♥ August Test Drive Meme

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August Test Drive Meme
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As Achtom and Ohnir flow into each other, the skies are still gorgeously blue and dotted with high fluffy clouds that never seem to threaten rain - so long as the weather stays controlled. Businesses are picking back up, the natives starting to cater once again to flesh-bodied people with varied amounts of success. The VR cafes are featuring more helmets so even more people can play along with the ever expanding selection of games. Overall, it seems like Havenwell is quite the peaceful city.

But there are still some issues to be had...

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❥ PROMPT I: Where's the Pied Piper?

All Achtom, the residents have been dealing with things in characters' houses seemingly moving of their own volition to other parts of the house and going temporarily missing, returning chewed upon by the mice that have overtaken Havenwell. By the time the new wave of arrivals come, the worst of it is over, but there are still some pesky little temple familiars running about the city!

The noises at night aren't as terrible as they once had been, but the squeaking and chattering in the walls and ceiling is still noticeable. It's still difficult to sleep at night for all the noise throughout the long night hours. Trying to find the source is a surefire way to drive yourself mad, but it seems that sleeping in the same bed with another person makes it a little easier to bear, especially if you hold hands or touch throughout the night.

Pink and purple rodents of various sizes from panda mouse tiny to chihuahua-sized rats are still popping up all over the city. It seems the only place they aren't is where they're supposed to be - Ainea's temple - and that's a big problem. While many have been returned thanks to the offworlders' efforts, Ainea's temple priests are still out in the city, begging residents both robotic and flesh to peacefully and carefully capture the creatures and return them home to the temple. They pass out soft woven reed baskets to any who agree and thank all participants heartily for their help.

❥ PROMPT II: We Didn't Start This Fire

Throughout the month, pockets of the city experience magnificent dry lightning storms. Before each onset of the storm, an immense clap of thunder booms across the entire city like a siren and the natives hold their figurative breaths until the first strike rains down. A peal of lightning, searing hot, strikes the ground or hits the spires of nearby buildings, cracking stone and leaving nasty burn marks behind. Each storm is only 4 to 5 minutes in length before they suddenly disappear again, but in those few minutes chaos reigns. For anyone unlucky enough to get caught amid one of these storms, take cover! Residents throw open doors and push people inside, even shielding the offworlders with their own bodies if necessary to keep them from getting harmed.

When the lightning and its sonorous booms pass, residents scurry out to repair the damage. They'll be asking nearby offworlders to help as well with patching the stonework or removing broken debris. Most importantly, they put out a call for help in putting out fires that spring up after each storm. Their metal bodies can't withstand the heat for long without melting and the water is dangerous to their circuitry. After the fires are put out and the damage repaired, on occasion, residents will ask for the somber help of pulling a native robot unlucky enough to take a direct hit from the lightning to a local repair shop. Strangely, the natives don't seem sad when their friends and family can't be repaired, and instead start gathering up objects from home to take with them to the temples along with the bodies. When asked, they say it's to pray for a rebirth and go on their way.

❥ PROMPT III: Let's Play the Friend Connection

With all the craziness going on, some people might just want a distraction. A lot of Havenwell's natives certainly seem to think so. Despite everything, the Entertainment District is as bustling as ever and this month the offering is to participate with a friend or group of friends to play a game called: Friend Connection. Rather than the usual plug in and sit configuration, this time the VR cafes have been reorganized into 3 meter by 3 meter square pads with no chairs or furniture available. Players plug in or put their helmets on and they're instantly transported to a garish neon-lighted stage with multicolored spotlights that show a floating, legless robot with a rainbow bowtie and a magnificent mustache. The robot's LED face lights up into the approximation of the :D emote and then a disembodied voice comes from speakers overhead:

"Hail, well met, and welcome to the hottest game show around: Friend Connection! As the studio audience already knows, this game is simple! You and your new friends compete to complete more challenges than the other hidden team. The more fabulously you and your team completes each task, the more points you'll be awarded. At the end of the game, the team with the most tasks cleared and the highest point value will be declared the winners and take home some fabulous prizes. On today's team is..."

And the robotic host waves an arm to a scoreboard behind it, showing your names. The heading "Other Team" has ???? underneath it and a list of challenges is revealed along with a burst of applause. The list reads:

1. Play Twister until someone falls! The longer you go, the more points you win!
   
2. Help each other do a handstand! The Wheelbarrow is acceptable too.
   
3. Recreate your favorite scene from a romantic movie. Take, for example, That Scene from the hit movie, Skytanic! Or hum along to this song as you and your friend make some pottery together.
   
4. Create a complicated Best Friend Handshake consisting of more than 5 moves and do it together 3 times without messing up!
   
