seasonsgreetings | Test Drive Meme #4

Entry tags:

!mod posted,
tdm

Test Drive Meme #4

Test Drive Meme #4
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 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.

This world is composed of four Seasonal Segments. All of them represent one of the seasons. 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 used to have plenty of people here who could control the powers of the four Seasons. We called them Seasonal Power Holders. Unfortunately, due to a tragedy you can read about later, we lost almost all of them. Now only four of us remain and the world is in chaos. We have done our best to protect the world, but we need more power holders to do that.

That's where you come in.

All of you have been assigned to one of the seasons. Whatever space you were in just now is what season you represent. You will learn different skills based on the season and those skills are going to help you save this world.

These powers don't interfere with your own natural powers. They use a new energy that has formed inside of you. It's harmless to your health, but it's vital to your seasonal powers. Your own powers should still work, even if the dark energy outside the city might interfere with them.

Unfortunately bringing you here wasn't as simple as it sounds. We couldn't do anything about how to keep you anchored to this world other than making a simple spell that helps with it. That is, you need to touch someone else who is not from this world ideally at least once a day. It will help you stay in control of your powers and boost your magical energy. If you don't, the consequences aren't very good. But as long as you hold someone's hand or give someone a handshake, you should be fine.

That's all I have to say about the situation. The staff of the Research Center will give you more information about housing and other necessary things. I will, however, promise that you will be sent home once the situation becomes better. That's the least we can do.

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-sizes 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 or joining one.

Second type of stands is for the Welcoming Committee 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 the stands is for The In Touch Support Group that is led by the Otherwordly Ambassador, Kamisato Ayato. The pamphlets have contact information for businesses looking to help Otherworlders. They also focus more on the lore of the World and what they have discovered so far, as well as a guide on what to think about when preparing to venture out to the Segments.

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.

Part 3

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 your own room if you ask them. But maybe having a roommate isn't all that bad?

My Fair(y) Lady

Part 1

Over the course of one night, fairies have decorated various trees all over the districts with special fairy lights. It's the 200th birth anniversary of the Fairy Queen coming up, so the lights are up for the duration of the celebration. The queen herself may be currently missing, but the fairies have not lost hope in finding her one day, hiding from the Darkness somewhere.

The lights are beautiful and in various different colors. Some even change colors occasionally. They seem very harmless, but some of the lights have been altered with mischievous fairy magic. Touching a tree affected by the magic will make characters act like a dere.

Just a light touch is all it takes. Even a falling leaf from the tree can trigger its effect. Suddenly you're acting just like a (player chosen) dere. Some trees also have an additional effect on making the character like the person who touched the tree at the same time, either in a temporary romantic way or a completely platonic manner, making the 'dere-effect' manifest in its full glory.

The effect usually lasts for an hour or two, but in rare cases the effect has been known to last for the rest of the day. No one really knows why that happens, it just does.

Part 2

All of the districts now have an aesthetically appropriate party going on, with food and drink for anyone to try. As long as it's normal-sized, it's safe to eat. All of the districts also have small hanging platforms that look like stages or treehouses for the fairies to hang out and dance in. They're mostly visible for the duration of the celebration.

Those who want to help the fairies celebrate are asked to make miniature furniture for the hanging party spots. This also includes making cups and plates from leaves. Those that help the fairies with this will have the chance to receive genuine fairy wings on their back for the rest of the week (or for the rest of the month, if you ask nicely). These wings enable them to be able fly short distances (across a normal sized street, for example).

However those who are mean to fairies in any way will instead get a pig tail and ears, with a possible pig snout for the same amount of time. The effect can be reversed by apologizing to the fairies in earnest.

Part 3

There are several ways to party and some fairies are more mischievous than others. They have taken upon themselves to do fairy pranks. They're all very harmless and silly and they don't want to actually hurt anyone. Just have a little fun.

Some examples include: hair braided into small braids, a glitter bomb exploding on characters, items teleporting from one person to another and people being tricked into eating fairy food (makes random, small fairy wings appear on random parts of their body that fades in a few hours).

