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The Return Journey ([personal profile] returnjourney) wrote in [community profile] returnjourneymemes2022-05-01 01:15 am
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TEST DRIVE 005



RETURN JOURNEY: TEST DRIVE 005



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 ports 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. Dorm Life

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. 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.


5. 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.


6. Wildcard

If it's in our game pages, you can use it as a prompt! The sky's the limit.


looksdevastating: (Booooriiiinggg)

Villanelle | Killing Eve | Inmate

[personal profile] looksdevastating 2022-05-01 04:38 pm (UTC)(link)
2. Pairing

As soon as she found out about the files, all the fun went out of everything. Well, most of it. A lot of it.

She's going to miss doing accents, is the main thing.

So when her new "warden" (lol???) sits her down, she doesn't put one on. She sprawls in her chair, throwing a leg over one arm of it to demonstrate just how over it she is. Her head flops backwards for a moment before she sighs and looks up again, eyebrow raised.

"You know, I've had arrangements like this before," she observes, sticking her chin out defiantly. "They didn't go well."

3. Dorm Life

Okay, no there's some fun to be had here. And it can be nonviolent! Mostly! Not that she's against it or anything, it just seems like the Big Girl thing to do, being nonviolent. For now. Better save her energy for the Big Girl violence that will get her out of here, yeah?

But she can spare a bit of time and attention for this kind of thing. After all, it's like this inmate was asking for it. Leaving their bunk unlocked and the blankets all piled up. It was inevitable. She was just the first person who thought of it. Probably.

It being curling up under the piled blankets and waiting for the inmate to return to their bunk. When she hears them approaching, she has to hold her breath to keep from giggling, but it's worth it. As soon as they start to move to get inside, she reels up like a corpse raising from the dead and used that saved up breath to shout "BOO!" at the top of her lungs.

Classic.

5. Networking

u know, as someone who has committed many many crimes i think the worst crime of all is the fashion around here
and i mean both the fact that you all dress like idiot hobos and the fact that i only have like 12 outfits
i am suffering and you are all to blame
when is the next port so i can take you all shopping
also can the port be in paris
ty
xoxoxoxo
Edited 2022-05-01 16:39 (UTC)
metalflower: (well keep it out of your mind)

2.

[personal profile] metalflower 2022-05-01 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Aloy has known many colourful characters, and each and every one of them has put her on her toes in some way or another, but this one is different. This one, she knows, she cannot turn her back on. A future depends on it. It puts her on edge anyway. Who sits like that? Who acts like this if they don't want a fight?

She sits down with Villanelle with her jaw set. She's a wiry and athletic girl, dressed in bright silks and leathers, but she carries herself like she's much bigger than she is.

"I think you'll find me a little different," Aloy replies curtly. Still, she's curious: "What happened with the last one?"
looksdevastating: (Smile)

uuuHHHhHHhH sure that's a canon point i guess

[personal profile] looksdevastating 2022-05-01 09:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Villanelle snorts, swinging the foot thrown over the chair. Yes, they want to rehabilitate her here, not user her as a weapon. And yet they still want to control her in the end, don't they? Funny how that works.

When she answers, it's with a smile. "I shot him in a crowded restaurant in front of his daughter, who I had kidnapped to get back at him."

She lifts her hand, aims a finger-gun at Aloy and fires. "Bang. He is probably dead. I don't know, I left."
oinks: (the spotlight)

3

[personal profile] oinks 2022-05-01 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
On any given day Amanda would be the one hiding in gleeful wait for somebody to happen upon a hiding spot of her own, and she didn't ever consider it could happen the other way around. The shriek Villanelle is treated to is high-pitched, almost squeaky, and turns on a dime to furious instinct in a less than a second.

Amanda reaches out to grab her throat with one hand.
revie: (uhhhhh)

pairing 💞

[personal profile] revie 2022-05-01 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
"I know."

Eve has never felt more vastly unqualified in her life. She makes a gesture with her hand, swirling, like there should be a glass of wine in it, and a bubble of nervous laughter escapes as she scans Villanelle's file from top to bottom. She's blank-faced at the details she already knows but honestly, they flip her goddamn stomach over.

This has to be some kind of joke, right. She places her CommLink gingerly down between the both of them, and twists her hands together.

Admits, "This is kinda awkward."
looksdevastating: (Default)

[personal profile] looksdevastating 2022-05-01 11:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Choked but grinning, Villanelle laughs. "Guess you don't like surprises?"

Reflex has her grabbing at Amanda's wrist, but she doesn't pull at it. She just tries to make the best of the breath she can get for now, watching Amanda with sparkling, interested eyes. What will she do? Will she try and kill her? In her own bunk? Dumbass!
looksdevastating: (Smile)

[personal profile] looksdevastating 2022-05-01 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
"No shit." Villanelle sniffs, laces her fingers over her belly. Her thumb lands on the scar Eve left and she smiles serenely. "You know, this is probably unethical. Letting you be your girlfriend's warden. Imagine everything you'll let me get away with."

