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Pluviosa Mods ([personal profile] pluviosamods) wrote in [community profile] pluviooc2024-07-19 05:35 pm
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TEST DRIVE 03

TEST DRIVE

Hello, and welcome to the third Pluviosa Test Drive!

This Test Drive corresponds to Days 20-27 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 19-27, including the end of our previous event. Because some of the prompts in this test drive have differences based on whether they occur on Days 20-23 or 24 and on, you may wish to choose a firm date for your character's arrival and note it in your top level for other players.

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 - GAZE FROM THE CLOUDS

Something jerks hard around your stomach, like a movement adruptly stopped. Something trickles through your hair, down the back of your neck - it's warm, and you get the feeling you know what it is.

But when you lift your neck to check, all there is is water. Somehow, counterintuitively, you feel a flash of disappointment. You feel someone's eyes on you...


As characters gain awareness of their surroundings, they will feel as though their head and neck are damp, as though they had just been in a light rain without any protection (even if they are, in fact, wearing a hat or hood). Unless they're particularly unlucky in the location where they wake up, though, the rain is in fact on the outside of the ship, and they are at most subject to humid air. Although the rainstorm in fact ends on Day 23, characters who arrive after that time will still be convinced that there is rain outside, complete with a hallucination of the sound of raindrops in the background, until they go to a window or an open-to-outside place (balconies, topside decks, etc) to check for themselves.

Rain aside, the feeling of being watched is stronger in the upper decks where characters arrive, which may send them seeking to go down instead of up. This might pose a problem in terms of actually making their way to the cleared, prepared-for-use parts of the ship... Especially with all that fresh rainwater breathing new life into the plants in the lower decks.

Note that prior to the rain ending, looking out the windows, glass balcony doors, or up into the domed roof of the passenger lounge will make it appear that the ship is underwater until late afternoon on Day 22. More information on this can be found on the So Below event posts. Additionally, the rainfall hitting the deck of the ship has a tendency to flood into the lower decks of the ship, particularly via the stairways and in rivulets down the hallways. It falls freely on the top deck and down into the open space in the center of the ship, though with less intensity than it does outside the ship's protective barrier.

SOMEBODY'S FOOTSTEPS

And while going down decreased the feeling of eyes on you, it brings about other complications. Ghosts have been present on the ship for around a week now, and their time being visible is nearing its end as the ship comes above the old sea-level line on Day 22... At least as far as the longer-term passengers are concerned.

New arrivals, however, will continue to be able to see ghosts haunting the decks for the first 24 hours of their stay onboard the ship, regardless of the exact date of their arrival. These ghosts largely take the form of vacationers and researchers (as described here under the Haunting Feeling and Growing Shadows sections, respectively), and do not respond to attempts to interact with them any more than they did during the event. Less, even - once the ship is above the sea level line (evening of Day 23 and on), the ghosts perform their loops without registering any attempts to communicate with them. No matter what a character does, their attempts to interact with the spirits are for nothing - even standing in their path just gets you walked through as though you weren't there.

However, there are also a few new ghosts who only appear to the new arrivals, and are invisible to characters who were on board the ship previously:

