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

She at least knows where South America is, and wonders idly if she'll ever get to visit it. But there are more pressing matters right now. Diana takes a few steps down the hall before frowning, looking down and lifting one foot so she can look at the strange boots on her feet. They're heavier, like her greaves, but don't seem to perform a similar purpose.

"I think not," she agrees. "But no matter where we are, whoever brought us here and took my armor is going to regret it."

Erik is distracted by the boots. "What?" he mutters to himself as he lifts his foot. The attraction between the sole of his boot and the floor is so loud it's demanding all of his attention. He extends his hand and pushes it away enough that he can think.

"You had armor?" Was she some sort of actor? He looks around, still trying to catch up with what the hell just happened to him. "I was getting on a plane."

The boots no longer distracting him, he can reach out with his senses more. And more, and more, and more as the full scale of the building they're in becomes clear. "We must be in some sort of skyscraper." He looks around for a window, but there aren't any.

"I did." It shames her to have had it taken from her, especially without even being aware of it while it happened. There must have been some kind of magic involved, else she certainly would have known when it was removed from her person.

Diana sets her jaw and is about to start down the hallway to the left when he speaks again. "What is a skyscraper?" She knows what a plane is (because Steve had explained them to her), but she has no idea what the former is or why he would think they were there. And he can't be literal in his meaning--it's impossible to scrape the sky. As she waits for him to answer, Diana strains to look down the hallway, trying to see if anything lies in wait.

He follows her, because why not? She's capable enough to handle it if they get into trouble. And who knows what he'll encounter if he tries to set out alone. "A skyscraper?" He repeats, taken aback by the question. "It's a very tall building. At least forty floors. They... have them in London."

There doesn't seem to be anything down the hall, but there does seem to be a window at the end of it. It's dark out, but with any luck he'll be able to see enough of the city to identify it. "Come on," he says, as he catches up and then jogs past her toward it.

Diana casts her memory back to her time in London, trying to think of a building as tall as he describes, but comes up empty. "I remember the tall clock, and the bridge, but no buildings so tall." She shakes her head slightly, but puts it out of her mind.

She sees the window as well, but doesn't expect him to pass her up. Her brows raise slightly, but she breaks into a trot to catch up as well. She realizes only now how strange it is that they haven't seen a window until now, and finds herself eager to look out it.

They reach the window at about the same time. It's a large one. Floor to ceiling, spanning the entire length of the hall. Erik places his palms on the glass and leans his forehead against it as well. It is cold. solid. It's really glass, or something transparent like it. No metal on the other side. Nothing on the other side.

A great, empty void.

Space.

At first, Diana thinks that it's simply dark outside, since she can't see much beyond the window. But the closer she gets, the faster the truth dawns on her. Once she's standing beside Erik, she lets out a gasp, half wonder half shock.

"It's..."

She can't even find the right words. Beautiful? Intimidating? Some mixture of emotions she can't really give a name to. Diana presses a hand to the glass as well, looking out at the stars as if she's forgotten everything else around her.

The woman doesn't seem to be any more prepared for the sight than he is. Perhaps even less, if she doesn't know what a skyscraper is. (Though how could that be?) "It's not a skyscraper. It's a space station." And how could that be?

He puts his hand over hers on the glass, pressing lightly. He's not certain if the act is more for her benefit, or for his. An attempt to feel something alive and real that might ground him, even if she is a stranger.

In this moment, confronted by something she had only ever imagined (and, now that she sees it laid out before her, she realizes she had imagined it badly), she can only stare. His hand atop hers is a comfort, one she hadn't even known she'd needed until it's given to her. But it's grounding, which is fitting since they're apparently floating around in space. Diana curls her fingers against the glass, pressing the back of her hand into his palm as she does.

"How did we get here?" She's more than a little breathless, taken by the awe of seeing the stars before her, closer than they've ever been.

He doesn't move his hand, though he does tighten his fingers around hers slightly. "I don't know," he replies, just as breathless. "It takes hours to leave orbit. And during the launch we'd have been subject to immense g-force. We would... feel something now. Even if we were being kept unconscious during the launch."

He shakes his head. "I'm not even thirsty. And... I don't think that's Earth."

Saying it aloud makes it sink in. Traveling to another solar system would take decades, if not centuries. "Where are we?"

He's speaking as if this kind of thing is even possible. Diana has read many stories in her life, but the one that comes to mind is Icarus--the man who tried to fly too close to the sun with his wax and feather wings. They melted, and he plummeted to his death. But that can't be what happened to them, as they aren't burning up and the sun doesn't look quite right.

Diana can't find the words to even voice all these thoughts, so instead she looks out to the stars, trying to find something familiar. But there is nothing. She shakes her head. "I don't know. I don't know any of these constellations."

"I've never encountered technology like this. This has to be the work of some other civilization." He rubs his forehead with his free hand. "We should probably... see if there's anybody else here who might have some answers."

Because he certainly has none.

Though she can't drag her eyes away from the stars quite yet, Diana nods in agreement. Someone on this... structure must have an idea of what's going on and where they are. Eventually, she does look to him instead of into the void and takes a deep breath. "My name is Diana." They may as well know one another's names.

Erik meets her wide brown eyes and almost, almost tells her the truth. But there are too many question, too many suspicions, too many scars for that. "Henryk Gurzky." He offers a hand.

She takes his hand, giving it a firm shake. "It's good to meet you, Henryk."

» TEST DRIVE #001

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