Test Drive Meme #1 (cw vehicular crash, moderate injury)

[spoofer]

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

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

1. 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.
   
   
2. But like OOCly ask permission ofc.

Comments

[rekt]

[ friction fires, as much as their earth skills teacher seemed to love them, are an exercise in self hatred, really. but it would give someone something to do for a few hours, if you're looking for boredom relief. murphy is not yet that desperate, so he's glad when the kid comes back with just a bunch of stuff to light up.

mournfully, murphy pushes up to stand, moving from his own campfire to go inspect what ronan brought him, as he answers the question. ]

People were all over the beach, but only ones I knew were others from Eudio. You know it?

[ clearly, people came here from all over, like that had been brought into Eudio before, so the ones he knows are twice displaced, but it doesn't seem to be the case with everyone. a couple pieces of ronan's find are tossed aside, but for the most part, it's good, and murphy arranges it all with a little nest of things to catch faster tucked into the middle. ]

Where do you want this thing?

[ assuming ronan isn't planning on hanging out with him all night, but then again, he wouldn't bar him from it either. ]

( wildcard. )

[aberth]

[ It's Chainsaw, but not Chainsaw, that is the first to alert him to Ronan's presence. He hears her shrill cry a block away and Adam doesn't think, doesn't even pause before he's running, climbing over vines and vegetation and scrambling down green sidewalks to chase the sound. His own daemon follows at the same pace, but Adam couldn't care less if it keeps up, heart hammering in his throat and a desperation he hadn't known possible thrumming in his veins.

He'd thought he was alone. He'd thought that they'd won only for it all to be taken from him. He'd thought that it was just his luck, to have been in love only to lose it.

So he almost falls, when he rounds the corner and sees Ronan's profile in the dim light. He catches himself at the last minute, lungs aching as he calls out the other boy's name, closing the distance as he turns. Adam notes the surprise on his face, but reaches for him anyway, shaking hands curling around his biceps as if he's half afraid Ronan might turn to smoke and disappear. ]

Jesus Christ, Lynch.

[ He's panting, and dirty, and terrified, but there's a wild light in his eyes now. Adam shakes him a little, clearly overcome and then leans in to kiss him, sharp and hungry and tasting like salt.

Decorum be damned. ]

I thought I was the only one.

a.

[fiachdubh]

[Ronan spins on his heels when he hears a voice - heavily accented, albeit not the accent Ronan is used to - and for a moment, he plasters himself against the trunk of a tree, wishing he had some kind of weapon, some way to defend himself better than his fists. They don't feel quite enough, and they're bruised, blood drying on his knuckles from his earlier crash landing.

He doesn't really want to see anyone, talk to anyone, but he knows that logically, he cannot follow that primal fear feeling, even as it rumbles through him like thunder, making him grit his teeth. It won't help.

Ronan swallows hard, and pushes himself off of the tree. Chainsawd immediately swoops down to rest on his shoulder, croaking Kerah! into his ear, like a reassurance.

If she was the real deal, it might have worked.]

You found your daemon yet? It's your access to the network. It's like a robot, but it looks like... something personal, I guess. [He knows this guy's daemon probably won't look like a raven.]

[fiachdubh]

No. [It's as quick and abrupt as Ronan knows how to make it sound. He's not going to ask if this guy knows about Henrietta - he's pretty fucking sure he'd have known him if he did. He looks like the type of guys that would hang out with Kavinsky.

The fact that Ronan himself did that, for a while, doesn't sit so well in his stomach. He clenches his jaw, schools his face to be as blank as possible. The edge of a knife. Dangerous enough to be worrying, at least.

He motions towards the other side of the clearing. There was a tree there that had a large enough hollow that Ronan could sort of settle in it. From there, they could still see each other.]

That tree over there. I can go somewhere else if you want this place for yourself.

[He wouldn't really care.]

