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allthisshitisweird2023-05-02 05:40 pm
faderifting) wrote in allthisshitisweird2023-05-02 05:40 pm
Entry tags:
Test Drive!
TEST DRIVE MEME
While in some alternate, tidier timeline, the War against the Elder One ended years ago, you're not in that timeline. It's 9:49, and the war continues. An enemy force partially occupies Orlais and has decimated several Marcher Cities, while the Chantry, aided by the Inquisition, has marshaled Orlais and the faithful of Southern Thedas into a new Exalted March against the army of demon-bound Wardens, Red Templars, Venatori loyalists, and darkspawn Corypheus has amassed. Rifts are still scattered across the continent, periodically spitting out strangers from strange worlds with green-glowing anchors embedded in their hands. There's no Herald of Andraste to save Thedas. Someone else is going to have to do it.
You're part of (or allied with, recently hired by, imprisoned by, etc.) an organization, dubbed Riftwatch, that split off from the Inquisition several years ago. Riftwatch consists of these otherworldly new arrivals, rebels and Wardens, and other people who want to prevent the apocalypse without necessarily marching under the Chantry's banner to do it. Their headquarters is an island fortress called the Gallows—formerly a Circle of Magi, more formerly a prison for slaves, but its new occupants have done a good job removing the more grotesque reminders of that past and making the place livable. Their goal is to do what the Chantry can't or won't do, to go more directly after Corypheus and the dark magic he employs, and to keep the Veil from coming apart entirely.
Maybe you're here because you want to help. Maybe you need the money (though there isn't much of it). Maybe you acquired an anchor and sticking around is the only way to prevent your hand from killing you. Maybe you've been sent by the Chantry or some other entity to keep an eye on everyone—they're rumored to be a lot of weirdos and troublemakers. Or maybe you're a new rifter and just going where the nice people with swords tell you that you need to go.
NOTE: This is a static test drive! We post them once per year or so and continue to use them for a long time, so you're never late. Current players are encouraged to track new top-level comments.
I. THE FREE MARCHES: Hasmal, Tantervale, and most recently Starkhaven have all fallen to the Tevinter incursion, leaving Kirkwall the largest city-state in the Free Marches to remain unoccupied. For Riftwatch, that means the war is closer to home than ever, and traveling anywhere north of the mountains runs the risk of running into enemy scouting parties. Perhaps you've been sent out to find these scouts before they find the unwary, or perhaps you're just trying to pass through unnoticed to Antiva or Rivain when you run into trouble. Or maybe you're more in the thick of it: joining the Free Marches armies in harassing the occupying army as best they can from outside the city, or slipping your way into one of them to gather intelligence or meet with an ally.
II. THE WAKING SEA: When Riftwatch isn't traveling by griffon or magic mirror, it frequently travels by sea, courtesy of a small assortment of allied pirate ships. So welcome aboard. The sea is choppy and frequently violent—violent storms, violent enemy ships, or both at once—and the crew may not have much patience for incompetence, so either make yourself useful above or try not to get sick below.
III. KIRKWALL: Even when enormous evil darkspawn are trying to take over the known world and you and your colleagues might be the only ones who can truly stop him, you can't work all the time. And when you aren't working, Kirkwall is there for you with its dingy Lowtown taverns, its flashy Hightown establishments, its market stalls and street musicians and cellars hosting gamblers. (Or maybe you can work all the time, and you're in the city to do some official shopping, try to spy on a suspicious character, or show a potential financial backer a good time.)
IV. SEND A MESSAGE: Each member of Riftwatch is assigned a blue crystal, small enough to wear around the neck, that can transmit voice messages, as well as an enchanted book tied to that crystal that can be used to exchange written messages. They're secure enough to discuss the war, if you'd like to get down to business, but loosely controlled enough to ask a question or play a game with only a few rolled eyes from people who hate fun.
V. WILDCARD: From the Gallows' library to the pirate islands off the coast, from Hightown's high-priced market stalls to the bloody frontlines of the war, Thedas is yours to explore.
While in some alternate, tidier timeline, the War against the Elder One ended years ago, you're not in that timeline. It's 9:49, and the war continues. An enemy force partially occupies Orlais and has decimated several Marcher Cities, while the Chantry, aided by the Inquisition, has marshaled Orlais and the faithful of Southern Thedas into a new Exalted March against the army of demon-bound Wardens, Red Templars, Venatori loyalists, and darkspawn Corypheus has amassed. Rifts are still scattered across the continent, periodically spitting out strangers from strange worlds with green-glowing anchors embedded in their hands. There's no Herald of Andraste to save Thedas. Someone else is going to have to do it.
