revivalprojectooc | WINTER TEST DRIVE MEME

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WINTER TEST DRIVE MEME

WINTER TEST DRIVE MEME
Application FAQ | Taken Characters | Reserves | Application

Welcome to the Current Test Drive for The Revival Project!

This game is a spin-off from the closed The Drift Fleet game. For more information about the game, including more details on the setting, please check out the FAQ here or the premise here.

A thread on the TDM will be required for all applications. Please view the FAQ for information about how this works. Any questions about the game please direct to the comment section of the FAQ as well.

If you are a Drift Fleet alumni bringing your character from the game, please label your character as 'DFAU' on your top level. Also, keep in mind you have complete flexibility on how your character comes here. They could be taken before endgame, after endgame, two years after, one year before, etc. It's up to you! If you want to completely restart your character, they're not considered DFAU anymore and won't need the label.

So go! Explore Agra 10! And, as always, HAVE FUN!

Thread ideas:

Explore the city!

Here's a map and a bit more description of some of the buildings here.

Most of the buildings are run down and have clearly been abandoned for years; fortunately, the water treatment center appears to be working, but power is intermittent and unreliable. What used to be stores or places to live in lies in ruins, but there may still be something to scavenge among the rubble. Do you want to risk a swim in the flooded area that has turned into a deep lake that has yet to be fully explored; or does it draw you to some of the more prominent and partially restored buildings, such as the hotel, the hospital or the amphitheater.

If you are lucky, you might even stumble over The Deep End, the bar located on one of the mid-levels of the tower residences in one of the residence towers. Unfortunately no bright neon signs can lead you there, but it does exist.

Visit the spaceships!

That's right, there are currently several small spaceships grounded in the hangar - Or what remains of them. It's painfully obvious that these ships have crash-landed not too long ago and were taken back to the hangar for repairs. You were assigned to one of them and its doors will open for you and let you enter if you wish. (For test drive purposes, the ship that will let you enter is up to you, so just pick whichever name appeals, and go for it!) The other ships won't open for you, but as neither of them look as if they will be leaving anytime soon that doesn't really matter either way.

Maybe look around anyway. Or try your hand at some repairs?

Try the network!

Upon arrival, your character will have on their person a small, handheld communications device. Maybe they know exactly how to use a computer, smartphone, or tablet, and immediately blast out a text or video trying to figure out what's going on. Or maybe they're not so tech-savvy after all, and everyone is about to get a lovely shot right up your character's left nostril.

There be storms...

These power-altering storms keep ravaging parts of the planet every once in a while. No one truly knows where they come from or what to do about them yet, but one of them appears to be approaching. You have the option to find shelter in one of the buildings to wait for it to pass. Unless, of course, you rather feel drawn to investigate.

Should you step inside the storm, or even get lost in it, it will show ghosts of people you know and those you don't. It drains you of any super-human abilities and tries its best to keep you from getting to its origin. Are you going to try anyways? Or are you going to chase the whispers of people from your past? Maybe you will simply find yourself calling for help or stumble across another lost soul in need of assistance.

More information can be found here.

Wildcard!

You're welcome to use any previous test drive scenarios or previous game events as a basis for a thread/situation, or simply make up your own! Keep in mind that you're currently stranded on a planet with only basic necessities, but there is enough food and fresh water. Creature comforts, however, seem to be distinctly lacking. Quite unlike a gathering of potentially dangerous creatures to encounter. The setting is yours to explore and have fun with!

✧ Premise ✧ FAQ ✧ Rules ✧ Test Drive ✧ Taken ✧ Reserves ✧ Application ✧
✧ Map ✧ Devices & Network ✧ Data Points ✧ Ships ✧ Flora ✧ Fauna ✧ Supply Requests ✧
✧ Player Plot Suggestion ✧ Player Contacts ✧ Player Permission Code ✧ Hiatus ✧ Drop ✧

code bases by tricklet

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Ikora stopped and cocked her head, cautious. Nothing in her expression gave away the pounding of her heart. "Ophiuchus, what am I seeing?"

Her ghost rushed forward and circled around Cayde and Sundance, scanning them both and then excitedly rushed back to Ikora. "It's Cayde. No trick."

Cayde? Alive? Ikora should be relieved or excited but instead she was... almost afraid. She had only recently come to terms with Cayde's True Death but here he was in this strange place.

"Where are we, Cayde?" She asked as she stopped in front of him and looked him over.

He had cycled through perhaps several different greetings before spouting whatever came to mind. He accounted the initial reaction from his fellow Vanguard as acceptable given the situation. As Ophiuchus came forth to inspect them, he scowled a little at the additional scan, casting a glance at Sundance who he knew was happy to see another Ghost despite her trademark pokerface.

