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

Whale Comb

[passingthrough]

[One minute Kitty is set on heading home, not sure whether she's going to die the person she was or live as who she became after her time in Marina Asylum and then the fleet. Maybe save the world while she's at it? That was kind of the whole point of the gamble. Instead, she's admiring a very strange banner in a room full of people—some familiar and some strangers. It's abduction volume three and she's not sure if she's about to laugh or cry. She chooses to do neither. The urge to tear the poorly painted banner down is strong, but she doesn't do that either. She pushes all the emotional responses down. Another day. Another mission. At least she decided to wear her uniform from home for the battle, so she's still got that even if her claws are gone—again. Her locket stayed. That's more important.

She needs to figure this place out and see who's here. Maybe other people from the fleet came through with her this time? Maybe it's her turn to not be completely alone after she loses everything. She needs to find her crew. Her friends. Vash. Winn is too much to hope for, right? It's not like she's going to see a lost love here.

And with that she turns to see Delta.

SHOOK!

What was that about pushing emotional responses away? She finds herself staring in surprise at the man before her. The face is right (or very wrong depending on how you look at it) but the hairstyle isn't. The sounds of his voice is way off too, or is that the sound of her heart drumming loudly in her ears?]

...Reid?

[alaspooryork]

[Delta looks up to see...someone he doesn't know. And she's calling him by a name he doesn't recognize! Great. He should have thought of this, with all the inter-dimensional shenanigans. While the chances of two people looking alike ought to be vanishingly small, it's not the first time this sort of coincidence has happened.

His tone is apologetic but firm.]

I am afraid not. I am called Delta. [And, because he's really curious,] Do I...resemble someone from your world?

[passingthrough]

[And just like that it's confirmed. It's not him. He's not a Reid who remembers loving her and then falling out of love with her and breaking her heart. And he's not a Reid who was reset in some way or from a different reality who she was meeting all over again for the first time. It's the other thing these places like to pull—same features, different person.

She's relieved...she thinks.

She probably needs some time to process to be sure. It's been years since she saw Reid, but the way things ended had been messy and painful and largely unresolved. She moved on largely because the world moved on around her separating them again. She never really understood what had soured with them and for a long time she feared it would happen again with Winn. That it was something about her. But this isn't the best time to unravel all of that even if it feels like it's coming loose within her just seeing him. Great start to the place and to meeting Delta.]

I'm Kitty. We weren't from the same world, but you do look like him. Maybe a cosplaying version of him. [Which, to be fair, he was into. She gestures to the braid.]

[alaspooryork]

[He strokes his braids self-consciously and smiles, a little shy. He supposes he'll have to find a mirror if he wants to keep them up, because he's abysmally bad at judging his own appearance by feel alone and there don't seem to be hijackable surveillance cameras around he can use instead.

He has mixed feelings about that part, because they're still being watched, aren't they? Until he can identify how, he won't assume he has any privacy.]

Thank you, Kitty. It is symbolic of joining a household, although my hair "barely qualifies as long enough to braid properly".

[He tilts his head to one side.] May I assume this is not your first experience with cross-dimensional travel? I have been on another such planet before this as well, though I was born in space.

[passingthrough]

It works for you. [Said a little to be nice and because she's grateful for any physical signifiers of difference. Even if it's also bothering her that his voice is different. He opens his mouth and nothing sounds the way she expects. She's sure she'll adjust soon. She adjusted to weird things before. She can't think of any at this moment, but she's sure there must be a few.]

This is my third multidimensional kidnapping in a row. The mysterious overlords seem different this time. [She glances back at the whale comb banner with it's creepy icon.] But I was familiar with cross-dimensional travel before that too. Less experienced.

What do you mean born in space? On a ship?

[alaspooryork]

Thank you. [He may not have anyone he recognizes from Proles here, but it's a way to keep the memory of the good times alive. As for the bad times, well, he's not going to forget this stupid human body any time soon.

Even so, his eyes widen.] They are certainly different than the oligarchical corporation that claimed responsibility for our arrival on Zeus. Less overbearing, certainly. [Less competent, probably.]

Yes. I was created on the ship Mother of Invention of the United Nations Space Command, Special Operations Project Freelancer, in the mid-twenty-sixth century; I am considered a modified fourth-generation AI unit.

[passingthrough]

[She can't help but think Reid might have had a bit of an identity crisis at meeting an AI who looked just like him.] Zeus was a planet that reminded you of this place?

[She tries to place the United Nations Space Command. She's not sure if she's heard that one before or not. So many people from so many places. Things are blurring around the edges.]

[alaspooryork]

[He nods, and unceremoniously lifts the sleeping kitten out of his lap. He's a little grey tabby, fast asleep thanks to eating the striped meat.]

Yes. It was where I was previously located, and is where I acquired both this body and this cat. One is infinitely more pleasant to deal with than the other. It was a dying world; the corporation Bifrons had brought in strangers they thought might have an immunity to the dysthrophy virus which had spread to all but the domed city of Proles. In my case, they provided me with a human body as well; I have been unable to parse their logic as such. [He would have been perfectly immune as an AI! Geez.]

[passingthrough]

[The fact he was holding a kitten at all should have been another big "not Reid" clue, but ghosts can be surprising? Other things that can be surprising? This conversation.]

Wait, what do you mean you were provided a human body? Was it someone else's body first? [Someone like Reid?]

[alaspooryork]

[He frowns, because he's wondered that many times himself.]

Not that I am aware of. There was extensive biotechnology available in Proles, including cloning and extensive modification technologies. I was unable to find a match for my body's DNA in any of their databases, though that is not necessarily indicative of anything; the society was extremely secretive and schooled well in misdirection and falsification of data.

As for how they reversed the AI creation process, I have not determined that either. Several other AI from the same project were treated similarly, however, so whatever their process was, it was not a fluke that it succeeded with me.

[passingthrough]

[It's unsettling that he doesn't know for sure, but it also didn't sound like it was his doing. If he was guilty of something he could have just not brought it up. It's not like you expect people to be in a different body. Even if it does look like your ex.

She nods to his answer.]

You don't sound like him. Your voice is different. [In case you were wondering if she thought it was his body. She was.]

[alaspooryork]

[He tilts his head to the side.]

My voice is as it has always been, although in this case I am not modulating it to have its typical synthesized quality as I would in my default form. It is one of the few aspects that was carried over successfully when I was first taken.

Besides which, it had been several decades since the planet Zeus has had any contact at all with Earth. If the one you knew was from there, it is highly unlikely he would have been in Proles.