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xistentiaooc2017-09-23 06:03 pm
spoofer) wrote in xistentiaooc2017-09-23 06:03 pm
Test Drive Meme #5
Test Drive Meme #5
You wouldn’t wake; i couldn’t sleep for years.
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.
THE RAIN
Here comes the rain. Trickling down the rafters and tinkling down the trees, it starts as a drizzle and steadily increases to a downpour. Maybe it catches you by surprise, chasing you indoors or to share the umbrella of a friendly stranger. There's something oddly elaborate about the gutters of Xistentia's city-- it clearly carries the water toward the temple in the East, a storm system that causes the lamps to pulsate without threatening to shut down.
You'll notice too that you're prone to nostalgia which even infiltrate your dreams, memories sad or happy. This is easily a private experience, but you might find yourself wandering the city to get away from old ghosts or feeling invincible in the glow of memories. More oddly, whether or not you're an artist, you might be inspired to draw on the windows with your finger in the condensation.
Personal symbols, detailed illustrations, these inextricably lead back to the nostalgia. Whatever it is, it might pull someone to ask.
NETWORK
By now, the city of Xistentia has a population of over 400 people. Shops line the streets of downtown, and increasingly well-trodden paths will take you into the agricultural zones nearer to the forest or even down to the beach. There are still distinctive animal presences around— careful with that— but the most common critters you'll see are birds crapping on your stuff outside and tiny winged hairless people creeping your food.
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:
It would appear that your daemon accidentally sent a picture, perhaps one from your photo roll or instagram, or a random shot of you or your surroundings. Wait. Was that a public network post? Wait—
CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE
hells yeah
Footnotes
- 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.
- But like OOCly ask permission ofc.
no subject
whoever it is though sounds awfully chipper and isn't about the whole "shoot first, ask questions later" so steel is going to take what he can get, even if it's with a wary eye. he grabs the gauntlet and hauls himself up. ]
I'm fine. Just always had sensitive lungs, especially when people go flinging sand around everywhere while making a flashy landing like that. Nice one. Ten outta ten.
no subject
Thanks.
[He releases Juno after a moment. Turns his head to scan the beach real quick, assessing the information that his HUD feeds him inside the quiet of his helmet. Fuel receptacles on a fallen craft set to explode, but the people scattering away from it already. There have been enough crashes on this damn beach that people know what to do when ships start to pop off wheezy fires.] I don't have an inhaler, but I can probably put the helmet on your head. Help you balance your O2 stats. Are we worried? You don't look worried, but I'm getting irreverent sarcasm vibes.
no subject
[ well. said sand in the theia spectrum, which makes his right eye do a little bit of a technicolored dance and awkward chameleon roll to the left and right, isn't great, but he's had worse? so he'll deal with it as he's dusted off briefly and gives his own coat a little bit of a shake off. better. closer. warmer. still grainy, but nothing he can't shake out in private probably. ]
It's just a typical Tuesday. I'll be okay. Don't need a bucket on my head, Tin Man, but thanks for the offer. But a change of scenery might be nice. One that's not as sandy.
[ he's worried about 10 million things but they're all screaming so loudly that they go dead silent so he has to fill that silence with sarcasm. it's all good here, iron man. ]
no subject
Sounds good, sugarplum.
[There's a charming metallic swizzswizz zip! sound of fine motor parts moving, as he spreads his arms to offer Juno a proper carry and straightens, his rocket-booted feet planted solidly on the warm sand of the beach.] Princess or fireman's, up to you. Free tip, the latter does not have the benefit of clearing the airway a` la Heimlich. And it's actually— Iron Man. Or Tony Stark. [It seems fair and polite to introduce oneself before the intimacy of rescue.]
no subject
[ he eyeballs his outstretched arms, his own folded a little as he tries to make a choice quick. ]
And I'll have the one with the least turbulence, minor collateral damage via barf, and a view that doesn't include staring death in the face. So princess it is, uh--Tony. We'll go with Tony.
[ boy. that's a name. iron man. it's not one he knows, we're not fourth walling here, but that's a silly ass name. then again, juno's kind of been turned off superheroes for a long time so maybe that's it, it just reminds him of those stupid comics from when he was a kid. that and no one's name is ever going to beat "andromeda the chainmail warrior" so you didn't stand a chance to begin with. but anyways.
not everyone can be cool like andromeda.name aside, he's being offered a ride, which is nice considering every bone in his body still feels a little tender from... whatever the hell that was and while he might refuse under normal circumstances, these aren't normal. so he'll just take it. and try not to vomit.
heights are the fucking worst. ]
no subject
He puts his robot arms under Juno and lifts him easily. The next instant, the boot repulsors are fired up again, scattering concentric circles across the uneven pits of beach sand. If heights are the actual worst, then Juno's life gets significantly worse in that instant— the Iron Man suit is a miracle of engine power!! and shoots them both up into the sky with stomach-dropping suddenness. Of course, it could be a considerably more violent takeoff; Tony's being gentle, sort of.]
And you are?
[He's audible over the rush of wind noise.]
no subject
don't look down is probably easy advice to remember from all of rita's streams, but holy shit is it hard not to. which is why juno is definitely squeezing his eyes shut. haha heights, fuck you, can't see you (but he can sure feel them. wow. yikes.)
he can hear tony over the sound of the wind, which seems like a good distraction so he just clings a little. maybe peeks with one eye to focus very firmly on some portion of tony's suit instead. yeah. that works. ]
A detective. No fancy weird name or anything.
[ that'll do! ]
no subject
A detective, [he repeats.] Well shit. What do you specialize in, Mr. Steel? Adultery or corporate espionage? I've had to hire a few of those myself back when I ran the company.
Well, HR and various-- delegated representatives did the hiring. But my name was involved as a general rule. [Stark Industries, it would have been on the letterhead of most offer letters made, the signed contract, the check. But Tony has watched enough movies and been peripherally related to enough of the arguments and negotiations and board room meetings to know about a little about it. Emphasis on 'peripherally.']
no subject
[ juno thinks about his clients, thinks about how that's going to work here really. but that's a train of thought for later. alone. probably. ]
I get hired by guys like you sometimes, I guess. Big money makers: political types, execs, celebrities, pharmaceutical royalt... [ he glances up a moment, catches some clouds out of his peripherals--yikes. ] y... ee... [ a breath, eyes closed a second. ] Royalty. The usual suspects.
no subject
Royalty. Mars have a King and Queen?
[For better or worse, they're already on their descent. Iron Man does it gently, at least until he's asked for it a different way. He shifts his boots, throttles back, and Juno can probably feel the shift in his center of gravity, the slight pressure in his ears.]
no subject
[ juno's voice is deadpan, but not unkind. they land and he feels that sinking sensation in his stomach, the sharp pressure pushing in on his ears as he feels the dust of the ground kick up the tail end of his coat. it makes him hold on all the tighter for a moment until he can speak without any worry of getting debris in his mouth. ]
And no. Pharmaceutical royalty. Julian DiMaggio prances around like a prince, but he doesn't have a drop of royal blood in him, I'd know.
no subject
Peter Parker needs a lot of siblings, okay, his dad is a good example of how only children will turn out, or a bad example, depending on how you tend to value worst case scenarios. Carefully-- but without fanfare, Iron Man releases the other man back unto the earth, only after he seems to have secured his footing.].
Big Pharma, [he says.] You'll find that Xistentia is too young and innocent for that kind of thing yet, barely an economy at all. But don't get too complacent. If you're a PI, I'm betting Martian nature has some similarities to human nature, and we'll make a mess soon enough. [He offers a red-and-gold armored gauntlet. Handshakesies!]