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Test Drive - 001

TEST DRIVE 001

Welcome to Aterat!

Here is our first ever Test Drive Meme! There are a lot of areas of the city to explore, so please have a look around! In case you need a little help getting started, I've included a few prompts below, or feel free to start your own! Exploration and player initiative are the names of the game here!

NOTE: While you do need an invite to apply to the game, you do NOT need one to tag or top level on the Test Drive!

Helpful Links to Get Started

Arrival & General Information | Locations & Bestiary | Residences & Housing Info | Rules & FAQ (ask questions here!)

A. Welcome to the Jungle

The URBAN jungle, that is. You have just arrived and received a strange satchel from a tiny, strange little man and are left more or less to your own devices (more information on what to expect upon arrival can be found here)! Follow directions to the north and check out the housing, or maybe have a look around the Historium, see what you can waste your meager starter coin on in the Market District, or maybe just meet the neighbors.

B. We've Got Fun and Games

At least there's entertainment. In various parts of the city, there are street performers, slight of hand tricksters, and probably a game or two of poker in one tavern or another (there are several to be found, after all). Start up a game of darts, or just sit broodily in a corner and watch the others coming and going.

C. You can have anything you want but you better not take it for free

The Harbor District is a rough joint. There are pickpockets, swindlers, but also hardworking folk and more than a few buildings that seem to be locked. It sure would be a shame if someone were to go about performing some casual Breaking & Entering...you know, as long as you don't get caught. There are guards around, though not nearly as many here as in the other districts. It's almost as though they like to avoid the place. People talk about wererats in the shadows at night and it's not unheard of for the unaware to go missing when they're traveling around here after dark...

D. What's that smell?

As if being carted off to what looks like a city out of a video game weren't bad enough, there's an entire district to the northeast that seems to be walled off, warded, and in all ways inaccessible. According to the sign, it's the cemetery...and boy does it smell.

E. Speaking Crystal

You could always take a look at the instructions that came with your crystal and see who else is listening. Remember, though, these devices are Voice Only and cannot be filtered. If you speak, anyone with a crystal can and will hear you. Now, whether or not they choose to respond is another thing entirely.

If you have any questions at all about setting or what is or isn't acceptable, please submit it on the FAQ!

If you would like to explore any aspect of the setting more indepth, please PM the mod account OR comment here! All comments are screened!

» N A V I G A T I O N

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Jagger raised his hands immediately to get across the dual points of not being armed and meaning no harm.

"Just a bit?" He flashes a smile, at least a slight one, just to drive the idea of being here in peace across. "So...you summon winged ladies with harps."

Smooth, Jag.

"Well, when a wold doesn't hinder me, yes. I do. For a change," Nida answers, and he smiles, looking truly relieved. Even... happy. How could he not be. He wasn't alone anymore, the power and the support Siren had granted him had returned.

And he could feel the warm caress of her mind along his.

"And her name is Siren. 'Winged Ladies' is hardly the courtesy that a Guardian Force deserves."

Edited 2020-06-27 00:59 (UTC)

"So this sort of thing's happened to you before." It was the most likely connection he could make to the statement of when a world doesn't hinder me, at least. It felt like an acceptable assumption, anyway.

"Can't say I'm familiar with 'Guardian Forces'. Where I come from, she's a creature from mythology, and not a nice one."

"This isn't my first choco-rodeo," Nida shrugged. "Third actually. This place is less immediately trying to kill me with either creepy things or nefarious evil AI overlords. So far as I can tell. So it's winning."

Except he's missing things here, and he doesn't know what they are. Just that the lack hurts. But yeah, he definitely shrugs.

"I... think i'm used to that some. Meeting people from other worlds. I had a debate, once, about whether there are more words with dragons or bears. Mine is former, not latter."

"Your first what now?" Jagger tilted his head curiously at the other man, though not disbelieving. It wasn't that he was taking all this at face value, if course, but he couldn't think of a reason for the man to lie, either, unless he used making up ridiculous stories as a pastime.

"Wait a tick." He breathed a sigh to sort out his thoughts more than anything. "Do you have dragons and bears?"

"Uh.... Right. Most worlds don't have chocobos," Nida sighs. "They're, like, huge birds. Bigger than me. We ride them. You do lasso tricks and run around barrels and all that stuff."

A rodeo, nothing weird there. Just using weird things. But no, he rolls his eyes at the observation.

"No bears. Bears would be silly. Who has big fluffy anger animals that can't even use magic. Dragons are way more common. Dragons, pseudo-dragons, moon-born dragons. Plenty of those. Happens when the moon is trying to kill you."

"I know what a rodeo is." He felt that was necessary to say after he made himself sound like a moron. Giant birds you could ride? Wild, but with alternate realities, he supposed anything was possible. "What do 'chocobos' look like?"

Jagger blinked at the other man before shaking his head. "You know, I'd think you were nuts if I didn't just teleport here from another world." He smirked, though, to spite himself. "With bears." He moved close enough as to avoid raising his voice anymore, but didn't offer a gloved hand in a shake. He just...wasn't a toucher if he didn't have to be.

"Jagger Crowe."

