hugtopiamods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hugtopiamods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
hugme_mes2019-10-20 11:04 pm
hugtopiamods) wrote in hugme_mes2019-10-20 11:04 pm
Entry tags:
♥ October 2019 TEST DRIVE MEME
October (Lasohm) Test Drive Meme
Premise ♥ Setting ♥ Rules ♥ FAQ ♥ Mod Contact
Havenwell is normally a beautiful city - all tall spires and pure white stone glistening with gold against a blue sky. Now, it's still quite lovely, but it's marred. The wall that surrounds the city has a large glimmering hole broken through the stone and the buildings are missing bits and pieces here and there. The city is still reeling from the aftermath of its siege when a new set of souls are drawn to its shore. Good luck, new arrivals; and please excuse all the dust.
❥ PROMPT I: Buddy System
With all the changes and the fear of a secondary attack lingering, the natives are a lot more protective of their newest arrivals. When new characters begin to appear at the temples, they receive the welcome speech, get their communicators and the simple map of the city, and a warning to stay away from the walls. Then they get taken to the front of the temple by a helpful robotic priest. Rather than turn the newcomers loose right away, they pull someone seemingly at random off the street and push the two people together with a cheerful, "It's dangerous to go alone, so please show our newest resident around. Please be buddies!" They wait until they're certain the pair is going to be moving off together before going back inside.
They try to place a new arrival with one of those who previously arrived, but who can keep track of all that, right? Characters may find themselves thrown together with an actual veteran or with another new arrival who only came here a day or even just an hour before them! Good luck helping each other out, offworlders, and don't lose your buddy!
They try to place a new arrival with one of those who previously arrived, but who can keep track of all that, right? Characters may find themselves thrown together with an actual veteran or with another new arrival who only came here a day or even just an hour before them! Good luck helping each other out, offworlders, and don't lose your buddy!
❥ PROMPT II: The Havenwell Archives
Lasohm is another month that belongs to Ohma and after such a vicious attack, a small group of citizens decide that it might be great for the offworlders to help with something important to the feline god. These citizens are marked with a sash with the sign of a quill on it, a decidedly antique symbol considering how technologically advanced the people are. They hand out fliers to any who will take them, offering a small amount of Dora in compensation to any who will help the Havenwell Archives repair, catalogue, and restore any books damaged by the attack.
The Archives is a large building in the south and its doors, which have been sealed shut until now, are slightly ajar, allowing people entry. Head to the Archives and you'll be greeted by one of a handful of robotic citizens, all wearing that quill-emblazoned sash, and directed to a small room where you and other offworlders are put to the task of reassembling history texts that have fallen into disrepair or reviewing work that earlier offworlders completed, fixing any glitches that might occur in the text. Most of the writing is illegible, but it seems that these books are important to the Archives for more than just the information contained within. As you work, you might notice that talking and sharing information about yourself or engaging in physical contact near these books with the other people in your room makes the text on your pages a little more legible, a little easier to read and understand, and easier to fix.
The Archives is a large building in the south and its doors, which have been sealed shut until now, are slightly ajar, allowing people entry. Head to the Archives and you'll be greeted by one of a handful of robotic citizens, all wearing that quill-emblazoned sash, and directed to a small room where you and other offworlders are put to the task of reassembling history texts that have fallen into disrepair or reviewing work that earlier offworlders completed, fixing any glitches that might occur in the text. Most of the writing is illegible, but it seems that these books are important to the Archives for more than just the information contained within. As you work, you might notice that talking and sharing information about yourself or engaging in physical contact near these books with the other people in your room makes the text on your pages a little more legible, a little easier to read and understand, and easier to fix.
❥ PROMPT III: Virtual Research
After the attack, every part of the city is on repair duty and the means the Entertainment District as well. As new arrivals wander the city, they might be called into one of the numerous Virtual Reality cafes. These cafes vary in layout, but most have areas for the natives to plug directly into the machines and other areas which have older looking virtual reality helmets that allow flesh bodied people experience the games. For those who need assistance with their sensory inputs, basic options like audio descriptions of visual scenes, enhanced audio and descriptive speech, closed captions, and crude mobility chairs are available. A handful of cafes have other options like direct visual or audio cortex stimulation to simulate vision or hearing, or suspension tanks to allow simulated movement, but these are currently unavailable due to damage.
