» TEST DRIVE #001

[reveriemod]

TEST DRIVE #001

( 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 3 . 1 ) » VIRTUAL

But the alcohol isn't even the most interesting part of your discovery (depending on who you are, of course). No, what catches your interest is a second, smaller room off from the main bar room, which looks to be some kind of arcade. There are a few VR sets lined up against one of the walls, and surely, they can't be working, right? Nothing is on this rust bucket. And yet, if you put it on, the display comes to life.

It's a pretty simple HUD, and when you move around in reality, you move around in the virtual world you've just entered. It's a luxurious world, full of brightly, saturated colors, making it just a little obvious that it isn't real. Ahead, there is a jungle, a temple, and a city. You can play around, slay some monsters, have some fun, but you can feel yourself growing hot, like the VR helmet is burning your forehead.

And when you try to take it off, you find that you can't. The HUD glitches, the sound cuts off to a blaring alarm, and an error message appears, in glowing, blinking red letters: FINISH THE MISSION. Will you, despite not knowing what the mission even is, or will you fight to get the helmet off?

( 0 0 4 ) » MALFUNCTIONS

(cw: body horror, bodily functions, gore, blood, death)

The fabricators function well enough, until they don't. One day, one moment, everything's all right — the food doesn't generally taste amazing and sometimes downright awful, but it's nourishing and filling no matter what your dietary needs — and the next, things go a little haywire.

In short, the fabricators are malfunctioning.

Oh, they're still producing food that looks and tastes much the same as before, but now there are some unexpected side effects.

NB: Characters may experience any of the following side effects: nausea ranging from slight to debilitating, the sensation of being happily and affectionately — but not overwhelmingly — drunk, bone-deep exhaustion and weariness that makes it hard to move, or repeated hallucinations of loved ones screaming for help, reaching out to characters and leading them down abandoned corridors or being killed by unseen forces.

The extent to which characters are affected is up to players, as is whether you'd prefer to play this more lightheartedly or tackling more serious themes. If the latter, please provide warnings in subject lines where necessary.

( 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 5 . 1 ) » NETWORK USERNAME

When you first turn on your communication device, it requests for you to pick a username to identify you on the network. It can be anything you want. However, as you try to input a username in your wristband to access the network, you get the following message, along with a small, but irritating, warming sound:

this username is already in use.

What does this mean? Is there other people around? Were there other people around?

( 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

[mapsio]

[Except not really. As if Haru would let him just walk away like this. Not without things being said. Not without closure being provided to her. The space station was small enough that they were bound to run into one another again. That was what made this hard. Every single time she will lay her eyes on Akechi Goro she will feel anger boil beneath her skin.

When he tries to take his leave? She is quick to cut him off.]

You. You don't get to walk away from this that easily, Akechi-san. Do you think going on like you don't exist is going to help? Absolutely not. Every time I see you, I'm going to be reminded.

You're dead. So I am forced to live with the consequences of your poor judgement.

[Her Father is dead, and Akechi Goro thinks he can just walk away like that is going to solve every thing. It's pathetic to her.]

[uragiru]

[ Akechi freezes as soon as she starts speaking, maybe a little surprised that she doesn't just leave him to slip away, somewhere she doesn't have to deal with him. and unlike the others, she certainly does get right to the heart of the matter — his death left them with the consequences, did it? he hadn't thought of it, but it's true. being alive now is so exhausting specifically because consequences he would have escaped by dying are piling up: the Thieves and how he affected them, the information about himself that he revealed to them at the end, the fact that his entire existence was devoted to destroying Shido and with that done, he's left with nothing at all.

he's quiet for a moment. when he looks at her this time, there's no smile. his expression is a little too cool-tempered to be honest, but it's closer than before. ]

My poor judgement... Yes, I suppose that's accurate. [ he says it so calmly, the way he used to make deductions when he was working with the Thieves. one finger goes to his chin, mock-thoughtful. ] What I did was stupid, Okumura — ah, no. I was stupid, to be used as I was by Shido.

[ he hates to admit it, but it's true, and he won't pretend that much isn't. he was an idiot. Shido was right: a stupid, useless, desperate child who never had the upper hand at all. every last thing he did for that man was utterly pointless, including the murder of Haru's father. everything he'd justified in the name of revenge, everything that he'd been able to swallow for the sake of that, knowing it would never come back up because he couldn't imagine himself existing beyond the point of Shido's destruction — none of it was worth anything.

he knows that. and yet still— ]

And? [ he spreads his hands sarcastically. ] What do you want to hear from me? Is it going to make anything better if I prostrate myself and beg for your forgiveness?

