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

[circumitus]

Ass stabber. Really, AJ? That almost merits a laugh, though that would probably be more disturbing than any of the other crazy things Rey can do.

She makes a face at the query, her hands sliding into to the pockets of her cargo pants. (Hooray for having her own clothes and not those damned jumpsuits. Fuck sleeves.) "We used to have one. Don't think anyone's ever going to hazard sending people into the ship to put them there, though."

Le shrug.

"Even if we did, you're right -- you haven't done anything. Just making sure it stays that way."

Rey likes making sure that her friends... well, her friend is not at risk of getting jumped by some skittish new person. She's openly stated that she'd slit anyone's throat if they ever tried anything on him. She's crazy-overprotective like that.

[hairrands]

Trust a killer to laugh at a mutilation joke. AJ could see the hint of amusement and decided not to push it any further than that; with all the scars that Rey sported, AJ didn't want to know if hers was an ironic sense of humour or not.

The warning was less appreciated. AJ cocked her head and sneered a retort, "listen, I'm not going to cause shit unless shit lands on me first. I'm not a monster, I don't stir the pot for anyone anymore. Especially if they can't track me down for it." It was one part reassurance and one part trying to convince herself. She gripped at her scarf, tugging it a little. It felt so good not to have voices in her mind. It felt less good that her heart still tugged when she worried about her state of monster-tude or lack thereof... and Rey's caution here wasn't helping her.

"Alright, can you just fucking step back? I'll come out. I'm not gonna be put to work like some sweating mule, though. I get you people coming up here to see if me or anyone like me might cause you shit. I'm not, maybe you should go menace some other shit lords who just want to keep themselves safe, huh?"

[circumitus]

That's just how her sense of humor goes. Never trust it not to be sketchy.

At the response, though, Rey does take a step back, her hands sliding back out of her pockets and holds them out briefly in a gesture of compliance. She sort of comes in peace, after all.

She almost does scoff at the irony of AJ stating she isn't a monster, but Rey stifles it before she does. Nope. Not going to go there, nope nope nope.

"No one's going to put you to work, or at least force you to. Fair bit of warning, though -- we haven't a proper setup for lodging new people like we used to. Wasn't even sure there would ever be any more new people again."

[hairrands]

Never let these two get together whilst drunk and willing to laugh, in that case.

AJ purses her lips, waits for a few moments... it's awkward, but that's how she do. Then she slips the makeshift blade into her belt and balls her hands together for lack of anything else to do with them. Glancing out across the jungle, head a little jerky, given her bambi-like status just now, she finally scoffed and then hunched her shoulders, looking down at her bare feet. "Well aren't you all lucky, getting new canon fodder. It's fine," and here it really isn't, but she's not going to admit that she's never seen anything this lush outside of a stack of National Geographics her dad had kept on the lid of the toilet in her old home. "I camp, I've camped. Spent all my life doing it." Technically true, given she was officially born only a few months ago.

[circumitus]

God no, not with Rey's creepy goddamned laugh.

Her arms lower to her sides as AJ puts the glass away. She's not so much relieved, though her expression is virtually unreadable when she turns.

"Then you should know that the ship probably isn't the best hiding place there is, because it's been looking unstable since we crashed here. Wouldn't be surprised if it drops off that cliff sometime soon. Treetops are usually the safest places to be, at the moment."

Basically: If you don't want to be cannon fodder, try not to actually become one.

[hairrands]

"Cliff," AJ echoes, not sure she knows what Rey is talking about. She's had a significantly less than 180 view of their horizon and she knows nothing of their topography, only that she's got about a 98% chance of being fucked over one way or another. "Trees..." Those, however, she as seen. She wrinkles her face up in abject disgust, not because she's not up to the task, but because everything here is so different.

She's trying to have to decide if Rey's advice is sound or not, but that's going to take more testing.

AJ tentatively follows the shorter woman out of her make-shift nook. "What's your name?"