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

i. sand and sea [arrival]

[He might have thought it was all a dream, if not for the waves lapping at his hands. Yu quickly pulls himself to his feet and checks his surroundings. A beach? But what happened to—...hm. Doesn't seem to matter, at the moment. There's not a train track in sight, no less a train, and so...it seems he's gotten involved in something strange again.

He doesn't take much time to orient himself—at the moment, he doesn't seem to need it, and he figures he'll figure everything else out later—before he starts doing what he can to help out. In this case, he can be found handing out towels to other new arrivals who got a mouthful of sea water or even setting up tents with locals or other Chosen.]

Not exactly a pleasant wake-up call. [... said specifically to Chosen who are covered in sand and salt water, like him. He offers a sympathetic smile.] At least the weather's good.

[Idyllic, one might say. Eerily so.]

ii. festival of the sun [games]

a. [Yu Narukami can't keep his nose in his own business. Maybe that explains why he's standing by one of the game booths now, as if he works there or something. Approach the booth, which has a stack of colored bean bags and a few wooden planks, and you'll find out that—oh, okay, he does work here, at least for the time being.]

Welcome to cornhole. [He puts his hands in his pockets. It's meant to be casual, and he seems friendly enough, but his demeanor is a little serious, too, as if he's planning to give this his all.] I'll be your opponent.

b. [Whatever had him working at the game booth, he's free of it in the afternoon. To that end, he's roaming the beach, shoes off with pant legs rolled up to keep them from getting wet. He's got something in his hand—a seashell? Okay? And he's examining it thoroughly while prowling the sands. For anyone that happens to make eye contact, he flashes a little smile and a small wave.]

Have you seen one like this? [He holds up the shell. It's a small conch, smaller than his palm, with a perfect swirl at the end.] Apparently there's a prize for the closest match.

[Maybe he'd be willing to split that prize if they win.]

iii. around town [flora, fauna, etc]

a. [The morning after the festivities, when all the tents have been cleared away, Yu is back on the beach. There's something calming about the waves, too be sure, but also... it's the closest thing to his world he could find. The inn, the town, it's all surreal enough to be considered unreal, and he's found it a little unsettling.

A cool, damp fog has settled over the beach in the early dawn. After a quiet moment, he removes a pair of glasses from his pocket and puts them on. A wistful expression flits across his face for a moment as he pockets them again and turns, making his way back down the beach to Aldrip.]

b. Woah! [... Okay, so giant bird wrangling is probably not going on his skill list any time soon. It's fine—if your definition of "fine" includes him diving out of the way as a giant warking Chocobo charges right at him. Yeah, he's got this.

More accurately, what he's got is a rope and a prayer. Oh, and you. You're here too. Yu gives a cursory nod and then starts looping the rope.]

Distract it for a minute—I've got an idea.

[Congrats, you been voluntold. As a decoy. Have fun!]

iv. the wildcard
[open to anything, including the flora effects and other animal encounters. let's go wild! also: happy to keep previous tdm interactions canon with a little timeline fudging, but lemme know if you'd rather start fresh]

Edited 2023-08-07 15:01 (UTC)

[ There's a nervous-looking teenager roaming the game booths — Shinichi offering a shy little smile when the other boy greets him. Really he's mostly just browsing and observing others play, not poking into too many games himself, but it's difficult to just refuse when the other declares he'll be his opponent. He doesn't want to refuse, that'd be rude....!! ]

Ah, okay.....!

[ His own mannerism does vaguely seem like someone is holding a gun to his head as he hesitates for an odd pause before stepping a little closer, as though coaxing himself. The truth is.... he's extremely anxious to try something like this. Given one of his hands has a sentient alien living inside of it, a simple game of cornhole could become something else.... What if Migi gets curious? Starts doing weird things? (And on a moral note, is it technically cheating if he plays a game like this with a hand that could potentially give him an advantage???) Shinichi's immediately worrying....

But there's a solution, one that he suddenly thinks of. He can just use his left hand! That way he's totally safe no matter what!! (Though it means he's about to suck extremely hard at this game....) ]

Do we just— toss the bean bags in? Is that the only rule?

[There's something in that smile that seems awkward, maybe even nervous... Yu might have offered him an out, so to speak, if not for the fact that Shinichi seems to really be trying. Well, at least he can ease up on that chill demeanor, offering a small smile at the question.

He gestures at the pair of boards across the tent from each other.]

You stand by my board, and I stand by yours. Then you try to get the bags onto your board, through the hole.

[Simple enough, right? He offers one of each beanbag --red or yellow-- so Shinichi can pick the color he'd prefer.]

Whoever gets the most in wins.

[ It does seem pretty simple! Maybe even he can do this.... The other teen offers another smile and a nod in return, moving closer to reach for one of the beanbags. He'll go with yellow (it even matches his sweatervest.... Yellow is a nice, plain, easygoing colour for this boy....) and holds the thing in his left palm, giving it an experimental squeeze. ]

Sounds like fun....!

[ He tries to sound less like someone is holding a gun to his head (which is his natural tendency, being such A Worrier....) but it could be nice to just like, play a game with a Fellow Young Person?? Shinichi smiles again at the other boy and tips his head politely. ]

You can go first! I'm still figuring out my technique, so I'd like to watch yours....

[ ....Shinichi... you're a dork and a loser. ]

yu narukami | persona 4

games — a!

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around town — b

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games; a

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3a!

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i SWEEPS 12 YEARS OF DUST OFF THIS JOURNAL

sneezes at the dust

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c o r n

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wildcard

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I (Sorry testing out two possible ones, if you just wanna tag him or Naoya DW)

no worries! i'll tag anyone you throw at me tbh

ii - b

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