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

[This surprises her into looking him over properly. She's been so focused on the mysteries of the station that she's developed a bad happen of breezing past the humans around her, failing to take them in, ignoring their stories.]

Curtis. [Committing it to memory, tagging it with the other little details about him; that arm, the lines on his face.] Where were you before you were here?

A train.

[ He doesn't know anymore than that. The train was constantly in motion and the outside world was uninhabitable. There were no real markers to denote places you'd been and places you wanted to go. There was just.

The train.]

A really big fucking train.

[Trains in Jasnah's world are all supply trains, caravan trains, so that's what she pictures. A tired traveler in a wave of refugees.]

Well, it isn't a good life here, exactly, but there's food and water and doors to lock yourself in behind for privacy.

That would be a step up from the train, then.

[ Curtis doesn't remember the last time he had some privacy. A door that locks sounds like the absolute best thing in the world. A door that can seal off everyone from seeing him while he...tries to figure this out. Figure himself out. ]

There's probably a catch though, isn't there? Something someone wants?

[ There always was. ]

Someone wants something.

[She agrees, leading the way. It's just a short distance further to the mess.]

But we don't know what yet, except that there's no clear way out.

I don't have anything left to give anyone.

[ He'd given it all to the train. He'd given it all up to get to the front, to try and make life better for those in the tail. He's tapped out. He's done. ]

I gave it all up already.

You don't have more than a few steps left today.

[She promises, and glances over her shoulder at him, lets him know;]

You have to manage it, Curtis, because I'm not leaving you and I doubt I can carry you. [So she isn't above soft threats, while they go.] That means I'll drag you down every step and you'll end up black and blue.

[And yes, she knows he doesn't mean this last walk, she knows it goes deeper than this- but one foot in front of the other.]

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.

Good man.

[She says- and at last, anyways, they're here. The food replicators are on one side of the room, there are tables between here and there, so Jasnah instructs him;]

Sit.

[She's eaten, so she can go and fetch him a plate of the unappetizing stuff, and herself some water.]

[ He sits. It's one of the easier orders he's gotten over the last decade or so. Sitting. When's the last time he just sat? He can't even remember. ]

You don't have to do all this.

I'm not a person who does things out of social obligation.

[She says, understating the case only slightly.]

I wonder what your train must have been like, if this seems like a terrible inconvenience to you?

A nightmare only you're awake and you have no privacy.

[ going into too much detail wasn't going to happen when the whole thing was so fresh. seventeen years of his life spent there, seventeen years in darkness and dirt, stepped on by anyone and everyone. ]

People did something like this for you on the train, they wanted something in return.

[ and it was never good. ]

By the look of you, don't have a great deal I could ask for.

[She says, giving him a shrewd glance up and down. She's just got him sitting down; Jasnah wouldn't bet he'd be able to get back up any time soon.]

If you want the rational explanation, here it is; we're here together, each one of us against our will, and confined to a very small space. We need to behave well with one another. We need to handle tensions responsibly. That will mean fostering good will, health, and patience.

I'm not going to start trouble.

[ He's too tired for that, honestly. But, the fact that he's stuck in yet another small space makes something twist inside of his gut. It doesn't appear to be as bad as the train but it's another place where he's been imprisoned without any real choice on his part.]

Compared to where I was though, this isn't small. No one's sleeping on top of each other. This is a lot bigger than where I've come from.

So, I won't start trouble.

I didn't think you were. But I thought you might like to hear my pragmatic reason for helping you.

[Since he doesn't seem particularly at a place where he's likely to be able to accept altruism.]

The rest of us complain about the food. How does it compare to your train?

If you don't put a protein block in front of me, it's an upgrade.

[ Anything would be an upgrade over the food they were given by those in the front. All those blocks did was keep them alive, keep them intact so they could be used and abused by the front.

There was nothing else that was good about them. ]

You won't find me complaining.

[ He'd probably have to stop himself from eating until he was sick. ]

[Nothing like that. Jasnah smiles, and takes a moment to go find and slide him a tray of what they eat here. Tasteless, but not so tasteless. Definitely not block shaped.

She sips her own water.]

Then welcome to Reverie Terminal. Catch your breath, take a few days to heal. Then I'll fold you into the escape efforts.

[ Another escape. Another attempt to get out of a place that he couldn't avoid being sent to. He knows even less about this place than he does the train and he's so tired.

But, he'll help. It's what he can do. ]

All right.

[ He appreciates that he's not going to be immediately thrust into things. He doesn't think he'd be able to be much help without some food and rest.]

Got out of one place I wasn't supposed to. Guess I can do another.

[She nods, in that case, and goes quiet. He should eat, and begin to process. He'll never get through his own thinking if she keeps talking at him.

Jasnah sits back in her seat, crosses her feet at the ankle, and sips her water.]

TEST DRIVE #002

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