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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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Caelan paused, that was not the sound of the ocean against the docks or the voice of an annoyed guard calling attention to someone who wasn't where they should be. His eyes shifted lightly, turning in the direction of the voice with interest. Either this stranger thought he was an easy mark to just wander over into an ambush, or they had an interesting idea of where to hold a meet and greet.

He moved a little closer, just enough to not have a need to raise his own voice to be heard. He certainly wasn’t about to bring an actual night watchmen down on their heads. The selkie smiled, because he always would until given good reason not to, a hand (also gloved, though for different reasons) raising in a little wave of greeting. “Something I can help you with this fine evening?”

"Maybe." It couldn't actually be said Jagger was a master of breaking and entering, but he'd done it a few times to get to records or items he'd found restricted. He nods in the direction of the street from the alley they'd found themselves in. It wasn't precisely a crowded street this time of night, but two guys chatting as they walked was less conspicuous.

"What do you make of this place?"

Maybe, in his experience, was more often than not an uncertain yes. So while he had been keen on continuing his own explorations, Caelan instead shifted his curiosity onto the stranger and finding out what he might have need of. Falling into step next to Jagger, he hummed lightly over the question for a moment or two. “Well, at risk of stating the obvious I’m going with ‘strange.’ I would also add that it feels ‘wrong’ as well, depending on where you are.”

He glanced sidelong, “Is it safe to presume that you asked that because you are of a similar mind?”

"Something like that." It was more accurate to say he felt this place left a lot of things locked away, which wasn't very conducive to 'rebuilding the world' like the Aspects would have them believe, but he didn't know what sort of magical surveillance this place might have around and he wasn't going to risk discussing that particular point so openly. At least not yet.

"The name's Jagger, by the way." He nodded at the other man but didn't extend a hand.

“Nice to meet you, Jagger.” He responded, offering a nod in place of a handshake. “You can call me Caelan.”

As they continued walking, his eyes following the docks for a moment before they returned to the buildings that were locked up tight. “You new here too then?” He could save the questions about Jaggers opinion on this place for later, once he had a feel for the district in question and just how much they could expect from the security. He’d seen the odd guard type fellow roaming around.

There weren't, however, nearly as many guards here as there were in other districts, which gave Jagger the distinct impression of this being a part of town cops in his own reality would avoid, for one reason or another. It meant there might be more information to glean here than other places.

Or less. It was really hard to determine. He nodded at Caelan's introduction and his question. "Yeah, and my world's nothing like this place...at least not anymore. What about you?"

Oh, now that was interesting. The way he phrased it seemed to suggest that his world had at least been somewhat similar at one time... From a place that had advanced further then? His shoulders rolled lightly into a shrug, “In some ways it’s like my world, in others it’s not.”

He nodded to indicate the surrounding area, “You’d never see the harbours in such a state of disrepair where I’m from. Rough, perhaps, but... Not like this.” Even if he had no need of a ship to get around in the waters, there was something a tad disgraceful at seeing the odd boat that wasn’t seaworthy or the unfinished ship in the dry docks. It was positively uninviting. Made you wonder what the area was being used for since then, with its warehouses all locked up despite so much else in a state of disrepair.

Maybe it was just goods that were want to be shipped out but couldn’t without a ship, or maybe it was something more interesting.

Of course, Caelan had given the forges nearby a wide berth of course, a gent like himself didn’t go there unless he really needed a blade repaired. Too much potential for an unpleasant accident with some of the metals they worked with. So he couldn’t speak for what he thought of them.

"Yeah, a lot of the city seems to be rundown. Weird, since we're supposed to be rebuilding it. You'd think it'd be, I don't know...broken, not out of service." He rolled his shoulders in a shrug. It was more abandoned than post-apocalyptic, which sent a chill down his spine. If they'd simply been walked away from, why had they? What sort of apocalypse had taken hold here?

"It seems like half the industry's missing, doesn't it?"

Caelan huffed a little, casting a look at the docks again with a small frown. The question does make one wonder, and gives him ideas that leave a bad taste in the mouth. “It does... Half the people that kept it running, anyway. Makes you wonder where they went. Did they up and leave for fairer shores?” He’s doubtful of that, “Or was there something else at play?” Lots of things could relieve a city of large amounts of its people without destroying the buildings, some mundane and others less so.

“No one is saying what happened either, not with substantial details. Only the basic ‘the world died and needs to be rebuilt’ as far as I can tell.” That bothered him. A lack of details could be because no one remembered, either by design or by the amount of time that might have passed. Then again, the lack of details also could have been to keep the arrivals from panicking on the off chance that whatever had happened once could happen again.

"Dunno." He motioned out toward the docks again, but beyond, toward the mist that seemed to hang on the horizon. Perhaps it was just a trick of the light, but he'd grown up on the shore of a Great Lake. That sort of mist was pretty telling, and this sort of just as familiar. "But if they left, somebody shut the door behind them. That mist never moves."

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm beginning to wonder whether or not they know."

“No... It doesn’t. So many locked doors in this place, aren’t there...? Wonder if you could go under that one though.” He mused, staring at the strange mist sitting on the horizon. Maybe not, but a swim was still in order at some point, for more reasons than that. It was just another thing for the list at this point...

Now that idea that their hosts didn’t even know what had happened? That he hadn’t considered, “You think...? Just a desperate attempt at fixing this place then, without knowing much more than those of us they snatched to assist with repairs?” Maybe they were even hoping some of the arrivals would figure it all out for them.

