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

b

[pillz]

[kavinsky has been worrying. which is to say that kavinsky had been diligently, forcefully not-worrying, choosing instead to channel his nervous energy into slapping weird forest bugs, bitching about how green everything smells, and the necessity of using leaves to wipe ass, and bitchy frustration that aric and murphy were exponentially better at outdoorsmanship than he is.

now that he's in the city, his not-worrying has intensified. the number of available distractions has increased helpfully! he's been wandering through the creeper-ridden buildings, stealing what he likes, and irate that stealing doesn't feel so much, gratifyingly, like stealing when nobody technically owns this shit in the first place. yes, it's pointlessly neurotic and stupid to follow these trains of thought. but let's be honest. it's a lot more comfortable to dwell on these idiotic notions than to think about eudio collapsing in on itself and everybody he loved there.

he's in an abandoned apartment. he shoves the windows open and takes a deep breath of too-clean air. trying to picture himself living in this one, the third floor, unit 3f, when he looks down and]

Rafaello! [the baby unicorn jumps on its hooves.] Look out! Look up!

[there's a boy in the sky. kavinsky, all skinny bones and garish tattoos, crashing down toward the vampire, in full expectation that his mother will catch him.]

[mordacita]

[ Rafa turns to shoot an exasperated look at the unicorn. ]

I told you not to call me -

[ And then it tells him to look up, and Rafa does, just in time to see Kavinsky throwing himself at him. It's a good thing Rafa has excellent reflexes. He reaches up as Kavinsky clatters into him, which results in him carrying the taller boy princess-style in his arms. Rafa laughs and gives him a little squeeze. ]

Thank you. [ He says, belatedly, to the unicorn. It manages to look smug, even while snuffling around Kavinsky's ankles. Rafa hasn't bothered to set him down yet. ]

You are trying to terrify me. Where did you come from?

[ Rafa looks up, trying to spot where his fledgling-to-be was perched. ]

You are lucky I caught you. That could have been painful.

[ And he still hasn't put him down. ]

[pillz]

[kavinsky's little arms go around the vampire's neck. yes the vampire is technically the smaller of the two of them, but for the moment all the boy can hear is his heart drumming like mad in his ears, adrenaline bursting needles through his legs and arms and face. a blur in his eyes that he'll deny, if the vampire asks him about it ever.

probably, he should have thought about: it could have been vanyel. it could have been freddie mclair or d'artagnan or a talented young actor by the name of luke pasqualino. but he'd known, even from the window. even with some preposterous horned pony by his side. he could recognize the way that rafaello d'este moves his head, and the way he places his feet just so, the lilt of his voice carried up three stories.]

You know where I came from, [kavinsky says.] You're asking a shitty question at a shitty time. Maybe because you're a shitty person. [his voice sounds funny. tight. but he pinches his tattooed fingers closed over rafa's nose, a ridiculous gesture from a ridiculous boy. he does not want to be put down.] You know me.

[mordacita]

[ Rafa holds him, swinging him a little. You know me. Had there been others who didn't, then? It's possible. It's probable. It's not a good thought, not that Kavinsky has faced it already and not that Rafa might have to as well. Instead of overthinking that, he nudges in against Kavinsky's fingers and then nips his lips into a kiss. His arms tighten around him at the same time. ]

It was a far question. You do not normally leap into my arms.

[ He does not sound as though he minds. ]

I am glad you're here. I thought I might have seen the last of you, before I even got to turn you. Did your friends come with you?

[pillz]

[kavinsky flourishes around in rafa's hands like a puppy with his new best friend, straight out of the box on christmas day. he's trying not to overreact, apart from having recently jumped out of a window in salutation. his arms shape a hug around rafa's neck. he kisses the vampire, quick but fiercely. once, twice. his lips are fraught with tension-- not the langorous exchanges that used to follow the bite.]

If I'dve answered a fair question you probably woulda known it wasn't me, [he says. a third kiss, and then he lets his hands slip apart behind rafa's head. starts to get his feet properly underneath him.]

Some of them did. I got Murphy and Aric. Only fifty percent vampire racists. [tattooed fingers skim over rafaello's hair, fondly. settling the dark strands into place.] You still look pretty, mom.