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Serendipity Mod Journal ([personal profile] serendipitymod) wrote in [community profile] serendipitymemes2022-01-14 08:33 pm

test drive meme #2

TEST DRIVE MEME #2
Welcome to Serendipity's first test drive meme!

TDM threads can be considered game canon if everyone agrees to it.
Any questions about the TDM can be asked in the mod questions thread.
Questions about the general game mechanics, setting or locations, or magic can be asked on their respective pages.
Current characters in the game are welcome to post top-levels, especially if they would host a booth in the Community Fair.

i. ARRIVAL


It was a beautiful dream, complete with a sobering and tantalizing choice.

The awakening is just as beautiful, and you wake slowly, comfortably and completely on your own time, eyes blinking open to take in the surroundings. You are floating in the center of a pool of pink-tinted liquid, just a little thicker than water, just thick enough that the floating takes no effort. Dressed in a soft white cotton robe, you find yourself staring at the high domed ceiling of a round room lined with huge windows that let in the afternoon sunlight, a little pale and washed out with the cool midwinter temperature and the reflection of light snowfall outside.

Inside, it is warm, the liquid you float in close enough to your body temperature that you can barely feel it as it moves over your skin. Thick vines climb the walls, weaving in and out between the windows and occasionally over them, throwing thick organically-shaped stripes here and there across the room. Once you fully awaken and stand up and exit the water, you will find towels to dry yourself beside a neatly stacked bundle of your clothing (all very precisely mended) and any other items you might have had on your person when you made the decision to stay. You are left alone, given time to sort yourself out and get changed, and it is only when you decide to leave the antechamber with the pool through a single open arch and make your way into the courtyard of the castle that you will be approached.

The people who greet you are warm and welcoming, wearing robes of different colors depending on the House they're affiliated with - green for Life, blue for River, brown for Stone, and yellow for Sun. These representatives explain to you where you are and what you've agreed to and answer any questions you might have. After this conversation, you are given your tablet and walked through how to use it, then taken on a tour through the various House accommodations so you can choose which suits you best, and offered to be taken to the stables should you have a mount, large pet, or vehicle that's come through with you.

ii. COMMUNITY FAIR

This month, rather than a festival, new arrivals are invited to attend a community fair! The fair is set up in the largest ballroom in the castle, and there are a wide variety of booths set up to showcase both magic and more mundane wares offered by various artisans, cooks, and other community members. Any current resident is welcome to set up a booth to showcase their skills, abilities, or anything else they have to offer the community, and the booths set up by NPCs range from House booths to show off their specific brands of magic to a contest for the largest fruits and vegetables from the Greenhouses to handmade soaps to a little petting zoo of a few of the recently tamed creatures that are starting to become more common.

Browse the booths, haggle for the wares on offer, or just go around to get free samples and swag. It's up to you!

☆ a. MAGIC BOOTHS Each House has a booth set up to showcase their magic in hopes of luring in new arrivals to sign up to learn magic from them. Every House has a few specialties and they are all on display. Visit the House Life booth to learn how to manipulate plant life by creating beautiful pieces of art from vines and flowers, or have someone conjure you a snack or a small trinket based on your personality from thin air. Visit the House Stone booth to have someone create you a small stone carving with a few touches of fingers, test out a barrier by having people throw things at it, or watch a performance by a fire or air dancer. Visit the House River booth to witness beautiful living water art, have your fortune read by a professional diviner, or have an item on your person transmuted into something different (or fixed, if it's broken!). Visit the House Sun booth to hold and interact with a tiny cyclone in a bottle, experience the temporary high of an euphoria enchantment, or watch illusory plays with tiny actors on the surface of a table.

☆ b. FOOD STALLS There are a wide variety of food booths where current residents have cooked a wide variety of special dishes, all made from fresh ingredients. Most of them are currently vegetarian, as taming the animals in the valley is still a work in progress, but they are deliciously prepared and spiced to perfection. So find a new favorite, revisit an old one, or just fill up on the generous free samples all the houses are offering. Currently these are running on a barter system, and NPCs will be very interested in any small trinkets or coins from characters' worlds and trade generously.

