revivalprojectooc | SPRING TEST DRIVE MEME

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SPRING TEST DRIVE MEME

SPRING 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!

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Temba Spring Time!

Spring has reached Temba, which means the flowers and plants are blooming not only in the greenhouse. Though it remains a safe enough place to observe and cultivate them, many of them are sprouting freshly through the cracks in what remains of the city's infrastructure.

But the plants aren't the only ones waking up with the warmer temperatures. Temba's wildlife is no exception. Most of the smaller critters can be seen more commonly around the city and should your steps take your near the old library building, you may even encounter half a dozen or more young mothkittens learning to fly, warming their wings up in the sun or napping at the side of the building. Just beware that these little fiends love everything that glitters and will try to claim it for themselves.

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She glances sidelong at Cal as she falls into step beside him, the interaction between him and BD-1 bringing a small, quick smile to her face, there and gone.

"The mother," she repeats thoughtfully. "Yes, we should make sure her child is safe. Before she is not just curious," she adds after a beat, so deadpan that it's hard to tell if she's joking or not. But from what she knows of mothers, their children mean everything to them, and there's nothing they won't do to ensure their safety. She certainly wouldn't want to test Countess on that point.

And maybe she understands a friendship that started off on the wrong foot.

Speaking of—there's something that's nagging her a little bit. He hasn't asked her a single question about what happened—or will happen—after he returns to Dathomir, and honestly? She can't definitively say she would do the same thing, were their positions reversed.

"You're not curious at all. Of the future I know." She says it like a statement, but it's really a question. Earlier, she'd stopped herself from telling him anything, but now she figures she should give him the chance to decide for himself if he want to know.

"Yeah. I've seen her not-curious side." Granted the situation then had been an unnatural one, but it had still been a reminder that these are technically wild creatures. As they near, some of the little ones cease their play to stare at them, the remaining either oblivious or too intent in their play to care. It looks like a few more have come out to enjoy the sun.

"...I am," Cal replies, if carefully. "It's hard not to be, you know? But...at the same time, I'm not sure if I should be asking." He forces a laugh at that, running his hand through his hair in a sort of restless way. "It's kind of a funny thing to be saying when I've already been told and in turn told others things, but I guess it's...different? When it's coming from someone I've actually met."

He looks at Merrin again, his expression almost uncertain. "...does that make sense? It's kind of hard putting it into words," he says before shaking his head, snorting lightly. "It's like... I'm anxious to know. But at the same time it just seems like things must have turned out all right here and there." Her not trying to kill him had been a definite giveaway, and not at all a bad thing.

"So maybe that's why I thought, I'm fine not asking." He pauses. "Unless... you think there's something I should know?"

As they approach, Merrin keeps a hand close to her talisman, just in case, while her eyes scan the crowd of mothkittens, searching for the one that stole from her earlier—though she isn't sure how she's supposed to tell any of them apart. Maybe Cal will recognize it, because she certainly doesn't.

...What a loaded question. Her gaze is piercing as it sweeps over him, tracking the hand he runs through his hair, the way he shakes his head, before settling on his face. It occurs to her that he last knew her as an enemy, and yet he's still so open and honest with her, extending his trust that she isn't going to lie or deceive him. It's so...

"You should know that..." She hesitates, shifting her weight uncomfortably, suddenly awkward. You are my friend is what she wants to say, but instead what comes out is: "You gave me a path forward."

Cowardly, maybe, but they mean the same thing to her, in the end. Pressing her lips together, she pushes past the awkwardness.

"Beyond that, I will not make the decision for you, Cal Kestis," she says, but then softens it by adding, "I was there, at the end of your quest for the holocron. That is when I arrived here."

Her expression gives away nothing about whether he succeeded or not. But if he wants to know—if he wants to know anything about what happened between his leaving Dathomir and the end of his mission—then he need only ask. That's her offer.

The actual number of Countess's litter isn't something Cal had found out. One of the more active mothkittens extracts itself from its sibling to bound towards them, half leap-fluttering as it still hasn't gotten the use of those wings figured out just yet. It circles Cal and then goes to sniff at Merrin's boots.

Cal's attention follows it only briefly as he meets Merrin's gaze, waiting as she works out her response. Their last meeting had been a tense one, but he still recalled the exchange between the Nightsister and Talon Maricos. He'd been in a vulnerable position, unsettling as Maricos' words had been then. Maybe Merrin's interruption hadn't been an entirely bad thing.

You gave me a path forward.

