» 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

wanda maximoff | mcu

[catastrophics]

( 002 ) » OBSERVATION DECK

[ wanda, admittedly, isn't all that familiar with astronomy, but what's outside the massive windows doesn't look like it belongs to earth's solar system. something seems off, like there's too many of some things and not enough of others. different constellations, different arrangements of planets. the colors seem off, too, but again, she's only passingly familiar with the finer details of her own solar system.

it feels wrong, but less wrong than being in this place. she keeps thinking of the message that played when they first awakened.

we tried to save the world. i think - i think we did the opposite.

saving the world is part of her line of work. the idea that something could go very, very wrong isn't necessarily out of the question. but it bothers her that she can't remember. how she got here, what happened to lead her here. and no one else seems to, either.

she's not going to find answers staring out the window. she knows this. and yet she seems reluctant to pull herself away. ]

( 004 ) » MALFUNCTIONS ( cw: blood, death )

[ one of wanda's specialties before joining up with the avengers was to induce hallucinations. since becoming a part of that team, they've had her focus more on her telekinetic and psionic abilities than her mental abilities, and she doesn't typically resent them for that. (much.) they've been on the receiving end of what she can do, and what she can do can be very, very scary. but there are times like this, when thoughts and emotions slip past the barriers she's learned to construct, and she's angry that she hasn't had the chance to flex those muscles more often.

the nausea on its own would be bad enough, but livable. combine it with the sudden flashes of memory and visions some of the others seem to be suffering from and it's near unbearable. wanda's situated herself in the corner of the mess, legs curled to her chest as she tries to get her legs to work long enough to get her the hell out of there.

a flash of something enters her mind - blood, the back of a woman or man, a voice calling for help in the distance. she cries out and brings her hands to cover her eyes, squeezing them shut and bowing her head forward.

get out. she needs to get out. she needs to move. ]

( 005 ) » NETWORK ( un: scarlets )

what have people been able to find from who was here before? logs, possessions, anything. especially anything that could tell us why they left and if it was in a hurry.

[ she's had to get out of a few places very fast before, for a variety of reasons. what people leave behind can be very telling. ]

( winks ) un: ripley

[retund]

[ she doesn't know who took the name e.ripley, but she's lowkey annoyed about it. just fyi. ]

This is Lieutenant Ellen Ripley of the USCSS Nostromo and the USS Sulaco.
There's a hell of a lot of booze and shoddy replicators, enough to feed the average crew. Upper decks are crew quarters. Most rooms are singles so far, but some are doubles and larger, so I doubt this was a colonising vessel. Several areas are locked, which suggests a failsafe procedure occurred, keeping something inside or outside of them. Lifts seem to be functional, but I'd recommend using fire doors to be safe. I'm still working my way through the decks, but my current location is deck 4.

[ could be labs, with classified findings, or, y'know, creatures from the depths of space. ]

I would've said there was a problem with the inner atmosphere or a fire, but there's no smoke to support that theory, so to speak.

[ given that several people are breathing fine and wandering around, including herself, along with the lack of physical damage to the station. however, there are absences that seem far more striking: no cryopods and casings that seem like they ought to hold...something. ]

runs across the beach into your arms!

[catastrophics]

[ about as annoyed as she is with whoever took wmaximoff, she'd wager. ]

that's very comprehensive. thank you.

[ she had wondered if there was some sort of radiation leak. but ripley isn't the first that she's spoken to who's claimed to have had extensive experience with living in space, and neither have seemed concerned about that. ]

deck 4, you said? do you mind if i join you?

[retund]

You're welcome.

[ So far, people seem unfamiliar with space travel, something far more alien to her than any abandoned ship. She feels like she ought to be more vocal than is her typical preference, just as she had to be while aboard the Sulaco. ]

Not at all. I'll wait by the fire door.

[catastrophics]

[ it seems as if everyone's had to step outside their comfort zone. wanda barely remembers what hers is anymore. ]

i'll be there as soon as i can. [ she thinks she's more or less learned where things are by now, but things are still unfamiliar enough that it still might take her a while. ]

( 002 ) » OBSERVATION DECK

[solarcharged]

[ Apollo had watched the young woman come in from his spot in the corner of the observation deck. 'His corner' changes as the station drifts in its orbit, but it's always the sunniest one. Wherever there's a patch of soft golden sunlight, Apollo is within it - soaking up the rays as if this was a beach holiday instead of a intergalactic kidnapping.

And he had watched her still, quiet and curious, as she approached the window. She isn't the first to be entranced by the view; Apollo is largely immune to the grandeur of space nowadays but he can't blame her. Not at all. ]

Pretty, isn't it? [ He speaks up finally, then lifts a hand in greeting. ] Hi. Don't mind me. Carry on.

[catastrophics]

[ wanda's aware that there's someone else present, but she's not paying much attention to them. there have been people coming in and out throughout the day, and they've all been minding their own business. there's been one in particular who keeps moving around, which piques her curiosity, but not enough to intervene. until he addresses her himself. ]

It is. [ pretty, that is. as wrong as it looks. ] Is the view better wherever you keep moving?

[solarcharged]

[ He smiles - practically beams - at that question. ]

Not better, just sunnier.

[ Which is a pretty fair explanation as far as Apollo's concerned. He absently rearranges his foot from where it has fallen in to shadow, moving it firmly back in to the sweeping rectangle of sunlight he currently occupies. ]

You're a new arrival too, right? Do you recognise that planet down below?

