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

[doubled_speed]

Blonde? Oh come on Cap, be fair. This is the pure, snowy white hair of a Maximoff. Or Lehnsherr. Listen, Magneto and his offspring are so name fluid it's weird.

"Kitty? Let me guess, last name Pryde, with a 'y', goes through things? If so, totally like that. She's an X-Man. And no, some people do. But come on, with all the racism against Jews when you were younger, and all the shit against black people, are you really shocked when humans get freaked over a fucking actual genetic difference as opposed to religion or melanin levels?"

[brooklyn_boy]

When he says it like that...

"I guess I can understand. But those differences make you all strong. It lets you protect people." Or hurt them, he recognizes. Just look at what happened with Wanda and the Accords. Steve purses his lips and exhales sharply though his nose.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess I can still see it.

"Was it hard for you? Back home? I heard a little from Kitty, but..."

[doubled_speed]

See, this was why he'd like Captain America, when the guy wasn't on their asses for trying to be a super hero team when he was only 16. And this one doesn't even know about the juvie time. But funny he should mention Wanda...

If by 'funny' one means that Tommy has a brief, dark look on his face. And then it's gone. Like a faslh.

"Yeah. It was bad. Kids with powers? The system doesn't really like how things go when our powers kick off for the first time. It can be hard. And not all families like having freaks for kids."

The term he uses, 'freaks'. Well, he might not mean for it to be, but it's quite clear how his family took it.

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve's eyes narrow as well, just at the 'Freak' comment. He might not be 'mutant' but he knows acutely what it's like to grow up with the world looking at you like you're a mistake. He wonders if the Steve Tommy knew ever shared those stories.

"You're not a freak," he says firmly. "You being special doesn't make you less or more than anyone else. You have powers which give you additional responsibilities and different experiences than others. But that doesn't make you a 'freak'."

[doubled_speed]

Not a freak? Tommy laughs. Come on, are you seriously? Tommy knows what he is.

"You're wrong. I'm a freak in a lot of ways. That's just what life is."

And he takes it in stride, turning back around to guide by looking forward because he doesn't need to see Captain America being weird about it.

[brooklyn_boy]

"Hey!"

Steve steps forward and grabs Tommy's shoulder to stop him and hopefully have him turn back.

"You know how many times growing up I was called a loser or a sissy? I had to fight everyone just for them to think I wasn't a waste of space.

"Even now there's people who think the only reason I'm worth anything is because I got that serum."

He squeezes his shoulder tighter.

"You're not a freak. You're different, sure. But that is what makes you special."

[doubled_speed]

Steve touching him? Oh man, that almost gets Tommy to swing at him. That isn't something Steve should be doing. He doesn't have the right and he doesn't get it.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Tommy counters. "You don't get what it's like to be a mutant. You don't get what it's like to exist because of magic and demons. And you definitely don't get what I went through so don't think you know whether I'm a freak or not."

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve steps back, hands up in a gesture of peace. Tommy is right, after all. He has no idea what it is like to be a mutant in his world. No one saw him as something other than human. Steve has no idea what that must have felt like as a child growing up.

"Alright," he concedes. "Alright, how about this: I don't see you as a freak. Okay? I've known a lot of people with gifts and none of them have ever been freaks. Not to me."

[doubled_speed]

Well that gets Tommy to sigh and turn away, shrugging the hand off his shoulder.

"Provided you don't ever try to hurt my brother just because of his 'gift', then yeah. We're cool. If you do, I'll hit you."

At maybe a few hundred miles per hour. Which would suck.

[brooklyn_boy]

"I am not gonna hurt your brother unless he's hurting people first. Alright?" He loves Bucky but he broke his arm to stop him from fighting. So, yeah. Punch would suck but Steve will take it.

"It's good that he's here, though. Is he fast, like you?"

[doubled_speed]

That's not what his Steve did. Okay, so maybe it is. But putting evil people who were going to blow up NYC with a nuke into a temporary coma had been an answer. And they hadn't been hurt.

"Billy? No. That's the thing. He's magic. Avengers back home don't tend to have a great track record on magic."