☆ c. GOODS & SERVICES STALLS There are a wide variety of goods and services on offer. From handmade soaps to candles to a massage booth, the current residents are offering anything they can to new arrivals. As with the food stalls, they're running on a barter system, and NPCs will offer a good deal in exchange for anything interesting from characters' worlds.

☆ d. PETTING ZOO Over the past month, a few animals from the wild expanses of the valley have been tamed, including a couple of horses, some goats and sheep, cows, chickens, and a strange breed of tiny dog-sized elephant. The animals aren't exactly like the ones that characters may be used to - the cows have large horns, the goats are just a little smaller than usual, and the chickens are covered in fur instead of feathers. A pen is set up across half of the ballroom in which these animals are being fed, cared for, and characters are welcome to learn about them and interact with them.

iii. IF WISHES WERE HORSES


There's been a significant amount of progress on working to gather building supplies and creating barns and pens in preparation for the taming of various wild animals in the valley. New arrivals are invited to help with gathering building supplies - cutting down some of the trees in the lush forests, digging up and transporting stones, or helping to build barns and pens. The atmosphere of the work is very positive, with almost a party vibe going on as people work together to start on the infrastructure that is so desperately needed in this place.

And it isn't just creating places for tamed animals to live either. Roaming in the valley are various large herds of wild horses and wild cattle. These animals, while wild, are not terribly afraid of humans or other sentient races. With a careful approach and a bit of gentle touch (and maybe a little bit of animal magic), these animals may be persuaded to spend some time with characters. And after a bit of time is spent, they might even be willing to bond with characters and come to live in barns or animal pens that characters have built.

iv. SKILLSHARE


Does your character have a special skillset? Did you keep a garden, study magic, know how to build structures or fences, cook, knit, sew, or do anything else that might be useful for other characters to know? Now is your time to share that knowledge!

Space has been set up in a few of the smaller ballrooms for characters to teach skill classes on any topic they're well-versed in. Think up a little curriculum or demonstration, and NPCs will be happy to provide any supplies necessary to teach a little class on your skill of choice. Now to just get out there, advertise your class, and drum up a few pupils to teach!

v. NETWORK


Each character's tablet will light up at some point during the first few days and open a new entry with a blinking prompt: Tell us two truths and a lie, let us guess which is which.

Or characters are welcome to post up their own network-based prompts.

NAVIGATION








historicallyloaded: <user name="avali"> (097)

Brickston | Blades in the Dark (oc)

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-01-16 07:23 am (UTC)(link)

i Victorian fainting couch

[ All of this was very overwhelming but deeply fascinating for Brickston. After waking and settling he eagerly conversed with the Serentali people, asked many questions, and felt a terrible pang of empathy as they explained their plight. The vast uninhabitable desert surrounding the Ivory Castle bore an uncanny resemblance to the vast uninhabitable Deathlands that surrounded Doskvol. He knew a life lit only by a dim and fractured sun and an eerily looming moon. He grew up in perpetual darkness. That was normal.

Here in the courtyard he has to shield his face with his hands.
] ...are you-- THAT'S the sun? [ It's so bright he can't even stand to look at it directly for more than a second, much as he might want. He only has one good eye left! Still, it's difficult to contain his excitement. Bricks separates from his tour guide to wander the middle of the courtyard, spins around with a wide smile, flits from railing to railing and soaks up every new sight, sound, and smell that's offered to him. ] I can actually bloody feel it on my skin it's so strong. It's warm?! Is this normal? And you MADE THIS?! I can't believe everything is so-- so lush!

[ Out in the distance he can see the mountains, the forests, the valley below, the cliffs that taper off into an endless sea. His face starts to falter a little, unsettled, like he's seen it all before. He mutters to himself with his brows knit tightly. ] An entire sea that held blue water... [He looks up to see the sky; it's blue but there's rays of pink knitting their way in as the sun moves closer to the horizon. ] ...almost as vivid as her hair...

[ A sense of dread and vertigo starts to pull at his legs and it's not helped when he looks down over the railing again, wind blowing his hair around and so dizzyingly high up.] It's just like-- oh... [ He has enough sense to stumble backwards away from anywhere dangerous, but, moving also makes his equilibrium immediately worse. His head swims and he's crumpling like a marionette.