5. Answer trivia questions about each other and your worlds while holding hands and staring into each other's eyes. The more questions you can answer, the higher your points!
   
6. Do a trust fall into your friend's arms. The higher or further you fall, the more points you'll earn.
   
7. Play two truths and a lie with your friend. If you can guess correctly, you'll earn points for your team!

Are you ready, contestants? You have 20 minutes. Good luck!

At the end of the game, the characters are declared the winners by a slim and, naturally, exciting margin of just one point! And their fabulous prize......? The friendship they earned along the way! Congratulations, players! And don't worry, when the game ends, you'll be in the exact weird position you were last in as the helmets turn off. Hopefully you aren't still in those weird Twister positions because everyone can and has been able to see you. Yup, the entire time.

❥ PROMPT IV: Comic Logic

Although Achtom is waning and Ohnir beginning, Diacht's influence is still going strong. Throughout their day as they go about their daily routines, helping people out or trying to find their missing items, the natives stop looking at them and start looking above their heads. In fact, as characters meet one another, their attention may also be drawn vertically above their companion because floating above every offworlder's head is a faint white cloud. Whenever they move, the cloud moves too. Attempts to dispel it by magic or physical means does nothing and it seems like you can't touch it at all.

It's annoying isn't it? Or maybe you're feeling quite curious about this phenomenon? Or maybe it scares you? Whatever you're feeling or thinking, it shows up in that cloud clear as day. It's not every thought or feeling that shows and attempts to control what appears fails, but you're now broadcasting your innermost self to the world.

For a time at least. Smart characters might notice that after prolonged physical contact with another character, the cloud fades away and stays away for an undetermined amount of time. Sometimes it's an hour, sometimes it's a day, sometimes it's only 5 minutes, and then it begins to reform again. Whatever it is, it's here to stay, so good luck keeping your secret inner workings, well, secret.

❥ PROMPT V: Buddy System

With all the changes going on, it might be hard to be a new arrival to Havenwell. The natives understand! Sort of. When new arrivals begin to appear at the temples, receive the welcome speech, get their communicators and the simple map of the city, 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, "Here's your guide to Havenwell! It's dangerous to go alone, so be buddies!" 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!

---

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 September 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 August 30, 2019 at 10:00PM EST and our applications will run from September 2, 2019 to September 9, 2019 from 10:00PM EST to 10:00PM EST.

♥ Taken Characters ♥ Reservations ♥ Applications ♥

Comments

[twistedempathy]

[Have a sheepish smile.]

I'm not much of a scholar, I'll admit..... I'm just a trainer back home. Piecing together history like that is probably better left to someone with a real education.

[riegency]

Was an education rare in your world? I ask because I know many commoners don't have the facilities to receive one.

[twistedempathy]

Oh--no, no, nothing like that! My world doesn't really..... well, I guess some places still do have monarchies. But the class divide isn't that big anymore. Everyone gets a basic education.

[Even he had, although it hadn't been part of the public school system. Team Rocket as a whole might not have cared about the state of their grunts' education, but a personally-groomed minion like him? He'd had somewhat higher standards to live up to.]

It's just that not everyone decides to get a higher education. You might need to study for years to be a doctor, but you don't need it as much if you're just going to run a shop, you know?

[riegency]

Of course. I just know that in some places, being allowed such agency is rare.

[ like fódlan. how many peasants and commoners there can say they're allowed to choose their vocation? pretty much none. the ones claude met had to claw their way into the academy, tooth and nail. ]

[twistedempathy]

We're pretty good about that, these days. In my world, people can do pretty much whatever they want for a living, as long as they have the talent for it. Money and opportunity do play into it some, but--well, it doesn't determine everything.

[Their priorities are just..... fundamentally different from Claude's world. Can society as a whole there say they value harmony and compassion, and really mean it?]

[riegency]

[ sounds fake, tbh, but it is what he's aiming for. ]

Quite an advanced world you come from. Do you miss it?

[twistedempathy]

Well..... I mean, it is hard to leave everything familiar behind. And I do miss the rest of my team; I wish they'd made it here with me.

[Clearly all Claude needs to do is give everyone awesome pets, and everything else about his goals will sort itself out--I mean uh. Does he miss it? He desperately misses the rest of his Pokémon. No matter how carefree he acts, that loss is still raw, like a piece of his heart has been torn away from him. He misses knowing exactly what to do and how to act to get what he wants. He misses the security he'd built up for himself, the position of power and influence he'd claimed and the freedom it gave him.