[fiachdubh]

[ Ronan had been walking around aimlessly for hours, Chainsawd flying circles above his head, sometimes letting out a sound to alert him to someone being close. And she does then, too, making Ronan stiffen, shoulders straight and ears straining. There's noise, coming closer, the pounding of pavement, and then he sees -

Adam. Adam. It surprises Ronan that his knees don't give out as he watches, frozen in place and absolutely bewildered, as Adam runs top speed to him, grabs him, breathless and dirty, alive, alive, alive. Ronan opens his mouth to speak, unsure what he'd say, when Adam surges up and kisses him, urgency in every one of his movements. Ronan stumbles a step into Adam, reaches out to steady himself by holding on to him, the words he wanted to say turning into a noise as they break apart. ]

So did I. [ His voice is raspy, his eyes traveling all over Adam's face. He brushes a hand through his hair, pushing it off of his forehead, unconsciously checking for any injuries. ] Fuck, Parrish, I -

[ He doesn't know exactly what to say, so he just pulls Adam into a hug. ]

[deathstouch]

Aric...

Are you alright?

[ He might or might not be grinning at Vex's misfortune. ]

[aberth]

[ He has to force his hands to loosen their deathlike grip on Ronan's biceps, but they turn gentle when they probe his jaw, brush across his cheek and down to the spilled ink against his throat. Ronan hugs him then, and the sound it pulls from Adam is wrecked even as he pushes into it, one arm curling around his boyfriend's waist, the other cupping his neck. It doesn't quite settle the feeling inside of his skin but it evens out the fear. He's not alone.

And there's never been a problem the two of them can't solve. ]

Are you okay?

[ His voice is muffled against Ronan's shoulder. He smells like smoke too, and Adam's palm presses to his spine delicately, even though he wishes he could crawl under the other boy's skin right now. ]

Are you hurt? [ He pulls away, sandy brows a knot of concern, eyes restless. ] There were so many people, and some of them -- you're all right?

( b. )

[aberth]

[ Adam has seen a lot of weird shit in his very short life. Ghosts, sentient forests, dream birds, dead kings. He knows the world around him doesn't always follow the rules when it comes to strangeness. And yet, when he sees the unicorn on the street he has to pause, lift a dirty hand to his eyes and rub them as though somehow they'll fix his eyesight and everything will be normal.

Or as close to normal as he can get.

Of course, the foal remains, and Adam continues staring, only realising someone is speaking when his own daemon nudges him in the back of the knee and he looks up. Unconsciously, Adam shifts a little, to put the man on his good side, curiousity winning over his fear. ]

Sorry, I missed that. What did you say?

[fiachdubh]

[ There's still sand in Ronan's ears, and it feels like there's some in the back of his throat, too, painful when he swallows, like jagged edges all the way to his lungs. But he's okay now, he feels okay now, with Adam in his arms there's a chance for hope.

It's hard to let go. Ronan bends down and presses Adam closer, pushes his nose under Adam's ear, cards his fingers through his sweaty, matted hair. But Adam pulls back gently and Ronan follows, his heart beating a painful thud in his chest. ]

'M fine. Just a few scratches and bruises. You?

[ Ronan narrows his eyes as he takes in Adam again. The collar of his shirt is torn, but he can't see any blood anywhere. ]

What about Gansey? Sargent? Have you seen them?

[aberth]

I'm fine. I landed in the water.

[ He doesn't think he'll get over the feeling of it anytime soon, but Adam would rather focus on the boy in front of him than give in to the wave of panic. That can come later, when they've found somewhere to rest and work this out.

At Ronan's last question he shakes his head, frown deepening. ] No, I looked everywhere. I didn't see them.

[ Frustration wells, Adam bites his lip. He has to ask, but part of him doesn't want to. It feels too final, too real, if he puts words to it. ] Cabeswater. I can't feel it.

