Piper 90: Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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goneawaymemes2020-04-04 10:47 pm
goneawaymod) wrote in goneawaymemes2020-04-04 10:47 pm
Entry tags:
TDM #1
TEST DRIVE #1
So it's your first day at your new job! Welcome to the Jorgmund Family™! It's time to settle into your new workplace on the Piper 90 rig, the coziest place of employment this side of the Livable Zone. A leader in its industry, Jorgmund is excited to have you join them in enthusiastically envisioneering team-driven paradigms.
The Piper 90 rig's mission is not only an impressive undertaking in terms of impactful customer-oriented deliverables, it's providing a vital backbone to the Livable Zone by creating a safe region for citizens to live, work, and play. Jorgmund's "outside the box" thinking means they understand the importance of wisely investing in their human capital - you! You'll soon find that you'll take pride in this vital work - and the benefits can't be beat.
Rest assured, Jorgmund's multidisciplinary approach to our world's period of recovery means we know how to keep it real when facing this opportunity for restructuring and growth. Jorgmund: Even if most of the world has gone away, we can make a world of difference!
Synergy!
USEFUL LINKS
It is recommended you check out the following links first for info on the rig, rig conditions, game mechanics, and the intro and slideshow your characters would have to endure that takes place chronologically before the Test Drive Meme:
SCENARIO #1 - MOVE-IN DAY!
After the bewildering and unpleasant onboarding process, you've finally been unleashed on the rig. (Well. To places you're allowed to go on the rig.) It's time to get acquainted with your new surroundings, process some of All Of That™, and meet your fellow captives - err, coworkers!
a) A BIT OF A MESS
Perhaps you're hungry? The mess hall food isn't amazing, but it does the job. Characters that have higher metabolic needs than your average human might be left feeling a little hungry, though. The worst part is actually the electronic sliding door: a small sign helpfully informs you that if you want inside, you need to smile for the camera! In addition to being patronizing, this may be a problem for characters who refuse to play ball, or characters with sufficiently nonhuman faces the door sensor can't read them. Remember, if then company doesn't see people like you, it's not discriminatory -- it's just indifferent! And that isn't legally actionable!
b) GOING NOWHERE FAST
The rig's elevators are a little off-kilter today. Overhead announcements mention this, but downplay the severity and are easy to miss -- which means you and your threadmate are stuck in here, somewhere between the fifth and sixth floor. You can complain into the emergency intercomm, but it might take from a few minutes up to an hour before the elevator gets rolling again. How do you pass the time?
c) SHOULD'VE TAKEN THAT LEFT TURN
You're really just trying to get somewhere else on the rig, but you've gotten hopelessly lost. Oh well, at least you're not alone! Did you run into your threadmate here? Did you lead them astray? Are they at fault? Even worse, are you somewhere full of AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY signs, mysterious equipment, and a worrying number of security cameras?
d) NEED A HAND?
You've been assigned a room and some relatively spare possessions to put in it. Unfortunately, it seems that the staff assigned to help move in new hires are all busy at the moment. Unless you want to wait around, you're going to need to lug and assemble your new assigned foldable den furniture yourself. Do you team up with another newbie? Do you try it alone and find yourself needing help? Do you come to the rescue of someone else who did that?
e) SPECIAL DELIVERY
Somebody in processing decided to give you two a quick little errand: you're supposed to take a couple boxes of files up to the executive deck. Unfortunately, a skeptical security staffer is giving you a hard time on your way there, on account of your funny-looking face, insufficient ID or sketchy-looking package. How do you deal with this and accomplish your task?
f) BLOW OFF STEAM
You're likely still a bit sore from Jorgmund fitting you with the nanochain, but you were promised a gym and you are going to use that gym, dammit. It looks like you're not alone in deciding to try out the training area. Do you train together? Spar to let some frustration out? Or are you gonna argue about whose turn it is on which piece of equipment and resent your lost solitude? You'll also find you have to contend with the communal showers when you're done.
g) NO REST FOR THE WEARY
It's the middle of the night on the rig. You're displaced from home, it's not very warm, your door doesn't shut because privacy is a "privilege" nobody has earned yet, and occasional mysterious clanging noises ring through the rig. You can't sleep, not yet, and perhaps you're not the only insomniac wandering the crew deck?