"Great question, mate. Too bad I seem to have left my SCUBA gear at home." Not that he actually had any SCUBA gear, or that he'd ever been swimming even if he did have any.

"It's as good an explanation as any right now, yeah?" He shrugged at Caelan's question. "Name's Jagger, by the way."

“A pity.” He responded with little half laugh. “Perhaps someone of specialized talents will eventually show up, and we can find out then.” Caelan, at least being somewhat cautious, was not volunteering that he could. He’d figure the specifics of explaining that out at a much later date. Once he found out how dangerous that might be for him.

Until then, he’d enjoy the company and the conversation while he got a better feel for the place and his fellow abductees.

“You make a fair point, Jagger. We’ve got so many possibilities at the moment, who knows what’s right and what’s wrong.” He paused, before adding, “And I’m Caelan.”

Equally cautious, Jagger didn't offer up the exact reason why he wanted to gain access to the offices. If he could touch something relevant that was around when whatever it was occurred here occurred he might be able to get a better idea of what happened, using his own abilities.

He nodded in greeting. "It's a pleasure, mate, to spite the circumstances." He wasn't forthcoming with any information related to his psychic abilities, but the more mundane could be helpful, and so he added, "what did you do, back home, I mean? I'm a private investigator, and I'm hoping I can put those skills to use here, figuring a thing or two out."

Just a couple normal people doing normal people things, and being sensible then. Well... For now, where one of them was concerned.

Caelan hummed a little in response to what Jagger did for a living in his own world. A private investigator was definitely interesting, and absolutely a useful mind to have around to bounce ideas off of. Of course, the selkie had also been a pain in the ass for a few over the years as well. Those that were hired the try to figure out and who and what was behind the crimes he’d committed, always a fun time. So his friendships with them were often complicated and sometimes doomed from the beginning.

There was a chance that would be different here though, Caelan didn’t get the sense that his usual shenanigans would be necessary in this world. Not unless someone needed him that way, or someone pissed him off. Still, he’s not going to come out and say ‘I stole things with my friends, and we were exceptionally good at it.’ Instead, he shrugged lightly with a smile, “I performed, did odd jobs, nothing as impressive as a private investigator I’m sure.”

Jagger's abilities gave him insights most common private investigators lacked as well, which might go a ways to revealing the selkie's secrets, if he has a mind to touch anything of Caelan's without his gloves on, which at the moment he did not. The visions he received could be shocking and without someone around to pull him back to the present, downright dangerous.

He chuckled at the response but nodded. "I wouldn't go so far as to say being a private investigator's impressive, or even that it's never boring." It was usually paperwork and photographs if he was honest. "What sort of performances?"

Now that would be an interesting day, if it came up. Definitely something Jagger would want to be prepared for, depending on what the visions would show the man or how they worked. Caelan himself of course had no idea, and so he probably wouldn’t know to be more cautious than he already was unless he mentioned his abilities.

“Now don’t go selling yourself short, seems to me that’d be the kind of work you’d want to build up a reputation for to expand your client base. Which I would presume you’re currently at square one for, given we’ve all just arrived?” He responded with a small huff, because really they were all at square one right now.

His smile lightened considerably at the question of performances, this was easy. “I’m a musician most of the time, I sing and play the violin best as well as a few other things. I do dabble in drama sometimes, I suppose? Pretending to be someone you’re not can be quite fun.”

He's run into the residual traces of demonic possession before, completely unaware and without any sort of warning. He still has nightmares about it. He's more cautious these days. It probably won't be too long before he tells Caelan, seeing as they'll be working together.

"Got it on one, mate, but I'd be willing to bet I'm not the only one." He glanced toward the harbormaster's office, dark and locked up tight. "And harbormasters are notorious for documenting everything. If whatever happened here happened with enough time to write it down, maybe we can learn something from his logs."

He smiles in response to Caelan's explanation. "I bet. Sometimes it's even necessary."

Almost always necessary, if Caelan were in the mood to be honest. He spent a lot of his days pretending to be something other than he was after all, which would hopefully come in handy here. Of course, he also had plenty of breaks from it and those who he could be himself around to balance things out, which was not something he had now that he was here.

“You’ve got that one right, they might even have some manifests on what’s in storage jot down somewhere if we’re lucky.” He responded, eyes wandering to the aforementioned office. The harbourmasters office in his own world did at least, it was their job to know what was what down at the docks. At least in some cases, in others they could be just as blind (or turn a blind eye to) depending on the matter.

“Pity it’s all locked up tight, yeah?” He asked with a too innocent expression and tilt of his head. The question ‘Wanna break in?’ unasked but rather obvious. His lock-picks were begging to be used at this point.

Or they would be, if they were actually Adelaide in disguise. Sadly, they weren’t. Just the usual run-of-the-mill set.

If the truth were told, Jagger's lockpicks were itching to be used as well, and any self-respecting harbourmaster should have manifests in his custody if he were any good at his job, but this place offered too many variables, and too many ways this could possibly go horridly wrong. Magic wasn't a concept completely unknown to him, but his knowledge of its machinations was nebulous at best, which left a lot of room for paranoia and mistrust.

"I definitely want to break in," he started with a smile, "but it could be trapped by all manner of things."

His shoulders sank a little when Jagger reminded him that there could be traps. That was exactly why he wasn’t starting off his evening by trying to break into the warehouses after all. Being careful was so boring...

At least until you got creative. “You make a good point, if there’re secrets hidden away in there then they might not want us to find them. Of course, we could find another way in outside the obvious, it’s usually the obvious that the put security measures on first.”

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Test Drive - 001

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