And then there were other tells that Cayde wasn't sure what to make of, but he quickly stamped that thought before it could grow into actual worry. It was easy to do when he was actually happy to see Ikora, and there was no forcing of smiles as she approached him. He gave an obliging spin as though intent on convincing her he was in the figurative flesh, pausing to face her again with arms open for a hug despite knowing the invitation is never reciprocated.

"Welcome to Temba! Long abandoned city of the Agrii on a planet known as Agra Ten. System, unknown. It's a fixer-upper, definitely, but we make do."

More than anything that open armed offer of a hug convinced Ikora it was truly Cayde-6. So many times she had walked into a Vanguard Council to that very safe gesture and very same expression. She had known him for hundreds of years. She would know an imposter.

"It's good to see you, Cayde." She didn't hug him but she did reach out and pat his arm, her touch lingering longer than usual. It was as affectionate as Ikora was known to get.

She folded her arms behind her back again. "I assume you've already scouted far and wide trying to find a way home?"

Because a Hunter never stayed in one place long and with no Vanguard to tether him... well, Cayde must wander.

The hug shifted into a shrug of the 'hey, I tried!' sort, but the Exo tilted his head at her touch. Oh, but he had questions. Instead, he folded his arms, giving her a nod.

"Of course! Except the guys pulling us in don't play fair, so I haven't been able to just put a bullet in someone's head to fix things. I mean, otherwise you wouldn't here too, now." He gave a brief gesture around.

"I'm gonna be honest with you, scouting farther than this city is damn boring because it's nothing but woods for miles and no promise of anything to actually find on the other side of it."

"Are they dangerous?" She asked with a frown. Now, Cayde's style of negotiation was usually a bullet but Ikora's mind is on the mystery of how these Agrii pulled them away.

Cayde is clearly from before his death and unaware of it. Yet, her time went on. What sort of beings could do that? It's arguably more powerful than Hive magic. Throne worlds existed outside of time but...

"What have you been doing with nothing to explore besides trees?" There didn't seem to be much to this place. She was reminded of the first stages of the Last City when they were rebuilding. Rubble and a few structures.

"The Agrii? Nah. They're practically like over-sized children. Tall, pink fangy children with four arms and three eyes- no relation to Eliksni."

Cayde turned, walking a small circle. "It's a little more complicated than just the Agrii though. There's someone else pulling the strings." He waved a hand, not terribly inclined to get into that whole mess without having a drink to pass the time with.

"Eh, fixing things up, getting to know people." It was pretty reminiscent of the early days of the Last City, if not the recent rebuilding. "There's unfortunately not much by way of treasure. Even less of weapons. I know, I know- how have I not gone crazy by now!"

"Three eyes sounds more like Hive." What Ikora imagined in her head was something of a mix between the two races. And pink. They must be powerful to pull people from their homes and kept them trapped like bugs in a glass jar. "Have they said what they want?"

At least it was a relatively nice jar. Ikora imagined she would still test the limits of it and try to unravel the mystery. She was a Warlock, after all. Reality was, at best, a suggestion.

"All those years as Vanguard tempered you for this moment. You can handle such idleness now." Though, knowing Cayde as she did he must have found something more to occupy himself.

"Well, they are moist..." Okay, Hive weren't exactly moist but they could be gooey sometimes. "They want he-rows to help save their home." Cayde drew his hands outward to indicate their surroundings. "Something messed up their planet and brought on these weird storms- that I'm not entirely sure those are natural, by the way but um, we'll add that to the 'complicated' file."

Ikora's point made him grin lopsidedly. "True, I mean especially after all those meetings with you and Zavala?" he said as he danced over to her side, giving her a little nudge with his elbow. "Oh yeah, I set up a bar. This place didn't have one- can you believe that? I would've thought it would be one of the first things to go up. Guess people had other things on their mind." Either that or they hadn't been here that much longer than he had when he'd first arrived.

Ikora looked around. She didn't see any threats but the mention of unnatural storms caught her interest. "And they haven't explained more than that or you didn't listen when they did?"

Hunters for all their spying and stealth were also rather direct in dealing with problems. Like Titans. They killed them. If there had been an enemy to fight this would be an easy problem to solve. Something more was going on underneath this. The sort of problem that required a Warlock.

She ducked her head and smiled briefly before raising it again. "Of course you set up a bar." She paused a moment. "Will you show me?"

"I was listening!" Cayde protested, perhaps all too hard. "Look- it didn't make much sense at first, but then one hit and things just went screwy."

It wasn't an experience he was all too eager to share in detail with just anyone, but he knew all he'd have to do was mention names and she'd understand. "Most everyone got the info from a data-orb thingy, but I didn't feel like having information uploaded straight into my head so all I've had otherwise was hearsay."

There was time enough to explain on the way. With Ikora asking to see the bar, Cayde brightened, eager to show off something he put together. He swept a hand in the direction they were to go, starting along to lead the way.

