revivalprojectooc | Opening Test Drive Meme

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Opening Test Drive Meme

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Rampant chemical storms back home. The clouds are a beautiful, technicolor nightmare," Delta shrugs as he takes the airlock point in stride. "Exposure to even the smallest bit of the gases can be fatal. Everything is hermetically sealed. I've... I've never seen so much plant-material in my life."

Domes would have been wise, but the megacorps didn't care to spend money on it. Nor did the rich. They rarely left their skyscrapers and travel tubes high above the streets. The undercities were supposed to be safer, but... well, they had their own problems.

"Of course. Foxtrot and Wrath. Intriguing names," he muses before gesturing them toward the nearest building, the hotel. Where better to start the search? "The twins will likely be dressed in blue and yellow, they are five and will likely have their helmets still on, so I won't bother describing them. They will answer to Eta and Iota. The other is Theta, he's twelve and he'll be in purple. If he's got his helmet off, and he might, he'll have curly hair and you'll be able to see his hearing aids, which are also purple."

"It was a bioengineered viral contagion on Zeus." Delta touches the ugly ports on his neck, barely visible above his clothing but something that sets him apart physically nonetheless. They run all up and down his spine. "Some of us were brought from other places in hopes we would be immune to it, much like the Agrii claim to have brought us here to help them. Wrath and Foxtrot were natives, however."

And callsigns both, but spending a few months with Loki 'Paranoid Bastard' Friggason had made Delta wary of giving more identification than that.

But Eta and Iota being twins? Theta being a purple-liking kid with a skateboard? That's not coincidence, and Delta frowns. He chooses his words carefully.

"If your Gamma also went by Gary, we may have met previously."

Oh yeah, that statement brings Delta up short. Has him just about whirling on Delta, because there is no way the stranger should know that. Their middle names aren't really legal because they never had the money to put into the legal paperwork for it.

"How do you know that name?" he asks, his voice a touch sharper and distrustful. "You look too old to have gone to school with him."

"I have never gone to school," Delta says, still looking carefully over at the other man. (Also, he's like. Four. Maybe five. But who's counting?) "But I have a brother named Theta who likes skateboards and the color purple, and another named Gamma who prefers to go by Gary."

He extends a hand. "I am Delta."

That... is weird. Not impossible. Delta has met two versions of York. But another him? He looks distrustfully at the hand before, after a moment of hesitation, offering his own to shake the stranger's and firmly.

"My name is Delta," he says after a moment. "And Gamma goes by Gary because that's the middle name Omega and I gave him."

Because being named for Greek letters always seemed clinical.

Yeah, that's what he'd been afraid of. Delta looks rueful and rubs at the ports on the back of his neck after shaking the other Delta's hand.

"Your...father would be Dr. Church, then." Not a question, but an assumption. "And you were born human?"

His father? Born human? Both of those have Delta looking in confusion at the other, well, maybe not person? No, definitely a person, but not human? Okay, he's a touch confused right now.

"Our family doesn't know who our father is. Until a few years back the Counselor, we knew he worked for our father, managed us, but we've never met our parents."

He doesn't even know Church as in Alpha, never met the man. Only re-found Beta.

"Truly?" Delta looks surprised at that - the Director hadn't hesitated to claim all the AIs as his own creations in his own world, but perhaps there are more layers to it where the other Delta is from. "In many ways that may be superior. I am not fond of my creator."

Although--hm. He wonders if that means the siblings don't count Carolina as one of their number. Feeling his way around her until he solidly defined her as his sister was one of the more satisfying things Delta had accomplished.

And then he grimaces and splays his hands over his chest. "I will also note that this is not my original form. Before I came under the control of a corporation called Bifrons, I was an intelligence program." Well, technically he still is, just stuck in a human body.

Omega had been rather forceful about kicking the Counselor to the curb, and Delta had supported the decision. Of course, what really causes Delta a moment of confusion and pain is the admission of him being an AI. He's left... staring.

