spherememing | June/July Test Drive Meme

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June/July Test Drive Meme

June/July TDM

Welcome to Sphere's June/July Test Drive meme! This is a great place to get a feel for the game and how your characters might fit in here. Explore the setting, and get your samples and some starting CR all at the same time!

Applications and Reserves are always open!
Threads on the TDM are considered game canon if both parties agree to it!
Threads on the TDM may be considered for Activity Check if need be!

Time to shine, sparkle and become renewed.

So the fighting has finished, the filtering system is turned back on and the water has retreated. Of course, all that water rushing in and having been there for so long means that there is a giant mess in most parts of the Sphere, where water alternated between coming up to one’s ankles, all the way to one’s knees. Even the smaller private domes were affected with lesser amounts of water, leaving dirt and sediment and kelp behind along with an assortment of other sea life.

Now we all remember what happened last time something grew inside the Sphere right? Thankfully, there’s been a fair amount of supplies that have been accrued, and it involves gloves, face masks and a good damn amount of bleach to go with those large scrub brushes. There’s also huge pails of soapy water that are used to clean up things from the bleach. Everything is wet and it smells a bit like an indoor swimming pool, but it’s definitely safer to be safe than sorry.

So pick up a brush and pitch in. Those who do may find a little extra something from the Council delivered to their homes in a basket. Those who don’t may find themselves a little bit on the Council’s unofficial shitlist. And given that Max runs the Black Market, it’s not a great place to find yourself. Maybe you were sort of shoved towards this and were doing it haphazardly. Maybe you give a damn. Either way, food and water will come to you, and everyone will be better once this place is cleaned up.

Or so people keep telling ya anyway.

about that bucket of water that you’re wearing.

Of course, if there’s one thing that history and eighties movies have taught us, it’s that where there’s giant buckets of soapy water around, and hoses, and big sponges, then there’s bound to be one thing that happens: a water fight. And a big one at that. Kids (or kids at heart) have been not so subtlety wandering around with buckets filled with cold water, or sponges dipped in them and a few of them have hoses. There’s no bleach in them thankfully (because it’s all fun and games until someone gets a chemical burn) but the water fight is a good way to let off some of the tension that the folks in the Sphere have been getting up too.

So are you a victim, or are you a perpetrator. Do you care either way? But it doesn’t matter because this fight is huge and when there’s this much water flying around, there really isn’t any space for anyone to be a bystander here. Sorry.

with a suitcase full of summertime

Do y’all know what we happened to miss while we were underwater?! The summer solstice. And once things are all cleaned and cleared up, your resident summertime goddess ain’t gonna let it pass without knowing it, and it’s something the inhabitants of the Sphere take to like ducks to water. Wine and dancing is flowing all around and there’s a few fiddlers and jazz musicians dancing around. Because when the queen of the underworld prods ya gently, you get up and do it.

As the night and people’s alcohol levels rise, people start to become more daring with the fire. After all, everything is all cleaned but probably still slightly damp from what had happened, so there’s no problem with people swinging poi around, or using hula hoops set alight. There are even some among us who happen to be going out and jumping over bonfires in order to create good luck for the new year to great cheers of the people around them.

and baby you should see me in a (flower) crown

Do you know what else is a thing during this? Flower crowns. There are tons of flower crowns and various people are sitting around and teaching people how to make their own. The materials, including fresh flowers of all varieties are scattered around the field in the agricultural dome, and people are sitting criss-cross applesauce in order to add ribbons to the stems. For those people who are loathe to wear them, it almost becomes a game for other people to plant them on those resilient folks heads. People use magic or guile or just plain old tossing them in order to make it so that they land on people’s heads. More than that, a group of people will audibly cheer each time one lands. (And of course jeer when they lose one.)

exploration: teeth and bones.

After what had happened, there really is no putting back the seals on the doors to the places that were opened up, even though the council has tried with some of them. There are some doors that are deemed too dangerous to let anyone go inside of (lava and ghosts are not good things to let loose inside the Sphere, no matter how fun it would be at the time) but the door in the infirmary (in the morgue) needs to be open for practical purposes. Which may not be great for people who work in the infirmary, but there it is.

Once people drop through a hatched hole in the floor of the morgue, there’s tunnels extended out for several hundred yards, into the dark. If you have a flashlight, it’s clear to see that here and there the walls are etched with Latin, carved into the stone of the tunnels themselves in what looks more than a little bit like scratches rather than anything that resembles tool marks. The words are repeated at first, over and over: ”cave veniunt!" And "ossa et dentibus illius ruminandum!" Along with the repeated: “cave.”

