hugme_mes | June (Dianir) Test Drive Meme

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June (Dianir) Test Drive Meme

baby dinosaur laughing while driving in a toy car

June (Dianir) Test Drive Meme
Premise ♥ Setting ♥ Rules ♥ FAQ ♥ Mod Contact

Dianir, the month when Diacht's power begins to take hold, has begun and the effects of the previous month's rejuvenation have finally worn off. The city is fresh and new with flora and fauna, and the weather begins to turn ever hotter with each passing day as summer begins encroaching upon spring. The natives and new residents alike are adjusting to the first major changes to Havenwell's layout in centuries relatively well, all things considered, with natives slowly and cautiously beginning to expand businesses and homes into the newly opened areas. The temples are abuzz with activity as adherents flock to them, offering praise and words of thanks for the gods and the offworlders, without whom this major step forward would not have been possible.

❥ PROMPT I: Basic Instincts

a man's face in black and white, half-human, half-lion

Randomly and without warning, characters will find that, depending upon the strength of their deity, they may begin exhibiting some...odd qualities associated with their god. Those whose gods are the weakest will find the desire to give in to these qualities are the strongest, bordering on nigh impossible to ignore. Like an itch in the middle of your back that you can't reach, but you're going crazy trying to get it. The longer your character ignores the desire, the stronger it gets. Those whose gods are the strongest will find the urge there and definitely annoyingly loud, but not impossible to ignore for longer periods of time. And what qualities are we talking about? Well, from strongest to weakest, those qualities are...

♥ Ohma (strongest urge): While normally standoffish and languid, this feline god can also cling to things and people at times with an almost obsessive fervor. They need everyone to know that what is theirs belongs to them, and what better way to do that than to mark what is most important to them? People and things adherents of Ohma deem essential or necessary to their lives will find that their Ohma-driven friends are unusually clingy, wanting to hold hands or press up as close as possible to them. It might be hard to go about your day when an Ohma adherent has their arms around your waist, face pressed to your back or chest, unwilling to let go! Another unusual trait to pop up is their hunting instinct. This seems to come out most strongly around the followers of Ainea and Diacht, where Ohma's predatory instincts cause them to play-stalk and play-hunt their fellow offworlders. It's all in good fun though! Give them a tackle or a tag and the urge to 'chase' seems to go away.

♥ Ainea: The little mouse deity is renowned for her compassion and family devotion, but a little known trait of hers is the need to gather. Whether it be people or things, Aineans will find an overwhelming need to pack-rat and hoard as much stuff as possible. Oddly, things that aren't owned by other people already (such as items from stores or museums) hold very little value to them. But that scarf someone else is wearing? Yoink. That person who catches your eye as they walk down the street? Yup. You're going to be gathering everything you can and everything that catches your eye into a central location - be it your home or some other meaningful place to you - in an attempt to bring together a cozy, happy home. Once you've created your perfect little cozy pile, wouldn't it be nice to just dig in and snooze with all of your favoritest things and people? Of course it would! It just might be hard because people tend to want to go about your lives and you? You'd rather they stay right where they are with you.

♥ Diacht: This is the beginning of the avian god's cycle and when their power is beginning to grow incrementally, but that doesn't seem to be excluding them from the chaos. While known for their honesty and honor, Diacht isn't above their more basic instincts. One of which is an almost comical obsession with anything shiny. What's shiny to a Diacht adherent? Well, that depends on each person. It could literally be a bit of tinsel or metal that glints in the bright early summer sun, or it could be a person with whom you've begun to feel a special connection. Diachtians will feel an urge to rush in and snatch up what catches their eye the most, which could put them at odds with both Aineans and Rawnas trying to hold onto their belongings. Beware of the Ohmans who might be stalking you from the shadows, too. If you manage to successfully make off with your latest prize, where better to stash it (or them) than high up, right? You'll be wanting to take over a high perch in town, which might put you into direct confrontation with the Rawnans as you bicker over who really has the right to claim the town fountain, the research towers, or the newly discovered colosseum as their own.

♥ Rawna (weakest urge): Currently the strongest of the deities, adherents of the draconic god will find these urges the easiest to ignore for the longest possible time. The desire is still there, however, and seeing everyone else go buckwild around you might just trigger something deep within: a sense of territorialism. That's your stuff they're taking! And your people! And hey! That's your house! That's your garden and no one else is allowed inside! The urge to protect and keep what's yours for you and you alone is extremely high this month. Sharing is not caring, thank you very much. In fact, it might be easiest to keep an eye on all that you own if you're also the owner of the highest points in town - the town fountain, the research towers, and the newly discovered colosseum. Rawna adherents will find themselves fighting and bickering among themselves and with the Diacht followers to claim ownership of the highest points of land that they can find. Don't be too violent though! No one likes a sore loser. They'll also want to watch out for the Aineans who might just steal that which you hold dearest.

