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

Oh wow. I thought I was terrible. [A genuine laugh, which was sometimes in short supply around these parts. He slowly approaches the sound of her voice, not overly steady on his feet either, but he ends up hovering next to her facing the adjacent window.]

What's the view like from here?

[She's just about to tell him to see for himself when she realizes that he's blind. Her teeth press against her lip, glad that she's managed to stop her mouth from running this time. He seems nice, and she doesn't want to be rude.

One of her hand presses against the glass and she uses it to push back, giving herself room to actually look all around.]

It's like nothing I've ever seen before. There's stars everywhere, brighter than I could ever see them in Texas. And here -

[She pauses to grab his hand and put it against the glass, situating it right over the planet in the distance.]

There's a planet that has the same colors as Earth from far away, but it doesn't look right. There's also two moons. You can just barely see them right now, but one of them is pink.

So you can see all that from here and you still want to go out? [He's just teasing of course.

Stars. Texas. Moons. Pink. He grasps on to the little details like sand drifting between his fingers. His hand instinctively recoils from the cold, cold surface before he plants it firmly back down over the glass pane.]

I've never been to Texas.

You're not missing much. Maybe other parts are decent, but Odessa is just desert and people that don't get me.

[Ah, the woes of a teenage girl. At least she realizes they sound really stupid right about now, so she just controls that inner angst and moves on. She eyes his hand at the glass, and wishes she could help him "see" the stars better. An idea starts to form in her head, but she doesn't do anything with it yet. Instead, she turns her head up toward him with a smile on her face.]

Where are you from?

New York. I don't know how I feel about wide open spaces. [He's clearly adapting so well to floating around somewhere in space. At least he can say somewhat reassuring things to her.]

Nobody really gets you. One day you'll just-... accept that and be happy with what you've got. [She sounds young, so. He's trying to be cheery, optimistic, upbeat about this otherwise bleak situation.]

In the meantime, I guess this is 'way cooler' than Odessa, huh?

Anything is way cooler than Odessa. It's a desert.

[She flatly retorts, taking a second to cross her arms over her chest. She's definitely young, which means his approach to handling her works. Instead of seeming like a lame adult, he's a cool adult. One that she thinks she can trust.]

I think I have an idea on how you can see what's out there. Wait here.

[She runs off (as best as she can in magboots and with gravity being weird here) and goes to tear off some of the leg of her jumpsuit. It takes some work to get off but she manages it eventually. When she first woke up here, she had broken off a piece of the metal grating that she had kicked in to escape. It's not big, but enough she can stab someone if she needs to. She takes the small slip of fabric and the metal fragment back over toward the glass, and starts stabbing holes so he can feel out where the stars are. She tries really hard to get it exactly right.

When she's finished, she stands up and lays it flat against the glass.]

Feel this. It's where all the stars are right where we're standing.

[One eyebrow crawls up as her boots go clunk-clunk-clunking away and it's not really clear what she's up to until she hangs the tapestry of heaven up in front of him and invites him to read the braille in the stars.

Surprise gives way to delight as his fingertips trail over the ripped holes in the fabric. Since he got here all he could hear was the roaring hum of the engine in the underbelly and all the disgruntled passengers in the ark trying to make sense of their new world. This is... something else.]

This is a better idea than going outside. [Just saying. He licks his bottom lip and turns his head towards her.] Thank you.

[She's smiling, the first genuine smile she's managed today. It's nice to feel like she's done the right thing. Her head is held a little higher, and finally she feels more at ease.]

It's not a -

[But to him, it probably is a big deal. She swallows those words and tries again.]

I can help you make maps of other things too. Have you found a room to sleep in yet?

[It's always easier to swallow a bitter pill when there are more pressing matters at hand.] Heh, well. I wasn't really sure how couchsurfing is supposed to work out here. Have you had a chance to walk around?

Not really. We could walk around together.

[And if she sounds a little too desperate to have him go, it's because he's the one person she knows and trusts and she's going to cling to that like there's no tomorrow.]

[Despite appearances he's not as helpless and vulnerable as he seems. He's happy to play along though since she's taken to not bullying or taking advantage of him, and being helpful seems to be putting her at ease.]

If that means walking into fewer walls, I'm not going to say no. [Another small laugh.] I'm Matthew, by the way. Or, as we say in New York, 'oi you'.

[That makes her laugh, and she takes hold of his hand just long enough to tug him in the right direction.]

I'm Claire. [There's a pause and then -]

Is it rude to ask how long you've been blind?

Not at all. [It's a better icebreaker than the way peoples' moods tend to change when their first impression of him is 'scumbag lawyer'.] It's been over twenty years, since the accident. [He flashes a big, warm, tight-lipped smile in her direction.] Shit happens.

Yeah, tell me about it. [She thinks of all the crazy shit that's happened to her in the past year. Thankfully, being recently kidnapped really puts it all in perspective.]

I haven't even been alive twenty years yet. I can't imagine being blind that long.

[There's a pause as they reach a cross in the path, and she grabs his elbow to guide him to take a right hand turn.]

Do you have a dog that helps you?

You get used to the dark. [Well. If nothing else that confirms his suspicions that she's as young as she sounds. He follows along where she leads, seeming to trust her completely even though they've only just met.]

No. I'm too stubborn for that. [That and he can't use 'I accidentally walked into an oncoming car' as an excuse the next time he shows up with three broken ribs and a bruised face.] Besides, you're helping me out plenty. Just don't tell me you don't know where we're going either and we'll be fine.

So I shouldn't tell you that we're lost and I have absolutely no idea where we're going?

[She barely manages to hold in a laugh.]

Okay, but don't be mad at me for lying to you.

[She spots something up ahead that looks like it might be an elevator, and she starts making a beeline straight for it. ]

TEST DRIVE #002

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