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!

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[brigante]

Marcus? [Esca stands, his head turning in every direction as he tries to decide on the one his voice is coming from. He frowns for it, because the approaching ruckus is going to frighten everything in these strange woods away. Or worse, he'll draw something right to them, and he doesn't have his own bow.] Marcus, what are you doing?

[He does know about his leg, and it's instant concern that has him moving to meet the larger man halfway, to offer his support. But it's his face that Esca focuses on.]

What's happened? What's wrong with the water?

[disruptus]

[Marcus ploughs roughly to a stop, his boots furrowing the soft soil. He immediately catches Esca by the shoulder, a gesture that's more glad than possessive, which is only right at this point, regardless of the catastrophic unfamiliarity of this terrain and this entire world.] There's something wrong with the water, [he says.] I know that sounds like madness, but it is true.

It's burnt through fishing net and those great slippery sheets that they are using to build camp. [Tarp, he means, but the word fails him for a moment.] It is strange. They do not yet know why it is the rain that falls is does not do the same. [His words are slightly choppy from exertion. Fear, though, more than than the physical rush and speed in and of itself. It takes him a long moment to move his fingers off Esca's arm, and he's doing a piecemeal job of putting his face back into its characteristic reserve.

Everything is fine don't worry about it.]

[brigante]

How can it burn, I don't understand.

[But he's not doubting Marcus' word either. He's always been true to it, and is in the only person that he truly believes here. Esca looks down at where his hand had been resting, and then back to the stream itself.]

It's cursed. The gods have cursed this entire world.

[And possibly all of them on it. He looks back again and nods at the larger man's bow.]

Have you any luck with hunting?