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expiationmeme2023-02-27 01:04 am
TEST DRIVE MEME #2
Welcome to the TDM for Expiation, a pan-fandom adventure game with fantasy, science fiction, and sometimes subtle 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 (with the stated limitations).
You may find the below links helpful in getting to know themes of the world, locations, the people, and so on.
BE OUR GUEST
You may possess any number of questioning thoughts as you traverse the blindingly white room and are dropped into a darkness beneath your feet, but perhaps those same thoughts will be replaced with an awe and curiosity as you come to. Expiation has you now and you have joined the ranks of the Chosen, a seemingly select number of individuals who have arrived with parchment either in-hand or near them, detailing physical and mental statistics in addition to a particular crime to which you have been accused.
How you choose to spend your time here is largely up to you...
IT'S A WINDMILL, NOT A GIANT
As you begin to acquaint yourself with the lay of the land about you, you'll find that not too far from where you've woken there's a rather grandiose tower windmill. Its blades rotate at a casual pace as it faces the ocean and its accompanying shoreline. It appears to be in relatively pristine condition, implying that it is cared for well and often, likely by the locals of the town of Aldrip, which can be easily spied from the elevated level of land upon which the windmill sits.
Outside of the main structure is a collection of wooden crates in various display. Some of these are closed. Some are open. If you observe for long enough, you'll eventually find that a few relatively muscular sorts arrive on the scene to retrieve some of these crates and take them back the distance toward the town that lingers at the base of the mountains. If you choose to inspect the crates, you'll find some of them filled with heavy canvas sacks that contain flour. If you choose to ask the town locals retrieving them about this, they will explain that the windmill companion you have woken near is just one of the many implements that the locals use to provide sustenance to dining tables, festivities, and more.
You have the option to help the locals carry crates back, potentially to curry some favour with them, or simply take some sacks of flour yourself. Crates require more than one person to carry due to the weight, but two able-bodied adults should be able to handle the job quite well. A sack of flour can generally be carried by one, but perhaps you'll find yourself needing some assistance anyway. Maybe ask one of the others who've woken up near you. It certainly seems you're not alone in this new endeavour.
WHERE ONLY THE BRAVE MAY GO
If windmills and manual labour aren't your thing, you may find yourself drawn to the seemingly mysterious cave at the foot of the mountains, not far from the windmill in question.
The locals refer to this cave as Lorentia. Jagged rocks poke out around the entrance and have been sculpted and shaped to resemble what appears to be the massive sharp-toothed mouth of a dragon. It is possible you may be momentarily stopped by one of said locals who will explain that the Lorentia Cave is a passage system that leads through the interior of the mountains, though due to some collapse of the inside, the passageway does not go in far and is currently blocked off for the safety of local citizenry. In other words, proceed with caution.
If you're still feeling brave and care to take a peek inside, by all means. No one's going to stop you.
The interior of Lorentia Cave consists of both narrow passageways and some larger, more cavernous like rooms. There are assorted mining implements scattered along the ground, propped up against the walls, and carts that are filled with various ores, rocks, crystals, and more. The locals of Aldrip use Lorentia Cave for largely mining purposes and many of the things that are retrieved can be used for the smithing forges, the crafting of weaponry, or fashioning into jewellery and other accessories that are sold locally and taken to other towns on the continent.
There are some crudely designed signs that note to take care and depict simple skull drawings, indicating that certain paths may be a little more dangerous to traverse than others. If you are especially lucky (or unlucky, as the case may be), you may even spot some skeletal remains from some less-than-fortunate souls who got caught in a dead-end path and simply never made it out again.
If you listen closely, sometimes you hear the flutter of wings and a distant roar. Maybe it's best not to linger...
NO SOMETHING FOR NOTHING
MAXWELL'S SILVER ROCK-HAMMER
The townsfolk are welcoming to newly-arrived, something that has largely been met with a fair amount of scepticism and wariness from prior arrivals. That said, they continue to be hospitable, eager to share stories and songs about their land, their people, and their traditions.
