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sharedspace2015-11-27 04:00 pm
ourspace) wrote in sharedspace2015-11-27 04:00 pm
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TDM I: The Silent Towns
 welcome. This is the first test drive meme for openspace! We hope to be a plot-driven, space-fantasy, pan-fandom game, with a day-to-day focus on player-run plots and a metaplot about the nature of creative energy.arrival. You appear in a city square. The buildings around you are retro-futuristic, all chrome and curves. The dust beneath your feet is red, the sky is pink and dotted with pastel clouds, the sun is slightly smaller than normal, and two misshapen moons hang low in the sky. The air is breathable, the weather temperate. A moment later, there’s a strange sensation, like a pair of warm, slender arms settling over your shoulders in a draping hug. If you try to turn and look for the source of those arms, however, you'll find that you're momentarily unable to move. It sounds like a voice whispering in your ear, but it's still impossible to turn and look. A beat after that, you know what your five tasks are, even though some of them may sound preposterous. The warm arms on your shoulder vanish, and you can move again. And you’ll notice, for the first time, that there are other people in the square with you: other new arrivals. So, will you do as you’re told, or find your own way? tasks. Choose five tasks from this list for your character. (Or RNG, if you prefer.) These are the tasks your character was assigned by the unseen voice. Characters know which tasks they have, but no one has the complete list of tasks, and no one will know what tasks anyone else has unless a character chooses to share. It’s up to your character whether they complete their tasks by charm, bribery, trickery, force, wit, or a mix of all of these. Or whether they ignore them entirely. The overall goal of the tasks is just to prompt both cooperative and hostile interaction, like icebreaker bingo meets capture the flag meets Lord of the Flies. There will be no IC reward for completing any of the tasks-- though characters are free to assume that there is (the aforementioned "wish"). However there is an OOC a reward for participation. More on that below. The tasks are as follows: 1. Save the princess setting. As your character tries to fulfill tasks or thwart others (or do nothing...) they may end up exploring. Here’s what they’ll find. The City, Generally Most of the city resembles an idyllic 1960s urban center, though all done in curving chrome and brilliant bubbling glass. Oh, and it’s abandoned. There aren’t even any animals. The streets are deserted, and every interior surface is covered in a thick veil of red dust. There’s no evidence of a disaster, or a hurried evacuation, or even an instant disappearance. Clothes are hung, beds are made, dishes are stacked away. Really, it looks as though everyone tidied up, went on vacation en masse, and never came back. The city is bisected east to west by a large, placid canal spanned by several elegantly arching bridges. The city is densely built, but the local parks have started to overgrow their bounds, so the city is dotted with masses of red-tinged, unkempt vegetation. It must be summer or fall here, because the bushes and trees are heavy with edible fruits. The Palace At the north of the city is a palace, a graceful, shining cluster of four minarets. The palace had a low wall, once, but the wall has been swallowed up by an enormous bramble, with thorns as long as an arm and roses the same rusty color as the sky. The palace grounds are overgrown, but thankfully less thorny. The minarets are filled with the usual palace things: kitchens and ballrooms, stables and treasure rooms, bedrooms and war rooms. The library is filled with books in a language that no one will be able to read; the armories are stocked with everything from swords to crossbows to revolvers to rayguns, though, mysteriously, nothing more technologically advanced than modern-day technology is functioning, and none of the futuristic technology can be rehabilitated. The largest room, located in the northernmost minaret, is the throne room, a great arching room that draws the eye to the red-gold throne. The throne is empty, of course. The Temple To the very south of the city is the temple, a red-stone pyramid whose rustic materials and sharp lines stand in sharp contrast to the chrome-and-curves of the rest of the city. The temple, too, is filled with everything you’d expect from a temple: work spaces, spaces for worship, spaces for rest, even a weapons cache almost as well-stocked and diverse as the palace’s – although again, anything more futuristic than modern-day technology is dead and cannot be repaired. Parts of the temple are opulently decorated with gold and jewels, others are spartan. In a humble room at the very top of the pyramid is a single wooden altar, upon which rests a simple wooden chalice. Outside the City Walls Several miles east of the city lies a smoking volcano, belching a slender but constant ribbon of soot into the pink sky. The land to the north, east, and south of the city is reddish-brown. Most of it looks like it was farmland once; there are picket fences and empty farmhouses and barns, mostly clustered around the banks of the canal. But the fields and orchards are overgrown now, and the dirt roads are being overtaken by restless vegetation. It will