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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
[As he draws in close he leans down slightly, checking if he can smell the Lifestream on her or anything to indicate she'd been dead.]
I never said I doubted the existence of Those Who Were There, I said I didn't believe. What I doubt is their divinity.
[He continues to stare into her eyes a moment longer before lifting his gaze and looking out at the surrounding forges. In the fading light the fire reflects in his alien eyes.]
[The gods theory isn't quite sitting right with him. Not just because he's never cared for religion but because gods are inscrutable. He knows this because he'd been one. ]
...When they said your presence here was the will of the gods did you stop asking questions?
no subject
All she really knows is that he gives her the kind of feeling that makes her insides knot and twist up. Like parched bramble thirsting for water, unable to get to it.]
Scepticism is a healthy way to approach it.
[She's as alive as he is. Very much flesh and blood. She has materia on her, perhaps no more or less than he does. It might come as close to the Lifestream as either of them are going to get. Unless one day materia starts raining down from the skies. Highly unlikely.
She only looks back to him when he notes her own presence in this world.]
I decided it was prudent to wait before I started interrogating. If the townsfolk have answers, they aren't giving them. But you don't need me to tell you that, I don't think.
[And she gets the feeling that's not what he's really getting at here. She's aware of what she's seen. Of what she's certain is a distinct possibility in her future. And his place in relation to all of that.
She can't help feeling like maybe, just maybe, this has happened before. Or something like it. But the same feeling passes just as quickly as it's arrived. No more than a phantom in the air.]
no subject
[He paces circles around her, rarely looking at her directly. When talking to others he very seldom looks at them, not out of shyness but out of pride. Only when someone says or does something interesting does he shift his focus, deciding they have earned a moment or two of undivided attention.
Other times he holds someone's gaze enough to pin them with his own until he can nearly feel their heart fluttering in terror.
For now, he is treating Aerith like she is beneath him.]
So, I shall have to find my own answers, won't I? Always the same...
[He smiles at himself.]
And if Those Who Were There are truly deities then... then things will get interesting.
Don't you think?
[He looks back towards Aerith, still grinning like a cat with a trapped mouse. The implication is clear: If the local gods really are gods, he will consume them. Somehow, they will become part of his ascension.]
no subject
When Sephiroth does it, however, she seems to know, or at least suspect, that he's toying with her. Gauging reaction, she thinks. Thus it is imperative that she not give him one. That she not play herself into his hands. Standing with him in the 'then,' in the 'there,' she cannot help feeling that it's a strangely prominent moment. Perhaps they are meant to be here. Perhaps, they have always been meant to meet this way.
Maybe not here specifically. Maybe not this moment specifically.
Foils of one another in ways they may both realise.]
All you can do is speculate. We don't know either way. Fill yourself on self-indulgent dreams if you need to. It won't bring you any closer to the truth.
[Only delusions of grandeur, something that Sephiroth needs no outright assistance with. When he sets his attention more squarely upon her, she turns to more properly face him. She'll take on his challenge. It's important that she can show him he doesn't scare her.
Even if that's not entirely true. Aerith isn't immune to fear. But what she fears isn't something happening to her. It's something happening to others.]
Don't get people involved who don't need to be involved. I'll interfere where I have to, but right now? All I want to do is keep the peace and figure out how to send all of us back where we belong. Including you.
no subject
[Granted, his own internal definition of "needs to be involved" might differ wildly from Aerith's. Sometimes, his movements require the sacrifice of a town or two.
He takes a step towards her again.]
I have no intention of killing everyone, not here and not back home either.
[The Meteor will probably kill most of the Planet but Sephiroth is sure some life will survive just in a much smaller form and never quite the same.]
Death is not what I want, but you and yours never bothered to ask.
no subject
She eyes him with a transparent scepticism. A fool would she be were she to believe him. Sephiroth is a Man of Interest at the very least and there are likely some there (read: Cloud) who would probably disagree. Turning her gaze aside, Aerith folds her hands together, careful to think before she should put down her next proverbial piece.
"...but you and yours never bothered to ask."
