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

[mordacita]

[ The daemon, whose fault none of this is, gets Rafa's hand running along its fur. Then his umbreon Jessie takes exception, and trots up to investigate the newcomer. Rafa focuses on Vex, his brows furrowing into a frown. He closes the door behind him and steps close, reaching up to snag those sunglasses off. He'll hardly have need of them in this well-shaded room. ]

Well? You wanted it to be in person.

[ He's riled up, clearly. Now that he's not on video, the tension rolling through Rafa's shoulders is easy to see. ]

Did you believe what you said to him, or not?

[vexy]

Look, we're not going on about that again! If you think I was serious about any of the shite I told him then you deserve what you bloody get!

[ He thought that was resolved and looked annoyed that Rafa brought it back up. He huffed out a sigh and leaned his back against a wall, arms crossed over his chest in an unconscious defensive posture.

Wait. He meant about him mattering-- Vex sighed and dropped his head for a moment. He was always so ready to go on the attack. ]

In the grand scheme of things I don't matter, and I shouldn't matter even if you think I do. I'm not... really a part of your world, luv. All of this, it's just temporary innit?

[mordacita]

[ Rafa, very abruptly, does not want to talk about this. He doesn't want to talk about it being temporary. He doesn't want to even think about that, because he does not do temporary. Not when he feels like this.

He shouldn't feel like this, because Vex is right. It is temporary, and he shouldn't be doing this. He should have walked away from this a long time ago.

The thing is, Rafa doesn't really walk away, either. Irritated, he shoves Vex against the wall. ]

Do not say that to me. You do not get to decide who matters to me. I do not want you to tell people the things you told Shane. I do not want you to say it, or anyone to think it, because it is not true. That is why I brought you here. Not to tell me how temporary we are.

[ He lets go, backing off a step. ]

I am not listening to that.

[vexy]

You're not listening to it, but it doesn't make it any less true. You 'n me? We're a fling, a flash, we're nothing compared to what you've got with Shane, or Hunter, or hell- even Vinny. You can give 'em all something I can't, that grand feelin' of being loved.

[ He knew what it felt like now: that feeling of being loved by someone, of loving someone, and while he wasn't entirely blind to how important he was to Rafa he knew he could never compare. ]

I can't... Fine. Fine, I won't say it to anyone else. [ He conceded only because this was getting dangerously close to a lot of pain he wasn't ready to deal with, except for the fact that he already opened the barn door and let the cattle out already. ]

[mordacita]

[ Rafa is quiet for a moment. It's a dangerous kind of silence, like he's on the brink of something. He's also remarkably still, as only a vampire could be. ]

We are not a fling. [ His voice is laced with tension. It's quiet, but biting. ] If you were a fling, I would have left you long ago.

Is that all you want us to be?

[ He tells himself it would be better to know, either way. ]

[vexy]

What I want is to not bloody talk about this anymore.

[ It didn't matter. None of this mattered. Then he conceded with a low sigh, his eyes closed and his face defeated. ]

I can't give you anything, luv. You know that. I have nothing to give.

[mordacita]

[ Rafa stares at him. He's torn between wanting to move closer, and wanting to storm away. As a result, he does neither. He clenches his teeth, and a muscle moves in his jaw. ]

I have never asked you for anything. What do you think I am expecting you to give?

[ All I want is you, he thinks, and those words get stuck in his throat. ]

[vexy]

[ He didn't want to say it, he couldn't say it. He spent his entire life avoiding feelings like this, and now after Mark he just... his eyes screwed tight for a moment, then he inhaled deep before he finally looked at him. ]

If ya don't want me talkin' to Shane, alright, I won't. 'n maybe I'm not a fling, maybe I'm something better, but it honestly doesn't matter, does it? This is probably it, you know? Honestly, what are even our chances for survival here? We're buggered, mate, mortal, immortal, it don't matter, it's all gonna come crashing down within a month. Or maybe we're all dead already. Just... agh.

[ He brought his hands up to run his hands through his hair, mumbling something low and vulgar as he turned to leave, unable to face down those sad brown eyes any longer. ]

[mordacita]

[ That sort of nihilism is not something that Rafa would have been able to understand in any circumstances, much less these ones. He acts as Vex turns to go, catching his arm by the elbow. ]

We are not dead. What kind of talk is that? We cannot afford to be dead. Our worlds, our people, are relying on what we do here and relying on us to win. We are soldiers.

[ Rafa says that with a kind of certainty. This is what he has always been. The peace he had briefly known in his own world seems far away, and while there's a part of him that feels tired because of that, he will do what he must. ]

Vex, this place is not the end.

[vexy]

[ There was a flash of inspiration which crossed Vex's shocked features. Rafa's words had definitely gotten to him, he was listening intently with a desperate need to cling onto any small grain of hope that anyone could offer him- because without that he most assuredly wouldn't be around anymore. He swallowed and nodded, his voice soft at first then grew in strength. ]

Y-Yeah... yeah. Yeah, alright. You're right. We can do this. What's a bit of wildernesse, eh? We've handled worse. It's just really exhausting to have to save the world all the time, luv. Guess I let it get to my head.

[mordacita]

[ It's enlightening, that look. Rafa has never really seen Vex in a situation like this before, but that doesn't matter. How many times in his very long life has he needed to stir motivation back into his soldiers? He's faced terrible odds in the past. He's led armies against terrible odds. That's what Vex reminds him of now; of a sentinel lacking belief. He comes closer again, lifting his hand to set it against his cheek. ]

We have handled worse. We will handle this, and we will fix what is broken. We will do it together, you and I.

[vexy]

[ This time Vex turned towards him willingly, both of his hands up so they could sink into Rafa's hair and hold the sides of his face at the same time. He needed the strength he saw in those dark eyes more than he realized. He nodded again as he spoke. ]

Alright. I'm with you, luv.

[ His eyes closed as he leaned in enough to set their foreheads together, noses brushing lightly. ]

I'm with you.

[mordacita]

[ Rafa lets himself be drawn in again. He reaches for Vex's cheek and sets his hand there, thumb running over his cheekbone. Then he leans up to kiss him. This is soft and sweet, teasing at his lips and letting his tongue get involved only at the end. It leaves Rafa's lips tingling, and he closes his eyes. ]

Good. Stay with me.

[ He moves his arms around Vex now, holding him tightly. ]

end? <3

[vexy]

[ He may not be the best company right now, but he agreed. At the very least he could distract himself with Rafa's affection and keep his mind far away from all of his life's complications.

Those kisses seemed to help, so he was going to lose himself in them for awhile. ]