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

[foolishjourney]

I don't want to picture a shitberg...

[The most helpful comment of the day. Wow though Ryuji, personal space?? He tenses up noticeably and would've just went and ducked out of it if not for the fact it seemed the other teen had a specific sort of destination in mind, so he... endures it. It's not like people like Ryoji and Junpei didn't invade his personal space all the time despite his objections, anyways. Or... they did, that is.]

Alright, noted. What else do you know that I don't?

[ryuji]

[A little thrown back by the obvious distaste for getting all up in his business, he stops when they're out of range of the hallway that's pretty much designed to kill them. He'll try to make a mental note of it, but like with anything, there's a good chance he'll slip up in the future.]

Uh...

[Yeah, man, where does he even begin to talk about things?]

Rooms you walk into and get trapped inside a metal block... hearing weird ghost sounds... when you do anything to the station you fall asleep.

[Shit, he doesn't want to scare the newcomer. There was also the issue of a wire being stuck in his cheek, a bandaid still over the section where Ren had to cut it out of him.]

You just kinda get used to the patterns and adjust. Unless you're a weirdo and wanna get into that crap.

[foolishjourney]

Great.

[You can tell how incredibly excited by all of this he is, from the deadpan expression on his face. So pumped.]

So it's a horror movie on top of a sci-fi movie.

[Not exactly his first idea for his afterlife, really.]

[ryuji]

Kinda like that movie Aliens with the dudes that pop outta your chest after they've laid eggs in you. Except there... aren't any aliens we know about so. At least there's that?

[Ryuji, you're not helping?]

But really, it's... I mean, it ain't that bad. I know it sounds like it is, but in between the crazy shit that goes on in here, it's almost kinda peaceful. You can go off and do your own thing, watch the stars, talk to people and learn shit about the world they came from.

[Oh- but,]

Whatever you do, don't order the ramen in the mess hall. It tastes like dinosaur piss.

[foolishjourney]

That wouldn't be my first choice of movie to relate to our situation, but I guess I'm just not bursting with enough enthusiasm about it.

[Did he just... make a joke. Yes he sure did, but he says it so casually it might warrant a double take on whether or not it was intentional.]

I guess... that isn't too bad sounding? But is all the food terrible, or just the ramen...?

[This is the most important thing you've told him yet, Ryuji.]

[ryuji]

[Ryuji stares at Minato, for a second, horrified not by the implication of the pun and the weight it holds behind it, but because it was made with to begin with. Jesus, dude.]

...Forreal?

[That was bad.

He'll welcome the topical change easily and without protestation.]

No.

No, it's all absolutely effin' terrible. No matter what you do. A month of literally every food I could think of, and it all kinda just... tastes the same.

[foolishjourney]

[He makes a peace sign at Ryuji as he protests his pun life choices, completely straight faced as he does so. Except that changes quickly enough to one of quiet horror instead, because oh no. He cannot live in these conditions.]

This is by far the worst thing anyone has ever told me in my life, ever.

[ryuji]

[Huh?

Did the temperature just seem to drop a few degrees around here? Ryuji's EVER VIGILANT DEFENSE ticks in, and he looks around to make sure no more bullshit space ghost shenans were going down.

Nope, not that.

That could only mean?

He looks at Minato as he starts talking, eyes going wide and he feels a pang of apology well up in his chest.]

S-sorry, dude! I thought that if you kinda knew before hand, then... maybe it wouldn't be so goddamn horrible when you had to come to it on your own.

[foolishjourney]

It's not your fault. I agree, it's better to be let down early than to be let down in the moment.

[Deep sigh...]

Is there no one better at cooking here?

[ryuji]

[He raises an eyebrow. Oh... no... Minato. He should've started from the beginning.]

It ain't exactly like there's someone behind the soup line makin' all this shit. It's kinda like...

[How the hell do you describe a fabricator???]

Like a vending machine that you put a command in, and then open the door, and what you requested is just kinda there. But it doesn't have any flavor to it. And it tastes like it's been microwaved. And..

And it sucks.