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]

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! ]

[rekt]

[ of fucking course the vampire heard him. Murphy's eyesroll up to the sky, as if asking computer-God why, because this shit is fucking ridiculous. He considers just waiting there until axel wanders his way over, because he really doesn't want Aaron knowing that he followed. Which is when an idea comes to mind. ]

It's your conscience, [ Murphy whispers, knowing if axel could hear him from that far away, he must be able to hear the whisper, but Aaron won't. ] Telling you to stop harassing little boys having a nervous break down about their uncertain sex life.

[assumptions]

[ Aaron makes a frustrated noise in the back of his throat and since he was trying to escape still he didn't see the flipping off exchange happen. He still is feeling the urge to just go at Axel with his fist but instead it's just clenching tight at his side because he can only imagine how Andrew would react to that. ]

I don't want anyone to know, much less him! [ Aaron's voice is low because otherwise he wants to yell. He digs his nails into his palm to try and keep the anger and shame from being to overwhelming. ]

I just want to fix it. [ Get it out of his system -- though, if he were honest with himself, he'd realize that he's only getting in deeper. ]

Leave me alone, please. You're going to tell him so let me fuck off already. [ In the end, the things in Aaron's life end up really being about Andrew and not about him. He's used to it by now. ]

[assumptions]

[ Aaron chooses not to say anything back to Axel about any of it. He spares a glance to Mulder and then shifts to move away again and find somewhere to just be alone and far away from Axel. The tentative peace he'd made with Andrew feels like it's about to be shattered and it's his own shameful fault.

It's the punishment he deserves for what he's done, maybe. ]

[rekt]

[ from off in the trees, after Aaron's gone stomping away in his fit, there's yet another crash and burn whistle, this time with the explosion sound effect included.

Good job, axel, you really handled that well.

If he comes looking for him, he'll find Murphy leaning his back against a tree, looking pensive, though rather cynically pensive. ]

[rekt]

[ Murphy's head lolls to look at him, giving a sidelong look and a small smirk. ]

I'm pretty sure it could've gotten worse. There wasn't a punch thrown, you still have your balls attached.

[ Aaron is a vicious little thing, even if he's never done either of those things to Murphy. If it were him in that spot, though, he's sure he'd have at least given a shove. If this gay thing was as important to him as it was to Aaron. ]

You seriously gonna tattle on him?

[rekt]

[ Murphy shrugs, expression nonchalantly indifferent. ]

Not much. Doesn't make a difference to me if you tell him or not, not my life you're exposing or my sanity you're endangering.

[ as Aaron had said - it isn't really anything. Just screwing around because it feels good, and because Aaron needs the opportunity right now, to help figure this out for himself. ]

But, if you're worried about honesty, you should probably stop pretending you're helping him. This is for you, and Andrew. Not him.