exploration mingle: branching out

[riverviewmod]

who: everyone in Riverview!
what: exploration mingle: branching out
when: August 15 - October 15
where: the quarantine, the delta, the jungle, and the forest
warnings: threads may contain violence, body horror, and discussion of injuries and illness; please put any necessary warnings in the subject lines

branching out

One of the major and most highly-valued cultural concepts in Riverview is that of exploration, expansion. Especially now that, with the recent influx of new arrivals, as the portal kicks into high gear for reasons not entirely known, the Inhabited City, already comfortably full, is rapidly becoming overpopulated. With all the refugees from other worlds pouring in from day to day, the city's safe space and resources are being taxed to their breaking point.

Right now, exploration and expansion is key, and the government is really focusing on exploration objectives, in order to unite citizens in expanding, securing, and supplying the city for everyone's benefit.

the story so far

Exploration & Expansion Progress Report ● Plotting & Questions ● Reward Submissions ● First Teams

It's normal to see drop-ships hovering in the sky over the Quarantine, of course, since the city is not self-sufficient just yet, and receives regular shipments of supplies, technology, merchandise, food, books, movies, and all sorts of other things from the Capital World. However, the number of drop-ships coming down has recently started to triple in frequency.

On August 10th, an announcement started being run on the Quarantine's networks, television stations, and on digital display boards throughout the city explaining the situation - Mayor Dichard explained in an official mayoral address that the Quarantine is in the process of taking in refugees from a planet in the solar system which recently became uninhabitable due to a massive natural disaster. Hundreds of people are flooding the city, and many of them are wounded, sick, or otherwise in acute distress.

How is a city already stretched to the limit for population capacity going to handle all these new arrivals...?

how it works

● ADDITIONAL OOC INFO: The refugee aliens are called the Frysh; they are humanoid mammalian and have a similar internal physiology to humans, however, they look somewhat insectoid, with mandibles, slightly shiny skin that is smoother and harder to the touch than human skin, and delicate wings that aren't capable of carrying the weight of the body (they cannot fly). Their skin ranges from pale to dark gray, and they have mottled or spotted/freckled markings in a wide variety of warm earth tones on their faces, necks, backs, and the outside of the thighs; their blood is dark rusty brown and slightly more viscous than human blood; eye colors are very widely varied. Average height is 6 feet, and doesn't vary based on sex (the species has male/female/neutral). The aging process is similar to that of humans, and refugees come in all ages. The species is very high-tech, but the tech is mostly related to entertainment rather than weaponry, medical, etc. as the planet the species lived on was quite utopian and basic needs were always taken care of by tech that was left on the planet when it was destroyed.

● Phases: Each prompt is a different phase of the operation. Characters may partake in whichever part of the operation they choose, whether it is a large and prominent part, or a more of a backseat or support role. Characters may participate in as many phases as they wish.

● Completion: When the next exploration mingle goes up, the mission featured on this exploration mingle will be considered complete, and game canon, providing the entry has 200+ comments on it.

● Thread Rewards: For this mingle, I have created five different items as rewards - two for the first prompt, and three for the remaining three. Any character participating in a completed thread with at least one other character, for any phase prompt by October 15 will be able to pick a keyword corresponding to one of these rewards when they submit the thread at the link above. Every character participating in a completed thread will be eligible to receive an item. Completed threads must take place on this entry.
ETA August 20th: New characters who complete a thread on August's Test Drive meme with the Tent City prompt, and who are accepted into the game are also eligible for a thread reward for Phase I only.

● Entry Reward: The reward for completion of this month's exploration objective will be expansion of the City, a more reliable electrical and power grid, and some new setting features as the Inhabited City grows in size.

phase i: tent cities

Unfortunately, this influx of refugees is going to be causing a serious overpopulation problem - for now, since it is summer, the new arrivals will be housed in makeshift tent cities set up in Riverview Central Park as well as other smaller parks around the city, any spare empty lots, along the banks of the river, and in a few of the sports fields. The resources of the city are going to be taxed to their limit, and while the Capital World will be contributing funds and helping to get together building supplies, Riverview's intrepid citizens are going to have to find ways to supply more space to build shelters for the refugees, and more power to supply the electrical grid in the city.

