expiationmeme | TEST DRIVE MEME #4

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TEST DRIVE MEME #4

TEST DRIVE MEME #4

Welcome to the TDM for Expiation, a pan-fandom adventure game with fantasy, science fiction, and some horror elements. We ask that top-level comments are reserved for new characters and players looking to experience a taste of the world and overarching storyline. Characters already in the game, however, are free to use TDM prompts in their own catch-alls and logs. Feel free to submit any TDM / prompt-related questions to the corresponding comment below.

New players / characters looking to app are free to use TDM threads as samples in their application. Preexisting players / characters may use TDM threads as part of their AC proofs.

You may find the below link helpful in getting to know themes of the world, locations, the people, and so on.

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AS OF AUGUST 2023: We have decided to reduce the waiting period for new updates / canons to two months. So if your canon is two months old, your character is appable as of now.

The last thing you recall is waking in a room of blinding white light. You hear voices around you, speaking in muffled tones; you get the distinct impression that they’re talking about you. And you’re on the verge of figuring out what they’re saying, you’re so close...but then the floor drops out from under you. You’re falling into blackness.

You come to after falling through this dark void, and when your vision clears, you find yourself on a…beach? Many wake up covered in sand, but some wake in the shallows of the ocean, too. Surf’s up!

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN...

SAND AND SALT (ARRIVALS)

After dusting off the sand (or drying off with a towel, if they had a really rude awakening), newcomers to the area find themselves greeted by the locals and directed to the city of Aldrip, where they can find food, shelter, and dry clothing, should they need it. There's mention of an inn, though some mutter that it's getting a little crowded, so maybe characters should find a roommate or make nice with the locals so they can crash on their floor—at least temporarily. Once they're in town, they'll notice that there is plenty of construction going on: building materials everywhere, half-finished structures waiting to be finished. Maybe you won't be sleeping on the floor for too long, after all.

Those who choose to remain on the beach will find the locals setting up for something that looks like a festival. Colorful tents are anchored in the sand, filling with strange-looking goods, delicious-smelling food, games, and other activities. Locals call this the "Festival of the Sun," a celebration of the hottest days of the summer, where crops begin to swell bountifully and the seas become warm and refreshing. The festival has not yet begun, of course, and there is plenty of opportunity to help out. Chosen who wish to lend a hand will find themselves enlisted to help set up or decorate tents—or even to run some of them, if they're so inclined. Grab the balloons and streamers! (Or…colored scarves and flowers, maybe.)

FESTIVAL OF THE SUN

The festival kicks into gear in the afternoon, and there are plenty of activities to draw attention. There are boat racing competitions and a sandcastle contest, as well as a grand seashell hunt taking place on the beach. All of these are free to enter, and the contests offer prizes both for participation and for winning. Participation prizes are small tokens of memorabilia: seashells, shark teeth, dried flowers, things like that. Contest winners will find themselves gifted a refreshing treat or a free meal.

Other tents boast all sorts of different games, food, and trinkets for purchase. Merchants will accept coins or other goods in exchange, but if you find your pockets empty, they may also have to help work the booths if they need a well-earned break. Better get to work, and don't forget to give your most winning smile!

Later in the evening, the locals light a bonfire and host traditional songs and dances as the sun begins to set. All clean-up work will be left until the morning; according to Those Who Were There—the locals' patron deities, apparently, though they offer little information about them—it's bad luck to work this evening after the sun sets.

THIS IS ECOLOGY

MAKE A FRIEND

It seems there have been new additions to Aldrip and the surrounding areas. Even the locals are surprised to see large, flightless warking birds now charging around the meadowlands in packs, not to mention the cute piglets with bunny ears and other strange animals that seem to have appeared. There’s even something that looks like it’s made of rock roaming around–its bark is worse than its bite, though. You may even find that if you befriend them, you can ride on them.

Most are harmless, but Chosen may find a few more monsters than usual roaming the area, too. It seems best to be careful—especially after dark and in the forest, when some of these creatures feel emboldened to roam a little closer to civilization.

[[WILDCARD: Players can use anything from this post to interact with! It doesn’t even have to be the ones we mentioned in the prompts.]]

STOP AND SMELL THE FLOWERS

It's not just animals that have begun to appear in the area, either. Strange new flowers and plants seem to be cropping up everywhere, as if this is a normal habitat for them. Most of them don't seem harmful, although some of the vines can be a little…aggressive. However, getting too close to some of the flowers and mushrooms could give someone a nasty surprise. This is particularly unfortunate because the locals seem quite interested in the new additions to their town, encouraging the Chosen to investigate and acquire samples.

The pollen from these new flowers isn't normal, so Chosen won't find themselves sneezing too much. Unfortunately, they may find it has some other effect on them, such as sleeping, confusion, temporary loss of sense (sight, touch, taste, etc), powerlessness, forgetfulness, or inability to speak. While these are all examples of effects the pollen might have, this is certainly not a limitation. Just about anything you can come up with—within reason—is fair game.

