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» TEST DRIVE #001

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Erik had been regarding the solar system with some level of detached regret. Regret over the fact that he never spent a lot of time studying astronomy, and instead focusing on more terrestrial concerns. Most of the time, this is not a problem. Most of the time, he is not trapped in a space station with a crowd of strangers.

He looks at the man a moment before responding. He already has more information on the topic than Erik does, so he decides to take advantage. ]

I take it there's no possibility that this world that the creators of this station apparently attempted to save is Earth. I wondering if we had traveled further in time than in space.

It shouldn't be possible.

[ Amos presses his fingers to the inner pane of the bay window, leaning closer and looking down at the planet below them. ]

But the way we ended up here, on this station, shouldn't be possible either.

[ Straightening up, Amos rolls his shoulders in his jumpsuit. ]

I need to take a look at the engine room. If this barge has an Epstein drive, we can't be that far from the solar system.

That's the problem when impossible things start adding up. It becomes difficult to determine where the new limits of possibilities can be found.

[ His interest is definitely piqued by mention of an engine room. ]

Have you been able to find an engine room? I looked, but couldn't find anything. If we are able to find it I might be of some use there, I have a degree in engineering. Perhaps I could assist you.

[ Of course, that degree predated Gargarin's space voyage by nearly ten years, so how much use he could actually be is doubtful. Other than what his powers can do, of course. Something he is keeping close to his vest for the time being. ]

[ Amos was well versed in impossible things. A man on the surface of Ganymede without a vac suit. An asteroid the size of a moon moving of its own accord. Extra-solar life. ]

I guess that's true.

[ Makes sense, in a world with a protomolecule, to revisit the boundaries of 'possible'. ]

I haven't, but there's got to be one. Even if it was mostly assembled in orbit, it must have some kind of engine, or drive, somewhere. Just for emergencies.

[ Some bigger stations, like Tycho, weren't made to move, ever. But a small one like this one? It should have a drive.

Amos throws the guy a look. ]

What kind of engineering?

[ Erik has no frame of reference for what kind of space vessels must or must not have engine cores. It's possible this man is simply delusional, and speaking of things that have only happened in his own fevered mind. But it's also possible that none of this is real, and that Erik himself h ad some kind of break with reality and is imagining all of this on his own. So until he finds a break in the delusion, or the man reveals himself as less than he appears, he decides to concede to the man's apparent expertise. ]

Chemical. Particular focus in metallurgy.I earned my degree from the Berlin Technical Institute in 1953. [ His expression grows rueful. ] At the time it was quite prestigious.

[ He was also undercover at the time, but that isn't relevant. ]

So. If there is an engine room, where do you suspect it would be? I imagine these things have some sort of predictable structure.

[ Amos has to raise an eyebrow at the date. This place really doesn't seem to care about clashes in time and universes, apparently. Which doesn't make much sense to Amos, but that's because he's not the scientist in his crew. He does as he's told, he doesn't do much of the thinking. His engineering knowledge is all practical. ]

1953. No wonder you've never been to space.

[ His tone is not interested, nor is it disinterested. It just is. Amos's not a history buff, but they all know that the real changes didn't happen until 250 years ago. ]

Lower decks. Further from the crew quarters. This place isn't built like a ship, but you usually find the drive at the bottom, and the bridge at the top. So... we go down.

[ Erik finds himself slightly miffed at the other man's tone. ]

There hasn't exactly been a wealth of opportunity.

[ He nods at the explanation. ]

To the lower decks, then. [ He heads in the direction of the stairs he had found earlier. ]

Not yet.

[ It'll come, but not for another few centuries.

Amos follows right along to the set of small stairs leading to the lower deck, wondering if this place has elevators, and if it does, if they work. ]

Just in case anything is fucked down there, don't touch anything when we reach the lower decks.

[ No need for more protomolecule bullshit, thank you very much. ]

You're optimistic.

[ As far as Erik can tell, the humans are far more concerned with destroying each other, and the mutants, than with actually advancing in any meaningful way.