Her eyebrows bounce once before she's throwing her leg back into place, leaning forward across the table towards Eve. She lowers her voice as if they aren't alone. Which they probably aren't, really, not with that sexy Navarch lady watching.

"So. What's it say? Any secrets you didn't already know?" An amused suck of breath through her teeth. "You know me, though. An open book. With you, at least." Wink.
oinks: (a little get)

[personal profile] oinks 2022-05-01 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Amanda grimaces and squeezes once, tight, a warning shot- before she lets go and drops her hands, shaking off the hold. Her heart is pounding. She doesn't really understand the level of surveillance in this place and has to hope somebody didn't notice any of that.

A quick glance over her shoulder before her attention returns. The girl is still smiling at her... What the fuck.

"You're new here."
schrodingerskatz: (Let me tell you something)

Beverly Katz | NBC's Hannibal | Warden

[personal profile] schrodingerskatz 2022-05-01 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
1. Welcome Aboard! - Inmate Pickup

Beverly has been having ... quite a week. The Muralist, corpses full of bees, Hannibal fucking Lecter and his basement. And now, moments after what she's pretty certain was her death at Lecter's hands: a job offer.

But she believes in making the most of a bad situation. So when the Navarch asks her to go pick up an inmate due to staff shortages, she shrugs and agrees. "Can't get funding even in space, huh."

Which brings her here, to this odd snapshot of a moment. It's not the first time she's walked into the scene of a death, but it's the first time she's been tasked with conversing with the victim. How very Will Graham of her.

"Hey," she calls. "How're you doing?"

3. Dorm Life

Beverly does have her own cabin, which is lovely. It just also feels a little lonely, at the moment. Being the new kid at school with no roommate, you know? And as long as she's supposed to be taking responsibility for an inmate, she figures it would behoove her to have some sense of how they're living.

She's wandering along the aisles between pods, just soaking in the surroundings, when she makes eye contact with one of the current tenants. Her chin lifts a little, a greeting that's riding the line between confident and challenging. "Nice digs."

5. Networking

un: KatzB
What's the best place to get coffee in this place? Does anyone make it by hand or are we too futuristic for that here?


[ ooc: Please note that Bevery comes from a pretty gory horror series, and her canon point is after her violent death, so. Content warnings abound! ]
Edited 2022-05-01 23:39 (UTC)
revie: (j'excuse)

[personal profile] revie 2022-05-02 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
Her eyes go right to the same spot, led there by Villanelle's palms, and her brows pinch in a quick spasm of guilt. She wonders what the wound looks like. Has it healed and scarred over, or are there stitches in it, holding her together? Villanelle would probably show her if she asked to see it but she can't get the words out. They jam behind her teeth and sit there, aching.

She doesn't move when Villanelle resituates herself, even though she wants to squirm away. She stays right where she is even though her lungs feel tight, and there's a strange anxiety in her gut.

"A few."

Terrible things, and a few she could have guessed at, but- "Exactly how many times did you break into my house when I wasn't there?" That little breaking and entering mention under her endless list of crimes... Eve has her suspicions.
raisindetre: (10)

Pietre Carvel, Utopia (2013) Warden

[personal profile] raisindetre 2022-05-02 12:51 am (UTC)(link)
HELLO MY NAME IS:
Pietre makes for a quiet match save for the sound of his slow, heaving breathing as he scrolls through his CommLink. Give him a moment, he's reading. Slow at that too. But the concept of having a job isn't new to him and he's been put onto orders like this before. 'Cept in the past it would have been a kill order, and now it's...

Talking, together. Figuring things out. It could be a lot worse.

"Right." His voice is halting. He speaks like he's considering every word, and places his CommLink away to really consider the person sitting in front of him, hands clasped between his knees.

"I guess we'd better introduce ourselves first. My name's Pietre. What's yours?"
ALL THIS MODERN TECHNOLOGY
Anybody happening upon the mess hall is more than welcome to sit with Pietre as he makes his way through an order of breakfast. He's chewing with plenty of appreciation, his hat on the table beside him. His table manners are fair to middling.