[ What good is a magician without magic? ]

It's gone, isn't it?

elania | original | ota

[motivation]

CRASH LANDING

[ the world is ending, or so it seems: there is fire and even the king's men have abandoned their posts to flee, creatures that shouldn't exist rising from the sea and others trampling the land, smashing houses underneath their feet. elania runs — into the woods first and then on instinct into a river that she's never seen, shimmering in a way she associates with the forbidden art. (it's not much of an art, she's found.)

she's dragged under and when she fights her way back to the surface, when she breaks through gasping for air, the world is quiet, or at least more quiet than it was before: no more creatures, no more death and destruction — or less of it, anyway, though there are people around her gasping for air, looking confused, some shouting for help.

elania doesn't stick around to pull anyone from a wreckage: she heads to the shore and then inland, hair and dress dripping wet, her shoulders curled inward and her gaze suspicious. ]

INTO THE CITY

[ even with vines growing over buildings, the city is cleaner and more beautiful than any elania has seen in her life so far. there's no stink of rotten fruit or piss in the streets. the houses are impossibly tall.

elania finds shelter in an empty house. there's a bed on the ground floor, a kitchen that she cannot make sense of. it's all right: she can make a fire on the ground and she's brought along some dead rabbits she'd caught in the wood, some mushrooms she'd collected. the fox who calls himself sharid and has been telling her about this world curls up by her feet.

it's almost peaceful — until someone stumbles into the shelter she's chosen for herself and elania gets to her feet, hands going for a knife she lost somewhere in transitioning from one world to another. ] What do you want?

[ she's not sharing her food unless you've got something to offer in return. ]

NETWORK (no id set)

[ elania doesn't know how to write — not on parchment and certainly not on a holographic keyboard. her first network post is, consequently, the result of an attempt at swiping away that holographic thing: ] aersdfghkm

[ at some point, after she's renamed sharid ardeniad because it pays to remember whence you came, especially when there is so much about her heritage that elania just doesn't know, she figures out how to take a video. so here is a blurry shot of a young woman in a dark dress made from coarse material that looks like it's ripped and been patched up repeatedly. ]

Who is king here and what are the laws against magic? [ she hates having to ask even this much, but — she'd rather know just how careful she'll need to be to survive. ]

3. — no id set

[motivation]

[ there may be no awkward fumbling with the network from spock; there is plenty of it from elania. she's at least figured out the video function by now, and how to respond — and she is responding because none of what he said makes sense. ]

What's a starship? [ after a moment, she adds, suspiciously: ] Or a computer?

[fiachdubh]

[ Ronan takes a breath, sharp and painful, like his lungs can't take it. He lets his hands drop from Adam's face and arm, regaining some of his composure - he's never been much of a touchy-feely kind of guy, even if he finds himself yearning for Adam all the time. In private, it's easier.

They're not in private. ]

You found your daemon yet? Mine explained it to me. We left - our Earth, the world we know. This is not it. That's why you can't feel it. There's no Cabeswater here.

[aberth]

I did.

[ He untangles himself from his boyfriend with a wry smile, knowing that later it will be better, later he can touch all he wants. For now he lifts a hand to his lips and whistle shrilly. Adam tries not to feel embarrassment or shame when the dog comes lopping towards them, tongue hanging out and tail wagging. It reminds him of the mutt that used to attack Gansey's tires, that would lose it's mind when Adam petted it.

He tries not to feel panic over Cabeswater, either, but he's never been very good at controlling his emotions. Everything else, yes, but inside not so much. ]

I kind of didn't take any of it in though. [ Rubbing the back of his neck, Adam scuffs his shoe through the moss below. It occurs to him then, that if he's feeling a strange sort of grief over Cabeswater, Ronan must be even worse. He doesn't know what to do, so instead he bumps his shoulder against his. ] Have you found where you're staying yet?

[fiachdubh]

Maybe you - [ Ronan lets out a gruff huff, scratching the back of his head. ] Just get some rest, and let it explain again. I don't think I get it all, but it'll be better at explaining than me.

[ Cabeswater - the Unmaker, everything falling apart. And then, the two of them trying again. Getting their powers together, him and Adam and Blue, like fucking Chrmed, they were. Gansey's magicians.

All for nothing. ]

I haven't tried to dream, yet. Don't know if I can, here. [ He pauses at the question. He suddenly feels exhausted, the tiredness seeping through his bones. ] No. Should I?

[aberth]

Well, we're not going to fix this dead on our feet.

[ For a moment it strikes him that Ronan might not want him to follow. It's an old fear and one that is mostly scar tissue, but still smarts when pressed upon. He shakes his head, short and sharp and then looks down the street to where he came. ]

We should stick together, find somewhere to stay. We can figure it all out later.

