Test Drive Meme #15

[seasonshelpers]

Test Drive Meme #15
LOGS | NETWORK | OOC | MEMES | NAVIGATION

Arrival

Part 1

You arrive in an unknown space, dressed in white clothes (player choice what kind of clothes, as long as they cover everything). Whatever was happening to you before no longer happens. It's like everything was put on a pause and you were transferred away from the situation without you realizing it happened.

The space that you find yourself in is one of these four options:

An empty landscape filled with snow and ice, almost like a blank canvas.
A field with cherry blossom trees and spring flowers.
A sunny beach near an ocean that seems never ending.
A quiet forest with falling autumn leaves.

All of the spaces seem to continue endlessly. No matter where or how far you walk it almost seems like you're not moving at all. There are no animals here - just those who happened to wake up there at the same time, in the same place. Everyone is wearing the same kind of plain, white clothes.

Despite the possible rollercoaster of emotions you might be feeling, the place somehow feels familiar. Like somehow you belong there.

And it looks like you're not alone.


Part 2

After half an hour has passed the surroundings change as everyone is teleported into a room with all the other new arrivals, no matter what space they woke up in. It's a large place with plenty of seats to sit in and beverages to enjoy. Medical attention is offered to those who need it and the doctors here are very prepared for any challenging situations.

Here, in this room, everyone gets an answer to where they are and why. A hologram of a man appears at the center of the room, waiting to be heard. He brings a message on behalf of the leaders of Ellipsa. The staff nearby tells them that the message has finally been properly updated from the original one that can still be found from the records.

The Message [ Click to Expand ]

Hello, my name is Olwen. I'm one of the leaders of Ellipsa as it currently is. I'm also one of the four who summoned you here.

Our world is in trouble and we need your help. I apologize for tearing you away from your world and forcing you to come here but I hope you understand. The magic we used doesn't let us ask in advance, nor does it let us choose who we bring here. We wouldn't have resorted to it if we weren't desperate. Our world has lost the majority of power holders who kept the balance in our world and dealt with the dangers of the Segments. Just having one power holder for each Season isn't enough. That's why we have summoned you to become the new Seasonal Power Holders.

This world is composed of four Seasonal Segments. All of them represent one of the seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer and Autumn. They were the places we used to get our resources from, but now they're dangerous places no one should go into unless they have the power to fight back. All of them have their own sets of powerful monsters and natural catastrophes. We have recently managed to regain some footing in the segments and made them safer, but there is still a lot of work to be done. The Darkness still plagues our world, but we are constantly finding ways to fight back.

Otherworlders like you have already made great differences to the world. They have managed to find and free the dragons who in turn helped us expand the area we live in. They also managed to find the Fairy Queen and even the Mermaids and Sirens of the Great Ocean Lake are at peace due to the efforts of a few otherworlders. All of these things we couldn't have accomplished with just four power holders.

My sincere wish is that you would join us in working towards saving this world. We promise to send you home afterwards, or enable a way to travel to your world and back, as a compensation for your efforts here. You're even free to stay here, if that suits you better. This world can also be yours.

I know we're asking you a lot and that it might be hard to trust someone who just talks as a hologram, but you are always free to approach us at our guilds to talk in person.

The hologram can be viewed in private in a separate room later, should someone wish to look at it again. For now, the staff of the Research Center hands everyone their new smartphones with their small flower lucky charms (the flower is anything the player decides). They're also told that the building next door is where everyone can find a room assigned to them with some of their belongings there and possibly even any animal companions. Those concerned about their mount-sized companions are welcomed to the stables downstairs to see if their friends are there. The mounts are allowed to stay there until you find a place more suitable for them.

In the arrival's hall there are also several stands with information pamphlets.

First type of stand is for the local Guilds and about the benefits of joining one.

Second type of stand is for the Welcome Center that aim to show otherworlders what the world is like and help guide people in the beginning of the journey and helps in getting settled into the new world. They even have people to help if you're unfamiliar with the new phones.

Third type of a stand has various pamphlets about businesses opened by otherworlders.

Once you get your smartphone and necessary information, you're urged to go out and find your apartment. After that whatever you want to do is up to you.

The building next door is where everyone can find their new apartments. As you enter, you're told by a friendly native that for the first two months you can live anywhere rent-free and five meals a day are paid for you. After that they get a monthly payment that helps with some of their living expenses, but otherwise they have to have a job to support themselves.