But even so, this place..... he hasn't been here that long, but he's already starting to feel closer to people here than he ever did at home. He feels safer and freer here, with this brand new beginning--and like what he's doing really could mean something. In a place like this, he can actually help people. It's..... nice, no matter how strange and uncomfortable the place can be.]

But it's not bad here, either! Just about everyone I've met so far has been really nice. And the locals are trying their best to make everyone comfortable, even if they're having a hard time remembering what it's like to be human. I didn't ask to come here, but I don't mind staying a while, if I can help them set things right.

What about you, though? What kind of world are you from?

[riegency]

[ claude shrugs, casual. ]

Oh, nothing special. A few kingdoms, a church. Nothing, I imagine, that would seem unusual.

[twistedempathy]

You never know what's unusual to someone else around here, since we all come from such different places..... I never even considered universal education might be special until you brought it up, since it's such a given in my world.

[riegency]

[ claude chuckles. ]

I'm just a forward thinker, that's all. And I do a lot of reading.

[twistedempathy]

We can always use more people like that! Are you a history buff, then?

[Have an enthusiastic clap; you sound like a real smart guy already, Claude. Maybe you're enough of a visionary to help everyone figure out how to fix this world?]

[riegency]

[ very touchy. not that claude minds, but it's unusual. ]

You could say that. Knowing history helps one from avoiding past mistakes, after all.

[twistedempathy]

I guess so..... Still, it sounds so lofty and noble when you put it like that! Are you usually in a position to make such important decisions to start with?

[He was touchy even before showing up here--but honestly? Havenwell really has encouraged him to just immediately invade people's space bubbles. It's for the greater good, right? And more than that, if he doesn't get promptly rebuffed, it's good to just get the awkwardness out of the way right off the bat, too. Heaven knows they'll probably all have to end up holding hands or cuddling or something eventually, anyway.]

[riegency]

Me? Not at all.

[ he waves a flippant hand. ]

I guess I'm just well-read.

[ claude plz. ]

[twistedempathy]

Hehe~ I'll show you where the library is on the way to where everyone lives, if you're that keen on it. You'll have to tell me if you find any records of them deciding to go mechanical; you've got me curious now, too!

[Claude, plz. Plz. It isn't like he knows any better, he's just going to take you completely at your word. That line of conversation does remind him of something, though; Will snaps his fingers, veering at least a little back on track. He's supposed to be telling Claude things he'll need to know around here, right?]

Oh--speaking of decisions, though! Have you picked a god to pledge allegiance to yet? That's pretty important around here.

[riegency]

[ hmm. his expression flickers minutely. ]

A god?

[twistedempathy]

That place you woke up in? That's one of the temples around here. There are four of them, one for each god and goddess they worship in this world.

[Will gestures over his shoulder with a thumb, back towards the temple he assumes Claude had probably come from.]

Since our job here is to strengthen the gods enough to revitalize the world, everyone needs to align themselves with one of them, so your efforts can support them. You don't have to worship them or anything, and they're not at odds with each other, so it doesn't really matter that much which you pick..... Just whatever ideals you believe in most, I guess? They all govern different aspects of life.

[riegency]

[ makes sense. though claude's a little leery about connecting with another religion. neverrrr seems to bode all that well. ]

Is it that necessary? I've never been good on my knees.

[twistedempathy]

They actually just assign you to one if you don't pick yourself, soooooo I'm guessing yes? A lot of people only seem to go to their temples to find work, though--it's a pretty good way to pick up odd jobs and get some money around here, touching aside. Oh--they use Dora here, by the way, not whatever money you used back home.

[riegency]

Hmm, who would have thought the gods were desperate for worship?

[twistedempathy]

It's kind of weird, honestly--the gods on my world hardly pay attention to humans at all? They don't need us; their power is entirely their own. But these gods..... it's almost like they're using the last scraps of their power to bring us here, because we're the last hope they have left.

When you think about it like that, I wonder if they're even as strong as a human right now?

[riegency]

[ weak gods. claude is struggling to picture it.

but it also means. ample opportunity. ]

It's possible though I'm not eager to test it out.

[twistedempathy]

Neither am I. I mean, wouldn't you reach out any way you could, too?

[Because his first thought isn't how to take advantage of the potentially compromised state, but how much pain they might be in, and how scared they probably are. With their followers cut off and their planet withering away..... are they dying?]

[riegency]

[ hmm. claude is unlikely to agree as reaching out bodes terrible consequences in his case. ]

Depends on who is reaching out. And their level of honesty.

[twistedempathy]

[Being a Fire Emblem is Suffering, honestly. All the more reason to bury him in hugs.]

Heh..... I guess there's really no way to tell with gods, huh? It's not like any of them have talked to us yet.