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

city

[miss_brilliant]

[when the quakes had started, Amanda had been understandably worried. She'd been somewhat used to earthquakes in California, but hardly on that scale and that had been so different and not Eudio, a place where she had finally started to feel secure in her body and herself.

She had tried to be rational, tried to be a scientist, but like any human, she'd panicked and had unquestionably gone through the portal, only taking enough time to grab Heddy, clutching her close as she went through. Maybe because she trusted portals, so like Stargates. Maybe because she didn't want to think about what would happen if she didn't.

Whatever the reason, she was here now with something that looks like an African Grey parrot on her shoulder, although she knows from its explanation--which at least she mostly understands, and she's grateful her profession at least gave her that small applicable skill here--that it is not a parrot. It's still a comfort though, to have something like an animal that is also something like a computer that she can interface with. It's something that is familiar enough to calm her so she can walk through the city She's not ready send out a message just yet, she needs to find her footing, so to speak.

However, her breath catches when she hears a familiar voice, and she's almost surprised by the fact she feels tears in her eyes.]

Sorry, I don't smoke. [she calls as she walks towards the source of the shout hoping the smile in her voice will cover up the 'fee-fees']

cw ableism, also c-word, and powerpose-- lmk if it's not ok

[pillz]

[and with that, the punk screaming in the middle of the street stops screaming. he stops, his narrow frame locking stiff and straight, like somebody jabbed him in the kidneys with a hypo. it can't be. don't the people with disability usually die, expendable? he turns slowly, his dark eyes getting bigger in his head right up until he sees her. he knows that girl, with her long brown hair and oval face, her lanky limbs and needlessly self-deprecating smile. he used to affectionately bully that.]

Mary's sweet virgin cunt. [his voice erupts in the quiet of the overgrown street. too loud. a set of nesting birds in the windows of a nearby building goes flying off, panicked. kavinsky ignores them, running to meet the girl and her lame fee-fees.] Holy shit! You're not a gimp again. Holy shit. [the eevee marks amanda as amanda, which is good because he's already pulled a gun on one traveler from eudio and that was probably enough. the instant he's in arm's reach, well-- nothing changes. he keeps coming.

and it's not until he's properly invaded her space that he drags her narrow waist into a hug. hoisting her right off the pavement, if he can.] Amanda fucking Perry. Right? Amanda fucking Perry.

fdajlfk nope ur great this proves its her version of him

[miss_brilliant]

[the language doesn't surprise her at all--it makes it very clear that he isn't a lookalike, like some people in Eudio were, but Kavinsky--but the hug? Yeah, that's a bit of a shock. She's still thin on muscle for her age and height, a few months out of The Chair couldn't change that, so she's not hard to lift for most people.

She chokes out a laugh, trying very hard not to cry. Her Eevee makes a squeaking noise at being jostled, shifting so it is almost burrowed against her neck so it doesn't tumble to the ground]

Yeah. Yeah it's me, in the still-walking flesh. [she blinks rapidly] There was a...portal, like the ones I used back home in my work. It seemed a safer bet then...

[then what had been destroying the place so many of them had finally felt safe in, hangs in the air unsaid but not needing to be]

[pillz]

Oh my fucking God, [says the most expressive and eloquent young man in the multiverse.] You're a full body hug for a sore cock. [he says stupid things when he's freaking out. he says stupid things all the time. he spins her around twice, his big hollow eyes squinting up at her face, studying the familiar shape of her smile and the way it matches to her self-deprecating little voice. he jostles her up and down two more times in a way that would've cracked an infant's neck, probably, if she were an infant, but she's not.

he lets her down on the ground. two little burst drops, until her shoes touch the pavement again. he glances down at the eevee, and after a moment, tries to fluff it on the head with his tattooed fingers.] Yeah no fucking kidding, [he says.] We had Goddamn earthquakes. Saw one of the energy collection towers cave across the park from where I live. It was a little bit uncool. No people died or nothing while I was there. Very PG-13, as far as the fucking apocalypse goes.

[he's downlplaying it, and/or being an ass. as one does.] You get in here alone?

[miss_brilliant]

[despite the situation--or maybe because of it--Amanda laughs, covering her mouth with one hand quickly in case it turns hysteric. She's managed to keep a tight reign on her emotions so far, the academic taking over entirely as she processed the information the daemon had given her. Which was a bit of a problem, since she understood things far too well and was fighting to keep herself from thinking of people in the universe she'd left before going to Eudio]

Thanks, I think. [she chokes out finally, still smiling. And for her Eevee's part, it actually sniffs a curious nose at Kavinsky's hand. It recognizes his smell, and given that all it understand is there was a lot of shaking and noise and then it was somewhere without its nice bed and toys, it seems very contented to have something familiar and makes a happy squeak and actually almost smiles. It's always been the brighter of the two of them.] It's good to see you too. [and understatement, but she doesn't have the words to describe how glad she is to know he's all right, and how bizarre it still is that seeing him in one piece is a comfor

Amanda lets out a shuddery breath, nodding jerkily] Yeah. I didn't...see any deaths either, but I was too focused on trying to figure out what was happening, for all the good that did, and then getting out when the chance presented itself.

[her throat tightens a bit, and she coughs it away] Yeah, just me and Heddy. [there's so much in those words, as she thinks of both Eudio and the people in a spaceship another galaxy away. Had they been able to use the Gate, had Nick been able to unlock the bridge, oh god Nick, no she can't think of him, not now, not when she has to try to keep herself in one piece] What about you?

