Opening Test Drive Meme

[trpmods]

TEST DRIVE
Application FAQ | Taken Characters | Reserves | Application

Welcome to the first Test Drive for The Revival Project!

For those who do not know, this game is a spin-off from The Drift Fleet game, which is shortly closing. For more information about what this game is about, please check out the FAQ here or the premise here.

The TDM for the first round of applications is NOT required but is highly recommended. Really this is to see the interest level in the game as well as to have everyone interact on the new planet and with the new experiences offered here. There will be a post in the TDM where questions can be asked regarding the prompts/settings. We're keeping this loose though so go ahead and have fun with it. Any questions about the game please direct to the comment section of the FAQ. 

If you are a Drift Fleet alumni, please label your character as 'DFAU' on your top level so we know. 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! The only option not allowed is to completely restart your character (because then it's not DFAU, is it?) 

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

*ATTENTION! RESERVES ARE NOW OPEN!*
*ATTENTION! APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN!*
*GAME OPENS AUGUST 19th!*

WHALE COMB PARTY


In the square near your arrival point, one building seems to be in fairly good repair. It’s large and stark white on every wall. Unlike the other buildings, all the lights are on and the windows looking out are intact. That alone would make it remarkable but it’s hardly the most noticeable thing once you step inside the open doorway.

Hanging against one wall is a piece of fabric that has ‘WHALE COMB!’ painted on it in drippy, fluorescent pink letters. A smiley is painted underneath it right on the wall with three eyes and long fangs. The fangs drip down all the way to the floor and the eyes are just a blob of paint, but whoever left it seems to have been trying, here. ‘US THANK THEY!’ is written beside it, barely legible. On every other wall is ‘EAT’ in various sizes and colors. They thankfully don’t drip as much as the smiley since, beneath them, are tables upon tables of food.

There are meats, fruits, root vegetables, and even what might be a sweet dessert of some sort as well. Bowls are full of them, apparently a welcome dinner for the Agrii’s new heroes. At the very least it will give everyone a quick crash course on what is edible around here. But some of it might have … adverse effects:

- People chomping down on the striped meat all seem to get very drowsy a few minutes later.
- The red fruit that looks like a giant cherry is the equivalent of a few shots - the more consumed, the more drunken this party is getting.
- There is a bowl of weeds that have small, daisy-like flowers all along the stalks. This tastes like chicken and gives the eater a sudden burst of energy that will have them running around the room like they’re being chased.
-There are a collection of drinks, some made from the red fruit, some that are clearly water, some that taste like a less-sweet lemonade with no effects, and then there's a blue one that tastes like an especially dark beer. People drinking this will find themselves incapable of lying for a half hour.

Of course, no way to know any of this before you chow down. So dig in and enjoy the show!

 

LOST AND ALONE


They said don’t go into the forest. If the noises there weren’t deterrent enough then the thick trees and lack of paths should have been. Yes, you’ll need food. Yes, both meat and many fruits are in the forest. But maybe you should have gotten some more information before heading in.

Congratulations: you went into the forest and are now lost. You can’t hear the murmurings from town, nor can you see any of the lights that might be flickering on and off in the city. How are you going to get back into town? How do you make sure that the creatures here don’t attack you? You probably don’t have any weapons, so you’d better figure something out quick.

Or, maybe you’ll get lucky and run into another foolish person wandering around out here. Try not to attack them - unless they attack first.

 

MILES TO GO


The first thing every survivor needs to find is shelter. Not long after your arrival at the fountain, it’s getting darker now and, even if the night is short (you’re about to find out it’s not!), you don’t want to spend your first one out on an unfamiliar street. Distantly you can hear a sound like a wolf howling through an elephant’s trunk. It’s loud and alien. Maybe you want to find somewhere to sleep a little more quickly.

Right away there are two pretty solid options that will do nicely for the night: an abandoned hotel-like structure and some empty stores.

The hotel structure seems to be the most popular option for others. Its large, overgrown lobby leads you to the staircase and over a dozen floors of rooms in varying conditions. Despite it looking as though no one has set foot in here for decades, the stairs and floors all are secure. The rooms that have doors on them open up to dusty rooms that all have a bathroom (of sorts) attached and long, narrow bed frames. Figuring out a mattress will be a challenge but at least this is a safe place to sleep. As long as no animals laid claim to this room before you got in...