All of the apartments are comfortable, two bedroom apartments with all necessary utilities. They are also completely soundproof. Sometimes the magic system, however, does glitch and you might find yourself rooming with a stranger. This is not the intention and the staff will immediately prepare you a room of your own. But maybe having a roommate isn't all that bad?

Part 3

The locals have taken upon themselves to advertise the Welcome Center that is run mostly by otherworlders. Newcomers are encouraged to visit it, but sometimes the people might think someone who has been a while is new.

Inside one finds a modern Japanese style lobby with plenty of sofas, soft seats and cushions to sit on. Anyone is welcome to just sit around and eat some home-made snacks. There are also computers for searching information and practicing technology skills. There's usually someone behind the front desk, but if no one seems to be there they might be in the kitchen behind the front desk area.

Upstairs there are many rooms that can be into familiar places for characters (not exactly the same, but similar) with futuristic technology. It's set up to help fight any homesickness and provide a quiet place to relax.

One bonus the Welcome Center provides is a gift basket with some treats, basic ingredients for making meals and some gift cards for the Underground Mall, to possibly shop for new clothes or other necessary items. All of these have been donated by volunteers to help newcomers settle in.

Of course the people working here are always looking for new volunteers to help around! There are plenty of things to do, all in the name of making otherwolders' arrival to a new world more comfortable.

Fix-It Crew

Part 1

The City of Nightwake has seen better days. Windows and fixtures are broken, plants are damaged, roads are charred, rubble and garbage litter the streets with some bloodstains in the alleys and sometimes even in the open. Anyone asked will explain that in late May, a number of crises all happened at once, and while things are calm again, parts of the city are still rebuilding.

Magical and mundane repair help of all kinds is requested by various civilian homes and businesses. Anyone who answers the calls for help can be put to work repairing and restoring any items and buildings, replacing windows, repairing doors, building things, and/or cleaning up messes. Any help is appreciated... especially since people are reporting random garbage falling on them from nowhere, thanks to an ongoing quest!

Anyone who volunteers will also be able to learn a new spell that allows them to repair their clothing or armour on the go. Handy when you're out in the Segments and can't just go to the blacksmith!

Part 2
City council has coordinated the cleanup effort, and snack stations have cropped up near big repair sites so volunteers can get water and food. The snacks vary from place to place, but are always something popular in the district they're in; for example, a stand in Sunwaning might provide curry pan or taiyaki, Dayrise might have fried fish or cream-filled buns, or Coldreach might let you come in for chips or deep-fried pickles.

June and July is also the time of the Solstice, a traditional Ellipsan holiday, and just because everything is in shambles doesn't mean people aren't celebrating. While volunteers take breaks at the snack stations, they're encouraged to weave flower crowns with provided cut flowers that are already enchanted to last longer. Plenty of civilians are already out on the street wearing theirs!

While it's common to make your own flower crown, people are also encouraged to exchange flower crowns with others. Some natives might urge anyone who tries to pay attention to flower language when doing so. After all, while not everyone knows flower language, a crown that says "nice to meet you, can we be friends" is very different from one that says "I hope you lose your fortune" or, for that matter, "elope with me"!

OBLIGATORY BEACH EPISODE

Part 1

With summer just around the corner, word gets around that there's going to be a giant beach party in Solarpeak. The natives see this as another way to thank the otherworlders for their continual efforts to help across Ellipsa. So, just a couple days before it starts, everyone will receive a message inviting them to come to Solarpeak and join in on the festivities and enjoy the decor and events that they'll be hosting.

Upon entering Solarpeak, visitors will see everything looks ike it's part of the party. There's stalls with a variety of savory foods, drinks, desserts, and frozen treats. Otherworlders can totally find their favorite summer treats in the assortment - the natives did their research!

There's also several events scattered in the sandy landscape and in the pool itself. In the pool - there's floaties, pool noodles, and a variety of fun pool games. On land there's an inflated obstacle course, slip-n-slides, a water gun fight arena, and beach volleyball set up. Party goers are also encouraged to start up their own activities Don't worry - there's plenty of shady spots to relax, too!

Oh - and don't miss the giant bonfire everyday at dark! The bonfire will also include sparklers and smores.


