» 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

[solarcharged]

Hopefully we won't be staying here long enough to celebrate any special occasions...

[ His tone is optimistic but his smile is wry; it's still day one and he has no idea why or how they have all ended on board this particular creepy abandoned station. They're probably in it for the long haul. He twists the corkscrew in the top of the bottle, giving it a few generous turns, before effortlessly pulling the cork free in one smooth movement. No strain, no leverage, no wrestling with the bottle. As easily as opening a can of soda.

Apollo glances around them, bottle in one broad hand. ]

Don't suppose you've spotted any stemmed glasses around here, have you?

[magneticfields]

[ Erik can't argue with that sentiment, even if he has very little hope of it coming true. He spreads his hands, palms-up, his lips angling in what is almost a smile. ]

We can call this the special occasion.

[ He starts looking for stemware but is thoroughly distracted by how easily Apollo opens the bottle, despite how much the cork screeches in protest.

Damn.

But then he's asking him a question and Erik blinks, turning his attention back to the barware. ]

There's some back here. Not sure how clean it is.

[ He has to reach for them, carefully avoiding all the other stuff that's jumbled around in the bar. He'll probably organize it another sleepless night. Some other one when he's not entertaining somebody so impressive. The glasses he retrieves are very dusty, enough that he coughs when it gets stuck in his nose and throat. ]

Hang on, need to rinse these out.

[ He does so, not wasting time but being thorough, and dries them with the cleanest bar towel he can find before handing them to Apollo. ]

[solarcharged]

[ He watches and waits patiently while Erik washes away the worst of the dust from the glasses. Uncorked, the bottle smells like it must hold a rich red wine of some kind and Apollo swishes the contents experimentally as he lines up the glassware on the bar. ]

This one might not actually be so bad by the looks of it, [ He observes as he pours first one glass than the other. The liquid is a deep ruby red, thick and full-bodied, and smells far more palatable than any of the spirits. Apollo is cautiously optimistic. ]

Hopefully I haven't just jinxed it. [ He lifts a glass in toast. ] To special occasions?

[magneticfields]

We should probably let this breathe a bit more before drinking it.

[ Erik cups the bowl of the glass in his palm, swirling the wine to try to aerate it a little more before drinking. The scent is practically seductive. ]

If you have jinxed it, the next round is on you.

[ At this point, denial is the better part of valor. Because the next round is likely to be made of fabricated prunes fermented in a plastic bag the toilet tank. He lifts his glass as well. ]

To special occasions, and new acquaintances. Na zdrowie.

[ He takes a cautious sip, swirling it over his tongue and taking a moment before making up his mind about it. ]

Oh. That's actually not bad.

[solarcharged]

[ Likewise, the sip that Apollo takes is small and cautious. But after a moment of consideration his expression transforms in to one of impressed delight. ]

Huh. Not bad at all.

[ The rest of the passengers can have as much of the vodka as they like. Apollo takes another mouthful now that he knows it isn't going to choke him. ]

You know, we might have to keep this bottle to ourselves...

[magneticfields]

[ Erik tsks, unable to repress a sly smile. ]

Keeping secrets already, Apollo? I would have taken you for a more noble heroic type.

[ He takes another sip, savoring it. ]

You know if we finish the bottle, we won't have to worry about secrets.

[solarcharged]

This station is corrupting me, clearly. Or maybe it was that space vodka.

[ Apollo is only half joking; for all his 'noble heroism' he's tragically human on more than a few levels. He lifts the glass, tasting the wine once again and reflecting on the fact that maybe this bar was stocked a little closer to home than Apollo first thought. ]

I wonder if these grapes were grown under Earth's sun? It tastes as good as anything we've got at home...