STRANGE MACHINATIONS

A PILE OF JUNK

Ask the locals, and they'll tell you all about the recent trip to the desert, including how several of them were rescued and owe the Chosen a debt of gratitude. While they're repaying this debt mostly by way of helping with building projects, they've also brought back piles and piles of…broken technology. Mostly tablets: dirty, sandy, scratched up, and missing critical components like batteries and chargers. They've very kindly piled all of these things in the eating hall at the inn, and anyone who wants to check them out is welcome to do so. It's possible that cleaning them up and matching them up with their missing components will activate them, but you may have to sift through a whole pile to do so.

But activation does not necessarily mean they're in perfect working order. They may randomly beep, as if pinging off of certain locations, or make strange static sounds if they're turned on for too long. Some of them seem to ping off of each other, too, beeping more quickly as they're brought nearer to the other tablet they seem to be paired with. When connected to the pair, they seem to stabilize a bit more. Not enough to find anything of value in the system itself, but characters might find that they can now text each other, play one of the games, or send pictures on a local network.. After about ten feet of distance, they fail again and aren’t able to be used on the local network.

GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT

Whatever happened to the locals at the beginning of the month seems to have passed—mostly. Every so often, Chosen might notice the locals acting a little strangely, stopping what they're doing for a second as if they've forgotten something, repeating something they've already said, or even flickering in and out of existence.

These experiences are minor, but Chosen might notice some other oddities popping up occasionally. Some animals seem very…odd, at a glance, like a fox that has two tails or a deer with three eyes. Look again, and you might think your eyes were playing tricks on you, because they appear normal. Fish with transparent scales, plants that change color—these are examples of the occasional oddities Chosen might encounter.

They might also sometimes hear strange noises, particularly at night. Beeping or static like the sounds coming from the tablets could easily wake a person in the night—as can the sound of a voice, perhaps even a familiar one, luring Chosen out of their beds and away from the town. The source of these voices is a mystery, and they always seem to stop before characters get too far, but you'd do well to be careful after dark.

WILDCARD

You know the drill–this is the wildcard one. Just because it’s not listed in the prompts above does not mean it’s unavailable as an option. We encourage you to do whatever you’d like to utilize the setting to its full potential. If you have any questions about what is and is not possible, please don’t hesitate to ask!

TOP LEVEL DIRECTORY

Click to view:

CANON	CHARACTER/TOP LEVEL

Arcane	Ekko
Arcane	Silco
Critical Role	Mollymauk Tealeaf
Digimon	Mimi Tachikawa
Final Fantasy X-2	Paine
Fullmetal Alchemist: Broherhood	Pride
Honkai: Star Rail	Dan Heng
Land of the Lustrous	Phosphophyllite
Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story	Mitama Yakumo
Marvel 616	Quentin Quire
Omnicient Reader's Viewpoint	Han Sooyoung
Persona 1	Naoya Toudou
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment	Kei Nanjo
Persona 4	Yu Narukami
Persona 4	Yosuke Hanamura

last updated: 8/16/23, 10:55PM

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Arrival

Light to darkness seemed accurate for the experience of dying. In his mind's eye, the last blurry fading image was of his daughter, and he disliked her being sad. There was nothing to be done about it though; he liked to think he had given her all the tools to be herself, to embrace the monster and live free of self-doubt. She was and always had been perfect to him.

Silco lay on his side partially buried in the sand with waves of the ocean lapping against him. For a long moment, he simply lay there struggling to breathe, the blood clotted thick in his chest. He always knew he would return to the water, to the peace and the violence that came with struggling for breath. His wounds burned and his blood mingled with the water, curling and diluting one another. Odd how the water didn't burn, didn't eat deep into his chest like polluted claws seeking to invade and rip him apart from them inside.

Too odd.

He finally opened his eyes to find himself staring at clear waters, open ocean with crystal clear blue skies and the occasional crass ocean bird overhead. He squinted in confusion and lifted his head from being partially in the water and hair covered in sand. The afterlife was... pretty?

He coughed as he levered an elbow under himself, spitting up blood and some sand. He stared at the mix after wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. So, not dead? That begged the question: where was he and how long before he'd have to defend himself?

Stop and Smell the Flowers

Flowers were generally far and few between in the undercity. There were small cultivations here and there in the city of steel and glass, and he could admit that Piltover had been the only place that he had been where flora grew and was tended. There were places outside of the cities of course, but his interest had never been there.

It wasn't until the doctor that he had taken notice of the real uses of certain plants. That's why he was out looking for deeply shaded areas of the forest. With the locals talking avidly about new plants appearing, Silco knew there was only one that he wanted to get his hands on. The doctor had been very specific about its growing conditions, so he needed to find caves but was willing to search forest if he needed it.

