TEST DRIVE MEME!

[faderifting]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Maybe you’ve been around for a while, or maybe you’re new to the Inquisition. Maybe you’re new to Thedas, having recently fallen from a tear in reality and been collected by uniformed rescuers. Whoever you are, you’ve been sent to Kirkwall, to an outpost where many of the Inquisition’s members and allies work on some of the biggest mysteries and problems the organization must solve if it’d like to keep the world from ending, where “ending” means “falling under the power of an ancient powerful corrupted being who wants everyone to bow to him as a god.”

And just to be clear, it would like that. It would like that a lot.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS TDM FEATURES SNOW.

I. THE GALLOWS: The Gallows is an island fortress in Kirkwall’s harbor. It’s been home to, in order: Tevinter slaves, a Circle of Magi, a lot of creepy red lyrium, and now the Inquisition, which has occupied the fortress with the provisional Viscount’s blessing. There are walls that still need rebuilding and corners that still need dusting, but for the most part the Inquisition has gotten down to business. There’s space in the stone-floored courtyards to train or spar, currently covered in snow and ice; or, if your skills don’t lie in the realm of hitting things, there’s a large library and several offices supporting the Inquisition’s areas of research and diplomatic efforts, currently very cold. If you don’t know what to do with yourself, then by all means, ask; someone will definitely be able to put you to work. In the snow!

II. KIRKWALL: A quick row across the near-freezing harbor will take you to Kirkwall proper. The city is built into the cliffs, from exclusive and wealthy snow-dusted Hightown at the top to impoverished Darktown in the abandoned mining tunnels below, where discarded waste is presently frozen into slushy brown ice. In the middle is Lowtown, home to taverns, merchants, and plenty of trouble to keep anyone looking for it happy. And a lot of snow. You’re welcome to spend your free time and your money here—but try not to annoy the locals too much, please, in case the Inquisition's welcome runs out. It’d be a shame to have to pack up and leave in all this snow.

III. QUESTING: Barely had time to make yourself at home, did you, before you were sent away from Kirkwall again—but this time on a mission. There’s a rift outside of Denerim, in the snow, pouring demons into the snowy fields, and the Inquisition has been asked to lend a hand. Maybe literally. If you have an anchor embedded in your palm, you’re needed to close the damn thing. If not, maybe you’re here to fight demons or guard against bandits on the snow-covered road, or to gather samples out of the snow and take notes on the rift’s location once its closed, or to speak to prominent locals (in the snow) afterwards to make sure that they fully appreciate the Inquisition’s efforts. Regardless, it’s a long trip, so we hope you like campfire cooking and sharing a tent. And snow.

IV. SENDING CRYSTAL: Joining the Inquisition gets you access to the very latest in barely-understood magical communication devices—namely, a crystal, small enough to wear around your neck, that will allow you to communicate verbally with anyone else who has one. Or everyone else who has one. Say hello.

There is no snow on the crystal, unfortunately.

V. WILDCARD: The whole of Thedas is yours to explore, from coast to uncharted wilderness filled with bears, and did we mention that there is snow? Anyway: choose your own adventure!

Comments

[crowncitizen]

Pleased to see Iggy smile, even if only a bit, Prompto smiles in return. He leans back in his seat, relaxing and taking a sip from his drink. It's almost funny how used he's gotten to the taverns here.

"Yeah, I know it's a lot when you first get here. Ton of stuff thrown at you and it's like... like someone made you close your eyes, spun you around a bunch, then you opened them and you're dizzy and then you get shoved into the middle of a crowd of strangers and told 'Good luck!'" That's not even getting into the bit with the shards. Ugh.

That's... oh wow, that's real praise. And not meant sarcastically, either. "Aww, Iggy, you're gonna make me blush!" Gosh!! "But I guess I'm not doing too shabby, considering I'm a rifter who's known for having the weird box." His camera's raised a few eyebrows while he's been here.

[extraverse]

"Which brings me to a less blush-worthy question: How much power does your camera have?" Ignis asked then, after a moment. He wasn't sure what Prompto could do once the batteries ran out, and how many spare ones he had packed on him when he was pulled through a Rift.

