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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
Right! So... this thing connects to the, uh, announcements thing. You can record your voice, make a video hologram, or have it write out what you're sayin'.
( she lifts up the necklace and lightly taps the center of the charm. the jewelry spark to show it's being activated and rearing to go: )
You can say, "Call..." then the name or "network" and it'll connect to someone or the thing. If you wanna write, you say "Text..." or "Video" if you wanna broadcast yourself.
( of course with her saying "call network", the charm is already beaming up to do its thing, in which jinx quickly taps on the center twice with her fingernail to deactivate it. )
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So there is an overall network for people that have similar devices? And does it only broadcast to everyone?
[He was going to fiddle with his once he discovered it and filtering or private functions would be his bread and butter. Silco was a man of secrets, though none from Jinx. He had always maintained honesty anywhere that he could with her, understanding how betrayal had made her suspicious. Ever since Vi had come back, he had found Jinx doubly suspicious of even a hint of untruth.]
Does it display your current location if you broadcast yourself to the network?
[There were going to be many backroom deals in his future. He sighed as he considered how he was starting from the ground up on this one.]
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Yeah, everyone has one of these. And... you can have private conversations with it or broadcast to everyone but leave a few people out of it.
( ugh. but maybe telling her father this won't backfire somehow. everything is out in the open now between her, him, vi, the gemstone, all of it. so what reason is there to lie now or keep secrets from her? )
The location, I... I don't think so. Vi was lookin' for me while we were talking once and she couldn't find me without me telling her so...
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He reached out with a hand to touch Jinx's shoulder lightly with his finger tips.]
So I can keep in contact with you even when we're apart and it will be strictly us. Good.
[He nodded his head where it rested on his arm, and he was putting together all that needed to be done. He would need to find his own charm then and unlock all of its secrets.]
Good. If we are to have a place of our own, the necessary secrets to hold it together until it comes to fruition will be built on this device. I'm going to need you by my side for that. [His successor, as he had always intended.]
cw: issues.
and that's what makes vi and him different. her sister is just so quick to let anyone in and toss her further and further down the list of importance. jinx is fine with her sibling having other people in her life as long as she remains on top of everyone else... like it should or meant to be. she was in her sister's life first so why does she need to share the spot with someone?
but with silco, that dynamic is not like that at all. with him, she knows she will be first and nothing will ever top her or shove her off her pedestal. 'he needs me. he needs me, he needs me, he needs me.' her eyes are large and doe-like to him, nodding obediently and willing to do whatever he wishes for her to do to make him feel comfortable. after all... after what she had done to him, jinx is more than prepared to do just about anything to make it up to him. )
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Jinx was supposed to be part of that, but he had let her in quickly. It wasn't going to be a problem he told himself; she was his daughter and he was far more loyal to her than anyone. No one could mess with her without going through him first, and he wielded a power few could consider standing up against unless they were stupid.
But then the choice had come: Zaun or Jinx. If that boy had known even a fraction of what Jinx meant to him, he wondered if that demand would have been put on the negotiation table. Too late for that now. The tale of Vander the coward and his children had come home to roost for him in that moment.
The moment the dream of Zaun died with little more than a whimper.
His fingers remained lightly on her shoulder as if to ground him to her, to remind himself of the lesson he had refused to acknowledge when he was executing his plan to kill Vander. At her expression, it reminded him of when she had still be struggling between Powder and Jinx, small and crying often while drawing under his desk and curled around his legs like a cat. Blue eyes peering up out of the dark of that space at him.]
This time we'll build a kingdom for us.
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Are you feeling better?
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It was dark enough that his mutilated eye glowed in the increasing dark. So did her newly purple eyes he noted. No doubt most people would be frightened of glowing eyes in the dark, and it didn't matter either as surely most people would be at the beach with the festival? Or in bed.]
No, not particularly. However, it is expected and I will feel better as I heal. How are your hunger pangs?
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It's better. ( she says finally, taking the end of her braid to play with by making miniature twists. her tongue rolls around behind her lips in slight apprehensiveness. it appears she wants to say something or bring up something, but... it's a little awkward. however though, if they are to travel from village to village as planned, they will come across it eventually. so.)
When... — When I got here, I... uh. I made a tombstone. For you. I-In the forest. ( as he can figure out quickly, yeah... pretty awkward now, isn't it? )
Guess I oughta get rid of it?
( or is that still disrespectful? what's the protocol of handling a grave when the dead comes back??? )
no subject
He nodded his head in response, offering a soft 'hmm' as way of verbal response. He knew the satisfaction would be relatively short lived, and she'd have to eat again. Once he had rested a bit longer, he knew he needed to think of a way to source freely accessible food for her until the Shimmer wasn't at a concentration to keep her at top level and running through all her energy.
Yet, his fingers curled against her shoulder when she told him about the grave marker. His eyes flicked from staring ahead over to her sitting so close by.]
Why did you choose to make one in the first place, Jinx?
[They didn't have many graveyards in Zaun; they would take up too much room. People were often memorialized in art around the city instead. That was a better depiction of memory and tended to last longer than some body rotting in the ground.]
no subject
'Cuz you're my dad. A-And well... I knew Sevika or whoever wouldn't do it. You deserve to be remembered and... respected.
