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

i apologise for her also.

[justthewind]

[ At the sight of the creature emerging through the dense green of the world below, the Dag tightens her grip on the branch instinctively -- fear, sure, but equal parts fascination, the way she peers over the edge of her perch in place of hiding. Her mouth parts mutely when it talks. How interesting.

And also rude. ]

I'm not stuck, you big ugly brute, [ she shouts back. The bitey way her teeth cut those words, long and dry, take away any possible primness. ] You sound more afraid of heights than me.

[ And she's moving, a rustle of her perch sending down a small shower of loose leaves, seeds, twigs, and she starts the way down, hyperaware of her bounty scattered on the forest floor below. ]

it's going to be a beautiful disaster isn't it.

[thecoldshoulder]

[Ugly brute? That gets Algidus' head to snap up and his body to tense. A part of him is genuinely impressed by this human's courage, but also, how dare she. He is not ugly; the dark ice of his skin shines in the harsh sunlight filtering in speckles through the canopy. His body is as wondrous as a starry night sky--and yet just as dangerous as the void, or so he likes to think.]

I don't fall, human. I can bend gravity to my will! [Not entirely true; he can manipulate the flow of energy through his body to allow for limited levitation, but Algidus isn't above talking things up. He also isn't above putting his powers on display in cruel ways. The alien waves an arm over his head, generating a jagged chunk of hail, which launches itself at the tree trunk that the Dag is descending. He's not aiming to hit her, but to strike the wood right above her to cause an explosion of ice shards and wood splinters; to see if he can get the human to cling to the trunk in safety, to expose her fear and make her regret her words.]

8D

[justthewind]

[ She shrieks, but it's a raw, angry sort of sound, but still laced in surprise. Predictably, she ducks in close against the trunk as ice and wood rains down around her, before snapping first a look upwards to see where the damage has scarred up the wood, and she lifts a hand to feel it. Her tattooed fingers splay, pulling back quickly-- ]

Cold! And wet.

[ The look she casts down again has an intensity about it, sharply curious, as if fear has come and done its part and is now not of any use.

Ice is not native to her version of Australia. ]

A sudden sharpness in the air.

[thecoldshoulder]

[Algidus will take what he can get. She can probably hear him crow down there when he sees her duck, but then she does something he wasn't expecting. She reaches up to touch the site of the damage and then looks back down on him in... not confusion, but clearly she doesn't fully understand, either.]

Yes! Have you never heard of ice, human? Is this planet's miserable weather too warm to allow it? It is the most wonderful of all the elements, and I control it.