Part 2
As part of the summer event, Sage Blaze is hosting a cooking competition. Sage is the most recent winner of one of Ellipsa's televised cooking competition shows – Culinary Quest. This competition isn't just about being the best chef, either, it's about learning how to cook with love. Sage will be showing anyone who wants to participate how to make sure that the chefs are cooking with feeling – literally!

People who are tasting the food of the participants will be able to taste the feelings of that participants in the food. That means a dish made with love have a boost in flavor, and if the same dish is made with hate it'll be noticeably less tasty.

While there's no real winner in the competition, participants will walk away with a handy new trick. Sage may also call out when they feel a dish is especially tasty or creative – as long as they can taste the love!

OOC TIPS

Summary of the prompts [ Click to Expand ]

Arrival
• Characters appear in one of the four seasonal spaces, depending on what season they are
• After half an hour they are teleported to the Research Center lobby and given information
• Hologram of Olwen (Winter Guild Leader) plays, explaining the situation
• They're given their smartphone-like device and told about the Starter Apartments next door
• Possibility of finding a roommate!
• Welcome Center welcomes newcomers and those who have been here for a while alike

Fix-It Crew
• The city is recovering from a disaster, so buildings and fixtures all over need repairs and cleanup
• Garbage and debris may randomly fall on characters due to someone else using a defective magic item for cleanup
• Characters who take part in repair efforts are taught a spell to repair clothing and armour
• Snack stands offer food and a place to rest to volunteers
• During rest breaks, they can also make enchanted flower crowns for the Solstice holiday

OBLIGATORY BEACH EPISODE
• Solarpeak is hosting a beach/pool party!
• Stalls with food, drink, desserts, and frozen treats.
• There's several pool games, floaties, etc.
• Options to play beach volleyball, water gun fight, slip-n-slide, etc.
• When it gets dark, there's a big bonfire with smores and sparklers.
• Cooking competition where participants learn to "cook with love".

- Ask your questions related to the TDM here.

- The TDM is available only to friends of the mods and their friends. If you want to play in the TDM, please leave a note here to inform us who invited you over. We will get to you as soon as possible.

- Test Drive is open for current characters to make a toplevel as well. New characters can add TDM on their subject line to indicate they're new!

- Current characters cannot access the starting area again to meet new arrivals. They can, however, be at the Research Center when the newbies are teleported in.

- The TDM is game canon so anything in the TDM can happen for your character(s) in the game as well.

- Smut is not allowed on the TDM. You can play situations leading to it, but if the thread is turning into smut, please move it to a private space such a post in your character's journal, or a locked post in the game's log community if you decide to app!

- Check Locations: City to find more areas to explore inside the city. Every place in the districts is open.

- Similarly, Locations: Segments is useful for outdoors adventures.

- You can find monsters to encounter in the Bestiary.

- The FAQ has information on characters' smartphones as well as general things about the world that might be handy.

code bases by tricklet

Comments

why hello stranger (exaggerated wink)

[lyingheart]

( Bertholdt has officially caught her on attempt three at a flower crown. It's slowly improving, looking less and less like the bedraggled remains of someone else's flower crown after having a child run around wearing it all day, and more and more like a flower crown just created. Annie isn't sure how she feels about it, but is counting it as personal enrichment when she's on break from the clean-up work she's doing for financial reasons.

Such an odd thing, to be back to needing wages. Honestly, not what she expected, what with the world coming close to ending. Who had intact enough societies for wages?

(... Paradis, ironically. Did they ever officially dismiss her from the Military Police? They really should have, but who knows with how their paperwork tended to go...)

Sure, she's noticed someone standing nearby, but she noticed all the movement and stillness around her. It doesn't have any particular meaning or flow until she senses intent, and Bertholdt hadn't had the type she's most wary of: killing intent. She's pulled from fruitless ruminations by a voice she hasn't heard in a very, very long time.

Annie turns so sharply that the flower crown dangling from her fingertips ready for tossing into the basket instead goes flying off them, smacking Bertholdt somewhere around his hip. He's too tall. He always was so tall. Did he get even taller since she saw him last?

Annie's eyes are wide staring up at him. What she'll never tell Reiner, since Reiner will never ask, is about the last time she saw anything of Bertholdt. In that final battle when the Colossal Titan that had been his had defended her and the rest, the Warriors of the past given their own agency separate from Ymir's puppetry. Before they were all letting go, a final goodbye on the Paths echoing across the waking world.

