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pluviooc2024-03-18 02:45 pm
pluviosamods) wrote in pluviooc2024-03-18 02:45 pm
Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE 02
TEST DRIVE
Hello, and welcome to the second Pluviosa Test Drive!
This Test Drive corresponds to Days 4-12 in the ship calendar, and will run until around the game's next major event. You can get a better idea what's going on in the most recent Game Update which covers Days 5-8. Currently, character IC housing is not in operation yet; it is expected to open on Day 9 (part of the way through the Test Drive period). Otherwise, the ship is largely in the state described on the Setting page and in other game information.
Test Drive threads involving characters who are accepted are considered canon to the events of the game unless otherwise agreed by players/mods. Pluviosa does not do welcome mingle logs nor does it have any kind of in-character welcome information, making your test drive threads your character's arrival to the game setting. That said, mod-run interactions such as formal exploration and/or interactions with the Ship as an NPC are not available on the Test Drive.
It is advised that potential players familiarize themselves with the Premise page, the Rules/Session Zero page, and at least the first few paragraphs of the Setting page. As Pluviosa is a horror game, we especially encourage players to be aware of the content warnings that will be major themes of the game. If you have any further questions, you can ask them on the QUESTIONS header in the comments!
If you're test driving a character, you're welcome to join the game Discord and hang out and meet your fellow players!
You wake up. You remember waking up, right? In another place, another time...
There's blood running down your fingers. Outside, the rain isn't pounding, yet, just a gentle patter...
Or is it?
As characters gain fuller awareness of their surroundings, they will realize that there is, in fact, no blood on their hands (save any that might have already been there). It feels as though they lost focus for a moment and hallucinated, but the hallucination ended with them somewhere else entirely.
There is not actually the sound of rain. If characters are near enough to a window, balcony, or even a hole in the ceiling, they will find that it is cloudless, beaming sunlight outside. The emptiness in the distance rolls on and on, completely absent any signs of life.
That being, of course, because the signs of life are all in here. Characters might wake up on any of the decks on the upper side of the ship - anywhere that isn't the cafeteria or lounge where previous arrivals spend most of their time is free game. This also means, of course, that they have the jungle of plants to contend with...
Most areas in the ship are dark when characters arrive. That doesn't mean that they stay dark. Occasionally, lights overhead flicker on and off for a few minutes at a time.
The problem with this isn't the lights themselves (cool white and kind of industrial). It's the reaction that the addition of the extra light causes the plants in the dark areas of the ship that's cause for alarm. To describe the growth as explosive isn't an understatement - vines, saplings, and even thicker branches surge with growth, pushing outwards towards the distant sunlight and upwards towards the flickering bulbs.
The growth is sudden enough to take all but the most aware characters by surprise, and if they're in the wrong corner of the room, it's very easy to get tangled up, wedged in by a tree trunk, or otherwise trapped against some corner or wall. If you're lucky and skilled, you might be able to cut yourself out from there (or break down the wall you're shoved up against), but otherwise, there's only one solution left.
Yell like your life depends on it, and hope somebody out there can hear you. And that whoever hears is someone who is inclined to help, rather than leaving you there. Or worse.
Oh, and the lights flicker back off after a few minutes, of course. Hopefully you're not waiting for rescue in the dark (with the smell of mold and the general faint dampness of the forest) for too long.
Occasionally, the whole ship tilts.
This is not simply the side to side motion of a ship on the water (or the equivalent motion brought on by the way this particular ship moves); it's an extremely forward or backward tilt that sends things sliding across the floor if they aren't secured by roots or something else. Unlike storm-tossed ships, the tilt is somewhat prolonged - rather than everything sliding back and forth a couple times a minute, the tilt lasts for five, ten, maybe as much as twenty minutes.
Although it's not enough to knock a well-balanced character off their feet, it's quite likely that new arrivals will not be particularly on-balance. And attempting to traverse the ship with the tilt is a tall order... especially when the ship's angle does unexpectedly change... to the exact opposite direction. All that goes up the mountain must go back down, and a glance out the windows reveals that that's exactly what's going on, as the ship progresses across a mountainous landscape without real regard for the concept of mountain passes.
And for characters who have managed to make their way to the "civilized" parts of the ship, namely the cafeteria and the lounge above it... None of the furniture in these areas is secured. The cafeteria carts under the direct control of the Ship don't seem as inclined to go anywhere, but the tables and chairs in the cafeteria and the couches and armchairs upstairs... Well, it's a good thing both spaces are surrounded by railings. Large chunks of tree trunk also still littler the lounge, sliding back and forth and occasionally rolling with great force across the floor.
