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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 beachβ 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 betweenβ 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 themβ 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
The question gets a nod, both her and her daemon turning around, heading back towards the woods. She had been at the edge of the city, the buildings in sight, but she doesn't mind doubling back to find Axel. ] Yeah. Murphy, that guy from space? [ "That kid that has an almost equally shitty home as me," she doesn't say.
Her daemon's following behind her, meaning Axel mostly gets to see her walking with purpose to the forest. But she turns after that comment, something just dawning on her. ] Stay put and I'll find you; if you wander, you might end up going further into the forest instead of coming out on the right side. [ It's the most demanding he's probably heard her, but she's shifted into survival mode now, after the surprise of the landing and her daemon (which still really hasn't gone away, it's just been pushed aside). ]
no subject
She pauses completely then, looking past the feed and to her daemon for confirmation. It nods - making the video shake - and Katniss's brow furrows, her gaze focusing once more on Axel. It's clear that she's considering something (weighing her options of staying put and going to him) by the expression on her face.
But it's just a second or two later that her expression clears, smooths into something a little less... hostile would probably be a good word for it, if you didn't know her at all. ] I'd feel better coming to you; I don't know if these things are trustworthy.
I can hear you, you know, [ her daemon says, but Katniss just ignores the comment. ]
no subject
That comment from Axel's daemon has Katniss's blood running cold, her face blanching somewhat even in the warm sunshine. Whether Axel manages to catch the look that flutters across her face before the owl takes up into the air, however, is up for debate. Her stomach clenches and twists uncomfortably, bile burning the back of her throat as she wonders if maybe this is some kind of version of the Games. Only instead of people knowingly being reaped from districts across Panem, they unknowingly get thrown in from different worlds.
It makes her want to tear her own daemon apart to teach whatever's behind this a lesson. But for now she needs it, needs to focus on the aerial view she's getting to find Axel.
Honestly it's kind of a miracle that Katniss snaps back to attention in time to catch a glimpse of the view, to notice a few distinct landmarks. By the time Axel's daemon returns to him, she's walking determinedly toward the trees again, although this time there's an obvious and uneasy tension to her shoulders and she looks back at her daemon more often than she had even moments before. ]
I think I can find you, [ she says when she turns to look at Cinnad again and sees Axel's face on the feed once more. She's still looking a bit sallow, her gaze flicking to Cinnad rather than the feed for a moment and then meeting Axel's gaze again. ] Just don't move.
no subject
[ She's turned her attention back to the path she's walking but while Axel can't see her face, the uneasy edge to her tone is rather obvious. Her hands clench at her sides until she moves further into the treeline and then she starts to use them to push aside branches, Cinnad quiet behind her.
Despite the underbrush beneath her feet, Katniss moves with almost eerily silent steps, her animal-hunting past instinctively making her stealth her way through the trees. ]
no subject
No. [ It seems like that's all she's going to say on the matter as she falls silent for a minute or two. Cinnad, big as he is, seems just at home in the woods as she does; his large paws hit the forest floor almost as silently as Katniss's own feet. When she speaks again, the edge is still present in her tone, but it's taken on another note, almost an undercurrent of sadness. ] District 12 wasn't close enough to boat-friendly water.
no subject
That huff is the only real sound from Katniss for another lengthy stretch of time. She makes quick work through the forest, however, and when she feels like she's getting close to what Axel's daemon showed her, she takes a moment to stop and listen. ]
Can you have your thing--
Daemon, [ Cinnad interjects gruffly, as if he knew what Katniss was going to say before she even started.
She's turned toward the screen enough that Axel will be able to see her roll her eyes. ] Your daemon fly up into the trees or something so I can look for him to see if I'm close?
[ It'd be easiest to have Axel make some sort of noise, of course, but that's far less safe, even if Axel could probably hold his own against anything that might come after him, him being a vampire and all. ]
no subject
It's when he circles around once more that Katniss appears on his feed briefly and she actually almost honest to god smiles in triumph.
Not that Axel will be able to see it, of course... ]
Good, I was right. [ She says it to herself mainly but also to Cinnad so Otisd can hear, then she starts making her way in the direction of where he's flying. When she gets close enough - about seven or so minutes later - Otisd flies back down to Axel, the only real warning he gets before Katniss breaks through the foliage to where he's sitting. ]
That was easier than I thought it would be. [ Not knowing the forest or even where they are, she'd expected more of a challenge. ]