Perhaps you're hungry? The mess hall food isn't amazing, but it does the job. Characters that have higher metabolic needs than your average human might be left feeling a little hungry, though. The worst part is actually the electronic sliding door: a small sign helpfully informs you that if you want inside, you need to smile for the camera! In addition to being patronizing, this may be a problem for characters who refuse to play ball, or characters with sufficiently nonhuman faces the door sensor can't read them. Remember, if then company doesn't see people like you, it's not discriminatory -- it's just indifferent! And that isn't legally actionable!
b) GOING NOWHERE FAST
The rig's elevators are a little off-kilter today. Overhead announcements mention this, but downplay the severity and are easy to miss -- which means you and your threadmate are stuck in here, somewhere between the fifth and sixth floor. You can complain into the emergency intercomm, but it might take from a few minutes up to an hour before the elevator gets rolling again. How do you pass the time?
c) SHOULD'VE TAKEN THAT LEFT TURN
You're really just trying to get somewhere else on the rig, but you've gotten hopelessly lost. Oh well, at least you're not alone! Did you run into your threadmate here? Did you lead them astray? Are they at fault? Even worse, are you somewhere full of AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY signs, mysterious equipment, and a worrying number of security cameras?
d) NEED A HAND?
You've been assigned a room and some relatively spare possessions to put in it. Unfortunately, it seems that the staff assigned to help move in new hires are all busy at the moment. Unless you want to wait around, you're going to need to lug and assemble your new assigned foldable den furniture yourself. Do you team up with another newbie? Do you try it alone and find yourself needing help? Do you come to the rescue of someone else who did that?
e) SPECIAL DELIVERY
Somebody in processing decided to give you two a quick little errand: you're supposed to take a couple boxes of files up to the executive deck. Unfortunately, a skeptical security staffer is giving you a hard time on your way there, on account of your funny-looking face, insufficient ID or sketchy-looking package. How do you deal with this and accomplish your task?
f) BLOW OFF STEAM
You're likely still a bit sore from Jorgmund fitting you with the nanochain, but you were promised a gym and you are going to use that gym, dammit. It looks like you're not alone in deciding to try out the training area. Do you train together? Spar to let some frustration out? Or are you gonna argue about whose turn it is on which piece of equipment and resent your lost solitude? You'll also find you have to contend with the communal showers when you're done.
g) NO REST FOR THE WEARY
It's the middle of the night on the rig. You're displaced from home, it's not very warm, your door doesn't shut because privacy is a "privilege" nobody has earned yet, and occasional mysterious clanging noises ring through the rig. You can't sleep, not yet, and perhaps you're not the only insomniac wandering the crew deck?
SCENARIO #2 - YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO PANIC
Around dawn on the morning of Day Two, something goes wrong. (Wrong-er?) You awake to the sound of alarms, and a voice over the speakers telling you NOT TO PANIC! A Stuff storm has caused a brief and contained leak onto Piper 90. You may encounter strange sights or sounds. Any anomalies should be reported immediately to rig security. Thank you for your cooperation!
The nature of the problem isn't immediately clear, but over the next handful of hours you find yourself embroiled in a bizarre fracas: a Stuff leak has caused numerous inanimate objects on the rig to come to life. Furniture and appliances small and large are roaming the decks. Some of them are docile, but others are aggressive (or just troublesome due to their size). Some examples:
- A rogue photocopier spewing paper and ink
- A mahogany conference table with old clawed feet and a brand new gaping jaw
- A water cooler that scuttles the halls, squirting people with jets in varying temperatures
- Small office supplies like pencils and paperclips that swarm in large numbers
- Dressers and drawers that spit their contents at high velocity
- A room's worth of folding chairs that hunt as a pack
- An emergency fire hose that attempts to ensnare crew members in its coils
- The angriest coffee pot you have ever seen
h) GOOD MORNING, PIPER 90
Rise and shine! There are alarms going off, announcements blaring, and people are scrambling around trying to figure out what's going on. You're one of them. Freak out? Spring into action? Team up with someone to shake down a staffer for more details? Run into someone new, perhaps literally?