004.

[magneticfields]

[ The worst thing about the food seems to be a blandness so complete it borders on aggressive. Erik doesn't trust it. He doesn't trust anything about this place. If they want to drug them, the easiest thing would be to put it in the life support. Aerosolize it so that they have to breathe it. But even so, he has a hard time convincing himself to eat anything. He's just about to try some crackers when the young woman who had curled up in the corner suddenly cries out and scrambles without getting much of anywhere.

He forgets his food immediately and goes over to her, touching her arm lightly. ]

Are you injured?

[catastrophics]

[ drugging's a possibility that wanda should have considered but didn't, but those she's spoken to about space don't seem as concerned with the atmosphere as they are with everything else. considering the reactions everyone who's eaten seems to be having, it feels stupid now, but wanda is reacting too badly to her own effects and everyone else's to think about that.

someone comes towards her, close enough to touch, and she looks up instantly at the contact, eyes sharp but weary, darting wildly around until they focus on who's addressing her. ]

No. [ injured isn't the word for it. ] Sick.

[magneticfields]

[ The woman's eyes dart around, taking in everything and nothing. She has a distinct look of being exhausted and overwhelmed that gives him the most unaccountable feeling of déjà vu. He keeps his hand on her arm. Not gripping, just enough pressure to anchor her. ]

If you're sick, perhaps we should go to the medical bay.

[ He had found something that looked like a medical bay in his explorations. He has no idea if a walk will actually help, but his instincts tell him the more quiet a place he can get her to, the more comfortable she'll be. ]

network; un: tokumei

[neuralnet]

There are signs that this place is meant to house people (apartment units on decks 3-6), but as far as I have been able to determine, there is no trace of people left behind, save for the bottles of alcohol on deck 3.

[catastrophics]

at least that means we probably aren't facing a radioactive meltdown.

[ always the optimist, this one. ]

[neuralnet]

There is that, at least.

un: spacepool

[bovinophobic]

i found alien booze
it tastes like someone wrapped a 3 month old sock around a ghost pepper and dipped it into rubbing alcohol
then got diluted by sewage water

maybe they left to find a better selection of alcoholic beverage

i'm a little disappointed actually
or maybe i haven't drank enough of this
hold on

[...]

yep
still tastes like cr

wait

wait no

fUCK MOUTH ON FIRE

[catastrophics]

are you at least drunk enough to not mind the second taste as much?

[bovinophobic]

( give him like maybe

20 minutes. )

that was a mistake

10/10 do not recommend
unless you like the feeling of your mouth being seared off

i'm not desperate enough to give this another go
also i can't get drunk
so maybe you should try it instead

you're not underage are you?

002 fancy meeting you here

[lefthandfree]

[It’s with hesitance that he manages to withdraw from the window himself, turning smoothly on his heel and hovering near the pane as he walks toward the exit. As is natural to him, his eyes cross her as he does all the rest in their proximity, but it’s the second pass that brings recognition, the soldier not having expected to find anyone familiar. Forcing his steps to be more audible, his training having shifted his step into something unnaturally soft to aid in masking his presence, he finds a place beside her, not too far or too close, to return his gaze back out to miles of emptiness directly beyond the glass. Somehow, even without any words, home doesn’t seem so distant anymore.

Rather than speaking, he remains to her side, quiet company with no wish to intrude. Though allies, she is Steve’s friend first, and he doesn’t presume to be anything more than that friend of a friend she risked everything for. And lost it all the same. Though it does make him wary of how she might now perceive him, guaranteeing her wellbeing, especially in light of what she did do (for Steve, but also for him), is the only logical choice.]

hi darling!

[catastrophics]

[ people exist as less of a voice and more of a presence in her head. that's how she's been able to deal with telepathy without it driving her insane or picking up on thoughts she knows they won't want her hearing (and that she doesn't want to hear). it's taken a long time for her to be able to do it, and sometimes things still slip in, when the emotion or thought or vision is strong enough.

so she's aware of barnes in general; his presence familiar enough even though she doesn't actually know him that well. they'd fought together and these days that's enough for her to consider somebody safe, even if they're not necessarily a friend. (or it was, until stark had tried to lock her away and then let the government take a much more literal approach to it.)

barnes is still safe, so she doesn't mind him coming closer, welcoming him to her side with a glance and a nod. ]

un: page

[subplot]

I've spent the past few hours looking around but can't find anything useful. I did find several doors that are locked. It's pure hope at this point, but answers could be hiding behind them.

[catastrophics]

people do tend to keep important details hidden.

[ like in fine print, right stark??? ]

what have people tried to open them?

[subplot]

I'm not sure what other people have tried. I mean, I don't even know anyone else has tried to open them. What I do know is I've tried using what resources are readily available to get inside. Someone showed me that some of the electrical panels are broken. I was hoping to use that to my advantage if there were panels at the doors to enter clearance codes, but that didn't work out how I hoped it would.

un: srogers

[unshielding]

They left alcohol. I've tried to stop people from drinking it, but it's been met with mixed success.

[ Steve's worried that it's poisoned, because even if it wasn't intentionally tampered with, there's no telling what some of it is or how long it's been here. ]

[catastrophics]

[ fancy seeing you here, captain. ]

in my experience the fabricators have been more dangerous.

[unshielding]

I know. They've made at least a few of us sick by now, but there's nothing else we can eat. Are you okay?