Better hold on tight.
While wandering around the ship's interior, characters might occasionally hear a person whistling.
The sound always seems to be coming from just around the corner, but it sounds alive in a way that other sounds don't. Maybe more alive, even, than the rustle of leaves, the occasional drip of water, and the sounds of things sliding back and forth across the grimy, leaf-covered floors. The whistler, whoever they are, doesn't actively respond if called out to - but the whistling does pause, as though indicating that the call was heard, before starting up again.
If characters choose to follow the whistling, they're inevitably led to the same place - somewhere overlooking the great gap down the middle of the ship, whether an internal suite's balcony, one of the bridges crossing between the two halves, or one of the hallways that runs alongside it. Once they're there, there's no whistler in sight; however, characters will be filled with the overwhelming urge to look over the edge of the railing and down into the lower parts of the ship.
Exactly what they experience after looking down varies. Some will hallucinate that they've fallen over the side, feeling their balance go haywire and seeing the floor rushing up to them right up until the moment of "impact," at which everything returns to normal. Some will feel a stranger's hands on their shoulders, threatening to push them over with a great shove that goes through them with incorporeal fingers. Some will just hear unidentifiable laughter right up close to their ears, and experience the distinct sensation that there's someone laughing at them, in a haha-made-you-look kind of way.
But whatever happens, when they look up, there's no one there - or at least not anyone that physically close to them. The one good thing about being drawn to the middle section of the ship by whatever prankster this is is that it makes it a lot easier to run into people if you're all drawn to the same, highly visible place.
And at least the other person is flesh and blood, right? Probably.
This Test Drive corresponds to Days 4-12 in the ship calendar, and will run until around the game's next major event. You can get a better idea what's going on in the most recent Game Update which covers Days 5-8. Currently, character IC housing is not in operation yet; it is expected to open on Day 9 (part of the way through the Test Drive period). Otherwise, the ship is largely in the state described on the Setting page and in other game information.
Test Drive threads involving characters who are accepted are considered canon to the events of the game unless otherwise agreed by players/mods. Pluviosa does not do welcome mingle logs nor does it have any kind of in-character welcome information, making your test drive threads your character's arrival to the game setting. That said, mod-run interactions such as formal exploration and/or interactions with the Ship as an NPC are not available on the Test Drive.
It is advised that potential players familiarize themselves with the Premise page, the Rules/Session Zero page, and at least the first few paragraphs of the Setting page. As Pluviosa is a horror game, we especially encourage players to be aware of the content warnings that will be major themes of the game. If you have any further questions, you can ask them on the QUESTIONS header in the comments!
If you're test driving a character, you're welcome to join the game Discord and hang out and meet your fellow players!
ARRIVAL - LIKE THE RAIN
You wake up. You remember waking up, right? In another place, another time...
There's blood running down your fingers. Outside, the rain isn't pounding, yet, just a gentle patter...
Or is it?
As characters gain fuller awareness of their surroundings, they will realize that there is, in fact, no blood on their hands (save any that might have already been there). It feels as though they lost focus for a moment and hallucinated, but the hallucination ended with them somewhere else entirely.
There is not actually the sound of rain. If characters are near enough to a window, balcony, or even a hole in the ceiling, they will find that it is cloudless, beaming sunlight outside. The emptiness in the distance rolls on and on, completely absent any signs of life.
That being, of course, because the signs of life are all in here. Characters might wake up on any of the decks on the upper side of the ship - anywhere that isn't the cafeteria or lounge where previous arrivals spend most of their time is free game. This also means, of course, that they have the jungle of plants to contend with...
LIGHTS ON, SHOW START
Most areas in the ship are dark when characters arrive. That doesn't mean that they stay dark. Occasionally, lights overhead flicker on and off for a few minutes at a time.
The problem with this isn't the lights themselves (cool white and kind of industrial). It's the reaction that the addition of the extra light causes the plants in the dark areas of the ship that's cause for alarm. To describe the growth as explosive isn't an understatement - vines, saplings, and even thicker branches surge with growth, pushing outwards towards the distant sunlight and upwards towards the flickering bulbs.
The growth is sudden enough to take all but the most aware characters by surprise, and if they're in the wrong corner of the room, it's very easy to get tangled up, wedged in by a tree trunk, or otherwise trapped against some corner or wall. If you're lucky and skilled, you might be able to cut yourself out from there (or break down the wall you're shoved up against), but otherwise, there's only one solution left.