[pillz]

[ever since henrietta, kavinsky too has been a big fan of staying alive. actually even before that, even when he'd wanted to die, he'd been a big fan of staying in one piece. he generally likes to be handsome, even if he's going to be reduced to a corpse. being self-destructive leaves plenty of room for being fucking vain. but in this instance, he does for once feel a genuine gratitude for the miracle of survival.]

Yeah I brought some fuckers over here with me, [he nods. as a matter of fact, kavinsky has long since suspected that their arrival in xistentia was less due to his incredible brilliance and probably more the intervention of f.a.t.e.s.— when he went dreaming, the elk with its too-many horns had been nothing he'd pictured, nothing he had understood, absolutely nothing like the mundane plans and inspirations and flat counterfeit copies that he usually musters out of the muck of his subconscious.] Aric and John Murphy. And this like. Assorted fucking menagerie of animals, I dunno. That happened some reason.

It's like a fucking zoo. [a glance at his dog, who looks at him for a moment, then steps over to sniff at the eevee in a friendly way. to all appearances, moonshined still looks entirely like an ordinary husky.] Seen some others around too. Rafaello, Vex. You met 'em at the race, maybe some other point. Vampire and fairy. [he rubs his arm on his nose, sniffing in a way that definitely doesn't have anything to do with human emotions, so don't even think about it.] Apart from that, only thing I've seen in town is magic appearing food and clothes and shit. Kinda worried about like, if you eat something and it disappears the way all this reality-bending shit keeps happening, maybe it sucks a hole in your stomach. Black hole. Science.

You tell me, nerd girl.

[miss_brilliant]

Should I start calling you Noah. then? [she says, trying to laugh although it really doesn't work, even if she does smile at her Eevee going over to the dog. It's not afraid, despite the difference in size. She still doesn't understand the small creature, really, but she is so glad it's safe. That Kavinsky and some of his people--people she only remembers in passing--are safe.

While there are some people she would try to comfort--Nick, Arthur--Kavinsky isn't one of them. In part because he's him, and in part because, despite what she's tried to make everyone believe, including herself, she is actually pretty good at hiding and repressing negative emotions. It's the only way she'd been able to survive adolescence with any part of the self she wanted to be intact, which is...probably not very healthy, but it's what's letting her keep from falling to pieces right now.

So instead of reaching out when he sniffs, she listens to him and laughs, although 'nerd girl' stings some part of her she hadn't even realized was there, as she remembers calling Eli 'math boy'. Eli. Eli is a genius, the one who solved the mystery of the ninth chevron, he must have found a way to get them out, him and Rush and all the others together…

She forces all of that down, to a place where she can deal with it when it's just her and her Eevee again, and makes herself smile]

Believe it or not, this is just as new to me as it is to you. Just because I've been on an alien spaceship and swapped bodies doesn't mean I've seen everything the multiverse has to offer. [she sighs, looking around for a moment to hide her own misted gaze] That said, I sincerely doubt that anything we wear or consume could create localized black holes. Not just because I think that would take something much bigger, but from what I'm gathering, that's not how this virus is wreaking its particular havoc. But I definitely had the time or...focus to dig very deep yet. [the only concession she'll let herself make aloud, to the fact she's terrified] Maybe once I get a roof over my head I can start...trying to figure out how the hell this program is working, instead of just taking it at face value.

[or finally have a total emotional breakdown. That's more likely, really]

[pillz]

Yeah, if you buy that we're all fucking pixels now-- [kavinsky listens to her talk, his attention drifting slightly. in that shocky way that people do when they've been recently traumatized. she has her way of dealing with it, and so does he. if you squint a little, maybe you'll notice there are certain strange similarities between their respective methods. neither of them are much one for breaking down in front of other people, soliciting comfort in the obvious ways that they tell you to do in books. hug. say feeling words.

he can tell she's feeling emotional, and the mercy he thinks to grant her is that he looks away. eyeing his dog. pretending not to notice.]

Hey. [and then the idea gets him randomly-- a spark in the mire. kind of like supposedly you can start fires with the methane gas farts from bogs and marshes? inspiration of this stanky boot nature.

kavinsky straightens slightly, his skinny arms crossed over his chest. it's random as fuck. it's a bad idea. she can't stand him, not really; most people can't. he says it anyway:] We should live together, 'Manda. You and me. Come on. There's a shitton of real estate. [he gestures up at the buildings around them, their empty-eyed fronts. apartments. no doubt there are houses, somewhere further out.] You'll stay outta my shit. I'll dream you some shit of your own.

[miss_brilliant]

[Amanda isn't exactly sure what she expected--really she's never been at all sure what to expect with him, and maybe that ridiculous novelty is part of why she kept associating with him by choice--but him proposing the two of them living together definitely wasn't among any possibility she would have thought of. She can't hide the fact she's taken aback, eyes widening and jaw dropping just a little.

It would be easy to tell him that idea is insane, which it absoultely is. Even if she'd been reliant on another person for everything before Eudio, having an aide wasn't anything like having a roommate. She'd been alone since she was seventeen, in basically every sense. She'd never had to figure out how to deal with another person's eccentricities in a shared space. And really, now would be the most ridiculous time to change that. Especially with him of all people.

But on the other hand, being alone...well, it had stopped being novel sometime ago in Eudio. And he's still, somehow, the person who knows the most of her little secrets. Of all the insane things in her life, that's one she's pretty sure she'll never find any answer for.

She's quiet for another moment, before shaking her head and letting out a laugh that's very short but actually genuine]

Uh...well, I can't say it's something that would have otherwise crossed my mind but...[a long breath leaves her lungs, but she's smiling] What the hell, sure.