A jewelcrafter is displaying their work today, putting their various wares out for locals and members of the Chosen to admire, or perhaps to purchase. Part of their demonstration is opening geodes with rock-hammers and showing off the impressive inside of colour and masterful natural works of art gifted to them by the land's bounty. They may choose to speak a little on how they revere the land, the resources they've been given, and how all of this has been bestowed upon them by the very gracious Those Who Were There, a mysterious and seemingly celestial higher power.
For those who are interested, they have the opportunity to offer some assistance to the jewelcrafter by opening some geodes as well. There's plenty of rock-hammers to go around and the most recent retrieval from Lorentia Cave's mining appears to have been very successful. The jewelcrafter is so moved by the offer of help that he's more than happy to let those who aid him keep one opened geode for themselves at no cost.
Congratulations on your new piece of decor!
FORGING BONDS IN THE FIRES OF PASSION
If you were a brave soul who made visit to the Lorentia Cave and came back with some weapon or armour crafting materials (including skeletal remains), you'll find that the smithies of Aldrip are eager to do business and many of them enjoy their craft for the sake of being passionate about what they do.
They'll waste no time in starting the forge and should you have a specific piece in mind you are requesting, as long as they have the materials on hand, they'll even be willing to show you the general process from start to finish on a rough draft of the piece in question. If you're feeling especially keen to help, they may offer to let you work directly on your project, though they will express apprehension and a wary eye for those who fail to have prior experience with such gruelling tasks.
Once your piece is finished, you can either wear it immediately, learn the best way to maintain and keep your equipment, or put it out on public display to show the rest of Aldrip and its residents, new and old alike. If you choose to let the smithies keep your piece, they'll pay you the cost of the materials you've brought them, plus a small percentage markup depending on how much personal effort you put into the craftsmanship personally.
Better yet, you may have just come out of the situation with a permanent bond. The smithies have an appreciation for those who share similar interests and may be willing to provide future discounts to those who purchase their wares.
FEEDING THE MASSES
YOU'RE A REEL CATCH
Aldrip locals always have a need for food and with many Chosen having recently arrived, that need has increased exponentially, for now they have a larger number of mouths to keep fed and stomachs to keep happy. To help inspire this retrieval of food, Aldrip is hosting a fishing competition and anyone who's interested in participating may do so, provided that they follow the guidelines set in place.
All participants must use local fishing equipment and this will be provided by the various merchants in town free of charge, save for those who wish to keep their fishing tackle. All fish caught within the local rivers, ponds, and the nearby ocean are acceptable for submission. Citizens (local or Chosen) are forbidden from using magic or technology as a means to catch their quarry. Anyone found breaking these rules will be disqualified and will be fish'd (that is, they will have raw flopping fish thrown at them).
The winner of the competition is chosen by having caught the largest fish (determined by size and weight) and will be announced at the end of the competition. The applicable winner may keep their fishing tackle free of charge and have their winning fish cooked in the style of their choice by the locals, which can then be shared amongst the people if they so choose (a fantastic way to make friends). The winner will also have a mediocre fish sculpture awarded to them with their name chiselled into the details in honour of their glorious victory.
OOC Notes:
Both TDM participants and characters already in the game may participate in the fishing competition. Please use the designated comment if you wish to partake. On the 13th of March (after applications have closed for the cycle), the winner will be announced and drawn by RNG. We will announce who the winner is on this TDM post (in these notes), the moderator plurk, and the OOC community.
I'M A [X], NOT A FISHER
If you're not a fishing kind of individual yourself, there's still plenty for you to get involved with.
Aldrip has need of people who are capable of preparing meals, especially seafood. It is probable that many participants of the fishing competition will end up fishing up things that are not fish or eligible for submission, but still edible. These include crabs, lobsters, jellyfish, octopuses, clams, and other related sea life. If you have experience with cooking or simply want to help out, the Aldrip locals will welcome you with open arms and may even pay you for your assistance.