However, it's not just the explorers that are able to help out with this particular problem. Any citizen who wishes is more than welcome to attend the tent cities where makeshift field hospitals have been set up with as many medical amenities as possible. While serious and life-threatening injuries or illnesses are taken to the Riverview Hospital, people who need first aid or more minor or moderate tending can attend the field hospitals and recover in their temporary homes. Volunteers are requested to help with many different tasks - medical staff to help heal the injured and ill, anyone capable to cook and serve at soup kitchens, members of the Perimeter Guard, police, or other capable fighters to secure the tent cities and make sure there's no violence or theft happening, and drivers and laborers to help bring supplies from the drop-ships and other parts of the city to keep the tent cities supplied. Of course, there are going to be a lot of other jobs that come up on the fly, so everyone is welcome.

phase ii: the delta

With fall rapidly approaching, and with it the colder weather, it's urgent that housing is set up for these new arrivals, and with new housing comes a need for more electricity. The electrical grid is already stretched to its limits with the current population in the city, and is essentially being held together with duct tape and hope - with all these new arrivals and their needs, there's no way the current grid can handle it.

Thankfully, during a recent exploratory fly-over, an electrical installation set in one of the massive waterfalls near the edge of the Abandoned City was noted. While at the time it seemed too far away from established civilization to risk a large expedition, things have changed with the new influx of refugees, and the installation seems like the best hope to bring more energy into the city. Characters who participate in Phase II will be taking watercraft down the river to the delta just above the waterfalls, finding the installation, and checking to see if it can be restored to functionality so the power it generates from the waterfall can be used in the city.

The dangers faced by people taking on Phase II will be primarily related to the long trek needed to get to the installation, down the river - a relatively straight-forward, old fashioned adventurous exploration mission. While using watercraft will help speed up the process, the river is heavily populated by monsters and predators who have flourished in the absence of civilization. Expect mutated piranhas, crocodiles, carnivorous fish, and just about anything else that lives in or near a river to try to take a swipe at the teams making their way to the installation. Once inside the installation, there will be the hazards associated with a damp building that hasn't been used by people in over a decade - it's in poor repair, will have structural damage, and the likely-malfunctioning tech means that electricity and water are almost guaranteed to meet at some point. This prompt would be well-suited to engineers, skilled laborers/construction workers, and fighters; people who can fix the damage to the installation and those who can protect everyone along the way.

For any thread completed under this prompt, whether or not characters made it to the delta, all participating characters will receive rewards.

phase iii: the jungle

The second line of exploration will be into the jungle north of the city, where fly-overs have located a series of skyscrapers and flat ground, overgrown with plant life and obviously left empty since quite a while before the Abandoned City was left behind. Despite being long abandoned, however, the buildings and land seem to be pretty well-preserved and would be usable with a bit of work and maybe a touch of magic. With the flat area cleared out, it would make a perfect helipad for transport and with a temporary fence that could be easily built up after the area is cleared, this could be the start of a smaller city that could eventually be connected by transit or cleared land and fences with the Quarantine proper! Adding this extra space would easily house all the refugees and some of the excess population from the Quarantine, which would be a major advantage for everyone in the city.The government wastes no time in dispatching teams from the Perimeter Guard and welcoming the inclusion of regular citizens with a taste for exploration, to head out into the jungle and see whether this could be a viable solution.

But why would what looks like such an easy area to inhabit have been left alone and outside city walls for so long?

Well, exploratory teams will soon find out - as they make their way through the jungle toward the buildings, characters will start to notice that the animals and monsters in the jungle are getting increasingly...strange. Rather than otherworldly creatures that still make sense, they look like weird, mutated combinations of animals, a mashup of teeth and eyes and fur and scales and claws that don't belong together. As the teams move further, they'll start to notice that some of these creatures are taking on plant-like qualities as well, vines winding into flesh and extending like tentacled appendages from monsters that are increasingly larger and more misshapen. After a point, they're almost incomprehensible blobs of melded flesh and plant life that can't move, can only sit and snap or swipe or grasp for prey.

It isn't just the monsters either. The trip out to the skyscrapers will take at least four days on foot for the fastest and fittest people in the Quarantine, and going by foot is the only way to get there, considering there's no cleared space large enough to land craft, and due to the unknown nature of the area around the skyscrapers, magic is not to be used to travel there. Day One of the trip will be pretty normal, aside from the surroundings starting to get weird, but on Day Two, characters will start to feel and see changes. Whether they're taking on physical traits of other members of their teams, or the creatures and plants around them, they will start to subtly change, whether it's eye or hair color, scales or claws or even superpowers or abilities, they'll start to 'trade' traits with people and creatures around them. On Day Three, it gets significantly worse, with characters starting to meld together with animals and plants around them, becoming more and more amalgamated with the world around them, whether it's vines under their skin or growing a tail, or any combination. By Day Four, characters will be experiencing intense changes to the very fabric of themselves, their physical bodies morphing and twisting into things that are completely alien while their minds stay mostly the same.