( and to grieve over too. people would either jump for joy over his death, shrug, or groan in annoyance because that would mean "who would be the new leader now?" no one would be sad over his passing like she would or... visit often to make sure it didn't get destroyed or bring little trinket gifts. since aldrip has grass and now plant life, jinx had been picking various flowers and tied them together in a very tacky bouquet for him to have. )
no subject
She didn't call him 'dad' often. Such a small stupid little word, and it brought his world to this single moment in a house under construction with his daughter.]
Thank you. [The undercity respected strength and power. Would he be memorialized at all like Vander? They had, after all, walked similar paths in the end.] Leave the marker where you set it. I should like to see it someday.
[It might become one of his favourite thinking spots now that his desk was gone and with it all of her random graffiti. That place might do just fine as a replacement.]
no subject
W-Wha? C-C'mon, you don't wanna see it. It's soooooooo....not. That... great. Looking.
( if she had the proper tools, his tombstone would look a thousand times better. but at where it stands now, it looks down right terrible (by her standards). )
no subject
Her voice told him of her embarrassment, and he tipped his chin towards his chest to view her startled eyes. He could guess the rest of her expression.]
From your perception, you've never been entirely a fan of your work. Always evolving, as it were. I still want to see it.
[His tone indicated that he would either go and find it on his own or she'd have the option of willingly giving him the location. Either way, he was going to find this spot she had chosen for his final resting monument.]
no subject
( she stammers, defeated and submitting. on the brighter side of this with him healing up, maybe she can use that opportunity to rush out there whenever she can and make it a little more appealing. surely someone has different color paint, markers, or something. as her fluster subsides, jinx pulls her legs up onto the couch -- readjusting her way of sitting before flashing him a small yet sheepish smile. )
Y'know, this place is sorta nice. I mean, this new world we're in. I like that we can kinda go wherever we want. ( a beat. ) I'm still gettin' use to seeing the sun every day though. Especially in the mornings. — Waaaaaay too bright.
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He wasn't expecting grand gestures or statues of himself. That's never why he had a strangle hold on Zaun to drag it into independence. The fact that Jinx had made any gesture at all was reward enough, right up there with ending up in a place post-death where she was.]
The air is too clean. [He had been in clean air but even that paled in comparison to this. It hurt his nose.] I expect that for however nice it is there will be continual threats to safety. We must still be cautious with our freedom so that it won't be stolen from us.
no subject
... Well, I got someone with a bit of muscle who's my partner here. Maybe if I tell him about you, he'll look out for you too.
( is she just now bringing this up? yes. and also, it seems in her father's absence, she's been trying to mimic his footsteps. how cute. )
no subject
He doubted it. They were going to have to create their own Zaun, he expected.]
Have you? Tell me about this muscle of yours.
[He was pleased to hear that she was already cultivating the kind of relationships that would keep her safe, but also allow her leverage those that wanted to start trouble.]
no subject
His name is Ragna but I call him "Raggie". He's pretty tall compared to me with mix-match eyes like you...! ( jinx then leans in a little to silco as if she's about to tell him one major secret. )
And get this: his crime? He destroyed his entire world. — When he told me that, I thought, "Now THIS is a guy worth stickin' around." So I told him how badass I am and we sorta just formed an alliance from there.
( more like she annoyed the crap out of him until he gave in, but who cares for the deeper details. )
no subject
He opened one eye when he felt her lean close, peering at her with his blue eye.]
That's quite the crime. Did he happen to tell you if the crime was accurate?
[Excellent, he was pleased she was forming alliances. Her excitableness often made it so that many wouldn't associate with her long. She deserved allies, even friends if he were to think too hard about it. Friendship came with added risk, of course.]
Don't forget that you potentially topple governments. [He meant Piltover, but one could probably read that killing him also was toppling a different kind of empire.]
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I-I haven't forgotten...! I'm the one whose callin' the shots between us. He's just... there for when I don't have time to waste on stupid ants.
no subject
Good. I consider it important that you gradually develop your leadership skills. It will be interesting to see your dynamic with him.
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I'm teachin' my other friend that sometimes you can't just trust every person ya meet. It's a lil' sweet she does though. She's like this cookie that I wanna gobble up. Or this cute poro I wanna keep and pet all day.
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After all neither he nor Vander had inclinations for overseeing a city at her age.]
It is true. Everyone has an agenda, and every person comes with a price. [Oh Jinx. Her descriptions were bemusing.] Which one is this?
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the mere fact that he is sitting here right beside her is as if that awful night truly didn't existed -- that it was nothing more than a bad dream. a very...horrible and vivid bad dream. so instead, she smiles over this new reality but then it melts warmer when he asks more information about usagi. )
Usagi. She's my very first human friend. ( and jinx sounds genuinely happy about it too. ) She's really kind to me and... she listened to me when I was pretty upset. And...
( she pauses; fingers playing with her right braid. ) — And she isn't afraid of me at all. She said no matter what bad things I've done back home, she'll... still like me a-and be my friend.
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