» 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

prax "plant guy" meng | the expanse

[contorta]

01 » OBSERVATION DECK

( he's woken up, he's swallowed his panic and confusion, he's started walking for lack of anything better to do — and he's found himself on the observation deck before long. maybe before the destruction of ganymede, before meeting the crew of the rocinante turned contorta, before the hybrids and the protomolecule and everything, maybe before all this he would have panicked more. now, he is worried, but nothing has tried to kill him yet, so he isn't that worried.

but the observation deck still tugs at his heartstrings. )

Almost like Ganymede... ( he's mostly talking to himself, but someone might easily overhear. )

02 » WILDCARD / A GARDEN IN A CORRIDOR

( some of the corridors have casings. the casings are empty, but there's some dirt left when prax inspects one of them. he wouldn't have needed the dirt to confirm what he already knows: these are meant to house plants. his best guess is that the plants are for air filtration, and given that he used to be botanist on another space station, his best guess is pretty good.

this is something he knows. except — he has no plants. he didn't arrive with the little soy plant he's been carrying around with him. )

Did you find any plants lying on the ground? ( he asks the next person he comes across. there's a light in his eyes, something almost excited or hopeful. this is something he knows. )

03 » NETWORK (id: botanist)

has anyone seen a little girl around her? her name is mei and she's my daughter

( he has to try. maybe whatever or whoever brought him here also brought mei? )

2

[oorah]

[ after all that's happened with the walls and the doors, frank is wary of anyone getting too close, which is how a big guy with fading bruises on his face suddenly appears, slotting himself between prax and the alcove protectively, holding out his palm with a nasty set of (amateur) stitches holding the skin together. ]

I wouldn't get too close to that if I were you. [ there's real fear in his eyes as they dance around, unfocused and jumping from the man back to the pile of dirt and back again. he processes the question a moment late. ] ...If you were carrying it, it's gone. The same thing happened to all of us.

[contorta]

( prax's gaze is drawn first to the breadth of this man and then the bruises on his face. then the stitches in his palm and the fear in his eyes. the picture these details paint isn't pretty and prax almost reaches out to steady him with a hand on his shoulder. it is only knowledge of what might happen if he startles the guy that keeps him from it. )

Are you all right?

[oorah]

[ frank forces himself to take it down a notch, though at least prax gets points for being the calmest new arrival he's had yet to meet. his gaze clears some and he nods, even while pointing to the panel in the corridor warningly. ]

When you mess with the ship, it fights back. [ he doesn't think he has to tell prax that his hand is one such cautionary tale. ] Do what you're gonna do, alright, just thought I'd warn you.

[contorta]

I wasn't going to mess with it. ( he wouldn't be so calm if he didn't know, for once since the destruction since ganymede, what he's doing. this is what he knows, what he's been doing most of his life, what he studied and trained for. ) I was going to fix it. See these casings? They're supposed to have plants in them.

[oorah]

[ wait- ] How do you know that? [ his eyes narrow, if this guy knows anything about the station he wants to know everything he knows. and the confidence with which prax says that makes him wonder if he isn't part of the original crew... ]

[contorta]

I used to work on a space station. Ganymede. I'm a botanist. This looks too familiar to be anything else.

( not part of the original crew, but part of a crew of another space station? )

[oorah]

[ wait he knows this one - he feels like it was just yesterday he was helping his lisa with earth science. instead of two years. what the hell. ]

That's, uh, a moon right? For one of the - Jupiter, yeah? [ like an elephant. steel trap, etc etc ]

[contorta]

Yes. You've heard of it?

( prax means the station, of course, not the moon as such. )

un: rocipilot

[donkeyballs]

[God damn, he's never been happier to see a message in his life.]

Prax, that you?

It's Alex.

Where are you?

[contorta]

( between that username and the "alex", there's really no doubt at all. )

Are the others here as well? ( has anyone seen mei? )

I'm on the observation deck.

[donkeyballs]

Amos and Naomi. We've been tearin' through this ship, tryin to find you and Holden.

Almost gave up.

