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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.
leanne erod | original character
[at least there's something a little normal (ha) about this part. after wandering for so long, she'd stumbled into this, where she feels like she can do something. skinning fish, cutting up food, and cooking it, it sets her mind more at ease.
you may even catch her healing wounds as the fishers come back, though she frowns at them while she bandages them up and uses her power to heal them otherwise. the bandages are mostly to serve as reminders of their stupidity...]
Don't get used to it. [she glances pointedly at someone's gash that she'd healed, from trying to cut ropes while fishing.] You keep coming back like that, and I'll just put stitches in next time instead.
[she looks up and over at the next person who's passing by.]
Don't tell me you're hurt, too.
b. bang, bang, maxwell's silver hammer
[you might also find Leanne near the rocks that're on display. she gives just enough encouragement to the peddler of the gemstones that it seems like he's really taken a shine to her -- especially when she starts picking up stones. she doesn't really seem to need the hammer...just a few taps from her nails and a little concentration have them splitting in half from her magic with relative ease. this was a parlor trick comparatively speaking, but the man she's working with right now seems to be incredibly excited, though. she's really made his job more efficient!
as she's walking away with a geode of her own, she stops someone. anyone, really. whoever seems like they'd be susceptible to questions.]
Who are Those Who Were There?
[there are other questions she has of course, but nothing she wants to ask right now. the paper burns at her pocket though, telling her of her crime...]
The locals keep talking about them, so I assume it's a religion or something.
[or a cult, but she's not going to say that out loud.]
b!
Yeah, seems like it. They talk about 'em like they're gods. Have festivals for them, stuff like that.
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[she glances around again, taking stock of the locals. she twists her geode in her hand thoughtfully before she glances at Joel again.]
But they can't give me a straight answer on them other than that they should be praised. [weird.] At the very least, wouldn't they be able to go more in depth about what they've done or what they're doing now?
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[ Joel does not believe in anything much in particular, but he also doesn't necessarily judge people who do. Everyone needs something to drive them. ]
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Oh, I know all about that.
[she'd almost rather believe in nothing at all, but she knows for a fact that something's out there.
...
at least at home.]
So there's no way home yet? [at least he hadn't seen her panicking earlier when she'd first gotten here.] Or any way to make sure our families are okay?
[she could overlook some of this if she could guarantee that Cody would be okay.]
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No. Been here a few months, haven't made any progress yet.
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no. that's just going to make it worse. that's just going to make more tremors begin.]
That's not surprising. If you had, you most likely wouldn't be here.
[the panic is surging back, but she's trying to keep her face calm.]
Hopefully with more people here, we'll be able to figure it out.
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[ It's hard to say if he actually believes that, or if he's just saying it as reassurance, almost as if to a child. Who knows? Joel is kind of a doomer by nature, though. ]
It's not the worst place to get kidnapped to, anyway.
[ A low bar, but whatever. No torture is no torture. ]
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A
It's not that bad, but I kind of burned my hand while cooking... I already put some salve on it, but they told me I should come over anyway... [She holds up her hand with the offending injury, her right one, the skin red and angry underneath the sheen of the mentioned salve.] I didn't really understand why -- But... Now I get it. [After seeing it in action with that last guy.]
That was -- Um. You're amazing. How do you do it?
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Well, that's excusable. Cooking injuries are an honest mistake.
[she attempts to take it gently, glancing down at the mark as she tilts her head. she's not really sure whether to answer her or not, or how much to tell her. but from what she's seen, she's not the only one who can use magic here -- which means, for smaller things like this, she's fine with using it.]
I draw powers from the earth -- or, the ground. [since she's pretty sure they're not on Earth anymore.] I can channel its energy to heal others.
[she holds up her other hand over the wound, stopping before her fingertips touch the burn.]
I'm going to touch it, okay?
[for the warning that it may sting for just another split second before it gets better.]
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[Elle gives her hand over readily, with a complete lack of awkwardness or trepidation. But she does understand the warning, and it makes her think about when she watched the Followers treating injuries in Freeside, clearly announcing and telegraphing their next moves to try and minimize the chance of the patient reacting badly. It also makes her think of some of her friends back home, the ones who are more touch-averse, opposing her own touchy-feely nature.]
Yeah, that's okay. [And she's even leaning forward just a little, eyes alight with curiousity to see it in action up-close.]
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It's not exactly common, even where I come from. It's unfortunate for us, too.
[but at the permission given to touch the burn, Leanne presses down on it and only has to concentrate somewhat. raising a boy had taught her how to heal things like this quickly and without much thought -- taking some power from the grass below her and sending some of it into Elle. in this case, she helps the girl's body to heal it in a rapid way, and delicate new skin starts to grow up and around the burn. in only moments, there's a small patch of grass below her that's darkened to a dead brown color, and there's a small scar where Elle's burn had been. the pain of it would've lessened to her as well, if only for a dull twinge if she flexes her hand in a strange way.]
Be careful with it. It may look healed, but it's probably going to be a little tender for a couple of days. The salve will probably help heal the scarring, too.
a
How long had it been since he fished without magic? Too long, indeed. It's embarrassing, that he cut his hand the way he did trying to clean the fish, and a green liquid escaped the wound instead of bright red blood. He wrapped it and covered it the best he could, but it was later than he spotted a healer, helping others with their own injuries.