You're part of (or allied with, recently hired by, imprisoned by, etc.) an organization, dubbed Riftwatch, that split off from the Inquisition several years ago. Riftwatch consists of these otherworldly new arrivals, rebels and Wardens, and other people who want to prevent the apocalypse without necessarily marching under the Chantry's banner to do it. Their headquarters is an island fortress called the Gallows—formerly a Circle of Magi, more formerly a prison for slaves, but its new occupants have done a good job removing the more grotesque reminders of that past and making the place livable. Their goal is to do what the Chantry can't or won't do, to go more directly after Corypheus and the dark magic he employs, and to keep the Veil from coming apart entirely.
Maybe you're here because you want to help. Maybe you need the money (though there isn't much of it). Maybe you acquired an anchor and sticking around is the only way to prevent your hand from killing you. Maybe you've been sent by the Chantry or some other entity to keep an eye on everyone—they're rumored to be a lot of weirdos and troublemakers. Or maybe you're a new rifter and just going where the nice people with swords tell you that you need to go.
NOTE: This is a static test drive! We post them once per year or so and continue to use them for a long time, so you're never late. Current players are encouraged to track new top-level comments.
I. THE FREE MARCHES: Hasmal, Tantervale, and most recently Starkhaven have all fallen to the Tevinter incursion, leaving Kirkwall the largest city-state in the Free Marches to remain unoccupied. For Riftwatch, that means the war is closer to home than ever, and traveling anywhere north of the mountains runs the risk of running into enemy scouting parties. Perhaps you've been sent out to find these scouts before they find the unwary, or perhaps you're just trying to pass through unnoticed to Antiva or Rivain when you run into trouble. Or maybe you're more in the thick of it: joining the Free Marches armies in harassing the occupying army as best they can from outside the city, or slipping your way into one of them to gather intelligence or meet with an ally.
II. THE WAKING SEA: When Riftwatch isn't traveling by griffon or magic mirror, it frequently travels by sea, courtesy of a small assortment of allied pirate ships. So welcome aboard. The sea is choppy and frequently violent—violent storms, violent enemy ships, or both at once—and the crew may not have much patience for incompetence, so either make yourself useful above or try not to get sick below.
III. KIRKWALL: Even when enormous evil darkspawn are trying to take over the known world and you and your colleagues might be the only ones who can truly stop him, you can't work all the time. And when you aren't working, Kirkwall is there for you with its dingy Lowtown taverns, its flashy Hightown establishments, its market stalls and street musicians and cellars hosting gamblers. (Or maybe you can work all the time, and you're in the city to do some official shopping, try to spy on a suspicious character, or show a potential financial backer a good time.)
IV. SEND A MESSAGE: Each member of Riftwatch is assigned a blue crystal, small enough to wear around the neck, that can transmit voice messages, as well as an enchanted book tied to that crystal that can be used to exchange written messages. They're secure enough to discuss the war, if you'd like to get down to business, but loosely controlled enough to ask a question or play a game with only a few rolled eyes from people who hate fun.
V. WILDCARD: From the Gallows' library to the pirate islands off the coast, from Hightown's high-priced market stalls to the bloody frontlines of the war, Thedas is yours to explore.
charles sun | the brothers sun | rifter
[ The quarantine had taken what felt like forever, and through all that Charles had only felt more and more out of his depth. It's par for the course, he's sure-- he'd been told many times that others like him had gone through the same process-- but just because something is normal in this bizarre world doesn't make it easier to stomach. Hell, even if he'd listened intently to all the "lessons" given to him, the fact he couldn't read any of the written notes had only made everything more dissonant.
The first day out of quarantine, Charles takes stock of everything outside the Gallows. The second day, he tries to figure out what it is he can do around here. The third, the fourth, the fifth-- it's all adjustments, all memorisations, all realisations that he'd probably be best working with Forces if he decides to stay for good (and everything so far points to staying being the most practical thing to do).
The sixth day has him going out to market.
Truthfully, if asked what he wanted most, he'd say it was a cigarette and a long drink of whiskey. But his wants have never really mattered. His eyes sweep over bottles of alcohol and vices that presumably would affect his lung health, and stop only when he finds a stall with books written in that creepily indecipherable script.
How is it that he understands what these people are saying, somehow, but can't understand what they're reading? The stall owner tries to convince him the book he's holding is a "classic", "everyone who's anyone knows all these stories", but Charles can't know for certain. He glares at the cover like that might give him any answers, but luck isn't on his side with this one.
In the end, he tries to catch the attention of someone nearby: ] Hey--
Is this book [ he shows the title cover, frowning ] really about legends?
[ The stall owner looks offended he'd ask for clarification, but he doesn't pay them any mind. ]
b. adaptation -- the gallows
You got time?
