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Test Drive Meme #1 (cw vehicular crash, moderate injury)
Test Drive Meme #1
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.
You don't need an invite to test
but please remember we're currently invite-only
but please remember we're currently invite-only
CRASH LANDING
Exit one dimension, enter the next. It was chaos: pressure against your ears, light bending in an impossible, unimaginable way. The very molecules of your body vibrating against one another. If you have windows, the view outside makes no sense. Even if not, your hands, your face, your feet seem like an uncertain thing. It's the feel of reality itself tearing apart, reshaping, reconnecting, thread by thread.
And suddenly, there's a beach— or ocean, whichever you land in. Smoke. Fire. Salt water churning up, fizzing around.
Maybe you crash, in a ship wrecking into sand. Maybe you merely stumble out of a portal, a ragged wormhole in space. Or maybe you fall off the back of an incredible steed, some creature that carried you into this place. Either way, there's pandemonium around you. Incredibly, severe injuries are far and few between— nobody's screaming about the dead. But you might have to help pull someone free of wreckage, or move quickly to salvage burning belongings from the landing craft. Maybe it's the crafts themselves, that you're trying to salvage.
Likely, you don't know them, these other strangers who arrived here[1]. Maybe you don't trust them— you just came out of a dying world, after all. But you all have one thing in common: you're here now.
When you get a second to breathe, maybe you'll see it. The brilliant green forest across the sand. Beyond that, the glint of a faraway city.
INTO THE WOODS
Your first night at Xistentia does not feature five-star accommodations, but as the sun begins to set, the forest offers everything you need to survive. By now, you may even have met your daemon, who'll help guide you through this. There is fallen wood to make fires for warmth and cooking, any number of rabbits, deer, and fish if that's what you're into eating. Those very same animals also provide guidance as to what vegetation is edible, including a variety of vine mushrooms, fruits, and flowers. If you're the kind of creature that mostly eats other sentient creatures, well. Technically, there are a lot of those hanging out too[2]! Now and then, you'll see tiny, winged humanoid creatures the height of a finger dart in and out of view.
A resourceful group, the multiversal refugees have determined ways to create shelters, using wreckage, supplies, and basic survival knowhow. There aren't enough blankets to go around, but the weather is mild and the fires seem to keep out any aggressive creatures.
Things get quiet. This could be a good time to meet the others under less fraught circumstances. Maybe you'll see some familiar faces and reunite with others who fled from your dying world; maybe you'll meet someone new.
Try not to seek out and fight any Rock Trolls. It's still early.
ENTER THE CITY
The city is beautiful, even with the vines covering everything, the streams running down half the streets, the massive white deer leaping off under the highway overpasses. The architecture of the skyscrapers is incredible to look at, modern and sweeping. It's clear that terraced gardens were part of the building design, and some of the greenery that lines the street had been part of the original city plan. This is a city of great potential.
And it knows you're here. As you walk by, beacons like streetlamps begin to emit a gentle glow, registering your presence. No doors are locked, though you might find yourself chasing out nests of silver-winged birds and bug-eyed rabbits.
Here, you can claim empty shops or the clothing and other sales items inside of them. Apartment complexes aren't difficult to find in a range of sizes; nor are standalone homes, brownstones, loft studios. Penthouses may not feel like penthouses when there's a thin layer of dust growing on everything and a flower growing out of the sink, but you know what? Maybe that little bud is gonna be your first roommate.
It's the strangest thing. After a few days, the lights begin to work and the water begins to run, fully operational within the unseen sewer system. At some point, the keys to your house or residence are going to turn up. Your daemon will help you find what you need. F.A.TE.S. welcomes you.
NETWORK
By now you've settled in. You have some time to explore the city, the woods, and your new kit.
Chances are pretty good that your daemon is not a phone or a computer or a wax-sealed piece of parchment or a Howler, nothing with a convenient camera or a keyboard; it probably isn't even a pocket sized. Likelier, it stares at you with eyes that contain the lenses-- or powers-- of a camera, and some part of its body projects a holographic keyboard into the air. For those of us who are not accustomed to manipulating intangible light prisms, it's about as intuitive to type on as shaping a cloud with your fingers.
But here's your network access. Accessible to all your fellow travelers in XISTENTIA.
Misfires, typos, and blurry video footage are likely. Time to feel like a Luddite!
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
hells yeah
Footnotes
- Some of these can be nameless, plot-device NPCs to facilitate interactions! But even in this case, please avoid gore in describing their current state of being. Anyone dead or catastrophically injured will have disappeared by the time your characters make it to Xistentia. There are no corpses or dying here.
- But like OOCly ask permission ofc.
woods.
Hot shower? ( he looks over his shoulder, raising his eyebrows, amused. ) Disgusting.