The woman made eye contact with him, and he raised his wrapped hand, laughing sheepishly.]
You caught me. What's the saying? Can't teach an old dog new tricks? [he may look in his forties in human shape, but he was old. Very old.]
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the people who are older than Cody, though, she judges a little bit more. she holds out her hand though, motioning for him to give her his.]
Let me see it, old dog.
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But he also can't heal himself, and he doesn't want it to fester and get infected, so he starts to unwrap the wrap he put around it, and holds his hand out towards her.
It's easy enough to see the difference from normal human flesh. The gash is green, with a clear, greenish liquid coming from it, rather that red blood. He watches her carefully for her reaction, expecting something from her, anyway.]
It's not infected, I promise. [Because he knows in a human wound, that color would be a concerning sign. He was just like that inside. There's also a part of him that wonders if she'll be able to even help, with magic anyway. Not every human could heal wisps, after all.]
If you need to use the stitches, don't feel bad. [Maaaaybe just going to warn her, just in case.]
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...
hmm.
she frowns slightly as she runs her fingers over the wound, touching the liquid. she didn't see any sort of blood -- could it be that he's already got an infection?
but then she touches his hands, and her eyes widen as reaches out with her magic. he's definitely not human. he's...]
Your body...it's made of plant matter instead of human blood and muscle.
[it's not completely unheard of from the earth fae, but it's definitely the ones that are more pureblooded than her that have that sort of body. but to see it on someone else, especially as she squints up at him, she's trying to figure it all out.]
You don't look like anyone I've met before... [she wrinkles her brow as if trying to remember -- though she'd been away from her world for almost 80 years, so maybe her memory isn't the best.] Are you one of the fae?
[at least she's aware of herself to at least hold her fingers over the wound put pressure on it and keep him from bleeding too much.]
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He raises an eyebrow, curious about her knowledge. He has never met her, and given her wonder about his body, he doubts she's ever encountered a wisp like him. But he can feel the magic in her touch, and there's something about her that strikes him as trustful; Enough that he's a little more open about his origins than he's been with anyone else yet. ]
I'm sure there's some that would call us fae. Our ancient name is Ardaya, but these days, most call us wisps.
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the names are foreign to her, so it seems like he doesn't come from where she calls home. there's a brief moment of her puzzlement as she tries to decide how to go about this. she draws her energy from the plants around her -- but since he is one, how would that work? probably in much the same way, she supposes.
so she tries it. she takes from the energy of the grasses below her, sending it up through herself and into his hand. his skin starts to stitch itself together, faster than normal, and she jumps a little as the magic ricochets back at her when it heals all too quickly.]
I've never tried to heal someone like you before.
[she shakes her hands, which sting from the force of the rebound. the grass below her feet are faded, but not nearly as much as it would be if she had healed a gash on a human.]
If I took energy from you as well by mistake, sorry. I might not have been able to tell the difference when it was working through me. It should regenerate, like the grass below me will on its own.
[she motions to the patch underneath her feet that's yellow now, almost brown.]
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While wisp's magic also come from the energy of the plants around them, he supposed they were used to being able to pull from energy other than wisps. But given this was her first time ever encountering someone like him, he wasn't surprised she didn't yet know how to decipher.
He might not turn yellow like the grass, but there is a moment where the magic that masked him as human flickered, his skin briefly appearing green, his hair changing from blonde to vines of white flowers. It stabilized as she finished the job, and he flexed his hand, which no longer had any sign of injury.]
Your magic is drawn from plants as well, I see. [It was obvious now that he witnessed it.]
And don't worry about taking any energy from me. You did me a favor. I'm just impressed you were able to heal me. [He was really taking a gamble, approaching her. And now he was definitely glad he did. Their magic had such similar sources. And honestly, if he stayed out in the sun for any length of time, he would quickly regenerate any energy she borrowed.]
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a
He takes a seat next to her to wait for the next patient. You're free, Leanne! You can go! Except now, being one of those friendly sorts, he's going to try and make conversation.
"Where did you learn how to heal?"
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"I should be fine." As if the grass around her hadn't started to brown or anything. But it'll come back, she knows, because while it may look sick, there was just enough energy there to come back. "But...if you insist, I don't mind."
She considers for a moment, looking back down at the grass as she toes it with her feet. She looks at him again, smiling sadly. "My mother began to teach me, for a while. After that..." After she'd died, that is... "I taught myself. I've had a lot of time to hone my abilities with it."
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"It feels...nice, to have a connection with your family through magic," he says, carefully. "They're sort of 'with you' whenever you do it, then."
Is that sappy? Maybe a little. Oh well. "My long-lost uncle has been teaching me," he adds, as an explanation.
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Maybe it's something her people have gotten from the human race.
Leanne's still glad for the slight change of subject, though. "Oh? Do you have abilities other than healing?"
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He's a bit curious if she can do more than just heal...but he doesn't want to focus on anything that might make her sad. So instead he'll ask, "do you have the Light, where you're from? It's on different planets, is why I ask. I mean, I assume we're from different planets, haha."
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At least she's not terribly unused to the idea of parallel universes, so it's easier for her mind to wrap around the idea of different planets and things like that. "There's some who are able to use light magic, but not all of us can use it. What we're able to use is a little more elemental."
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