The level of transformation experienced and the amount of physical pain and damage that the transformation causes to individual characters is up to player discretion, and characters that feel unable to handle the effects of the jungle route are more than welcome to turn back whenever they want. However, if any teams make it to the skyscrapers they will find that the buildings are inhabitable and the area would be easily cordoned off with fences, though the buildings are covered with mosses, fungi, and leafy herbs that seem unaffected by the mutations. Teams will find that as they turn back toward the city, the effects wear off as they leave the area, in exact reverse to how they appeared.

For any thread completed under this prompt, whether or not characters made it to the skyscrapers, all participating characters will receive rewards. The first team that makes it to the skyscrapers, collects samples of the fungi and moss, and makes it back to the city should respond in this thread to receive the "solution" to what is happening in the area and how the area can become inhabitable.

phase iv: the forest

The jungle isn't the only option for new areas to inhabit. The same fly-over expedition covered the deciduous forest to the south of the Quarantine, and discovered a sprawling, walled compound, overgrown with thick, lush vegetation. The compound seems to have its own water sources, an orchard, garden areas, and places to keep farm animals, as well as ample space where wild game can roam - just about any herbivorous creature you can imagine seems to have found a home here.

The most important part? Despite looking like plain old tall, thick stone walls that could easily be stomped down by some of the bigger predators in the woods, they are obviously doing their job. There isn't a single break in the walls and despite being in ill repair, the whole area looks pretty safe. On top of that, it's big enough to house the refugees and then some in relative comfort and self-sufficiency, enough that they could easily survive long enough to build a safe method of transport out to the compound so residents there could access the city with ease.

Just like the jungle skyscrapers, though, one wonders why no one is living there anymore. Unlike the jungle, however, the day-long trip out to the compound is relatively uneventful. Besides the usual predators in the area, there's nothing untoward, no unspeakable horror like what's going on in the jungle. At least, not until the team makes their way to the compound and opens the heavy gate to let themselves inside. Once they're there and exploring to make sure the area is safe to inhabit (a task that will take at least four days considering the amount of ground covered by the compound) is when strange things start happening.

It starts on Day One, with team members noticing strange apparitions out of the corners of their eyes. Like ghosts, they flit in and out of peripheral vision, make the sound of footsteps behind the person on night watch, touch an explorer's shoulder from behind when they're not looking, and immediately disappear when looked at directly. On Day Two, the apparitions will start to stick around longer, and look familiar, with explorers seeing things that trigger bad feelings, like fear or anger or grief. By Day Three the apparitions will be an almost constant presence, hovering around, visible to everyone, exposing the worst of every member of the team - images of dead loved ones, the scent of perfume or death, the sounds of an explorer's most guilty memory, all of it is there, ready to expose their darkest secrets to everyone around them. On Day Four, the apparitions will start to become more than that, physically attacking characters, enticing them blindly into dangerous places, and otherwise trying to kill them.

The types of apparitions experienced and the amount of exposure of dark secrets is up to player discretion, and characters who are unable to handle the events unfolding are more than welcome to leave and go back to the city. Teams that remain in the compound and explore for the full four days will eventually find a building near the center of the compound, with heavily riveted metal doors that have the words "Central Hub" spray paint stenciled on them and complicated electronic deadbolt locks.

For any thread completed under this prompt, whether or not characters made it to the Central Hub, all participating characters will receive rewards. The first team that makes it to the Central Hub and gets the doors open (in whatever way possible) should respond in this thread to receive the "solution" to what is happening in the area and how the area can become inhabitable.

phase v: wildcard

Have an idea for a mission-adjacent plot, or want to make up an unexpected plot twist or problem and solve it with your character? Just write up a starter, and don't forget to give yourself credit by submitting it for the Progress Report.

visual inspiration

click on thumbnails for larger view

Credit: image i: Daniel Gstir; image ii: Steven Cormann; image iii: Tom Nemeth

navigation

Comments

phase iv — closed: cassian, jyn, robbie, skye

[evite]

[ two women and their devoted manfriends walk into the forest.

it should be the set-up for a bad joke, but it's all too real this week as jyn and skye drag their home world sidekicks along for a woodland adventure. as it turns out, the perimeter guard is offering a stipend to guardsmen and women who volunteer for exploration duty; when jyn proposes the offer to her newfound orphan soul sister, it's all too easy for skye to vote for the one day trek. as for the gents? well, who's to blame the girls if they don't feel like carrying all the gear themselves?

