» 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

[warfares]

[ Dark brows lift slightly, though the corners of his mouth quirk in an almost smile. ]

Gets the job done, though.

[ The bottle is set back down on the counter with a click!

Finding a glass is the next on the list of priorities; the bar is in a decent state of repair, all things considered, but it looks like someone hasn't taken a cloth to anything in at least a decade. ]

Have you been here long?

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ The feeling of warm cotton wrapped around her can attest to how good it's getting the job done. She's doing her best to pace herself, but not having had alcohol in years means her tolerance is nothing like it used to be. ]

Here in the bar? [ She quirks a questioning eyebrow at him, gesturing to their surroundings. ] About an hour, I think. Here on the station? A couple hours more. You?

[warfares]

Sounds about right. [ He envies her that feeling, honestly; adrenaline from breaking out of the closet earlier still burning through him.

He looks back at the bottle, debating whether or not he'd be willing to just go without the glass. It's certainly tempting. ]

I'd like to speak to someone about what they feel passes for adequate accommodation.

[theycalledmeacurse]

Judging by the state of this place, I'm not too sure there's anyone to hear your complaints except people who share them. [ She's not going to mention that she's not one of them. The station is leaps and bounds better than where she'd been the last few years.

Glancing from him to the bottle, she finally puts together what's missing and stands from her perch on a bar stool. ] Let me get you a glass, sugar. [ She sways a bit as she walks around to the other side of the bar, but she's determined to get to the collection of glasses, find the least grimy of the lot, and wipe it down with the cloth she'd used earlier on her own glass. ]

[warfares]

I think you might be right, [ he says, a hand reaching out to steady her as soon as she begins to sway. The fabric of the jumpsuit is thick, if uninspiring and his hand doesn't linger longer than necessary to see that she doesn't fall. ]

Tell me where to look, [ it's said, not unkindly, after withdrawing his hand. ]

[theycalledmeacurse]

[ She stiffens at his touch, forcing herself to stay where she is instead of flinching away like her instincts urge. Her hands bunch into fists in an attempt to hide her skin, and she doesn't realize she's held her breath until he's pulled away. The fear that's risen up in her tastes bitter on her tongue, and she can't bring herself to look at him as she nods toward a corner behind the bar. ]

There's a stack back there. [ Even her voice sounds different, a slight waver to the smooth syllables, and she hates herself for it. ]