Test Drive Meme #4 (cw vehicular crash, moderate injury)

[spoofer]

Test Drive Meme #4

Fall toward me with your entire body.

CRASH LANDING

Exit one dimension, enter the next. It was chaos: pressure against your ears, light bending in an impossible, unimaginable way. The very molecules of your body vibrating against one another. If you have windows, the view outside makes no sense. Even if not, your hands, your face, your feet seem like an uncertain thing. It's the feel of reality itself tearing apart, reshaping, reconnecting, thread by thread.

And suddenly, there's a beach— or ocean, whichever you land in. Smoke. Fire. Salt water churning up, fizzing around.


Maybe you crash, in a ship wrecking into sand. Maybe you merely stumble out of a portal, a ragged wormhole in space. Or maybe you fall off the back of an incredible steed, some creature that carried you into this place. Either way, there's pandemonium around you. Incredibly, severe injuries are far and few between— nobody's screaming about the dead. But you might have to help pull someone free of wreckage, or move quickly to salvage burning belongings from the landing craft. Maybe it's the crafts themselves, that you're trying to salvage.

Likely, you don't know them, these other strangers who arrived here^[1]. Maybe you don't trust them— you just came out of a dying world, after all. But you all have one thing in common: you're here now.

When you get a second to breathe, maybe you'll see it. The brilliant green forest across the sand. Beyond that, the glint of a faraway city.

FAIRGROUNDS

Xistentia's late summer fair is on! As F.A.T.E.S. learns about different universes and different people, the event looks mismatched, beyond complicated, and you might wonder why, exactly, how to get ride tickets when no money is exchanged. But as you wander through, you can see a rollercoaster, a five-a-side soccer pitch set up for a tournament, facepainting, an archery range, a haunted house, a circus tent, a Ferris wheel, plenty of different food stands with eclectic choices all over, from kebabs to Taiwan's infamous penis-shaped waffles^[NSFW] to popsicles for two. Maybe this is only a front to get people involved with each other?

Everybody is welcome to man a booth, or just walk around and participate in the different activities set up around the fairgrounds.

NETWORK

One afternoon, you are taken from whatever you’re doing - taking a walk through the city, sunning yourself on the beach, running around in the forest shoring up defenses - by a message, appearing on your Daemon’s network screen. It’s a simple line of text, that reads:

NEVER HAVE I EVER...?

If you choose to answer it, you’ll be connected to another player at random. You both get 10 points. The loser? Owes the winner a favor.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

hells yeah

Footnotes

1. Some of these can be nameless, plot-device NPCs to facilitate interactions! But even in this case, please avoid gore in describing their current state of being. Anyone dead or catastrophically injured will have disappeared by the time your characters make it to Xistentia. There are no corpses or dying here.
   
   
2. But like OOCly ask permission ofc.

Comments

[bangitybang]

[janus isn't sure what ezekiel is thinking about, but he has that look in his eye. kind of like how carmela used to be when confronted with when she was playing risk, or how jay used to get when challenged to eat a particularly frightening skateboard trick. he's up to something, probably.

(it's been a long time since they had makeup; just a few months since they put in an earring or changed into nice underthings.)]

Oh all right.

[they -- take a lick. feeling foolish, but wanting ezekiel to be happy, comfortable here in this strange world in which they're marooned. later they'll think about how they've made a mistake. made many mistakes. redrawing boundaries closer to their heart than they had meant to. but right now-- it's just a dick waffle.] You're not very vanilla, [they point out after, looking toward the mini basketball throw game that janus doesn't know the proper name for.] This seems like a mild misrepresentation.

[salveo]

No, I'd say it's an accurate representation of the cock I want to suck. [ First he looked at Janus, then the waffle, then Janus again. It wasn't subtle. His smirk was slight, the look in his golden eyes naughty, and he seemed completely at ease despite the fact that it was only four months ago that Janus had broken his heart.

Maybe it was the new face, it was as if he could start all over and it would be okay. Maybe he was just being an idiot - it wouldn't be the first time. They should talk more about it, clarify the lines and boundaries, but he didn't want to right now. He hated drawing it the first time, he knew he'd hate it even more doing it again. So fuck it.

He bit the tip of the waffled and nodded at the big brown teddy bear. ]

That's more like me, huh? Think you could win it?

[ As if any carnival game had a chance against Janus. Zeke knew that they'd probably be able to do it with their eyes closed, and the thought of that made his chest rise a little higher- a little prouder. ]

[bangitybang]

[janus' ears ignite. figuratively speaking. they look very steadily at the basketball game so as to draw less attention to their mad blush. it's not as if they haven't had people say sexual things to them before— and they sexual things these days! they do. they know how to talk about sex. it's a hard-won skill, after eight years of clumsy fumbling, stilted recovery from heartbreak, learning to separate their body from their heart.

and then ezekiel turns up!! confusing everything with his goofy desserts and compliments.] You're silly, [they tell him, a little primly.] But I will win you the bear because you deserve it, silly or no. [they nod at the person manning the booth, settling in front of the selection of basketballs. they pick one, weighing it in their hand, checking its balance and the solidity of its inflation against their fingers. they stare at the rings, studying the trick to it.]

