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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 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
- 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.
Darlene Alderson | Mr. Robot | OTA
[ Walking through the city feels familiar in the way that places in dreams feel familiar when they actually aren't. It has all of the architecture of the city that Darlene knows and loves, the city where their revolution was born. But all of that steel, metal, and concrete that she was used to seeing has been replaced with winding vines and plant life sprouting from everywhere.
And not the kind of plant life that the City of New York planted to make things less dull and dreary -- to brighten up the city, as they called it. -- but real, natural foliage. The kind that only mother nature herself could manage.
Is this what the end of the world looks like? When their revolution is finished is this all that will be left? When things finally come crashing down, is this going to be all that remains when the dust clears? Darlene hadn't ever been motivated by the endgame of it all, FSociety and its work thrilled her in the moment and being the "ringleader" of it all gave her an adrenaline rush that she'd never felt before. Darlene lived for the steps that it took to get them there and the danger that that entailed -- even if that danger meant watching the Dark Army unload an entire clip of bullets into her boyfriend only a few short feet in front of her.
Now that she's made it to what she assumes is the end of it all it feels.... Anticlimactic.
The fire and chaos on the beach when she'd arrived felt more like what she'd expected. But she didn't stick around there for very long to see exactly how it panned out.
Hanging from a thin piece of elastic wrapped around her wrist is a mask, corny, gimmicky and looking like something found in the bottom of a bargain bin a week after Halloween. Except for every few moments, this mask speaks. Its voice an unsettling mixture of haunting and comical, a familiar voice to Darlene that sounds like it's been slightly warped for the sake of anonymity.
The mask doesn't offer much help. She keeps asking about Elliot -- if he's okay, if he's there, if it even knows who the hell she's talking about, but to no avail. All the daemon gives her is little quips about the places that she passes, suggestions that are meant to be helpful but do nothing more than leave Darlene bristling with obvious annoyance, and directions to a home that the stupid thing keeps claiming belongs to her. ]
Oh my God. [ Her fingers twitch with the need for a cigarette, she hadn't woken up today prepared for this kind of stress. ] If you're not going to help me, then how do I get you to shut up?
[ She yanks her arm up, looking at her daemon right in the two open holes it has for eyes, as though staring it down would work as a form of intimidation to a somewhat-inanimate object. ]
[ When the feed starts, there's nothing more than a 20-something year old girl with dark brown waves of hair and a pair of heart-shaped sunglasses perched on top of her head, keeping the tresses out of her face. She's regarding whatever the object she's speaking to with obvious skepticism. ]
So, what? I just start talking and you broadcast it to the world?
[ There's something nicely familiar about that. ]
That's right! Just like the good old days, ain't it? Maybe start off with something like "Hello, Evil Corp!"? For old times sake.
[ Fond memories, it's almost tempting A grin quirks at the very corner of her lips as she leans forward, inspecting her daemon at a much closer vantage point. Her mind too busy turning over with the idea of something else to pay any mind to the fact that it's already in 'broadcast it to the world' mode. ]
What are you running on, anyway? This looks like pretty sophisticated stuff, but no matter how advanced things are... [ Give Darlene Alderson the award for world's most dramatic eyeroll at the word advanced. ] I'm good at a lot of things, one of them happens to be staying one step ahead.
[ Sudden jarring movement, like a violent earthquake shaking the entire video frame for a good few moments. After a few curses and thoughtful hum's the camera stills, pointing directly at the floor between Darlene's feet, clad in clunky black boots that need to be tied before the feed abruptly ends. ]
Anything you'd like! Throw it at me! Will match brackets or prose!