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returnjourneymemes2022-02-01 02:13 pm
returnjourney) wrote in returnjourneymemes2022-02-01 02:13 pm
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TEST DRIVE 002
RETURN JOURNEY: TEST DRIVE 002
Welcome to the Return Journey's test drive meme! We appreciate your interest. Our TDM features a small sample of events your character might encounter in game, which you're free to embellish or improvise with your own ideas as desired. Don't worry if you haven't read everything yet; while we recommend skimming our FAQ for relevant questions, critical information should be contained or linked within the prompts themselves!
TDM threads can be used as samples for applications. Players can mutually keep threads as game canon after being accepted into the game, though threads featuring non-canon squalls or events may need to be adjusted.
We suggest putting your character's name, canon, and potential role (warden or inmate) as the subject. If you're not sure which role you want to choose, feel free to try your hand at both!
If you have any questions about the TDM, please ask here.
1. Welcome Aboard!
Welcome aboard the SFS Peregrine, a ship in the Admiralty's Transformative and Penal Reparation Fleet. It is presently circling the outer perimeter of the Oos Ring Galaxy.
Wardens have been approached personally by the Navarch with a job offer: Come aboard the SFS Peregrine to assist in the redemption of an inmate, and receive a miracle known as a windfall as payment. Even if you don't ask as many questions as you should, every warden will be treated to a short Warden Orientation video explaining their expected duties and conduct.
Inmates have died and been placed aboard the SFS Peregrine as candidates for reformation. You may have come willingly, offered a choice between death or redemption, or you may have been collected against your will. Inmates are also treated to an Inmate Orientation; you'll find you have less privileges than a warden, but more motivation for...latitude. Violence? Chaos? Bribery? Blackmail? Well, no one said the path to redemption was without a few bumps along the way.
Given staff shortages, some wardens may be asked for a favor. Rather than leaving directly for the Peregrine, you've been asked to pick up an inmate from the limbo between death and redemption. During this mission, wardens will have clearance to enter a snapshot of sorts, where the inmate died (so devoid of other living beings). You either have to talk them into willingly coming along...or bring their unconscious, fresh-from-death not-corpse with you in the Avro provided. Better hope they don't wake up on the way!
Inmates, in this case, you'll be presented with the choice of death or redemption from a warden rather than the Navarch. Or possibly not provided with a choice at all, if death has rendered you unconscious. Good luck when you awaken to find yourself in a small ship, with someone you've never met. Try not to cause any trouble.
2. Pairings
Pairings are a critical aspect of the dynamic between warden and inmate. While interactions between wardens and inmates are not restricted to those in pairings, this relationship is a bit more...inescapable. Inmates test the limits of a warden, whether they take a more typical or unusual approach to matters; likewise, wardens learn what makes an inmate tick (and hopefully cooperate). Chances are, your values will clash.
A pairing of any sort is as varied as the individuals involved in them. And today, courtesy of the Navarch's monthly announcement, you and your sorry partner have been paired. Temporary or permanent, with a warden for an inmate or an inmate for a warden, it's your first day together — out of at least a month, so good luck setting some ground rules and figuring out each other's breaking points.
3. Life on the Peregrine
Hey, inmates! Ever gone to summer camp? Had a sibling? If so, you might see where this is going. If not, welcome to your first experience with shared sleeping arrangements!
The dorms are lined with bunks, though maybe they're better described as pods: futuresque capsules stacked two high, with sleek white paneling and cool blue LED lightning. Each bunk can be closed off with a sliding door privacy and boasts a bladeless fan for temperature control. Bedding is adequate. If such modest conditions do not appeal to you: consider not committing crimes against other people.
And just like with siblings or summer camp, you don't get a say in who your bunkmate is. Maybe you'll luck out and get a light sleeper who doesn't toss and turn in the night. Maybe you won't, and you'll end up with someone who will kill you if you snore. Whoever you get is who you're stuck with until further notice!