Of course, explorer of forests he was not, but he was wily and nimble despite the disadvantage of his wounds still healing. Someone told him there were caves, and he intended to find them to see if the purple flowers of the fissures had managed to make the transition here.

He stopped to lean on a tree, breathing hard and spitting on the ground nearby. It was mixed with blood. Chest wounds would do that. He wheezed and shook his head, batting a hand at a vine that was making aggressive moves in his direction. "Worse than teenage street spies..." always so clingy! Of course, other vines were trying to curl around his legs, and he was not in the mood. So he stamped on them with the heel of his boot.

The fight was on. Where was Sevika when he needed her?

Wildcard
[If either of those prompts don't work, feel free to write your own or let's chat and plot! Find me at

apomorphine or discord: apomorphine.]

( ooc: see ekko's tag of how her hair is worn and her outfit, i'm too lazy to describe it again. )

( ' i almost drowned in these waters.'

well. not exactly in these waters, but water still. and seeing the sea overall is enough for her to get tossed back into a past lesson where she and her father stood one night. and although the sky is baby blue and the sun rays are as bright as they come, that's not how she is seeing the world right now. everything is dark, gloomy, with the black sea steadily crashing to meet her bare feet. the gentle rumbles of heaven above with subtle flashes of lights doesn't seem to distract her like it did when she was far younger. she had been frighten of storms, but now she prefer it than any other weather. it's like hearing little baby explosives singing and raving out to their little hearts' content. but it seems so lonely out here... nothing but the dark waters and clouds surrounding her with buildings barely in sight.

the hallucination is to why she hadn't noticed silco right away, far too wrapped up with the sea and it's melody. but when she hears a cough several feet from her, jinx turns to the sound and instantly, a dam breaks. her heart swells and stops beating all at the same time. suddenly, she isn't able to breathe and her mind seems to be going a hundred miles an hour. 'no. nonono, he's...he's not there'. it's just her mind tricking her again -- like it always does. it's normal. there's no way he is there just several feet away, because he's dead. she saw him pass away in front of her eyes two months ago. but... what else did she say that day? nothing ever stays dead? and ange did mention how she died but ended up in aldrip. )

( ... real or fiction? real or fiction? jinx doesn't give herself time to decide as she finds her feet coming off the waters and drowned sand to sprint to him. the sea roaring with each of her step, her stumbling and then collecting herself to keep going. she wants to call out to him, but what should she say? silco? dad? they both seem to be twisting together around her tongue -- although, with her rushing towards him like this, jinx might not need to say anything because the ocean is calling out to him to look this way for her. 'please don't go away. please don't go away'. )

Edited 2023-08-07 15:50 (UTC)

[He stared out across the ocean that spread out far and wide in front of him, mismatched eyes drinking in the sight of it. There were little places where Zaun and Piltover mixed around the docks, where the water still held some purity and there were even tides that came in washed away some of the filth of industry further out.

Perhaps the docks where Piltover's trade ships and pleasure craft moored that could be similar, but this seemed... what was the word pristine? He pushed himself up slowly until he was sitting, his sand and salt water soaked coat slipping off of his shoulders to land heavily in the sand behind him. He drank in a careful slow breath, pain crawling through his chest cavity like thousands of small stabbing knives from where he still carried half-healed bullet holes.

Slowly, he dropped his head and fingered at the wounds through the fabric of his vest and undershirts. His fingertips came away with fresh blood, like his arrival had not been particularly gentle.

Then his head snapped to the side as he heard feet on the sand. He stared at the sight, blinking his eyes rapidly as if to dispel the illusion. When had Jinx ever worn a dress was the first thought that jammed in his brain. He didn't have enough time or strength to lever himself to his feet, so he instead braced as if expecting an impact.]

Jinx. [His voice was soft but strong.]

( when she is close enough, her legs give out somehow and collapses right next to him. jinx is already on the verge of tears with her lower lip quivering in sheer disbelief. he is here, right in front of her. he even said her name like he use to. with trembling yet hesitate hands, she cups both side of his face to help confirm what she is seeing is something real and not her imagination, a hologram, or a phantom. and feeling him against her fingertips again, jinx is unable to control her sniffling and a pink tear rolling down her face.

but then she finally takes note of his condition, remembering how she left him. shit, right. the wounds. her breath catches when her gaze is now at his chest, wanting to mend them but afraid to touch too. what can she do to help him right now? this is literally her second shot of getting all of this right, but she doesn't have anything to help but herself.

wait. herself. shimmer. she has shimmer!

in a panic, his daughter leans back away from him to frantically look around in the waters or the sand. broken glass wash up in streams and rivers often, right? so there has to be something like that somewhere. but all she can spot are seashells and well, without considering another thought -- jinx scoops up the shell and aims to drag the edges against her palm. it might not be quite sharp enough, but she'll do it over and over until she gets something. )

[Silco stared at her as she collapsed in the sand next to him, noting her disheveled appearance compared to what he was used to. For one, he couldn't recall a time when she wore a dress willingly. For two, only when she tinkered on a projected days and days on end did her hair ever end up in braids that messy. Her eyes still had the purple hue that came with shimmer use he noted.