Well, Warlocks were familiar with power storms. She would like to experience one to understand exactly what Cayde meant. Or perhaps someone else here had paid attention and could explain in more detail.

"I had Ophiuchus download the data-orb as well." Because both Ikora and her ghost liked having all the information.

She followed at a more sedate pace, studying everything around them but always at Cayde's side.

Cayde pointed out things as they went, not that there were too many things of interest going down the way they did. That was the diner, over there was the road leading up to the hangar- ignore the scorch marks over there as they weren't entirely his fault, the clocktower in the distance where he liked to keep an eye on things...

"Of course you did," he said, not at all surprised that Ikora and her Ghost had ate up that information willingly. Maybe he was just being stubborn about it. But it was also an experiment. So far as he knew, most everyone that arrived on-planet directly seemed inclined to touch the thing. Was there any sort of side-effect to it? Without a choice, would ever know?

"For the Agrii, the storms are deadly. The only actual evidence we have of this is from some recordings from how long ago by some kind of show by these guys called the Atroma- again, complicated," he said, cutting himself off from getting too into things, hands waving about as though to physically scatter details from conglomerating.

"And yeah, they're what you think when you first hear 'storm.' Wind, rain, thunder, lightning, the whole package. Except I think it's a cover for whatever's actually causing the unnatural effects."

Cayde? Stubborn? Ikora expected it. But the knowledge is important. She understands a bit of where she's found herself. It's better to hear it from Cayde though. She trusted his thoughts and opinions, his sense of this place.

"We know how to walk through a storm, don't we?" She raised an eyebrow at him. Arc wasn't either of their favored classes but with their ghosts they should be able to withstand any storm and investigate what was happening. "Or... is the Light not here with us?"

Ikora felt like it was. She thought if she reached out she could pull the Void to her. She hadn't tried yet. It wasn't like being on Earth but the Light was there if a little dim.

"The Light's here, in some capacity, to some degree. Don't know if there's any limitations to it considering how far we are, but Sundance has so far at least managed to patch me up the few times I've needed it."

The Hunter fell into step with her, his voice taking on a more serious tone. "The storm cuts us off from it. It felt just like that time..." He didn't have to specify, figuring they both knew all too well when he was talking about. "Not just the Light, but it messes with other people's powers here too. There's a good number of people here who have something extra, hell, there's one kid who says it's magic. But whatever this is? It just interferes with it." He looked ahead, optics narrowing.

"Funny thing is, the first time it happened wasn't even in a storm. It was out in space, when we were actually called to aid the Agrii on their ship. Something the enemy ships fired, scrambled the systems on the ship and the Light was just flickering in and out like one of those old world light bulbs when you don't screw 'em in tight enough."

Cayde didn't need to explain. Ikora understood perfectly. When they were Lightless. It had shaken her confidence to be without the Light after centuries with it. Yet, they had rallied together behind the young Guardian and found it again. They had fought even knowing they could die.

Perhaps these storms required that potential sacrifice.

"If the Cabal could figure out how to cut us off from the Light, why couldn't another species? We have some understanding of how the device worked so... what we need to do is capture those weapons. If we have the opportunity. So we can study them." Of course, Ikora's mind had leapt ahead. She did tend to think in the future.

"If you're right about the storms being a weapon with the same effect, we can stop it once we understand what it is and where it is."

That wasn't something Cayde begrudged her for. He anticipated that she'd be right along track with that, and he was all for it. If only it was so simple.

"And therein lies the rub," he pointed out, quoting from...he wasn't sure save that he'd probably read it in one of the Speaker's books once. "The ships were rigged to blow before we could do any investigating. The attack on the Agrii? Staged. Even the supposed invaders on their ship were just some hapless aliens that got pulled in from a nearby planet, handed guns and left confused in unknown surroundings."

They eventually came upon the grouping of buildings where the bar was included, ironically named (if not so ironically chosen) the Tower residences. He led Ikora around to the entrance of one structure, hopping up the slightly tall stairs.

"Not sure where the storms, or whatever's producing those effects, is located. We thought maybe the radio tower at the northwestern edge of the city might be key since when me and a couple of buddies went to check it out one day, we were experiencing similar distractions when we got closer."

Ikora let that information sink in. A staged attack. Even staged, there was a lesson there. They weren't able to investigate but they had seen the weapons and knew the effects matched the storm. It was still valuable.

"And what happened when you reached the radio tower?" she asked as she followed him up the stairs. They were oddly spaced for stairs. Almost slightly too tall to walk up comfortably.

Cayde's bar was a surprise. More orderly than she expected. And the wall of glass with the fish was beautiful. Almost meditative. He had done well but Cayde was always more thoughtful that people gave him credit for.

"It's beautiful, Cayde," she said with a small smile towards him.

