» 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

wildcard

[tumang]

[ A space station's a space station. Doesn't matter the size, or where it is. There are always a million repairs to do, minute changes to keep the support systems going, clearing up inside and outside the station.

This particular station is messed up, barely holding itself together in some places, and Amos wishes he had a lot more tools than he does to take care of some things. Especially with the amount of people walking around not knowing anything about space, spaceships, and the engineering that goes behind it. ]

Wouldn't touch that, if I were you.

[ His words are aimed at a redhead, her fingers against the wall, almost to a small panel, which Amos can recognize as an electrical one. He walks over, his own fingers more delicate with the panel than they are with anything else, pulling it open to show exposed wires, crackling with electricity. ]

I've been finding them all over the station.

[subplot]

[Karen stops mid exploration, trying to look like she isn't doing anything at all. She knows it's obvious she was fiddling around with something that probably was a bad idea, so she just sheepishly smiles and gives a tiny shrug of her shoulders.]

Why? Do you know what -

[She's just getting out the words when he opens the panel. Seeing the electricity crackling there makes her take a cautious step back. This whole waking up on a messed up space station thing is a lot more work than she originally thought it was going to be. It's dangerous here in a whole new way that she isn't used to handling.]

Do you think these are why the fabricators are malfunctioning?

[tumang]

[ An interesting connection that Amos has not thought to make. Or, really, has not bothered to try and make. He shrugs. ]

Possible. I haven't put this dump together and I don't know it like I know the Roci. Can't tell what is connected to what.

[ Yet. Depending on how long he's stuck here - which, hopefully, isn't too long, because he doesn't really want to leave his crew one man down - he'll find out.

Still, whether or not they're connected to the food, the exposed wires are a danger and he doesn't really want to have to deal with a bunch of electrified, pork-smelling bodies in the near future. So he fishes in his pocket, pulling out a sealing sleeve that looks and performs a lot like it does back home. He slips it over the exposed wires, and the electricity immediately makes it contract around the damage, effectively containing it. ]

Here. Found a basic tool kit yesterday, with those in. You didn't get shocked, did you?

[subplot]

[Well, look at who's resourceful. Karen smiles with mild fascination as she watches him produce something that helps with the electrical issues. His worry about her earns a shake of her head, and she passes off his concern as gently as possible.]

I might have if you didn't show up.

[It would've been a case of curiosity killed the cat. But since she's fine, and he's mentioned something of interest to her, she latches on to that instead of worrying about herself. His mention of the Roci is of interest to her as well, but since it seems like personal information she files it away with every intention of bringing it up later int eh conversation.]

We need to see if we can find more tool kits. The more people that have access to them, the faster we can get things in working order.

[tumang]

[ He shrugs it off - he doesn't worry about people he doesn't know. He just doesn't want to have to clean up after them. So, good timing, Amos.

In a way, everyone on this barge, at the moment, is part of his crew. He doesn't like the thought, but things will run better if people stay alive. As long as they don't try to fuck everything up, that is. If they do, Amos will dispose of them. ]

No point in giving tool kits to people who don't know what to do with it, though. [ Kinda like guns. ]

[subplot]

That's bullshit. You know that, right?

[Karen bluntly points out, fixing him with a dryly amused look.]

If there's things here that need to be fixed, it's for everyone's mutual benefit to have access to and learn how to use the tool kits properly.

[She's not going to force people who don't want to step up to help, but for people like her, the option should be available. There's no point in arguing for the sake of arguing, so she makes sure to keep civil even despite the differing opinions.]

How good are you at teaching?

[tumang]

[ He does. He taught Prax enough in a very limited window. And it's not that hard to use a wielding torch.

For the greater good, and getting people home. Fuck, a few months ago he wouldn't even have pretended to care. But he's been on the right side of the fence, now, and he kinda wants to stay there. So he nods, pushing the panel closed with a massive hand.

He takes out another one of the sealing patches he used on the wires from his pocket, holding it between two fingers. It's a 4 by 4 inch square of what looks pretty much like mesh, packed tightly together. ]

These work with electricity. It's what makes the material contract and seal anything almost instantly. Very useful for leaks - air leaks, that is. Don't use it on a water leak, and never go on a spacewalk without some.

[ He hands it over, dropping it in her palm. ]