progress city test drive #3

[progressmods]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Here You Leave Today And Enter The World Of Yesterday, Tomorrow And Fantasy. Welcome to Progress City's second test drive meme! This game is a panfandom jamjar set in a flux dimension inspired by Disney Theme Parks (particularly Walt Disney World in Florida) and the original concept for EPCOT (a city that would connect to the theme parks). Whether you're looking to join us or are just here to play around for a little bit, we have a few prompts below for you - but you're also free to come up with your own! Reserves are always open!

Prompt A Whatever you're doing, wherever you are, you find a vintage-looking ticket. The next time you blink or close your eyes for any reason, you open them and find yourself somewhere else - Progress City's Ticket and Transportation Center. You have no idea how you got here, and definitely don't know how you got this weird thing on your wrist... You'll learn, eventually, that Progress City and it's world-class themeparks are a popular tourist dimension across this universe. People can get in here very easily, but for some reason, that unremovable band on your wrist isn't allowing you to use their transporters to get home. To compensate, you'll be offered a job in the parks and free housing for the duration of your stay. Is that something you're willing to take?

Prompt B While you're here, you might as well spend some time around the theme parks in your downtime. It's easy enough to get to them - the city offers free 24/7 monorail and peoplemover transportation to each park, and you also get a free annual pass for yourself with your stay (lucky you)! If you're at all familiar with Walt Disney World, these four parks will seem...remarkably familiar to you. But there's little subtle differences here and there that that make this seem different - and the ones in charge will seem confused by the concept of a "Walt Disney World". Must be a thing about different dimensions. Nevertheless, you're still going to have the occasional bit of free time here, so there's plenty to see and do here across all four areas. Go ride some rides and eat some Dole Whip, you crazy kids.

Prompt C With the housing, you also get offered a job by Progress City's mayor. Maybe you decide to take it, maybe you don't, he's not gonna kick you out of your apartment unless you deserve it. But this poses a good way to get some actual money. You'll be matched to a job around the resort - hopefully one you enjoy. You could end up working in the parks as a ride operator, serving food, managing a shop, working security, or ending up as a pool lifeguard. There are a number of possibilities here, and you can always change your job later on if you find one that may suit you more.

Prompt D Over time, the thing on your wrist changes. Namely, it'll start taking on new colors, designs and occasionally icons that reflect your character's personality and appearance. You'll find that by concentrating you'll be able to utilize your band to... cast magic spells, of all things. These also seem tailored to your character - summoning weapons, creating projectiles, putting foes to sleep? It seems that no two bands are alike when it comes to this. ...Occasionally, you'll spot one or two small ink blot-like creatures scurrying about the city or the parks, creating an inky mess and leaving a small amount of chaos in it's wake. Those don't seem advertised. Perhaps they'd be good to try out your new abilities on, or maybe you'd prefer to practice a little bit first.

Prompt E Every now and again, the city will host a Festival! Progress City prides itself in making festivals with great food and drink, and will happily let its citizens enjoy it for a nice discount! You can either look up examples of Disney festival treats or make up some yourself, but rest assured, everything you order will be simply amazing. If you're not too busy getting drunk to stand, there are also other events you can participate in! There are also small events your character can participate in! In this hypothetical festival, your character can take a cooking class, attend a seminar to learn basic magic tricks (with real magic!), or try out a fancy new VR game where you fight against other players as giant robots.

Wildcard As always, feel free to come up with your own scenario if none of these inspire you!

Comments

snow miser | the year without a santa claus

[snowtunes]

Prompt B

[Here comes a cool guy. At least that's what many would be forgiven for assuming when they first hear Snow Miser's voice — smooth, easygoing, and currently, pitched in what could easily swing downwards into whining.]

Ohhhh, man, is it terrible out here. And he says they actually LIKE summer? Phew!

[If there's any snottiness in his tone at that last comment it's quickly waved away when someone comes into view. Feeling optimistic, he reaches out to tap the unwary person on their shoulder.]

Hey, man. What's a guy gotta do to cool down around here?

[He is easily nine, maybe teen feet tall, and terrifying in the way that a stop motion puppet from the 1970s primordial being made entirely of sharp angles of ice and snow would be.]

Prompt C

[Okay, now this is something up his alley. Who doesn't love ice cream? It exists to be eaten every day, especially in summer, which means that it was pretty much made to spite his brother, so having a job that revolves around it sits very well with Snow Miser. His duties don't technically extend past selling the stuff, but no one said anything about him being unable to improve upon it where he sees fit.

It's too bad his idea of improvement seems to be a little too...overenthusiastic.

If you happen to order anything from his quick service stand, you may notice that he appears to be sitting rather than standing against the counter to accommodate his weird height. This doesn't seem to hamper him from doing his job, though.]

Here ya go, fresh and— oh, one sec. [He flicks his trusty Blizzard card at the ice cream dish, blasting it with a burst of ice that leaves it completely frozen.] There! And there's more where that came from, too.

[winkwonk]

Wildcard

[The end of days has arrived and it's come to Epcot. Against all natural logic, it's snowing in the park — a light drizzle if you happen to be on the edge of it, but venture inward and you'll notice that it's starting to pick up. Make it to the lagoon and it's practically Christmas in July with a good eight inches of snow blanketing the entire area.

The lagoon is totally frozen over, and reclining by the edge of it in an oversized beach chair is Snow Miser, sipping an obnoxious looking smoothie, wearing sunglasses, fanning himself with his Mountain Blizzard and Blizzard cards.]

