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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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.

[ She just makes a disgusted face. No, she wouldn't like to take that at all but she doesn't seem to have a choice in the matter. ]

Right.

[ She pulls her hair into a bun up off the back of her neck, which is now all damp with sweat from the exertion. ]

I'll take them.

[ The buckets are heavy, and it's a bit of a struggle, but she lifts them. ]

[He frowns for a moment, before moving to her side and taking one of the buckets without any input from her, then heads down the hall.]

I know. It's shit. It's not the worst thing I've ever dealt with, but it's not much better.

[ It's nice that he opts to help, and her acerbic edge softens somewhat. ]

True. The food's decent, and there's no chokedamp.

[ She's quiet a moment, chewing her lip. ]

A few years ago, my family and I had to run. We were refugees and the city we went to had closed their gates. My uncle was able to get us in by bribing the guards. He raised the money by selling me and my brother to a mercenary gang for a year.

I can breathe the air without a gas mask. [He scoffs, a sick sound, and painfully sad.] That's an improvement.

[He listens to her story, frowning and nodding.]

You do what you gotta do. I feel that.

What's a gas mask?

[ Father always said the only stupid question was the one that wasn't asked, right? ]

He didn't have to. The only reason he needed that kind of money was because he gambled everything else away.

It blocks poisonous gas that would kill you if you breathed it.

[It wasn't until after the question that he realized she'd probably never seen anything like one.]

Heh. He sounds like a charmer.

[ She blinks at his description. ]

Really? [ She laughs, almost scoffing, in a "why couldn't we think of that?" kind of way. ] Doesn't that sound sodding useful.

[ She shakes her head, her laugh even more humorless at the description of Gamlen as "a charmer" ]

I once saw him get kicked out of a brothel bar with money in his hand because his company was so unpleasant the madam was concerned he would drive away business.

It's better than dying choking on your own...you know.

[That actually gets a laugh from him that's genuine. Enjoy it, Laica. They don't come often.]

Damn, that takes some skill.

What, the bloody froth from your dissolving lungs? I'd say so.

[ Poison gas has been a particular thorn in her healer side. She laugh, still scoffing. ]

Imagine what he could have accomplished if he had dedicated such innovation to worthwhile endeavors.

[He laughs, nodding.]

Yeah, pretty much. Well, at least you don't have to worry about keeping track of him here, right?

[ She shakes her head as they arrive at the waste dumping station and tips her bucket into it. ]

Oh, no. It's no trouble keeping track of my dear uncle. He just follows but a step behind, with an eternally stretched-out hand.

[ She smiles tightly. ]

One must treasure one's family.

[He scoffs, shaking his head.]

Family overstays it's welcome way too damn often.

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lovelylaica - 2019-08-31 06:24 (UTC) - Expand

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thegrifter - 2019-09-04 19:11 (UTC) - Expand

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