Those aren't beautiful memories. They're recent, painstaking, heartbreaking ones. They're part of why the world didn't end, and part of what will never come home. )

Oh. ( Annie knew he was here, given Reiner had told her. It was logically real, but now, looking up at him, it feels real. Things like asking Reiner if Bertholdt was happy felt like they mattered when there was a choice: living in this place, all the displaced people she's known over the years, but especially them. Reiner, Bertholdt. Marcel if he ever were.

She blinks twice, fast. Her voice is softer than her usual speaking tone. ) Bertholdt, it's you.

( The fact that it is him, for reasons which are not entirely fathomable to Annie herself, has her eyes starting to burn with the precursor to unshed tears. I heard how you died. I heard far too much from the one who inherited your Titan for years on end, but it started with how you died. Crushing, how that can steal her breath away. )

;)

[skyscrapes]

[ He knows that she knows in the way she reacts; the widening of her eyes, the soft oh that she lets out. He knows she wasn't there for it; he hopes whomever told her broke it to her gently. That she didn't have to find out second or thirdhand.

(He never spoke to Armin, while he was here, about it. Armin only confirmed that Annie had never actually been harmed, and Bertholdt still struggled to believe him until this moment).

He ignores the crown, shuffling a little closer. He doesn't want to loom over her, and abruptly drops to one knee so that they're mostly of a height, with her sitting on the bench. ]

It's me.

[ He confirms it still in that soft voice, cheeks turning a little red despite himself. He wants to reach out to take her hands in his own, to know she's real; he remembers how much she hated contact and doesn't, instead letting his fingers dig into the fabric of his pants.

Almost shyly, ]

... I missed you. I'm glad you're okay.

[lyingheart]

( The last four years for Annie were a surreal blur of dreams and not-quite waking, hearing Hitch or Armin's voices winding their way into her consciousness. They weren't the only ones, at least not early on, but they had been the only consistent ones: the people who didn't stop visiting her shitty basement containment room despite no reaction, day after day, year after year.

Being kept abreast of the world in Armin's words meant she didn't emerge into the world again clueless. It also meant she heard Armin's confessions to the particulars of his understanding the impossibility of choosing non-violence, in keeping hands clean, when the pressures all around you push and push for the same responses with the same hellish resolutions as what the Warriors had faced, years earlier and years younger.

None of that is what matters. Annie knows she's... changed, ironic for a woman who'd been trapped in her own hardened crystal for years. The vicious pressure that'd kept her small and focused and hopeless but for the deep, driving desire to get home to her father had fractured and fallen away with the world's near ending. She'd forgiven Reiner, if not necessarily herself. She'd turned away from the war ending their world at the assumption of her father's death, only to come back to it riding on the back of their successive generation. She doesn't just live shut down anymore.

Annie is not a person who's comfortable with the easy contact she knows her peers can accept and give so much more easily. She was raised on violence. She was asked for violence. She lived on anger and cynicism as a coping mechanism so she wouldn't bend and break under the despair of that etched future. What's the point in that anymore? It didn't save her, didn't spare her. Didn't stop her from caring for all the people she tried to tell herself she didn't care about. Changed nothing in the end but for how long it took for her to face what'd always been there, beyond the bullshit. She could have a heart and it wouldn't kill her. Not any faster than the world would anyway.

Bertholdt kneels, and Annie shifts, drawing her leg partway onto the bench, awkward and aware of it as much as she ignores it for the sake of moving at all. There's a very good chance those burning eyes are about to start shedding tears. In relief? In postponed and unprocessed grief? In some mix of both and anything else? It's suddenly just as important that Bertholdt doesn't see the exact moment that happens. He'll still know, probably, but he doesn't need to see it.

It's utterly graceless when Annie throws her arms around his shoulders, or at least attempts to — any lower and she'd have ended up needing to use a hand to brace herself against his bent knee to prevent herself from falling onto it. It's still painfully awkward to see, that angled distance and the tension in her form: her hug count might be up to a grand total of three and a half, but only her father had been about her size, and only the older, not-present Reiner would know how she'd let that barrier crumble down on the heels of admitting just how often she'd wanted to kill him when they were younger. And that she wished him to survive.

Equally graceless, her face turns into her own shoulder, presenting him with nothing more than a head of hair to even see if he was looking. )

We were all such stupid kids.