The skeletons inside are supposed to have been all taken care of, but you can’t help the uneasy feeling that moves down your neck in the darkness, or the way that you can swear you can hear more than a little bit of a hiss of bone. There are things discarded here on the floor of the hallway, gathering more value with the deeper that you go, but is it worth being down here in the dark with the dead for that?

mechanic: memory share.

Too see the full updates on how memory shares work, please visit here

Memory shares are experienced over the networked, and beamed directly into the other person's brains as if they are experiencing it themselves.
Shares do not need to be written a certain way, but here is a mod example: Too see the full updates on how memory shares work, please visit Max Tinder memory share.
These memories are things that they are watching through the experience of the person who's memory has already happened. It's like seeing a recording that feels very real. However, there isn't anything that they can personally do within it. These are things that have already happened to the character and are fixed points.
These posts are responded to like a message on the network, and not in the memory itself.

wildcard

This is a good place to test out something like the network or an idea of your own! Remember upon waking in The Sphere, each character is fitted with a small golden circle behind their right ear. This is how they are connected to the network through a neural link. Touch and hold the button to create a broadcast of one of three types:

Audio. Your character thinks audible words onto the network.
Writing: Your character thinks text into the network.
Video. Your character projects a broadcast of a video of themselves onto the network.

Replies are determined by the player. The network needs to be accessed by choice, so character broadcasts are not automatically beamed directly into people’s heads. The Sphere isn’t that rude.

Private messages are allowed by pressing and holding and pressing and holding again as you picture the person in your mind. This can be an image or a name, err more on the side of things being more accessible than less.

photo inspiration

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He nodded, not really commenting further. He wasn't expecting such a quick agreement, usually his getting anyone to do anything was more like pulling teeth.]

See those shovels over there? We gotta get this sediment out of here.

[And it was everywhere. Clearly these domes had flooded recently, bringing sand and dirt from the ocean floor with it.]

[ She nods quickly. Yes. Shoveling she can do. She pins her hair back as best as she can. The damned locks always have a mind of their own, so she ties a kerchief around her head for good measure. Better to keep it out of her eyes and deal with the mess later. Then grabs a shovel and spits on her palms before getting to work.

And she does in silence a moment before deciding now is as good a chance as any she's going to get to get some answers. ]

So, um. Do you live here?

[There's a wheelbarrow between the two of them for easier transport of the refuse, and he continues to shovel, glancing around for just a moment at her question.]

Uh...yeah, sister. Pretty sure we all do, now.

[ Well. That's disconcerting. Her brow furrows a bit. ]

What, forever? They just brought us down to shovel dirt underwater?

[ It's enough to make her want to scream. The thought of being trapped, in this alien place, so far away from her family and everything else she's ever known forever...

She shovels harder. ]

[He stops, shovel blade down, and crosses his arms atop the handle, leaning against it and just watching her for a moment.]

Sister, you looked outside at all? There's millions of gallons of water out there. If we could escape, we'd all be crushed before we ever made it up there, and if we did make it up, we'd all die of the bends. Who the hell cares what we're doin' down here? Until we figure out where the subs are, nobody's leavin' except how we came, and on that one, your guess is just as good as mine.

[ Her lips tighten slightly. The whole "focus on what you're doing so you don't think about home" would be easier if he wasn't jabbing that nerve with a needle every time he addressed her.

It's not on purpose, she reminds herself. How could he know she has a brother? She takes a breath. ]

Um, actually, if it's all the same would you mind not calling me "sister"? My name's Laica, if you care to use it. Or Hawke if you want to be more formal. Or... just about anything else if those won't do.

[ More to the point. ]

I don't know what the bends are. But we didn't get them coming down here. We also didn't get wet coming down here. So it's just a question of figuring out who did this and why and... using what they used against them. [ She starts shoveling again. ] Unless you're content to submit to fate, or whatever. Never been good at that.

[What he called her was all the same to him, so he shrugged.] Sure, whatever Laica, and yeah, it's that simple. Shit, I wish I'd thought of it.

[He scoffs, shaking his head and taking up his shovel again.]

Cole, by the way.

Cole.

[ She repeats, and offers a hand. She continues on whether or not he takes it. ]

I can't imagine the sort of engineering one must be capable of. Our captors must be dwarves. Or perhaps Qunari.

[ She chews her lip as she mulls it over. ]

Probably dwarves. They're more like to actually live underwater instead of under rock. Probably some kind of elevator. It has to work, they got us down there.

Humans are just as capable. [He blinks, though, rubbing his forehead thoughtfully.] ...what kind of dwarves?

Possibly. We don't often bother, do we? I suppose using magic is close enough to engineering.