Wardens get much more hospitable quarters, but they may want to keep an eye out on the inmate dorms. Just in case an inmate does try to kill their bunkmate.
4. Squalls
Occasionally, the ship passes through squalls, the equivalent of cosmic turbulence that can mess with little things like, say...the fabric of reality. These are shipwide effects, though who they hit is variable. Sometimes you might fall victim; other times you might be the one standing by, exasperated, as you deal with those affected.
(In other words, it's up to player discretion. And feel free to make up your own squalls!)
This time around, the squall comes with an interesting side effect: whenever you lie or someone lies to you, you experience an immediate rush of anger — whether you consciously know someone is lying or not. Think of it as a temporary lie detector, but instead of being hooked up to a machine, you might punch someone in the face.
5. The Peregrine
The Peregrine's layout and protocols have been designed with its intended passengers in mind, who are primarily Earth humanoids and inclined towards certain social and cultural practices. If you're wondering why you are on a ship of Earth humanoids despite not being one yourself, please understand that all ships in the Admiralty have a population capacity. At times it may be necessary to assign other species to a ship of this type, based on availability.
As a warden, you have full run of the ship map. Inmates...less so, but that's nothing a little creativity can't fix, right? Just remember, if a warden catches an inmate somewhere that inmate shouldn't be, it falls on the warden to handle the matter. And if the warden turns a blind eye...well, let's hope neither of you get caught. While it won't result in anything as extreme as a demotion, wardens can expect to get a stern dressing down; inmates, meanwhile, will be reprimanded by the warden who found them.
6. Networking
Now that you've powered on your CommLink for the first time and sat through the short tutorial and appropriate orientation, you're ready to explore the wonders of messaging. Video, audio, or text, the world is your oyster and you surely have opinions on it.
There is no anonymous option and IDs must be some variation of your name. (IC, characters will have to try their luck and see what the communicator will or won't accept when they register; OOC, it's up to players to decide what name to use if the character has multiple names or aliases.)
Wardens have access to a group network filter, something that inmates lack, and can track inmates throughout the ship with their CommLink. Inmates, best avoid getting your device confiscated or monitored.
7. Wildcard
If it's in our game pages, you can use it as a prompt! The sky's the limit.
no subject
"I know the deals I've made and the contracts I have, so I don't owe you, but the bread's the important part." Okay, logic? "The filling is good to eat now, but if the food comes out of a box? There's nothing stopping the food from not coming out of the box and I don't trust these fuckers."
Stale bread is still bread.
cw: unreality
Heavy sarcasm. Volk adds in a scaaaary finger wiggle to make it even less believable that he's just told the actual truth.
"If you find tobacco, actually, flag me down for that. You won't, but a girl can dream."
Then Greyjay starts on this Unifying Theory Of Bread and he's lost. He's very lost. What, huh? He squints, stops walking so he can process a little.
"Wait, like - you're going to make a yeast starter with it, or something?"
Sourdough? He has hipsters in his life, he knows what that is. He resumes walking, but keeps the confused frown.
no subject
"...no?" Baking is not within his wheelhouse. "I mean, just like, saving the bread for later? If they stop feeding us."
When they stop isn't said, but implied.
"If they're getting chuckles out of watching us go at each other, that's one way to do it. Last prison I was in did that and they tied winning in the arena to a good feed." He shrugs and keeps walking along. It wasn't good, but that's just how life is?
institutional abuse mention
"Oh. ...You think it'll really last that much longer than the rest?"
He's got no concept of this kind of thing when there's no fridge to put stuff in.
Wait, maybe they should do a yeast starter? But there's no flour or oven and actually you know what never mind.
"Oh boy."
This guy is NOT from Augustin, as Volk kind of suspected. ...Or, no, that's not necessarily true, is it? He was just reading about the 'schools' and 'educational centers' set up for teenagers and drug addicts. People you can do anything to.
"...None of that. Not yet. I'm trying to get the wardens to take me seriously that this place is dangerous, but fuck if it's working when they all think they've been chosen because they're wise and good and we've been chosen because we'd be better off not existing."
