TEST DRIVE MEME 001

[ataraxites]

T E S T   D R I V E   M E M E A R R I V A L You wake up, alone in the dark. There's a breathing tube jammed down your trachea, and you're suspended in a tube of clear blue fluid. Through the fog you can see shadows of movement, the muted sound of alarms crying. Upon registering your level of consciousness, the gravity couch drains the fluid surrounding you and retracts the breathing apparatus; the doors in front of you open, and you're suddenly dropped several feet onto the opposite wall. It takes you several minutes to catch your breath and gather strength in uncooperative limbs; more time still to climb up through the debris to the hole in the outer wall high above. You emerge in bright sunlight, surrounded by an immense jungle. As your vision clears, you realize you stand on the hull of a colossal spaceship, crashed on an alien planet. There's a shout behind you, and as you turn, figures climb over the curve of the ship towards you: your rescue party, weathered and scarred by the efforts necessary for survival. B A S E   C A M P A ramshackle spread of tents and shelters built out of resources salvaged from the ship and gathered from the jungle. Not sleek, not clean, but alive: people coming and going from tent to tent, heading out into the jungle or returning with freshly foraged food. Some are working to build more shelters or improvize working tech out of parts salvaged from the ship; some are cooking; some are just taking shelter from the sun for a while. Whether you find somewhere to help or apply your skills, it's probably a good idea to get to know your neighbors. E X P L O R A T I O N The jungle is dense and green, teeming with life, high calls and cries of strange animals and birds, the low buzz and murmur of insects. There are no paths or notable markings; go too far into the trees and you may not be able to find your way back. Dangers hide in the shadows but there's also food, water - or perhaps you're looking for more, pushing further in a search for answers about this planet you're now living on. Or you can turn your attention to the crashed ship, the huge bulk of it balanced precariously on the edge of a cliff. It creaks and groans in its delicate position, audible from a distant but all the louder should you venture inside. Dark corridors made even more dangerous by the damage to the internal structure, debris and obstacles blocking progress, and any wrong step could cause it to collapse in on you, or send the ship over the cliff. But finding any tech, resources or supplies might just be worth the risk. C H O O S E   Y O U R   O W N . . . Hunt or flee from strange creatures in the jungle, take a try at rock-climbing down the cliff-face, or practise in-game gained abilities. Ataraxion is currently without a network until one is built, but test-driving on a prospective one is also totally fine!

Comments

randomly does stuff shhh shhh

[theroadwarrior]

[THAT'S MY HEAD—

There are pellets from a shotgun bouncing everywhere, and Max really does not want to deal with this today, jesus christ alive. He barely manages to not get himself shot, out of her line of sight enough that he thinks he can scoop her up and get her to at least stop shooting in the direction of people. SO HERE HE COMES. He reaches around and pretty much gets her into a tight hug from behind, and she's so short even compared to him that he can just... y'know, pluck her straight up and have her hang in his great hug-wrestling-move. The shotgun is sort of squished, between his arms and hers, not at a good angle for her to shoot it anymore.

Wow, actually, you seem familiar. That hair and the colors and whatnot.]

Hey! Calm down.

[It's a bark, firm but not vicious, more authoritative.

No reason to shoot right now, lady...

Um, who is looking very close to someone he knows.

Hrmm.]

[anti_seed]

[She screams.

There's less sunshine this time, no reek of car fumes or sand blowing up under a crushing stampede of tire tread; this time there is more humidity and weird fucking architecture, in place of context. But she was grabbed from behind last time, too, and hoisted off her tiny feet. So it is predictably, or at least understandably, her response to scream and kick and writhe like a cat.

But her finger doesn't squeeze the trigger again. She knows enough not to want to accidentally inject her face with ricochet.] --bastard, get your hands off or they're coming off at the wrist! [He can hear the teeth in her voice. She's furious; characteristically so. Not really listening when he tells her what to do, but he isn't pointing a gun at her face this time, so that that historical cue is out.

Her heel meets his kneecap with a sharp pinch of force. She twists her head up like she really does mean to bite him, but the angle is all bad and unfamiliar; she doesn't know him yet.]

[theroadwarrior]

[Ah, yes. His kneecap. Fate enjoys aiming at it. Pretty much all the time.

And here he thought Rey stomping it into a swollen fleshy mess would have been the last awful thing to happen to it for at least a little while. If he weren't busy going white-visioned and crumpling behind her, he would at least be happy that it's just a little lady's heel instead of a 300+ pound robot woman who lights on fire.

He makes an undignified choking noise, and then a very brazen salty curse, putting his hand up defensively. What was her name? Names would be helpful. He remembers, give him a second — he remembers her name reminded him of the old world — well, of food, most of all. Yeah, he's a simple creature. Every utterance of her name made him remember he was half-starved.

Oh — ]

Toast!

[Like always, names leave his mouth strangely, he's so unused to them.

He's not one to address people by name, but this could keep him from getting a faceful of shotgun pellets.]

:') i am sorry max

[anti_seed]

[Her name--

--is enough to bring her around abruptly, locking her tiny body into stasis within Max's big fuzzy arms. Her toes are the only thing that properly move about her, scrabbling on the floor for balance, in automatic anticipation of being dropped. She felt him falter, even though they have yet to fall. Her heart thuds inside her ribs and her head, throbbing against her eardrums. Did he just say. Yes, he did.

And he borrowed someone's voice to do it.] Max? [Oh, she remembers. Furiosa nearly died in the course of winning that name. Her arms go slack, the muzzle of the shotgun drooping helpfully away from their heads, off toward the crook of his elbow.] You can-- oh. [DID SHE JUST.

Did she just temporarily cripple her only friend in an alien world.] I'm sorry!

[theroadwarrior]

[He rubs his knee, hissing between his teeth at the sensitivity there. It's not the first time, though, so he at least converts the temporary pain into something else — mostly his patented slow-burning aggravation that Slit and Nux are probably most familiar with: aimless cursing and muttering. He takes the opportunity she gives in her surprise and apology to snatch up the shotgun with one hand, pointing sternly at her with the other as he wobbles on one foot.]

Good with a gun, bad at aiming at the right people.

[hello this is a max lecture and it's approximately a sentence long

He breathes in deep, head swiveling nearly in a full frustrated circle, as he looks at the wall for a hot second before glancing at her with a much softer expression; his brow furrows, frustration left dried up with the throb of his knee joint. He's good now. The gun hangs in his grip.]

You're new; this isn't home.

[Huff.]

Different planet.

[Nah that's cool Max, just dump that on her immediately.]