[brooklyn_boy]

"Magic? Like...Wanda with magic?" It's the only example he has and the idea of someone just being magic seems too incredible to be what Tommy actually meant.

"What do you mean we don't have a great track record? Because of Loki?"

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah, magic like Wanda's. Except he's also got electrokinesis in addition to the spells and the reality shaping stuff," Tommy answers. Well, less Wanda's hexes, but magic is magic. What else could he be? "And he flies. And things happened back home. Our Cap wasn't exactly supportive. The Avengers aren't really great about magic, and you all weren't smart enough to just bring Strange in from the word go."

[brooklyn_boy]

"That's ...a lot, yeah. Sounds like be needed someone to help him out." Steve has no idea who Strange is but figures it's someone else from Tommy's universe. Another codename.

"I'm sorry that I...er. That version of me wasn't supportive of him. I don't know the whole story but I know that couldn't have been easy."

[doubled_speed]

Oh if only it were another code name. But Tommy shrugs Steve’s comment off.

“You aren’t him. That’s a different thing. Can’t have another person’s decisions held against you.”

Or at least Tommy thought so.

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve smiles and keeps walking, pleased at least for that. Not everyone here would so easily brush off what another iteration of someone did. It's good to not have to live that down, though.

"So, Billy is here. Anyone else from your family? Or universe?"

[doubled_speed]

Listen, Tommy's in a weird place for accepting strange things, including iterations of people. Things are a bit easier to accept when the universe is as weird as the universe he's from. Especially given things his family has done.

"My half-sister," Tommy admits. "And... and some versions of other people, but not from my world."

Weird shit.

And honestly, he doesn't want to admit to Wanda's connection because it might get back to her.

[brooklyn_boy]

"Well, that's good. From experience it's nice to have people around that you know you can lean on. And you'll be surprised at who you start to become friends with as time goes on." Steve still misses some of the ones that haven't come over with them. Loki especially which is... complicated to explain. Steve looks down at the ground thinking as much as he is watching his step. "And who knows who else might come."

[doubled_speed]

Thing is? Tommy's almost got everyone he would immediately care about here. Sure, there could be others from his team, but he'd rather them not be in this mess. If he could, he'd keep his siblings from it too.

Wanda and Vision, though? Seem happy.

"I don't lean on people. And I don't want more people I know here. This place isn't exactly suited to them."

[brooklyn_boy]

"Fair enough." He can't say he'd be thrilled to see more people he cared about here, too. Sure, Steve missed them, but anyone brought here was going to be trapped just like everyone else. No one would want that for their friends. But still:

"Just don't get too hung up on that 'don't lean on people' thing. I'm telling you now, Tommy, we're all gonna need some help out here. Teamwork is the only thing that's gonna keep us safe."

[doubled_speed]

His team has abandoned him twice. His twin has abandoned him twice. Yeah, his trust issues are pretty serious.

"Teamwork is something that Captain America trots out when he wants you to follow orders," Tommy counters. Like he's got experience.

[brooklyn_boy]

Okay. This seems like something that is going to need more time than they have on this walk. Steve still raises an eyebrow though.

"Well. I can't speak for your Captain America but I promise that's not my intentions."

[doubled_speed]

Yeah, another eye roll. Because frankly, a lot of people make nice promises about intentions and then turn out to be lying. Going to take a lot more than that, especially when your name is Steve Rogers. Sorry, Cap.

"Yeah, and neither was starting a civil war among heroes, right? A least you were on the right side of things, unlike Stark."

[brooklyn_boy]

Steve's face goes a little hard at that. The fight at the airport is one of the last memories he has from home and it still hurts. "He was doing what he thought was right. He had his reasons."

Of course, he'd had his reasons to try and kill Bucky, too. Reasons to explain actions with doesn't make them better.

[doubled_speed]

"Yeah, and his reasons got a lot of heroes hurt," Tommy dismisses. He remembers it. Remembers seeing kids and teens rounded up like animals, chained up, put in suppression gear. "Speaking from experience, powers like that? The ones that want to use you for your own good or their good? Evil. But ya'll fixed it in the end. And I guess that's what matters."

Or so Tommy likes to think.