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

why do you hurt me in this way X(

[hasitsthorns]

[ Thankfully, this Rose has had a year of intimacy and affection to soften her. The sudden grab isn't met with a visceral fight or die retaliation; it is, however, addressed with a good dose of surprise. Perhaps too much for someone that should recognize him.

It doesn't seem as if he notices though considering he draws in closer and drops his head to face to her shoulder. She doesn't stiffen under his hold but also doesn't reciprocate just yet. An awkward in-between as her thoughts race. Her mind is trying to piece together what he's said in this whirlwind of a one-sided reunion. A lot of 'fuck' but also- Miss Rosie? In what universe would she have ever been called a 'Miss?' (Missus, eventually but even Knox isn't from that far ahead. And that's even more implausible than 'Miss' so it's probably for the best.) ]

I, uhm. [ Funny, maybe, that all she can think is Fuck herself.

What does she say? This is one situation she can't possibly lie her way out of. Tempting as it is, she'd be caught before it was even worth it to lie in the first place. ] I'm sorry, [ she starts, because she truly is. This poor boy and all his misplaced relief that she's about to strip away with a single statement of, ] I think you have the wrong person.

[ The words feel heavy, even to her. Whoever she was to him in another world, she already wishes she could remember. Wishes she were her instead of the Rose before him. He called her 'Rosie,' a nickname reserved for friends. Family, even, but she's not Miss or Rosie or anyone to him. ]

I'm Rose, but I don't... think we've met. I mean, I'd definitely remember you. [ Hottie alert, etc. ] I'm. I'm so sorry, dude.

<3 <3 <3

[kinks]

What.

( sorry she says. knox peels back. sorry for what? it can't be the wrong person. it's rosie, clear as day -- the pretty nurse with rose imprinted condoms, the foxy fox lady who takes care of the school, mends the multitudes of broken limbs and broken hearts on a day to day basis. it's rosie. knox would never forget her face.

it's amazing that her saying dude is what really sells it. his hands are still cupped on her shoulders, and he shares glances between her eyes, his own welling up with emotion, before he ...

he smiles. brightly. shakes his head, shrugging, separating from her. )

Don't be sorry, love. S'my mistake. Sorry, sorry. I should've.

( been someone else, maybe, although that's something he's been chanting since the day he was born, so it holds little merit up between them. he doesn't like to see her upset, even if she doesn't know who he is. some thick and ugly emotion starts stirring in his stomach, swelling up his throat, but he swallows it down, down, down, choking on the things he refuses to feel. rosie doesn't remember him, it's fine. it's better for her that way. )

Not cried on the first person I saw, aye? Pffft. ( he laughs. maybe it's believable. ) No harm done, my fault. Feel free to smack me across the face if you like.

[hasitsthorns]

[ A smile she's sported so many times reflected back at her is something that pains her to see; it's like a knife to her heart with pinpoint accuracy and a twist on top. Whoever this is, she's hurt him deeply by her lapse in memory. He's thinking and feeling the same things she has before and-

It's not his mistake. Rose may not know him, but she can already be certain of that. It isn't the fault of either of them. The blame falls instead to a cruel multiverse that decided to bring their two mismatched timelines together. But she refuses to let him take this on his shoulders alone. She refuses to let him suffer quietly like she has far too many a time because she of all people understands how that eats you away slowly from the inside.

She doesn't know him but she wants to. ]

And damage those good looks of yours? Psht, as if. [ It's not believable in the slightest yet she isn't about to call him out for it. From one liar to another, Rose knows sometimes you just need to have an out. ]