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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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

“I imagine they were once about shipping,” Nida muses as he slowly picks around. Documents? Not his thing at the moment. Instead he looks through other things. Items that might tell him more about what this world is like.

“You expecting to find much here?”

“Shipping? At the harbour?” He responded lightly, little laugh in the undertone of his voice. “Once perhaps, but given the fact that the only ship they’ve got is sitting in the dry docks half finished I expect they’ve repurposed them. After all, you don’t lock ‘Nothing’ up tight.”

Caelan opened one drawer to find it empty, closed it, then moved on to another systematically with growing disappointment. “And no, I wasn’t really expecting to find much.” He answered a moment later, shrugging lightly as he glanced up from the desk. “But I’ve always thought that just because you don’t expect to find something doesn’t mean you pass it by entirely. Taking the time to have a little look around never hurt anyone, right?”

He had still hoped there might be something of use, something mundane that might have been missed in all the fuss and magic at play in the city.

No, but you sometimes lock up things you don't deal with anymore. But he chuckles, yeah, he gets it. He doesn't trust places where there are nothing. He moves slowly toward a bookshelf, letting his eyes skirt over it.

"This place feels wrong. Broken."

“I suppose that’s part of why we’re here, right? To help ‘rebuild the world’ as the welcome party suggested.” He responded with a little wry grin, his voice lilting dramatically. He still wasn’t entirely sure how that was even going to work. Especially when there were so many strange aspects to this place...

“You’re right though, especially around these parts...” Caelan finally moved away from the desk, both satisfied that he’d gone through it and unsatisfied with the lack of interesting discoveries. “There should be so much more activity here. It’s pulse should be as strong as the markets in its own way.” Much came in from the sea, fish goods, and news alike. Where did the fishmongers even get their stock?

"Yeah, the last two places said that too. One didn't want our input, the other just... didn't change. I'll buy it when I see it," Nida muses as he finishes with the book case and instead walks carefully and slowly about the room, letting his boot slowly knock at each floorboard, clearly checking to see if there was something under one.

"Perhaps it's a new place. Or it died recently. Or a lot of people left."

Edited 2020-07-03 15:53 (UTC)

“Any one of those seem possible... Though two of them present more questions.” He responded, glancing at Nida as he began checking floorboards. Very thorough... Caelan definitely approved as much as it made him more curious about the stranger.

He moved on to a closet, disappearing inside as he checked the walls and shelving for anything hidden. “If a lot of people did depart, you have to wonder what made them all up and leave?” What was the great calamity that caused the world to ‘die’ and to need to bring everyone in, and need they worry about an encore of that?

Of course, if Nida’s past experience were anything to go by, the could probably count on it being more likely that they wouldn’t figure anything out any time soon. “Well, you are the expert on what to expect between the two of us. Best to continue to keep expectations low for a while then to avoid disappointment.”

Spies, what can you do? Thorough is important, and they don't seem to be in a rush. He makes his way through the room and nothing in the floorboards. So he moves to the desk and starts to take drawers out to check for things affixed to the bottom.

"Could be the leaving wasn't willing. Could be there was a plague. Mostly, I expect this is something else entirely. Each time has been different for me."

“What a cheerful series of options.” He responded absently, tone muffled from where he was. He tapped lightly on the walls of the closet just to see if there were any hollow bits behind the panelling as he continued, “In your experience, have you ever seen the thing that caused a world to need to bring people to it come back around?”

Caelan moved out of the closet a short while later to move on to the heating grates, though he does pause to glance at Nida going through the desk with a small tilt of his head as worked...

“Are you double checking my work, sir?” Caelan wasn’t complaining of course, he did appreciate having someone take a second look after all. Working in a group sometimes meant catching things the other set of eyes missed. He grinned instead as he pried at a grate to see if it was loose or showed signs of being moved regularly.

"I think the first world was sort of experimenting on me and those people there. So I guess yes. We were one of a series of tests. The second...? Who knows with that place."

Double and triple. His fingers work easily over the bottom, without him even looking.

"Consider it professional curiosity, not double checking."

