Test Drive - 001

[ateratmods]

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

Comments

[skyward_eyes]

Dramatic. Seriously, his boss back home could use a lesson in drama from this man. The terseness, the cape, the intimidating presence. Geez, it was like something out of a child's story. But the vague familiarity doesn't give him a name, he can't remember that and it's bothering him a lot.

The tavern definitely reinforces the familiarity, and he definitely thinks the man knows him, that much he's come to realize.

"Yes, and no," he says, taking a seat that affords him some position of comfort. "I know your face, I know we met each other in a city not unlike this, but I don't know your name. I... I don't think I came through whole."

[chaosvessel]

If you were to ask Vincent he be mastered such dramatic notions, he would just look at you, confused as to what you could be talking about, before shrugging and just saying something along the lines of "that's just the way I am". Little did he realize that just added to his dramatic flair.

"My name is Vincent. I'm a friend of-" He blinked, looking off. He was less troubled by the lack of memory than Nida, though. After 30 years in a box, he was used to memories bleeding together, blurring and twisting. "-I can't remember, but I know we had a mutual friend, in a city called Dualis."

[skyward_eyes]

So dramatic. Teach a master class, Nida will absolutely attend. There are just times where you NEED that flair. But for now he can't help but be... both bothered and comforted by the statement Vincent makes. Because then it's not just him.

A hand goes, unthinkingly, to his heart. It's a brief touch, but it's a touch anyway. One that, while his GF was tucked away in his mind, still earned a brief pulse of power in bis breast, comforting.

Not your fault then.

In return he got the vaguest impression that he'd offended the spirit. Or, as it could just as easily be called, the magical parasite. Not that he saw her that way.

"I think friend might have been a strong word. Acquaintance. But yes. I remember Dualis. Unfortunately. I remember it wanted us dead."

[chaosvessel]

"I wonder if there are others from Dualis here." It wasn't a question, or uncertain. "We have no idea how far we've traveled. It's very likely the disassembly did something to our memories."

At least when he'd come here, it'd felt like he'd been pulled apart. It had been an odd sensation, but not painful. Either that, or he was that accustomed to pain. Either way, Nida was not the only one with an old friend returning, but Vincent didn't welcome his. Chaos was unpredictable and nearly impossible to control.

"Did Dualis hamper any of your abilities?"

[skyward_eyes]

"I feel intact, but... I have no reason to argue your point," Nida admits. He has no evidence one way or another. All he has is relief over his magic returned and a lack of the Iteration robots.

But he chuckles at the question.

"I could still fight, but it took my GF, and thus my ability to use magic of my own accord. I can feel it, flowing in my veins. We use magic to strengthen our body and mines, the mercenaries of my caliber."

He'll be faster, stronger like this.

[chaosvessel]

Vincent too would be faster, stronger, but more volatile. He could already feel the beast within, threatening his sanity and his control over his own body. 'GF' was not a term he'd before, though, and he tilted his head to the side questioningly even as a serving girl stopped at their table, all smiles.

"Can I get you gentlemen anything this afternoon?" Vincent blinked, though suddenly realizing they were in an establishment that served food and drink. He glimpsed toward the bar and nodded.

"Ale."

[skyward_eyes]

Well, at least Vincent was buying something. Nida just offered a polite shake of his head. By Vincent ordering, he really covered them both. And while he knew he had a problem with alcohol, and why, he didn't remember the face that went with the pain. Well, the second face, the first was still there with him. Interesting. So, once the woman moves away, he looks to Vincent.

He got the question there.

"GF stands for Guardian Force. Powerful nature spirits, more or less, who skilled individuals can bond with, channel, and use to 'junction' and use magic. She allows me to cast spells, which I'm not the best at in some cases. Otherwise I use the magic to make myself stronger. I can also summon her. The down side? It slowly wears away at long term memories."

[chaosvessel]

His eyes narrow slightly at the explanation. Was this common where he came from, bonding with spirits in order to grow in strength? He thought of the entity shoved into his own body, wondered if something like Chaos could be harnessed in such a way as to be relatively safe, if for the cost of memories.

"Do you not miss them, your memories?"

[skyward_eyes]

"I do," Nida shrugs. "I don't remember my parents. And I... Really want to know what I've lost in coming here. But the strength? The support?"

The chance that she could sand away his pain? Yeah, no. It was better.

"Sometimes you take sacrifices for strength."

[chaosvessel]

"All we are...are memories." If he didn't have who he'd been, he would have lost himself to the torment, to everything Hojo had done to him. If he was honest with himself, without his memory, of his failure, of everything, he would have nothing to drive him on.

"Nothing is worth losing that."

[skyward_eyes]

"Oh, I assure you, you are quite wrong about that," Nida counters, his voice a touch sharp. One did not need to remember some of the things Nida had experienced. Didn't need to be able to relive what he had seen.

"Besides, I would rather the powers to allow me to survive, after what the last place did. Were you there when the robot replacements showed up?"

He had killed a number of them that night, protecting others.

[chaosvessel]

He disagreed with that, but he didn't argue further. He didn't honestly care too much whether or not Nida agreed with him. He'd seen the power of memory. He didn't need to argue it with someone else.

"I was. Some power comes with too steep of a pricetag."

[skyward_eyes]

Memory lasting beyond the person was, in no small part, an origin of all of the recent problems of his world. So no, he wasn't going to say that they were that valuable.

"Perhaps for you, but for me, survival matters. All I have this time, this world, is myself and a continued will to live."

And perhaps losing some memories a bit sooner will help with that.

[chaosvessel]

"Then I hope your survival continues." It was difficult for Vincent to put a pricetag on his own continued existence. If he were to die, Chaos would be free, but just existing day to day was a torture. He'd found some light in his existence, sure, but some days...

...it didn't matter now.

[skyward_eyes]

"Any of your friends here?"

He supposed it was at least something important. Because if Vincent had friends here, then maybe Nida can just hope to meet his friends. Whoever they were.

[chaosvessel]

"Yes." He lapsed into a silence that, for him at least, was comfortable. "None from my own world, but another from Dualis."

[skyward_eyes]

So... Vincent still had someone. And the closest to someone Nida has is the most fleeting association with Vincent. It's hardly comforting.

"Who? Maybe the name will mean something to me."

[chaosvessel]

He leveled a measuring gaze on Nida before he responded. His first inclination was to protect her, but Arkady was fully capable of protecting herself, probably more so than he was.

"Arkady."

[skyward_eyes]

Nope. Nida shakes his head. It means nothing at all.

"The name means nothing. But there were so many of us there, right?"

So much more than he ever knew.

[chaosvessel]

"There were, and she would be unforgettable."

She was for him, at least. His gaze grew distant as he spoke of her.

[skyward_eyes]

Unforgettable? And yet Nida had forgotten so many. There was part of him that wanted to speculate on what Vincent meant, but that felt... silly. He couldn't remember the man he had loved, so it was silly to assume Vincent's use of those words conveyed specific affection.

"As you say, I must not have known her. Still, you're rather memory-provoking, and I have barely a flicker of you."

[chaosvessel]

It may have been silly, but it wouldn't have been inaccurate. He looked up again at Nida's comment and paused. He was fairly singular himself, if he thought about it. He nodded.

"True. She is lithe, with purple eyes and a shaved head. She finds happiness in simple things, but carries a great sadness she tries to hide."

[skyward_eyes]

Well, he wasn't expecting the emotional descriptor, but Nida... knows the look. The hiding sadness. So at least he knows he'll recognize her. For sure.

"I'll keep an eye out for her."