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expiationmeme2023-08-06 09:08 am
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.
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.
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!
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
go bump in the night — b!
On the surface, he may seem to be just as little of a threat as the thing that looks like a child does. The teenager is tall and thin and awkward in himself, demeanour nervous, stepping quietly towards the edge of town and looking anxiously around. But there's something else within Shinichi, too. Something alien, something with its own sentience and awareness. Something sensitive to what makes the animals out here nervous. The agitated flutter of birds overhead makes the alien tense; there's something unnatural out here.
Is it one of his own kind...? A fellow parasite? Or something else. Migi keeps quiet for now, allows Shinichi to find his own way closer. The alien will intervene when he needs to.
It isn't long before the boy does find it. Standing there in the trees just outside of town........ a child. Shinichi's heart skips a beat: startled, confused, concerned. He's about to call out to the younger boy when suddenly that snarl sounds, and his eyes snap over to the wolves with a gasp of horror. But Shinichi hardly has to think about moving forwards, he wouldn't hesitate to throw himself into the fray (a human concept that Migi finds useless at best and dangerous at worst — altruism)....
...Something happens before Shinichi can do anything. Something that makes him freeze in place with shock, then terror. He can't quite understand what he's seeing, only that it's... familiar. Swift and precise and deadly, slicing through flesh and bone with no difficulty. Like the alien parasites.
The teen gives a hushed moan and takes a step back, almost numb in his own panic. Dimly, he's aware that the remaining wolves are taking off running in fright, yipping, and a couple are heading dangerously close to his position. Before Shinichi can react to this at all, his right arm jerks upwards, and changes — stretching out into bladed tentacles that whip through the air. Just as quick and clean as the boy's strange shadows moved, beheading two of the wolves in seconds.
Shinichi stands there, mute and horrified and smelling blood (a familiar scent to him by now), beginning to tremble uncontrollably. He sees Migi's tentacles begin to curl close to his body, defensively moving in front of him as though preparing for battle. But both of them wait, hesitate, to see what the child-thing (another parasite? Something else?) will do or say. ]
no subject
The sound of the remaining wolves fade into the distance, leaving them with only a tense silence. Only the rustling of moving carcass breaks the silence as shadows crawl over them. He can still eat while investigating.
He's stares at the tentacles that formed from the human's hand, then to the wolves that human had sliced up. He then looks back, who was looking rather freaked out, the opposite of Pride's curiousity at the moment. The way the tentacles seem to guard him, all while having that frighten expression. It didn't seem to match.]
What are you? [A seemingly harmless question comes out. Needlessly attacking something he had no information on was pointless.]
no subject
While Shinichi's eyes are locked onto the child in terror, Migi's watching whatever shadows he can still see, the movement of them. This thing.... what is this thing? Of course, he isn't the only one with that question.
'What are you?'
There's another pause, silence stretching on. The alien is thinking, considering its options. And then the boy's arm begins to change again — tentacles shrinking back, the movement violent and jerky, causing him to stumble forwards a little. The scythe-like blades retreat and whiplike tendrils suck themselves back in, forming a hand once more. Only it's certainly no normal hand, the fingers spread out and clawed.
Unfortunately, that isn't the strangest part by far, as a mouth forms right in the palm of that hand, and its index finger stretches upwards in a stalked eye... With that, the hand begins speaking to the child-thing, its voice soft and emotionless, almost robotic. (Meanwhile, Shinichi's just continuing to stare in complete horror... why is this happening?!) ]
Since you are asking that question, you clearly are not one of my kind. Or perhaps you are a variant....? Have you taken that body as your host?
no subject
He blinks when the tentacles retreat back into a hand-like form. Hand-like, because it definitely shouldn't have eyes for fingers and a mouth in the palm of his hand. Huh, a shapeshifter. He's not at all freaked out by what just happened.]
I'm no variant. [He sounded a little offended that this thing thinks it's like it. Whatever it is.] So you are using this human as a host. Although...[He dares a quick glance at the normal, yet terrified looking human's face, then back. No way this coward is controlling this parasite.] Are you the one making all the decisions?