[ what is the point of this, he wants to ask. this is why it was better for him to simply be dead. ]

[mapsio]

[Her responses are entirely driven by emotion. How should Haru know what she really wanted out of this? Of course she wants closure, but will Akechi be able to provide that for her? She is certain that the answer is no. She is so certain that Akechi is going to be as selfish as he always is.

He was selfish until his very last breath. Dying only served to make things more complicated. Dying only caused them grief. Did they want to see Akechi die? No, of course not. Even Haru who had been directly affected by his actions didn't think that he should have died?

The worst and most confusing part is when he died for them.]

How should I know what I want from you. I could ask you to apologize, but that doesn't and won't change how I feel. I could ask you for closure, but you wouldn't give it.

You died when you should have been made to face the consequences of your actions, Akechi-san.Frankly, I believe that is what makes me more angry than anything.

[Akechi could take this rather personally if he wanted to. These are all of the things that Haru didn't get to say to him before his untimely demise.]

[uragiru]

[ she really does understand the situation best of any of the Thieves. not his situation, not the motivation or the mindset it took for him to do the things he did, not the fact that he had intended from the very beginning to set himself ablaze in order to burn Shido down; not the voice of God that gave him the flint he needed to do it at all. but this situation, here and now — what they've all been left with in the aftermath of Akechi's reappearance.

he almost laughs. the corner of his mouth upturns, just a little. ]

That would have been the ideal outcome, wouldn't it? If you could have lived in a just world, where I would atone for my actions.

[ in her eyes, he imagines that a perfect world would have been one where they hauled him out of Shido's Palace after that fight with him, and bundled him off to prison along with Shido once it was all done. and by that point, he's not sure that he would have cared. as long as Shido was brought down, what else did he have to live for? if they wanted to put him behind bars and pretend that mattered somehow, what point would there have been in putting up a fight?

well. these things are difficult to visualise. he's only been alive again since he woke up on this station, and he hasn't even had time to settle into that mentality yet, to have it sink in that he has to live today and tomorrow and the day after that for no reason at all. ]

Unfortunately, that isn't how it went, and nothing you or I do will change that. You and your friends — you should know better than anyone that the world isn't just.

[mapsio]

No, the world may not be just... but you didn't even have to face the real world in the aftermath. Though, you didn't care to think of what you might have been causing when you decided to face your demons alone. That is where you went wrong.

[But how can Haru expect a teenage boy who had been faced with rejection and mistrust all of his life to know how to reach out and not face things alone. She couldn't, and it hurts her to think that.

If only Akechi knew how torn up each and every one of them was over his death. The fact that they had to look at his death as a chance to move on. That they carried out Akechi's will in the end and put an end to Shido's wrong-doings.

So they have established that dwelling isn't going to get them anywhere. Haru thinks the fact that he is alive and breathing here will be enough closure for her. If she and the rest of the Phantom Thieves are here... he will have to live with seeing them today, tomorrow, the next day, next week. He couldn't just avoid them in a space so confined.]

How will you handle yourself here, Akechi-san? Knowing that we are here, knowing that you could run into us. Knowing that no matter what you do, you will be faced with us.

[And Akechi has to know, rather he should know that Ren won't leave him alone. The chance that Ren will involve himself in Akechi's life is high, and will Akechi do anything to stop that?]

[uragiru]

[ he jerks a step back, away from her, and his calm expression twists with that same disgust he'd tried to cling to when they fought him last — when he'd been trying to convince himself that he was sickened by their friendship, their openness to the point of vulnerability, their ability to rely on each other without being terrified every damn second of abandonment or betrayal. sickened, and not jealous. ]

That isn't— [ —he snaps, and then grits his teeth. he has very little control in this situation, and he needs to hold onto it; they saw him in that pitiful state at the end, but he can still maintain a veneer. low, vicious, he starts again: ] Where I went wrong is assuming I ever had the upper hand with Shido. I won't deny that. But deciding to face my demons alone?

[ he laughs, a short, sharp sound that's more of a scoff. ]

I was already alone. Don't pretend any of you had an interest in changing that.

[ aside from one of them in particular, maybe. he knows what he said to Ren. if they had met a few years earlier — but they didn't. they didn't, and it was already far too late for Akechi by the time he finally did meet Ren Amamiya. maybe Ren made some effort to reach him, but what did any of the others care, even before he betrayed them? they hated him, every one of them, from the moment he met them. does she think he would have just told them all the details of his sob story and hoped that they opened their arms to him? please.

he's been alone since the day his mother killed herself. it's sheer naivete to think even if they had wanted him (and what a concept, ha) that a few months would change that. ]

I appreciate the concern, Okumura, [ he's hilarious ] but I'll be just fine.

hi i just want to let you know this thread is tearing me to pieces and i love it

[mapsio]

What did you say to Joker? That you two could have been friends if you had met under different circumstances? I would like to think that the same could have been said for all of us, had your choices been different.

