Test Drive Meme #6 (tw violence)

[spoofer]

Test Drive Meme #6

I want neither revenge nor relief.

INTRODUCTION ⇄ FAQ ⇄ APPLICATIONS

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.

BATTLE WITH D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.

November has barely begun, when chaos strikes again^[2]. Perhaps you've had weeks to settle in, finding yourself a new home and getting accustomed to the neighborhoods... or maybe you've had no time at all. Your daemon warns you of a massive invasion coming from the West, the ocean where you first arrived.

The enemy has come for you again. D.E.S.T.I.N.Y., the cosmic threat to not only your homeworld but the entire Multiverse.

When the violence makes land, it's shockingly similar to the exit from your original world, yet mashed in with the experiences and genres and world details of other refugees— soldiers in red armor wielding weapons of all kinds, both advanced and rudimentary; airships, bizarre monsters; firestorms and quakes that seem sentient in the way that they move, pursuing people through the beach and the forest. You see the injured and the dead, and people running in panic. Heat and gunfire break up the ordinary peace of wilderness, driving animals into stampedes and filling the sky with panicking birds.

There are children and doctors and engineers among the many refugees of Xistentia, and not everyone can fight back— but maybe you're one of those who can.

Think fast— that's a crimson spear launching at your head now.


The city's defenses are buckling too. While ordinarily, the civlization possesses unnatural physics that subvert violence, the onslaught starts to wear agains them. The only safe place is the Temple. Here, civilians and injured combatants are banding together to try and boost morale... which coincidentally also can boost the defenses of the land by with the energy collected from emotional connectivity. For better or worse, there is plenty of negative feeling to go around, the air thick with fear.

Whether you're recovering from injury or afraid to fight, you can still contribute here. Tell a story, sing a song, make a meal out of one of the cookfires started in the hallway, or even help with medicine. One thing is for certain: we're in this together.

NETWORK

Today, it's peace time. By now, the city of Xistentia has a population of over 500 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 notification, that reads:

TEXT MESSAGE SENT

It would appear that your daemon accidentally sent a text message misfire.

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. This is connected to the war plot, coming up in November. Please read the announcement for more information! Features include good, old-fashioned violence, hurt/comfort, and "drift compatibility."

Comments

[drapes]

[ thor's temper flares suddenly with a barked laugh, hilarious that Loki should sound so much like their father while still preaching hatred for him. if the pressure for it before hadn't brought him to lashing out, it certainly does now with the tension strung tight between them. ]

And you would know so much about what gives me peace, Loki. You, who's sought to shatter that so deftly.

[ he hadn't forgotten the talk they had on the ship to face malekith, how he'd put his all into assuring thor that he'd mourn jane and live empty for it, so soon after losing frigga. even if this choice was solely about jane, loki still has no place speak like he understands it. ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Loki's eyebrows go up at Thor's sharp reply. For a moment, it seems like the tension has reached its boiling point, but just as quickly as it had built, it fizzles as Loki chuckles softly, bemused. He shrugs loosely, his hands in his coat pockets. ]

I'm a fool who knows no peace. Why do you think I never came back?

[drapes]

[ a fool who knows no peace, well, yes, thor thinks. perhaps not the fool part, but loki certainly hasn't had any kind of peace in his life since thor's exile. perhaps even before that, what does he know, anyway? there'd apparently been plenty no one was telling him, and maybe loki just always harbored these ill feelings towards him quietly. a sad thought to consider, but it's possible. ]

You were never running from the throne, you were running toward it. [ thor corrects him dryly. ] Or a new one, on Midgard.

And I'm not running, I'm just... abdicating. There's a difference.

[ in his head there is, anyway. ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ Thor has a tendency to think events center around him. Which is not really the case. But since it is Thor who has to deal with Loki and not the All-Father, resentment tends to spill out. He wonder if Thor remembers what he said on the Bifrost. Truth made lies and lies made truth. Loki has no way of knowing anymore and that is where his trouble stems.

No, Loki has known no peace. Asgard is both home and nightmare. Sometimes, Thor is too. The lines have blurred beyond all comprehension. Briefly, he recalls the shadow-Thor that lingered in his mind, thunder in his footsteps. I will give you a worthy death, though you cannot reach Valhalla.

They don't let Frost Giants into heaven after all. How sentimentally morbid, Loki thinks wryly, amused by the turn of his own thoughts. But he has never cared much for peace, too chaotic even when he was younger. ]

Is there really?

[drapes]

[ thor flashes his brother a furrowed look, with a near comical half-frown. a lighter version of the irritated looks loki would get when he's telling thor something he doesn't want to hear. perhaps coming closer to other people and the delicacy of their lives made him more frightened of the responsibility of them. making choices that could shatter worlds.

it's easy to be the warrior jumping into the fray. much, much easier. but that's not a string of self-reflection he feels like exploring with loki of all people. ]

Yes. [ he tells him, firmly. ] A big difference.

[ said in the same tone as "it was a mutual dumping". it's followed by a snort and a fidgeting roll of his shoulder. ] What's it to you, besides? Isn't it what you'd wanted?

[dothelokimotion]

[ He blinks before letting out a sharp, amused laugh. As it subsides, Loki rubs his face, the corner of his eyes crinkling. ]

Ah, Thor. Do you even know what I want?