I'm on my way, you just stay put now.

[contorta]

how long have you been awake? i just woke up maybe an hour ago
i won't go anywhere

[donkeyballs]

'Bout a week. Amos almost two. Naomi a couple days after me.

Still tryin' to find the Cap.

Whoever or whatever is wakin' us up is sure as hell takin' it's time, and I don't like it.



... Sorry to say, ain't seen your girl.

[contorta]

i don't understand how that works, but okay
holden isn't here?

i guess that was too much to hope for

[donkeyballs]

Haven't found him. But if the rest of us are all here, he's gotta be here too.

There's a lot of locked doors that we can't get behind - that's where we guessed the two of you had to be.

But uh.

Look, you should know - it ain't just Mei, that's missin. The people on this station...

Haven't met a single one beyond the crew that even knew Mars was colonized.

2

[blacksky]

[The casings are curious. The man asking about them even more so. She raises a brow at the question.] Afraid not. Are they friends of yours?

[She's kidding, but not in a mean-spirited way. Elektra is interested in what exactly excited him about the potential for plants in space.]

[contorta]

Yes. ( is that the answer she was expecting? he doesn't actually care. of course he realises that it's impossible to be friends with plants, but he feels a fondness for plants that approaches the fondness he feels for those he would call his friends, so. might as well. )

1

[tumang]

[ When Amos sees Prax on the station, the sensations that course through him are - unexpected. Part of it is relief to have Prax here, while a lot of it is worry, something akin to what Amos would consider to be fear, which isn't something he's felt in the longest time.

Not that the Rocinante is any safer than Reverie. Amos rubs two knuckles against his breastbone as he walks closer, looking at the bay windows before pushing his hands down his pockets when he gets to Prax's side. ]

Yeah, except nothing like it, huh, Doc.

[contorta]

( prax doesn't flinch when there are footsteps behind him, someone approaching. he does glance over his shoulder and then his shoulders sag with relief and a smile flits across his features. he's glad to see amos. more than alex or holden, more than naomi, more than anyone else, amos has been keeping him alive, keeping him sane when he'd been so scared about what might have happened to mei.

he's still scared. especially now. they were so close to her — )

No. Not really.

( he shifts a little, body angling toward amos. ) It's good to see you.

[tumang]

[ Amos takes a breath, planting his boots harder on the floor, like it makes any kind of difference. ]

Yeah.

[ Because it's good to see Prax, too, but he can't lie - the situation is pretty FUBAR, and it's not going to get any easier for Prax, being here. Amos's glad to see him, and to see him well. But they're completely removed from their mission, from the solar system, from Prax's little girl. ]

Mei isn't here.

[contorta]

( it'll be hard on prax, having no way to know whether he will ever see mei again, having no means of getting to her or even just finding out what happened. he's been faced with her loss before, but the crew of the roci has given him hope that he might see her again, or at least be able to get even. the next best thing, isn't it?

his lips press together and he looks away. )

Yeah, I know. ( alex said the same thing. no one on the network has seen mei. ) Guess that was too much to hope for.

( he needs to get back to her. )

[tumang]

[ Amos bites on the inside of his lip. Something surges up in his stomach, as fierce as he's ever known. He turns, planting a hand on Prax's shoulder. ]

I'll get you back to your search, Doc. Wherever we are right now, I'll find a way for you to get home.

[ He's made it his mission, back home. Get Prax to his little girl. He's not going to stop now. ]

[contorta]

Amos—

( prax sways a little, moving into the touch. amos is the most solid thing he knows in a place that isn't solid at all. )

I can't ask you to keep doing that. ( taking on all this responsibility for him. for mei. )

[tumang]

[ Amos's fingers squeeze for a second, muscles shifting before he lets go, hooking his thumbs in the arms of his jumpsuit, wrapped around his waist. ]

You're not asking, Doc.

[ He's not. He hasn't been. It's just felt right, from the beginning, for Amos to try and help him. He has a good mission, and Amos wants to keep being a good guy. ]

Mei needs her dad, is all.