Yell like your life depends on it, and hope somebody out there can hear you. And that whoever hears is someone who is inclined to help, rather than leaving you there. Or worse.
Oh, and the lights flicker back off after a few minutes, of course. Hopefully you're not waiting for rescue in the dark (with the smell of mold and the general faint dampness of the forest) for too long.
TILT-A-WORLD
Occasionally, the whole ship tilts.
This is not simply the side to side motion of a ship on the water (or the equivalent motion brought on by the way this particular ship moves); it's an extremely forward or backward tilt that sends things sliding across the floor if they aren't secured by roots or something else. Unlike storm-tossed ships, the tilt is somewhat prolonged - rather than everything sliding back and forth a couple times a minute, the tilt lasts for five, ten, maybe as much as twenty minutes.
Although it's not enough to knock a well-balanced character off their feet, it's quite likely that new arrivals will not be particularly on-balance. And attempting to traverse the ship with the tilt is a tall order... especially when the ship's angle does unexpectedly change... to the exact opposite direction. All that goes up the mountain must go back down, and a glance out the windows reveals that that's exactly what's going on, as the ship progresses across a mountainous landscape without real regard for the concept of mountain passes.
And for characters who have managed to make their way to the "civilized" parts of the ship, namely the cafeteria and the lounge above it... None of the furniture in these areas is secured. The cafeteria carts under the direct control of the Ship don't seem as inclined to go anywhere, but the tables and chairs in the cafeteria and the couches and armchairs upstairs... Well, it's a good thing both spaces are surrounded by railings. Large chunks of tree trunk also still littler the lounge, sliding back and forth and occasionally rolling with great force across the floor.
Better hold on tight.
SOMETHING WHISTLING
While wandering around the ship's interior, characters might occasionally hear a person whistling.
The sound always seems to be coming from just around the corner, but it sounds alive in a way that other sounds don't. Maybe more alive, even, than the rustle of leaves, the occasional drip of water, and the sounds of things sliding back and forth across the grimy, leaf-covered floors. The whistler, whoever they are, doesn't actively respond if called out to - but the whistling does pause, as though indicating that the call was heard, before starting up again.
If characters choose to follow the whistling, they're inevitably led to the same place - somewhere overlooking the great gap down the middle of the ship, whether an internal suite's balcony, one of the bridges crossing between the two halves, or one of the hallways that runs alongside it. Once they're there, there's no whistler in sight; however, characters will be filled with the overwhelming urge to look over the edge of the railing and down into the lower parts of the ship.
Exactly what they experience after looking down varies. Some will hallucinate that they've fallen over the side, feeling their balance go haywire and seeing the floor rushing up to them right up until the moment of "impact," at which everything returns to normal. Some will feel a stranger's hands on their shoulders, threatening to push them over with a great shove that goes through them with incorporeal fingers. Some will just hear unidentifiable laughter right up close to their ears, and experience the distinct sensation that there's someone laughing at them, in a haha-made-you-look kind of way.
But whatever happens, when they look up, there's no one there - or at least not anyone that physically close to them. The one good thing about being drawn to the middle section of the ship by whatever prankster this is is that it makes it a lot easier to run into people if you're all drawn to the same, highly visible place.
And at least the other person is flesh and blood, right? Probably.
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The phrase 'children of the gods' makes him gain a slightly bemused expression briefly, then he shakes his head. "Sorry, I'm just trying to imagine the gods I'm familiar with as parents." Lady Furina as a mother? Terrible idea. "But I suppose relics could be similar to Visions - they say if a Vision holder becomes strong enough, they ascend to Celestia and become a god themselves. There's not many stories of it actually happening, though, so it could just be a rumour."
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As for the rest of that... he'd cheerfully tell Casper exactly how he gained his powers, but this dude simply does not need to know! He hides behind his teacup again, probably looking shifty.
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He taps his fingers on the table for a moment and then nods. "Eventually I'll get to godhood. If only to show my pantheon what a god that isn't a total asshole is." At least he hopes he's not a total asshole!
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He tilts his head. "What are the gods of your world like? You've already met one from mine, so I have to say I'm curious."
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Wait, now he's swearing in front of Ice Cop. He edges closer to Casper and tries to look smaller. Whyyyy did his boyfriend have to bring the guy back over to himmmmm. Baobei he doesn't deserve scary men with handcuffs!!
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He looks pointedly at his boyfriend. Yes, the entire pantheon. He's not excluded. "So we have that to take care of after this current crisis. As for the gods themselves... I've only met my mother in person from my pantheon. She's..." How to describe her without being totally disrespectful?