-> A young man in extremely worn clothing, nursing a bruised jaw wanders the upper parts of Fern deck. When he sees the newly arrived character, he says "Oh, not more of this shit," aloud before turning and booking it off in another direction. Characters who chase him will find that he is visible and audible for a decent amount of time, but that his knowledge of the twists and turns of the Ship exceeds theirs and that he is unhindered by any of the overgrown vines as though they weren't there. As such, characters will inevitably fall behind and lose track of him.
-> At night, a dark-skinned woman can be seen in the lounge, looking back and forth between a glowing tablet she's holding and the sky above. If she notices a newly arrived character in the dimmed-to-nearly-nothing, she tells them in a firm voice, "You're not night shift. Go back to bed, you need your rest," before going back to whatever she's doing with her tablet screen. She fades slowly out of sight afterwards.
-> An androgynous person with a nearly-shaved head and a small flower dangling from a green marking over their ear comes out of the communal showers near the cafeteria. They glance around and ask, "Hey, did you see where that new guy with the eyepatch went?" but head off down the hallway without waiting for an answer, scrubbing at their cropped hair with a towel wrapped around their head.
-> A young woman in an open bathrobe with bandages around her middle looks out the back of the ship from the cafeteria deck, sitting with her feet dangling over the edge over where the ship's protective bubble attaches. Her light brown hair is blowing into her face constantly by the cafeteria's slight wind tunnel effect, but she doesn't seem to care, supporting herself by leaning her arms onto the lower rung of the railing. If approached, she gives a tired smile and says, "It's alright. I'm just waiting for that nice angel to come back," and resumes her watch out the back, not responding to any further questions or interactions.

These ghosts do not seem to register the presence of those who have been on board the ship more than 24 hours, even if pointed out directly. New arrivals who attempt to interact with the ghosts will be able to see and hear them, but not touch them. Attempting to touch a ghost in a way that 'proves' that they're not physically there (eg walking through them) causes the ghost to disappear, and they will not reappear.

JUST ANOTHER WORKDAY

Of course, the upper floors of the ship are not exactly free of eyes. A rather sizeable fleet of motorized drones zips around the hallways, ranging in size from knee-height to large enough to contain a moderately sized couch. The former are often equipped with scrubbing devices along their undersides, and work hard at portions of the floor in the hallways; the largest are functionally dumpsters on wheels, and other drones with long unfolding arms prune and rip plants from the walls, floors, and even the ceilings to fill them. These top two levels of Fern - not the open deck but the two floors immediately below - are clearly undergoing renovations, and renovations start with getting the plants out of the way. A few are even doing electrical or plumbing work, once things have dried up enough after the rain that it's safe to do so.

Since these are also the primary floors on which new arrivals wake up, it's very difficult to not come across some form of cleaning bot soon after arrival. However, there seems to be something a little... off about the ship's cleaning crew if you're a new arrival. They don't seem to register new arrivals as passengers yet; as a result, new characters may find themselves sprayed down with hot soapy water or subject to a set of surprisingly strong mechanical arms trying to shove them into a dumpster. Even if you aren't actively being aggressed by cleaning bots, they don't provide the kinds of loud "warning: backing up" noises they do for other passengers, nor do they slow down to avoid running you down in the still-mostly-dark hallways. The drones either have very good night vision or have some other way of finding their way around, since the only thing that brings them to a halt is particularly bad patches of floor.

Ship drones will continue to treat new arrivals as part of the walls (at best) or particularly stubborn plants in need of pruning (at worst) until either a light is shined on them - but beware, because this will cause any plants in the area to experience a surge of growth - or another, more known passenger intervenes. Admittedly, at that point the drones will be positively apologetic, as much as robots not equipped with voices can be. Soaked characters will be given a complimentary warm-air drying (if they stick around long enough) and anyone thrown in the dumpsters will be appropriately rescued - but it's still not all that great of a first impression, is it?

IDEAL CAMOUFLAGE

Or perhaps it's not the ghost of a person or the drones of the ship that you first encounter. It could be something significantly less civilized.

Strange animals have begun to appear in the ship's jungle - but you'd be forgiven for not noticing them at first. At rest, anyone would dismiss them as strangely shaped bundles of plant matter, because that's exactly what they are. Tails formed out of plaited vines; pelts and feathers formed of interlocked leaves; legs grown out of twisted wood with roots formed into toes. And, occasionally, sharp claws made of bent nails, fangs made of shattered glass, and antlers of rusted pipe, and, always, eyes like black pits that could swallow you up if you stared into them too long.