You could probably run there. ( eyes forward again, he shrugs. there's still amusement. ) Leave me for the wolves. It'll be a grand old time.
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( nasty nasty nasty. )
He might taste good. ( after hearing his name, mulder steps over andrew's shoes as he walks, attempting to get his attention. andrew bends, lifting the small bundle of fur to his chest. ) Isn't that right, stupid? I might eat you.
no subject
( that makes no sense, andrew. anyway. the small fox gets draped over his shoulder, the yipping and the yapping quieted down for now while it yawns instead, pressing its wet nose on andrew's neck. )
It makes more tactical sense to train him to be a hunter. Bloodthirsty and murderous. Hm? Teach a guy to fish, and all that.
I'll eat him when he's old and fat.
no subject
( don't get your hopes up, ax. )
I'd say that's more likely your plan. ( there's a smile in his eyes, despite the fact that it will never meet his mouth. ) Bloodthirsty and murderous.
no subject
( it's gross. andrew snaps a twig purposely under his heel, huffing in evident boredom. )
Denying the truth is the most boring form of self-preservation.
no subject
Believe whatever you want to believe. It doesn't make a difference to me.
( it is fairly assumed that andrew is in a bit of a cranky mood. his short fuse of shit tolerance is now made all the shorter with his discomfort -- it's another snapped branch before he stops in his tracks, sighing again, rolling up his sleeves and taking off his armbands. wordlessly, he reaches them over and slides them into axel's back pocket. )
no subject
( cranky and stubborn, like a little kid. he wrings his hands out shortly, before one reaches up to scratch the kit behind his ears, a small encouragement. bring the baby to the city, get him some water and a comfy bed and maybe some berries to munch on. that is andrew's priority, just behind making sure a bear doesn't eat axel or aaron. )
no subject
No. It fucking sucks.
( grouchy grouchy grouchy. he hates complaining because it's fucking annoying, but he can't help himself. everything about this situation is profoundly unfair. )
It always feels like something's watching you. Like you're unprotected. ( he brings his thumb nail up to his mouth to chew on. ) Can't relax.
no subject
mulder finds this very interesting, propping his front paws up on axel through his and andrew's very steep height difference.)
At least the city can't be worse.
no subject
Five minutes. ( a brief rest. he has to feed his vampire, he knows, and plucks mulder off his shoulder to hand off to axel, pointing them down to a set up of keeled over tree trunks, good for sitting. andrew sets to the river, splashing water on his face. )
no subject
( very deadpan, as andrew stalks back to the group, nose and lips dripping with water. at axel's feet, he raises an eyebrow, before shrugging. )
Maybe it's one of those worldly differences, right, like where you're from, the foxes talk and sing and dance. ( he crouches, hands reaching out to flatten on axel's hips. ) Or I'm dating someone more insane than me. Pretty impressive, Mister Johnson.
( he's not this close for just touch, though. he picks a knife from axel's pocket, sliding the blad out of its hiding place. andrew acts very intrigued by this, predominately so axel doesn't have the space to stop him, sliding the blade across his own palm without so much as a flinch. rather than offer it up, he pushes bloody fingertips against axel's mouth, leaving three stripes against him. )
No venom. Eat.
no subject
Good thing I don't feel pain, then.
( which isn't true, but pain is a controversial subject to andrew, so. he kisses axel once, closed mouth to avoid tasting the metallic twang of blood on his lips, standing so axel's head is tilted upwards. andrew props axel's mouth open, exposed for him, and turns his bloody hand into a fist, squeezing out the wound on his tongue, a few inches above.
he could keep squeezing it forever, but he goes until all the immediate blood is gone, and he'd have to put effort forth in milking anymore out. recollecting his hand, he lets it dangle by his side, unhurried to take care of it, uncaring if it's dealt with at all. )
Let's leave soon.
no subject
he doesn't say any of this. around axel, andrew doesn't feel so transparent anymore, so temporary, so fleeting to everyone and everything. he feels alive. he feels scared. he feels like he's dying, too, in a way that's different from past twelve years of filler.
instead, he cups his free hand at the bottom of axel's chin, a defined roughness to the motion. his cheek squish where andrew digs his fingers into them, but his wounded hand doesn't leave axel's hold, only temporarily put aside. )
Ask me if I'll ever let you starve. ( axel doesn't like following orders, so andrew shakes his head for him, side to side. ) No. Never.
( i'll slit my own throat into a paper cup before you go hungry. i'll pluck my fingers until i have no feeling left. i'll bleed out, every day and every night, to keep you alive. your life will always be more than mine.
he releases his tight hold a second later, shoving his wounded hand out again. take care of him, or don't. he doesn't matter. )
(no subject)
(no subject)