But I know that isn't reality, believe me. I know that. You were alone, and I don't believe you wanted any of us to change that for you.

[She's angry, she's fuming. Even with her father dead, she wanted Akechi Goro to realize that he could have put aside his own stupid pride to rely on them. They extended that to him and yet it still turned out the way it did.

She can also say that she honestly doesn't appreciate him making assumptions of herself and her friends. What does Akechi Goro know about them? Nothing, because he didn't even hardly make the effort.]

You frustrate me, you make me angry, and here I am troubled by the fact that you are standing in front of me right now. I can't say I understand you because I don't, and you wouldn't dare to let anyone make the effort anyways.

SAME haru i'm so sorry abt this melodramatic bastard

[uragiru]

[ he isn't going to explain himself to her; there's no reason he should have to and no reason to even think she would want to hear it. that of course he didn't want to let any of them change things for him, because he learned a long time ago that something like that would always disappear under his feet just as soon as he'd found his footing. that one day a family would treat him kindly, and the next day he'd be told to pack his things without warning. that of course he'd rather be alone than be tossed aside again. the fact is, he's not sure meeting Ren even three years earlier would have been enough to save Goro Akechi.

without explaining himself, though, he isn't entirely sure what to say to her. he scowls, apparently done with those fake smiles for the moment. ]

What I said to Joker at that time — that was the sentimental nonsense of a dead man. [ even before he brought that door down, he felt certain his time was up; there was no way Shido would let him live. he wasn't supposed to have to live with those words, so everyone should really stop bringing it up, please. ]

You're right, though. I have no interest in being understood by the likes of you and your friends, and I can't imagine that it would change things between us anyway.

[ if he couldn't let them reach him before, how could he possibly do so now, when there's too much resentment there for him to trust their intentions. everyone he's ever known has turned on a dime and left him: his mother, the families that fostered him, the children he grew up around, those fans of the detective he pretended to be. none of them had any cause to hate him before they changed their minds, so how could he expect anything from the Thieves? ]

So where does that leave us?

she is prob two seconds away from just decking him so

[mapsio]

[Her blood boils even still. What in the world was she supposed to say to this selfish bastard? Their relationship would probably never improve, the two of them would never come to an understanding... and it disheartens her a little.

Haru truly can't help how she is by nature. Kind and understanding, too understanding for her own good. She thinks Akechi Goro to be possibly the first person she dislikes more than her ex-fiance.]

Where do you think it leaves us?

[She sighs, frustration visible.]

As long as your are civil, I will be civil in return. Please, for everyone's sake including your own... don't do anything reckless here. It would be unwise of you.

everyone gets to deck him at least once

[uragiru]

[ that strikes him as funny, for some reason. all of it. the thought that they're going to be playing at civility for the rest of their indeterminate time here. someone telling him not to be reckless, him of all people. it would be unwise. he laughs — and it's genuine at first, if a little awful, that higher-pitched sound that grates like shards of glass, like so many small and sharp and broken things. but one of his fake smiles follows that real laughter. just to annoy Haru, perhaps, or because it's the expression he defaults to in any given situation. ]

Now, now. Have you ever known me to be reckless?

[ yes, though. there's a reason that he died. he went after the lot of them on his own as soon as he realised they were sticking their noses into Shido's Palace; brought that door down without even considering the options. recklessness is definitely what killed him, after all of his meticulous planning, and he's aware of that.

it's worse now. maybe he doesn't think of it as "worse" but when he chased after them alone, he still had a reason to live. Shido hadn't been dealt with yet, not just alive but so close to the edge that Akechi wanted to shove him off, and so Akechi had every reason to want to make it out of that fight alive. he has nothing now. even if he weren't dead back in their world, he'd have nothing to go back to, because Shido is done for. the only thing he intended to do with his life is finished. so — even if it's not like he's going to deliberately throw himself into harm's way, what does it matter if he's a little reckless? what harm does it really do? ]

Really, there's no need to waste your concern on a dead man, you know.

everyone gets a turn!!!!

[mapsio]

[She doesn't think what she said was funny, and Akechi's laughter does as it is intended. It makes her angry. It pisses her off. She is willing to do what it takes to stay civil here and to not be at each other's throats! How is that something to laugh at?

She thinks about what it would be like to deck Akechi Goro in the face after all of this.]

You and I have different views of reckless, clearly.

[They also have very different reasons to live and to exist. Haru's father may be dead but she has her friends and her company to look after. Akechi has nothing. If anything that makes her sad for him. It makes her want to pity him. Not that she's ever going to tell him that.]

You know, Akechi-san. I never wanted you dead. But you would think that "caring too much", wouldn't you?