❥ PROMPT II: What'd You Say To Me?

a stack of pancakes with heart-shaped butter and the Simlish language written around it

With the gods so thoroughly distracted by their baser needs, it seems something fairly important to the off-worlders' lives has also gone on the fritz. Randomly throughout the month, characters may find that they suddenly can't understand each other. The universal translation magic that's been holding everything together will randomly cut in and out, like spotty WiFi at a public bus station. You could be in the midst of a conversation and suddenly everything that comes out of your partner's mouth turns to gibberish, or just into their native language which you, unfortunately, don't seem to understand. Speak every language fluently? Have a spell that makes you telepathic? Chances are, it won't work. Whether it's written, spoken, thought or gestured, the language barrier is nigh insurmountable whenever this malady passes over you. Thankfully, as with most things here, if you and your conversation friend decide to touch for awhile, the effects wane and pass on as if nothing had gone wrong at all. Let go and it might come back though, so you best be prepared!

❥ PROMPT III: Gotta Make Money to Spend Money

Clothes in Havenwell for more than just offworlders are starting to become a thing, although the availability of good clothing and custom clothing can still be quite expensive. With natives and non-natives alike trying to vye for the latest fashions and outdo one another for an upcoming competition, what little was available is pretty quickly gone from the shelves, leaving the few tailors in town charging premiums for any new products that are needed. Luckily, the wheels of capitalism don't stop, even in this faraway land, and paid jobs are currently plentiful. If you aren't looking to join in the festivities, don't despair! The dora you earn through these tasks can just as easily be spent on other goods and services as you like. A job board is posted in front of tailors and other shops, advertising the following things that people are willing to pay to get done:

Research Towers: Attention, Offworlders! We hear your calls for innovative cuisine! Create a recipe using available ingredients in Havenwell (replicated or not) with a friend and describe it in detail for potential use in future replicator recipes. We only require that you and your friend taste test and be able to describe the taste, texture, and feeling this food gives you. Please deliver your completed recipes to Research Tower East. Edible and named recipes, regardless of whether they are utilized or not, will receive dora in exchange!
City Council: Attention, Offworlders! We have heard that "homesickness" is a thing that many people might be experiencing and we have heard you! Please are paying for people to bring us examples of your home cultures - be it stories, plays, history or something else. Dramatic reenactments, video recordings, and physical recreations are preferred.
Entertainment District: Attention, Artists! We are experimenting with new synthetic materials that may be useful for your artistic endeavors. Please visit your local museum to pick up a sample pack. Payment for acceptable artistic creations that utilize these new materials in a new and innovative way is being offered. Materials include: new colors of synthetic paints, a more malleable synthetic clay, and a synthetic marble for carving. Offworlder models preferred.
Business District: Help Wanted! We are looking for delivery drones. Those interested should contact the delivery center. Requirements: be capable of moving quickly, carrying large loads of cargo, efficient, and safe! We need machinery, building supplies, personal packages and more shipped and delivered across all of Havenwell. Most packages currently awaiting delivery will require a minimum of two people to deliver. For those without transport, we are offering a crash course in piloting our newly minted three-wheeled delivery scooters.

Have fun however you like with the setting! Make a network-style toplevel, make up other prompts based on the general setting, go wild. Havenwell is your oyster.

This TDM is for the July 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 June 29, 2020 at 10:00PM EST and our applications will run from July 2, 2020 to July 9, 2020 from 10:00PM EST to 10:00PM EST.

♥ Taken Characters ♥ Reservations ♥ Applications ♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

'Ikari'! That's so cool! I've never met someone with that surname before! I wonder what it's like in kanji...

[ He tilts his head for a moment, thinking about it... and gives up in 2 seconds. Anyways! ]

Yeah! It's pretty chill here so far, the people are really friendly-- like you! You sound like you've been here for a while... how do you like it here?

[It's... cool? No one's ever told him that before, and for a short moment, he looks pretty surprised about it. Oh! Well. Huh. You won't have to wonder about it for too long, at least, because he can answer that easily.]

'Ikari', 'anchor', like on a boat. [He even draws the shape of one in the air with his finger, just like that!]

There are a lot of really kind and patient people around. [He can't speak for everyone, of course, but that's been his experience so far.] And, really, for as weird as it can be, I don't think it's such a bad place, you know?

Ooooh!! [ Yuuji watches the shape Ikari is making with his finger and mimics him. ] That makes it even cooler!! Nice to meet you, Ikari!!