Foraging for Trouble

Part 1

During the dark of the night another magical thing has happened. The fairies claim that it has nothing to do with their magic if asked, but they're sure it's a miracle produced by the celebrations itself.

A large variety of mushrooms and forest berries have grown all over the districts, no matter what climate they have. Scientists (and fairy helpers) have determined that all of them are safe to eat and have decided to challenge anyone to gather these nutritious and tasty treats the earth has offered them.

Most of the mushrooms are quite normal, in both taste and how they look. There's one particular glowing mushroom that causes hallucinations, but no poisonous ones have been detected. Among the berries there are some interesting ones that have magical effects; wild strawberries make people burst into song, wild blueberries make people poetic and lingonberries appear to cause an increase in philosophical thoughts.

Upon later investigation, it seems the berries were, in fact, a fairy prank. But the mushrooms they haven't touched.

Part 2

During the evening of the third day the mushrooms appeared, some chosen people get a message straight into their minds. Its telling them repeatedly to go to the Mushroom Sanctuary, slowly trying to gain control over the characters' bodies and mind. It seems some of the mushrooms were actually fae mushrooms, a dangerous mind controlling mushroom that is near impossible to detect before it's too late.

Should characters fall victims to the fae mushroom they will start making their way to the Mushroom Sanctuary in the Autumn Segment. They will do whatever it takes to continue making their way there, including fighting anyone who tries to stop them or even hitching someone's vehicle of choice to get there faster. All they have to say is "I need to go. I'm needed."

The only way to stop the mushroom's effect is to find translucent cordyceps, native to Autumn Segment, and make them eat them somehow.

Part 3

Click on the image or here to make the map bigger.

Uninterrupted, those affected by the fae mushrooms, native or otherworldly, will make their way into their destination. The Mushroom Sanctuary is home to many peculiar mushrooms, big and small. It's light up by the glowing ones, making it look quite beautiful during the night. But no one is here to do sightseeing.

Instead, inside two of the biggest mushrooms, there are two stairways into the underground. After leaving all of their items, except their clothing, inside a third giant mushroom, the affected walk down these stairs and end up in an underground area. Once they get inside, the fae mushroom effect fades into a faint voice at the back of their mind, letting the people take in where they are.

They are surrounded by native mushroom people, who are now identified as Mushroom Fae (mushroom at max height of 1 meter/3'3 feet that have arms, legs and faces, as well as now revealed fairy wings). Everyone here has been brought here to work for the fae in order to build their Underground Kingdom. Food and other necessities like sleeping area have been provided, as well as a bathing area since they know how some humans are particular about their hygiene. Work includes digging tunnels, carrying away dirt, carrying the building material down, putting up support pillars and even building stone walls.

Animosity towards the Mushroom Fae and any attempts to attack them will trigger the Fae Mushroom control again, making the person essentially an obedient doll again. But the Mushroom Fae promise that after a few days (or a week, depending on how fast they work) they'll be released again. They just need a little bit of raw power to help with their project and this was the best way they could come up with.

Rescuing the workers is always an option, but those controlled by the Fae Mushroom will attack people who try to rescue them unless the spell is undo for them.

Part 4

After the people have been rescued from the Mushroom Sanctuary, the fairies living inside the city will make an announcement that they have nothing to do with the Mushroom Fae. In fact, they had no idea they had survived the Darkness and transformed into regular looking sentient mushrooms.

As an apology for not realizing this sooner they will offer free delivery services for the rest of the year, meaning anyone can call upon a fairy to teleport an item (a non-sentient one) from place A to place B at anytime. The fairies may be invisible but usually always hear a plea even if further away.

OOC TIPS

- Lore Related: In Ellipsa fairy and fae, while similar creatures, are different species; fairy are generally nice and fun-loving creatures who do harmless pranks while fae are usually very suspicious and may even cause harm to achieve their goals.

