riverviewlogs | exploration mingle: branching out

exploration mingle: branching out

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oooh, that's sexy.

-the metal thing, not the fish. Things trying to eat us are definitely not sexy.

[Sorry, Tony, he got distracted by your armor porn there.]

You'd think that with all the weird-ass superheroes around these days, there'd be some kinda...Fish-Man. Shark-Dude. Someone who can talk to fish and tell them not to eat us.

[ It earns Sam a dry look shot over Tony's shoulder, but he keeps the gauntlet wrapped around his arm as he straightens back up. And keeps his attention firmly back on the river, because what the fuck. ]

Just because we have a plethora of insects and birds doesn't mean we have to have a fish.

[ Even if it might be useful at the moment. ]

Besides, would it work on lizards too?

Uh, we have a girl who talks to squirrels, too. Have you been ignoring the network?

[Squirrel Girl is clearly Very Important.]

I don't know, Stark, do I look like some kinda nitpicky biology nerd who can differentiate between reptiles and fish?

[He's pretty sure lizards are more closely related to birds than fish, but also he doesn't know a goddamn thing about evolutionary biology.]

I'm sorry, forgive me for forgetting the squirrels.

[ Has Tony been ignoring the network in an attempt to bury himself in work? It's possible.

It's also not something he wants to think about. So he focuses on Sam instead, because Sam makes it easy. ]

Pretty sure you don't have to be a biologist to tell the difference between fins and not fins.

Look, she's really intense about squirrels.

[And possibly about everything. Do either of them remember what it felt like to not be old and tired? Nah.]

Well, then, obviously someone who can talk to fish wouldn't be able to talk to lizards. Or crocodiles, or whatever. There's the answer to your question.

[Unless there was some mysterious superhero with the ability to communicate with all aquatic lifeforms...nah, too far-fetched.]

Obviously.

[ It's a deeply dry echo, but Tony's attention is pulled by the sound of something moving in the water again. He peers over suspiciously, but nothing's in sight. At the moment. ]

Remind me why we decided to do this again?

[Sam hears the splash, too, and he unholsters one of his sidearms. It probably won't be terribly useful, but you never know.]

Well, I'm assuming you did it because you like demonstrating your genius at every opportunity and getting a power plant running again is right up your alley. I came along because not everyone can suddenly materialize armor out of thin air.

I do enjoy showing off. And I am probably the power plant guy these days.

[ There are worse things to be. But his fingers flex absently in the gauntlet as he watches the water. ]

I don't suppose you'd want to get a bird's eye view?

I know you do, Blondie.

[He flashes Tony a crooked grin. It's the first time he's mentioned his new hair color - they've been focused on more important things lately.]

Maybe you oughta put sonar in your next suit.

[But the wings pop out of his back and flare to life, and Sam takes off from the deck with a graceful leap into the air.]

You got comms going, Stark? [He's had his earpiece in and ready to go, and he figures that Tony probably doesn't need long to get reception on his end, not if he can just summon a gauntlet like that.]

[ Tony gives him a look, but just like that the armor flows out of the arc reactor to form around him, the helmet settling into place as the eyes come to life with a blue glow. It's probably overkill, but better to be ready. Just in case. ]

Maybe I'd like to think I'm going to be spending less time underwater. You see anything?

[ Maybe it's not radar, but the suit's various sensors are picking a few things up. Hard to tell if any of them are going to try to eat the boat though. ]

[Okay, that is sexy, and if there wasn't imminent danger, Sam would take some time to flirt.

(Also maybe if it wasn't, you know, kind of awkward.)]

Got some small splashes in our wake, I'm guessing little guys chasing after whatever we churn u-

[Aw, shit.]

Oh. Yeah, we got some friends following us. Remember our scaly buddies from before? Think bigger.

[Those are some big-ass snake-gators. Gator-snakes? Snakodiles? Whatever the case, they don't look friendly. And they might not be big enough to eat the boat, but its passengers sure would make some nice snacks.]

[ Bigger. That's reassuring. Tony twists towards the back of the boat, like that's going to help him see better, but he does pick up on some more heat signatures.

Okay, Sam's not kidding. That's fun ]

How many, can you tell?

I got eyes on three right now. Doesn't mean there aren't more underwater, though.

[Three isn't so bad, right? Surely they have enough weaponry on the boat to handle three of these guys.]

You think they're like sharks? Maybe if we wound one, the others'll hone in on the blood.

Might be worth a try.

[ It sounds a little dubious, but what other choice do they have? These things have definitely locked on to them.

He slowly makes his way to the back of the boat, watching the snake-things crest out of the water in their wake. ]

What's the worst that happens, one dies anyway?

[Sam lands again, grabbing his bigger guns before joining Tony. These suckers look scaly enough that bullets probably won't do much, but he feels better being armed.]

Could piss the other two off, but you're right, easier to deal with two than three anyway.

So maybe we lead them away and then see if we can piss them off. I hear maybe you can fly.

[ And just like that, he's airborne. So maybe this isn't quite the way they thought they'd go flying, but it still counts. ]

Smartass.

[It's muttered under his breath, but at least mostly affectionately. Sam skims low, just above the waterline, trying to draw the attention of the critters.]

Hey, come on, you all like fast food? [That's shouted down to the reptiles (amphibians? who even knows?) in the water.] 'Cause we got some snacks for you. Although I hope one of you brought a can opener.

[ Takes one to know one. But Tony cocks an eyebrow from where he's hovering much higher. ]

I wasn't actually suggesting you play bait.

[ Can these things jump? Tony seems to remember them jumping. And he'd sort of rather Sam not get eaten by anything. ]

How else were you gonna get them to follow? You got a turkey in that suit?

[It's fiiiine, he darts back up the moment one tries to jump up and snap at him.]

[ And Tony takes a potshot the minute he sees scales break the water, though it doesn't seem to phase the thing much. Which is a bit worrisome, but they're committed now. ]

If I bring you back with a chunk missing, I'm never going to hear the end of it.

[Like his namesake, Sam shoots up higher, then stoops into a dive, pulling his guns out and firing as he executes some tricky acrobatics to get the beast to follow him.]

Calm down, Stark, I'm a professional. You oughta worry more about blasting through these things, 'cause if you don't crank it up a notch, we're gonna have to try and find a weak point.

You're not the boss of me.

[ Nevermind that he's firing again anyway the moment he sees a head with entirely too many teeth appear. Both hands this time, and the thing thrashes and vanishes again. So it at least made a mark, that's good to know. ]

Unless you want me to go in there after it, we're just gonna have to wait until they're good and ready.

Great. So, you got any plans other than using one of us as bait?

[Look, Sam's many things, but he's not a tactician. He leaves plans up to people like Tony and Steve, which probably speaks volumes about just how bad he is at this whole planning thing, actually.]

Looks like they're plenty interested anyway.

[ And the things are sticking closer to the surface now, watching the two of them as they move overhead. Tony isn't quite sure yet if that's a good thing. ]

We just need to keep them above the water long enough for the shots to hit.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

exploration mingle: branching out

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