He proceeds down the stairs and glances up at the warning.]

Define "anything". I can't exactly hover mid-air with the artificial gravity engaged.

[ Yes, he very much could. But he's not going to. ]

No, I'm not. I've lived it.

[ He lives in a world where staying on Earth is the last thing you want, after all. Living on basic is...

Yeah.

Eyeroll. ]

Any equipment. Anything with a switch, any button, anything that looks like it could change if you touch it. Anything.

[ Erik has talked to enough people on the station at this point to begin forming some theories about whether or not they're all from the same world, regardless of what point in time they've been pulled from. ]

To democratize space travel in the way that I believe you are describing would require a great deal more cooperation than-- [ He can't say "the humans" ] my people are capable of.

[ It's arguably true. Cooperating with the humans is out of the question. Cuba proved that.

He looks around when he gets to the next deck, the light on his jumpsuit the only illumination. He can sense the metal structure of the deck without seeing it, at least. Though even that has gaps that must be filled by non-metal materials. ]

So no light switches.

Hm.

[ Considering the state of things where Amos comes from, he isn't sure he believes that. Humans are able to band together very well when it's about finding a way to fuck up further than their current reach. He keeps on seeing it happen. ]

Well, what about we check if this station has some voice recognition system?

[ Looks up. ]

Reverie, lights!

[ He doesn't actually expect anything to happen. ]

Maybe you should flip a switch.

[ Erik drawls. But then there's a clicking sound, followed by lights flickering as the fluorescent lights spring back to life. ]

Do you think it was the voice command or just a motion sensor?

[ No time like the present. ]

Reverie, send us home.

Motion sensor.

[ There was no reaction to his voice, but when they moved, the lights came on. Shitty, watery fluorescent lights, the kind that wash you out, make you look grey, sickly.

Erik asks to go home, and Amos can't help his derisive chuckle when nothing happens. He spots the hatch to the lower levels, and crouches to the side panel, tapping through a few menus. Locked, locked, locked. ]

Well, opening this might take a while.

[ Erik shoots him a glare. ]

You wouldn't be laughing if it had worked.

[ Amos may know more about some technology, but Erik is fairly sure there is a great deal happening here that they are both equally ignorant about.

The hatch catches Erik's eye as well. While Amos is focused on the access panel, he focuses on the door itself. ]

The construction is interesting. [ He spreads his hands over the surface, feeling deep into the structure. There are aspects of it that are hidden to him. They must not be metal. ] The weakest point is generally the hinges. If we can break those, we should be able to get through.

[ Amos snorts again. He might, actually, still have laughed. He would never pretend to understand how this barge is put together - most of what he's seen is beyond the technology he knows. ]

The issue with just barging through is that we don't know if the other side is pressurized. If it's a vacuum, this hatch is the only thing keeping us alive right now.

[ Despite their shared ignorance, there are considerations about the nature of where they are that don't really occur to Erik. Case in point. ]

There has to be a way to figure that part out. A sensor or something. Have one of the robots check.

[ Erik could seal the hatch again if there was some sort of problem but he's still not ready to explain that. ]

One of the robots?

[ ...What? Is there drones around? ]

[ Erik's eyebrows raise slightly in surprise. He must not have stumbled across either. ]

Yes. You haven't encountered any? There's at least two. One likes to be called the Butler and apparently was some sort of domestic android and I'm not sure about the other one. I don't believe they're native to the station, though.

Can't say that I have.

[ Amos turns back to the hatch, checking its systems from the side panel. ]

How evolved are they? It could be a good thing, if they can connect to the systems of the station. Bypass stuff we can't.

I don't have much of a basis of comparison for artificial intelligence. They're far more evolved than anything I've ever encountered, but the field isn't terribly advanced in my time.

[ They're certainly smarter than Sentinels. ]

The one I spent the most time with couldn't open a stuck closet door, so I'm not sure if their tech is compatible. You'd have to ask them, though. They'd probably know better what their capabilities are.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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