TEST DRIVE #002

[reveriemod]

TEST DRIVE #002

( 0 0 1 ) » WAKE UP

Were you asleep or were you unconscious? It doesn't matter: when you come to, there's an odd taste in your mouth and there's a low-level mechanical hum in the air. Your head hurts and you feel nauseous. You aren't anywhere you know: everything around you is metal, from the floor you lie on all the way to the ceiling. You are dressed in a jumpsuit you definitely weren't wearing before.

"We tried to save the world. I think— I think we did the opposite."

The message repeats on a loop. If you look for its source, you find a comms device on the floor next to you. The logo on its wallpaper says REVERIE TERMINAL. Upon closer inspection, you find the same logo on your jumpsuit.

Welcome to your new home. What choice do you have but to explore your surroundings?

( 0 0 1 . 1 ) » WAKE UP WHERE?

When you wake up, you find that you're not alone. But more importantly, you find that you're in a closet. An empty closet, bar you and your new companion. It's small, cramped, and there is no door that you can see. The ceiling is low, there is barely any lights, only some coming from the tiny flashlight clipped to your suit's shoulder. You cannot be sure that there is any air coming in to the room.

Are these grooves in the wall supposed to mean something?

( 0 0 2 ) » OBSERVATION DECK

There were no windows in the corridor you woke up in and no windows in any of the crew quarters you might have checked for occupants — but there are plenty of windows on the uppermost level of the station, deck 1. In fact, there are windows from floor to ceiling all along the circumference of the station's circular deck, and it's possible to walk along it all. What it shows is a strange solar system you've never seen before and a planet that might resemble one you know, but certainly isn't the same.

You're in space. You don't know where you are. Neither does anyone else.

( 0 0 3 ) » BAR

On deck 3, you find the bar. Tucked away from the crew quarters, it's dimly lit, there are bar stools thrown down on the floor and what looks like some very old drink spills, crusty and dark against the bar top. But there is alcohol here, or at least, what you think is alcohol, in bottles with faded labels, most of them indecipherable. Take a drink, get drunk, start a fight, or start a party? You're stuck on this station, might as well make the most of it, right?

( 0 0 4 ) » SPACEQUAKES

One second, you are is walking. Magnetic boots are on, the ground feels solid enough, for a metal deck in a space station. Everything is perfectly fine, or at least as fine as it can be, given that you still don't know where you are or how you came to be here.

The next moment, it's like everything explodes around you. You're thrown against the wall as sparks erupts from electrical panels, as the whole station rumbles and shakes around you. You fall to the deck, earning yourself scratches from the grating. When you look up, it's like nothing has happened. No wires hanging from open panels, no flickering lights, no more shaking. Like an earthquake in space.

( 0 0 5 ) » NETWORK

The comms device you found next to you when waking up connects to a station-wide network, REVERIE NET. You have the option to post video, voice or text messages.

What will you share?

( 0 0 6 ) » WILDCARD

The station features a variety of locations, from sleeping quarters free for the claiming to a dirty swimming pool and a bar that still holds alcohol (though some of the bottles seem to have been opened a while ago).

Go wild, but don't wreck the place. It's your home for the foreseeable future, after all.

Comments

[tailsections]

Honestly, you wouldn't be able to tell what's a new bruise and what's not. Not that I want to add more.

[ So, he'll push himself to wherever they're going. She's the friendliest face he's seen in an eternity and he knows he can't figure this place out for himself, not in any good way. He'll stumble through and make due but better to have someone around who doesn't mind trying to help.

It's just strange to be the recipient of that. He'd gotten used to people taking, taking, taking, that not having people grabbing for literal pieces of himself is a surreal feeling. ]

You won't have to drag me. I'm fine. I'll be fine.

[ He'd stay upright until his body literally gave out. ]

It's just shock. A lot's gone on in a short amount of time.

[cheerleader]

I'm Claire.