[ Kind and patient, yeah! Yuuji nods in agreement. So far everyone is very welcoming snd helpful to him. Even if he’s easygoing and flexible by nature, it’s still really nice to have some helping hands! ]

Yeah! It sure doesn’t seem like a bad place at all!

[ Which leads him to the question: ‘why?’ ]

You’re not from here, right? Did you ever find out why you’re, uh, ‘summoned’ here?

[ He assumes that he’s here because a help is needed, but so far, he sees nothing that requires a fix. ]

[Does he mean, like, specifically? Because, no! He still can't figure out why he himself was called to this particular task, but that also seems like a pretty heavy interpretation of that question, so he must mean in general, right...?]

To 'help heal the world', right? [Same as anyone else. He knows it sounds like a really outlandish claim, fixing an entire planet through touch alone, so maybe Yuuji's still trying to figure out how real that goal might actually be.] I know it sounds like a lot to accept, though.

[He casts a quick glance outward - it isn't easy to tell past all of the buildings in town, but,] This city was a bit smaller when I first showed up here, but if you go farther out, there are a bunch of buildings people are working on fixing up. The walls around the city actually moved a few months ago, to kind of... reclaim what used to be part of the city, I guess?

Allegedly it's because of what we've been doing.

'Heal the world'...

[ Reminds him of a certain song a certain artist sang. But that's beside the point! 'World', huh. Sure's a much larger scale than what he's handling back home, since he's just doing things within the country. It's still more or less the same idea, though, only... he doesn't have to kill here. ]

You mean the city's expanding? [ Huh. That almost sounds like a video game. ] What have we been doing, though? [ Yuuji tilts his head slightly, trying to understand what Ikari's saying. ] You mean stuff like not taking care of the nature?

Well, it's not like there's a lot of nature past the walls.

[It isn't like it's a matter of civilization overtaking nature, or anything like that.]

It's actually pretty dangerous outside of the city, and us helping out sort of... neutralizes that, I think. [That's not really making it clear what 'helping out' entails, though.] Touch is supposed to work. Stuff like holding hands.

[ Yuuji nods as he listens to Ikari intently, trying his best to grasp the concept. Ah, so that's what he meant with 'what we've been doing'. ]

...So it's not like you can go back home if you go beyond the walls, huh.

[ He knew this already, but a part of him can't let it go just yet. It's a bit hard to swallow the fact that the world that he's from isn't somewhere he can easily go back and forth to anymore, even if he's pretty much gotten accustomed to things here. ]

How're you doing with that, though? It's not easy to just... touch someone, right?

[ Even if Yuuji himself doesn't think too much about it - that's what they're here for, after all - that doesn't guarantee the other person won't feel negatively about it. ]

Do you just partner up with someone to do it?

There was a break in the wall a few months after I'd gotten here, and a couple of people have gotten permission to go outside and look around. If going back home was that easy, I'm sure we'd know about it by now.

[It feels kind of like a bleak thing to say, but Yuuji seems to be taking the concept in good enough stride already that Shinji doesn't feel too terribly bad being that blunt about the situation.]

Partnering up, though... I wouldn't be surprised if there were people who agreed on something like that. I feel like most people have just made friends, you know? So it would be more like... ah, like the guy I'm living with right now, if the two of us sit next to each other on the couch, and we end up leaning on each other a little bit. Something like that works, and it's easy because we're already friends.

Haha, right, and people would've just gone home, huh?

[ Unless... this place is a better place to where they were from initially. It's pretty peaceful here, after all. ]

Oooh!! That kinda stuff works too, huh? Now that you mention it, that's also a contact! [ He's always thought of something more obvious like... an actual action. Holding hands, hugging, putting an arm around shoulder, stuff like that. ] That sounds like a cozy thing to do. Guess I can try to suggest that to my friend, too...

[Peaceful, mostly, but he knows that he, at least, would probably be hard pressed to take an easy route back home. Surely there were other people around who feel the same.

But, oh, does Yuuji already have a friend here...?]

Did someone you know turn up here, too?

[That wouldn't be unheard of by any means, but it's always a tiny bit surprising to Shinji!]

Hm? Yeah! My classmate Fushiguro!

[ Ikari looks mildly surprised. Is it unusual? ]

Have you met anyone that you knew from back home here?

[A classmate, huh? How nice for him.]

Ahh, that's lucky. Some other people I've run into knew each other before coming here, but nobody I know has turned up.

[It's... okay? It's okay. Maybe more complicated than 'okay', but he's survived this long without any familiar faces, so... 'okay' it will be.]

But having someone here you're already friends with should make settling in easier.

[ Oh... That sucks. Sure, Yuuji might be able to settle in just fine without having anyone else from where he was here, but it's a huge difference knowing that Fushiguro's here with him. He nods - it has indeed made things easier for him. ]

Do you miss people back home?