"We'd see and hear things. Couldn't trust ourselves. Thankfully Sundance was helping steer us straight, and Jon suggested we just keep talking to keep focused. That was along with that feeling of the Light cutting out on us. I think it was a defense system of sorts, only happened at a certain radius and then tapered off once we got close enough to the tower itself.

"Back when it was still on, it had a blinky light up top, but when I tried to go up to check it out, something pushed me back down. -and then Jon accidentally shot at the tower itself with Tony's power gauntlet thingy and nearly blew us all up when the tower sent a wave of energy back at us in response." Technically Jon accidentally nearly shot him, but Cayde had managed to dodge.

Cayde's countenance seemed to brighten at Ikora's appraisal of the bar. He opened up his arms as he stepped backwards to let her take things in. "Welcome to the Deep End." He was quick to scamper towards the bar counter itself, looking right at home there.

Ikora's first thought was she wanted to examine this tower herself. To get a sense of it for herself though she trusted Cayde's report on the experience. He had his secrets but not once had he lied on a report to her. They were a fireteam.

"And have you gone back since then?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. It sounded like whomever he had gone with weren't very well trained if they had attacked the thing they investigated. Perhaps it had played with their minds as a protection.

She followed him to the bar and sat down. It was good to see him again. Ikora had missed him terribly. "The Deep End, you always did have a way with names."

Cayde's metal face didn't allow for more minute shades of expression but he still managed to pull off something suggesting the wrinkling of a nose, if he had one. "Yeah, the whole thing's been powered down. For the record, even before then I had Sundance take a crack at the systems we found but she couldn't make heads nor tails of it."

He turned to pull out a bottle from the shelf behind him, setting it on the counter with some glasses from beneath the counter itself. "Like it? I figured it was appropriate, given the um, lake behind you and well." He hefted the bottle meaningfully before he set to pouring a couple of drinks for them.

If a Ghost couldn't understand it there was something very powerful there. And yet, hearing that didn't dampen any of Ikora's curiosity. Before her was a puzzle with a seemingly impossible solution. The perfect problem for a Warlock. "She should share the data with Ophiuchus anyway. For fun."

She picked up her glass and toasted him. "I do like it. It's very... you, Cayde."

And she meant that fondly. This place was dangerous and unnatural but she felt better knowing he was here and alive. That Cayde lived on. The Tower had never felt the same after his death and yet, they had all moved on.

"Sure, they can hook up later. I'm sure Ophy wants to catch her up on all the latest juicy gossip." He pointedly ignored the subtle 'eye-roll' from Sundance, lifting his glass along with Ikora before he paused.

"Wait, should I take offense?" Cayde set his free hand over where one's heart would be in mock offense, spoiled all too quickly by a snicker and a shake of his head.

"I'm glad it's getting its mileage. I mean, who wouldn't figure- everyone needs a place to drink right? Or just convene and, I dunno, take in the strange, alien aquatic life," Cayde shrugged, then tipped his glass back.

Ophiuchus was almost as reserved as Ikora but he bobbed closer to Sundance, also glad to see his old friend. They would certainly talk, perhaps he would reveal what his Guardian would not.

"Are you offended by yourself?" she countered with her eyebrow raised and a very small smile.

She sipped her drink. It was certainly alcohol but not Earth alcohol. "You must be everyone's favorite here then. Providing them drinks and entertainment. It doesn't seem very exciting otherwise."

Compared to Cayde, Sundance was not as free with her words, speaking only when necessary. Her pseudo-stoic exterior didn't betray the wild, daring streak that she tended to share with her Guardian although there were those who knew better. She swiveled a glance towards Ophiuchus before tipping just slightly on her axis in something of a nod. And then she turned to watch her Guardian flounder.

Cayde opened his mouth, then closed it again with as close a proximation to a scowl as he could manage, an expression lasting only a second or two as he coughed and busied himself with filling his glass again.

"What do you think? Got this during a pit stop when we were heading out to the Agrii ship," he asked, diverting to the next available subject. "It's got a nice smoky edge to it." He rested an elbow on the counter, turning his glass.

"Eh, I do what I can. It's way too easy to get serious around here. Everyone's got their concerns- completely valid ones I'll admit, but it's not like we're going to get everything done in a day, or a week, even months. We've been here that long and it still looks like we've only scratched the surface on this place, and this mystery."

It was rare Ikora made Cayde speechless with a quip. He always had a quick tongue and a snappy comeback for just about any comment someone might make. Those rare moments she managed it were memorable moments in their long friendship.

“It’s good.” She held the glass up and studied the liquid. “Almost a well aged bourbon but not quite.”

Ikora looked around the glass to study him. He was being serious about that. No one had made much progress while he was there. “And how much of an effort has been made? Besides your expedition and the fake attack?”

How much worked was ahead of her with this mystery? A Warlock wouldn’t get restless like a Hunter with all this intrigue and unknown around.

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