"These are vegan." Did you know? He brandishes a sausage on the end of his fork, chewing. "Made from plants, not meat. I can't tell at all. They taste the same to me." Not bad. He misses the usual fry-up he'd get from his local, but as it understands it that's long gone now.
NETWORK: A CONFESSION
Quick question:

Do you think they ever make a mistake when they're deciding if you're supposed to be a warden or an inmate?
raisindetre: (3)

[personal profile] raisindetre 2022-05-02 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
You can get it from the mess hall. It comes out of a machine. I don't think you can tell it what you want, you have to take whatever it puts in the cup.
schrodingerskatz: (Crinkleface)

[personal profile] schrodingerskatz 2022-05-02 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
How on earth can we be in space and not have someone with an espresso machine?
raisindetre: (4)

[personal profile] raisindetre 2022-05-02 02:07 am (UTC)(link)
I don't know. First time I've ever been in space. Do you come here often?
schrodingerskatz: (Keen eyes clear mind)

[personal profile] schrodingerskatz 2022-05-02 03:07 am (UTC)(link)
No, first time, just watched a lot of Star Trek back in college.

I guess there's nothing wrong with coffee from a machine, but it really drives home the whole institutionalness of it.
looksdevastating: (Intriguing)

[personal profile] looksdevastating 2022-05-02 03:49 am (UTC)(link)
"Yup." She pops the 'p' obnoxiously, despite still sounding breathy. "I thought I'd get to know everyone. Make some friends. Settle in."

She scoots to the edge of the bunk, doing a check of her own. But no, whatever warden was supposed to be patrolling had clearly stepped out or started scrolling on his space-phone. Villanelle turns back to the lady and notes she's pretty, in a severe way. She smiles again.

"Looks like nobody saw anything. Don't worry, though. I would've said we were just doing some breathplay if anybody asked." That probably wouldn't have helped, but that's not why she'd be saying it anyway. "What's your name?"
raisindetre: (10)

[personal profile] raisindetre 2022-05-02 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
I've never seen it before. I don't really watch TV. Do you recommend it?

Right. I'd rather we could ask for whatever food we like from the machine but it doesn't take requests, I already asked.
looksdevastating: (Ugh)

[personal profile] looksdevastating 2022-05-02 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
Villanelle's face scrunches up, eyes rolling back in a show of trying hard to remember the various times she visited Eve's home. She blows out a breath, lips buzzing thoughtfully.

"Well, there was the time I tried on your husband's shirts and ate curry in your bathtub-- you remember the bathtub, right?" The glint in her eye makes it clear what she means by that, but she goes on before Eve can answer. "Sorry about the stain, by the way. Oh, and then I moved all the furniture an inch to the left one time, but I don't think you noticed. You didn't spend much time there, I think." She starts tapping a finger against her lip as she counts off more instances, some of which definitely never happened. "The time with the toothbrush. The time I ironed your trousers for you, which you definitely did not appreciate. One time I fell asleep on your couch and Niko almost caught me, but I slipped out the window just in time. A bird got in. He never told you because he thought he left the window open himself."

Shrug. "Lots of times, I guess."

She shuffles her chair around the table, trying to get a look at Eve's CommLink. "Is that really the one you're worried about, though? I don't think I can do that here anyway, so. There you go, one victory already, eh?"
homeostatic: (196)

5

[personal profile] homeostatic 2022-05-02 04:22 am (UTC)(link)
You'll want the Mess Hall for that. It isn't the worst, but it's a step up from some of the replicator varieties I've had.
voxtitanis: (003)

(network; un: $windblade)

[personal profile] voxtitanis 2022-05-02 08:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I think no decision making process is 100% infallible, but I choose to believe that the ones about those aboard the Peregrine have been made with good intentions.
raisindetre: (3)

[personal profile] raisindetre 2022-05-02 09:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Good intentions don't mean so much if you cause harm anyway. Even by mistake. It's important to know that. But the people running the Peregrine seem like they want to help.

Last people I took a job from wanted to help too, but only themselves. It's why I'm asking.
voxtitanis: (Default)

[personal profile] voxtitanis 2022-05-02 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Intentions are never a replacement for outcome but I think they do matter in context. After all, to dismiss intentions completely would put a Warden at a disadvantage for helping inmates here, wouldn't it?

I'm sorry you had such a poor experience though. I hope your time onboard will help.
raisindetre: (4)

[personal profile] raisindetre 2022-05-02 11:37 pm (UTC)(link)
You're right. I didn't think about it like that.

Thanks. It would be good if it helped me, but the help is supposed to go to those who need it more.

But you're a warden too, aren't you. What do you think about work like this? Do you think it's important?
voxtitanis: (028)

[personal profile] voxtitanis 2022-05-03 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
It's all right, this place has everyone feeling off balance at first, doesn't it?

I'm one of the new wardens as well, yes. My name's Windblade, it's nice to meet you.

I do think it's important. I've seen... the most unexpected circumstances change for the better because of small things that no one would have thought about in the moment.

I guess it's something important to me because I've been helping a good friend of mine recover his memories. Sometimes it's been the most obscure thing that unlocks his recollections. Helping 'Bee really helped me understand that people make connections with others that can have so many effects rippling outward that we're not aware of.

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