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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
While she talks, she busies her hands with cleaning the small fish he caught. She's grateful to have something to do with them right now.]
Well... There's mostly three types that make it so dangerous around there. Cazadores, which are huge insects, [she stops cleaning fish for a moment to gesture, holding her arms out to try to give an approximation of size, still holding the knife,] like, people-sized? Not including wingspan? Really poisonous and really, really fast. And they come in swarms. They like to nest in the hills around Lake Mead.
Then there are the lakelurks. They live in the water. [She's gotten into a rhythm with the fish now, and as she relaxes into the task, she relaxes into the storytelling, too, reverting to her natural chatterbox state. She's starting to sound downright cheerful about all of this.] They can walk, too, though, and they're like. Taller than your average adult? They've got armored skin and gills and webbed hands and feet. And they've evolved to have this kind of. Sonic... yell? Anyway, even if you're pretty far away from them, that can really hurt. I think you can avoid the cazadores and the deathclaws if you're careful and know where they live, but... If you're trying to fish, the lakelurks will definitely get in the way.
Oh. Yeah. The deathclaws -- They're the last ones. Uh... They're. They're kind of what they sound like. Their name pretty much gives it away. They're really big lizards with really big claws and horns and teeth. And once, someone told me that they just get mad if you shoot 'em, and... Yeah. I can totally confirm that. Totally the scariest of the three. And they can be really sneaky! It's so unfair.
And even if you manage to steer clear of all of that, there are some areas around the lake that are still really radioactive. So if you don't have a Pip-Boy or a geiger counter, you can get radiation poisoning without even noticing until it's too late.
no subject
[ He files the information away anyway. Why? He's not sure. It's not as though he'll ever run into them. But it does seem a bit like something he'd like to know, just in case. Nothing that his batallions couldn't take down, certainly, but it's not as though he has those batallions here.
Good thing. It'd probably scare off all of the friendly locals. ]
But hey, while we're having a good old-fashioned storytime around the fire... [ She seems to be in a good enough mood. He doesn't think asking more will be pressing his luck. ] Mind answering a couple more questions? About the radiation, specifically. I've never heard of that before. And I'm guessing that it's radiation that made your home so inhospitable in the first place. From the war. Am I right?
no subject
But, um, you're right. It's... [She's never had to explain this before. She doesn't really know where to start.] Uh. Well. It's invisible, and it's... in the air? Kind of? It isn't a gas or anything, though. It damages your cells and if you spend too much time in it, it'll really hurt you. That's the radiation poisoning I mentioned. We have some medicine that can help, but there comes a point where there's too much of it in your body and there's no coming back.
In the war -- Well. Before the Great War, the one that ended the world, countries had been fighting for a while already. Then... Something happened, nobody knows what, but someone fired nuclear warheads -- really big bombs full of radiation that can fly really far -- at one of their enemies. We dunno who started it. We just know that everybody else joined in.
So there's radiation everywhere. It's worse in some places than others. It mutated the wildlife, like, making it hard for most Old World crops to grow until it adapted. And new plants started to grow, too. Old World animals became wasteland animals. Like, little scorpions became big radscorpions. Mole rats and geckos are big, too. Brahmin and radstags -- uh, I mean, cows and deer started being born with two heads. Things like that. Radiation is in the air, and the soil, and the water. [Here, Elle shrugs helplessly. It's just a fact of life.]
no subject
[ Claude stops to consider that, really consider that. It's difficult for him to wrap his head around it. It makes the warfare he knows seem pitifully simple. And it is simple at the heart of it, no matter how many tactics he studies, no matter how many tricks he tries to hide up his sleeve. At the heart of it, it's about two different forces trying to hit the other one harder than they get hit themselves, whether it be through spears and daggers, bow and arrows, or the magic flowing from their fingertips.
Claude doesn't consider himself a religious man. And he's not. But what he does practice spiritually is more akin to worship of nature than anything else, thanks to the world that gives them the bounty they need, respect for forces greater than themselves. All of this sounds like sacrilege. And it's all of the later generations that had to suffer for it.
Though that's not too different from the war he knows either. Every war ends with children paying for their parents' mistakes. Claude rubs at the back of his neck, looking at the tenacious young woman in front of him. ]
Wow. This doesn't happen often, but I gotta say, I'm at a loss for words here. That's awful. I'm sorry that happened to you -- and your land. But I guess you've never known anything else, huh? [ He gestures at the world around them, the bustling townsfolk, the peaceful fishermen, the fresh air, the cool breeze. ] Being here must be even weirder for you than it is for me, huh?
no subject
But -- What makes this place so amazing to me -- I think it's got more to do with... How I'm from a desert. I've been to a place called Zion and it used to be a national park before the war, and it's still beautiful and green and it has so much water. It was like being on another planet. [She laughs a little, because, well. For all she knows, she really is this time. But she's sure there's an explanation for all of this. There always is. It's just... figuring out how to find it.]
Well. That, and. I keep expecting something to... uh... go wrong. For someone to come, um, crash the party. Or big critters either really hungry or really mad about all the noise. I think that might be the weirdest part.
no subject
[ That's always the issue with prying, isn't it? Nobody ever has good stories to tell -- or at least, they rarely do. Least of all people from strange apocalyptic worlds where even the animals haven't escaped unscathed. Still, Claude's easy manner and the lofty way he waves his arm is enough to dispell most people's guilt and self-consciousness. ]
And while I don't think you're wrong for waiting for the other shoe to drop... [ He pauses to look around them, voices raised in merriment, everyone sharing the bounty of their catches and huddled around bright, cheery campfires. ] It's also okay to just enjoy the good moments as they come. Even if you didn't expect to be here in the first place. And if something crashes the party, I'm sure these people know how to deal with it. [ He flicks his head to gesture at the bow and quiver strapped to his back. ] And I've got a trick or two up my sleeve too.