[ Maybe that's just ego talking. An attempt to feel better about her own curse. Oh well not going to think about that right now. ]

What kind... [ She doesn't quite understand the question. ] Dwarf dwarves? Probably not surfacers, if that's what you mean? It seems the best artisans tend to stay underground. Maybe they like the challenge or whatever.

Uh...you know, in my experience, magic's nothing like engineering, but you go ahead and tell yourself that.

[He pinches the bridge of his nose.]

...you're talking like...short, stout guy with beards aren't you?

No, that's not my point.

[ She frowns a little. ]

I mean that the dwarves don't have magic. They're immune. So they need to figure out other ways to do the things they want to do. Hence, all the engineering.

[ It makes sense to her, anyway. ]

Yes. Not all of them have beards, though. My friend Varric doesn't. But the Orzammar dwarves don't consider surfacers like him "real" dwarves anyway, so... [ She trails off in a shrug. Her understanding of dwarven culture is limited, to say the least. ]

Sounds like my kind of people. Magic doesn't solve everything. [In fact, most of the time, it causes more problems than it solves.]

Wow. Dwarves are racist to other dwarves. It's like they're people or something. So, they build stuff, huh?

[ Well. That's not exactly a surprise, is it? She might not be in Thedas, but Thedas is hardly the only place in the multiverse that takes a dim view of magic. Her expression is perfectly, blandly, pleasant as is her tone. A good reminder to watch her step and not get too comfortable. ]

Of course. In fact, one could say that magic causes more problems than it solves.

[ His other comment confuses her so much she pauses in her labor, her brow furrowing. ]

Dwarve... why wouldn't they be people?

It was...sarcasm. Don't worry about it.

[He shakes his head.]

I don't know much about magic, honestly. Ain't really my gig, but I can see that.

[ She doesn't understand the sarcasm, either, but he seems disinclined to explain so she lets it go. But her mind starts casting about for a change of topic because this one is giving her that uncomfortable, sick feeling in her stomach that she tries to avoid. ]

It would be better for everybody if we could all just avoid it entirely.

[ She continues in the blandly pleasant tone, like when somebody has to be polite to somebody they don't like, or discuss upsetting topics in the presence of children. ]

Do you know what caused all this flooding? I hope they have a plan to deal with it. Something more involved than press ganging a clean up crew.

It's got it's uses, but I've seen people do some crazy shit with it, too. [Like raise all the dead of San Francisco...but maybe that wasn't magic. Maybe that was just Pris being really creepy.]

Uh...close as I can figure, the domes aren't as durable as they want us to believe. It ain't comforting, but that's the most likely situation. Anything definitely, you're guess is as good as mine.

Magic is meant to serve man, and never rule over him.

[ Laica recites it dutifully, the words that have been used to keep her button-down and subdued her entire life, afraid of reaching her own potential lest she go against the will of the Maker who gave her that power to begin with.

She frowns at his explanation. ]

Starting to wonder about the wisdom of our captors. Why bring more people into a place that's already fragile? And then make us clean up instead of reinforce the structure?

Sounds like that could go really well or really badly.

[And it also sounds a little cultish, but he can touch on that later.]

Pretty sure they did that before we got here.

It's better than the alternative.

[ She's sure of that, just from dealing with the magisters, and the stories Fenris told her of his torment at their hands. As great as some mages in southern Thedas may suffer, is that any worse than the suffering everybody else would be subject to without those practices? ]

Oh, good to know they prepared for their slave labor.

[ She's getting saucy. But that's how one foments rebellion, isn't it? Testing the waters for potential allies in ways that are easy to backtrack from if they prove to be too much of a brainwashed loyalist. ]

I'll take your word for it.

[And he meant that. He didn't know enough about magic in general, let alone magic from other places, to pass any sort of judgement.]

They pay us a monthly stipend. Last time I checked, slaves didn't get paid.

[ She frowns, because he has a point, but... ]

Employers don't usually kidnap you and hold you against your will.

[ She sighs and pushes a lock of sweaty hair off of her forehead. ]

What are we supposed to do with this after we fill the bucket?

The Sphere kidnapped us. The people who employee us, too. It's complicated.

[He smirks.]

What, you never mopped before?

[ She rolls her eyes. ]

Right. We were kidnapped by the living balls we now are trapped within. That sounds so much better.

[ She gives him a flat look. ]

I've scrubbed more floors then you've walked on. I meant where do we take the buckets full of silt. Unless you want to mop with that.

Nah, just the big gold one in the middle, I think. Take that however you want.

[He makes a motion down the hallway.]

There's a waste containment that way.

June/July Test Drive Meme

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