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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
no subject
So there were risks that would be taken. What was the worst that happened? He died again. Well, Jinx would be extremely upset if harm befell him he was certain, but that wasn't the worst idea either. He was no slouch to survival, but that was the urban roughness of the Undercity and not an actual forest.
He had seemingly gotten himself into a situation that required intervention. His knife was working through the vines but not fast enough. How pathetic!
Of course, then he found himself dropped to the ground next to the open maw of a carnivorous plant, wincing as his wounds were jarred. He took a minute to catch his breathing and roll away from being a potential meal from the plant next to where he had landed. He was slow to rise, arm across his chest and tucking his knife up his jacket sleeve for now.
"Danger resides everywhere. I'm not about to stop exploration based on fear."
no subject
"Fair," she simply says. After all - if that's his decision, it's his decision, right? Just as long as he isn't going to whine about getting hurt, though he doesn't seem to be the type to do so, judging by his answer here.
Ange eyes the plant, but it does seem like it stays in place. Even its vines aren't creeping up anymore, perhaps the plant not wanting to deal with having to fight two people at the same time.
"It's just that being killed doesn't really seem that productive." She holds up her hand, and the stake-like weapon pries itself out of the tree, flying over to her by itself so she can grab a hold of it.. "Were you looking for anything specific, or just generally exploring?"
no subject
He also eyed the plant as he stepped away slowly, careful not to tread on trailing vines as he put distance.
"A fine observation, but it's from my experience most people don't go looking to die," he replied. Usually they were randomly or purposefully targeted for that. "I was looking for caves. I had heard they were beyond the forest. There is a plant I am curious if it made it here from home."
no subject
Then she looks away, with another second of silence, but then Ange finally speaks up again.
"At least don't go alone then." Granted, she knows nothing about Silco. She doesn't even necessarily trust him, since Ange is wary of just about anyone she comes across. But if he's out here, and she was already out here anyway too, planning on looking around for any clues as to the nature of this place.. well, she might as well stick around. Less chance of getting eaten by a plant when you're together.
(Probably.)
"I was looking around here too, so I'll come with you. I'm pretty sure neither of us wants a repeat of that incident just now." Or, you know: neither of them want to die a dumb death caused by a plant of all things, Ange figures.
no subject
It seemed that they had at least entered into an agreement about sticking together for the rest of this venture anyway. That was good as he had made it priority to invest time into meeting the people of this place and discover who might be worthwhile allies.
"And what would you happen to be looking for out in the forest?" Let's be real, Silco had never been in a forest before. His city and Piltover had trees, but it was nothing like this. He rather liked it.
no subject
Apparently she isn't even offended by his initial remark, since Ange doesn't even seem to address it. When you deadpan as often as she does, stuff like that just rolls right off your back.. It's the exact sort of thing she could have told someone else, really. (Though it's tempting to make a remark in return, something about him being a little bit too old for that kind of attitude, but she's being.. a little bit good here, apparently, if not just by holding herself back.
Just a touch.)
"I've already searched pretty much every single inch of town, and there's absolutely no clue left there." She's moving now, wandering out in the direction he seemed to be going before getting into trouble, glancing back to see if he's following. "So I might as well go look out here instead."
no subject
He wasn't bothered by her lack of verbal sparring. Something gave him the impression that she might be a person of action rather of the sort that enjoyed. He didn't know her well enough to yet make the distinction, but she had saved his life from being consumed by a plant. This forest likely wasn't getting any safer either.
"From the impression I've been given is we are to suffer for our crimes. Leaving doesn't particularly seem the point." He folded his hands behind his back as he moved away from the carnivorous plant; it wasn't what he hadn't been looking for and finding the glowing purple flowers of Zaun were still his priority. "And if you can't find a way to leave, do you have a plan on how to fill the time?"
no subject
"Even if it's not the point, I'm still going to do it."
That's a surprising amount of confidence for someone who clearly has the knowledge that no one has managed to escape this place just yet - but Ange says the words so easily all the same.
It's not even overconfidence. It's simply that there's no other option.
"That's why I'm mostly gathering as much information as I can about this place. Whoever or whatever dragged us here is bound to have slipped up somewhere, or it'll slip up somewhere in the future."
no subject
Death was a rather permanent affair.
"I invite you to try. It will be beneficial for all to know what sort of powers that be keep us here and what is required to appease their sense of justice." For Jinx, of course. The others could just burn where they stood.
"Information is power, indeed." He planned on gathering as much information as he could as well. It was one of his skills, and he would lean into it.
no subject
It's not like he's wrong about it. After all, it's the story they get told when they're dumped in this place, right? Given their own little certificate with what they've done wrong, according to whoever put them here.
It's something Ange has been thinking about a lot, and considering he's new, and she therefore hasn't picked his brain about it yet, the girl figures she might as well ask.
"Do you believe that's really the reason we're here?"
Her tone is very even, not really betraying whether Ange herself believes so or not.
She's very interested in seeing the varying opinions on the matter, though.
no subject
That was life, and there was little justice in it. It was a rich man's excuse to have a boot on the throat of another.