But let’s say the room in the hotel doesn’t work for you. Maybe the room is too small for you. Maybe you don’t like the stairs. Maybe you want someplace private to separate yourself from the rest of these strangers and to think quietly about what to do next. Either way, the other option is any number of abandoned stores lining the block where you arrived. The glass doors and windows of many are broken but there are just as many intact as well. The rooms are all large and empty, as whatever wares inside were either taken or dissolved over the years. There may be a counter or two that will get you off the ground, though. With all this space, you’re bound to find something to sleep on.

Unless someone else got there, first...


code bases by tricklet

Comments

[bossofspace]

Not helpful, of course, but there are definitely worse people to be lost in the woods with than anyone who calls himself Captain America. She's got to assume that he'll have at least some of the same training as the one she knows, the field experience under his belt, or - ideally - a combination of both.

Carol glances up, but the stars overhead are of no use. She's not even sure what planet they're on.

"You remember your steps well enough to retrace 'em?"

[doubled_speed]

Don't eat the weeds. Bad idea. Very bad idea. This is the worst idea. My legs are shaking. Sit on my legs?

[Because he's half worried he's going to start running again. Come on, Viv, help a brother out.]

Hey Viv. How you doing, Sis? Great save by the way. Sorry I can't talk slower.

[Too fast, the words are far too fast. And she seems so slow. But he'll let it go.]

[vivision]

I have no intention of eating anything here. [ She says this as she is moving to sit on his legs. ] It is unnecessary for me unless engaging in a social function. [ like family dinners, which are... actually becoming increasingly likely to occur sooner or later ]

I appear to be doing better than you are, although I have yet to find any of my teammates.

[doubled_speed]

[Oh yeah, likely to happen and be so insanely awkward because Tommy doesn't really process family dinner's well. Still, with the weight on his legs he feels a bit more stable. Thing is, his hands are shaking now. So Tommy moves so he can cross his hands under his head. There, those are pinned down now. Doesn't make talking any slower, though.]

Yeah, haven't found any of mine either. Unless you count alternate universe Avengers as my team. Anyway how are you, favorite sister.

[Only sister, more or less. What? He's still going to use the qualifier. He's even grinning as he says it.]

Oh, also avoid the blue drink. It's a fucking truth serum or something. Really bad idea. Made a fool of myself. Everything's a mess.

[brooklyn_boy]

[Steve squeezes Nat tight, thankful beyond words that she's here. Kidnapping aside, it is always good to have a friend close.]

I saw Vision. He said Wanda is here too which is good.

[He doesn't want to ask about Winter. Either Nat won't know or she will and the answer could be painful.]

What's the last thing you remember?

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve can't argue with that. Without being kidnapped he wouldn't have found Bucky at all. Not to mention all the other friends he's gotten along the way. It's not what Steve would have picked but he's able to concede the value in this experience. Besides, the Agrii seem to truly need their help, here. Steve has a harder time faulting them for that than he could the Atroma.

"I just wish they had given us some mattresses..."

He smiles and almost laughs about it even though, yeah. He wants a few of the creature comforts he'd become used to. As a solider he's used to this, though. He can manage until something more comes along.

"At least we have each other to rely on."

[stillgotmyleftarm]

Bucky raises an eyebrow at Steve, unable to keep the wry half-grin off his face. "Wow, that's real romantic, pal."

Except maybe a tracker's not a terrible idea. Fuck, he doesn't know how long they're going to be here. How long they have before either everything goes to shit, or whoever brought them here sends them back. Or maybe even option C: the one he hasn't thought of yet. So if he wants to hang on to Steve as tightly as he can... well, it's just nice to know Steve wants to hang on right back.

"You sure you don't want the shield back?" It'll leave Bucky feeling pretty naked, especially without a firearm, but he wouldn't fault Steve if he says yes. It was his first, after all.

[brooklyn_boy]

He shakes his head. "I think there is a reason I showed up here with your jacket and nothing else." Hux's shield had been made for him with Millicent's pawprint stamped on right in the center. Steve had loved it and found it so close in quality to his own, if not slightly less durable. But when he'd woken up by the fountain, the only thing around him had been the blue jacket he'd clung to for a year. He hadn't even considered his shield.

Even now, seeing it, Steve doesn't want it. It looks good in Bucky's hand.

"Just make sure to stand on front if any animals attack, yeah?" He squeezes Bucky's hand and smiles at him. "Also, let me throw it. You need to work on your frisbee skills."

[stillgotmyleftarm]

"Yeah, I know the reason. You're a sap," Bucky says; all the same, he squeezes Steve's hand again, because, "Same reason I showed up with this," he adds, quietly. It was the only real piece he had of Steve. It is Steve, as close as Bucky can get, when the other isn't around. He isn't about to pretend otherwise.

