baby you can drive my car

[rapturemod]

It's anticipated. It's expected. We're all about expectations, aren't we? Sort of? Maybe? Regardless, it's the first official

TEST DRIVE MEME

 

You probably know the drill by now. If you don't, here's a quick rundown: test drive memes are a game's way of gauging interest and such. It's a way to play around in the environment without the commitment of apping, maybe see how well that character you're considering gels with the setting. This one will be open indefinitely, or at least until further notice. You don't need to be apped to the game to test drive a character, or even reserved, or even want to reserve. However, if your interest is indeed piqued, reserves are thisaway, applications thataway.

As of this writing, we don't consider anything that happens in the TDM canon unless you'd like to transfer any threads that happen here to the main comms (provided they don't interfere with pre-established game events, of course). TDM threads are just a way to get a feel for a game, or in case you need that pesky writing sample for an app in progress. We don't recommend you do a standard intro post, however - save that for the game proper!

We don't have a set entry date for the game proper just yet. Once we accumulate some interest, we'll be sure to let you know!

Some resources we recommend that you check out if interest continues to abound:

Cast | Setting | Rules & FAQ | Locations

PROMPTS:

i. do you hear the people sing?
You've heard the rumors circulating about Atlas and his bandits for months. Even the upper echelons of Rapture's high society were having trouble burying their concern under the careful veneer of professionalism. What you didn't expect was an open attack. You'd just been passing by, but the poor souls who lived and shopped and made their living on this street have just found their entire livelihood set aflame. People are saying it's a bombing, while others protest that it must have been something down in maintenance.

Right now, it doesn't really matter one way or the other. The homes and storefronts have been reduced to sheeting flame as hairline cracks go cobwebbing up the glass, the only thing separating the city from a watery grave. Whether you choose to get the hell out of dodge or help the wailing survivors is up to you, but regardless of what you choose to do, this section of Rapture is rapidly coming apart at the seams.
 

ii. who's your daddy?
You've no clue whose bright idea it was to tail the Little Sister. It might have been some gang of spliced-up nobodies thirsty for some extra ADAM. It might have been your best friend's idiot plan. Hell, it might have even been yours. All you know is that no matter how appealing the thought seemed at the time, you and yours are in for a world of hurt. The Little Sister just had to shriek once and her armored protector came barreling into the scene, drill humming to life with a sinister whine. Guilty as charged or caught in the crossfire, you're in for the fight of your life with a Big Daddy, one of the most dangerous things in Rapture. Good luck.
 

iii. a part of the masterpiece

Fort Frolic, they say, is the hub for creative artistry. Sander Cohen is either a wildly inspired artistic genius or a madman depending on who you ask, but the alcohol runs the same no matter how you slice it. For tonight, the Fort is yours to enjoy at your leisure. Take a gander, gamble everything you've got, have a drink, maybe sit in for a show. The only thing Cohen loves more than his exclusivity is rampant attention, and tonight he's on full display. He's even torturing - er, entertaining a lucky pair of dancers in Fleet Hall! Don't mind the wires threaded in and out of their clothing, doubtless unspooled over all those important parts of the nervous system and ready to unleash a burst of fatal electricity at a moment's notice. They've got to be just for show.

One thing is certain about the possibly-deranged Sander Cohen, after all: he certainly keeps you on your toes!
 

iv. wild card! make up your own scenario

We prefer third-person, present tense prose, but if you're just in it for the fun you can write in whatever floats your pontoon. Have fun!
 

Comments

[johnny_truant]

"Uh. Oh." Got it in one, did he? Okay then. Wasn't expecting that, but what was he expecting? A gemstone given life. After all the shit he's read, dreamed, and seen, that's barely anything to swallow.

"I don't, sorry." He shrugs again. "I mean, I don't know a way that doesn't involve drowning. Or there's like... tunnels and things, if you just want to get to another part of the city."

[phthalo]

She hums her acknowledgement, a low, displeased sound. There may be a way out of the city, a way into the water - but without her powers over the sea, she may be just as susceptible to drowning as any human. The thought is both sobering and deeply unnerving.

"I just wanted to go home," she mutters, mostly to herself. "This place, this planet - I don't belong here."

[johnny_truant]

Planet, huh. So she's a gem and an alien and some kind of angel. Sure why not.