“What...?” That was... a sobering thought, more so than the earlier suggestions. Experimenting on people of varying sorts in his era was generally always a bad time, social experiments or otherwise. “Sounds like you’ve had to travel some very unpleasant waters then.”

He hummed a little, pulling out his boot knife to pry at the grate just to be certain it wouldn’t come free. “Professional curiosity. I like that better, I think?” Moving on to another grate a moment later across the room he added, “My lot usually makes a game of double checking though, person who misses something has to buy supper for the one who found what was missed.”

Still focused on his work he finally found himself curious enough to ask, “So... What do I call you, oh mysterious but helpful stranger?”

"Sadly in neither of them did I make it to anything like real waters. Which is frustrating. I grew up on an island," he admits. And he missed the smell of sea air. Siren, deep inside him, echoed his longing.

"Maybe I'll find something then, and insist on dinner," Nida muses as he moves next to some items on the walls to check behind them. "Nida. You can call me Nida."

“I can understand that frustration... I suppose Its part of why I’m so keen to figure out why the harbour district is in such a strange state first and foremost.” There was nothing like the familiar sound of waves on a shore and the smell of sea air. You noticed when it was absent, traveling to land locked places were so starkly different because of that.

Then there was the distant call, a reminder that the ocean waited for him to return to his kind. After all, the sea cared not for the work he did, it only cared that he was absent and to remind him where home was. Even here, even though it was a different sea... A surrogate of sorts. A substitute until he were sent back to his world.

Caelan couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea, “Maybe you will, Nida?” He tried the name out now that he had it, “I’d certainly not complain. Better to find something than nothing, I think. Then I’ll just be sure to return the favour next time.” If there were a next time, and if Nida was so reliable he found himself not minding if there were.

A moment later, fussing with the next grate, he added, “I’m Caelan, by the way.”

"Nice to meet you, Caelan by the way."

Yeah, this isn't the time for jokes but he's making them anyway. There's nothing behind the wall decorations and Nida gives a heavy sigh.

"I'm starting to feel like if there is something hidden here, it's a harder access slick than we're really got time to waste looking for. And we'd have to tear into stuff."

Luckily for Nida, Caelan can appreciate a joke. Making light on a day that was rather strange and left one feeling out of sorts was just the way to distract. “Ah, you needn’t refer to me by my whole name. Caelan will do, I think.” He responded with a little grin, rising from the next grate and considering the other man’s suggestion.

“I was about to ask if you thought this place seemed a touch too clean to you, so I would agree with that line of thought...” Disappointing if only because the impatient part of him really wanted to figure something useful out today. “As much as this coat can hold, I’m afraid I don’t currently have the tools or means to really tear into this place in such a fashion, and I doubt we’ll be so lucky to not attract the district watch if we did.”

No, he would have to go back to the drawing board and perhaps collect a little more information. ...Or let his impatience get the better of him. It was a toss up, really.

Jokes are lovely things, what else was he supposed to think of them? Bu no, Nida wasn't going to force more out, even if he was smiling at Caelan's playful acceptance.

"It could be there is nothing to be found. Perhaps it's honest and was cleared out when it wasn't used anymore," Nida suggests. But yes, he doesn't like how clean the place was.

Nida sighs and his fingers card through his hair as he heads toward the door.

"I'm about out. This place is starting to bore me. There is nothing to find."

“You could be right. The warehouses could have been repurposed long after this part of the harbour fell into disuse.” Caelan hummed with disappointment, a dramatic drawn out sound, as he put his knife away. He’d have to look elsewhere for answers... Or just break into the warehouses if nothing was discovered to say what was in them, but he’d at least try to figure out a little more first. “So I’m inclined to agree, there is nothing to be found. At least not here, not this night.”

He paused at the admission of boredom, head tilting with a little mock gasp. “But boredom? No, that certainly won't do. Best leave this dreary little building behind then, lest it get worse.”

"For all we know, the place is being used as a residence by homeless locals. I haven't been into the warehouse main structures. Yet."

The yet had a weight that said he was absolutely going to be changing that in his future. Still, the idea that the man might make another joke about the boredom makes Nida smirk in approval.

