ateratooc | Test Drive

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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

"Very different. Even Balamb Village feels larger."

Strange how he misses it now, a place he never expects to return to. He sighs and stares out over the city. It's nice, but it's so... different. Darker in a way, and the threes aren't the right type.

"I more or less grew up on a tropical island, with plenty of mountains. So this isn't what I'm used to."

"This city is smaller than Alep. Larger than my own. But it goes quiet at dark in much the same way."

However. He stepped up once more, turned, and let his brows twitch downward "Fewer guards. Which is foolish." But convenient. Fewer men with bows threatening him for being on a rooftop. Fewer lives he would have to take.

"Could just be peaceful for them," he muses. But then he's moving to stand, and when he does he smiles down at the city.

"Balamb is like that. No guards. But Galbadia isn't. And it doesn't go dark at night. Life's like that. Difference places are different. And it's all nice. This one is peaceful and they're... lucky. They deserve the peace, the quiet, the relief. Let them have it. And maybe resist crime waves, if that's what you're thinking."

Altaïr snorted. "I take offense at your implication. I am no criminal." Murderer, yes. Killer, certainly. But each life he'd taken, he'd taken with a purpose. Even the old man in the tomb had died for a reason.

Murder is absolutely a crime.

"Yeah, well, that makes one of us I suppose."

There was a lot he did that wasn't fully legal.

"Then perhaps cast your aspersions upon yourself before aiming them at others," he bit, tone sharp. He'd not listen to himself be labeled like a petty thief.

"Like knows like," Nida counters, his eyes on Altair. "There aren't a lot of good reasons to be this high, observing how many guards there are. I'm certain we both know it."

Good is the ends you achieve, not what you do.

His lip curled. "I've no need to justify myself to you or to share my reasons. You assume a great deal." And his temper was beginning to fray.

"Do I?" Nida asks, not even looking at Altair. "Maybe. Maybe not. But the only people who care about how many guards are around are thieves, killers, and spies. The former because they will be stopped. The next because they will be hunted. The last because it complicates our jobs."

Our. At least he's explaining himself to a degree.

There were just as many other reasons - to see the wealth of different parts of the city. To see the state of the city in general. To judge if the leader of the city was militant or peaceful. A hundred different evaluations could come from looking at guards.

Altaïr said nothing of any of them, though. He had already spoken: He would not explain himself. All he did was look away, letting his gaze trace the streets in an effort to ease his own anger. It came more easily now than it had before. Even when Masyaf had previously been under attack, he hadn't been so quick to snap.

Perhaps. But those with dark minds and dark work, they assume dark things of others. Which means he's being unfair to Altair, but there it is.

"Forgive me if I am truly unfair. But the fact is that I do not judge you for it. I have no connection to anyone here, no reason to care. Do what you will. And I'll do what I will. Life goes on. Welcome to another world. Don't get attached. It all gets taken away."

Another twitch of muscle in his jaw and Altaïr murmured, "In that, it is no different."

What had he ever gotten to keep? No family. No friends. Not even his Order. His skill, perhaps, but what good was it here? Bade to do as he would. How could he do as he would? He was a weapon. Al Mualim was not here to wield him.

No one was here to wield them but themselves. Weapons, they were pointed at things. Then again... what happens when the weapon controls itself? Nida sighs and moves toward the edge of the roof, ready to jump down.

"Nice talking, grumpy."

He said nothing. Only made a quiet sound of acknowledgement and turned to pace to the other side of the rooftop, to continue his evaluation of the city. He could have watched the other man, certainly. Could've seen how he landed. How he jumped. But he kept himself where he stood, now with far too much to think about.

If only it were as simple as a single jump. But no, that wasn't the sort of man Nida was. His free-running was a bit different. He spared a look back at the assassin before running to the edge and vaulting over to another building. It's a bit of work but soon he's on his feet on the ground, heading down down down and looking to disappear into the city.

He heard the leap rather than saw it. And that...

That was interesting. After he heard the slightly heavier landing of feet on the ground that had him moving across the rooftops, following this young man with a degree of curiosity he wouldn't admit to if asked. Was he some sort of Assassin in his world? It was worth the curiosity.

Once on ground level Nida slows down some. Mostly because he has nowhere in particular to go, and wants to start mapping the roads from ground level in his mind. But the way he moves through people is easy, slipping between them in spaces that shouldn't work, all without touching someone.

Here was clearly someone used to heavier traffic on the streets, and quick of foot and mind to stay out of the way of so many people without inspiring question or offense.

It was a familiar dance, of sorts. He watched as Nida did what he'd also learned. How to nudge his way through a crowd, unnoticed but unhindered, just one more person in the throng. Though the throngs, here, weren't so thick. There were fewer women carrying water to their homes, fewer men carrying crates, fewer drunkards and madmen.

For a long moment, he thought of Jerusalem and missed the heat on his shoulders. Then he was watching the man move, having to go still before making two specific observations: One to see if his left hand lacked any fingers, and the other to see if his eagle vision would give him a hint as to the man's intent.

All his fingers were intact, of course. But intent? Nothing. Just exploration. Nida moved through the crowds before coming to a stop on a corner near the markets. Stopped and looked around. He... had the weirdest sensation, like a tickle between his shoulder blades.

Something was happening, and he didn't quite know what was going on. Soon Nida found his eyes casting about, trying to figure it out. Those sorts of senses didn't go off for nothing.

Strange.

Altaïr knew he was there. He saw the man. But his Eagle Vision showed him very little. He wasn't an ally, so Altaïr was unsurprised to see the man lacking any hints of blue. Not an enemy, either, so there was no shade of red. He'd expected white, perhaps, or maybe yellow, but instead, he was... muted. Grey. Just like the others who walked along their way.

It was only when this new acquaintance paused and turned that a thread of a colour entered his aura. A bit of yellow. And so Altaïr decided that meant he was worth keeping tabs on, though the abundance of grey told him - not quite now.

And so he turned, walking across the roof to leave the man be. He'd be able to find him again. The population here wasn't that large.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive - 001

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welcome back there sneaky man

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