Even if, "I'll throw you, how's that?" he teases, though he's still on the alert because honestly, he doesn't want to run into any animals out here unless they're small and edible. And even then... he's hungry, but he might settle just for getting out of here and back into the city, run-down though it is. He's not all that easily spooked, but this place is kind of giving him the creeps, as the sun goes down with a finality that Bucky hopes he's just imagining.

"Thank God for good low-light vision," he murmurs, because at least they've both got that. "I think we came from that way?" he points a little tentatively in one direction with the shield, adding, "I figure we go that way for as long as it took us to get out here, and see what happens?"

If they have to shelter the night out here, they can. Preferably up a tree. But he'll worry about that later, if they haven't gotten back by the time full darkness falls.

[unbearablynaive]

We couldn't have done it without her.

[He sounds proud and fond, and his eyes flicker over to her elsewhere in the room.]

Or, rather, perhaps we could have figured something out, but her actions eased the process along greatly. And when we'd undone the damage and allowed those who wished to return home the ability to do so, she asked me to marry her. We've been happy together.

[This just in: the Vision is a giant dork.]

I suppose that entire experience is why I'm not particularly panicked about this one. I've made it through a difficult situation where I was ripped from everything I knew once. As long as we all work together, we can do it again.

[unbearablynaive]

[He nods in response to both the asked and the implied question.]

If it was voluntary, I would not classify it as a kidnapping. The Atroma took us against our wills, for their own entertainment. or, rather, they claimed it was for an audience, in which case they took us for profit margins. It was hardly a noble cause, either way.

I was part of the Drift Fleet for several years, and more recently after we defeated them I settled on one of the planets we traveled to with Wanda Maximoff. [...He's guessing she knows who Wanda is, but one can never make assumptions.]

[unbearablynaive]

The Vision grins, eyes half-lidded. He may not exactly sleep in the way a human does, but he has other uses for a mattress.

"Early American settlers used corn-husks in burlap bags for a mattress. We should be able to identify a suitable plant material to use in a similar fashion, though fabric or another type of bagging may be more difficult. If we can't find a store of useful material in the nearby buildings, we can see if there is a particularly fibrous plant we could use as a base. Or perhaps weave hammocks out of vines as a temporary solution?"

[unbearablynaive]

[Well. At least being on a weirdly post-apocalyptic planet hasn't entirely killed her libido. That's a good sign to him.]

Our little friend here tried all the meats, so one of them it ate that you did not may have made it sleepy, but the rest should be safe.

[And it was likely not the potato, if only because tubers tend to have complex starches rather than the simple ones that can easily ferment...if it's actually alcohol that did it. He can't eliminate it yet, though.]

Let's take samples of each, and tomorrow morning you can try them one at a time at various meals to identify it. And it will also give us an example of what they look like, so we can forage for more.

[outstandingbalance]

That's sort of a complicated question. [Here? In the Fleet? Back home? She sighs, patting his back before she drops on her heels away from him.] The easiest answer is the Fleet. We were deciding what to do after.

Where to go now.

[She raises her eyebrows ironically at that.]

Guess that's out of our hands now.

[brooklyn_boy]

"Hey..."

Steve pauses them for a second and strokes a hand against Bucky's jaw before leading him in for a light kiss. It has been a year since he's had soft moments like this. Even lost in the woods he has to appreciate and feel thankful for each and every kiss they share. When he pulls back he pecks Bucky's temple and goes back to just holding his hand.

"You're a sap too, pal."

The rest just gets laughter from Steve as they start walking in a direction that seems to be leading to louder noises. Considering there isn't a ton of people around in the city, 'louder' is a relative term. There's also nothing to say that they aren't heading into some unknown part of the planet. Some new city with things neither of them could expect. He holds on a bit tighter but stays alert.

"Remember all those times we wanted to go camping? I wasn't planning on doing it in a place like this."

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve is unbelievably thankful that Vision is here. Not only because he's a friend but because his encyclopedic knowledge is going to be essential for the first few months. Maybe years. Steve is already thinking about ways to make some mattresses with what's on hand. He knows how to see, sort of. Darning, mostly. But between him and Bucky they could probably work it out.

"If we can get the fabric then I'm sure we could figure out the rest. Maybe if we ask the Agrii for some they'll drop it off?"

He gestures over toward the Whale Comb banner.

"Obviously they have some sort of fabric. This will just be getting more."