i) INTERIOR WRECKORATING
You've been ambushed by an animate object that seems to have it in for you, or you've heard the shouts of someone who has and come running to help. What's ruining your morning now, and what are you going to do about it?
j) ON THE RUN
The folding chairs from Presentation Room B operate as a unit, harrying their prey through the halls with much scrambling of legs and flapping of seats. They're after you, at the moment. Can you escape, or perhaps lead them into a trap? Or do you stand your ground?
k) HERE'S THE PLAN
You and your threadmate have found somewhere secure (for now) and are deciding how to deal with a larger enemy. Are you hunting it, or is it hunting you? Are you planning to take it out of commission, or just how to get away from it? Or are you just gonna hide here and lay low until this is over?
l) PROP HUNT
Things are getting back under control, thankfully. Large disturbances have been disposed of, but that leaves the little things like elusive chains of paperclips, a small but vicious stapler, pens and markers that write rude words on walls, and utensils from the mess hall. These anomalies are stealthier, but must still be dealt with, and it's up to you to flush them out.
m) CLEAN UP IN AISLE EVERYTHING
The chaos has passed, and now you've been instructed to clean up a mess. Ink or loose paper from the copier, coffee from the rampaging pot, mopping up after a water cooler, scrubbing marker off a wall, etc. You might get roped into contending with the Yuck Puddle, which is a permanent fixture and not a new development, but someone's always contending with the Yuck Puddle.
Rise and shine! There are alarms going off, announcements blaring, and people are scrambling around trying to figure out what's going on. You're one of them. Freak out? Spring into action? Team up with someone to shake down a staffer for more details? Run into someone new, perhaps literally?
i) INTERIOR WRECKORATING
You've been ambushed by an animate object that seems to have it in for you, or you've heard the shouts of someone who has and come running to help. What's ruining your morning now, and what are you going to do about it?
j) ON THE RUN
The folding chairs from Presentation Room B operate as a unit, harrying their prey through the halls with much scrambling of legs and flapping of seats. They're after you, at the moment. Can you escape, or perhaps lead them into a trap? Or do you stand your ground?
k) HERE'S THE PLAN
You and your threadmate have found somewhere secure (for now) and are deciding how to deal with a larger enemy. Are you hunting it, or is it hunting you? Are you planning to take it out of commission, or just how to get away from it? Or are you just gonna hide here and lay low until this is over?
l) PROP HUNT
Things are getting back under control, thankfully. Large disturbances have been disposed of, but that leaves the little things like elusive chains of paperclips, a small but vicious stapler, pens and markers that write rude words on walls, and utensils from the mess hall. These anomalies are stealthier, but must still be dealt with, and it's up to you to flush them out.
m) CLEAN UP IN AISLE EVERYTHING
The chaos has passed, and now you've been instructed to clean up a mess. Ink or loose paper from the copier, coffee from the rampaging pot, mopping up after a water cooler, scrubbing marker off a wall, etc. You might get roped into contending with the Yuck Puddle, which is a permanent fixture and not a new development, but someone's always contending with the Yuck Puddle.
➤ Feel free to play around with powers. If your character has powers from canon you want to play around with, go for it. If you'd like to test out possibilities for game powers, also go for it. Feel free to change it up from thread to thread if you need to. This can be handwaved as exposure to Stuff making characters' powers shift a few times before settling.
➤ Potential players may use test drive threads as their log samples. However, at least one post in their thread must fit the requirements for apps, both in length (200 words) and in quality. If you do plan on using a thread as a sample, please make sure the writing throughout your threads is a good example of your writing skills and has some solid examples of the character's voice.
➤ Players can eventually count TDMs towards AC. They can only count towards comment-based AC proofs.
➤ Potential players can opt to keep these threads as game canon when they app in, or start over fresh, based on preference. The Stuff bringing them to the game universe can fog their memories, if players don't want their character to remember TDM threads when introing into the game.