You're settling in? [they ask.] Meeting people, enjoying yourself?

[salveo]

Yeah, I guess I am.

[ He admitted without even an ounce of shame. But really, when was an incubus ever ashamed? Wait, no, that was a blatant lie, Zeke frequently felt ashamed but not at the moment. Not when he was by the side of the Hunter he loved. Even if they didn't love him back, they were winning him a bear and blushing at his flirtations and that felt nice.

How long he could keep up this illusion was anyone's guess... ]

Meeting a lot of people who have faces I know, but they're not the same people. Have you run into that too? Like, I saw my best friend Rosie and it wasn't her.

[bangitybang]

[illusions have their tactical value. janus knows that as much as the next highly-trained and proficient murderer for a righteous cause, currently on an apocalypse-related vacation from their normal life. they throw the first basketball, their long hands moving elegantly as reeds shifting in the wind. the ball, filled with air and the thinnest rubber, skims lightly off the tips of their fingers. sails high--

--and drops neatly into the topmost hole. the score above the booth immediately lights up with a neat number.] I've met Rosie. Just like our nurse, I remember, but neither that nor married anymore, [they say, as noncommittally as possible. ezekiel had always seen other people, beloved by many of his lovers at a range of ages and across various species, but it's strange for janus to talk about because they were never quite like that when they knew him. eight years ago, they'd gone out on a few dates, but only ever put out for two men. one had broken their heart, and they'd broken zeke's.

but it's not just a diversion, when they pause, then ask:] Do you think the soul of her is the same?

Not just her face, but what her heart is like. What her face looks like when she's sad, and how to make her laugh. You know.

[salveo]

Damn, Jane. We should've signed you up for the team in Mythian. [ His impressed whistle was long and low. ]

Rosie gets married, huh? [ Somehow the future-knowledge of that didn't surprise him and it brought a little smile to his lips. It was strange that so much time had passed for Janus, but Zeke still considered them to be the same person that he knew. Visually different, but their honest heart was the same. ]

I don't know. God moves in mysterious ways. [ He joked slightly as he briefly glanced down at the crucifix around his neck. How funny that it was now the way he communicated with everyone in this place... ] When it comes to souls it's probably best not to ask the guy without one.

I'm trying not to make any comparisons because I want to treat as she is, not as I know her. But yeah, sometimes she smiles and I see my Rosie. Hurts a little. I like the idea that her heart might be the same, but I don't want to put any expectations on her.

[bangitybang]

[janus bounces the tiny basketball in their hand, rather proudly. they assess the hoops again, taking careful measure. and then make another throw, the hollow plastic thunking against the rim of the basket, before dropping neatly through. they manage to refrain from anything as obvious as pumping their fist and jumping around, but they look at ezekiel with some expectation of more praise, only to remember they're talking about something rather more serious.

right. yes, accolades and flattery can wait.] You're beginning to sound like me, [janus tells him.] It's all right to have a few expectations, about being treated well, being honest, receiving honesty in return. Or to talk to her a little about how it was in the other world, if she doesn't mind it, and if you think it would help. [they select the next basketball in their long hands.] I don't think it should be any worse than getting advice or finding a similarity with any other person, perhaps on the basis of culture or species. Sometimes I wonder what other versions of myself would have done in various situations.

[maybe not had sex with rosie, in knowledge that sometimes strangers come from other worlds. but janus has too much tact to bring that up unnecessarily. they toss the next ball.]

[salveo]

Shit, look at that, off the rim! [ Praise came easily to Zeke, especially when he was genuinely impressed by Janus' display of athletics. It was probably something that came naturally for a Hunter, but Zeke would prefer that they use those skills for sports rather than slaying. ]

I'll take that as a compliment. [ Sounding like Janus? There were worse things. ] Maybe. I'll think about it. I just don't want her to mix them up. And I try not to make comparisons in general, I don't think they're fair. I wouldn't want you to look at me and think of someone else.

[ That wasn't subtle. Zeke rarely was. ]

[bangitybang]

[subtle as a jackhammer. janus looks at him a bit quickly, and then actually-- misses their next throw. they aren't very subtle either.] You're like no one else I've ever met, [they say.] And no one I ever will.

[they suspect that isn't what he means, but part of them doesn't want to know what he means exactly. they already feel a little guilty. they'd felt it eight years ago, but it's clearer now in retrospect, how easily they might have fallen for the gym teacher if they hadn't been locked up in agony about a certain psuedo-wizard. but they're refocusing now, picking up the basketball.]

When I'm with you, I'm just with you, [they tell him, because that much is true. and with that, they throw the ball again.]

okay to fade this one here?

[salveo]

[ that made him smile, happy as could be as he enjoyed the rest of his date with Janus at the fair.

Guilt? Maybe later. Not now. ]