[ At last, Adam finally addresses his daemon who rattles off an apartment address nearby. Once he gets the directions, he snags two fingers in the other boy's sleeve. ]

Come on. If Gansey or the others are here, they can find the address, right? It'll be easier if we're in one place.

[dreamkid]

[ The last thing Matthew remembers of his world is Cabeswater, and his mother, folding her arms around him (but by then he couldn't feel them; why couldn't he feel her, no matter how desperately he tried to cling back?) Everything, fractured, shaking itself apart, pulling itself back together, the blinding glare of light on water rushing up towards him, hitting that water like it was a solid thing, and then, well. Unfortunately, after that he's pretty sure he drowned.

It's been a rough day. Matthew, thankfully, has a certain resiliency that comes by way of being a human-like person made out of non-human stuff and there's no long drawn-out scene of Janus having to exhaust themself on their resuscitation efforts. After a few compressions Matthew jerks back to consciousness, and most of the seawater exits his lungs and mouth with a splashy sort of "glup", allowing him to suck in an enormous breath. Which burns, causing him to cough again, a few more times. ]

What--

[ Nope, still too early to talk, too early to sit up, which he was also attempting to do. Cough, hack, shudder, lying back down, staring up at Janus with impossibly round eyes. The heaving of his chest slowly settles, but his heart rate is still way up there. ]

Did I die?

[ It definitely seems like he stopped being alive at some point in all this. If he is dead though: 1) heaven is a lot saltier than he expected, 2) Jesus looks a lot more like Joseph Kavinsky than he expected, and 3) why does everything hurt? ]

[fiachdubh]

[ Of course, Ronan follows. There wasn't anywhere else he'd want to be right now than with Adam - he's been yearning to see him since he landed here, and it's not about to change now that he's got him back. The idea of staying with Adam makes something in his stomach tighten - sure, they've spent the night before, but it'd mainly been elbows and knees and cold feet for a few hours of rest when they couldn't stand anymore, rather than something deliberate.

Maybe it'll be the same now. They haven't exactly discussed things. Words are not their best features, either of them, but Ronan considers the desperate way Adam kissed him, and his pulse picks up, beating hard in his veins, hard enough that Adam must be able to feel it where his knuckles touch Ronan's wrist.

The apartment isn't far, and is on the third floor. It's spacious and furnished sparsely, but efficiently. More than enough for a boy who used cardboard boxes as furniture before. But the only thing Ronan pays attention to is the bed, kicking off his beaten boots and falling straight into it, feeling sand still gritting against his cheek. He's so tired, and now he feels like he can actually fall asleep. ]

D'you think there's hot water?

[rekt]

[ Murphy watches the kid's face after the quick snapped denial, sees the tension in it, and maybe it's made worse by the guy's severe face, but Murphy's made a survival skill out of reading people. ]

You're a bad liar.

[ maybe he isn't from Eudio but the word clearly means something to him. But that isn't anything Murphy's going to concern himself with, as the guy didn't seem to know his origin before he showed up. He leaves it at that, and glances towards the tree in question. ]

That's fine. It's a free forest, so long as I don't wake up to you trying to knife me.

[ the words make it seem like it should be a joke but the blankness of the tone doesn't match it as much. Probably because he isn't joking. That reaction to Eudio looked like either 'pissed' or 'afraid' and neither of those bode well for him.

Murphy doesn't make a scene of it, though, just gathers up the bundle and moves over to the tree, crouching down to clear out a circle of dirt, digging it slightly inward. ]

[aberth]

[ When it had been just him, Adam had refused to come here. He's never been the kind of boy to accept handouts, world hopping included. But Ronan was tired, Ronan needed him, and he couldn't figure out how to save them from this while on the streets. It had made sense to go where they could be alone.

He stands at the threshold and looks around, both daemons going to settle somewhere quiet while he surveys the apartment. It's nothing like St. Agnes, nor Monmouth, nor the Barns, but it feels like it could belong to him. His gaze falls on Ronan, something soft in his face. ]

I don't know.

