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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
A
.. even if the tranquility of the beach is kind of being interrupted by someone getting knocked over by the waves, like a bad comedy skit. Ange is mostly of a mind to ignore it, but when she looks over at the sound of the source and sees that it's just a little kid rather than some grown idiot.. well, that means she can excuse it a little bit more.
Hence why she wanders over to the soaked form, stopping when she's right next to the kid, trying to see if he needs some help getting up. At least it doesn't seem like another wave is going to roll in just yet. ]
You might want to stay just a little bit further away from the water. [ Her tone is so flat that it sounds kind of blunt - something Ange probably only realises once the words already left her mouth, since she's only then adding: ] You okay?
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I'm fine, just...this is my first time seeing an ocean. I only read about them in books. [He wobbles as he tries to get back onto his feet.] Why is it so salty?
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She supposes it's not totally impossible for someone to never have seen the sea before. There are entire countries that aren't even close to any sea, after all. Still, it does seem to give the girl just a moment of pause - though no real surprise appears on her face, which seems to be a pretty impressive pokerface - before she speaks up. ]
Probably because of all the minerals in there.
[ Is that the answer? Honestly, Ange doesn't know. She isn't book smart, never really having paid any real attention in class.. But it feels like it could be true.
At least she faintly shrugs after she says it, indicating she very much doesn't know if that's the case either. ]
Are there no oceans anywhere nearby where you come from?
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Does it end anywhere? Are there really creatures made of jelly and lots of arms and teeth underwater? Can we swim? [...] I need to learn how to swim! [He sort of already knows, but never swam an ocean!]
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[ Ange sounds relatively confident about that, though the girl is well aware that it might not be the case here, for all she knows. If they were taken here by supernatural entities - which she still believes at this point - then they could create a world that looks like anything. A world with an endless ocean, just so they can't try to escape this place by swimming. ]
Swimming in the ocean is probably a little too dangerous though. [ Especially for you, being the implication. After all, this kid looks so young. The kind of age some kids learn how to swim at, but certainly not the age kids go alone out into the ocean just yet.
And that's leaving aside whatever kind of creatures could be in the water here. Anything is possible, especially with the strange flora popping up recently around town too. ]
You might be better off learning it somewhere a little more contained. You looked like you almost already drowned in that wave just now. [ ANGE, PLEASE.. Don't call him out like that?
She doesn't even mean it in any unkind way though, or she wouldn't be warning him in the first place.. But her emotionless tone makes it pretty hard to determine if she's being kind about all this or not. It's easier when you know Ange, and know she wouldn't go out of her way like this for anyone.
But kids deserve a bit more attention than that in her book. ]
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I-I wasn't going to drown! [It was just a small slip up! ] I still want to try, but...I'll practice elsewhere first. [A small admittance. He may end up investigating on his own regardless when no one's around.] Is there a lake somewhere near the town? I haven't really explored much yet. [Just ocean. He wanted to see more ocean.]
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I don't think so. But I haven't explored the nature outside the village too much just yet. [ She had been more occupied with looking through the entire village for clues, even if that didn't turn up all that much.. ]
I'd say you could come along with me if I'd ever go out to look around the nature surrounding the village, but I actually can't swim either.
[ And she's only telling him this now, apparently.. Sorry, apparently he has to find a swim coach somewhere else.
Though, now she's thinking about it, there's something else that stands out to her. Nothing that makes her perceive past the kid act, she's thoroughly fooled by that. No, it's just-- ]
Have you already been here for a while? You don't seem surprised or worried about being here. [ Even though she doesn't recognize him, and Ange is pretty sure she's seen everyone who's been around in Aldrip for a while already by now..
Maybe it's just because he's so young? Kids sometimes have weird priorities, thinking more about the sea than about basically being kidnapped. ]
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It hasn't even been an hour, I think. [As the waves recede, he spots a seashell uncovered in the sand. How much did he want to tell...? There could be someone here from that other world he's been to afterall.] I am a little worried, but I know panicking isn't going to help. [He puts his hands on his hips.] If I stay strong like father, things will work out! [Sweet, innocent pretend child. Children sometimes are oblivious to their situation unless it's immediate consequences.]
...Actually if I was father, I would be gathering information right now, not stare at the ocean. [A sigh. But it's so cool.] What about you? You don't seem worried.
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[ Though - honestly, Ange just has an impressive pokerface in general. Even back when she first arrived, she still looked the same way as she does now, so maybe she's not one to talk when she's calling him out..
Though his own explanation makes sense too, as far as she's concerned. Tons of kids want to emulate their parents, or look up to them.
She can know. ]
.. maybe your father is here, you know. The chance isn't too big, but it exists. [ She wouldn't want to give a kid false hope, after all. But it's not like she's never seen people here come from the same world. Hell, there's people here from her own. ] Do you have his name? Or maybe even better, a physical description?
[ Because Ange sure isn't social enough to know everyone in this place. But she has been here long enough that she's definitely seen most people present at least once on the streets of the village. ]
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He blinks, brought out of his thoughts when asked about his father. Complicated feelings surface inside him. It would inconvinient Father were he actually here, but he could also be able to help him and that makes him happy. And yet there was doubt, a feeling of concern that he...doesn't seem to have such strong sentiments toward his Father as before. Just this odd sense of dread? Why should he feel dread?
He probably shouldn't keep standing there quietly, Ange asked him a question and he needs to answer. He looks around, walking towards some driftwood so he could draw a crude face for her in the sand. And some sticks the father is holding?] His name is King Bradley, and he looks something like this. You can definitely tell who he is from a mile away with that eyepatch and the two swords he always carries!