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve nods noncommittally at that. The confirmation of the Fleet is comforting but Steve doesn't answer more about his own recollection. Both because he is still a little lost on how people were taken and because the powers that be haven't decided on his backstory quite yet (sorry!).

"At least we have people here who've been in a similar situation. And the Agrii appear to be a little more invested in keeping us alive and happy. I'd prefer to be helping people than staring in a sadistic show..."

[vivision]

[ Holding a hero against their will for years is no small feat, and especially so when it's her father or Wanda Maximoff. The Atroma sounds formidable - but also defeated, thankfully.

She files the information away, but doesn't comment on it. Instead, she hones in on the fact that he spent his time there traveling to different planets, from the implications of his statement. ]

It sounds as if you have more experience dealing with alien planets than I have. [ Which for her is two planets. But one was Counter Earth, and the other she was busy worrying about Thanos. ] I will defer to your experience in dealing with this situation, then. I hope you find this agreeable.

Did you arrive with Wanda? What of the other Avengers?

[doubled_speed]

[Yes, he's a horrible dork, and Tommy can't help the way he cringes at the damn softness. Adults in love? Cringey. Even when it's your alternate universe parents who deserve happiness.]

Dude, this place needs help. That's a hero task. I got no problem being here provided they put me back.

[stillgotmyleftarm]

Bucky can't help the way his lips curve into a small, relieved smile, even at the soft kiss. Yeah, it hasn't been nearly as long for him, but there's something about knowing that Steve still wants to do this even after a year of being separated on his end that means... a lot. It means a fucking lot, and for all that to Bucky, it feels like all that shit hit the fan just a couple weeks ago, at most, he doesn't really want to waste time being mad about it right now. There's still plenty of shit to figure out, of course, but it can wait until they're out of this forest, at least.

"Whatever. You're the sap who wants to kiss a sap," is the best comeback he's got, as they link hands and start making their way through the woods.

Now it's his turn to laugh; "Yeah, I've gotta admit - all those times I pictures myself having adventures on an alien planet, I usually had a laser gun and I wasn't lost in the woods with a fully-clothed companion."

So most of the pulps he'd read had involved scantily-clad women. So sue him. Not that he'd turn down a scantily-clad Steve, but that's a separate point.

"As long as nobody falls into a lake this time, I might call it good," he adds. Steve's not the only one acutely aware that the Atroma are not around for any do-overs.

[seeingscarlet]

[Of course it hasn't. She's deeply unhappy here and angry at losing the life they'd built together on Naviadna...but Vision is her home. He's all she needs.

Wanda drinks a little more water, but it's going to take a while before it starts to purge the fruit's effects.]

Unless they drugged some of the food. I didn't taste anything strange.

[At least she didn't eat whatever-it-is that's making some unfortunate people run around the room. She's just...out of it.]

You're so pretty...I am very lucky. [And he's getting another cheek kiss, but it's a little closer to his jaw than usual. Whoops.]

[vivision]

[ She's unsure of being referred to as sister. It brings to mind Vin, and she prefers to... not. Think about that.

She will, she thinks, not make an issue of it, but will continue to refer to him as Tommy Shepherd. ]

I will be safe and avoid consuming all food and beverages. I would recommend you observe others consuming food and beverage for potential side effects as well.

Perhaps once this effect has passed, the two of us can look for our friends. We are both well suited to searching for others.

[doubled_speed]

Problem there, Viv? I've got to eat a lot to keep moving. So I gotta be a test subject. Especially to figure out what I can manage.

[But looking for friends? Somehow Tommy doubts he's going to find anyone. This is his second time being kidnapped in what amounts to, like, three days from his perspective. Several months in truth.]

But yeah, I can search. You got friends I should look for?

[vivision]

Any of the Champions, current or former. [ She helpfully projects a collage of images. Ms. Marvel, Brawn, Spider-Man (Miles version), Riri, Sam, some of the newer additions. Even Cyclops. She ends on a shot of Nadia Van Dyne. ] I believe you've met a number of them at Nadia's party. [ She says, unaware of timeline shenanigans. ]

If people in close proximity are brought in, then Snowguard should be here at least. [ And switching to a picture of Amka, who lives with Viv. Aren't holograms useful? ]

[doubled_speed]

[Nadia's what now? Tommy definitely looks confused now. And may be offering Cyclops a super-speed bird.]

I haven't really met many of them at all. Nadia had a party? When was that? Or, I guess, when will that be

[Close proximity doesn't really count as far as he can tell. He hadn't been alone.]