She has a hard time believing that. There's not a soul in Avalanche, she thinks, that would have simply let him do as he pleased without wanting to know why. Self-important monologues don't count and they aren't terribly informative either.
But for this situation, she'll humour him.]
Then what do you want? Here.
[Because she's not willing to get into Midgar, the Planet, or the other things they have waiting for them back home.]
no subject
Once she is pressed in close the wing settles in a dome across both of them. Beyond the canopy of black feathers are sounds of footsteps and snippets of casual conversation. Sephiroth wills an illusion to take shape around them. He doesn't know what the people around them see, only that he intends for it to be so unremarkable that it does warrant any investigation.
Here, within his feathers, they'd might as well be alone.]
Everything.
[He lifts a gloved hand and images dance across his fingertips of Aldrip and the surrounding landscape aglow beneath an aurora borealis. The view is beautiful but other than plants there are no signs of life.]
no subject
Her insides ripple with uncertainty and distaste. A bitterness and opposition that she can't say she fully understands. Enough that tells her regardless of the situation, Sephiroth continues to be a dangerous man and he must be dealt with accordingly. How will they keep him in check? Can they even do so? The man has a history behind him for a reason.
It's hard to believe it's the same war hero that Zack once spoke of to her.
To the best of her ability, which cannot be much, given the way his furled wing keeps them in a little world all their own, Aerith attempts to hold onto her distance. How likely is it that he'll harm her? Right here? Right now? Not likely. He wouldn't stand to gain anything from it and Sephiroth, she thinks, won't dare do anything that he won't benefit from.
"Everything."
The words are chilling to hear. What he shows her is... It's beautiful and yet it's horrifying. Simply a shell. A husk. She's silent for so many moments that she loses count of them and only when she can find her voice again does she bother to use it.]
That won't happen. No one here is just going to let it. Wanting doesn't turn something into reality.
no subject
[The shimmering images wrap inward, turning into a glowing marble that floats over Sephiroth's palm. With its gleaming surface, it almost looks like materia but shapes swim and shift within it like moving storms. It is a representation of Expiation itself, though an inaccurate one.
Slowly it levitates upward then Sephiroth grips it in his fist, crushing it until glowing wisps rise up between his clenched fingers.]
The outcome is as inexorable as gravity.
no subject
It would be better to tread with care. Especially right now.
She watches the way he takes metaphor into hands and destroys it easily. What would be the benefit to destroying things? What do gods do when they destroy a world? Re... build, she supposes. Maybe that's what he wants. It would be the easiest way to make a world in his idealised image. But what kind of world does Sephiroth want? How does he want to change the world at present?
Maybe that's why it doesn't necessarily matter where he is. He can achieve something similar in any world.]
Don't underestimate the people here. If you think people are just going to let you do whatever you want, you'll be disappointed. As if I would just let you.
no subject
Maybe you should just let me...
[The glowing tendrils rising between his fingers curl around his pale features until he draws a breath and gently inhales them.]
You and Cloud and everyone else could embrace me and be one with my godhood. That would be a sweeter world.
Imagine every living thing connected through my radiance. It would be a future so bright humanity would go blind.
[Just imagining it nearly makes him shudder. Maybe larger lifeforms would not walk the world but the souls would still move through it. They would not move through the Lifestream, however. They would be a part of Sephiroth himself. He would consume and become one with the planet, he would be the new arbiter of the natural order. Life would be born again through him. In the end, he would soar with his planetary vessel to distant stars.
He stares directly into Aerith's face now, searching her expression before finally stepping back and furling the wing over his head as he reaches one arm upward. For a moment it may look like he is about to cast a spell, and that is the impression he is trying to give. But instead, the wing vanishes and the tension between them grows taut and then snaps like a rubber band as they reenter the perception of the people around them.
"Hey, mister!" someone calls out nearby. "I like your hair!"
Sephiroth ignores them, his eyes are still locked on Aerith.
He smiles.]