[She flips her hand up in a casual wave, before moving to slide off the bar. She's so used to bossing around her friend Zach that she doesn't really think twice about taking charge here. ]

It's nice to know I'm not trapped in space alone. I mean, there's adults here but it's not really the same as having someone your own age.

[Now that she's on her feet she starts to lead the way out of the bar and down the hall toward the elevator. Her room's up on the sixth deck so they've got some walking to do.]

Where are you from?

[cheerleader]

[She desperately wants to believe him, so she peeks up his way like he's some kind of hero or something. Adults can't always be trusted, and she's recently learned that the hard way. But she still nods her head anyway, because she has to believe that she'll get home eventually.

With her hand still on Max's head, she hurries on ahead so she can also hold onto his arm with her other hand. She's invincible, she doesn't need them to protect her. She does need them to make her feel safe though.]

Until then, can I stay near you and your dog?

[oorah]

[ ugh, it tugs at his chest in a way nothing else probably could. he thinks of leo lieberman then. he's a lot scarier than pete. but she had still trusted him, because her daddy had. karen said kamala and kat were right to trust him, so all he can really do is try to live up to that expectation. ]

Yeah, sweetheart. That's okay. [ he lets her hold onto him and max lets her too and soon they're all getting in the elevator to go up to the observation deck. he's just going to give her the run-down because that seems prudent right now, and it will keep him from thinking too much anyway. ]

There are crew quarters on deck three down. [ he points out to the hallway they were just in before the door shuts and hits the big #1 ] Any room you walk into that's unoccupied will sync to your thing- [ he taps his communicator indicatively ] and that room will become yours. There are fresh clothes in there and soap and whatever else. Laundry's at the end of each deck corridor. Deck four's got the gym, deck three the bar, deck two's the mess and deck one... well, that's where we're goin'. [ she'll see soon enough ]

[oorah]

[ max takes a few wary steps forward until he can sniff at garion's hand while frank just shrugs and pours garion some of his whiskey. ]

Sorry, bud, that's about as close as it gets out here.

[why_me]

[ He gives it a look before giving it a sniff and- all right. Well. Just... less of that, then. He gives it a sip before swallowing it down and flicking a smile at the barman. ]

I'm assuming our supplies are as strangely controlled as our surroundings?

[revvedup]

[ hearing the panic in the other girl's voice, max immediately steels herself and wills calm into her voice, hoping she'll respond to it. ]

Okay. I'm gonna help pull you through, but I'm gonna need your help. See if you can reach your other arm out and hold onto my arms when you see them, then try pushing forward against the ground when I pull. Got it?

[ she adjusts her position so she'll have more leverage when she starts to pull, gets as close to the opening as she can, and reaches forward with both arms as promised, wrapping her fingers firmly around the girl's arms when she feels them. ]

Ready?

[revvedup]

[ she doesn't, but the offer is noted even as she ignores it. even as she stands, she finds herself having to lean forward, bracing her hands on her knees until her stomach settles back into a state that's more manageable. she's scrolled through network since arriving; she knows that this is normal, but it's kind of worrying that she's not getting over it as quickly as she's used to.

(maybe the gravity's just hitting her particularly hard. she's never been great at handling vertigo.) ]

Three weeks? [ she straightens, slowly, and regards him with disbelief. he doesn't sound like he's kidding and she doesn't think he is, but it sounds insane. ] Wha - how is that possible?

[ has she been here that long, too and just not known it? the idea makes her stomach start turning again. ]

un: thunder

[sparke]

hello

[iustitia]

S33 TH4T TR4CKS TOO
TH3 CLOS3R YOU 4R3 TO TYR14N
TH3 MOR3 1MPORT4NT YOU SUPPOS3DLY 4R3
SO 4 LOT OF BLU3 BLOODS GOT 1T 1NTO TH31R P4N TH4T TH3Y'R3 HOT SH1T FOR NO R34SON

1S TH3R3 4 PURPL3 D14MOND OR 4NYTH1NG L1K3 TH4T >:?

