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

[fiachdubh]

[ When they close the distance, there's a part of Ronan - a very small, very relieved part of him - that wants to hug her, too. Because she's alive and she's here and she might be perfectly safe.

Instead, he reaches out with his fist, in an offer for a fistbump like the few they've shared before. Their way to show affection, at this point. She looks real, at least, tiny and wearing an array of mesh shirts with varying sized holes in them, the kind of clothes that shows some of her thighs and made both Gansey and Adam lose their shit but left Ronan cold. The thought - Adam wanting her - makes Ronan straighten his shoulder, the half-smile slipping off of his face. It's not that he's jealous of Blue, it's just - his feelings on the matter are an ugly and complicated beast, and he doesn't have to dive into them right now. He shakes his head. ]

No. I've had Chainsawd look around, but you're the first one she's found. [ He swallows hard, looking down at Blue. ]

I'm glad you're okay. [ The word feel like jagged pieces of glass in his throat, but he means it. It feels - important for her to know it. ]

[amplifyings]

[ Her gaze quickly drops to Ronan's hand when it moves, carefully watching his fingers curl into a fist and then... She grins, subtle, a little wry, and somewhat odd looking on her features as he reaches out and lightly knocks her knuckles against his. A more appropriate reunion for the two of them (more appropriate than some dramatic show of affection.) and the daemon crouched around Blue's feet seems to immediately relax at the interaction.

Ronan's words don't do much for the small bubble of hope that had formed inside of Blue. The hope that maybe it was more than just the two of them, that maybe the others had somehow made it out too, and that maybe they were wandering around this world doing the very same thing they were. ]

We'll find everyone else. [ The words come out soft, lacking the confidence that such a hopeful phrase should have.

Ronan's words are a bit of a shock and surprise colors Blue's features as she studies his face for a few long moments -- as though she's both rolling the words over in her mind, as well as waiting for the follow-up punchline. But one never comes and instead she offers Ronan a smile that's little more than both corners of her mouth lifting ever so slightly. Genuine affection and fondness that's not typically directed at Ronan. ]

Me too. [ She gives a firm nod. ] I'm glad I found you, I didn't know if...

[ Her words trail off. Okay, maybe she doesn't want to venture back to that train of thought again. ]