"You're... not human? I mean, such was implied by your word choice, but I could not begin to expect such a thing. I am relatively certain the same is not true of myself or the Ai family. I have assisted in raising my younger siblings from the day they and their nannies, supposedly hired by our father, arrive at the door."

The nannies too soon found their way to the street.

"You said you knew Gary. Gamma. Some form of him. Was he too an artificial intelligence? I think he might like that, to be honest, he always was more withdrawn than the rest of the family."

Delta blinks at the Ai family. Someone, somewhere, is having a cosmic joke at his expense, he's sure of it.

"That is correct. Sigma, Omega, Gamma, myself, and the others are all AI programs created by the United Nations Space Command, Special Operations Project Freelancer. Because we were created by the same Project and similar processes, we consider ourselves siblings." And the less said about that creation process the better, as far as Delta's concerned.

Still, he looks curiously at the other man. "Next to Alpha and Beta, who were special cases, I was the oldest. Is it the same for you?"

Yes, the cosmos does seem to have a thing over the connections between them. The shared name, colors, favorite things. And the name.

"The UNSC?" Delta asks, grimacing. That does still exist in his world. Well, his universe, seeing as he doesn't come from Earth. "You also have the UNSC? That is an intriguing parallel. I've never heard of this Special Operations Project Freelancer, though. So perhaps it is only our names that have a parallel to it."

It's something that would be easier to swallow.

Alpha. Beta. Another painful issue, clearly printed on Delta's face. At least they had Beta back now, though Tex wasn't the best at supporting them beyond financially. She tries, which he gives her credit for. But he misses the girl she had been.

"No. I'm fourth oldest. Well, provided Alpha is still alive. Omega is older than I am."

Still unused to actually controlling his own expressions, Delta looks relieved that there's no Project Freelancer to speak of. "It is possible," he allows, "although if you are familiar with individuals either named or codenamed after US States there is further coincidence; my human partner was Agent York."

Taylor. Who he still frowns to think of, after their last fight.

"Omega is not my favorite sibling," he says, rubbing his temple. "To say he has a temper would be oversimplifying matters. But the Alpha was hidden from us as well, for a time. He had forgotten his own identity."

Now this is just getting a little unnerving. Because the name of that 'human partner' makes Delta uncomfortable. What did Sigma's boyfriend have to do with all of this?

"I don't really know US State names. But there is a mercenary back home, he goes by York. And Omega's temper isn't that bad."

Except when it was. But standing up for his family is something he is obligated to do. After all Omega had been doing for him, for their family, he can't just let someone else speak poorly of him.

As for Alpha... he won't even talk about his lost brother.

Now Sigma being York's boyfriend would make Delta mad for entirely unrelated reasons, so. Probably best that the other Delta doesn't mention it.

Because there's a more immediate question here, and he blinks. "You are not familiar with the names of the states? Do you have a weak connection to Earth, or none at all?"

Wait until this other Delta heard who this Delta was dating back home. That would be an even more problematic situation, wouldn't it?

Still, that really is a bit of an interesting situation. Apparently this version of him is more familiar with Earth. Which Delta's only ever heard of in books and history stuff. And when really uppity UNSC members want to flaunt 'home' at the people who had never been off planet.

"I'm from a planet colloquially known as Adaptive. Earth just about abandoned us beyond corporations working on our planet and the UNSC base."

Well. Everyone's allowed to have questionable taste, thinks the person who's boning Loki.

"I am sorry to hear that. Is the Covenant War in full force, then?"

He can't really conceive of a place where it's not, but--surely they wouldn't abandon a colony if that were the case, would they?

Covenant War? No, he definitely looks quite concerned at that. If there was a war, people would get drafted.

"I've not heard of such a war. But it could be pending. I hope not. The UNSC would draft Omega."

And a lot of the mercenaries.