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Ange doubts she'd actually be able to recognize the guy just by looking at this, but she looks anyway when the boy draws in the sand, trying to commit the image to memory. Even if it's not saying her much at all.
The name helps a little more, she figures, though Ange sure would love to not interact with someone who calls themselves King like that. ]
I see. [ Look at that impressive ability to keep her voice flat and emotionless, though she sure is judging this King Bradley in her mind already.. The master of silent judging. Usually she'd judge out loud, but Ange isn't cruel enough to insult a kid's father to said kid's face. That's just like kicking a puppy. ]
I don't think he's here. [ Surely she would've remembered someone like that.. ] But I guess there's always a chance he could show up later, just like how you only just showed up. It seems that new people appear around here every two months or so.
[ A slight pause, and then she adds: ] And I'm sure there's other grownups willing to look after you too, whenever you need help. Just make sure it's not any of the weird ones.
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Something to put aside for later. For now, he gives Ange a small smile as he nods.] Like you have been? Oh, I never got your name. I'm Selim! [...]
And who are the weird adults here?
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But on the other hand, she does want him to know he can rely on her, since she hates the thought of a kid here being without help. So.. There's only one solution here, clearly.
Which is to make sure to sound as nonchalant as possible as she just says: ] Yeah, like me.
[ H-Hmph, just don't make her repeat it!!
In fact, she'll gladly move on to the much more comfortable topic of the resident Weirdos.. ]
You'll notice who the weird adults are right away though. One of them introduced himself as a clown to me five seconds after we met. That's the #1 sign of a weird adult.
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A...clown? [Everyone's a clown to Pride though.] I don't think they'll all introduce themselves like that.
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Though when she speaks up, it's with absolutely zero hesitation to say: ]
One will. Definitely. [ That guy doesn't even bother denying he's a clown!! ] The other ones act like they're clowns. You know what I mean, right?
[ Sure, this kid is young, but it's not like he's seemed dumb so far. Ange feels like he might get it.
Maybe. ]
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Yea, I get it! [Nod nod.] I definitely met grown-ups like that, but dad always scares them off before they become a problem. [And he's not here.] I guess I'll find you if I run into trouble!
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S-She can't.. be openly nice..!! But maybe if he's the one offering to just run to her, then it's technically.. not her offering a kid help, right? It's just her not rejecting a kid's idea of getting help.
Totally different. Clearly lets her keep up her cool persona. ]
Sure.
[ See? She even agrees so nonchalantly, despite the tiny Anges in her brain running around and screaming. ]
Just tell me if anyone is giving you trouble. I can summon demons.
[ Maybe not the best thing to tell a kid, but, you know, Ange figures it makes her look convincingly tough enough to help him if he needs it.
Also, some kids might just find that sort of thing cool. ]
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Can you summon them now?! Can you? [There's a please somewhere in there.]
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Not that it shows too much on her poker face - there's just a faint hint of surprise in the way one of her eyebrows rises up when he says that. ]
Well, I could.
[ Technically. ]
But you really want to see it that badly?
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Uh, it won't go crazy and try to attack us when you do, right? [He's read plenty of stories of demons going berserk and stuff.]
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(Though Ange guesses it's at least good that the kid seems to have some sense of caution and danger. Even if things might not be horribly dangerous here all the time, there's been enough danger already that she's pretty sure he'd be in trouble without that..) ]
No, it should be fine. I have them under control.
[ N-No, she's not trying to sound cool on purpose!
Except she totally is. ]
I'm just not used to people actually asking for it. You're the first, congratulations. [ A doubtful honour. ] You just have to take a few steps backwards if you really want to see it.
[ Though, you know, maybe not into the water, unless he wants to be knocked over by another wave.. ]
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[ Ange sucks in a breath. Truthfully, only summoning one of them here shouldn't be too hard - so she opts for that, rather than exhausting herself by trying to summon all of them. All the boy needs is a quick little demonstration, after all. No need to waste all her magical energy on it. ]
Come forth, and forgive the sin.
[ As Ange speaks, her hands start glowing with a golden, magical energy. A few small butterfly-like creatures seemingly made out of nothing but light float up the glow on her hands, and a glowing red magic circle appears out of nowhere on the ground. ]
Of the seven sisters of purgatory, Mammon of greed!
[ At that, something moves out of the circle before said circle disappears just as suddenly as it appeared. The object coming out of it seems a little like a stake, or perhaps an ice pick - though it's decorated in a very fancy way.
It floats by itself in the air, hovering between the two of them. ]
.. there. I guess it isn't as impressive when I can only summon them in this form, but that's apparently just how it is in this place. [ Ange shrugs a little bit as she says it, grabbing the item out of the air and holding it in her hand. ]
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...That's a demon? [Expectations probably shouldn't have been set as high, but after all that spectacle, even a kid would have expected something more than a stick. No matter how fancy you make it look, a stick is a stick.
The incantation she was saying was probably more interesting. An intriguing name choice of this demon that also left a bad taste in his mouth, and apparently it's not the only one.]
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.. on the other hand, she also knows just how deadly the demons can be even in this form. But while Ange is a-okay with showing demons to a kid, it's not like she's going to make them kill something right in front of said kid. She's not that messed up, unlike some other witches back home. ]
Sure is. [ Said as casually as if she's talking about the weather, twirling the icepick-looking thing in her hand. ] One of seven, though they all look like this in this place.
[ So it didn't really matter which of the seven she summoned.
But then again-- She's always felt the closest to Mammon. ]
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