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

[ A TRUE FRIEND. he sees that smile, okay, but he won't say anything since axel is also avoiding looking directly at the hologram. he's trying!! and alec appreciates that a lot.

but he's not yet quite relaxed. ]

Just walking? [ he looks back up at it, around at their surroundings. what if someone else sees, though? what if they cross paths with someone else they know, who won't be as polite as axel is?

but at this point... he starts walking. ]

How do they even know all this?

(deleted comment)

[ alec keeps looking up as they walk, waiting for the moment the thing disappears from existence. at this point, though, it's not much of a reassurance, what with axel's addition.

it makes sense, but alec hadn't really thought of it like that. not until now, seeing details about himself, some he considers extremely private, hovering above his head for all to read. the pop up might disappear, but they'll still have all that knowledge, won't they? and more. there could be more glitches, and bigger secrets revealed. ]

Great. Just what I needed. Some omniscient computer program that knows everything about me.

[ it's true eudio had a lot of information on them, but it never felt this specific or invasive to alec. he's sure they didn't keep track of who spent time with who in the city, too, wanting to preserve their volunteers' privacy. so it feels different. like eudio had knowledge necessary about their worlds to know who to reach out to, while this place... this place just knows.

and might release or use the information in whatever way it sees fit. ]

It's different. This place feels different. [ that's the only way he can think of putting it into words. ] I don't like thinking them having all this information means someone else here could figure out a way to tap into it.

[ that's another danger, isn't it? even if F.A.T.E.S. means and will cause no harm, is the information protected from other refugees here, who might not be so kind with it? there's no way to know. ]

[ alec sticks his hands into his pockets only to still them from fidgeting, doing his best to ignore the box, not meeting the eyes of anyone who walks past them as they keep walking. how far should he walk before giving up and deciding it's not going anywhere?

he doesn't like this, either. guessing games. ]

We better hope everyone's too focused on settling here or figuring out how to save their world.

[ doesn't help there's no one responsible, either. no one with a face, not a person. they're kind of left to their own devices in a world and a war that isn't their own. ]

You don't know that a person from a world much more advanced won't show up.

[ okay, so he can admit the odds of that plus this person wanting to cause them harm with personal information such as what people enjoy on dates are low.

still a concern. ]

Not like we have much of a choice, anyway.

The only part?

[ alec raises his eyebrows. he could roll out a scroll of things he finds grating about this entire situation.

as proven by his glitch box. ]

Could always be worse. [ reassuring. ]

I heard the city was in worse shape when you first got here. [ it's kind of a question, there, fetching for axel's thoughts on that and considering axel has been here longer than alec.

it might provide some insight, but it's strange to think of the city as evolving over time, somehow providing them with what they want and need in the process. ]

[ huh. interesting. ]

So the more people show up the more quickly the city will fix itself.

[ he's curious how this fits into everything else. this war between all worlds, this force attacking every universe. ] Why is it set up like that, do you think?

That's an improvement. [ no showers... at least everyone had to be in the same boat at the time, so it was probably more tolerable than it sounds.

still. alec likes things clean, including people and himself. ]

I suppose we'll find out more the more the city repairs itself. Some new information might be found, or the system might give us more to go off of.

[ it's not necessary, per se, but alec prefers knowing as much as he can about his environment, so he'll take anything, any clue or hint to make sense of the bigger picture. ]

Test Drive Meme #2

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