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

[pygmalionist]

[The world turns as if gravity's shifted, and Niall's grateful they're already sitting down. He doesn't think to avoid crying in front of Matthew because there's no threat of tears at all.

Muiread had explained, to some degree, time and universal discrepancies. There's no question of how this could be, that he's alive yet not alive. But it's puzzling, all the same. Mortality is just such a strange thing to confront when he feels so immortal. It must be similar to the way ordinary people feel when confronted with magic: Something obvious and tangible, yet impossible to believe in.

With the dreaming. Ah, his boys. So much they've discovered. Niall meets Matthew's eyes, fingers combing through blonde curls again.]

Of course he did.

[Niall says this with a swell of pride, and only the happy thought of Ronan's genius brings the prickle of tears to Niall's eyes. Ronan will perform a thousand miracles by the time he's Niall's age. He's a masterpiece.]

He would move mountains for either of you. I never had any doubt.

[dreamkid]

[ The moonlight reflects in Niall's eyes, brighter now than a moment ago, and Matthew bites his lip as something tightens in his chest.

If their dad is here, alive, could they-- could he? What would even happen if he did? If they put their world back together, and Niall Lynch was able to once again be a part of it? The thought is overwhelming, impossible, probably sacrilegious. And they couldn't go back to how things were before he died, not anymore. But he's Dad.

Matthew doesn't know. He wishes his brothers were here. ]

They took care of everything. Him and Declan.

[ That other son, remember? The first one? ]

[pygmalionist]

[Ah, yes. That guy. It doesn't escape Niall's notice, how Matthew went out of his way to mention Declan.]

Taking care of things is what Declan does best.

[Sincerely. He's served as Niall's assistant all this time for a reason. Some people are artists, others mundane. Niall had found a way to make use of Declan's special brand of dullness.]

How long did it take before Ronan disobeyed my will?

[If he's seen Aurora, then he obviously returned to the Barns.]

[dreamkid]

[ Taking care of things is what Declan does best, and Matthew knows very well Declan was not his father's favorite, and is not his mother's either, and that does seem unfair. Declan has been taking care of all of them. But he doesn't know how to say it out loud, to his dad, without overstepping.

He actually blushes at the question, because he disobeyed too and he can't lie about it. ]

I don't know exactly, [ he admits. ] But the first time we went back together was a year.

[ A year later. Matthew still remembers being so worried at first, about how mad Declan would be, and then by the time they got there he was just happy to be home again. ]

Mom was there. But we took her somewhere else, and she's awake now.

[ The thoughts his mother compel something in him, and Matthew suddenly sits up and leans over, reaching to loosen the straps around Muiread's wrists. It's not defiance against Niall (though surely no one else could've tied her there like that); he doesn't even think about it, or why the daemon is bound in thr first place. Matthew just wants to help her out. ]

[pygmalionist]

Well done. I knew I could count on my boys.

[And by that, he means he could count on Ronan. Declan would probably have preferred to see the Barns burn to the ground, and Matthew will only ever reflect Ronan's wishes. (Through no fault of his own, of course.)

As Matthew reaches for Muiread's ropes, Niall gently but firmly puts a hand out to stop him.]

Leave it. I'll never be able to get her off of you.

[dreamkid]

[ There's a part of Matthew that feels proud, hearing the words of praise, even if they aren't for him. Their father's approval has always seemed to be a blessed thing.

He stops what he's doing immediately. ]

But--

[ A troubled frown appears on his face, and he looks from the daemon to Niall and then back. She's should make a very unnerving picture, tied to the bedpost with a bag over her head, but Matthew just feels a sort of strange fondness for her. And confusion. ]

What do you mean? Why is she like that?