...But it is too late for that conversation, isn't it? Far too late...
no subject
[Humanity should be able to experience the world in the state they're in, living and breathing creatures of flesh and blood. Let them return to the Planet when time goes that way, without Sephiroth getting involved and causing issues
She could go on. Tell him all of the reasons why this won't happen. Try to redirect his efforts. But he seems stuck on it. Why? What importance is there in this? What is she not seeing? What binds them to one another? Why is he so interested in her? What importance does she have? Or has it to do with who and what she is? She can only theorise at this point.
Aerith has never understood Sephiroth's intentions.
His arm lifts and she feels herself brace for an impact she can't possibly foretell. But that's it. Just the motion. There is no real impact. And then the nothingness he's shown her is replaced by the reality around them. It was never there at all. Just... a manifestation of his want?
"I like your hair!"
Her attention turns off of him to the voice that addresses, confirming that it seems no one else saw anything either of them did. It doesn't take long for her gaze to lift back up to Sephiroth.]
My feelings remain. It only becomes too late when we give up. I will never surrender against you. I won't see the world you want come to realisation. Every step you take, I'll stand against you.
no subject
[As Sephiroth listens his predatory grin widens.
Does she really think she can stand against him? Even with an army, she'd fail. Maybe the other Gaians believe they're all on equal footing but, in Sephiroth's own opinion, they are not. How could they be? He drank deep from the Lifestream. He's more powerful, more clever, and far wiser than any of them. All humans are mere insects compared to his godhood.
He lifts an arm out and extends his hand toward Aerith.]
Go ahead. Stop me. Strike me down where I stand...
no subject
Aerith can only look annoyed by his challenge.]
You know it doesn't work like that. I won't play your game and I won't play by your rules either.
[She also understands that it would be unwise to even speak of any of her potential. It's possible he already knows. He already seems considerably more familiar with her than she'd like him to be.]
That intimidation tactic might work on other people, but it won't work on me.
[Or so she says. In truth, Aerith feels a great amount of uncertainty in his company. She also feels a great deal of dislike. Disapproval? She acknowledges that he's a danger to all of them if they let him get out of hand. They'll have to figure out something. At some point.
He's far too dangerous to just let wander about like a lost animal.]
no subject
[He prowls forward a few steps and watches her face for her response. Any twitch of fear or anxiety.]
...I know what you are. You can hear the voice of our Planet, right? You can hear it crying in pain. The Lifestream buckles under the weight of its burden. How can you be so certain that it wouldn't be better off under my tutelage? How can you be so sure this world wouldn't be?
no subject
What she is, and who she is, however, where she fits into all of that, such a thing is definitely not public knowledge. If she had it her way, Cloud and the others wouldn't have found out either. She has Shinra and the Turks to thank for that, it seems.]
The state of the Planet is a direct result of humankind not understanding or knowing what their actions are doing. You think you can solve that? By eliminating the source of the issue, I suspect. [Aerith shakes her head.] It would be better to educate than it would to remove.
[But does she really believe that? Shinra certainly doesn't seem to care a lick about the state of the Planet or how the mass production of energy siphoning is affecting it. She isn't sure any amount of education there would do anything useful. If they haven't listened before, why would they listen now?
...What does one do when words don't work? How can she make mankind see?]
no subject
[He tips his head to one side and looks her over.
Meteor might very well wipe most of the life off their Planet but he knows enough about Holy to suspect it wouldn't react well to humanity either. If it is supposed to eradicate all threats surely humans, or most humans, would fall in its path.
Whether by his hand or Aerith's the species is on its way out, he's sure.
He doesn't say this, he just smirks.]
Hm, I wonder.
What were you doing before you came here?
no subject
I fail to understand what bearing that has on here and now. What matters is that we're both here.
[Foils of one another. Meeting in a way that likely they never should have to begin with. An objective, presumptuous observation might poise them as light and darkness. In such an idea, those ideals cannot exist without the other. She doesn't know what to think when she's standing with him, however. Close enough that he could touch her or vice versa. As if one might possibly contaminate the other.]
Feel free to let me know if I need to change anything in this tag.
Very well, don't tell me.
But know this.
[He takes a long-legged step forward and pauses against her shoulder. If she doesn't pull away when he leans in toward her, his lips will brush against her hair.]
I will learn your secrets...