➤ The game is invite-only. Players without invites are allowed to tdm since some of them may know someone in game to ask for one, and since some people enjoy TDMs just for fun in games they don't plan to app into. But an invite is required during the apping process.
➤ The game is at a starting cap at 30 players. Right now the current number of invitees is likely to not exceed the game's 30 slots, but if we go a few over they will still be allowed to app during this first round. Future apps will be rolling apps and will have a wait queue if the cap has been exceeded.
➤ The first game round will be apps only, no reserves. Apps open: Sat 4/11/20. Game start: Fri 4/17/20.
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Kevin peers down on the snapping, splintery disaster zone below for a moment, then hops the rail and comes down on the top of the table himself. He grabs one edge and strains, bending the animate wood backward, making it harder for the table to kick with the two nearest legs and distracting it.
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Part of the table bending upward with a creaking noise earns a curious growl, but as it seems to be more helpful than a hindrance, she doesn't stop what she's doing to investigate. Still, what she wouldn't give for an Ahroun right now.
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Coming down off the rush, Kevin surveys their work and brushes some splinters off his coveralls. He's got some bruises, but isn't really all that bad off.
It's only now that he's starting to process that the whole werewolf thing is maybe a problem.
"Um," he says eloquently, eyeing Stacia sidelong, nerves beginning to creep into the set of his shoulders. "So uh, good hustle."
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She's not about to dedicate these shitty clothes to herself if she doesn't absolutely have to.
"Yeah, you too," she says. "I figured if I freaked you out too much, you'd just keep running, but you held it together really well."
She can see the tension in his shoulders, but as far as she knows, it's because of her.
"You don't need to worry about me being a slavering, out-of-control people-eater, by the way. Not how I work."
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He nods his head.
"You're the second werewolf I've met," he says. "Um. Third. But like, one of them was on the internet, and also the other one doesn't do the whole..." Kevin hulks his shoulders and hangs his arms a little to indicate the Crinos posture. "...anymore. So like. As long as we aren't taking parts of me off I'm good I guess."
He isn't sure how he's going to say the next thing that needs to be said. Oh boy.
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People being familiar with the concept of werewolves is reasonable, and so is people who know that they're real. But if he knows a werewolf online and a werewolf who's lost the wolf, they might be from the same place.
"Yeah?" she asks, more casually than she feels, looking him over more closely than she had when they were cornered by a murderous table. Maybe it's just the terrible florescent lighting in here, but he looks pretty washed out. "You Kin or something?"
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This is the best attempt at disaster mitigation of all time.
"But uh. Vampire, dude."
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Stacia doesn't recoil like she touched a hot stove, nor does she immediately shift back to Crinos to try and take his head off. She does straighten up and her body language goes from 'non-threatening' to 'surprisingly intimidating for a tiny girl'.
"All right, you have my attention," she says crisply. "Keep going."
Go on. Explain why she shouldn't go crying to management saying that she was unable to save you from death-by-table.
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"I'm not totally sure where else you want me to go with it," Kevin admits. He's primed to bolt if she moves too quickly, toe on the vampiric gas pedal. He thinks he can out run a werewolf if he has to. He hopes he can outrun a werewolf if he has to.
"I didn't ask to get made, and I didn't ask to be here. The company knows, they told me they can keep me in blood. I know werewolves don't like us, I get it."
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"Yeah, we typically don't care for humans getting eaten by things," she says dryly. "Glad to hear that you're not planning on grazing on people who are already having a bad day."
Though she wouldn't be too terribly upset if he took out a few of the people in charge of 'staffing decisions'.
She crosses her arms. "If you know that werewolves and vampires don't get along, what happened to the other two you mentioned?"
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A pause as he tries to figure out how to make this work in words.
"The thing is that back home, the two werewolves I know are the only two werewolves anymore. It's kind of the end of the world right now."
The way he says it, some real exhaustion leaks through in tone. Kevin's not faking anything, and not trying to fake anything. He has no reason to, and nothing to lose.