All of these facilities are, unfortunately, under repair. The direct plug-in systems are easier for the robot natives to fix because they can do the most important part of it - testing - by themselves. But for the helmets and other interface systems, they need your help. Naturally, they'll pay you for the work, but they need the offworlders to play the available games and record any areas where they find glitches. Playing with a partner increases your chances of finding and fixing any issues, so feel free to log in for free for once and test any of the following games:
All of these facilities are, unfortunately, under repair. The direct plug-in systems are easier for the robot natives to fix because they can do the most important part of it - testing - by themselves. But for the helmets and other interface systems, they need your help. Naturally, they'll pay you for the work, but they need the offworlders to play the available games and record any areas where they find glitches. Playing with a partner increases your chances of finding and fixing any issues, so feel free to log in for free for once and test any of the following games:
- Big Bass Fishing The beautiful lake has blue-green waters surrounded by forest and rocky, reedy shores. You and your companion are on a small single-motor fishing boat and you have fishing gear - two poles in the water. As the game starts up a read-out announces the objective: Catch the largest fish before the time limit ends. What's the time limit? ...Well, that's your first glitch because it reads as static. Might as well start fishing though, right? It doesn't take long to catch a few regular sized fish, nothing too exciting, and then? You get the big one - it bows your fishing rod nearly in half as you reel it up. The fish leaps into the air and you realize this is your next glitch because the fish hangs there - the size of a minivan - and yells, "BIG. BASS. FISHING. ATTACK." The fish slaps its fins and tails at the boat and now you and your fishing companion better fight this fish or you'll end up in the lake or worse.
- A (un)Familiar Experience Jump into the life of the temple familiars and see life from their perspective! Choose the temple, any temple is fine, and be transformed into a fledgling rainbow dragon, a purple mouse, a white raven, or a blue feline. You're free to move about the virtual confines of the temples and, in fact, you can even interact with other familiars in their temples - who may be other players in this game. Play, climb, try to get your fledgling wings to fly, tumble about with the other mice, enjoy your simple life as an animal! --or you would if you weren't an insane size. Rather than being a small mouse, you're the size of a horse. That fledgling rainbow dragon? About the size of a fly. The building sizes are off, too - one might have door that's 30 feet tall, but a ceiling that's only 12. Everything else seems fine, but those sizes? Well, you better figure out how to get around that.
- Robot Crossing Logging in with another character will net you a little farm and a variety of games to choose from:
- Pick and harvest as many Aellyn vegetables and fruits as you can before the timer runs out! The more you pick, the better your score. Work together with your partner to clear the field in any way you can. Strangely, once you finish clearing a tree or a field row of their bounty, they seem to magically refill when you turn your back. Strangely, when the timer runs out? It flashes 00:00 and the game...doesn't? Stop? In fact, the fruits and vegetables just keep multiplying and multiplying and if you don't hurry up you might just get buried in them all!
- With a partner, use the giant slingshot to launch comically large fruits into a garden patch of other colored fruits. Match a line of 3 or more similarly shaped fruits to clear it from the field. The more fruits you can clear, the higher your score - aka welcome to Fruit Crush. Stack lines of 6 or more to get shining clear diamond fruits that clear the entire row and snag yourself some bonus points. Or they should, but whenever you clear away a matching set, the fruits explode, sending fruit bits and juice everywhere - most notably on you and your partner. Still, the game is going on and it looks like it won't stop until you finish, so good thing it's all a computer game, right? Sure feels real though - reeeeeeally sticky.
- You and your partner(s) are given a magical golden pumpkin and it's your job to grow it into the largest pumpkin possible. Why? There's a county fair of course and the largest pumpkin wins! But how do you grow this pumpkin? Well, for whatever reason? This pumpkin is already the size of a grizzly bear and it just won't stop growing! You and your partner better find a way to stop it from growing out of control or you might get (virtually) crushed! You could do a song and dance routine together to touch the pumpkin's soul to teach it moderation or calm its insane vegetable puberty. You could hold hands and share stories and entertain the pumpkin until it feels satisfied that it's grown enough. You could just hack and slash at it in an attempt to reduce its unwieldy bulk. The possibilities are endless and so is the pumpkin's growth, so you better hurry!
Have fun however you like with the setting! Make a network post, make up other prompts based on the general setting, go wild. Havenwell is your oyster.
This TDM is for the November application round. If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the FAQ or to the Mod Question thread below. The reservation round begins on October 30, 2019 at 10:00PM EST and our applications will run from November 2, 2019 to November 9, 2019 from 10:00PM EST to 10:00PM EST.
no subject
Guess we won't know which ones work until we try it, so grab whatever one looks good and let's see what happens.
[best way to learn the game is to give it a shot, so without further fussing he stands at the end of the dock and tosses the line out, relishing in the familiar gesture after so long. Hes missed a lot about home, but this is pretty close to the top of his lost indulgences.]
no subject
But he is, as he said earlier, rusty. The last time he went fishing was over two millennia ago, so he chooses to sit the round out. This will also help to keep an eye out for abnormalities from afar. There'll be no backseat fishing here; and if he has any criticisms, he'll keep them to himself.]
First, I will watch.
no subject
[Noctis is barely listening, at this point. He's off in his own little fishing world: he spends a few minutes quietly and happily casting, reeling it in, casting, reeling it in, over and over. It's not the same as the real thing by far, but the simulation is scratching an itch he'd felt practically since arriving here. There are subtle sensations that just work for him- the soft resistance of the lure as it's pulled through the water, the buzz of insects in the reeds, a simulated breeze on his skin giving him goosebumps. They're supposed to be checking for glitches, but it's on point for him so far.