( Which isn't exactly an answer, but she follows it up with the muffled: )

You weren't supposed to get killed. ( Is it that hard to say something nice? Apparently. She breathes in, ignoring any hitch in the process, or any heat tracing its way down her face from her eyes. It's quiet, these kinds of tears, versus the gasping ones that'd brought her to her knees at the news of Liberio's eradication. ) I'm glad you're okay here.

[skyscrapes]

[ Annie was raised on violence; Reiner, progaganda; and Bertholdt, a quiet miserable acceptance of his choices. Knowing his lot in life had nowhere to go but a slow death. His anger at how Eldians were treated remains buried deep in his soul, simply to survive their day to day.

In a sense, Paradis had been what it was named after. In another, it was a living hell, a reminder of all their sins and of the people they killed, they people they would kill in the future. Far from family and only with each other to rely on, one of them already shattered mentally.

That is to say, Bertholdt is prepared for her to hit him about dying, more than he's prepared for the hug.

He goes tense when she throws her arms around him, but the moment he's not yanked or pushed; the moment he realizes she's turning her head to hide tears, he relaxes and moves. He wraps his arms around her, supporting her in case she might slide off that bench. His cheeks are still red - almost tomato-like, now - but no one could make him let her go now, except for Annie herself. ]

We were.

[ He agrees with her; he knew even at the time it wasn't fair to send a bunch of children to war. At the same time, what choice did any of them have? Whether their own drive or their parents desires, they had been made to do it.

He smiles sadly, lowering his head to rest his cheek on top of her head, in her hair. ]

I couldn't let them hurt you - either of you. I didn't want to die.

[ He can admit that. ]

It was better me than anyone else.

[lyingheart]

( Take her from that first year, she would have punched him. How dare he? How dare either of them? There's a certain wearing down that only time provides, and by the time she'd hardened herself into someone unreachable, she'd ironically started breaking down the reasons she'd self-isolated before. Trying to survive had wrecked all of them in different ways. She and Reiner at least have the chance in both worlds to recover.

Or all of them do here, she supposes. Reiner's steadier than he had been, and not as hollowed out as he'd been when she kicked his head and woke him up so they could run off and try to save the world. (Or because she had nothing gentle to give in that moment, and wouldn't until the Paradis Eldians started to fracture into confronting that they, too, would have to kill their own comrades and not leave it just to the Warriors to fight. Because of course. Aren't they the ones used to killing?)

Bertholdt... She stiffens when he says it was better him than anyone else. On several extremely practical levels, she knows that's not true. On an emotional one, she'd wanted to stop when they'd lost Marcel. Years later, not being able to make a sound, she can't even remember what she'd thought beyond wishing it would stop.

In a fierce if muffled voice, she says — )

Don't say that. There were no acceptable losses. None.

( No better ones either. Simply the ones that happen, and the ones that don't.

She can't help that she twitches at the weight of his cheek on her head, for all it's not particularly heavy. With a hug count up to almost a handful, Annie knows she's navigating her own emotional honesty... but it's not so easy, and not so simple, as suddenly trusting herself or anyone else in her space for more than brief moments. Violence is easy. Everything else is a steep learning curve.

Still, she can hold out for now. Her brow furrows, and she makes herself breathe even with her chest feeling caught in a vise. It'll loosen again. It always does. If the little shudders that come with weeping aren't quite stilled yet, she can at least offer something as distraction, as she'd learned Reiner hadn't known, had been taunted about.

She hates knowing she was used against them. Won't blame either of them, but hates that it worked all the same. )

They never touched me, Bertholdt. I don't know exactly what Armin or anyone else said to the both of you, but they never touched me. No one could.

( She shifts then, ready to pull back. Small steps. Allowing vulnerability and anything other than the front of indifference that saved her sanity from childhood until there was nothing to do but try to run, and no freedom to find but in the hardened crystal she'd made within her Titan's body.

She's run now. She's run back. If she'll find herself more free after all of it, hell if she knows. She can at least meet his tomato-red face and then find herself caught off guard, with a very genuine, very ridiculous: )

Are you blushing?!

( Look.

... Look.

... Or don't look. She makes a small noise of frustration, rubbing the back of one wrist across her eyes, her own face a touch red from the tears and, belatedly, a little embarrassment. Not at crying, but at being this bad at people. )