go on forever like this, no matter how far you walk or run or fly. To the west, the canal flows into a salty indigo sea that stretches as far as you can see (or swim, or sail, if you manage to build a boat. It’s big). power nerfing. The arrival power nerfing is in place for all characters: all magical abilities are nerfed; any being larger than 20 meters is scaled down to 20 meters; the magical component of any magical weaponry is nerfed; any technology more advanced than 2015/2016 technology is nerfed. (Powers can be regained and weapons repowered in game! But for now, nerfed.) have fun! Reserves open on December 18 and applications open December 23rd (for reserved characters) and December 24th (for unreserved characters). We hope you'll come back to apply! Additionally, because of the game’s meta-premise, your characters will not remember this TDM when they arrive in the game. They may remember it several months into the game as part of a planned event, if you choose. However, you can convert activity in the TDM into "solar quartz," which allows characters to gain or regain abilities in-game. For every 500 words written by you or 15 comments posted by you, your character will receive one piece of quartz upon arrival in the game. (Maximum trade-in, three pieces per character.) |
Vestara Khai | Star Wars: Legends
[ Vestara had wanted to visit new planets, but she wanted to have some say in the matter, not be dragged from place to place by Jedi, ancient Force-entities, and disappearing voices. Her lips thin in a tight frown as she glances around the city square, taking in the... what, are they fellow kidnappees? Are they working with the speaker? Contrary to her usual modus operandi, the most useful thing to do here is probably to be perfectly upfront. ]
Did everyone else hear that? [ she calls. She places her hands on her hips as though frustrated, but the gesture is consciously designed to bring her hands closer to the parang hanging at her hip. She feels defenseless without a lightsaber, but she can't waste time being mad at Marvid and Savara Two now. Her priorities are to stay safe and get home.
And maybe put her parang in the heart of whoever brought her here. ]
2. Palace Library
[ Protect books is about as stupid a task as Vestara has ever heard, but she's interested in books for another reason: to investigate this world and whoever might have dragged everyone here. She hacks her way through the palace bramble with her parang and, badly tousled, makes her way through the bowels of the palace. Before long, she winds up in the library, feeling exhausted but also slightly pleased with herself.
The pleasure only lasts long enough to open the first book, which is written in a language she's never seen before. And the next one. And the next one...
She moves quickly through the library, pulling book after book and tossing each one on the floor when she realizes that it's all in the same nonsense language. A few dozen books in, her frustration boils to the top. She slams her foot on the ground, setting up a cloud of red dust. ]
There's nothing!
2
Books spread with their strange languages all in front of her, covered with a pastel uniform, and long purple hair with pigtails that might not be a common hair color for humans at all.
Interrupted from her attempted studies as dust hit her eyes, she asks the first logical question as she cowers with two clutched fists over he chest.]
Are you a bully?
no subject
no subject
You look angry and mean and have thrown away books... please don't make a disaster from this library. I haven't read any volumes at all yet...
no subject
Of course I'm angry. They're useless.
no subject
I do not believe they are. [She grabs her book.] As long as it has text, it has data that can be gathered. I just have to learn the language first, and if the semantic networks of the texts is encountered alongside visual information and definitions it tries to convey, the meaning behind them could be understood, which makes the preservation of these texts important. It is why I want protect these books... as I was told to do. I like books very much.
[This girl almost seems to go on her own train of thought when she speaks the last sentence.]
no subject
Unless you've got a protocol droid stashed away somewhere, you'll die of old age before you even figure out the alphabet. This place is useless to us.
Palace Library
And while she isn't much of a reader, she can understand from the point of view of walking through such a large place, that this is definitely not a library where you want to abuse said literature.
She keeps herself calm, though, and crosses her arms as she leans against one of the shelves with a trained brow raising slowly.]
I highly doubt those blocks of paper and leather did much to you to deserve that.
no subject
It's not what they did, [ she says irritably. She picks a book off the shelf, thumbs through it carelessly, and then turns the book around so the newcomer can look at the nonsense text. ] It's what they didn't do. Namely, that they're not written in any language I've ever seen.
no subject
Well, it's safe to say that continuing the search here would be no help at all.
[She closes the book, but instead of tossing it to the floor, she carefully places it back in an empty spot on the shelf.]
You're the first person I've seen since I got here... however I got here. I don't suppose you would happen to know why the city's so empty though...