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Stacia doesn't think he's lying. She doesn't have any Gifts she can use right now -- maybe she's too far from the spirits' influences to do so -- but she's got a good eye for this sort of thing and she doesn't think he's lying.
She has dozens of questions she wants to ask, but his glance around the stairwell reminds her that she doesn't know if the walls are bugged to carry their secrets back to management. She struggles, but reins in her tongue.
"Were you trying to help?"
Her tone is gentler this time. Less like she's trying to decide whether or not to kill him, more like she's trying to decide whether or not to non-fatally punch him in the face (there's a distinction, okay).
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Kevin didn't expect to have to be on long explain duty today, and is usually not the point man on it. Tommy relishes the job more. Relished the job more.
"So. Kevin Ingstrom, Clan Brujah, New York Camarilla. When that was a thing. If you wanna have a big talk about this stuff I can do that I guess, but like...?"
He gestures at the stairwell. He's not sure where a good place is or when a good time would be to explain the end of his world to a very much alive werewolf, but is doubtful that this is one.
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"Stacia. Nothing-to-See-Here, Shadow Lord Ragabash."
He doesn't need her rank or breed. Technically, he doesn't 'need' her auspice or deed name either, but it feels appropriate to include them. They serve as a warning as much as an identifier. If I decide that you're a problem, you won't see me coming.
"Yeah, this hallway probably isn't the best place for an Apocalypse chat," she agrees in response to his unspoken question, delivering a swift kick to the remains of the table. "We can hole up for it now, or later. There's probably still more of these things running around the place."
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Kevin can get behind playing hooky from the job for a bit. He sticks his head back out into the hallway to make sure nothing else is sneaking around.
"I don't really give a shit about secrets anymore cause they ain't done me any favors and like, it's not like it matters anymore."
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He might not care about secrets, or at least claim he doesn't, but she definitely still does. Time to find out how much he knows, and what he might tell Jorgmund.
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"Okay so," says Kevin, shutting the door. He begins to pace as he talks.
"I... know a couple of werewolf things? Ragabash is... the ones who do sneaking and information. That's what Hope told me. Um. We-Live-In-Hope. He's... a... the ones who do spirits of... Um. Children of Gaia, he's the last one at his sept cause he couldn't change anymore and they left him behind when they went in the Umbra to fight. And then the other werewolf I know is this guy Danny Enough-Dead-Heroes who I used to be friends with before he disappeared. And he's Ragabash too, but um. The cockroach werewolves. Glass...?"
He shakes his head, embarrassed that it's so hard for him to remember things he's been told. He pulls the zipper on the coveralls and tugs the collar down to show an angry and fresh-looking scar near the collar bone: a claw glyph for a werewolf tribe.
"Anyway, if your thing is being an information werewolf, I guess... you are gonna look for information from me. And that's cool. I just... I don't think I have anything I can tell you that would be much use for werewolf business and if I do know stuff that would help kill lots of vampires by accident, I am... kind of not sure I'm okay with that."
His posture grows a little more uncertain, shoulders ducked.
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"Glass Walkers," she says, stepping forward to check out the scar, though not as close as she might to someone who isn't a vampire. Yep, that's definitely the glyph for the Tribe of Cockroach. She doesn't know much about how long it takes for vampires to heal, but it's definitely a recent acquisition on his part.
She steps back out of range to give him space, shaking her head. "While I'm not going to say that I'm friendly with vampires, I've worked with some before in pursuit of the world not ending. So I don't intend to press you about vampire stuff. I just want to know what's going on with the world ending this time."
If she sounds tired, it's because she is. It seems like something is always trying to bring about the end of the world; she's been at this for less than three years and she's already sick of it.
"Also, who gave you that scar, and why?"
That's got to be werewolf business. It's a werewolf glyph, after all.
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"Alright, that works for me," says Kevin. He's still a little wary, supernatural people mean he's wary anytime, but he'll accept that. The world not ending is a really, really good goal, after all.
As for the second question: "Cockroach," he says. Straight up, no need to differentiate a Coackroach spirit, just...