[H-hey! Don't look at him like that!]

Ah, well... [Does he miss them? Yes, and no? Probably more 'yes', but it's still a complicated 'yes'. He sits on that thought for a second, mostly trying to figure out the best way to brush the question off, rather than answer it directly.] Even if I do, it wouldn't make much difference. I don't think they can really control who shows up.

[All he can really do is dwell on it, if he thinks about it for too long. That's a lot to dump on a newbie, he doesn't want to do that.

More importantly, they've managed to arrive at his place! Those onigiri! Are so close!]

Did you want to come inside for a bit...? I can just run in and grab them, if you'd prefer.

[ He assumes the Gods chose which people to bring into this world, but he has never considered the possibility of it being random. That's true. They might just be randomly trying to pull people in with what power they have.

He's so engrossed in their conversation that when Ikari reminds him of the main reason of their little trip, he's momentarily lost. ]

Huh? ...Oh! [ That's right! Onigiri!! ] If you don't mind! I wanna see how other houses look inside~

It's really about the same as any other.

[But! He did offer! So he opens the door up, letting Yuuji come on inside to, unsurprisingly, a house that looks pretty much the same as any of the other free townhouses do! The living room has one of the kitchen chairs moved into it, set up next to a cello, but is otherwise pretty unremarkable.]

Come on inside.

Pardon my intrusion!

[ Loud and clear, like how greetings are supposed to be said! He takes his shoes off and follows Ikari in, tailing him as his head turns left to right, left to right. ]

Haha, it looks almost exactly the same! [ Sorry Shinji, don't mind him just looking around. He'll wander a bit, but never too far from where Ikari is. And of course, the large musical instrument catches his attention - you can't miss that! ] Whoa!! You play the cello?

[So loud! Loud enough to startle Shinji a bit, but not bad enough to earn a scolding, or anything.

He doesn't expect this stop to take particularly long, but if Yuuji ends up getting distracted and they end up lingering around for a while longer, well... that's not terrible, he thinks.]

Ah, yeah, the cello is mine. [It's not exactly a typical sight in Havenwell, so there's probably some novelty in just seeing the instrument.] I've been playing it for a while, since before I get here.

[ And it sure does seem to be like something that's happening now! ]

Heeeh, that's pretty cool!! Did you learn by yourself or somethin'?

[ He squats beside the cello, having a good look at it. Hoo, it looks well-maintained. Ikari must treasure it so much. ]

[A very well taken care of instrument for sure!]

I started taking lessons back when I was five, but I've just been practicing on my own for a while now.

[Can't really take lessons if you don't have a teacher or anything!!]

Heehh... Then you must've got really good musical sense, huh?

[ After staring at the cello for a good while, he finally tears his gaze and shifts to look at Ikari instead. ]

I've seen a cello on TV but never seen it in person like this - sure's bigger than I thought! Say, how do you play it? You sit here and draw the bow from behind?

Maybe...? [That sounds like, possibly, praise that is too high! He just knows how to play things he's learned, that's all!!

Yuuji seems pretty invested in this, though, so as Shinji fetches the onigiri from the kitchen, he can't help but ask,] If you're really curious, I could probably play something quick for you.

[Are you, perhaps, angling for a show to go with this snack?]

Not everyone can learn musical instruments on their own! Like me, I don't really know how to play anything, haha!

[ He is genuinely interested in how a cello works, but more than the cello itself, it's Ikari that he wants to know more about. The cello's just a part of it. ]

Eh, really? Hm... But I'm already gettin' some onigiri from you, I don't have money to pay you back for both that and this!

[ He just got here after all, and he doesn't even know what the currency here is yet! If only he's got his wallet... it's probably gone forever. ]

I wouldn't ask you to pay for something like that...!

[He's absolutely not that good! More importantly,] I won't ask you to pay for the food, either. The ingredients are free, and I had already made them...

[But, actually, isn't there something that he could be doing in return anyway?]

But... if you could do something like describe them? If you just wanna write it down on your tablet and send it my way, that would be plenty helpful.

Eh?! Then all the more I can't ask you to play!

[ Even if Ikari weren't a professional cel...loist?, he's been playing since he's 5, he's a professional enough to Yuuji!! Can't ask a pro to play songs for him for free!!

But for the onigiri-- describing them? Oh! He pounds his fist to his palm. ]

The Research Tower thing, yeah?! I'll do it, I'll do it!! I dunno if it'll be helpful, but I'll try my best!

[ He whips out his tablet, swiftly firing up his messages application. ]

Do I need to add you first or is everyone here automatically in my contacts?

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