» 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

haru okumura | persona 5

[mapsio]

OBSERVATION DECK.

[Finding herself in another world isn't quite what she would call strange, not anymore. But waking up and finding herself in space? That is definitely an entirely different ball game.

Coming across the observation deck is the most surreal part of the experience for her. The wide open outer space, the planets, the solar system. She's not used to seeing it all so up close.

She turns to the nearest person.]

It doesn't quite look the same as it does in text books, right?

[Are these even the same planets? The same solar system that they learned about for so many years?]

NETWORK, PART ONE.

un: BeautyThief

BeautyThief: No, no no no.
BeautyThief: This is embarrassing....
BeautyThief: How do I get the right one...oh, I hope no one sees this.

[Haru, everyone SAW IT.]

NETWORK, PART TWO.

un: Noir

Much better! Hello everyone, my name is Haru Okumura. Is everyone doing okay? Who is here? Do we have any idea where we are right now? I mean... I suppose space. But I don't think it is a normal day when you wake up in space. Space looks kind of amazing up close, doesn't it?

WILDCARD!

[Feel free to make up your own prompts! Or get in touch with me over at megaevolve for plotting! I'm totally open to talking!]

( N-1 ) un: Crow

[fabrications]

I think everyone may have already seen it.

[mapsio]

I haven't figure out how to change it yet. How horrible. I thought we had left Beauty Thief behind us.

["Crow", she can only assume who this is.]

[fabrications]

[ His identity will remain a mystery for ages. ]

I suppose a truly iconic nickname can never be shed.

I wasn't even aware they could be changed.

[mapsio]

I certainly do not wish to be stuck as "BeautyThief". Surely no one would think this nickname to be "iconic". Except for Mona-chan. :/

[Oh please, you're too easy.]

[fabrications]

I'm sure he'll be heartbroken if you just get rid of it, though.

[ Why is he guilt-tripping you on behalf of the cat?? The world may never know. ]

It gave me a prompt to select my username when I first accessed the network. Perhaps closing it and opening it again will give you the option to change it.

[mapsio]

[Because it's Akechi, that's why.]

I think Mona-chan would understand. Not that you would really know that.

[BURN.]

Let me try that then.

>BeautyThief has Logged Out.
>...
>...
>Noir has Logged In!

Ah, look at that.

n2 | un: +prince+

[armigers]

[ He will just pretend he saw nothing back there, and they can silently bond together in the glory of absurd usernames. ]

I don't know. I've woken up in weirder places before.

[ Though all those times, he'd at least been on the same planet. ]

Still figuring out the rest myself.

[mapsio]

I think I can say the same. Space isn't the weirdest place I've come to.

Have you explored the area any?

[She's still very embarrassed about BeautyThief, so she's glad he isn't bringing that up.]

[armigers]

Okay, I'll bite. What is the weirdest place you've woken up in?

[ Now he's just plain curious, but that's probably not what he should be focusing on. ]

I've been looking around the closet level mostly. Haven't found much but empty closets.

[ Which he hopes contained people at some point and not an exotic bestiary that's ready to kill them at every corner. ]

[mapsio]

Hmmm, proooobably in a cognitive version of prison?

[ It was really weird.]

I ended up on the observation deck myself.

[armigers]

[ Right. ]

Okay, you got me beat with that one. Not even sure if I want to know.

[ If it's anything like real prison, it's probably Not Great. ]

Anything up there to check out?

[mapsio]

Nothing much, unless you want to see the universe up close. It's really amazing when you see it like this.

wildcardddd

[uragiru]

[ if they're trapped here on this station for the foreseeable future, then Akechi is going to learn every last inch of it, he decides. most of his work as a detective was staged, true, but — it still seems most prudent to know this place floor to ceiling, in case there's some vital piece of information to be found, in case they end up desperately in need of something that exists elsewhere on the station. what else is there to do, anyway? he isn't going to sit around feeling sorry for himself, or thinking about the situation he was in before he woke up here. might as well make himself useful.

he is also, possibly, avoiding any more encounters with the Phantom Thieves he's reunited with thus far. Ryuji is the least complicated, but also the most annoying to deal with, and Akechi would honestly rather avoid the inevitable punch he's going to get when they see each other in person; he can maintain a professional distance from Makoto if they only talk in times of crisis. Ren, he doesn't want to think about at all.

so of course he turns a corridor and nearly runs right into Haru Okumura, who is only behind Ren on the list of people he least wants to speak with right now. there's a split second of honesty on his face — shock, and then something that might be irritation and might be distress — and then he smiles, as ever. ]

Okumura. [ his smile is... not quite right. it's tense, and maybe a little hysterical around the edges. ] Of course you're here too. God, all of you really do come as a set, don't you?

[ they can't leave him alone even once he's dead? it's cruel. ]

[mapsio]

[She would rather go this entire time in space without seeing Akechi Goro. Even if their situation back home implies that he has passed on, there were still feelings of anger welled up inside of her. Anger that her father had to die so that Akechi could please his own father. It's sick and twisted.

But Haru doesn't get a chance to think all of those things. That chance flies right out of the nearest space window when she all but runs into Akechi.

The shock on her face is clear enough. He's dead, he's supposed to be dead. They left him in Shido's palace after he made that last move. Akechi Goro should not be standing in front of her.]

You are as pleasant as ever, Akechi-san.

[She could take so many blows lower than that one. But she can't find it in her for the selfish self-sacrificing detective.]

