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

whoops i'm late sorry

[doggedly]

Yeah.

[Sirius laughs, once, short and grim and sharp. His smile echoes his laugh. Like Remus' careful blank smile, this one is also probably familiar. This is Sirius, digging his heels in. This is Sirius, when he knows that he's right, when he's faced with some stupid shit. Stupid shit, here, is beyond stupid. Dark lords and death and blasted-out front parlors. He saw a cottage that he's not lived to seem, in Lily's memory, a cottage that would be reduced to nothing at all in just a few short years.]

So would we.

[That's a given, an oath more serious than blood ties and family names and the way of the world around them. The one straightforward thing has always been the Marauders. The four of them. But there's one that matters beyond everyone else, and that's James--and even as he turns his stubborn look on him, Sirius is searching his face, greedy for just the sight of him. He's got James' face committed to memory, but that doesn't stop him from looking.]

I don't know why. No one knows but him. He was here, for a bit. Buggered off again. [Probably for the best. Talking about him now, Sirius finds that any sympathy or second thoughts has burned off of him entirely: if Peter were stood here in front of him, he would kill him. Full stop. He's never asked Remus if he would do the same, but he knows the answer. Of course he would. Nearly killed Sirius when he first arrived. For Peter, it would be much, much worse. And he deserves it.]

If he ever comes back, maybe you can listen to his excuses, but they were all of 'em pathetic. I wouldn't bother. Because it doesn't matter why. What matters is that he does it.

[He stands, stiff and angry, still stood close to James. He probably couldn't move away even if he wanted to.]

[fullmoon]

I'm sure he was afraid. We all were.

[ The words are reasonable, but his tone is frosty, not forgiving. Everyone was afraid--brave, but afraid--and only one person sold out the Potters and probably a dozen of the Order's other members. And it wasn't the werewolf. Or the Black.

But he looks at James' clenched fists and Sirius' rigid shoulders and decides, deliberately, to exhale and smile, because someone has to. It's not all right, what happened--will happen, whichever--at home, but Remus' ongoing list of things that are not all right starts when he was four and ends right now, with the bloody humidity. It would take a few hours to read. James and Sirius wouldn't be able to sit through it without getting bored. And at the moment every item on that long list is rightly eclipsed by the fact that James is here, breathing. ]

We can talk about it once you're settled, if you want. You must be--hungry, or something.

[ The Deliberate Smile is a little wobbly, but it holds up. ]