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

[fiachdubh]

[ Angels. Angels.

Well, way to send the good Catholic boy's brain out for a spin here, Alec. He takes a moment to digest this one, because it's the kind of confirmation that no one should ever get to have. His mouth feels dry, his tongue too big in his mouth. ] You're telling me that Angels exist. [ He feels like the words stick to his lips, but he manage to let them out.

And then it's back in the spin, when the name Kavinsky is uttered between the two of them. It's as bad as anything to hear it, making Ronan waver for a second, feeling like his knees are going to give out on him. ]

Kavinsky's dead. I saw - I was there. I saw it happen.

[helical]

Yes. At least in my world. [ a brief, brief moment of hesitation. he shouldn't reveal too much to strangers, shouldn't give away potential vital information, but ronan looks a little shaken. ] I'm part angel. Nephilim.

[ that might not help. but he'd like for ronan to believe he knows what he's saying, when it comes to that. shadowhunters take angels seriously, revere them, admire them. alec has never had the chance to ever see one, but he sort of wishes he had.

he is absolutely not surprised to hear this about kavinsky. ]

I met him in a city that wasn't in my world. Maybe he came from before he died. Maybe he came from another version of your world. [ all possible, but maybe not so easy to swallow. alec keeps a close eye on ronan, watching him for his reaction, to gauge if he should change the subject or prepare for ronan not to believe him and lash out. ]

[fiachdubh]

[ Ronan, for all that he's shaken to his core, keeps his eyes firmly on the fire between them, schools his features into his usual mask of calm indifference. He is good at this; he has worked on this face for a long time.

It takes him a moment to lift his eyes to Alec's, keeping himself neutral. ] Are you Catholic?

[ It seems like a fair question. ]

I guess considering what I know now I shouldn't be surprised by the idea of alternate versions of worlds. [ He's still not sure his brain is wrapping around anything that pertains this conversation, but at least, there are some things he believes wouldn't change. ] Was he still a drugged-up asshole?

[helical]

[ it is a fair question, but alec makes a face like there's no real decisive answer. he doesn't shift away from ronan's gaze, though, so he's not being purposefully evasive. ]

Angels are real to me. I don't know anything about the rest. [ god, heaven, all that. ] Except Hell. That's a real place.

[ as for kavinsky, well. ]

I wasn't close to him, so I wouldn't be able to tell you. I don't think so? [ shrugs. he's never cared enough about kavinsky to know this much. only his name, really. ]

[fiachdubh]

So Hell is real, Angels are real, but that's all you know? What a load of bullshit. [ The last part is muttered under his breath, more spiteful than he feels. It isn't really Alec's fault, but Ronan's faith is already a fragile, delicate thing he doesn't like to poke at on the best of days.

Today is definitely not the best of days. ]

Huh. [ Well, so much for that. maybe it's another Kavinsky entirely. After all, the one Ronan knows is dead. Dead and gone.

But also, he shouldn't be able to take shit from dreams, either. ] Well, whatever. How did you get his powers anyway?

[helical]

Hell is a realm. A dimension. Just like this is. [ so it's not that shocking. heaven is more of a vague, utopic idea to aspire to. alec isn't surprise there's been little to no proof of it's existence. too little is known about angels to know if that's even where they live, or if they're in another realm of their own. ]

In this other world we were in before, there was a surge of some magic. People switched powers for a couple of weeks.

[ he hadn't even actively participated in... the source of the cause. but he's not going to tell ronan about that. neither will he tell him that alec is glad those are the powers he inherited, because anything else might have been too weird for him to live with. this one seemed passive, and he never learned to use it actively, so it was only a curiosity with only rubber bow and arrows, strange books, and live kittens as a consequence. ]

[fiachdubh]

[ Well. Ronan can guess that makes sense, to an extent. But if Hell s a realm, the world they live in, another, then he's got to believe Heaven is another. Like layers.

Faith is a funny thing, and yet Ronan clings to it more than he should, sometimes. It's a tether, to his family, his roots, and hope, all together. If he stops believing, he might as well just give up. ]

Well, that sounds pleasant. [ Sarcasm. He can't imagine - inheriting someone else's powers, losing his own. The thought makes his palms itchy with how uncomfortable he is. The only person he could be okay switching with would be Adam, probably.

Lord knows what Adam would dream up, though. ]

Was that common in that world you were in?

[helical]

[ alec likes to believe the same, but you won't find him saying as much to just anyone. it's a very private thing, what he believes and doesn't, where his faith lies. and a complicated one for a shadowhunter. angels are rare enough that some aren't sure they exist anymore, after all.

it's easier to talk about eudio. ]

It was kind of a mess. It was a mistake, so no, not common.

[ he looks around them again, up at the trees above. ] I'd be careful, if you find something that looks like a shrine or ruins around here.

[fiachdubh]

What, you think this place is anything like the one you were in before?

[ Because it's definitely nothing like the world Ronan comes from. Here, he's not sure magic is going to be anything like it was back home, if it even exists at all. From what Chainsawd has painstakingly explained, it's very possible that everything he's ever believed in is absolutely impossible in this world. ]

[helical]

In so far as it's a different world than my own, [ he starts, which basically is all that matters. because a different world than your own means unknown. it means being in an entire universe with rules that could be completely different from the ones you're used to.

he tosses another stick into the fire. ] You can never be too careful.