He hadn't been sure what to expect her to say. His initial surprise softens into an expression that's difficult to identify at first, but it eventually warms into a smile. He doesn't know the circumstances, but he doesn't doubt the importance of having a path of direction set before you. Bracca seems like a lifetime ago to him, but he'd moved on. He's still moving forward. It's not an easy thing to do, but the first step's the most important thing. And apparently Merrin's decided to do the same, and at least in her time, her path hadn't been all that far from his own.

Her words don't detail how that mission had turned out, but maybe the outcome isn't that important, not right now. "Maybe some time I'll ask how that went," he says, pausing before adding, "...thanks for telling me."

Watching his expression change, it's hard—impossible, really—for her to stop herself from smiling in return, warm and open, and she nods her head to wordlessly acknowledge his thanks, even if she considers it wholly unnecessary. This only really scratches the surface of everything he's given her—a new purpose, a release from her anger and vengeance, a galaxy to explore, a... friend—but it's a start.

Looking down to find a mothkitten at her feet, she kneels to the ground and reaches her hand out to pet it. Slowly and gently, so as not to startle it, because she knows all about wild, skittish things.

"Does this one have a name?" she asks curiously. It's maybe not one of the questions he'd had in mind when he told her that she could ask him anything, but she's distracted. The kitten paws at her hand, and she wiggles her fingers playfully in front of its face.

Whatever had happened, Cal's just glad that he's made a friend rather than an enemy. When there's an entire Empire that would rather have you dead, it's nice knowing you have people on your side.

He rests his hands on his knees as he watches Merrin play with the mothkitten. "I'm not sure, actually. This is the first time I've been able to see them," he admits, crouching down. This one seems familiar enough with them that he'd guess it's the culprit who had run off with Merrin's talisman in the first place. At least fingers occupy it enough.

Behind him, suddenly BD-1 gives a trill. "Uh-oh, we're being surrounded?" Cal asks as he glances over his shoulder, and then past his droid buddy as he notices the movement, several more little fuzzy green creatures pausing from their slinking at being seen.

In order to prevent another theft, she takes her talisman out again and clutches it firmly in her hand. It immediately catches the lothkitten's interest, but she holds it out of reach even as the creature tries to lunge for it, paws extended. It almost becomes a game, after a few times.

"You will not succeed a second time, little one," she informs the kitten, almost like a stern parent, but her expression isn't nearly as firm as her tone.

BD-1's alert makes her glance around at the audience they've attracted and she stands again, straightening the fabric of her tunic. Almost idly, she says, "These creatures are much friendlier than the ones on Dathomir."

Cal chuckles at the game of keep-away. "Won't be as easy once these guys learn how to fly," he suggests. "Got any names for that one?"

BD-1 beeps and hops off of his back, taking a few cautious steps towards the little ones. Some retreat, a couple coming back to sniff at the droid. Eventually one gets over its wariness enough to try pouncing.

"I'd have to agree though. My experience with the creatures on Dathomir were...not that great," Cal says wryly as he starts to stand himself.

A name? She shoots him a surprised look, because she's never been asked to name anything before in her life. In fact, she probably hasn't named anything at all in years, not after... well, either way, she gives the lothkitten a good amount of consideration, the expression on her face probably more serious than it should be for such a task.

"You shall be Voroka," she pronounces finally, using a Dathomiri word that brings out even more of her accent. That's all she says on the subject, though—he's going to have to ask about a translation if he wants it. No free lunches over here.

She turns to look at him, her eyebrows raising. "Yes, I saw." Her tone is impossibly dry. Did you think she wasn't watching your every move while you were on Dathomir, Cal? Because she was.

The look alone almost makes him laugh for how surprised Merrin apparently is. Cal arches a brow expectantly, unable to help for a crooked smile at how serious she seems to take the matter. But then names are important, after all.

"Vo...Voroka?" he echoes, trying his best not to mimic how she'd pronounced the word. "Does that have a particular meaning?" He watches the newly appointed Voroka yawn and stretch, perhaps a little tired out from all the running and jumping around earlier.

It's not quite a grimace as Merrin bluntly states that she'd witnessed his misadventures, but Cal knows his encounters with Dathomir's local wildlife hadn't exactly been painless. "Nice to know I wasn't just being paranoid," he mutters almost petulantly. It had been bad enough Dathomir just had that sort of atmosphere, but he could never shake that feeling of being watched when he was out there.

"Yes. Little thief," she answers bluntly. As usual, she's maybe a little too literal, but she happens to think it's a very fitting name for such a creature. It isn't entirely without fondness, at least, judging by the way she watches Voroka bound away to a sunny spot on the grass, her head tilted slightly.

As for Cal... she watches him frown out of her corner of her eye. If she were anyone else, his reaction would make her smile, clearly pleased with herself—but her sabacc face is too good for that, and the only indication that she might be teasing him is in the way her eyes crinkle a little at the corners, the humor there if you look hard enough.