"If you're not bored, you're welcome to explore. My goal now is just to walk the water's edge. I miss the smell of it."

“I’ve looked at them prior to heading here in hopes of finding out what the story was on them since they’re locked up tight. If people are living in them, I don’t think they’re getting out.” He responded with a little shrug and the smallest of frowns at the idea. Too many questions, not enough answers. He supposed that was enough to keep him busy for a time, more digging to do.

Caelan definitely enjoyed a joke, and to banter with someone while he worked was a delight. It was a source of annoyance for some, but Nida’s clear appreciation for it scores him some points in the selkie’s book. Yes, he could be serious, but he liked to balance it out. “Oh I’m far from bored, trust me, you would know if I were bored.” He responded, “Though I would be willing to wager that my avoidance of boredom here is largely due in part to having an interesting individual to distract me from the lack of interesting things here.”

He wasn’t about to discourage a walk along the shore though, missing the waters edge wasn’t a trivial thing in his opinion. Caelan would have offered to join him, if he thought he’d be able to focus on the company and not his instincts or the pull of the water on top of what had been a very strange day. “But as a fellow shore dweller, I wouldn’t dream of keeping you from a chance to revisit it.”

"There is usually more than one entrance. Doors are just a suggestion," Nida offers, quite bemused at the idea that he may have only focused on doors, or perhaps doors and windows.

He moves to the door and considers the other, only to pause at the suggestion that he was an 'interesting individual'. Which was, of course, against his training to be. He was supposed to be, well, non-descript. Then again, this was someone that he was working with on a trespassing situation so he supposed that meant he didn't have to feel as bad about giving up some of the goods. But the goofy, charming normal guy routine wasn't going to work here.

"I wasn't a shore dweller. Just raised on an island. Larger one, but island anyway. My home was thirty minutes from the beach and a small fishing village. So I guess I came here out of nostalgia."

“Is there? Why I never would have guessed.” He responded with a particular tone that would suggest the opposite, he’s not offended so much as vaguely curious at the fact that Nida seemed to be under the impression that he might be new at this. Then again, they hardly knew one another, and he was used to being underestimated. His light attitude made it hard to take him seriously, after all. Usually that was by design, sometimes it just happened.

“Ah, my mistake. I lived much closer before arriving here, and there is nothing like waking up to the sound of the waves in the morning.” Much closer meant much closer quite literally sometimes, but that was beside the point. “Still, nostalgia and the lack of chance to see it as often is more than enough reason to enjoy it now. I know I’ll have a hard time staying away from it.” An amusing understatement.

Oh what a lovely idea. Reversing the situation. But no, guess away, it's not worth it. But closer probably isn't hard. Nida lived a good bit of his life near the water but never actually there. Being at the sea was rare.

"Why stay away from something you love?"

“Oh, I never said that I would actually succeed.” He responded with a little tilt of his head, “But there is much to figure out about this place, and I believe to let myself get too distracted from that would be a mistake for the moment.” And the sea? She was very distracting in general when there was a constant pull he felt drawing that way, a call to return that got stronger the longer he was away.

Although the waters here definitely merited some of that focus, if only to see if there were anything secrets in their depths or oddities to be found. “Undoubtedly I’ll be visiting the docks frequently enough to do a little fishing anyway.”

"Well, good luck with that. Don't know if there are any fish in these waters. Though I guess I miss eating fresh fish curry," Nida sighs. Yes, he's had fish curry. It's weird, but it suits him.

“If there’s not then I’ve got some questions for the fishmonger and where on earth they get their stock.” He’s not paying for food if he can get it himself, especially if it weren’t already prepared and in the company of humans. That would be absurd.

“Fish curry?” Now that’s something he’d never had, and he’s enjoyed a lot of fish dishes over the years. “What’s that?” It’s said with genuine curiosity, definitely not in a tone to suggest it sounded weird.

It's exactly what it sounds like and Nida is left staring at Caelen like he can't understand the other not getting the implication. Does he not know about curry?

"It's curry. With fish. Usually some form of meat fish, like sailfish."

Test Drive - 001

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