The 'animals' occupying Fern deck, if they can be called such, are formed out of plant matter with scattered bits of debris from the ship itself. They are, by and large, animals appropriate to the environment of the temperate rainforest that consumes the deck - no elephants or giraffes here. Deer, foxes, the occasional big cat or even a bear, and any number of smaller creatures... Smaller being a relative term, because the animals aren't always to their proper scale relative to humans. A deer might be only knee-high (antlers included), while a squirrel may come up to your waist. On most decks, they're limited to the height of the ceilings above them (9 feet or so), but if you manage to encounter them either on the open upper deck (with its much less height-limited tree canopy) or at the bottom (where the gap in the ship's decks, down the center, leaves lots of space for clearance above the mud and standing water), they could easily be taller.

Most of them are quite skittish, and will bound off into the jungle from which they came and disappear as though they were never there. A handful, though, respond as though threatened - or hungry. And while it might be funny to be stalked through the underbush by a cougar the size of a house cat, it will be less funny if it manages to sink its very real rusty claws into you, and getting trampled by a wooden deer whose antlers scrape the rotten ceiling tiles won't be fun at all.

It is possible to fight the animals, though most will make an attempt to flee if they get the chance, especially if you bring light or fire to bear against them. A 'killed' animal collapses into a pile of plant matter (leaves, branches, vines, etc) with the occasional bit of metal or glass; these heaps don't maintain their form as the 'body' of an animal and don't seem to have been connected together in any way. If lit on fire or otherwise affected by supernatural abilities, the animals react to this as an animal would be expected to, but their bodies are affected in ways consistent with the plant matter they're made of. In addition, no attempts at animal communication will work on them. On the other side of the coin, if you attempt to flee from them, most won't bother to give chase.
yourguidingcat: Chirithy clings to your shoulder. (shoulder)

[personal profile] yourguidingcat 2024-08-14 09:36 am (UTC)(link)

No, Chirithy does not have any idea what a sarkaz is. "You're a what?" he asks, not even delicately. "I've never heard the word 'sarkaz' before - but I guess that makes sense, if you don't know what a Chirithy is... We must be from different worlds entirely."

"Hmmmm." Chirithy taps a paw to their chin. "Well, I'm a Chirithy! It's my name, too! We're special spirits who help guide our wielders - it's tough being a Keyblade wielder, you know? It's tough, and often nobody understands... So that's why we were made! To look after everyone!"

indifferentinferno: (Threatening)

[personal profile] indifferentinferno 2024-08-19 05:28 am (UTC)(link)
"Different.... Worlds." He says slowly. Expression growing into one of pure disbelief mixed with a distinct look of I-Think-I-Might-Be-Having-My-Leg-Pulled irritation. This had to be somebody's stupid idea of a joke right. Somebody in the labs was sitting cushy at a monitor, laughing their rear off, pointing and laughing at him for even bothering to try to have a real conversation with this. Thing.

The "ghosts" were probably part of the elaborate prank too.

"Wait, wait. Chirithy is what you are. And its your name." That was. That was such a stupid idea. He was definitely being laughed at. That was like if he'd been named 'Sarkaz' at birth. "You get how confusing that is right?" Why was he trying to reason with this thing again?

Every word out of its mouth was just as incomprehensible as the last and he crossed his arms and just. Stared at it. "... Okay. Whatever brat is so pleased with themselves for their little prank. I'm wise to it. You can fess up now. Or else I might just melt your little toy right here and now," He let his voice growl at the end, looming over the plush toy. He doesn't know how well his reputation had spread on Rhodes. But anybody with a brain would know better than to possibly mess with arts they didn't understand.
Edited 2024-08-19 05:49 (UTC)
yourguidingcat: Zoomed in photo of Chirithy's face. They look distressed. (flipped)

[personal profile] yourguidingcat 2024-08-19 07:48 am (UTC)(link)

"Oh! Er, right, we're not supposed to talk about different worlds," Chirithy says, with a nervous laugh. "But I figured you must already know! Since wherever we are now isn't where I'm from, and I get the feeling it isn't where you're from, either. So it's a new world, obviously."