If cooking isn't your forte, you'll find that some of the Aldrip citizens enjoy a betting pool from time to time. If you have some coins or something else you don't mind putting up for gamble, you might just come out with the whole pot if you put your currency on the winning fisher. Anyone found to be attempting to rig the betting pool and competition, however, will be returned their bet. We don't take kindly to cheaters here.
At least not openly.
Fishing can be a sometimes dangerous pastime. You may find a fisher who has gotten themselves accidentally hooked on their line or perhaps when they were freeing a fish, the hook got lodged into their thumb. Aldrip welcomes those who have healing abilities to help assist those more unfortunate situations, so fishers can go back to casting out their lines to make the most of the competition. That said, there's nothing in it for potential healers, just the notion that you've done a good deed.
no subject
You assume they really exist?
[assume is deliberately goading; he wants Sephiroth to explain himself. Because that was one of the things Akechi kept to himself: that the prayers and rituals the clerics subjected him to on arrival had appeared to work. Or perhaps it was a side-effect of the potions, or the... yeah, nobody would tell him what those little devices were, or what they did.
All he knows is that these yokels are sitting on something big. Because there's no way he should be alive, let alone out of hospital.]
no subject
[He confirms, still staring silently ahead.]
I don't know if they are truly gods, but something is here and it is powerful.
[Which is a frustrating truth in all of this. If Those Who Were There brought him here they did so when he was himself a fledgling deity burrowing down into a planet like a parasite, like an illness. Anything that could do that was powerful enough to deserve his attention.]
no subject
The thing that brought you and me here. [It's a concession, of sorts.]
Did you—hear anything? When you first arrived? I wasn't in a position to listen to very much. [He'd been kind of near death.]
no subject
Idle chatter mostly, nothing illuminating.
[Not that he had been in any position to listen either. At the time he'd felt like he was being crushed into himself and was too disoriented to pay attention to any conversation around him.
He remembers the tone, however, and being referred to as if he were one of many.]
If those voices belonged to Those Who Were There, they don't seem to care much about our presence.
no subject
[He's watching closely, eyes sharp now, voice as quiet as it can go and still be heard. Because, of course, "Those Who Were There" is vague. It sounded, to Akechi, like religious babble; like ancestor worship. But it occurs to him that it has another possible meaning: the voices who certainly were there in the white space he found himself. A hypothesis, no more.]
You say you want to meet them. You might find yourself a lab rat facing its keeper.
no subject
A lab rat.
The words race his mind back to Nibelheim, when he had finally started to piece together his own history and learn why he'd always been so different from everyone else. That was when he discovered he was an experiment. Maybe, deep down, some buried part of him had always known.
Now, he thinks, he is an experiment who has far surpassed his creators.]
...I might.
But this so-called lab rat bites.
[And he looks over at Akechi, his eyes expressing the unasked question: What would Akechi do if faced with such keepers?]
no subject
They could be anywhere. Anyone. They could intend anything; they could mean to make him do anything. Again.
His stare has turned very cold; the feigned life has drained from his face, to leave only emptiness facing Sephiroth. That tiny chink in the armour is already more than he was ever able to land on his father's impenetrable ego, and without a single shot. Shido's eyes, yes, and Shido's voice, albeit with a bit more hair than Shido had been able to produce—but not as oblivious, and not nearly as stupid....]
That's quite some optimism you have. If you bite so hard, why not just leave?
[Emptiness, for sure. And, rather than delusion, a certainty behind the shards of glass: I decide what I'll do, from now on to the end.]
no subject
It's Akechi's words and the implication behind them that tug Sephiroth's pale features into a smirk.]
Don't push it, boy.
[He has a better answer than that. The hardest bite in the world doesn't help him when he doesn't know whose throat he should be lunging for.
Slowly, his attention turns back to the blacksmiths.]