Of course, she didn't watch him all the time, for various reasons, but if he wants to believe it then she isn't going to correct the misconception. But no, she'd watched him enough, to keep an eye on his whereabouts and gauge his strength. He might consider them misadventures, but she knows very well how dangerous Dathomiri wildlife is.

"It is impressive that you survived." The way she phrases it, it could be an insult or a compliment, and her deadpan delivery makes it nearly impossible to tell which one. (In truth... it's the latter.)

"Heh! I guess that's fitting." Now, will the little thief live up to its name? Cal can already tell that one's going to be trouble.

As for his experience on Dathomir, well, there are plenty of things he can do without having to go through again, no matter what BD-1 might say. Thankfully chirodactyls don't seem like that common a creature there.

At least Cal doesn't seem to take her stolid response too personally. He gives Merrin a dry look at that comment. "I'm just glad we made it through in one piece. Exploring around Kashyyyk helped some. I think giant creatures are a running theme there." But not all of them wanted to attack or eat him, so there was that.

BD-1 meanwhile hoots at them, trying to get their attention as he finds himself stuck in the midst of a fuzzy pile of napping mothkittens.

"The green planet," she says off-handedly, nodding. They'd stopped by, she remembers, before returning to Bogano, though she hadn't had the chance to leave the landing area—but Cal had promised to take her to the top of their Origin Tree someday. Someday... farther into the future, it seems, now that they're stuck here.

She just remembers the feel of the planet—deadly, sort of like Dathomir, but so much more full of life. Not just surviving, like her planet, but thriving, in defiance of the Empire's presence. That, and everything was so green. It had amazed her.

Of course, she realizes a second later that she may had revealed more than she intended to, since he doesn't actually know that she'd joined their crew, but it's too late now to take the words back. She sighs, turning to look at BD-1, her expression softening a little, though she makes no move to help the droid.

"You did not tell me of the creatures there," she continues, like a prompting.

"Yeah. Very green." It's a nice place so long as you avoided trouble, but then Kashyyyk's largely wilderness.

Cal doesn't read too much into that acknowledgment. It doesn't seem like too far a stretch for Merrin to have joined them aboard the Mantis if she'd said she'd been with him at the end of his mission. Maybe she'd seen Kashyyyk when they were plotting courses.

"Well, there's something like those spiders you have on Dathomir," he says. "Wyyyschokks- if I'm even pronouncing it right." Wee-shocks? "Except they're easily bigger than you or me. They also have this tendency to drop on you from out of nowhere- Hey BeeDee, you have a holoimage of those, right? -oh."

The padawan laughs and steps over carefully towards where the trapped droid is, studying BD-1's situation as the latter looks up with an almost plaintive hoot. "I don't know buddy, you look really wedged in there and they all look so comfortable."

She glances over at him incredulously, her eyebrows raised. The bane back spiders, but even bigger than Cal? Yes, she can how that would be... problematic. Especially in an ambush.

"The bane back spiders? The Nightbrothers have enough trouble with them at the size they are now," she says mildly, watching him move over to BD-1. She follows, but at a little bit of a distance, her expression finally softening enough that she's actually smiling at the droid, covered in a pile of kittens.

"It seems you have made many friends," she says to BD-1.

"I remember. Those things were especially annoying to deal with in groups," Cal recalls with a wince. He stoops down so he can better consult BD-1's predicament.

"There are also these beetles that can set things on fire. Even some of the plants there want to eat you." Those hadn't been fun to deal with at all, especially when he'd been stuck in the middle of climbing walls.

The droid glances from Cal to Merrin with a considering borble. He supposes it's not terrible. And then he gets a wing in the face as one mothkitten decides to stretch out in every direction it possibly can. Cal bites back a laugh as BD-1 beeps flatly at that. "All right, let me see if I can get you out," he chuckles.

"That's how they hunt their prey," she says dryly, shooting him a pointed look because he is, of course, the prey in this scenario.

She could mention that she's able to create a magickal antivenom that neutralizes the spiders' poison, but she won't. He seemed to survive just fine without it, after all.

"You told me that Kashyyyk has friendlier residents, but so far it does not sound that way." Could it be? A planet even more hostile than Dathomir? Not that Merrin has any sort of gauge for that kind of thing. Any planet that doesn't actively try to kill you sounds strange to her.

It's not like Cal hadn't realized that, but no one really likes being called prey, as can be told by the look that he gives right back. He's just fortunate that BD-1 had been with him, and that they'd managed to scavenge some stims.

