reveriance | » 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

[ he's disoriented and irritated and this is the last thing he wants, but — better to get this out of the way on the network than running into each other in person, if they're both here. ]

>>CROW
Sakamoto. What a [ he seriously debates putting in some sarcastic ellipses, but decides this will be enough as is ] pleasant coincidence.

[Three worst things that can possibly happen to a dude.

1. Get lost in space, where no one can hear you scream
2. Actually have someone who can hear you scream
3. That someone is Goro Akechi.

It takes him a lot longer to reply to this than it should.

How the fuck

When did you

You've gotta be fuckin

This ain't pleasant at all

But, of course, being the bigger man in all of this---]

Aren't you supposed to be dead

[ well, at least Ryuji remembers the same thing he does. he wonders how long it's been since then, for the others; if there's some kind of time distortion that means they've carried on for months since that incident, and Goro Akechi has ceased to even be worth the memory. ]

Yes, I thought so too. [ thanks for the fucking reminder??? ] And yet, here I am. I was quite surprised to wake up at all.

[Any time you need a reminder, here's ya boy. Although kudos for the I lived, bitch text back. Ryuji grits his teeth. He can't lose it here, he can't go straight for Akechi and punch him right in the goddamn face... there's too much uncertainty right now.

Still. Man, if he could.

One day he'll stop vacillating between extreme moods of pity and hate for Akechi, but today's not that day.]

Surprised ain't even the right GODDAMN WORD

[ ah, Ryuji. predictable in the best and worst way. he's the easiest of the Thieves to deal with at the moment, at least; never a difficult conversation to be had with him. and as much as Akechi wants to just ask upfront whether Masayoshi Shido is in ruins— ]

I understand, but don't you think we have more pressing concerns than my recent departure?

[At least he's consistent and dependable. You can count on this boy to watch your back. You can count on Akechi to stab it.]

Not recent enough, yo

Fine, I'll bite.

What the hell are you planning

[Why in the world he expects a straight answer out of that, nobody knows.]

[ "not recent enough" do you want him to die again??? ]

Not that I expect you'll believe me, but I'm not planning anything. I have no more idea what's going on here than you do, which is the last thing I expected to ever be saying.

And may I remind you I was dead and/or dying up until a matter of hours ago. At least give me a day in the land of the living to start making nefarious plans, will you?

[ he's kidding. innocent, friendly jokes between two boys who are friends. isn't he hilarious? ]

[God.

It seems fake. It smells fake. Look, this is the guy they had to come up with a RIDICULOUSLY CONVOLUTED counter-plot to stop him from killing Ren in cold blood. What's stopping this from just being a larger part of the same chess game all over again? He instinctively reaches into his pocket for his phone, to check if they were in the 'verse. Oh. Right. Nothing in there but some leftover lint.

So he doesn't buy it, and he's not smart enough to lead Akechi on by making him believe he's going along with it, and Ryuji does Ryuji by being open and honest with him. Probably why he's so easy to manipulate in the first place.]

Look, man, I sure as hell don't trust you as far as I can throw you. And I don't expect you suddenly had some crazy ass revelation about all the bad shit you did, so let's cut the crap here.

[You don't like me, I don't like you.]

But I guess the enemy you know is better than the one you don't, so I'm PROBABLY GOING TO KICK MYSELF IN THE ASS FOR THIS LATER... but yeah. Wherever the hell we are, I guess we gotta learn to live together for a while.

Edited 2018-04-23 01:28 (UTC)

[ well, that's about the best outcome he could have asked for. ]

Why, that's surprisingly mature of you, Sakamoto.

Onto business: obviously, we're not in the Metaverse. But I find it easier to believe this is some elaborate set-up than us actually being relocated to a different solar system. Have you noticed anything suspicious?

[Paranoid little shi---

Huh. That does actually start to sound suspicious. Ryuji's still not about to say he's right, though.]

Did you go up to the observation deck cause there are two moons and yeah I saw that shit, it was trippy as hell

Yes, it's quite the view.

I'd like to see if there are any other windows on this station... If the Observation Deck is merely an image on a screen, rather than a real window, then the illusion might not hold up under careful scrutiny.

[If only Futaba were here...

She'd smack him upside the head for talking to Akechi to begin with, and THEN proceed to scan the station for that sort of visual distortion. If anything, though, who would've ever thought the detective class was really filled with detectives. Huh.]

Ohhh... I getcha

You think we're in some kinda green screen or somethin

Man, whoever is setting this shit up is touched in the goddamn head

Okay. I'll do it. I'll see if I can find any other windows.

[ he actually kind of expected to have to do it himself or cajole Ryuji into helping, but. as straightforward as ever, even now. ]

I'll go to the lowest deck I can find and start from there. Keep an eye out for anything else of note, will you? Like signs of previous residents.

[Part of it is just that he doesn't want to sit still when there's a lead he could follow. This isn't really cooperation nearly as much as it is the fickle urge to not stay put in one place.]

I'll start below the Observation deck and head downward

[Subtle subtext: >i>don't meet me in the middle, I ain't ready for a confrontation with you yet.]

There were definitely people here before us. Did you get your watch username on your first try?

No, I actually tried to use my surname and a few variations thereof. "Crow" was a last resort.

[ he didn't want to have to go by his old codename for... obvious reasons. ]

If whatever brought us here knows our names, however, it could be that the block on those usernames is a deliberate attempt to unnerve us.

I understand you and Joker bein here and all if this is some grand scheme and shit but like

Why me

Let's pretend that all this bullshit is real though. You heard the message too... they fucked up. Someone seriously is gonna put the fate of the universe in my hands?

It does seem rather a poor choice, doesn't it?

[ ha ha. why are you more concerned about it being in your hands than Akechi's hands, Ryuji. ]

Hmm. Going by the assumption that it's somehow real, and each of us was deliberately chosen, wouldn't it be because of your involvement in the Phantom Thieves? You are the righteous heroes, after all.

[ he'd have more thoughts on this if he'd been alive to find out about Yaldabaoth and his grand design, but he doesn't know about any of that yet. ]

» TEST DRIVE #001

1b you asked for this obnoxious dipshit

rolls back in with my cactus and pink fuzzy slippers

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