[ Sweating and fresh from a workout (it feels normal, at least, compared to everything else), Charles finds a pseudo-familiar face and sits by them. Maybe they've exchanged words once or twice, he doesn't recall, but he's seen them around the training area enough that it doesn't feel completely out of pocket to ask, ] What's this thing supposed to do?
[ He's turning his hand over to showcase the green mark of his anchor. Though the pain he'd felt from it when he first arrived wasn't particularly bad, not when he's felt worse back home, the unfamiliarity of it is discomforting nevertheless. Charles has been injured in enough ways to figure out why things hurt; this is unlike anything he's experienced before by virtue of the damn colour. ]
When I first got here, I saw people use it to "close the rift I came from". [ This is the perfect example of saying words to which you do not know the real meaning. ] That's... does it do that on its own? Or do you train it?
c. fieldwork -- whenever, wherever
[ He's doing whatever it is that hired muscle is meant to do: escorting, protecting, travelling with a group to do some heavy hitting, whatever. The reasons for which Charles is accompanying anyone isn't important in the moment, not when his hand's starting to ache. His gaze immediately drops to it, brows furrowed, and while he's received enough information through word of mouth to figure pain means trouble, that doesn't make him any better equipped in knowing what to do.
Not wanting to look the fool, he steels the "now what?" on his tongue. Instead, he turns his head looking for whatever's making his hand ache. He suspects something huge and hulking and foul, considering the word "demon" has been thrown about fairly often, but sees none of the sort. Instead, taking as many steps as he can without straying too far from his party, Charles follows... well, a feeling.
Then: ] There. [ Hand lifted, the dull glow of his anchor seems matches what's forming in the space ahead. Without a real point of reference, Charles isn't sure if the rift is big or small (for the sake of a newbie's first mission, we'll probably assume it's the latter). He's only sure that the last time he'd been around one, there'd been all kinds of creatures that needed the shit beat out of them. ]
That's a rift, isn't it?
[ The potential of violence after weeks of trying to fit in peacefully with the Riftwatch sparks something bright in him. Charles, ever the master of denial, doesn't pay it any more mind than he has to. ]
d. downtime -- crystals
[ You get the sound of Charles' frustration, but it's not because of you. Honestly, it's just because it's humiliating to admit: ] Whoever wrote this message, I can't read it.
...sorry.
[ He sounds a little defeated. ]
e. wildcard
[ Charles' time is mostly spent training when he isn't busy trying to be helpful around the Gallows, and his general vibe is "looks intimidating and frowns too much, but isn't mean when he speaks to you and is actually surprisingly patient". He's really annoyed he lost the ability to read (or so he thinks), and is adjusting to the array of weapons, armour, and tools Riftwatch has at their disposal to better his skills with them.
With his general professionalism and efficiency, he gives off the impression of someone who's used to being part of a huge group of people working towards some goal or other. The easiest way to talk to him is to tell him you need him to do work! ]
===
[ for the canonblind, charles is a gangster-assassin for a taiwanese triad turned rifter! he's working with the forces division, and feels most comfortable when anyone needs his help killing anything. he's second most comfortable if you need his help hurting anything else in non-lethal ways. feel free to PM me if you have any questions! ]
re: downtime — crystals
He sucks in a breath and shakes his head, jaw set for a moment.]
I… [He can’t believe he’s about to say this out loud.] I can’t either.
[A pause.] What do the letters look like to you?
adaptation.
there are two lenses which slot in over the palm, where the anchor-shard embeds. one is in her hand, being cleaned. she doesn't actually pause what she's doing to answer, though she does take a moment to tch at the great shaggy shepherd dog next to her when he starts to rise. a clear: no, it's fine, he can sit if he likes to what's certainly a trained guard dog. )
A bit of both, ( she says. the accent is orlesian, though he might not have picked them out so much yet as to say more than probably she wasn't born here. ) Hold it up to a rift and it'll do the work itself, but I recommend ...
Well, practise isn't quite the right word. But it helps to be prepared, it's- forceful.
Some do more than just close rifts. That comes unpredictably, but if it happens, you'll want to learn to control it.
( need to. a thing she had resisted, when it happened to her, but those days are long past now. )
c - fieldwork
[ Lazar’s hand aches too, but that’s nothing doing; just two broke fingers been slow on the mend. Something wrong in the angle when he draws a blade. ]
Prophet's cunt, never seen 'em open. [ Doesn’t sound happy for it. Research told them that it would form somewhere, somewhen nearby - but it’s always one thing to get orders, another to figure if they're worth following. ] Get ahead, yeah?
[ That can’t be protocol. Sense would say: Put the big guy in front, to distract while the man who can do anything about it all does.
Still, the world’s full of rifters; more every year. Only got the one Lazar. ]