"Find me paper and something to mark it, I'll draw you one. And you get used to it. Unfortunately."

The lack of offered hand definitely earned a brief look from Nida. Gloves, despite the weather and arrival. Not in line with the rest of what the man's wearing, not enough for Nida to think the man is coming from somewhere where the weather is sufficient for it. Not necessarily fashionable either. So why gloves? Scarred hands? Interesting. But he doesn't ask or let his eyes linger over much. Instead he just slides the tambo back up his sleeve and into position in his forearm holster.

"Nida Nomura. A point for bears. I'm starting to think he was right."

Jagger pats the pockets of his jacket for a moment and smiles slightly, pleased to see he still feels his small notepad and pencil there. He pulls it out and moves closer, offering it. Whatever was keeping Jagger from offering a handshake wasn't stopping him from offering an item of his own to use at least.

"Nice to meet you, Nida. Who was right?"

Yes, interesting. Gloves but keeps art supplies on him. Nida considers, very briefly, flipping through the pages. But he manages to resist. That would be too much prying and too over. So he flips through fast enough to not see anything other than 'was the a clean page or not', and once he did so, he started to draw.

"Don't remember his name. Something broke when I came here. I can't remember faces or names, just the general shape of what happened. But there was a bet about whether more words had dragons or bears. I can't fathom bears being more common, creatures that large are just unlikely."

What he would see would be notes in shorthand that likely only means something to the owner of the notepad, and a few sketches that, even at a glance, are morbid but utilitarian, almost like reminders, which is exactly what they are. Jagger's a detective, and sometimes he has to sketch the things he's 'seen'. There's also more than few pages scattered throughout that are dedicated to groceries. He never goes anywhere without that notepad.

"How large do you think bears are when compared to dragons?"

"Depends on which species of dragon. Smaller than a Ruby. Maybe closer to a Hexadragon? But on my world, very little survives save monsters," Nida provided quite readily. A tidbit now could mean being given a mouthful later. And knowledge was always a goal of his.

"Pseudo-dragons can get even larger though. I'm told one of the ones I'm used to is about the size of what earth had called a 'T-Rex'."

One almost ate him once, but he has tried to move past that.

"A Tyrannosaurus Rex?" Jagger had gone through that phase of life all young boys had: dinosaurs were awesome. He hadn't even shaken the entire idea, dinosaurs would always be at least a tad cool to the young man, but to hear a creature from another world being compared to one?

"What makes them 'Pseudo-dragons'? What are they...part dragon and part...?" It was a leading question, but he's having trouble wrapping his head around this one.

Oh boy, they're about to get into monster identification guidelines, and Nida just sighs. Because that was a class he'd done well in but didn't like parroting information from back nearly as much.

"They are things that were originally incorrectly classed as dragons. They are similar enough in most cases, often having a dragon-like appearance of something vaguely lizard with scales, perhaps even their traditional weakness and weak points. Sometimes they are even named something-dragon. But when it comes right down to it, they aren't dragons."

Jagger nodded. It actually wasn't a difficult concept to follow, and it made him realize it was possible their two worlds were so different after all.

"There are creatures on Earth, legends really, called dragons. They come in all shapes and sizes, but all legends are based on fact, yeah?" He nodded again, more certain as he continued. "We've got these big lizards, Komodo Dragons, that are named the same way. They're not as big as any T-Rex, but I get it."

Dragons. Ugh. Even talking about them this much makes him cringe. He hates them, a lot. The sooner this topic faded, the better.

"I think... I've heard of Earth before," he admits, brow scrunching as he tries to figure out where and why. "Is that... Where New York is?"

He thought he'd heard of Earth before? He nodded at the question, though.

"Yeah, that's where New York is. I'm from a city called Detroit, at least that's the first city I remember. I was born in London, which is on another continent."

There was so much of his knowledge that had been wiped in his transition. There is a lot more of it, and he quite likes the idea that the memory that was tattered in his mind was absolutely starting to happen.

"Detroit. London... Neither of those trigger memories. I just know of New York City."

"I've only been to New York once or twice. Once when I was a kid. Same country, though, Detroit. London's not...in the same country, that is."

He shook his head, though. None of it really mattered now, did it? If there was one place like this, pulling people from other worlds, it couldn't be the only one, could it?

Well, at last Nida's done with his drawing, and holds it out toward the other young man. Enjoy a picture of a chocobo.

"So Detroit and New York City are in the same territory, but London is somewhere else. Am I getting that right?"

He blinks down at the drawing for a moment, tilting his head to the side curiously. The motion is almost dog-like.

"Uh...yeah." He nodded, semi-distracted by the drawing. "The United States of America's made up of 50 states, hence the name, that are each governed locally, but are joined together in a sort of united federation by the Federal government. Detroit in the state of Michigan and New York City's in the state of New York. No points for originality. London, on the other hand's, across the ocean in the United Kingdom, which is a, uh, constitutional monarchy the USA won its freedom from a little over 200 years ago." He looked up then, questioningly. "These things are big enough to ride?"

Constitutional what now? Nope. He doesn't get it. Sorry.

"Yeah, they're big enough to ride. Big enough for multiple people to ride one."

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Test Drive - 001

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