"I have limited experience with this place, but there is no justice here. Perhaps we're rats in the cage ready to endure one experiment after another. And when they are done, perhaps we'll be reborn to something acceptable to their ideas of justice."
He could change his mind in time with more information. This was little more than his first impressions.
"Do you believe in justice?"
no subject
"I never thought a whole lot about justice." Not in the general sense of the word, anyway. If justice existed in Ange's life, it was always more as a personal thing, considering the only thing that could bring justice in her own situation was taking a very personal vengeance. She can't view the world kindly enough to assume that a concept like justice truly exists.
So, rather than that, it's more--
"I think you're right though." Not about justice necessarily, but she finds a lot of her own thoughts reflected in the words the other is saying here. Surprisingly enough, considering how new Silco must be. He can't even have seen much of this place yet, even admits as much, and yet he seems to have figured out some similar things already. "We're trapped here by something more powerful than us. A witch, or whatever that supernatural entity wants to call itself."
Does she have direct proof? No, but all signs of this situation point towards it. Just no direct evidence.
"And that entity is just toying with us. Because-- like you said. They think it's fun to mess around with people with less power than them." Ange pulls her shoulders up into another shrug. Perhaps she looks a touch too young to already be speaking as cynically as him, but the words flow out of her mouth easily. "I think the whole story about how we have to be punished for crap we did is just a coverup for them wanting to mess with people for fun. Some people claim they haven't even actually committed the stuff they were accused of by this place."
no subject
"Then it will be our responsibility to discern what their real intentions are for our imprisonment." He also had to entertain the idea that they weren't the first. He had been exposed to many of the doctor's experimentations to know that every method had to be built upon and verified through repeated testing.
"It might not be for fun, but fun could be a by-product of their design. They may believe they are putting us in such situations to improve something about us, or simply to observe how we react to different situations." It seemed that no one that he had seen had proof, and the only way to gather it was to interact with the test that had been set up to engage them. "Perhaps a deep dive into behaviour and what causes remorse."
no subject
Not that she sounds like she really disagrees - in the face of a lack of proof, any idea is as valid as any other, after all - but she does sound a touch surprised that he'd go for that angle first.
Maybe that sort of thing depends on lived experience, Ange thinks. Just how she thinks of malice and a twisted idea of 'fun' as a motive first and foremost, because that's what she herself had to deal with back home. Maybe this guy was experimented on back home?
(It would explain that.. odd eye, wouldn't it.)
"I guess that'd make this all just one big simulation, technically."
no subject
He also wasn't about to rule it out. He hadn't been here long, but he had seen a poorly drawn map of this place, and the fact that the space was so limited, that the cities were underdeveloped, there was limited government and people were dragged here for some kind of reintegration sounded exactly like a social experiment.
He'd read about them when he was younger, and it had formed some of the basis of his rebellion. There were clearly other elements at play here, but for one, why bring back a dead guy (or many) to insert into a place where penance was required? He wasn't apologetic of anything that he had done, and he never would.
"Technically. Until we find out what it is they want, we are likely stuck playing their game."
no subject
Maybe whether or not to speak up about something. Though, if that was it, then it seems she lands on the side of mentioning it, since she actually does speak on a moment later.
"Some people are trying to disrupt that game, you know." Considering he doesn't exactly seem happy about this situation - and who would be, really? - Ange figures it might be good to let him know. Maybe he'd also be the type to do that.
That's not a bad thing in her book.
"There are ways to fight back, if you know where to look."
no subject
"And are you one of those 'some people'? Or do you operate on your own?" He hadn't gauged her enough to be able to make a correction assumption about her motivations. She was far more helpful than he would have expected to a stranger; that was generally unusual where he was from.
"Of course. Rebellion can always happen. It's what our oppressors decide to do with it that will be interesting."
no subject
Maybe not the most helpful answer, but it does pretty much summarize Ange's honest answer to that question - though she does add to it out loud a moment later.
"I'm willing to work together with people who are actually making a serious effort." Though, you know, the definition of that might still depend on what she personally thinks of it.. "There are some total idiots here. They'd probably think up the dumbest ideas possible. And I'm certainly not going to risk my life for something that has no chance of working or helping us out here in the first place."
no subject
"However, those people can be useful to explore this place. They teach lessons no one else is stupid enough to attempt." And their unwitted successes were also worth following in the wake of as well. He had no issue with that. One simply needed certain encouragement and compensation. "So your version of serious effort requires you to buy into the value."
no subject
Ange is already taking a few steps ahead, heading further away from the city.
"Wouldn't most people think that way?" A slight pause, and then she adds: "Most people with a brain, anyway." Given what kind of people they were talking about only a moment ago, the clarification feels important..
The girl is sounding rather casual as she's speaking and walking, though she's really keeping an eye out for potential danger much more than her nonchalant attitude would indicate.
"Some people always give me incredibly nonsensical answers whenever I try to talk about the true nature of this place, or how to find a way out. I'm not going to waste my energy on those people. If they want entertainment, they can go find a circus or whatever."
She huffs, glancing over her shoulder back at him. "Don't you think so too?"