Talk about a blizzard beach, hahaha!

wildcard

[dogdaughter]

[ And here's someone tromping around, not exactly dressed for snow and clearly cold, but also clearly having a good time. (Snow's... not novel to Jade, or at least she feels it shouldn't be at this point; buuuuut she still gets excited whenever a good deep snow happens anyway.) Is she looking for the snow's source? Nope! It's just part of the whole amusement park thing, right? Sometimes it just snows, because snow is fun and that's the whole point of amusement parks, probably,,

...Eventually she spots Snow Miser waving a couple of those magic cards around and puts two and two together. A giant eldritch-looking icicle-man, neat. Waves at him cheerfully! ]

Oh, hi! Did you do all this? There's so much of it for just one guy!

[ Tromp tromp tromping her way over. Young woman with dog ears and eyes way greener than humans' normally get. It's fine. ]

[snowtunes]

[Everything is cool and good. Well, except for this kid here who looks like she got chucked into a nuclear power plant or a pet store. Maybe some weird combo of both.

All the same, it ain't like Snow Miser's one to judge. It helps that she leads with something attention grabbing too.]

Oh, this is nothing compared to what I can do at my best. Still...gotta make do with the cards you're dealt, right?

[He does a nifty little trick with one of the ones he's holding where he flicks it between his horrifyingly long fingers.]

Sure you're not under the weather there, kiddo? I didn't think humans came in green. Or dog! [It's pretty neat regardless!]

[dogdaughter]

[ The wordplay gets a bit of a laugh. ]

Yeah, most of my usual stuff was blocked off too--pretty sure it's these things [ (motions to her own magicband) ] acting up. Seems like nobody here really knows how they work. Not even the guy who built them.

[ She's decided Bill is not very good at his job, buuuut... well, based off the capabilities of her own worlds' robots, she figures he's doing his best. She didn't know robots could even be inventors in the first place! He just needs more practice, probably. It's not like she's never turned something on without knowing what it did, after all. ]

Well... I am part dog, soooo... I guess I'm only part human, too!

[snowtunes]

It's a shame they even have to exist. If I had just a teeny tiny bit of my power, cooling this whole city down would be a cinch, just like that. [He snaps his fingers.] And if my brother tries to say anything, eh. [Shrug!] We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

[There will be much screeching and hand-wringing and some buildings might burn down or get frozen in giant blocks of ice, but this is okay. This is a valid way to handle a problem.]

...Makes sense! [I mean, she's alive and kicking, so something's working out for her.] You folks here are so full of surprises. I haven't been this tickled since...gosh, I can't even remember.

[dogdaughter]

Although, if they didn't exist at all, I know I wouldn't be here... I have no idea where "here" even is. [ Which, for the record, is an incredibly weird experience for a god of Space. ...She's kinda not crazy about it. ] There's a fuckton of features that need fixing, definitely, but I'm glad it malfunctioned enough to show me this place first.

I forget which park this is, but it looks really nice with all the snow--is that your job here? Making it snow?

prompt b

[gutterballs]

[Hey, Snowy. Are you seriously bothered by this heat? There's a Dude here, well, The Dude here, and he's wearing a worn-in sweater despite it being just about 100 degrees outside.

He's caught offguard by the fact this dude is a fucking giant, but...]

Oh, uh, it's all about vibes, man.

[snowtunes]

[Now this is a man who looks like he knows the secrets of the universe. Also, he has a very nice sweater, and guess who loves sweaters? This icicle-nosed ding dong right here.

Snow Miser drops down to one knee, not just to better get on the guy's level but also so he can prop his elbow up on something as he cradles both sides of his face, completely enchanted and taken by this little Dude's spirit.]

Tell me more.

[gutterballs]

[That's weird. But okay, frost giant. We can do that. Don't mind a stoner rambling at you, his hands gesturing wildly and his sweater floppin all over the place.]

It's, uh, it's just a matter of going along with what the world throws at you, man. It can be a really shitty place and it can be like, a really screwed up one too. You don't sweat shit, you just gotta take everything in stride. Destress and...you know, all that.

[snowtunes]

[He nods attentively to every word with a look on his face that says he not only agrees with everything he's hearing but it also might be the most vital information he's heard all day. And not the part about being kidnapped.]

I see, I see. And how do you destress?

[gutterballs]

...Bowling, usually. I'm - does this place have an alley or somethin'? I'd love to go fuckin' bowling right now.

[That's going completely off-topic, Dude.]

[snowtunes]

[What the fuck is bowling— Oh, right. That human game with the balls. Sounds valid.]

You know, I'm not sure. But if that's what you gotta do to relax, then count me in! I'm all for throwing a ball or two around. Sounds neato.

[howdoyoudofellowkids.png]

[octoshy]

[ICE CREAM!!! This is the third or fourth time Marina has stopped by for it, and the Blizzard trick gets her every time.]

That's so cool!

[snowtunes]

That's the word of the day, sugar plum. [The only thing he loves more than an audience is an audience that keeps coming back for more.] 'course, if you keep this up, I might start running out of chocolate. Why not just stick around for a bit?

[octoshy]

O-oh, gosh, I can pick another flavor so you don't run out! Do you have... ketchup flavor?

wildcard

[mr100and1]

[It looks like some of your snow is melting, loser! That lagoon is turning into a hot tub second-by-second, and there's a very fat elf man sitting at the other side of it.]

Blizzard beach nothing, you pompous popsicle! I'm making this into a hot-tub!