while day one is minimally exhausting — divvying up the gear is definitely a smart move — there is the whole concept of will-o-wisps in the rear view to consider moving forward. will they be friendly ghosts? or does casper have something much more menacing up his sleeve? ]

— dawn of the second day

[realists]

[ the trek into the forest is easy, aside from the seemingly dancing lights just out of the corner of her eyes. watch is an irritating things because she's certain she keeps hearing someone approach, but there is never anyone there but her companions in various stages of sleep. is she going crazy? it doesn't seem likely since the rest of their group seems just as twitchy and fidgety.

it's not until day two that she really... starts noticing that something is wrong. the will'o'wisps aren't wispy anymore. they linger, no longer content in her periphery, no longer fleeting lights like the tail of a comet. they have form, familiar forms, that make jyn's chest seize up with grief that she tries to shove away as she steadfastly attempts to ignore the new apparitions.

she's snappish and sharp as they inspect the new building, losing some of the ease she finds in the woods, and occasionally snapping at the half-unseen ghosts when she's had enough. ]

Go away!

[ this is not the worst camping trip, yet. but it's Getting There. ]

[evite]

[ skye doesn't sleep well — which, to her, is a surprise; given how exhausted she'd felt once tents had been set up and gear unloaded from various packs, she'd expected to collapse immediately into unconsciousness, but she's not that lucky. over the course of the night, she'd tossed and turned, faint white lights darting across her vision just often enough to rouse her from sleep.

so perhaps it's unsurprising now that she's not particularly thrilled with today's early morning wake up call. she's gotten up, of course, but only because she has to; having refused cassian's spicy roasted porg breakfast offering, her tetchy mood is only worsened by her growling stomach. oh, and the twisting, gnawing, miserable sensation of guilt in the bottom of her stomach every time the flashburn images of people she's already mourned pop into view, unaffected by her silent pleas or agitated hand-waved brush-offs. that's not helping either.

thus: skye's reply back from around a corner, irritable and exhausted. doesn't matter that jyn's clearly not talking to her. why should it? ]

Nobody's even near you.

[ well, except the creepy hovering ghost dude that skye's about a million percent sure no one else is seeing. except for that, nobody's near her. ]

[realists]

[ jyn makes an irritated noise. ]

I wasn't talking to you.

[ god, they sound like teenage girls and not slightly grown adult women capable to fighting for their own lives. the wraith in front of her -- a haunted, staticy vision that looks like a bloodied, horrific version of a boy she left behind in an explosion that hurtled her into hyperspace -- doesn't go away. jyn thinks he might even sharpen, like the swell of guilt she feels makes him stronger.

she drops her voice a little but it probably still carries to skye, they're only on opposite sides of a corner. ] Go away. Please.

[ jyn never says please. ]

[evite]

[ jyn's not talking to a ghost. there's just something way too goddamn weird about playing scooby and the gang on this expedition, skye refuses to accept it even if it is the most obvious explanation. ]

There's nobody else here to talk to.

[ you know, except the ghost. there's a reasonable explanation for that, though. there has to be. skye just wishes her own personal scooby gang was here to actually explain it.

when she doesn't get an immediate response, skye ducks back around the corner again, concern etching into her brows. ]

... Jyn?

[realists]

[ the ghost is right in front of jyn, looming over her. his dark skin is marred and burned and covered in splashes of something that must be blood, long hair singed from flames, looking like he'd been in the front row seats of an explosion. a nightmare of a teenage boy. ]

It's fine.

[ it's fine, skye, and that has never been a lie in the history of humanity. jyn is the italian job version of fine: freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional. you know, the usual. ]

He was always shit at listening.

[ IF HE'S NOT GONNA LEAVe, JYN'S GONNA BE A DICK TO HIM. ]

[evite]

He... [ what the fuck? ] Wait, you know him? [ no, that's not right. this is a ghost. not he — ] It. I mean, you know it. The ghost. You know the ghost?

[ why does she sound like an idiot who is just learning how to parrot the english language? why does the ghost smell like burning metal? why can't they just have nice things? ]

What the fuck is going on?

[realists]

He's called Hadder. Or he was, before I got him killed.