[crowncitizen]

Right, he hadn't told Ignis about that yet. "Well... funny that you ask. I didn't come with my camera. Somehow I got left with one of those old fashioned ones. Black and white film, big as a box kind of camera. But! No electricity needed!" Which makes it actually useful, though- "But there's only so much film and chemicals I came with. Once those run out, I'm SOL."

[extraverse]

"Perhaps there's a way we could procure more? Some native concoction that could be used as a substitute?" The types of chemicals and materials needed for that aren't exactly his expertise, but there were only so many elements that could be needed, right? And while Thedas was unusual it wasn't utterly unlike Eos. It still had the same basic building blocks of life.

[crowncitizen]

"That's kinda what I hope might happen, but I'm no chemist." He barely knows what the chemicals he uses are called, let alone how he can substitute them. "And it's not like anyone here would know either. Photography's not a thing here."

[extraverse]

Ignis feels a little guilty now that he hadn't taken more interest in old fashioned photography. Back on Eos, Prompto had had a digital camera so he hadn't needed the chemicals so much as a way to charge his battery and all of his fancy accessories. He had also been remarkably self-sufficient about it - probably, Ignis realized, in an effort to not burden any of the others with his personal hobby.

"Perhaps another Rifter might know more? We could ask on the crystals, see if any of them have an idea of the chemical makeup we would need and then it would be a matter of finding like properties in natural chemicals here. Or we could attempt to analyze the chemicals you have now."

[crowncitizen]

Ignis... yeah, he's got it in one. Photography is Prompto's thing, and the others had enough to worry about than his little hobby, so he'd never talk much about how he did everything. Just showed them the pictures and let them help pick out which ones to keep. Admittedly, Prompto's knowledge about older modes of photography isn't great. He wishes he paid more attention in high school about it.

"Not too many rifters here, unfortunately. We could try the crystals, but teeeen to one we'd just get a whole bunch of Thedosians asking us what the heck we're talking about." Kirk lived on a spaceship and Church... doesn't strike him as the type to know much about chemistry. "Probably be better off trying to figure it out ourselves. I remember a few things from school about it, but not much."

[extraverse]

Ignis tilted his head in acknowledgement of Prompto's point and then listened to what Prompto was saying. He could remember a few things. That was a start.

"Tell me what you remember. Perhaps we can build on that."

[crowncitizen]

"Well, there's the developer and then the fixer. Then there's the washing process at the end. Also the stop bath if needed." He shuts his eyes, trying to remember. They hadn't really discussed in depth just what all was IN the stuff, just what it did. "I think there's some kind of sulfur in the developer. And alkaline? And stuff that does something with stopping oxidation." Where he pulled that from, even he doesn't know. "There's salt in the fixer. It's meant to get rid of silver on the image, I know that much. And the washing is just water for the most part, but it takes forever without cleaning agents." He's had to rig a set up in his dark room to have water running from a bucket he rigged. It's not pretty, but it works.

[extraverse]

Ignis listens to what Prompto says and makes mental notes. Things like sulfur and salt should be easy enough to track down, depending on how importing works in Thedas.

This task is basically going to end with them having to completely invent photography in this world, but they've done even more impossible things.

"Do the containers you have now have any sort of labels on them?"

[crowncitizen]

More or less. He knows there are other chemicals in the process. They're just long, difficult to pronounce ones that he doesn't know for the life of him. What he wouldn't give for a rift to pop out a chemistry book about photography or something.

"No. Just plain containers. It was the look and smell of the stuff that tipped me off to what each one was." And luck played a part as well, honestly. "There are older types of photography that we could fall back on. Simpler stuff to use for processing the film. Buuuuut that would mean figuring out and building a camera, and a lot of experimenting." Which he's not sure he's smart enough for, frankly.

[extraverse]

"What of the film?" he asked after a moment - because this wasn't just the camera and chemicals. They needed the items the pictures would be printed on. "How much of that do you have left?