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

[poorlycopingstrategist]

[Jamie watches this display with mild curiosity and a twinge of relief; the woman isn't badly hurt and can tend to her own injuries with some sort of magic, which is more than Jamie can do. He offers her a tight-lipped smile and a small nod.]

Nice to meet you. [More or less, given the circumstances.] You hurt anywhere else? Was anybody with you, other than your...bird?

[astralera]

[ While Era knows full well that there are people who have never met a Chocobo before (they aren't indigenous to the Othard continent after all), this is the first time she's met one. At least Jamie hasn't insulted her companion as those from the other continent are known to do.

She shakes her head in answer to both his inquiries and gestures to her Chocobo as she stands. Peki is quick to nudge her hand with his beak, eager for some affection that Era is more than happy to give - it's a win/win in her books, since he keeps her steady as the vertigo fades. ]

Just Peki.

[poorlycopingstrategist]

Well, you can stick with me until we figure out what's going on here. If you want to, anyway. Safety in numbers, right?

[Jamie watches Era with a critical eye as she seems to gradually recover from the effects of the sudden displacement that brought them all here; her clipped responses to his questions strike him as possibly worrisome, but maybe she's just naturally reticent. He leans back, tucking his hands into his pockets, and takes in her interaction with the feathery creature beside her.]

Peki, huh? Nice to meet you, too. [...he says, directly to the bird, on the off-chance that it's actually sentient and he's snubbing it by accident.] Never seen a bird like that before. Where are you guys from?

I had a reply all typed then was an idiot and closed the wrong tab... q_q

[astralera]

[ Era considers Jamie's suggestion for a moment before nodding her acceptance. She has spent her entire life fighting, and while she is a renowned warrior on her own Era knows the benefits traveling in a group can bring. While she may not trust the man (she has learned her lesson not to trust too quickly) it doesn't matter - if danger should arise she is more than capable of keeping herself in one piece.

Her posture shifts from hesitant to something more open - her love and enthusiasm for her Chocobo outweighing her discomfort with verbal conversations. Alphinaud had almost always been the one to speak for them in their travels, and the thought that she won't be able to see her young Elezen companion - her little brother in all but blood - for an indeterminate amount of time is a painful one.

Still, Era does her best not to let her thoughts weigh her down. ]

Peki is a Chocobo. [ The avian beast knows his name when he hears it and gives Jamie a happy wark of acknowledgment. Era gives him another fond, thorough scratch behind his head where it's hardest for him to reach, earning a happy puddle of Chocobo for her efforts. ] We hail from Eorzea.