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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
[And then he gets interrupted. By someone asking about mutants?? Quentin turns to whatever little shit was rude enough to interrupt him.]
Obviously, and who...
[Wait a minute. Department store swimwear, tacky red sunglasses, talking about mutants... Could it be?
Sure, he could ask the kid if he's some version of Scott Summers. But why do that when Quentin can just wave his hand and use telekinesis to yoink those stupid glasses off of maybe-Cyclops's face?]
no subject
until now. He doesn't even have the reaction time to shout or protest as he stares directly at Quentin for a few solid seconds, before he finally snaps back to reality and turns his face away, tightly shut his eyes and backing up slightly in the process.]W-What the fuck, man?!
[Fuck him fuck, what the hell was that?! The other mutant pulled that stunt, right? But why would he rip his shades off?! Just to be a huge jackass?? Glasses envy? He's relatively certain that he's not dead at least, from what little he saw, and while a
bigpart of him is definitely glad about that, Scott's also just really, really angry.And maybe trembling just a little, because it sure felt so close in killing another person-- one that's not even infected.]
no subject
He wasn't really expecting that much of a reaction, not from someone he can now confirm is a version of Scott Summers, though obviously not a version he knows. And definitely not... fear? Shit, Quentin never considered his little prank would actually scare the kid.]
Just checking if you were somebody I know. [Quentin waves away the telekinetic shield protecting him from those classic Scott Summers optic blasts shortly after Scott closes his eyes, voice deliberately casual, dismissive.] And I was right.
[Quentin floats the sunglasses to his hand and taps Scott's shoulder with them. You know, since he can't see. It's not like Quentin feels bad or anything. It's no big deal, okay. Whatever.] You're Scott Summers. Cyclops. A different version than the one I know, I guess.
no subject
alivetalking is entirely overrun by his anger, accentuated by how he swipes his glasses from him without saying a single word in return. What, is he going to thank him after he's the one that took his shades in the first place? Fuck off. He slips them back on his face and after an obvious moment of hesitation, like he's making sure that it's actually his glasses on him, opens his eyes to the familiar red that's pretty much his world now.]I don't know what the hell you're talking about.
[Well, except that he definitely is Scott Summers, but everything else the other mutant's said is complete nonsense. If maybe Quentin didn't introduce himself by taking away his glasses, he would be far more interested in all the crap he just said, but no!! At least give him a few seconds for him to be less pissy and then he'll be interested.
But right now, Scott looks at him with a rather disgruntled expression, not even trying to hide how he's feeling.]
And what the fuck is your problem?!
no subject
Jeez, it was a joke. Grow a sense of humor, why don't you? [Quentin is not the adult. Quentin is never the adult. Quentin Quire lets intrusive thoughts win every time, and if anybody doesn't like how he chooses to live his life they can suck an egg!
And no, this isn't him overcorrecting because he feels bad about freaking out a kid so shut up.]You think I'd optic blast hell without making sure nobody would get hurt? [Yes.] Please. Being looked at to death is not how I plan on going out, thank you very much.
no subject
[Man, this just sucks, figures that the first mutant he's finally found is this world is this huge asshole. He doesn't magically feel any less alone or anything, just pissed off. His initial impression was right; he should've just left him alone and let some other idiot deal with him. It's actually pretty tempting to just leave right now and scowl elsewhere, because Scott has a distinct impression that the older kid is just a big pain in the ass no matter what.
But he doesn't turn away, or start walking off, although his shaded gaze is still on edge as he tries to measure him up. It's clear that Quentin has his attention.]
Okay. How the hell do you know so much about me? Didn't know I had a fan.
no subject
[Look, he really tried to be nice
Quentin you didn't try at all, and this kid just keeps harping on and on about dangerous and scary and ooky spooky his stupid goddamn laser eyes are, and Quentin is sick of it. He slouches his shoulders and rolls his eyes in the most dramatic possible way.]I get it, you're soooo scary and dangerous and your poor widdle heart just couldn't take it if you hurt somebody! Whoop-de-fucking-doo!
[Quentin put one fist on his hip and points at Scott
in a pose that he realizes way too late is one "bub" away from being a Logan] I don't know if you're just new to your powers, but newsflash, buddy, most of us are pretty fuckin' dangerous, so better get used to it. Why the hell do you think the humans are afraid of us?no subject
Don't know what you're talking about. Maybe they're just scared of how stupid you look.
[He's definitely on top of things with these comebacks.
And he is new to his powers, but why admit any of that to this jackass?? For someone that somehow knows him, he seems to know jackshit about him. It's still weird that he already knew his name and crap in the first place, or why he thinks humans are afraid of mutants, but he doesn't really care anymore. Besides, it's definitely just a Him thing.
Normally, he'd stay and argue, well maybe, it depends on his mood, but he just feels angry and disappointed and he doesn't want to deal with any more shit. So, he starts turning away from the other teen.] Whatever, enjoy your fucking stay here.
no subject
Quentin's so busy trying to add those pieces together, he doesn't even realize the kid is still talking until he starts to leave. Hey, Quentin didn't say you could leave! I mean not that he cares. He's never particularly liked Cyclops. He just needs to have the last word, okay.]
Wow, stalking off to go brood, huh? Real typical, Summers.
no subject
Stop talking like you know me!
[He's not stalking off to go brood!! He's just... stomping off to go do something else. Something that's definitely not brooding. Shut up. What does he know anyway!! The older teen doesn't know anything about him, despite the evidence, and this isn't about logic and crap anyway.
Also, he really doesn't need the thought of a parallel universe of him existing on top of the other shit he's dealing with.]
no subject
[Okay, that's not the most clear way of saying "you're so freakin' consistent in every universe I can still predict a completely different version of you pretty well" but it did sound like a good comeback.
Whatever, Quentin's standing by it. He folds his arms, his expression daring Scott to question that extremely witty retort.]
no subject
[Is that the point in all this? Probably not. In fact, is he missing the point completely? Probably yes. But Scott doesn't care because the other mutant is a dick and that's the best retort he could come up with. At least Quentin has been successful in stopping Scott from storming off and totally not brooding?? Congratulations.]