» 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

network; un: tokumei

[neuralnet]

Hello, Diana. My name is Hideki Matsukawa.

[ It's not, but that's the name he's been giving people, as a way to try to catch out anyone who might be from Project Integration. He doesn't recall anyone named Diana Prince from their personnel files, but he can't be sure. ]

I can probably help teach you some of the technology here. A lot of it is unfamiliar to me, but I'm good at figuring out technology.

[ A bit of an understatement. ]

[monomachy]

[she takes a few seconds to figure out the text function, but once she does, she replies in kind.]

Hello, Hideki Matskawa! We can figure it out together, then. I've never seen anything like this station, or even the little device I'm typing on. I've never even typed before now! It's delightful. The words just disappear if I want them to, not at all like ink and paper.

[neuralnet]

[ Okay, that was. A lot. And somewhat unexpected. The way she uses Hideki's full name makes him feel uneasy. Guilt? Maybe? ]

You can just call me Hideki.
If I may ask, where are you from? And... what year?

[ Because that's apparently a question he needs to ask. ]

[monomachy]

[a lot of this is turning out to be unexpected. but what can you do when you're terribly curious about everything around you?]

I am from Themyscira. Last I remember, the year was 1918.
Where are you from? And what year?

[she's gleaned enough from other brief conversations that the latter is not the same for everyone]

[neuralnet]

I've never heard of Themyscira. Is that on Earth?
I am from Tokyo, Japan, Earth. The year was 2250. Over 300 years in your future.

[monomachy]

[diana takes a bit to answer. but whether it's because she doesn't know how to answer or she needs time to process what he's told her is up in the air.]

Yes. It is an island in the middle of an ocean.
Then you may be exactly the person I am looking for to help me! That is quite a long time. What is it like?

[this is a very open-ended question for a reason. she wonders how much of a difference she really made.]

[neuralnet]

[ He can understand her curiosity. He would be very intrigued to speak to someone 300 years in his own future. ]

It's very crowded. Or, at least Tokyo is, where I had been living.

Many advances have been made in medicine and technology. People are living longer, free from disease and able to recover from formerly devastating injuries with the help of cybernetic prostheses.

[monomachy]

[this is mind-boggling, and more than she could ever have hoped for. diana feels a warmth in her chest that improves her mood tenfold, despite everything that's happened in the past day or so. this is good news, without a doubt.]

That's amazing! I've always hoped humanity would achieve such things. But what are cybernetic prostheses?

[neuralnet]

A prosthesis is an implement used to replace a missing body part. A leg, or an eye, for example. Cybernetic means that the prostheses are computerised, sometimes allowing them to function beyond normal human functioning.

[monomachy]

I never could have imagined such things. How do they work? Do they work the same as a true part of the body?

[hope you're ready for a million questions]

[neuralnet]

For the most part, yes. They work the same or even better. Depending on the equipment, some need to be plugged in to charge with electricity, however.

[monomachy]

Extraordinary! Do you have one with you? Could I see it?

[neuralnet]

I do not.

[ Another lie, sort of. But Haruto's cybernetic implant is entirely internal, and also a Big Huge Secret. He doesn't know this Diana well enough to trust her just yet with that knowledge. ]

[monomachy]

[She does not seem at all put off by this.]

Someday, then.

[neuralnet]

[ "Someday?" Surely, she does not think she's going to live 300 years... ]

Bionic prostheses first came into use in the twenty first century, so you may not have to wait so long.

That is, assuming you make it back to Earth.