[As a warning he focuses on her, sending his own consciousness crashing against hers. He claws at the walls of her mind and she may very well feel it. Then, after a second of this, he leans away and pulls his power back into himself.]
COME AT ME, BRO.
At least, not according to her. Sephiroth is more cunning than that. Such a pathway would be an easy one. And easy would not be satisfying.
"I will learn your secrets."
It's a more horrifying statement than it likely ought to be. Largely because if there is someone in this world who could, it would be him. He could share them with others. He could put her in danger, though she hardly knows if the people in this world would have such an invested interest in someone like her. Cloud has repeatedly told her to be careful and though sometimes it seems she's not listened, she takes his concerns seriously enough.
The feeling that follows is akin to an unbearable weight. Waves of strength that slam against a proverbial box weathered and riddled by time and circumstance. He tries her resilience. Tests her. And she can feel that were he to press too hard, that so-called strength might buckle beneath a considerable pressure that she is not ready to face. When it feels at last, as if she might snap, tight metaphorical pulled cord beneath the impressive tension that lingers betwixt them, it ends.
In a way, that is. He still feels ever present there. She wonders if that is all her. It very well could be. Not long after, he grants them both space again and she's left chilled by the experience, wondering what such a thing must look like to others.
A lovers' spat, perhaps.]
If you want them so badly, you'll have to earn them.
[She manages to say, a tone that is far more even than her insides.]
no subject
There is something else too, a connection to a truth he'd learned wandering the Lifestream: Where Aerith is from.
This close, looking at her through his own eyes instead of his "mother"'s eyes, he sees a resemblance to her father. Gast Faremis had been one of the few people Sephiroth had ever loved. Most of his memories before Nibelheim are dark and fire-shot but he can still recall being a little boy and Gast treating him with kindness. Then, he disappeared from Sephiroth's life leaving only his books and research notes behind.
Sephiroth remembers the pain in his heart as he poured over the files beneath Shinra Manor, reading Gast's notes about Jenova, lamenting that the man had died without ever being able to tell him the truth about his existence. Of course, Gast had been wrong. Jenova was not a Cetra... But he'd found a Cetra somewhere and sired this woman.
Was it Aerith that had caused Gast to leave Shinra, sentencing Sephiroth to growing up in the clammy hands of Professor Hojo? The thought causes a spark of emotion to rise up behind his bright eyes and for one fleeting moment he considers snapping Aerith's neck for the sin of being born... The urge evaporates as soon as it comes.
Gast, like the rest of the past, doesn't matter anymore. That is all buried in another lifetime. All that matters now is the future; a glorious, shining future with Sephiroth as its lodestar.]
Oh, must I?
[He asks. His deep voice has an edge of mocking humor to it.]
I could tear your mind apart but now I'm curious. Perhaps I shall have to indulge in this little dance of ours a while longer.
no subject
He's looking at her and in many situations where she's felt as if she could easily slip under the radar of others, she feels very aware. As if she cannot ignore that his interest remains fixed on her. For his own reasons, most likely. She has to wonder where she fits into his plans. If she does at all.
Maybe Sephiroth is merely interested in taunting her for the sake of taunting her. A part of her is tempted to put his attention elsewhere, but to do so would be unkind. Irresponsible. Others don't know what to expect of him. She does. It would better to just let her suffer his company. She can't protect everyone in this new world, however. That's just plain unrealistic.
Tilting up her chin to eye him, she says nothing for several long moments. As she folds her hands together, as brave and rooted as she has been since her arrival, she remains even.]
I'm not awful at dancing.
[And neither is he, it seems. They may just go back and forth until one of them stumbles. If such a thing should even come to pass.]
no subject
Oh, I know you aren't.
[She had cast Holy, after all. Of all the enemies he has, she might be the most dangerous... But he is more powerful than Holy now. He's more powerful than everything.
Slowly, he shifts, stepping away and finally creating some breathing room between them. His expression of intense scrutiny becomes almost breezy.]
Take care.
[And with that he brushes past her and disappears into the crowd. If she turns to look after him he will be gone, almost as if he'd never been there at all.]