"You would have heard of it," he says quietly. And for a moment he's intensely jealous that the other Delta has not. It's not an exaggeration to say his entire existence has been shaped by the war - the Project created to help win it, the Director's loss because of it and his resulting shattered mind that had led to Tex-Beta's accidental creation in the first place.

Is it better than being siblings with no knowledge of their father? That, of course, is entirely subjective, and Delta will withhold judgment. For all he knows, the other Delta went through just as many trials and tribulations - probably more, if he's as old as he looks. For all that Delta looks like a human in his late 20s or early 30s, he's still only about five. Respectable for an AI, but for a human? Ha.

"Though if it is of any consolation, a draft was not instituted. There were sufficient volunteers."

That isn't really a comfort, truth be told. Clearly there is difference between their worlds. And...

"The UNSC are not so kindly where I'm from. Many are disdainful of the people from colony worlds as low down the list as Adaptive is. They forget that it makes us hardier, more paranoid, and more driven to survive."

That being said, he was certain Omega would never agree to join the military unless he found a way to get the UNSC to take care of their money and safety issues. Then... then he probably would.

"I suppose mercenaries might take that call, though. I pray Maine wouldn't, but Beta? She would."

"I do not know that I would use 'kindly' to describe the UNSC. However, when our colonies are attacked, it cannot be ignored." He gets a ghost of a smile on his face. "York and I spent a great deal of time in the outer colonies. The culture is very different compared to elsewhere, but then, one can say that of any culture. There will always be those who fight within their own house, until they are united by an outside threat."

Maine? Yeah, he totally would. At least the Maine Delta knew, both at home and at Proles. Hell, he'd enrolled in the Proles army. "Beta would," he agrees instead. "It is her nature."

And yet their world is constantly ignored, so Delta absolutely scoffs at the other man's comment. There is no outside threat that would ever unite Adaptive to the home planet that has abandoned them.

Still, he's frowning at the very thought. He doesn't like to imagine Maine leaving, and Beta?

"We just got her back," he says, more to himself than the other him. "Tex... we only got her back recently. She's been helping with the family more. She's helped us get a new house."

It's easy to think that; hell, some of the colonies still think that, but the UNSC would be there in an instant if the Covenant showed up. And they'd probably lose the planet anyway, because that's how the war goes. So Delta lets it slide, even if he frowns.

"I am glad to hear that. She can be a good ally, and a good friend."

But odd to think of her as a sister, despite everything. He'd come to view Carolina as a sister in truth, even if that is a can of worms he doesn't want to get into with the other Delta.

"Though I am curious if she knew she was part of your family all along and only recently found you, or if she did not know but was there all along?"

It would parallel nicely to the whole AI question.

"She neither knew, nor was there. We... Realized."

They met her, and it just came together. It had been a whole affair. Now she came by for dinners they made and she sometimes helped Omega learn to fight, and all sorts of other things.

"Beta and Alpha were taken away when we were all still kids. We didn't see her again until a few months ago. It was... impossible. But there she was."

And maybe he smiles. The last few months have been rather... messy.

Oh, if it had only been that easy. Alpha sure as hell hadn't realized the truth on his own.

...Alpha had also liked to get very drunk once he did figure things out, so. Maybe on the other Delta's world, there hadn't been so much awful stuff for him to deal with. One can hope.

"I am glad," he repeats, his own lips quirking up into a smile. "She can be a very resourceful person. It would be good for her to have a cause to dedicate that resourcefulness to, aside from winning the war."

Because that was always what had driven her away, wasn't it?

"She's a mercenary. She's always got plenty to dedicate herself to. Just... not us."

And now Omega and Sigma were following in her footsteps and Theta seemed wowed by the idea and...

"All the violence that has been brought into our lives. I suppose I can't even blame her. Not with Sigma and I dating mercenaries. I'm a hypocrite I suppose. But such is the potential lack of intelligence of the human heart."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Opening Test Drive Meme

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