You came here looking for a weapon, I'm guessing.
[It's why most people visit blacksmiths, anyway.]
cw violent thoughts
But the thing is that quite a lot of what Akechi was is now missing. He doesn't, right now, necessarily have what it takes to pull himself back in.
It's only the next moment that Akechi feels a much less powerful presence stand with him: his other persona, Robin Hood—louder, since he used it in the last months, but mainly silent for years because it doesn't like him killing. Calm down, now, and watch, and learn, and fight. That's who you were, that's what you could be again.
Another moment, and Akechi blinks, astonished, and he breathes, and his eyes reclaim a little of their normality. The next moment, there's more, as he builds the wall around him, shard by shard by shard. The mental impression is of a tiny, weak angel, and a vast, well-fed demon, sitting one on each of his shoulders. This guy is like Shido, like Shido, he's of a type with him, but he's not Shido. Who, even if he's still out there, even if—well, even if he's still out there—
He catches his breath quietly. By the time Sephiroth asks his question—possibly aware of the mental tumult beside him, or possibly not, but Akechi is certainly not emitting good vibes—Akechi can answer.]
A weapon? Truthfully, I don't know what I'd do with one. But I've always been curious about how they were made.
That's your work they're doing now, right? [It's hardly the immaculate polish Akechi showed the world in his heyday, but it's a step up from if this guy rests a single finger on me, my arm or my shoulder or anywhere else, I'll blind him before he kills me.]
no subject
It's a wild, fascinating energy. One he thinks he'd like to feed, if only to see where it goes.]
It is.
[He gestures towards the forges.]
I wish only to see their work. The sword itself is yours if you want it.
no subject
This may or may not be one, for sure. But everything in him, reasoning and unreasoning, screams no. And so he politely declines, with just a suggestion of what he's feeling in his voice.] That's very generous of you. But like I said, I'd end up losing an eye. Or costing someone else theirs, which would make me no friends.
[And, if there's one thing he's figured out about this place, it's that he's going to need a structure around him to survive people like this. Offer something you don't need; incur a debt, do a favour. And then you can call on that debt forever—if your target is stupid enough, greedy enough, weak enough. Easily enough controlled.
Of course, sometimes something is just trash. And sometimes paranoid kids see traps where there are none.]
no subject
The kid is clever, he'll give him that. Even fully grown humans tend to not notice obvious traps laid out in front of them. This trap had been small; he'd been wondering if the boy would feel compelled to owe him a favor, yes, but was more curious about what someone like this would do with a weapon.
When the offer is declined he doesn't push it, just lifts his chin in something like a shrug.]
You'd risk losing an eye until you found someone to teach you how to use it.
But it matters not, I'll keep the sword.
Meanwhile, I would find some way of defending yourself. I hear there is a dragon living nearby.
no subject
A dragon. [It's not that he's never seen anything that resembles a dragon... just not in the real world. And this place appears to qualify.]
Where did you hear that? It strikes me that, as newcomers, we might hear a number of remarkable—[and untrue]—things. [What's he going to do, faced with a dragon? In the Metaverse he'd kill it; likely wouldn't blink. Out here he's going to get eaten, if he doesn't heal fast enough to outrun everyone else.
Again, he looks Sephiroth briefly in the eye, listening, and he notices the slitted pupils. Dragon eyes.]
no subject
[He raises a gloved hand and points towards the sky.]
It lives in the mountains to the north. Possibly there are many of them. You can hear the roars and wings from inside the caves...
[Now he looks over at Akechi, meeting his gaze. It's not hard to guess what the boy might be thinking. For a few seconds he just stares, letting the possibility hang between them, then his pale features crack into a knowing grin.]
It's not me. Were I a dragon I would have a more cunning disguise than this.
[Being over six and a half feet tall with hair down to his knees and large, slitted pupils he knows he stands out. He likes to think that a sentient dragon trying to blend in would do a better job.]