reveriance | TEST DRIVE #002

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Garion opens his mouth because he wants to ask what any of this is about, then looks at the man in the middle of his business, closes his mouth, and steps aside. Because he's curious, he is. He's curious about this man, and what he's doing, and what that strange rope on the floor is. So what he's going to do is watch and listen and possibly follow him around a little, though he will make an effort to stay at a goodly distance so he doesn't also get in the way again. ]

[ If the guy wants to look at him, fine. Amos is used to looks - because he's bigger than most, because he's an Earther in the middle of Belters, because he carries guns as big as his arms sometimes - so he completely ignores it, continuing to unspool the wire until he gets to the wall and the console.

The guy is standing close, still looking. Like he's never seen anything like it before. Amos is used to people not knowing about space on this station, but this guy is taking the cake. Is he a bit slow? ]

You alright there, buddy?

Well, I've been kidnapped from my home, I have no idea where I am, I have no idea where my sword is, and I have no idea what you're doing... but my digestion seems in order and no one's actively trying to kill me so it could be worse.

[ Not slow in the least. Just a little confused. ]

[ Amos twines some wires together with the precision of someone who is used to the job, eyes moving between his work and the guy in front of him. Able to string sentences coherent together, at least. Okay. ]

Wouldn't be too sure about the 'no one's actively trying to kill me' part. Your sword might reappear. My shotgun did.

[ Amos sticks the wires into the side of the panel, connecting the console to the other one. ]

I'm just connecting two consoles together. See if we can increase processing power if we do it that way.

I don't see anyone with swords or spears, no giant rocks are flying at my head, and my wife isn't looking at me pondering another spending spree, then.

[ ...which is better than it could be, though the mention of Ce'Nedra makes something pang in his chest. Where is his little queen? Is she well? Their children? Anyone? ]

And if whoever-it-is took me, then I seriously doubt it. There's a lot I can do with that sword.

[ Or more precisely, the stone on the pommel of it.

But he looks at the rope, and then the man, and then at one of these 'consoles'. It takes him a moment but- ]

Each one has this processing power and by connecting them, you allow them to work together towards a single task?

No, but this place is apparently swallowing people up. The structural integrity of the station seems to be compromised sometimes. Unsure how, or why. t's like there's a constant laser targeting it making the metal's molecules unstable.

[ Which is ridiculous, even to Amos. ]

Even more reason to hope you get it back, then. Not that I think a sword has much use here. Depends on what you can do with it, really? Swing it real nice?

[ Okay. Definitely not slow, then. Amos nods. ]

It's the idea. We have a non-native AI in the system and we're trying to give him more power to get access to the ops systems. He might be able to find a backdoor.

[ Swallowing people. That's... not something he's familiar with, but it's something he'll keep an eye out for. He doesn't cast out his senses quite yet, unsure of what might be out there and how loud it might be, but he'll keep it in mind if something is particularly 'loud' back. ]

It's less the sword itself and more the stone in the pommel. And when it comes to that stone, the real question is what can't it do.

[ He'd had to convince it once that really, it was a terrible idea to rearrange the stars to spell out someone's name. And it was very clearly not a very difficult task, as far as it was concerned.

Some people might wonder why he's being so open with that information or why he'd be unconcerned, why he wouldn't worry that other people might try and steal it or take it or use it.

Not so much a concern with the Orb of Aldur. ]

You keep saying 'power' though. What kind of 'power' do you mean? What is it made of? How does it work?

[ He'd like to help, if he can. ]

What, how can a stone do things?

[ Is it infected by the protomolecule? Amos has seen quite a bit of weird shit going on around Reverie since he arrived, but not a rock that can 'do' things. ]

Power - electricity? No? Are you one of those that don't know what that is, too?

Because it's the chosen instrument of the Necessity of the Universe.

[ Which is something he's never exactly consciously thought since this moment, never entirely put into words. It's something he knew, but all the same... ]

And no, I don't know what that means. At least not in that context. I know that there's a sort of buzz you can get from walking across a carpet and touching to metal, and my grandfather used a word like that to describe it to me... but-

[ He pauses as he puts some things together. ]

So you can build up large stores of that spark energy, perhaps as much as would be in a lightning bolt, and use it towards a purpose?

Well, that makes a whole lot of goddamn sense.

[ The necessity of the universe. Sounds like this guy has stories. Or a very, very active imagination. ]

Yeah. A lot more than a lightning bolt, actually, but yeah. That's the idea. Using it to power... basically everything.

[ He looks down at his hand for a moment and he only puts the tiniest bit of energy into the effort before he murmurs the word- ]

Spark.

[ And a small electrical spark flickered between his fingers for a moment before dissipating.

It wasn't difficult, really. And maybe if he got a feel for how it could be used by the boxes-]

Would you mind if I took a look at your... ropes and boxes for a moment?

[ Amos looks as the guy does... whatever he does, sweet talk his hand or something, until an electrical spark actually appears between his fingers, which makes Amos stop and stare for a moment.

Huh. ]

Huh. Yeah, I guess. Just don't pull anything. They're not ropes, they're wires. Cables.

I grew up in a kitchen. You can look all you want, but only a fool goes touching things without asking.

[ And he starts to walk up and down the ropes, looking at how they seem to be put together, how they go into the boxes. And he takes a little more time figuring out what the boxes actually are. Then, carefully, he puts his hand to one of the boxes and starts looking with his mind's eye, looking for the electricity, figuring out where it goes and what it does, following the sparks and the strange information, the way it... processes. Yes. All right. He's started getting it.

He even manages to follow it inside, like he's sending his shadow, down into the wire before really getting a handle on it. He looks back up at Amos. ]

So it's like a mind in there. Taking things in, putting them together. With this lightning spark acting like a signal code. And-

[ He steps over to look at the wires now. ]

These are more like small tunnels, through which the messages go but also more of the spark. Electricity. Letting the two minds talk to one another.

And like two people, they can come up with something that one alone could not.

[ He turns back to Amos. ]

Something like that?

TEST DRIVE #002

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