He didn't stop her hands on his face, and it brought back the memory of their last moments together. He closed his eye and leaned into those hands, not caring in the least that his end had been brought about by her hands. He didn't blame her, never could fault her for such things. Jinx was his daughter and nothing she could do would stop him from loving her.]

Where...?

[Yet, the question trailed off when she lunged for a shell and it was only when she tried to slide her palm open that he suddenly snapped his hands out to try to catch both of her wrists. Shimmer would make her faster and stronger, but he was determined to stop her even if it would be his actions distracting her rather than catching her.]

Jinx, that's enough. [Firmness entered his tone. Unyielding.] Enough, Jinx. I'm alive. [Maybe. Was this actually the afterlife, and he was going to have to relive this moment over and over? Who knew. He had to act.] Look at me, Jinx.

( 'i have to save him. i need to save him' it's the only thing running through her mind as she vigorously tries to make a wound on herself. but his hands coming to her view stills everything with the shell plopping onto her lap. her father's voice strong yet comforting all the same settles her berserk heart, and doing as she is told -- she peers up to him. )

But... But you're hurt. ( her voice horribly uneven. ) — I have to... I have to save you. I don't want... I need you here.

( what if he dies in front of her again? it's something she can't relieve. )

I'm sorry. I'm sorry... Just don't go away again. Please.

[He was hurt, but he recalled being hurt far more before he had woken up on the beach. It made no sense whatsoever to him, and while his mind crowded with questions about his situation, his primary focus was Jinx. Once she dropped the shell for the time being, he released her wrists so that he could lift his hands to cup her cheeks in his palms.]

It’s okay. You don’t need to save me at present.

[He wanted to assure her that he wasn’t dying, but he wasn’t so certain of that. How could he when his chest hurt like his ribs were broken and every breath and word was stabbing pain through him?]

You have nothing to apologize for, Jinx. Nothing at all. [He rubbed the pads of this thumbs just beneath her eyes lightly.] I’m not going anywhere. However, where is here?

( it's truly amazing how a small gesture like this can smooth her entire world. vi has a similar power, all she has to do is caress her cheek similar to this, and the deadly tornado magically evaporates. and just like silco did before, jinx leans into his touch -- like a crazed cat that spontaneously want pets from their owner after nipping them for twenty minutes.

she hears his question and she will definitely answer him, but his daughter just needs a few seconds. a few seconds to bathe into this new reality that her father is alive again and to erase that god awful night from her memory. with her eyes shut, jinx smiles warmly with a gentle sigh blowing out of her nostrils. )

Aldrip. ( she answers simply. and now it's time to test how much she's been paying attention to the locals and the chosen. )

— Something bigger than the Gods brought us here. Maybe. They're ropin' everyone from different realms and timelines to be here. This whole country is meant to be a prison. ... Sorta. But we're all criminals and got sentenced to somethin'.

( a brief pause to let her father sink the information in while nuzzling more into his hands. )

I'm being charged with murder and illegal trading. There oughta be a scroll on ya with your crime somewhere. Everyone's got one and it's magical too. You can't rip it apart or burn it. No one here knows what's happenin' really so... we're just living and waiting.

Edited 2023-08-08 00:47 (UTC)

[Her reaction caused a careful sigh from his nose, and he continued to stroke her cheeks with his thumbs as she provided a name for their location. It was no where that he had heard of on their continent.

The explanation was detailed enough to give him a sense that they weren't actually on their continent, and he likely wasn't dead nor dying anymore. The sheer notion that he would be charged with a crime was actually laughable; Zaun was a mostly lawless place, and those with power cultivated it for their own ends. The only rules were loyalty to each other when it came to anyone else outside of Zaun messing with them.]

Criminals is a ridiculous notion. According to Piltover's laws, certainly I'm a criminal, but in Zaun? I'm little more than a revolutionary.

[And he would revolutionize them whether they wanted it or not. Of course, being dead previously and now somewhere else complicated his overall plan. It complicated everything. He had lived his life for the nation of Zaun; what did he do without it?

No, no, he'd ponder that later. He had Jinx, and that would satisfy him for now.]

Living and waiting? Is there an organizing leadership here?

Silco | Arcane

arrival (cw: hallucinations)

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cw: attempt self-injury

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stop and smell the flowers

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stop and smell the flowers

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