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

[oorah]

[ okay, now that that's out of the way- ]

I don't know if you'll get my meaning here, but most of us are from different worlds, or maybe even different versions of the same one. It's fucked.

[why_me]

[ There's about three seconds where he takes that in, but then-]

Oh. Well, then. I suppose nothing I said made much sense to you. Hm.

[ He's never been to other worlds, but he knows about them. Knows they exist and that they're different from his own world, which really was just made, it sounds like, to fix things in the Universe.

He just knows nothing about them, is all.]

[oorah]

Not so much, but it can just keep all the other impossible shit company.

[ acceptance through denial, it's the american way. ]

You seem to be taking this well.

[why_me]

I knew other worlds existed, I just never thought I'd get to meet people from them.

[ He looks down at his drink thoughtfully before putting it down.]

And I suppose I just realize that there's not much I can do for the moment, so there's not much reason to get upset about it.

[ He spreads his hands a little. ]

Now, if I find the person who took me from my home, away from my family, and they don't have a very good reason for it, then I will be upset.

[oorah]

[ he nods, that's the boat frank has been in. clearly he can start fitting garion for a tinfoil hat now. ]

Until then, I guess we drink. [ he taps his glass against garion's companionably and drains the last dregs from his. ]

[why_me]

[ He picks up his glass, considers it for a moment, then takes a long sip with a nod.]

And look for the way to get back, I should think.

[oorah]

Yeah, sure. [ he doesn't mean to sound dismissive, he's just starting to seriously doubt there's a way home until their captors decide this little game is over. but that doesn't mean frank is going to give up, and he's been pleasantly surprised by everyone here and their willingness to work together. ] That's been slow going, but everyone's working on it.

[why_me]

well, whatever's going on here is clearly pretty elaborate.

[ He puts down the drink since they're talking now.]

And in my experience, kidnappers seldom make themselves easy to catch. Or easy to free oneself from.

[oorah]

[ elaborate is one word for it. ]

Yeah. That's my experience, too. [ it helped that most times he'd been captured had been on purpose. but he does have more experience with escaping than your average bear anyway. sounds like garion's the same. ] Until we get our shot, just gotta keep everyone alive, huh.

[ easier said than done. ]

[why_me]

Has that been a problem so far?

[ He's hoping not but he's not opposed to doing something about it.]

[oorah]

They haven't made it easy, I'll just say that. [ frank runs a hand over his hair and shakes his head. ] And like a new friend of mine says: It's easy to die in space.

[why_me]

Are you just talking about what I can see right now or have there been other problems?

[ He's still trying to wrap his brain around the whole thing.]

[oorah]

Depends. Would you count wires squirming under people's skin, doors trying to swallow people, screaming in the walls, phantom stuff grabbing people and making them pass out and the food making people see shit - as problems?

[why_me]

[ ...huh.

He doesn't look pleased about all of that, but he's less rattled than some might be. Strangely enough, it makes him think of Maragor. ]

I think that's a decent sized problem.

Have we figured out why yet?

[oorah]

[ he blows out a breath through his nose. ] Nope. The answers are bound to be in the part of the station we can't access yet though.

[why_me]

And I'm assuming everyone here's been trying to access them, hmm?

[oorah]

Yep. [ he lifts his eyebrows and shakes his head. ] Any other questions I can try to answer about this fucked up place?

[why_me]

Has anyone figured out something we might be here to do?

[ Excuse him. He's had his life jerked around from time to time, but there's always been a reason. ]

The recording mentioned something about trying to save people.

[oorah]

Not yet, if that's the point. [ sorry buddy. ] But I'm sure we'll find out soon enough.

[why_me]

Unless what we're here to do is save the rest of the universe from what the people here were trying.

Good intentions doesn't guarantee good results.