"She's a goddess of the dead who weren't carried off to an honorable afterlife, so while she gets some people who were just fine in life she also has to deal with terrible people a lot. I think that's made her somewhat bitter. ... But that's no excuse for treating her children like pawns. I don't know if she got that from her father - Loki, god of mischief - or if she just does that on her own. She also punishes failure extremely harshly and barely gives second chances. I uh."
... Yeah okay. Here we go. "I had to convince her to let me out of the Underworld. To... uh. Not... I wasn't exactly visiting. ... You get the point."
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"That sounds... complicated." Each culture with not just their own god, but their own set? "Though I'm not sure I understand how it works. Your pantheon is going to die in a world-ending battle, but the rest of the pantheons - in the same world - will be fine?" He just wants to clarify. Although he supposes it's something like the prophecy in Fontaine, which is on a high plateau above much of the rest of Teyvat and yet is fated to be drowned by its rising waters, a prophecy which no other country seems to have heard of.
Wriothesley frowns at that description of Casper's mother. "I don't think there's an excuse for treating your children like tools, no matter who you are. A mother should be... better than that." Shame so many aren't. "So you're..." Dead. He can get the drift. "...well, you seem to have made it out okay."
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...why is Casper telling all of this to random stranger, though! Stranger danger, baobei! He frowns at his boyfriend. Protective instincts overriding cowardice, he grumbles, "I don't think the cops need to know your life story, baobei." Or your weaknesses.
...Ice Cop is right about Casper's mom, though. "...Mothers should be better than that, though, yeah." Not that he has personal experience on the subject, since neither of his were really much attached to him, but.
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He looks up at the other two, avoiding their gazes as he does. "I only really know what good parents are like from... stories from other people." And a little bit of direct observation - Hades seemed better to Aiden than Hel was to him, for example. "But - ah... sorry. I didn't mean to bring the mood down... though yes, the prophecy about the pantheons is confusing and no one's sure if it means just the Norse pantheon will end or something is going to happen to the other pantheons, but the other ones don't seem concerned. Only mine does. ... So it's a bit of a mystery as to what's going to happen." In any case.
"But life aboard this place isn't so bad if you can steer clear of the plants. It can get a little boring at times but with more people showing up hopefully it'll liven up a little?"
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"Don't worry about it. I'm in the same boat when it comes to parents." His may not have imprisoned him in the Underworld, but they definitely did their best to send him there and they did send a lot of his siblings there. He tilts his head in acknowledgement of the subject change. "If nothing else, most of the people here having powers means I might find someone to safely spar with. I wouldn't mind that."
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"It really isn't that bad," he mumbles with a sidelong look at Casper. "I mean, um. Free food and bedrooms. Can't complain." And he can't complain about the company when part of it is Casper. He'd put up with a hell of a lot for that.
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Hopefully it doesn't become a problem.
"Anyway as for sparring, a lot of people here have some kind of supernatural ability, yeah. You might have to do some testing to figure out what sort of power level you're both at but as long as no one's aiming to do actual deadly damage I think people can deal with bruises or something. Pretty sure I saw a clinic on one of the levels?" He doesn't really need it so he didn't... pay attention.
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"Sometimes justice means not following the law. Don't tell Neuvillette I said that, I don't want to hurt his feelings." He scratches at one of the scars that crawls over his collarbone absently, his smile crooked. "But jokes aside, anyone who is a cop coming in here from outside wouldn't have any kind of jurisdiction. If anyone is leaning on outside law enforcement experience to try to push people around I'm definitely willing to give them a talking to about it." A talking to with a couple of punches if necessary. He's not going to let anyone get bullied.
"Yeah, I'm not scared of a few scrapes or bruises." As... the entirety of his face and body might indicate. "Do you know if anyone has medical experience? What I wouldn't give for Sigewinne to be around." He misses his right hand Melusine.
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Hm. On the one hand, reassuring that Ice Duke isn't hardline on the law, but on the other, his traitor crimes are not any kind of justice, they're just traitor crimes. (Well, except getting the Sun and Moon Dew Flowers to try and get Cucumber-bro out of prison, that was maybe sort of justice-y. Cucumber-bro didn't deserve to get made a human stick for things the original goods did, and it's not like either of them knew that wasn't actually what Bingmei wanted from the circumstances.) He's a bullyable immoral traitor, why does he always have to be surrounded by righteous people? "What about... other legal fields?" Shut up, Qinghua, you don't actually need to bring Wet Justice and Scary Ouji Lawyer and her beheading threats into this.
He has experience nursing demons back to health but also that is not relevant at all nope. He's just going to keep lurking here trying to look small and nonthreatening.