- Map Related: The flowers and trees are all fae made things that give light to the underground space. They're otherwise not harmful. There are plenty of places to sit down and tables to eat at (food will be basic vegetable or meat stew with mushrooms, depending on if characters eat meat or not). The bathing area has water orbs that acts as shower heads, but also big public baths that are mixed gender.

- 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 top level 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 are open.

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

- You can find monsters to encounter on Beastiary.

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

code bases by tricklet

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nothing survives in my lungs.

[??? Does that make any sense? No. But did he skip a beat with the delivery? Also no.]

If the stench of hellfire is too much for you, perhaps you shouldn't be around me... bad things tend to happen to people who stay close to demons, anyway, don't you know?

[He says all that while looking like he belongs in a pigsty...]

Gross.

[ Something feels just a little bit off in his behaviour... ]

Shouldn't you be worrying about yourself? After all, one blast of hellfire is all that separates you from becoming bacon.

[At that innocent(?) little remark he turns glum, clenching an angry fist to the point where his joints make little popping sounds.]

Those impertinent fairies thought they could play a prank on me... me!! But soon, their laughter will turn into screams. When their party is at its height, I shall turn it into an inferno.

[He demonstratively summons a flickering flame in the air between him and Levi before dismissing it again. What did Levi just say about fire and bacon, Hijikata?! Here's hoping the onidere spell will subside before the zenith of the party, because this man has arguably wreaked enough damage on Ellipsa for one month.]

Yeah? What kind of a prank?

[ AS IF IT'S NOT GLARINGLY OBVIOUS especially when he moves to summon that fire! ]

[Levi somehow manages to ask that with such an air of sincerity (~~or maybe his sarcasm was so biting that it turned all the way around~~), the confusion is blatantly visible on the ~~edge~~ demon lord's porcine countenance.]

...

Hah?

[Did he somehow not notice..?! Hijikata is stumped. If Levi can't tell that he was slapped with pig features, he sure as hell isn't going to tell him!! But then he was talking about bacon just before... he points an accusing finger at him.]

You!! Are you trifling with me?!

[ Yep, Levi's staring right into that snout and it sure is a good thing he's so ~~outwardly emotionally repressed~~ stoic, or he might just burst into laughter otherwise. What a perfect addition. Too bad the MPs aren't here. ]

Huh? I'm a model citizen, you know.

[ HE'S TOTALLY TRIFLING WITH HIM. ]

Fool!!

[He summons a whole bunch of floating flames around him in an imposing flash. Some hover by his shoulders, and a half-dozen or so float over his head in a circle, like an edgy halo... it might look kind of cool, if he didn't have half a pig face.]

You have been the opposite of a model citizen since the day you first appeared here! Must I remind you of your misconduct?!

[Now just wait a moment, though... since when did a demon care about misconduct? Is he losing the plot?]

[He is losing the plot. The onidere spell has run its course, and all of a sudden he can feel a deep confusion set in... why was he saying all that embarrassing stuff to Levi?! He has come to embrace his 'Demon Vice-Commander' moniker, more or less - if they're going to call him that no matter what, alright, he'll give them hell! -, but what in the world was possessing him to act like that just now?!]

...

[He doesn't immediately dismiss the flames, even though some people are staring at him, because he's at a loss of how to transition them out of this situation. Shit. What the hell got into me?!]

...

[ Well, he is in luck, because Levi has an excellent idea how to transition out of this flaming (heh) trainwreck, which put him on high alert as soon as those flames burst forward. ]

[ He spins around, one arm coming up as if to swing a knife, except he's holding no weapon -- ]

[ -- and roughly half a tub's worth of water just goes splooosh over Hijikata's head, all coming down in a thick wet blanket.]

[ ...well, it would douse normal flames, but does it work on magic? Stay tuned to find out! ]

[It sure enough works on this magical fire too! Its properties are the same, so it reacts like regular fire to being doused. Hijikata reacts too, namely by letting out a startled shout.]

What'd you do that for?!

[He wasn't doing anything!! (Never mind that someone threatened an inferno on the fairy party mere moments ago!) People are covertly staring from all directions... if Okita were here, he'd definitely be snapping away on his phone camera.]