There's a blonde eyepatch wearing nobleman twink fainting in the middle of the courtyard.
]


ii Community unfair

iia [ So basically, someone is spending way WAY too long at House Sun's booth. To the casual observer the pattern is fairly clear; Bricks comes in, requests a euphoric enchantment, leaves, returns 30 minutes or so later and asks for it again. By the third or fourth time he is being shoved out of the booth by the patron, hands pressed at his back with his heels sliding on the stone floors. ] I-I don't see what the issue is, it's not like there's any sort of withdrawals or-- or tolerance build up or anything like that, right? [ Desperately, he looks out into the crowd and points at you. ] You! Yes you there; you agree with me don't you?!

iib [ Lured to the slightly crowded booth with sweet smelling soaps, Bricks tries to politely squeeze his way through just to have a look but isn't having much luck. He manages to get enough of a glimpse at the seller's list of wares and one thing catches his eye. He quietly asks to the next closest customer in hopes they can see better. ] What is a bath bomb? It's not what it sounds like, is it? [ He actually... sounds a little hopeful? Excited? By whatever he thinks it sounds like. ]


iii Horsing Around

[ Building a barn; not something he's ever done before. He's more a blue-prints kind of guy if he had a hand in any of this, but physically moving supplies around isn't beyond his capabilities. He might even be looking for any excuse to enjoy the sun and outdoors, still so new and novel to him. Bricks is not very strong but he carries what he can, and a small wicker basket of transporting stones is cradled in his hands. As one of the horses curiously approaches, he actually shies away and hides behind the nearest person. He's not terrified, even leaning around to curiously observe, but he's clearly intimidated and cautious. ] They're a lot bigger up close... aren't they?


v 2 truths 1 lie

- I once set a district on fire.
- My mother locked me in a cellar for two days.
- I drank someone's soul, once.

Anyway, games are fine and dandy but can we address the absolute marvel that is this technology? Long distance instantaneous communication? Brilliant stuff, this.

Just a bit of curiosity, who's interested in what house, and why? I'm quite partial to House Sun and House River. Transmutation seems to have an endless realm of possibilities! Once you, um... get the hang of it?


vi WILDCARD

[[ He'll be all over the community fair in general, possibly he could help you out by bartering with something that's in his bandolier, or he might ask for a second opinion on any of the food, or he might be petting any of the small animals that look fuzzy and friendly. Or staring at the goats. For skillshare he's a tinkerer, an alchemist, and an all around science nerd--anything that puts his hands to use. Feel free to modify any of the prompts or wildcard, I'm super easy and can roll with the punches! More info's in his journal, PM journal if you want to chat. ]]
tothedust: (4)

[personal profile] tothedust 2022-01-19 01:13 am (UTC)(link)
Did it taste like Everclear or Coca Cola?
historicallyloaded: <user name="avali"> (075)

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-01-19 01:24 am (UTC)(link)
Well, first you're going to have to describe what Everclear and Coca Cola tastes like.
tothedust: (Default)

[personal profile] tothedust 2022-01-19 01:25 am (UTC)(link)
Better question what's your favorite fruit?
historicallyloaded: <user name="historicallyloaded"> (052)

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-01-19 01:32 am (UTC)(link)
Cherries and apricots, easily.
tothedust: (2)

[personal profile] tothedust 2022-01-19 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
Souls don't taste like cherries or apricots then?
historicallyloaded: Blood Bank (edit) (018)

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-01-19 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
I suppose taste may vary depending on the individual in question. He keeps his in a flask.

Not a wise place to keep such a thing, if you ask me.
tothedust: (8)

[personal profile] tothedust 2022-01-19 01:40 am (UTC)(link)
No he'd be rude not to offer a sip.

Which one was your lie? Or should I guess?
historicallyloaded: <user name="historicallyloaded"> (032)

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-01-19 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
It was rude of him. He thought I couldn't handle it!

Give it your best guess, you've technically got two.
fishermansweater: (Default)

v

[personal profile] fishermansweater 2022-01-19 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
I really hope the lie is the soul drinking thing.