[ He steps closer, feet taking him towards the foot of the bed. Deliberately, he reaches out, fingertips pressing to the exposed space above Ronan's socks, trailing over the bone in his ankles. He wants to touch, needs to. ]

You're sure you're okay?

Beach

[dreamkid]

[ Before Chainsawd can give an answer, another voice joins the conversation, shouting across the beach over the sound of the waves. ]

Ronan, hey, Ronan!

[ There's a knot on his leg, and a bit of blood on his collar from a cut on his cheek, but ignoring that and the damp, rumpled appearance of his clothes, Matthew Lynch looks more like a boy on vacation than a kid who crash-landed on a mysterious island or continent or whatever this is (he's yet to make much of a study of the place.) He trots over eagerly, kicking up sand, which is already covering his bare feet and calves. His equally sandy sneakers swing from one hand.

If he was afraid--and he was, of course, during the disintegration of their world and subsequent events--there is no trace of that fear in him now, upon seeing his older brother. He may not be entirely his joyful, carefree self, but he's definitely relieved, and that's enough. ]

Ronan, you're here, too! Have you seen Declan?

[ One more thing, there's a butterfly attempting to cling to his shirt, larger than a butterfly has any right to be, but there it is, prismatic wings fluttering and delicate legs struggling to keep their grip as Matthew runs. He hardly seems to notice. ]

[fiachdubh]

[ Ronan lets out a soft huff of a noise at the touch, pressing his face into the pillow. He could scream. This - this is not what he wanted, to be here without Gansey or Sargent, but Adam's here. Adam's here with him and there's a part of Ronan that feels so guilty at how relieved it makes him. ]

I'm fine. Just - [ Words. He doesn't know how to use them at the best of times. Stories are easy - they're just that, stories. But expressing he feels has always been much more of a task. ]

I just wish I knew Gansey's okay. And I'm. I'm tired. [ And overwhelmed, and unable to say that. Instead, he blindly reaches out, holding his hand to pull Adam next to him. ] I'm glad you're here. [ He murmurs into the pillow, hoping Adam doesn't hear him. ]

[aberth]

[ Ronan pulls him down and Adam goes easily, uncaring about the dirt or the sand or the scent of smoke even though he knows he should be. It's instinct to curl up beside Ronan, a hand going to his hip to hold him. His grip is maybe a little too firm, but he can't help it, not after today. ]

He's okay.

[ He says it with certainty, voice stronger than he feels. ] They're both okay. We'd know, I think. [ They're not magic, not anymore. But there are strings that pull each of them towards the other and Adam has to have faith in that. ] They'll find us.

[ He presses his lips to Ronan's shoulder, above his dirty t-shirt. ]

They won't leave us.

ii

[helical]

[ alec looks up at the sound of someone approaching, but returns his attention to his fire until ronan is nearer and speaks up. while alec is feeling worry wear him down, concern for his world and his friends and his family feeling like a weight on his shoulders, he bites back his automatic instinct to tell him to get lost. none of them will get anywhere if they start treating each other like that. if they want to survive and save their world, then they need to work together.

his response is curt, but still a response. ]

Heat rune. [ he holds up his stele, as if that was self explanatory, but he's not much in the mood for a shadowhunters lesson. he is, however, predisposed to help this stranger with a bird on his shoulder, if he needs it. everyone needs fire, a shelter of some kind, until they can figure out where to go from here.

he looks around ronan, trying to see where he might be setting camp, seeing nothing. he offers anyway. ]

Need help with yours? I can light it for you.

ii

[helical]

[ alec would find it amusing too, how similar it looks, if he wasn't so focused on being responsible and was... anyone else. while shane might look at the city and think it's not a bad look, alec is wondering if the structures are safe, how much of that decay as reached the walls, the beams, the foundations of these buildings.

it is pretty, in a way, nature taking over what was man made, but that doesn't mean it's secure. it doesn't mean they should take it as is. ]

How do we know it's safe?

[ the snow leopard by his legs chuffs, like a sigh, as if it knew alec would find something to pick at. alec glowers sharply at it, but then turns to the man and his panda. ] These things could collapse on all of us.