[mirrortide]

for us gems its mostly that blue gems have the rarer more i guess valuable abilities but supposedly were good for diplomatic stuff too

no theres blue yellow and white and there used to be a pink diamond before she got shattered some how no clue how it happened though since diamonds shouldnt be able to be shattered to begin with

[iustitia]

1S TH4T "SHOULDN'T B3 4BL3 TO" 1N TH3 S3NS3 TH4T TH3 4CT 1S SOC13T4LLY UNTH1NK4BL3
OR 1N TH3 S3NS3 TH4T 1T 1S PHYS1C4LLY 1MPOSS1BL3

[mirrortide]

both

[cheerleader]

[He's definitely lacking tentacles. And he's old. But the look on his face makes her sympathetic, because she genuinely has a "why me" look on her face half the time. Life is really hard. For now though, she's smiling because she prefers talking like this over texting.]

Isn't it dangerous to live in an Asteroid Belt?

[It's not that she's skeptical, it's just that she has no idea how he actually managed to survive out there.]

[pampa]

Yep.

[ for a second, he's tempted to leave it at that, but then he pushes a hand back over his hair and prepares himself to have this conversation all over again. no wonder amos made that space rules post. this shit is tiring. ]

It's not so different from this place, I guess. Low grav, nothing but metal and dirt... A lot more crime though, which is why I was in the LE business. [ because make no mistake: on the belt being a cop is a transaction like anything else. protect and serve? yeah right. ]

[cheerleader]

[What in the hell is LE? Is she supposed to know that? There's some blank staring as she debates on whether or not she even wants to ask. She quickly decides that it's not important.]

So you've never seen real trees or the ocean or anything?

[pampa]

There's the air filtration center, in the Capital. I've seen trees there. So all the politicians can breathe deep. Definitely no oceans, lakes, streams, puddles. It never rains on Ceres, and the water-rationing has gotten all sorts of ridiculous.

[cheerleader]

[That...is a lot to take in all at once. She nods like she's processing it all, but becomes increasingly panicked looking the more h goes on. She's from a time before iphones, so the communicator on her arm is a lot.

But the thing that freaks her out the most right now is one very specific, ridiculous detail.]

I have to do my own laundry?

[Isn't there like a space mom or something who can do it for her?]

[cheerleader]

But there's water here, right?

[He's just said how much like his home this place is. WHAT IF THERE'S NO WATER]

[cheerleader]

[It's not like she really has much of a choice here, so she grits her teeth and nods.]

Yeah, go ahead. I'm ready.

[She's holding onto the arms that have been offered to her, and as soon as she feels pulling she starts to push forward as hard as she can. With their efforts combined, it really isn't hard to wedge her way out of the small opening. She ends up flat on her stomach on the floor, with a stranger holding her arms up in the air. She promptly tries tugging those back, so she can push herself up to stand.]

This is probably the weirdest thing that's ever happened to me.

[cheerleader]

[That questions earns a blank stare and a shake of her head. Blonde curls bounce, and she takes a second to smooth them down over her shoulder. It gives her just enough time to figure out how she wants to ask her nosy question.]

You don't do anything weird or special, do you? Like have special powers?

[revvedup]

[ it doesn't take much effort. the girl is tiny, and max lets go once she's ended up sprawled on the floor, offering her a hand if she needs it, but getting it if she doesn't want it. ]

Me, too. [ and that is not an easy task to accomplish, so good job, space station. ] Are you okay? Anything hurt?

[why_me]

[ How does he answer that, exactly. He scratches at one ear. ]

It would be fair to say that I can do things most people can't.

[pampa]

Yeah, but who knows for how long. We don't have access to the life support levels.

[cheerleader]

[A corner of her mouth turns upward. This is actually horrifying, but she's trying to cover up her fear by playing it cool.]

Then I guess it would be fair to say I can too. Which probably means we've been taken to be experimented on, I guess.