[uragiru]

[ and there's the acidity he was expecting from Ren and Makoto. he did imagine it would come from Haru most severely of all; she was a quiet girl, but never shy with the Thieves, never afraid to be sharp or cutting in a way much more effective than Ryuji and his blustering anger. she had the most reason to hate him, too, after all — well, her and Futaba both, but he's been thinking about it and he doubts Futaba would pull herself together tidily enough to say anything to him with true venom.

ah, he's thinking of them all in past tense. he really did resign himself to his death, didn't he?

to be honest (as if he ever is) he doesn't know what to say to her; he has no idea how to act, what expression to wear, whether he wants to be cruel or kind or utterly indifferent. so he defaults: he gives her a wide, charming, blatantly plastic smile. ]

I make every effort to be.

[ ha ha he's hilarious. but this encounter was an accident, and although he might very well do Haru the courtesy of listening if she wanted to give him a sanctimonious tongue-lashing — if maybe not the courtesy of keeping quiet during it — he's hardly going to stand here and dither like there's any point in pretending they can stand each other. ]

I'm sure you have no interest in talking to me, so I'll just be on my way, shall I? [ he doesn't even bow to her, just gives her a cheerful little wave and then makes to step around her as though this is some ordinary run-in on a street. ] Feel free to forget this and remember me as dead, if you'd prefer.

[ and now it's done, right. that's that!! that's all the passive aggressive social interaction he has to do!! they can both pretend the other doesn't exist for the rest of however long they're trapped here, like normal teenagers who cope good. ]

[mapsio]

[Except not really. As if Haru would let him just walk away like this. Not without things being said. Not without closure being provided to her. The space station was small enough that they were bound to run into one another again. That was what made this hard. Every single time she will lay her eyes on Akechi Goro she will feel anger boil beneath her skin.

When he tries to take his leave? She is quick to cut him off.]

You. You don't get to walk away from this that easily, Akechi-san. Do you think going on like you don't exist is going to help? Absolutely not. Every time I see you, I'm going to be reminded.

You're dead. So I am forced to live with the consequences of your poor judgement.

[Her Father is dead, and Akechi Goro thinks he can just walk away like that is going to solve every thing. It's pathetic to her.]

[uragiru]

[ Akechi freezes as soon as she starts speaking, maybe a little surprised that she doesn't just leave him to slip away, somewhere she doesn't have to deal with him. and unlike the others, she certainly does get right to the heart of the matter — his death left them with the consequences, did it? he hadn't thought of it, but it's true. being alive now is so exhausting specifically because consequences he would have escaped by dying are piling up: the Thieves and how he affected them, the information about himself that he revealed to them at the end, the fact that his entire existence was devoted to destroying Shido and with that done, he's left with nothing at all.

he's quiet for a moment. when he looks at her this time, there's no smile. his expression is a little too cool-tempered to be honest, but it's closer than before. ]

My poor judgement... Yes, I suppose that's accurate. [ he says it so calmly, the way he used to make deductions when he was working with the Thieves. one finger goes to his chin, mock-thoughtful. ] What I did was stupid, Okumura — ah, no. I was stupid, to be used as I was by Shido.

[ he hates to admit it, but it's true, and he won't pretend that much isn't. he was an idiot. Shido was right: a stupid, useless, desperate child who never had the upper hand at all. every last thing he did for that man was utterly pointless, including the murder of Haru's father. everything he'd justified in the name of revenge, everything that he'd been able to swallow for the sake of that, knowing it would never come back up because he couldn't imagine himself existing beyond the point of Shido's destruction — none of it was worth anything.

he knows that. and yet still— ]

And? [ he spreads his hands sarcastically. ] What do you want to hear from me? Is it going to make anything better if I prostrate myself and beg for your forgiveness?

[ what is the point of this, he wants to ask. this is why it was better for him to simply be dead. ]

n1 | un: kohaku

[secrowtary]

I think it might be too late, BeautyThief.

[ Don't be such a little shit. ]

It's nice to meet you nonetheless.

[mapsio]

How embarrassing, oh dear. It's nice to meet you as well, even under these circumstances.

[LET HER LIVE THIS DOWN PLEASE.]

observation deck

[bunbiki]

It doesn't look the same in person, either.

[ he says it almost loftily, nostalgic, as he goes to shove his hands into his pockets but -- this suit doesn't have them, not like his hoodie. he sighs, a tad chagrined, running his hand back through his hair. this is going to take a lot of getting used to. ]

I don't think there was a neon green planet, but who knows!

[mapsio]

I guess there are just things about this universe that we weren't meant to understand.

[The vastness of it, the depth, the amount of undiscovered things.]

I see a purple one in the distance. Who knew purple planets were even real.

[bunbiki]

I could say the same thing about stars, too. The purple ones are the worst.

[ what? anyway, he shrugs and glances back out the glass, blinking slowly. ]

I don't see Earth. That's probably a problem, yeah?

[mapsio]

I wondered about that myself. What does it mean that we don't see earth?

[She puts her hand on the glass of the observation deck.]

Nothing good.

[bunbiki]

[ he was afraid of that. and honestly, there's this feeling in his gut that he caused this, that something they did ruined it all and the earth is just gone, written out of existence. it's not a warm feeling whatsoever. ]

Either that, or we're on one heck of a field trip!

[ despite the gnawing guilt in his stomach, he tosses haru a goofy looking grin. ]