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He's trying his best to connect the dots, okay. "As for medics, I think we've got one or two on the boat? I saw a poster talking about a fight club that someone was putting on which mentioned a requirement for a medic to be on standby so they have to know at least one. I wasn't really interested in that kind of thing. I don't mind showing off, but..." He'd prefer it to be on his terms? It's weird. He'd like to make the arrangements himself, really.
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As to the question about other legal fields... "Well, this isn't any part of Fontaine, so Neuvillette wouldn't have jurisdiction here, and you wouldn't catch him violating that." Lady Furina... well, she might assert her authority as a god to put anyone anywhere on trial, but he doesn't think it's likely. Especially with Neuvillette around to keep her in check. "I guess it's kind of like that - the laws from Fontaine don't apply here, so it's outside Neuvillette's sphere of influence, it's just... ethically enforced, I guess, not any kind of divinity or magic. If he wanted to establish jurisdiction, there would have to be laws first and that would probably involve consulting everyone on the boat to agree on what they were. Ruling requires the consent of the governed, or something." He thinks he's heard that somewhere.
"Oh, there's a fight club?" Why does he get the feeling Tartaglia's involved with it. "Guessing it involves a little more than friendly sparring..." Which means he isn't particularly inclined to join unless there's a good reason for it.
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And he... does not trust that they're not going to have laws at him, still, really. "Judges are the ones who sentence you and apparently prosecutors will threaten you with beheading--" He shuts himself up hastily. He really probably should not be telling one of the other Fontaine people that!!! "I mean, um. I um. Lawyers are.... sharks?"
And he's not against Casper showing off, as those words go, but, "I don't want you to get hurt, baobei."
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Anyway. "I'm going to be honest, I haven't had a great history with law enforcement. I've had to escape the cops a few times." He has no problem admitting it. What are they going to do here, try to arrest him? Good luck. "People aren't really going to want a whole police and court system here, so you're not going to get hurt by a lawyer."
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He nods. "Agreed, I don't think anyone is in favour of that. I know I'm not interested in playing cops and robbers. I'm not going to look away if someone hurts someone else, but I'm not going to be rooting out criminals either."
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…they don’t even have the death penalty? Hesitantly, he asks, “…What sentences are there in Fontaine?” Like, if it’s some locked up forever in the Water Prison shit, that’s honestly maybe worse than execution. There’s a reason Cucumber-bro was planning to kill himself to get out of it, even considering the Sun and Moon Dew Mushroom plot.
“But baobei she’s scary,” he whines, then flushes, glancing at Wriothesley. Anyway he has definitely hurt people so that’s not, like, reassuring, because he’s the scum traitor! Obviously he’s not planning on hurting anyone here, but how much is that good for??
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He turns his attention back towards Wriothesley and nods. "That's kind of my attitude here, too. I'm not eager to let anyone get hurt but I'm not like... their parents. I'm not going to keep people from doing things." As for the punishments, he's not... super interested, but he tries to keep himself looking interested if only for his boyfriend.
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Not to toot his own horn or anything.
He smiles at Casper. "Yeah, exactly. If people want to do stupid things, that's up to them as long as they're not endangering people. And what people did before here... should that really matter at all? I don't think so."
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"Treated well?" What a weird thing to do with prisoners. Like, his point of view is obviously biased by the fact that he's lived sixty years with the threat of the Water Prison if it managed to get found out before his king killed him, but... that seems weird.
He slouches down in his seat sulkily while Casper and Ice Duke... bond or some shit. Hmph. No one ever values caution.
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Wriothseley gets a confused look. A prison... where people are treated well? "I do know that there's some people who are really heavily advocating for reforms, but it's... not great. Even more so in the country I moved to, from my understanding. But it's... not really my area, so I can't really speak to it." Even so it's not good. "I mean I don't feel like they deserve to be hurt, it's just... I don't know, I guess I never really thought about it."
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"Treated well and kept from doing further harm as much as possible." He's not sure whether they're objecting to the idea of prisoners being treated well because they don't deserve anything but punishment or whether it's more of a 'prisons are all awful and can't be changed' situation. "But criminals are people and deserve to be treated as such. People almost always have a reason to commit the crimes they do. If you take away those reasons - by, say, making sure they have food to eat and a safe place to sleep so they don't have to steal to survive - most of them are no different than any other person, and they want the same things. It can be more complicated, but that's the basis of my philosophy."
He realizes he's probably going off on a tangent and sips his tea. "Sorry. It's... an area I get passionate about."
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