» 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

[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.

[contorta]

i haven't run into any unlocked doors yet.

( there's a pause as he reads the rest of alex's message again, and then again. )

how can they not know?

[donkeyballs]

[He's almost there, and considers waiting to say it in person, but decides more time to process is probably better.]

Most've the folks I've met say they're from Earth. Over three hundred years ago.

[contorta]

time travel?

( that's. impossible. right? )

[donkeyballs]

Or someone's been freezin folks for hundreds of years.

[He finally appears on the deck, eyes searching for Prax, shoulders relaxing when he sees him. He looks in pretty good healt, save for the fact he's got one arm in a sling. But he smiles wide and fond.]

Hey, plant guy. Good to see you.

[contorta]

( that's not actually in any way more comforting a thought. it bothers him that he doesn't recognise this system, too, not even from memory of star charts or anything like that. there's so much space no one knows about, but — this place looks so human-made. everything's the right size. )

Alex, hi.

( prax smiles. despite everything else, he's glad to see alex. though — ) What happened to your arm?

[donkeyballs]

Remember when I said be careful of the doors? [He sort of wiggled his arm.]

This is why. They ain't stable. They look like their made of metal, but one of them sort of melted, swallowed me up to my elbows, and solidified again. Amos broke my arm tryin' to get me out.

[contorta]

Shit.

( that seems the most accurate reaction. it's also really the only thing that comes to prax's mind. none of this should be possible, yet here they are. )

[donkeyballs]

[But he reaches out with his good arm, clasping Prax's shoulder and squeezing it warmly.]

Don't you worry, I'll be right as rain in no time. And whatever weirdness is goin' on? We'll figure it out, and get home.

[contorta]

Yeah, all right.

( prax doesn't actually sound convinced, but he's willing to go along with it. what else can he do? he can't give up on mei. not now, not ever. )

Has someone looked at your arm? ( he's not that kind of doctor, but, well. )

[donkeyballs]

[Alex sounds sure. He has to. He'd be completely unmoored, otherwise. Now he just has to find Holden, then they can all focus on getting home.]

[He looked down at his arm.]

Naomi, but she ain't exactly a medic. [He looked back up.] You mind takin' a look?

[contorta]

Is there any kind of med bay around here?

( that's a yes. it helps to have something to do, some kind of objective that is more immediate than "get home somehow". )

[donkeyballs]

[ Alex shook his head. ]

Sorry to say it, but there ain't. There's barely anythin' in the way of medical supplies at all. We rigged this up with a spare jumpsuit. [Gesturing at the arm.]

But look - I'll take you up to where Amos, Naomi and I got our rooms, get you registered for a bunk, and you can take a look at it up there.

[contorta]

Yeah, that sounds good.

( no med bay? what is this place?

at least they have a plan now, if only one for the near future. ) The room can wait, though. ( alex's arm is more important. )

[donkeyballs]

[ Alex shook his head. ] The rooms auto-register to you when you go in 'em. So, best have your room up near ours, doc. Makes things a lot easier.

[ Look, he just wants to keep the family together, okay!! ] Besides, Amos and Naomi will be glad to know we've found you.

[contorta]

All right.

( alex knows the station better than prax does. alex knows better how badly his arm needs another non-medical opinion, too. )

Are they okay?

[donkeyballs]

Yeah, they're alright. Been some weird stuff happenin' on the station, and I can't say either of them are pleased, but we got each other.

[He starts leading Prax on as they talk. Their rooms are on the 6th floor, so they've got a ways to go, but Alex seems almost cheerful. And that's because he really is. Finding Prax was the second last piece of his family that was missin'. So he was feeling a lot more hopeful than he had been, a few hours ago.]

[contorta]

( prax nods while he follows alex down corridor after corridor. it makes sense. none of this is ideal, but then, their situation on the roci hadn't been ideal, either. a war going on is never ideal. the protomolecule is about as far from ideal as it gets. )

What weird stuff? Other than the doors. And that we're here at all.

[donkeyballs]

[Alex's expression grew grim.]

Well, keep hearin' screamin', without finding the source. Figure it must be some kind of recording stuck in the comms system that we just can't get at, but it's unnervin' as all hell. Nothin' seems to work right and god only knows what state life support is in.

It ain't a joy ride, I'll tell you that much.

[contorta]

( that's not comforting to hear, but prax doesn't know what he expected after everything he's seen as of late. )

What about the hybrids? The protomolecule? Any of that here?

[donkeyballs]

[Alex shook his head.]

Not a drop, far as we can tell. Which is about the only good news I got. But at leas' we don't have that to worry about.

[contorta]

That's something.

( it is, isn't it? and yet, it does nothing to counter the sinking feeling in his stomach. how will he get to mei if he's here? )

[donkeyballs]

It's somethin' that I'll take and run with, I'll be honest, even if it doesn't settle my gut none.

[They're getting up to the sixth floor now, and Alex walks over to the doors, and points them out.]

Mine, Alex's, Naomi's. One beside mine is taken but there should be an open one around here somewhere--

[contorta]

( prax steps closer to a door and it swishes open. there's no one inside. )

Do I just — go in?