Merrin's observation makes the padawan laugh in spite of himself. "Yeah, you're right. It doesn't," he admits as he carefully slips a hand in to try making space between mothkittens for BD-1 to move. He eases one kitten from the pile, snorting lightly when the droid wastes no time in grabbing onto his sleeve to be pulled up the rest of the way.

"There's a creature there that's maybe as big as that chirodactyl, called a Shyyyo bird. It's beautiful, with white feathers and translucent wings. Guess there's stories about it being a guardian of the Origin Tree. Unfortunately it got caught in the middle of a fight between me and an Inquisitor, but BeeDee and I managed to track it and take care of its wound. I think it was grateful enough that it brought us up to the top of the Origin Tree itself."

When Cal starts to help BD-1 out, she moves in closer and crouches down to assist, finally taking pity on the droid. She gently nudges one of the mothkittens aside, making it raise its head and mewl.

The Shyyyo bird. She remembers Cere mentioning while they were on Kashyyyk, and so she nods, a puzzle piece clicking into place.

"So that is the ride you hitched." She enunciates the last few words strangely, as if she isn't quite used to the turn of phrase. After a pause, she looks over at him and adds thoughtfully, if somewhat cryptically, "Cere was right. But I see now how you have a knack for making allies."

Broken, wounded things in need of just a little kindness. It's no wonder. After all, she would count herself among them.

The mothkitten in Cal's hand blinks sleepily before burrowing its head against him in an attempt to get more comfortable. He doesn't quite roll his eyes as he carefully juggles BD-1 so that the droid can get up onto his arm and back over his shoulder while trying not to disturb the baby too much.

Merrin certainly has a way of saying things that leave him to puzzle. Cal's brows lift at her mention of Cere, and he can only guess at the context as Merrin continues. He shrugs. "It took some time to get there, but I think anyone would rather make allies and friends over enemies."

He'd started off broken too. He'd even argue he's still on the mend, but then that's probably why he can relate better to those in like circumstances.

Maybe she likes being puzzling and mysterious... (Actually, she kind of does.)

When BD-1 finally manages to break free of the pile, she straightens again and dusts off her tunic, her expression still thoughtful. Allies and friends over enemies. Yes, she supposes that's true, but as long as they're the right allies and friends. She'd learned her lesson the hard way.

One thing he'd said earlier had caught her attention, and now she mentions it, her head tilting curiously to the side. "The chirodactyl. You encountered one of them?"

With BD-1 settled in his usual place, Cal can ease the sleepy mothkitten back down with the rest of its siblings before he slowly straightens up and steps back from them. With a slight cant of his head, he glances Merrin's way again before smiling crookedly.

"I thought of all the things you might've caught me doing, hanging off that chirodactyl's back would have been one of them." He can laugh about it now, but that...was not fun.

Ah, so that's what must've happened when the Gorgara suddenly... acted so strangely. The creature is a familiar sight on Dathomir, but she'd never seen it fly around quite like that, almost as if it was crazed. Or... in pain, she realizes belatedly. She'd seen Cal plunge into some of the dark depths of Dathomir, but she didn't realize he'd been unlucky enough to stumble into the Gorgara's den. Didn't he see the signs the Nightbrothers left?

In fact, she almost does a double take, her eyebrows raising in astonishment. It's probably the most visible expression of surprise she's had on her face so far.

"You defeated the Gorgara?" That one actually sounds like a question. "The Nightbrothers travel to its lair in order to test their strength, but their goal is only to survive, not defeat it."

It's not like he wanted to run into another killer beast. Given how twisted and turning the paths through the Nightbrother village and beyond had been, it hadn't been quite avoidable either.

"I would have liked if it had just left me alone the first time around," Cal says, if a little defensively. "I had to drive it away with my lightsaber. Then when I was climbing it decided it wasn't done with me and it carried us off."

He hadn't much choice when he was either in its clutches or free-falling from being flung or dropped. "It gave out in midflight, probably from the earlier fight on top of crashing into cliff-sides." All things considered, Cal's amazed they'd survived.

Oh, Cal, there's no need to be defensive. She isn't disappointed, she's impressed, her eyes shining as if she's assessing him anew. In fact, if the Nightbrothers knew that he'd defeated it... they might just have a new leader.

Maybe she shouldn't be so surprised. He'd defeated Malicos, after all, even if it was with her help. Actually, on second thought, that would also technically make him the Nightbrothers' new leader, as Malicos was their old one.

"The Gorgara does not just... 'leave you alone,'" she says, her tone dry. She pauses, humor creasing the corners of her eyes. "Don't be so serious. The Nightbrothers will simply have to find a new way to test their strength. Maybe against you."

She's teasing him, really.

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