CWs abound. Just, uh, caveat lictor all over the map.
"You'd think that if that lot were clever, they'd realize that anyone saying 'hold still, this is for your own good' would be suspect from the start." ACAB, bro. Not that he knows that acronym, but the sentiment stands. "I don't really truck with folks that are 'wise and good', that was Darja's job, but I've stood watch on enough of them bickering to get a sense for it."
He stalls as they're walking and then, with a smile, he offers his hand to Volk. "Greyjay, a Gallowsbait, if that means a damned thing here."
no subject
Volk actually smiles, in a crooked asymmetrical way that isn't just another form of being mean to someone, for the first time since he arrived. He shakes Greyjay's hand.
"Not familiar. I'm Volkhov. People call me Volk. I like to think of myself as a problem."
There's the smile that's been more familiar. Photogenic and wide-eyed. Plastic siding, plastered on. He's going to hurt some people. Metaphorically. Philosophically.
The double doors of the mess hall push open grandly under his rush of maybe actually having some kind of ally.
"Anyway - people say they hate authority until they get a chance to be it. For someone else's own good, obviously, because who would give power to someone that didn't deserve it?"
Sarcasm. Real this time, and not just hiding something that was true anyway.
no subject
"Now, now, Volk, we all know that them in power got that way because they are both - and this is important - both morally righteous and favoured by whatever god is shilling their wares." Does one lead to the other? Maybe, but Jay is no philosopher.
"So far, all the wardens' have wanted from me is to talk about myself. Which is, honestly, the dumbest thing I've come across."
no subject
Volk wouldn't have been born without the Cold War. Some part of that is baked into him, permanently: life doesn't happen unless someone is trying to reorganize the entire thing into an authoritarian dick-waving contest.
"The good news is that they're new, and they haven't been told anything, and they have nothing to lose by letting you go. I don't anticipate it lasting. They've got guns."
The automat is in the middle of the room, looking like a giant, boxy mushroom full of buttons.
no subject
And, huh, that sure is a thing. A giant, boxy mushroom thing. "I get that they wanna show off, and keep us from the staff or something, but I do not get this at all. What's the point?"
no subject
Fifty fifty chance of being a pew pew space laser beam or just a bullet, in his opinion.
What is the point? Volk sighs.
"I don't fucking know. Even if the whole thing is completely real, the choices are impractical and stupid either way. Okay, so -"
He does a rundown of how the automat works. It looks like you can choose your food! You can't. But you can get something three times a day.
no subject
"It smells like food and, well, I'll eat most things, but I dunno if it's got bread inside that I can share." It's a burrito, so no. Still, he holds it out to Volk. "You wanna bite before I dig in?"
...if only so he can get an idea about what this thing is.
no subject
He waves - no thanks. He's not going to nickel and dime over one bite of sandwich and a slice of bread, that's dumb. Eat the burrito.
"I eat fine, I'll have dinner later. We're not short, I just don't like ... being taken advantage of."
He glares up at the automat. Everything here is anonymous, impersonal, uncontrollable. They're all just interchangeable units of Person.
"I'm sick of it, actually.
You're completely right, we can't rely on this to always have enough."
no subject
Nif, nif. He pulls back a bit of tortilla to see what's inside and it's interesting. Smells good enough to eat. "Prolly don't eat the metal - although, in this place, who knows - but d'you eat the wrapper? Or is it like a pasty?"
Either way, he's going to gobble it down. Even if pasty crust is nasty and mostly just flour-water-suet glue, it's still food enough.
"Probably not going to be allowed pigs, but maybe we'll find a space for a chicken? Or if someone knows how to grow things, maybe we could do that."
no subject
He's kind of trying to think of how in the hell to make this practical.
"We can't cook anything. That's the issue. We couldn't cook an egg even if we could get a chicken. ...We have plants growing, at least. They're in the next room over."
Does Volk know which of the plants are going to become fruits and vegetables and salad and which are just plants? Not a chance.