This guy doesn't seem very convinced, though. "Well, what's your name? I happen to really like the name Chirithy!" It doesn't make a lot of sense, they know, but it's not like Chirithies really ever need telling apart - so rarely are they away from their wielders. So there's a sense of pride in his voice as he asks this sarkaz guy for his name, defending his own.

Wait wait wait. "P- Prank!? This isn't a prank!? Whoa, don't melt me!!" Chirithy hops backwards, away from the man. They don't have a lot in the means of defending themself! They can teleport away in a pinch, but... "I'm just looking for someone! Honest!"

indifferentinferno: (annoyed)

[personal profile] indifferentinferno 2024-08-19 08:30 am (UTC)(link)
Well. That was the first reasonable thing it'd said. If they weren't from the same place, it'd make sense why the thing made absolutely zero sense to him. Why all the crap about not talking about different worlds though? That would be a miracle for anybody on the hell that was Terra... He still didn't buy it. "Fine. I don't recognize you. I can agree with you there."

... He feels like he's walked into a trap here. His name was not- Well it wasn't his name. But it was what he went by. It made sense for mercenaries and operators to have code names, but given that he'd just pointed out and ridiculed the plush toy's name he felt like he'd opened the door to having some jab made about his own name being ridiculous in some way.

He ran a hand down his face. Resigned. Annoyed. "...Flamebringer."

The little thing sure can shriek. It genuinely scurries away. Not at all taking Flamebringer's threat as a bluff. Well its driver was smart then. Or...

Deciding to push further, he summoned a small fireball in his hand, letting it rotate above his palm. It was only about the size of a ping-pong ball, but it was proof of concept to the would-be prankster. "Yeah? Looking for who?" He purposely let the light of the fire glint off of his fangs.
yourguidingcat: Chirithy is dead on the floor. (ded)

[personal profile] yourguidingcat 2024-09-05 06:41 pm (UTC)(link)

"Oh!" Chirithy doesn't seem to even consider making a jab. Genuinely. "Flamebringer is a pretty cool name, actually!!" Listen, their primary social interactions consisted of being around kids from ages 11-17, edgey names like 'Flamebringer' were ALL the rage. He knows what being trans is, besides!!! "I think it suits you."

Oh- oh no no no no!! He's actually summoning fire about this!!!! "Just- just a friend of mine - my wielder!" Chirithy says, rapidly, waving their arms. "Th- their name is Mint, and I haven't seen them in a long time, and I just - I just wanted to see them again!! Uh!"

Getting a little worried, Chirithy decides to hop-teleport a little bit back to give itself some space. It disappears in a little puff of smoke, gets hit by a moment of panic as it remembers how teleporting has gone on this Boat before, and then reappears in a puff of smoke a few feet away--

Chirithy lands right on one of those plant-animal creatures, and then bounces right off it and lands on the floor. Crap!!!!! "Uhhhh!!!" They have no idea if they actually succeeded in moving only a few feet or if they got launched to another part of the boat. They're a little bit too busy staring at this thing's TEETH, which are BIG and SHARP and IN THEIR FACE. (Not quite literally, yet, but close enough!!!)

"Uhhh!!!!! H- Help!???" Their literal only chance is hoping someone is (still?) close enough to hear them. "M- Mister Flameb-bringer???" But what if he's very far away? What if....!?!?!?

Edited (planimal deployed o7) 2024-09-27 06:53 (UTC)
indifferentinferno: (Cocky)

[personal profile] indifferentinferno 2024-09-28 07:12 am (UTC)(link)
Flamebringer's hand pauses at his chin in its defeated descent, he looks at Chirithy, expression inscrutable, "Thanks... I guess." They seemed sincere. Like a child almost. How on Terra did it suit him? Unless they were familiar with his arts they wouldn't know that it in fact, did.