"Like. Actual Cockroach. It hurt a lot. He... I'm just gonna use he, kinda dragged me to a spot in the caern where he could reach me and it was like an anchor point so he could get Danny in touch with my phone cause Danny's.... in the Abyss. And I guess I was the closest to being somebody who could do something about it of anyone Danny ever knew."
Kevin says those words in a way that it's clear he remembers these ones and is sure of them, but the enormity of the situation is what makes him falter a little. Also, talking about Danny hurts.
Danny is going to die, Kevin knows this. Danny knows this. Everyone knows this. The only thing they can do for him is try to make it count, before he goes.
"It's um. 2010 for the record. But apparently they went into the Umbra three years ago for us and like no time at all ago for them and time is just way fucky. As far as we know, Danny's the only one left from the battle."
He pauses, leaning his hip against a desk. "I... haven't heard anything from Cockroach since I got here and I guess if not even Cockroach can say anything this must be way further away than anything from back there can reach."
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The smile falls away when he mentioned the Abyss though, replaced by something both faintly horrified and also sympathetic. She can hear the pain in his voice, someone he cares about is alone and in danger and there's only the barest possible chance that he's going to come out of it alive.
"Well, I can tell you one thing," she says. "Either reality is going to get, I don't know, rebooted somehow, or we're from different places, because I haven't heard about any of this before, and I didn't shift until 2015."
She reaches out slowly, so he can duck away if he wants, to pat him on the arm.
"I'm sorry about your friend, though. I wouldn't want to be in the Abyss under the best of circumstances, and these don't sound like that at all." She smiles gently at him. "Hell, I'm sorry you've got to deal with it. The end of the world sucks."
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"Shit. Like, I'm glad the end of the world isn't happening over there just yet. I guess this is one of those other universes things."
He lets himself be touched. He's a little stiffer than a mortal, and not the right temperature. It seems to help, though.
"...Yeah," he says. "Sorry to dump all this stuff then, I guess. I hope things stay not as bad for you if they can, but also the more I find out the more I get this feeling that it's all gotta come down eventually."
He shakes his head.
"What happened to start this was... Clan Tzimisce, I don't know if you know them? Their antediluvian [ he says that word slowly and carefully, making sure he's getting the syllables right ], those are the dudes that are super old and powerful and gonna kill us all, was under New York and then it came up and started eating whole cities. And I guess there's more of those too. And the werewolves... I think it has something to do with the Trinity? [ he means Triat but he's so close he doesn't realize he's missing the mark ] Being all busted. All at once. Or something. So like, reality's broke."
"So like... where we are right here sucks but I'm mostly scared about home. I don't care too much about what happens to me, I just wanna get back there and make sure my friends can help fix it. Or try at least. It's all we can do."
He really, really hopes that it's one of those things where someone goes on a big magic adventure and it's only been two seconds back home. Kevin doesn't think his friends can't get by without him. Frankly, he's sure they could, but the idea of them going into this without him worries him, he wants to be there.
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"Meh," she says, waving off his apology. "There was no way I wasn't going to badger you abut it if you didn't tell me. Ragabash, remember?"
She listens to his explanation, nodding thoughtfully. She really only knows a little more than the bare bones of vampires, they've never been her particular area of interest, so the stuff about antediluvians is new. It doesn't tell her much about the werewolf end of things though, but Kevin doesn't seem to be hiding information so much as he didn't absorb it very well in the first place. Maybe 'Shadow Lord' had been less of a warning than she'd thought it would be.
"Yeah, I know the feeling," she says. "Reality's not broken back where I'm from, just...wobbly. But there are some Black Spiral Dancers -- werewolves who are all for the Apocalypse, basically -- trying to break it, because they're assholes. I'd rather be back there helping my friends, too."
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"I didn't know there were werewolves trying to break it too," he says. "Considering how bad one werewolf looks to deal with, a group of them sounds rough."
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Says the girl who joined the 'politics and manipulation tribe'. Speaking of...
"You mentioned Children of Gaia and Glass Walkers, did you get a run down on any of the other tribes?"
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