[ More like a startled oink, isn't it? ]

[ Levi stares him down, crossing his arms. ]

You've threatened an inferno a minute ago. [ Is he reading your brackets, Hijikata? We will never know! ]

[ wait for it... ]

Also, I don't like you.

[ HOW VALID... ]

[It may have sounded like an oink, but let's not focus on that!! (And Levi, your feelings are absolutely #valid, especially since Hijikata would act on the same reasoning. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.)]

I don't like you either, but you don't see me burning you just because you're talking shit!!

[Granted, being burned is kind of worse than being drenched, but he has no water magic! Being turned into a wet pig in public is really doing a number on his pride (which is already damaged enough from the Gorgon disaster)... he wants to retaliate, but he can't really afford to draw more negative attention to himself right now. He's already lucky that his boss granted him leave time while he sorts his life out!

But then he remembers something.]

You still owe me a duel, do you remember that?

[After their disastrous first meeting he suggested a rematch in the coliseum once Levi's injuries have healed sufficiently! Wouldn't now be a good time? Or, if not now, then soonish! Levi clearly isn't back at 100% yet, but isn't all the shame and misfortune bogging Hijikata down roughly an equal handicap?]

[ The blankest of blank looks. ]

Ah, wouldn't that be misconduct? I thought you're supposed to uphold the law.

[ HE'S CALLING OUT YOUR HYPOCRISY, MR COP. Somebody totally deserves to be a wet pig here. Which is maybe a little ironic considering that Levi had gone the extra step to preserve (some of) Hijikata's dignity during the Gorgon fiasco, but he's not planning to tell him about it! ]

[ Also: more flat staring. ]

I don't owe you shit.

[ Hijikata challenged him, but he never accepted it... ]

[There was a witness to your good deed, Levi! One of these days Shoto may just feel prompted to let Hijikata know...

Right now, though, the dripping samurai is positively bristling. Getting his own lawful cop talk mirrored back at him and being flat-out shot down for a duel is dealing him a lot of psychic damage top of all the rest! Fortunately, endless humiliation conga lines back home have made Hijikata strong and resilient, so he manages to not break into furious hysterics.]

Suit yourself, then. I'm going to let you go this time, since it's a day of celebration and all.

[Why is he phrasing that like he's doing Levi a generous favour here... in addition to his words, he straightens up to stand tall - wetness and pig features notwithstanding - and seemingly waits for the other man to leave the scene. He wants to hide in a hole, but hell if he's going to let him see that!!]

[ One of these days... ]

[ He should consider if a possible defeat at the hands of an injured shorty would not deal him even more psychic damage first. Remember the water jousting?.. ]

[ Levi stares at him a while longer, then procures an apple from somewhere and shoves it into Hijikata's snout before walking past him to leave. ]

Good luck with the celebration feast.

[ IMPLYING THAT HE'S GOING TO BE PART OF IT. BECAUSE HE'S A PIG. ]

[That's a very good point. Being piggified, soaked, and defeated in one day would really be too much. Hijikata would end up drowning his sorrows at a bar and fall asleep on top of a vending machine or something.

It takes him a moment to process that parting zinger, and once it sinks in, he takes the apple out of his mouth and slams it on the ground with so much force that it bursts into pieces (~~food waste and littering in one go...if Dojima is at this party, he may momentarily take his partner aside for a stern talking-to~~).

He stares after Levi as if he wants to make him combust with the powers of his mind alone (and he could probably in fact do that, but again, it'd only bring more trouble!) and takes his cigarettes out with an anger-shaking hand, only to find that they got sufficiently wet to have become unusable.

I curse you. I curse you and your entire household-- wait, no, he lives with Eren.

With even his curses foiled halfway, he can only slink home (or, rather, to Ozymandias' home... the humiliation never stops!).]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive Meme #4

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

no subject

1/2

2/2

no subject

i love them

It truly was hate at first sight 🤍

indeed ;; aaand i guess that's a wrap for now?

Until soon, Levi!