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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.
no subject
Yeah.
[ He scuffs his shoe through the dirt surrounding a vine and glances back at the mutt. It's now sat, slowly wagging it's tail. ]
Or it's not helping me in the way I need. It would be easier if it could tell me who else is part of this network.
[ Magnus' question makes him pause before he shakes his head. ] No, nothing. [ He doesn't even have a scrap of paper. ] Why? Would that have helped?
no subject
Well. One might suspect with Magnus, considering he's head-to-toe in designer everything. It looks weird, out here in the middle of nowhere. He is most definitely not outfitted for a trek through the woods, no sir. ]
That would be very helpful, wouldn't it? [ Magnus nods slowly. ] If we end up gathering somewhere centralized, we'll stand a better chance of finding people we know. But I was offering to track the people you're seeking with magic. Something they touched works as well, but not as well, if you catch my meaning.
[ He's not going to mention how low he is on magic at the moment. But he's still going to make the offer.
Someone whose name rhymes with Malec Flightwood-Grain would not approve. ]
no subject
[ It's out of Adam's mouth before he can stop it, the words stumbling over themselves in a rush. He'd gotten used to the idea of being normal, after Gansey and Cabeswater, after the demon and loss. And then Ronan had started to dream again, forest at the edges of the Barns and the spark back under his fingertips.
This is the second time.
He can't even comfort himself with the idea that it was for any good. ]
I mean, are you --. [ He doesn't know the vernacular. Magician is Ronan's word, Greywaren is too. ] I don't have anything. [ He's not even wearing Ronan's stolen t-shirt. ] But they'll be here.
[ And then, remembering himself. ] Are you looking for someone too?
no subject
I'm a warlock. [ There, that's helpfully unhelpful, right? Without context, Magnus has come to understand it means very little. Except in some cases, where it reminds people of tabletop gaming. Please envision a long-suffering kind of look here.
He's not making that face now though. Now, he looks pretty sympathetic. Missing friends and family are a little more serious than making D&D references. ] I very much hope you find them as soon as possible.
As for me, well, let me think. There are a few of my friends from home I'd like to see arrive here safely. And friends from a few other worlds, too.
[ He doesn't elaborate there either, or not yet. Frustrating guy. ] And I'll be keeping an eye out for my husband's family. [ How should he describe them? 'If you see anyone who looks like they're heavily tattooed with symbols in a strange, alien language, report back to me?' ] They're my family too, after all, [ and that probably makes some of them fume, doesn't it ] and I'm very fond of a few of them!
no subject
Oh.
[ He thinks, stupidly, of every time Ronan's called him a magician, how impotent that all is here. He wishes he could do something. He wishes he could get this man to do something.
But Adam knows there's no way any of them could comprehend what's happened. D.E.S.T.I.N.Y. seems pretty legitimate. ] Your husband? [ It's, strangely enough, a relief to have someone who likes another man here. Adam's not exactly down with the LGBT but who knows, on strange otherworldly planets. An alliance might be useful. ]
What does he look like? Maybe I've seen him.
no subject
In my world, it refers to a person with one human parent and one [ hmm ] not. [ He might as well be talking about the weather for how casually he states that. ] Thankfully, it doesn't seem as though any of my power has been limited here.
[ He crosses one arm over the other, lightly drumming his heavily-ringed fingers on his elbow. ] I'll need a little more time to be sure though.
[ He stops with the drumming and starts grinning again at the mention of Alec. There is suddenly a sort of lightness in his eyes and he quirks one brow in preparation for replying. ]
Yes, his name is Alexander! To most, he goes by Alec. Quite tall, dark-haired, hazel eyes. Very handsome, [ he says, sounding very much like he's struggling to be as serious as he ought. ] There's a chance you'll be able to see the runes he and his family wear. To most, they'll look like tattoos. [ Here, he will helpfully trace the shape of the deflect rune in the air, leaving behind a lingering image in what seems to be suspended blue flame. ]
He wears this one, here. [ With the other hand, he taps the side of his neck. ]
no subject
[ He says it dully, like it's not actually all that shocking. Maybe it's not. Maybe he's going to have a breakdown very soon. ]
So you haven't been cut off from the source? [ He's doing his best, not to sound like he's interrogating Magnus. He knows he can come off a little intense and while he really would like to understand everything all at once, it's been a shitty day and he can't run people off to wander a city by himself.
When Magnus starts talking about his husband Adam's not sure what to do. He's clearly very effusive and he half wants to smile, because people in love are strange and sweet, but then what if he's not here? Would that be unkind?
And then Magnus mentions the rune and it all falls into place. ] I've seen him. He was patrolling the forest. [ He was telling Adam not to die by rock troll, but whatever. ] He's your husband?
[ He is ... severe and Magnus is not. But then, that's kind of nice. ]
no subject
For the record, my non-human parent is not a tree. [ This expression says, 'something much less nice.' If only his dad were a tree. Anyway... ]
From what I can tell, there's only a very small part of my magic that I can't access in worlds other than my own. [ Can't summon demons from one universe to the next, apparently. ] This is only my second experiment though. [ He shrugs, because hopping from universe to universe is totally normal.
If Magnus is bothered at all by Adam's questions or his general nature, he doesn't show it. He has a lot of sullen, stoic, overly serious, or just plain grumpy friends though. Really, you've put him in his element, Adam!
Talking about Alec also puts him in his element. Translation: he lights up like Christmas. ] Yes! That would be Alexander. He's quite handy with a bow. [ He mimes nocking an arrow. ]
no subject
[ He says it without thinking, the furrow between his brows deepening. There's a clear sense that this is something important to him, something he thinks he'll always have to say. ] Or it shouldn't. It doesn't matter to me anyway. Tree, or not.
[ At least the rest of this conversation is more studious. ]
Yeah, he didn't want me wandering further than he'd gone. [ Adam had argued. ] He might be around here. I don't think anyone chose to stay in the forest.
no subject
What a person does is much more important than where they came from, in my [ opinion ] experience. [ Several levels of irony there, some of them expressed in the wry kind of way Magnus smiles. ]
That also sounds like Alec. He's quite good at looking out for people, too. [ For a moment, Magnus glances around, as if expecting that merely mentioning Alec's name will summon him.
Then, he looks back to Adam. ] Cant I take that to mean you're trying to get somewhere, too?
no subject
And without the nurturing presence of his friends, he would be even more volatile, more angry. He wouldn't have been able to find softness inside of himself and protect it. His parents may have brought him into life, but it was through other people he actually lived, which was the most important thing. ]
Yeah, I guess he is.
[ Alec is a better topic of conversation than the previous one, even though Adam had wanted to shout at him most of the time. ]
I don't know. The daemon keeps talking about an apartment but it feels weird to have one just waiting?