. Additionally, various shops and businesses may choose to provide specials, discounts, and other offers to entice new and current Chosen alike.

THE SPIRE
One of the taller buildings in town has installed a large spire near one of the garden squares. They claim that, as the sun rises to its midday point, light passing through the spire will create an incredible light show. They’re right, as a matter of fact: the light reflects and refracts, scattering rainbows across the square. It’s a dazzling display. When the sun passes its midday point, however, the beautiful color show suddenly turns into white light. Anyone looking at this light will find that they are no longer able to keep track of how long they’re watching it. Your mind may begin to go blank, almost as if it refuses to accept something, some deep truth that the world is trying to tell you…

…

No, that must be your imagination. The light vanishes shortly thereafter—or was it ever there to begin with? The unsettling feeling may remain, but it’ll be harder and harder to be certain of what caused it.

This is fine and also normal.

Wildcard

Make your own fun! Just because it’s not in the prompts doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Have at it! Go crazy! Try not to break anything (too much)!

♡

Comments

[unprimed]

[Wow. Woah. He just said that like it's no big deal.

... Okay, so maybe this place isn't literally all bad, after all. She can handle being looked at funny for being green for a while, instead of for being an Orion.]

Ye...yeah! That could be. I mean, the universe is a big place, right? We've only explored even a fraction of it. [And isn't that what Starfleet is really all about?

That, and cave missions. She gasps.] No way, that sounds so wild! Did it try to tempt you into following it into some weird device, or distract you while it knocked you out, or something like that? Or was it like, making perfect copies of you that knew your every move and made fighting really tough?

[starguy]

[ It's totally no big deal, girl, he will just keep smiling. She seems happy? Good for her! ]

Totally! Plus there's like, multiple universes and stuff. Could be yours doesn't have Xandar or Spartax or any of those!

[ He's met people from different universes and it's nbd if you ask him. But he's also very good at rolling with weird stuff. Like cave missions. ]

It totally did! AND IT TOTALLY DID THAT! [ He waves a hand like, omg. How'd she know. ] We had to fight copies of ourselves and they just kept coming! Turns out it was the water or something? We had to close off a skull-shaped waterfall to get it to stop. [ What is your life, Peter. ] In the end it was kinda like... I think it was some kind of weird cave trial because there was a guy hiding down there? I dunno if he made the mist or what, but he'd been hiding down there cause he was super powerful and was tired of people asking him for stuff.

[unprimed]

Not that I've heard of...but who knows? It's a big galaxy, and an even bigger universe! I don't think anyone has explored outside the Milky Way, so maybe Xandar and Spartax are out there somewhere in my universe too!

[She's taking this whole multiverse thing kind of well. More like she hasn't exactly parsed it yet -- she's sort of saving it for later. Right now she's still in the middle of the first mental break, then she has to have the temporal panic attack, and then we can think about the ramifications of multiple universes colliding like this.

Anyway, onto funner conversation topics: aha! She nailed it!]

A skull-shaped waterfall? [That has her laughing.] Boy, your universe is just totally going with it on design, huh? That is so wild! It's kind of nice to know that caves are always just like that, no matter where you go.

[starguy]

We're both in the Milky Way though, huh? It'd be pretty awesome if it was like that!

[ It's ok, we can't all get sucked into a space hand that takes a shortcut to the other side of the galaxy by traveling through the space in between universes. Peter's special like that. ]

Right?! Yeah, it was pretty wild. Caves are always creepy! And I think that one might've been alive? I don't even know. Felt like we were being watched the whole time. It's like, geez, everything in space is always different everywhere you go -- except for caves!

[unprimed]

Right? It'd be pretty cool. And there are whole quadrants that we just don't know much about! Not to mention wormholes and alternate universes and all of that.

[Voyager represent, amirite?? Anyway, she's totally fired up with the space talk, but also, she's a massive nerd. So when he mentions--] It was alive?? I mean. Maybe-alive?? That's amazing!

Of course, my first thought is "ohhh I wanna study it!!" But also, that does sound kind of creepy. If it was watching you the whole time, I mean. ...even if it wasn't watching, that's still creepy.

[starguy]

Dude, for sure. All the different universes out there? It's nuts.

[ Yes, perfect. Like, there's a universe where he's a jerk and he fights Thanos? Bizarre. ]

It totally was! There were all these like, faces in the rocks. And we're not talking like "oh, this rock kinda looks like a face" I mean like, these things had eyelids and lips, it was freaky! All the eyes were closed? But it still felt like we were being watched.

[ He sounds more excited about it than necessarily creeped out, though. It's always an adventure with Peter Quill. ]

Space, man!

[unprimed]

Faces in the rocks? Wow! I mean-- totally weird, but that's so cool! Do you think they were sleeping? Or was it just like...they didn't need their eyes to see? I guess if it's a whole planet like that, maybe it's one whole symbiotic system and they communicated in some rock-language or something!

[Oh. Oh no. The gears are turning. She is thinking way too hard about this.]

You're right though, space is the best. And-- I'm sure there's some cool stuff to discover on this planet, too! There's gotta be more to it than just this city, right?