ataraxioff | TEST DRIVE MEME 001

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What're you doing?

[She's planted on the other side of the water, and she wasn't following him. Deadset. Capable only just glimpsed him now, crouching over the water, looking pretty good and deadset himself in the way he's got his eyes clapped on those waters. Talking to himself. Just a tickle.

She stays on her feet and doesn't match him, wary curious in the way she watches. There is little she is afraid of, here. Everything seems sweet. Shell probably learn, she knows; there are always things you gotta be afraid of, or for, but she's good at running and getting better.]

What's in there?

[Esca looks up at the question, notes the red hair, brighter than his mother's. He's not surprised or unsettled. She doesn't seem to have a weapon, and if she does, it's not drawn.]

Fishing. Hopefully there's trout, or smaller fish, if there's enough of them to fill a stomach. [He looks back down at the water, at the dark shadows that come to the surface and then dart back down again with a little splash.] If not, there might still be frogs or river rats along the bank.

[She doesn't know trout, she doesn't know fish, and she doesn't know frogs. Doesn't even know fishing. Rats, she knows. The part she knows best of all is fill a stomach, and without thinking, she presses her hand to hers. Once she had been called spoiled. That was for water and soft life, and that meant her food too. Never seemed like much till later.

Still not grateful for what she was given, because it wasn't given, but that don't do a thing to fill her belly now. She leans forward when he does, craning her neck a little to try and see what he sees. Shadows. Little shadows, flitting around.]

Look. [Enchanted, she sinks into a crouch on her side of the bank. One shadow flicks up close to the surface before it goes darting off, and she leans forward to track it, following with her eyes till she sees it no more.] These're beasts to eat? Yaaa, but they're holding their breaths for a true long time. Staying hidden down there.

Fish. [Esca repeats the word, looking at her more than his own reflection now.] Have you never seen a fish before?

[And it's not judging. He knows what it's like to be made to feel stupid. The Romans did their share of that. What Esca feels is closer to concern, because what godless country is she from where there aren't any fish? Or maybe she's jut been enslaved and not allowed to see them. Seems just as likely.]

What're you called? What's your name?

[Fish. Capable shakes her head, still tracking those grey shadow shapes that dart beneath the surface. Secret paths, like handwriting looped upside-down on a silver smooth mirror. Not knowing these fish doesn't make her feel stupid. Can't feel stupid for not knowing.]

Nah. There was water, but nothin' living in it. Maybe there used to be. Weren't many that had water, full stop. Wasn't like this, ya know? All jungle green.

[He's looking at her, she realizes then. A curious kind of looking. That's a kind that is okay. She lifts her head and looks back, across the stream, finds his eyes with hers.]

Capable. [Name.] I'm Capable. This green place isn't yours either, is it? But you still know fish. What's it you're called, where you're from?

TEST DRIVE MEME 001

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