Her obvious sadness plucks at something deeply buried in his smoke-blackened heart. He looks at her for a moment, then sighs, drops the cigarette butt, and crushes it gently beneath his shoe.

"I'm sorry," he says. "Neither do I. I don't belong anywhere."

And he doesn't have a home to go back to. Not that she needs his sob story.

"Long as we're stuck here," he says, "you wanna go somewhere nicer than this?" Nothing's free here, and he doesn't have much money, but there's other ways in. "You ever been to Arcadia?"

[phthalo]

"I don't know what that is." She shakes her head, her expression closed. She can think of plenty of places that would be objectively nicer than here - it would hardly be difficult to find one.

He says he doesn't belong here, or anywhere. Is he just as lost as she? She'd have no way to know, and she doesn't entirely know how to parse it. This is still Earth. This is his planet, surely?

[johnny_truant]

"It's like a forest, kind of," he says. "You wanna see?" He starts moving toward the Bathysphere station, motioning for her to follow.

It would be just as well if she chose not to come. Probably better for her in the end. Probably best if he just left her alone.

But she's lost, she's lonely, she's strange and beautiful and blue.

It's too perfect.

[phthalo]

A forest? Here? The only forests that should be here have to be the ones made from coral, the reefs that line the ocean floor. She follows, largely out of a sense of doubt than anything else.

The little metal-and-glass globe labeled BATHYSPHERE looks cramped and uncomfortable, even if the seats are lined with rich red velvet. She perches on one of them uncertainly as the door groans shut. Her shoulders tense. The sensation of being contained doesn't agree with her. Rather, she doesn't agree with it.

"What kind of forest?" she asks skeptically.

[johnny_truant]

He's not into being contained either, but he'll pick cramped travel methods over being trapped in one part of town forever.

"Regular kind," he says. "It's how they get oxygen, I guess, or something. You'll see when we get there."

He pulls the lever and settles back across from her as the little ball clunks into motion, dragging them slowly across town to their destination.

"Where do you come from?" he asks curiously.

[phthalo]

So. She had known humans needed to breathe, but the thought that they would construct an entire city in a potentially fatal environment is nothing short of baffling. They engineered a means of growing trees beneath the waves - why? The possible reasons for doing so seem rather nebulous, and entirely lost on her.

She's not sure whether she can quantify the entire thing as brave, foolish, or completely insane.

"Far beyond your star," she says with a listless shrug. It hardly matters anymore, not if she can never return, for more than one reason. "Far beyond anything. But I'll never go back there."

[johnny_truant]

Well, that's fucking bleak. Johnny tries not to look at her, looking instead out the little window as the city flows past.

"Sorry," he says. Then, cause he isn't sure what else to say, "I've never met an alien before."

It's probably rude, but there's probably no helping him on that.

[phthalo]

She looks at him oddly, a dark crease appearing at her brow. She's not sure what he means by that. It would make sense, though, in the technical definition of the term. She's not from his world. She would be, for all intents and purposes, an alien.

An alien who willingly chained herself to the floor of his planet's ocean, only to end up there regardless.

Better he not know of that sacrifice, or of Homeworld. Steven was a gem, at least partially - he was already privy to that knowledge no matter who he ended up hearing it from.

"You're the first human who's talked to me," says Lapis with a delicate airiness. The first complete human, in any case. "I guess there's a first for everything."

[johnny_truant]

"Really?" He's not sure if that should surprise him. He's not sure he's much of a good first human experience. "Well, don't let me ruin them for you."

He tilts his head again toward the window as the Bathysphere groans to a halt.

"Here we are," he says, getting up. "We're gonna have to sneak in. Not my first time tryin' it. Unless you have a lot of money squirreled away." Not that he's asking.

[phthalo]

Lapis shakes her head slowly, her expression closing so as not to betray how mystifying his vocabulary is proving to be. Humans do have the most unusual sort of lexicon.

"That won't be a problem," she says matter-of-factly, choosing to address the part of his statement she understands. "I'm used to going unnoticed."

The entrance to the place, Arcadia, is lined with several stands, all bearing the loud pronouncement of TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS. Just beyond them is some kind of mechanical gate, a vertical post fixed with horizontal arms barring the way.

The humans stationed at the stands haven't seemed to have noticed them, too preoccupied by the irregular flow of other humans passing in and out of the gates. Whatever the 'tickets' are, they seem vital to passage into Arcadia.