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

[assumptions]

[Aaron isn't okay at all and it takes all of his concentration to keep his face blank and not panicked. He wants to yell at them both to fo but his throat is closed tight. Instead, he sinks down onto the log.

He can't even manage the insistence of his straight-ness just. Then either.

please just say something rude and go. he thinks at Murphy.]

[rekt]

[ picking up his head, he glances back to axel, brows lifted, before his eyes shift over to aaron, stone still and rooted in the place he'd stood up. this is probably torture for him. ]

Yeah, the vampire. I heard.

[ murphy doesn't pause in gathering up his stuff and he speaks, but he's clearly more at ease with this than aaron - no concern about being seen as gay or gay leaning by anyone. it isn't an insult to him like it is to aaron.

aaron, who's probably mortified, sinking down onto the log they'd just been sitting against, kissing. yeah, he's not going to make this any worse on him than he has to, so, once he has all his branches, murphy shrugs them up in his arms, giving a short nod, and a shorter farewell. ]

Cool. Later. [ yeah, a little rude, considering he didn't introduce himself in return, but murphy's a rude person, surprise surprise. ]

[assumptions]

[ It's only a small relief when Murphy leaves and Aaron is left alone with Axel. He knows exactly what it is the other wants as he sits down by him on the log. He vaguely pays attention to Mulder's existence comforted by the silly little fox even if he's not the one playing with him.

Aaron says nothing and knows if he waits long enough Axel won't be able to keep his mouth shut and he'd do all the talking. He fidgets, uncomfortable and ashamed more fervently than he'd been even in the midst of doing much dirtier things with Murphy than a few open mouthed kisses. ]

[assumptions]

[ Aaron doesn't answer right away, crossing his arms and looking away from Axel which is also looking away from Mulder. He sighs because if he doesn't answer, Axel is just going to keep asking questions. He'd rather a lecture, since those are more easily tuned out but... ]

His name is Murphy. He's not cute. I don't think he likes vampires much. What you saw was nothing.

[ Because in a way, that's true. What were he and Murphy to each other? Nothing. So what happened between them is also nothing. ]

[assumptions]

[ Well, Aaron only just found out that Murphy doesn't seem to like vampires but it doesn't make Murphy more unattractive to him at all. Aaron keeps looking at some nondescript spot on a tree in the opposite direction of Axel, his body tense and he exhales sharply.

Why do they need to talk about this so much? He feels a bit sick to his stomach. ]

Yeah.

[assumptions]

[ Aaron tenses even more if that were possible at the question and then he turns to stare at Axel a mixture of shock and horror written across his face plainly instead of the carefully constructed 'nothing-ness' he likes to project that's not quite as good as Andrew's disinterested -- maybe because quite often that's completely genuine with Andrew. ]

Fuck off. [ Yes. Mostly. But how did Axel even figure out... was it just now? Had he known all along? ]

[assumptions]

It's not your business to understand. It's not anyone's business.

[assumptions]

Some things he doesn't have a right to know about.

[assumptions]

Do you think he's told me everything? Do you know what he will do... [ There's the truth of it. Aaron's both afraid of what Andrew would do to Murphy but afraid of Andrew knowing his shame too. It's better if he didn't know. ]

Nothing good comes from him knowing about this. It was nothing.

[assumptions]

You're blind. [ Aaron mutters, his hands sliding through his hair and he gets up off the log. ]

You're the second to last person I want to talk about this with. All you care about is him. [ Maybe back home, with Katelyn, that wouldn't have mattered but it matters too much here. ] And this was fucking nothing and will do nothing but cause stupid fucking shit and damage.

Just fuck off.

[assumptions]

Then stop and fuck off.

[ Aaron doesn't wait for Axel to comply because Axel would likely want to talk him to death so he's walking off in the opposite direction than Murphy had gone and that Axel had came from so hopefully he was going where he could get alone so he could breathe again.

There's not much difference between what he said and what Axel said. It doesn't matter, really. It's expected and perhaps correct but it does nothing but make Aaron's life more difficult and a bit miserable in it's current state. ]

[assumptions]

Christ, can't you take a hint? [ Aaron curses when he Axel follows and keeps talking. He keeps walking, though. He doesn't really know where he's going. ]

You can't help me and if you were trying you wouldn't think I needed to tell Andrew. That is the worst thing that could happen for me. [ And Murphy. ]

[rekt]

[ this is probably where murphy should go along on his merry fucking way. after all, kavinsky's waiting and crying about having to sit on dirt, and aric's being... aric. for a good moment or so, listening to the voices fad in the distance, he stills, considering it, entirely intending on moving.

that bit about dreams, though. that was a thing. and the fact this vampire tool isn't letting aaron keep his business to himself, that's another nothing. with an eye roll and a sigh, murphy sets his bundle of branches down again, and starts off after them, slower, and quieter, staying just close enough to hear. ]

[assumptions]

[ Axel really is making Aaron want to punch his stupid face. He tunes him out because clearly he's not going to get a choice in the matter and he has no intention of being the one to tell Andrew. It wasn't Andrew's business. His entire life doesn't belong to Andrew, he doesn't have a right to the things Aaron's barely coping with to begin with and that Andrew will surely make worse.

When Axel stops talking and acts like a crazy person, Aaron's shifting to move around him and keep going because he really does not care! ]