It doesn't take long for him to get a bite, and he grins at once and wrestles with it for a little while, pulling it closer and closer to the dock until he can finally lift his prize. A reasonable size, not huge by any means, and most certainly alien (like many foods here, it's a strange colour, for starters) but. Fish.
He sets loose the fish in a bucket, and the digital HUD adds "1" to his score.]
Oh man, you've got to try this.
no subject
There comes the first point; and with it, no glitches to note. The unofficial round has concluded.]
Very well.
[Casting his line into the water without further ado, Somnus studies the horizon. So far, he's yet to notice anything unusual for a fishing trip. Perhaps, he muses, the corruption lies in the catch.]
no subject
...ugh, dammit. Fine. It's going to keep bothering him, otherwise.]
Name's Noctis. You?
no subject
And expectantly, it isn't long before Noctis can't bear the mystery anymore.]
Somnus.
no subject
He exhales a sigh and tugs on his line, trying to guide in another fish.]
Thought so. [And then, because he's never been much good at reining in his own words,] Your brother said I look like you.
no subject
Yet, the analytical part of him has his doubts. He knows what Ardyn becomes in the future, unfair though it is to judge him by it. For that reason, Somnus has largely kept his silence on this matter.]
At your age, my face was identical to yours.
[His line has already been cast. He neglects to reel it in.]
no subject
[Though his calm response is telling, and it takes but a moment for the truth of it to sink in. Noctis glances over at Somnus, surprised once more.]
You... already know who I am.
no subject
Son of the young king, your birthright is no longer a secret. It was exposed by my arrival.
[Verstael's comment about a man bearing great resemblance to Somnus comes to mind. Evidently, Verstael hadn't known. There was nothing he could have done when he looks the way he does.]
no subject
I wasn't... it's not like I'm lying about it. [Okay, maybe a little.] I just didn't want to screw anything up. He doesn't even know I exist yet.
[Though this complicates a lot; looks like the truth coming out is inevitable after all.]
no subject
The future is not so mutable. Nor is memory reliable.
[People forget, especially in worlds like these. (Now that it's come to his attention, that's something to confirm later.)]
no subject
We don't know that, not here. We barely know anything about how any of this works.
[And he's pretty sure that meeting your own future kid would be a hard thing to forget.]
no subject
What is your last memory of Eos?
no subject
[He doesn't see how knowing that would help; why would a man from two thousand years ago understand a reference to a country that probably didn't even exist back then?]
no subject
Knowing what you do now, will you turn back?
no subject
[And why the hell does apparently everyone know the future except for him? Even Somnus knows things go to hell after they arrive?
Gods, this place loves to screw with him, no matter where he turns. Past, future- all of them know his life is a mess.]
...Whatever, it doesn't matter. I can't turn back, but that doesn't mean I can't try to do better.
no subject
If need be, they can always seek ways to suppress memories collected here. Gods reside in this world, too. But where Regis is concerned, Somnus has no doubt.]
The young king will be of the same mind.
no subject
Even so, he hadn't known what to expect from this, but it sure as hell wasn't this, and it makes him hold his tongue for a while. What's he supposed to do, just ignore the truth he knows now? Play the part like it's meant to be, let Luna die and Ignis lose his eyes? What kind of future is that? It's senseless and he hates the idea of it. And it bothers him even more that Somnus knows of it. What else does this man know that he doesn't?]
...You're a lot more cryptic and weird than I thought you'd be.
[Maybe that's where the Mystic nickname came from.]
no subject
As he is now, Noctis isn't ready for that revelation.]
My words will become clearer with time, though you may no longer recall them by then.
[They've stalled long enough. Somnus casts the line again and lets the topic drop there.]
no subject
Noctis doesn't press, though, seeing the signs of things he either can't be told or is better off not knowing yet, something he's come to recognize in a few of the others. He could probably ask Cor if he felt it necessary, but if Ignis won't tell him, it's likely for the best. Iggy knows what he needs more than anyone, often even himself.
Plus a conversation like that would ruin the fishing, and he's not about to go there. He returns instead to silently casting, only pausing to switch in a new lure. It continues on like that for a while until he suddenly gets a heavy pull on his line, and he shifts his position to fight it, recognizing a challenge immediately.]
Feels like a big one.
no subject
"A big one." That's different. Somnus reels his line in to watch Noctis. Perhaps something off-place will finally emerge with this catch.]
no subject
Noct glances from it, to his rod, and then back again. The fuck.]
Gonna call that one a glitch...
no subject
"BIG. BASS. FISHING. ATTACK."
Somnus, who has never played a video game, is uncertain of what he's meant to be doing in the face of this strange glitch. For that matter, the natives had told them to look for glitches without instructions on how to fix any they might encounter. He turns his head toward Noctis without taking his eyes off of the enormous bass.]
What will you do?
no subject
[This is weird, but he's never faced down against a fish that could defeat him before. He's not about to let it happen now.
He has no sword here, but he still has his rod, so with a quick lunge he lashes out at the fish, smacking it against the fins before they can get too close. Not the hardiest of weapons, but it's solid enough, and the fish lurches backwards so it must have hurt. It's... kind of a finesse weapon?]
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)