[ the ghost doesn't do anything, flickering into more solid form as he looms, feeding off jyn's guilt and grief. she swallows it down, compartmentalizing it into a little box and shoving it until the cave in her mind, locking it up tight.

the ghost flickers again, fading slightly before popping out of sight, reappearing again in their periphery, the proverbial corner of their eye. ]

I didn't recognize him at first. [ she thought it was just a whispy ghost, like the one taako hadn't let into the apartment that time he had introduced jyn to cupcakes. ]

[evite]

[ it's like naming the ghosts gives them authority. as jyn namedrops the specter, it grows brighter, more clearly visible against the grainy backdrop of abandoned metal buildings; when she begins to ignore, the ghost fades away. skye files that knowledge away. ]

None of mine have been that... lifelike. [ for lack of a better word. they'd mostly been vague shapes, like reflections of faces on the surface of choppy water. ] Fucking terrifying.

[ she'd repeat herself (what's going on) but it's clear nobody knows. ]

[realists]

Nor mine.

[ until now.

which doesn't bode well considering how full of death jyn's life has been up to this point. ]

His ship exploded while we were escaping, it pushed my ship into hyperspace. [ she pantomimes an explosion with her hands like it wasn't one of the most traumatic realizations in her life. if she makes it go boom it won't be a big deal. good thing jyn is so adept at pushing her grief far away. ]

[evite]

Oh my god.

[ just... what do you say to that? this guy died so i could live. it makes her think of trip, his expression of sheer panic as the world tore him apart, and how her gut had twisted with guilt and fear while she'd been locked away in a rock cocoon. ]

What the fuck is happening.

[ that's probably not it, but she's saying it anyway. ]

1/2

[realists]

[ ]

[realists]

Torture, [ jyn decides mildly. as if it's not a big deal. in reality she kind of wants to throw up but she would never do her food dirty like that.

she glances around, idly grateful that skye isn't trying to comfort her. ]

There's no way we can let anyone stay here. They'll go mad.

day three

[acuerdo]

[by the third day, the ghostly interlopers have practically become a steady stream, menacing faces here, sad expressions there. robbie seems especially on edge, hairs on the back of his neck at constant attention and teeth gritted, as the number of ghosts who've come to taunt him with their presence number easily in the dozens.

despite being invited by skye to tag along, he's probably not the best equipped to go on an impromptu expedition into the unknown — a city boy through and through, robbie doesn't truly know the meaning of roughing it — but that doesn't mean he's not willing to try. he scouts ahead, eyes darting to and fro as he looks upon yet more abandoned buildings.

at least until a sight stops him dead in his tracks, a man — no, a ghost — staring at him while holding a glass between his fingers. robbie reaches out, but the apparition doesn't vanish like it had before.]

You're not real. This isn't possible.

[the usually stoic robbie looks more and more distraught the longer the ghost lingers.]

Leave.

day four.

[evasives]

[he thought it was bad enough the first day, with the presumed hallucinations. but it only got worse as the days went by. the feelings, the images. it was awful already that jyn had to see some of his worst kills, but two relative strangers have been thrown into the mix, and cassian tries very hard not to concern himself with what they must be thinking.]

[it's not a surprise when the apparitions start to get violent. a part of cassian just assumes he deserves it, and he's not fully able to shake it with how on edge and terrible he's felt the last seventy-two hours.]

[in cassian's own shadow, there's been quite a number of ghosts, most of which are people he's murdered. there's a little boy and an older man, trailing behind him hand in hand with blood dribbling from their mouths. there's a woman with a small gaping hole in her neck. a man with a blaster shot to the back of his head, another bleeding from the chest with a similar hole. a third with one right in his forehead. three with indiscernible faces because they melted in an explosion. others with no clear cause of death, because sometimes an assassin isn't supposed to leave a mark.]

[the little boy lunges at him with a stick first thing in the morning on their fourth day out, but cassian manages to disarm it. the rest of the day has him in a panic quite unlike anything he's felt in a long time.]

[the ghost of a man dressed in fine, wealthy robes throws a rope around his neck abruptly after lunch, and cassian barely manages to shove his hand between it and his skin before it tightens. the problem with it being a ghost is that even though he has a knife accessible, he can't stab an apparition. he pulls with his free hand, but it's a struggle.]

[this is his life now, he supposes, and he doesn't even question it. of course they would try to kill them. he did it first.]

[realists]

[ the talismans that taako had given them are getting quite the work out, jyn's has felt warm to the touch for days now, but it's the worst today, burning hot. she'd gotten distracted by her own apparition, a tiny girl in a fluffy coat, face screwed up in silent wails. jyn had saved her once, but the death star had other plans. the little girl is still following her when jyn rushes back to grab at the rope, give cassian a little more room to breathe.

both hands grip it, fingers slipping between the rope and his throat, ignoring the ghosts entirely. ]

I've got you. Cut the rope.

[ she could let go and do it herself, but the leverage of pulling the rope away from him is better than trying to push it away from himself. ]