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returnjourneymemes2021-12-10 12:00 pm
returnjourney) wrote in returnjourneymemes2021-12-10 12:00 pm
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TEST DRIVE 001
RETURN JOURNEY: TEST DRIVE 001
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. Accidents and Sabotage
A. Lights Out
As everyone knows, when it's lights out in a prison...interesting things can happen.
Whether a natural fluctuation from traveling through heavy space debris or something more unnatural (maybe it was you), the power has gone out. While life support continues to function, it's pitch black and any areas usually locked to wardens are left with doors open. It's the perfect setting for a riot, breaking and entering, thievery...your general crimes, petty and otherwise. Wardens, of course, are expected to stymie these efforts, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll succeed. What's a little chaos between friends?
Our apologies if you happen to be in an elevator when the power dies.
B. Invasive Species
Being in space, sometimes space things happen.
Somehow (and hopefully you or someone you know isn't responsible for that "somehow"), a greater lunar tetacocien has gotten on board. Quite a feat, since they're the size of a rhino, but they have an impressive ability to squeeze through anything large enough to fit their beak. Unfortunately venomous, carnivorous, and native to the starstuff of Oos, the creature needs to be rounded up before it destroys anything (or anyone) aboard the ship. Please do not attempt to eat; the flesh is toxic.
The multi-legged predator can be immobilized with shots from an energy weapon... Too bad inmates can't carry them. Time to improvise! Or steal one, if you're canny enough.
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!)
A. Truth Bomb
One week, those affected cannot tell a lie. Wardens and inmates alike can only speak the truth, though it varies whether they blurt out a response to any question asked or can keep mum.
B. Stuck Together
Another week, you're stuck together. Travel any farther than two meters from your buddy and you'll experience intense physical pain. There isn't anything visible to this connection; it isn't something you can sever (not that this means you can't try). So have fun with your group activities and try not to kill each other.
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.
Arrival!
[And on top of being a total stranger to his databases, Tess could never pass for someone who belongs anywhere close to anything pristine or sterile. Her clothes are very lived in, her hair messily pulled back, her face flecked with scars. No technician, no tech whiz. She leans against a wall she considers a safe distance away, her thumbs hooked into her pockets. She speaks bluntly:]
And don't bother looking for the gun. We disarm all the inmates when we bring them in.
no subject
So I'm an inmate. On what grounds do you have to hold me? What am I being charged with? Why was I brought here?
[And most importantly:]
Where am I?
no subject
You think they tell us specifics?
[But more to the point:]
You're on the Peregrine. It's part of the [she unhooks her thumbs just to do finger quotes] "Transformative and Penal Reparation Fleet." Basically something's going wrong back home, and you're either doing it or making it worse, and the Navarch thinks the best way to fix your world is to fix you and send you back home to do it. That track?
no subject
The LED on its temple swirls into yellow and then scarlet as it blinks rapidly at the notification of increasing software instabilities in the corner of its visual field. There's a niggling itch in the back of Connor's mind, a half-formed idea of something it might have proposed to Markus had it been allowed to live. It doesn't matter anymore, Markus had made his choice. But the itch, reawakened, is now buzzing about Connor's processor like an angry mosquito with nowhere to alight. Connor reaches up to place its fingertips against the LED, its mouth drawn into a thin line as it skewers Tess with a glare.]
And you- you brought me here? To fix whatever I've supposedly done wrong?
[And where is Markus, is it here too? Connor hadn't asked Markus to shoot it in the forehead, so is Markus here to atone for its role in whatever is going south in Detroit?]
no subject
No, you're going to fix what you've done wrong. I'm a warden, but I'm just on pick-up duty today.
[New people always need time to acclimatize. It's always been her instinct to throw them into the deep end and see if they sink or swim, and doing anything short of that demands a particular sort of patience. The kind of patience she's never been all that good at, at least not with people who can't offer her anything. That feels like something she'll be practicing the rest of her life.
Pick-ups are always stressful.
She plucks herself up a bit more.]
What did you do?
no subject
[Connor's tone had remained calm throughout, but the tension in its shoulders tightened as it spoke, the LED flashing red as if to emphasize the stress belied by its words. If it wasn't so self-absorbed at the moment, Connor might notice that Tess is carrying tension within herself, too.
It glares at her for a moment longer before finally relenting somewhat.]
I was the android sent by Cyberlife. My mission was to find deviant androids and return them to Cyberlife in order to study them to discover the causes behind deviance. The androids would then either be reset and resold, or deactivated and disassembled to be recycled into new androids. Deviancy is a software error, nothing more. Cyberlife wants to correct the issues in order to prevent its recurrence in future product. Deviant androids are dangerous to humanity and must be stopped. I was meant to stop them, and I failed my mission. I thought I would be sent back out to try to correct my mistakes and accomplish the mission I was tasked with, but I ended up here instead. How am I supposed to do what I need to from here?
[It looks at her now with something that might be confused with pleading if Connor was human. It isn't. It has no emotion. It's not a deviant.]
no subject
Turns out a whole lot is possible in space.
Tess shrugs, and she pushes off the wall to approach him, just by a couple steps. He certainly reads desperate to her; anyone who goes off like that must have a lot going on under a cool exterior.]
Dunno. I guess it means your little crusade has something fucked up going on, and you gotta learn something about it before you can go back.
What's wrong with being deviant?
no subject
And Tess is incorrect; it has nothing going on, a point which it will vociferously defend if challenged.]
Markus destroyed my predecessor. Its memories should have been uploaded into a new body and deployed to complete the mission.
[It looks down at itself briefly, noting with a small frown that the unit designation, -52, hasn't changed. That shouldn't be possible given the damage inflicted. Its jacket should read -53 now. It looks up at Tess again, LED flickering red.]
I don't understand what went wrong with the transfer.
[Its gaze narrows into another stern glare.]
I told you. Deviants are dangerous. They are unstable and unpredictable and humans could easily be hurt as a result. Being here means that I am unable to contain the problem.
no subject
What's the difference between deviants and humans, then? It's not like we aren't unstable and unpredictable. Even dangerous. You know how many human inmates we have here?
[She's not going to convince him that he's supposed to be here. The Navarch has already made up her mind on that: it's not her job to dispute.]
no subject
Humans created androids, which automatically places them above androids, much like the idea of humans in comparison to one of their gods, for instance. But as far as behavior is concerned, the same comparison can't be made. Androids were specifically designed to perform various tasks so that humans could be freed from the time and labor that would have otherwise been consumed by those tasks. Human behavior has nothing to do with what an android should or shouldn't be doing. The only thing that an android should be focusing on is whatever its programming dictates at any given time- and above all, that programming dictates its absolute obedience to humans.
[Except for Connor. Connor was programmed with more leeway in regard to its own adherence to human orders. It is obedient to Cyberlife above all, rather than any individual human, which means that it can ignore orders that may interfere with its own task- its mission to hunt deviants and return them to Cyberlife.
It shakes its head with a small, indulgent smile.]
The circumstances of any human does not negate the programming of an android.