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

[bestials]

There are others here-- I don't know if any of them are mutants, but... [ The obvious implication being that their x-gene had been the reason they've both been kidnapped.

The next thing Charles says is more worrying, however. ]

Feel what just when? Charles, you're not making any sense.

[mentis]

I'm not quite sure either.

( They could be, of course they could be. It would make sense. But he's long since been able to sense a fellow mutant and now he's blind. Bitterness is an old friend by now, and it rises in him once more. They should have stayed home. They should never have listened to Logan. It's all gone to complete shit since then.

Hank continues talking and Charles does a physical doubletake, looking at Hank like he's gone insane. )

The floor? The walls? They were shaking. It was like an - an earthquake. You'd had to have felt it, it was rattling the whole bloody corridor.

( Christ, maybe he's the one going mad. )

[bestials]

[ Hank refrains from pointing out that it couldn't possibly have been an earthquake, they're in space, because sass would help no one just now. Instead he crouches down and reaches out an arm to help Charles to his feet. ]

Can you walk?

[ He doesn't tell Charles that he witnessed no such thing. It's obvious his friend is in a weak mental state, and he knows from experience it's best to just be patient with him when he's like this. ]

[mentis]

Yes.

( The "for now" goes unsaid. But he lets Hank help him to his feet, lets himself feel steadier. )

There's something not quite right about this place. And I don't just mean because we shouldn't be here. It feels wrong. ( He doesn't argue about the shaking. He felt it, he knows he did. But arguing will only make it seem worse. )

Did you hear the message when you woke up? The one that kept repeating itself?

[bestials]

[ Hank keeps an arm around Charles until he's sure he can remain steady on his own two feet, then he withdraws to just hover nearby. ]

"We tried to save the world." Pretty ominous, if you ask me.

[mentis]

I thought the same thing. And what does it have to do with us? If something were to happen, why bring us here and then for all intents and purposes, just vanish? Because the only people I've spoken to claim the same thing has happened to them. There's no one here.

( He doesn't actually know where to go. He'd like to head back to the bar and work on getting absolutely off his face, but Hank's here now. Observation deck it is. )

Have you seen Logan since you woke?

[bestials]

Someone's here. Someone changed us out of our clothes.

[ Which, speaking of, he would really like to get back. He follows Charles to the observation deck, because obviously he does. ]

No, but if we're here, he ought to be too. We were all together.

[mentis]

Yes, I've been trying not to think about that.

( It's not the first time someone's had to help his unconscious body out of his clothes. It's just usually he knows the poor sucker, which is why he gives Hank a wry little look. They don't talk about it anyway. )

We woke up separately though. He could be anywhere. I don't know how big this place is, and it's definitely harder to keep track of the corridors then it should be.

( They're all the same. Metal. Erik would have a field day. Charles has to suppress a shudder there. They step out into the Observation Deck, the expanse of space stretched out before them. He swears, stepping closer to the window, peering out as if he can't believe his eyes. )

Hank, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think we're even in the same solar system right now.

[bestials]

We'll just... have to keep looking for him.

[ He can't have gotten far. As big as this place may be, it's still a finite space. And Hank is pretty sure Logan will find them eventually.

Whatever he was about to say next gets eaten up by the astounding view in front of them. Hank has never seen so many stars, or a planet that looks quite like that one. ]

No, Charles. I don't think we are...

[ His amazed bewilderment lasts only a moment longer, though, before his mind clicks back into problem solving mode. ]

Whoever -- or whatever-- brought us here, had to be incredibly technologically advanced. We can't have been out long, or...

[ Or the serum would be out of their system. Which reminds him that they are now very far away from home, and Hank's supply of the serum. ]

I need to find a lab.

[mentis]

( He's too busy focusing on the scene in front of him to fully understand the predicament they're in. If he did, he wouldn't be wasting his time being awed. In fact he'd probably just throw himself straight out of an airlock. )

Hm?

( And then turning back, a furrow between his brows. )

Oh, a lab. Well, we best get looking.

( It's a station, so hopefully. ) For once, Hank, I'm hoping your television show is right.

[bestials]

My-- Hm? [ It takes Hank a second to realize which television show Charles is referring to. ]

I don't think this is the USS Enterprise. It's a lot more... lived in, than it looks on television. [ It's dirty. Like no one has been cleaning in years. Also, Star Trek is fictional. Duh.

He turns to head back to the elevator, hesitating to wait to make sure Charles is following. ]

[mentis]

( He's following, he's just taking his time. There's gravity, so it's not all that difficult, but he still feels a little off. )

Lived in? I'd say the opposite. The dust makes it seem almost abandoned.

( But they're not the only ones on the station, and there was the recording. )

Surely something like this must be manned?

( The corridors are empty though. )