[ Not that actually setting fire to a district would be a good alternative, but the soul thing sounds unsettling. ]

I'm going with House River. Have you seen their sleeping quarters? They're great.

historicallyloaded: Beware the Villainess (edit) (009)

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-01-19 03:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Astute guess. I didn't actually end up drinking his soul... he was keeping it hidden in a flask, however.

Oh, yes! They have those little waterfall insets, don't they? Quite relaxing. What do you think of the little artificial river that runs through the communal cooking area?
fishermansweater: (Default)

[personal profile] fishermansweater 2022-02-02 12:45 pm (UTC)(link)
How did you manage to set a district on fire?

[ Not that he hasn't had very obvious proof just how easy that is recently, but he's assuming that it isn't the same situation as what had happened in Four to put down the uprising. Because if it is, then he'll have to think about that, and he doesn't want to. ]

I like it. I think having running water nearby would be good. Especially since they say it's not safe to go far outside the walls, which means no wading in the ocean.
historicallyloaded: Beware the Villainess (edit) (008)

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-02-03 06:57 am (UTC)(link)
Oh just... a bit of a distraction tactic that got out of hand, straight from the mouth of a bazooka.

I did put it out.
amonsterbyanyothername: (blank)

i. Hello fellow eyepatch fren

[personal profile] amonsterbyanyothername 2022-01-25 06:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[Settling in seems easy enough. It still feels like a dream, and Kei's not so sure it's not, but he's certainly rolling with it. Either way, he could certainly agree that it is a lot to take in. But Kei appreciates the tour all the same. When Brickston wanders off, Kei thought about saying something to get the man's attention, but finds himself uncertain of what to say exactly. He doesn't know the guy; maybe Brickston knows what he's doing.

But there's a nag inside that urges him to at least follow Brickston, to make sure he doesn't find himself in any trouble. And, well, it seems to be a good thing that he did. Because Brickston just collapses.

Kei is faster and stronger than he looks, so he's under Brickston before he can hit the ground and immediately holds him princess-style. Does he need to take Brickston to a hospital? Where even is one? Kei hums in thought before gently trying to shake Brickston at his shoulders.
]

Are you alright? Can you hear me?

[His voice is gentle, though it hardly sounds concerned. He's sure that no matter what he needs to do, Brickston will at least live to see another day.]

historicallyloaded: piccrew 19158 (003)

eyepatch fren

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-01-26 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He's roused easily, one green eye flitting open as the sense of dizziness washes over him. His equilibrium still feels off but it only takes a second of recognition to realize that's because now he's being cradled princess-style by a pair of deceptively strong arms. ]

...Yes, I'm fine. [ Looking up at Kei, he briefly wonders if he was among the others who woke up here and was being toured around, like him? Also with an eyepatch... just like him. He catches himself staring at it and averts his gaze shyly. ]

Did you catch me? [ That's a question that sort of answers itself. He's quick to move past it. ] I, uh... hope I didn't trouble you, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me.

[ He does, he just doesn't really want to admit to it out of embarrassment and would rather apologize for the inconvenience. ]
amonsterbyanyothername: (happy clam)

[personal profile] amonsterbyanyothername 2022-01-27 08:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's a relief that Brickston rouses easily enough. And that he's able to answer clearly. It doesn't seem that there's any need for a hospital then.

And with Brickson's apology, Kei gives a small chuckle.
]

It's no trouble at all. All that matters is that you're alright.

[He's seen and put up with worse, honestly. Kei's just glad that he doesn't have to fend off monsters to save somebody this time. Not that he can't, it's just certainly a nice change of pace.]

Are you able to stand? I can carry you to a rest area if you need.
historicallyloaded: <user name="historicallyloaded"> (084)

[personal profile] historicallyloaded 2022-02-03 06:56 am (UTC)(link)
N-no, that's not necessary at all, I assure you. [ He flushes a little at the very notion of this guy offering so casually. How strong is he?

He motions he can definitely get up on his own, dizziness now cleared. When he stands he dusts himself off, more to shake his own nerves back in order.
]

Thank you at any rate for catching me... sir? [ He trails off, hoping his nice savior has a name. ]