More answers that sounded fake and made up, although he was kinda surprised it even had answers. This prank had far too much stupid effort put into it. "Yeah? Care to explain what any of that nonsense means?" He'd never heard of an operator 'Mint'. Wielder could be a synonym for many jobs. At this point, he was just sadistically curious to see how much of a yarn this prankster had decided to spin. And how quickly they'd break.

But then the thing just. Disappears.

There's a puff of smoke and suddenly where there had been a talking plush toy, there wasn't.

He recoiled, stepping back and whipping his head around, looking for any sign of it.

What the heck-

Before he could think much further, he was going to give somebody the scare of their life for their crappy sense of humor- he hears shouting.

The plush toy's voice shouting for help.

In one swift movement he extinguishes the fireball in his hand and draws his katana, moving in the direction of the sound, ignoring the ghosts entirely. If they were in his way he just ran through them.

The plush toy was only a few feet away, and growling at it, full of hostility, was a green beast. It came maybe just above Flamebringer's knee in terms of height, but its posture and behavior screamed predator. Flamebringer didn't give a crap about the plush doll, but he wasn't going to turn his back on something willing to gore him the moment he walked away.

He stepped over the toy and kicked the beast back, watching it tumble away as he drew his jagged greatsword off his back, growling right back at it. He didn't kill beasts for no reason, but if it didn't back off, he had no problem turning it to shreds.
yourguidingcat: Chirithy clings to your arm. (cling)

[personal profile] yourguidingcat 2024-09-28 08:12 am (UTC)(link)

Chirithy's first, irrational thought, as Flamebringer swaps from fire to katana to greatsword, is wow, this guy is like ARMED, armed - and then the weird animal is sent flying and Chirithy breathes a sigh of relief.

"Th- Thank you," they sort of wheeze out. "Oh- geeze - looks like it's coming for another go!"

Since they sure as heck aren't going to try teleporting again, Chirithy instead opts to half-climb mostly-cling to Flamebringer's leg, holding tight just below the knee. Give them a few seconds and they might try to scramble up to his back, instead, but for now...

"I believe in you!! Good luck!!!"

Maybe not the position to be calling this from, Chirithy?????

indifferentinferno: (Threatening)

You have my sword, and my sword, and my -sets you on fire-

[personal profile] indifferentinferno 2024-10-09 01:27 am (UTC)(link)
The weird little plush thanks him, but he refuses to break eye contact with the beast. Both of them are coiled, ready to pounce on the other should they step out of line. Unfortunately, Flamebringer is not dealing with a stupid predator.

Fortunately, he had more than enough experience dealing with things that mistook him for prey.

All his plans and attention come to an abrupt halt when the plush decides this is a good moment to climb up his leg-.

"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU-" He barks at it, lifting his leg up to kick it off.

Their standoff broken, the green-beast takes this opportunity to leap at him.

With a shout it collides heavily with his chest, unbalanced as he is, he goes down, head knocking hard against the cold hard floor.

He cries out in surprise and pain- caught off guard- he needs to get his senses back dangit-!

The thing is on top of him- And heavy enough that throwing his body into a roll wasn't going to knock it off-

He drops his greatsword and lifts his arm up as the creature goes in for a bite-

Its jaw shuts around his fore-arm and he cuts off another cry into a growl, holding out against the pain- This was nothing-

He drops his katana and lifts his right hand, setting things on fire when they were pinning you down was always a questionable decision. But he was low on options-

He puts his palm against its chest and lets out a short blast like burst, not enough to create a blaze, but enough to burn.

The beast releases its grip on his forearm and skitters off of him, he rolls out of the way grabbing his greatsword with his right hand, letting the katana lie for the moment now that left arm was somewhat useless.

He'd lost track of the plush, he must have kicked it off when he went down. He couldn't worry about that now. He needed to focus.
Edited ((Fudged up a html tag)) 2024-10-09 03:09 (UTC)