xistentiaooc | Test Drive Meme #2

Test Drive #2

I saw a flower, furrow, and brook

New TDMers are free to RP here as if "new" or "established;"
"new" is likely easier to keep in continuity after apping.

When gameplay begins, the second wave will have
their own intro plot and crash log!

CREATURES IN THE DARK

Far away from the city, the wall of light that is F.A.T.E.S. seems calm, glowing peacefully. You’re on an evening walk through the city, or maybe on a camping trip in the woods, or maybe on a romantic date on the beach; whatever it is, you’re outdoors, enjoying the apparent peace and quiet, for once.

That is, until you hear a noise. It’s a rustle, or a step, a branch breaking underfoot, a heavier sound than a human would make. And that’s when you find yourself faced with one of the many Xistentia critters: the Green Backed Bison. She's massive, with small horns and a broad, mossy back, a small calf at her side. She does not appear to want to charge you^[1], but that might change, depending on what you decide to do! Either approach it, run away, or go into aggressive mode; how will you react to being introduced to the incredible fauna of Xistentia?

Glitch in the City

The city of Xistentia now boasts a population of over 200 sentient souls! Congratulations on surviving your apocalypse, now feel free to enjoy the city and outlying forest. Today, a number of local businesses are open, including the local tailor, our diner Pop's Chocklit Shop, and Sue's Salads. For now, the only bar and lounge is the atrium of the Citadel, the outpost overlooking the sea. It's a lovely day to be out and about.

But at midday, the rendering errors begin. New arrivals, those who came into Xistentia since the second crash find themselves subject to a bizarre phenomenon, where a holographic projection seems to be floating above their head! It contains data about the character's marital status, preferences for fun and dating activities, and pet peeves... and perhaps embarrassingly, it isn't necessarily accurate.

As your daemon will explain the glitch is easy enough to fix! You can either move 100 yards from the location where it began, or another character can remove it for you by touching the graphic.

RENDERING ERROR #285
Preferred Alias: F.A.T.E.S. McWeirdo
Marital Status: Hateboning Nemesis
Preferred Dating Activity: Creating new universes, maintaining the equilibrium of the multiverse, organizing temporal divergences/alternate universes, restoring damage inflicted by D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.
Other Enjoyable Activity: DJing music
Pet Peeves: Unfiltered tap water, gluten-fee pasta, unscheduled apocalypses

Optional Code

GAME NIGHT

At 6 p.m., your Daemon starts making noise - a software update is being installed. It lasts for a few minutes, your Daemon mainly unresponsive if you attempt to make it do anything else than upload the data F.A.T.E.S. is sending it. Afterwards, it resumes acting as normal as it did before the update, but if you ask it, your Daemon will tell you:

Upgrade was installed for entertainment and integration purposes; Hangman.exe was installed.

Launch the application, and you will be given a match against one of your fellow citizens who also decided to join the game. On your holoscreen is a rudimentary, simple game of Hangman, as well as a chat window to taunt your opponent if you so choose. However, it becomes clear that F.A.T.E.S. has no idea what she's doing... the first word is 16 letters long, and she has pre-filled in the letters Z, C, and Q.

It's a good day to complain about technology, or start a new game afresh.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

hells yeah

Footnotes

Note any violence or injury in your subject headers, thank you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is.

[janus doesn't sound surprised that she heard them, but they are slightly. they've been trained to hunt all sorts of creatures, sentient and otherwise, since they were young enough to run. they've stalked ravening wolves for miles of frozen. they've shadowed skilled and experienced police through cities. but she hears them, this blond woman in the woods. on the other hand, her fiercely tactical clothing would suggest some sort of training.

they aren't perturbed. they look past her, at the enormous animal and the small one. janus has their bow in hand, a quiver of arrows over their shoulder. they aren't thinking of killing these two for food, not really. it may be the law of nature to prey on the weak and small, but janus affords themself the luxury of being better than nature, sometimes. they're thinking of helping, though, if she means to.]

Are you hunting them? I'm not trying to steal your kill.

[they are a murderer with a rather specific code of ethics. going after young animals might be fair game in a pinch— taking somebody's game from them, now. that's shameful.]

[ anderson didn't hear janus and didn't smell them. she has training, but while it has extended to situational awareness, she's never been that talented or that good. she's an average judge at best, all her test results indicate as much. it's her mutation that allows her to be aware of janus now, that's kept her in the hall of justice when her test results should have gotten her kicked out.

she's thankful for it more often than she's cursed it. ]

I'm not. [ anderson has killed. she understands that sometimes, it is necessary. but janus isn't thinking of killing these two for food, and anderson isn't thinking of killing them at all. ] I want to see them live. [ it seems prudent to declare her intention. ]

[in cassandra's mind's-ear, there's a funny little flutter of thought through janus' mind at that. they had some training at some point, psychic shields, resistance, but their guard isn't up now it's as clear as music when they take pause at her words.] I don't usually think that way, [janus answers, after a moment. looking at things while they're alive. they guess that she doesn't mean, to better learn their habits, that she might plan her move when it is time to hunt.]

They're nice.

[it seems like something arel would believe, except that he'd have more poetry and passion to it. or maybe he'd just be sad, thinking of the mother and her offspring. life and family tend to bring up a lot of shit for hunters. janus watches them for a moment longer.] Are they as nice as the animals in your world?

[ anderson hasn't really met people with mental shields before. she's met dredd, of course. she's found that the helmets interfere with her psychic abilities, that some minds are stronger than others, some people's minds louder or fuller or more vibrant -- but she hasn't met anyone whose mind was shielded.

janus' isn't, now, but the possibility of it is there and that comes as a surprise. there's a lot she doesn't know about minds, about her mutation. ]

There aren't many animals left in my world. [ but that statement is too ambiguous, isn't it? she clarifies -- ] There weren't, even before it ended.

And in yours? [ she's content to keep talking, now that they seem willing to do the same, now that they are not (immediately) planning on hurting the animals or anderson. her voice is pitched slightly lower than usual so as not to disturb the beasts, and while there is no real tension in her body, her posture is still straight, her gaze alert. ]

[there's a pause as janus thinks about that. though they've learned to ask questions in the course of conversation, for some reason they aren't always prepared for the answer. they think of their homeworld, the pegasi, the giant kraken under the sea, the birds that speak poems and signal bad luck.

it's not a hunter's business to think about how beautiful their world is, generally. but when they're quiet awhile, sometimes-- janus knows. and it's nice.]

We have many animals. Or had them. [the mess of the apocalypse makes them less sure of tenses, but not of the fact that—] They were nice like these ones are. They had their own languages and families. [they move their head a little, jutting their chin at the green-backed mother and her calf.]

Test Drive Meme #2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject