aurorastation | TEST DRIVE MEME (8)

test drive meme

Your character wakes up in a neat bedroom in their team carriage, in nondescript underwear. They might be missing their memories, or their special abilities, or they may just feel a little queasy. Next to them is what seems to be a smartphone, which they know how to use even if they never had before, even if they don't know if they have before. On the screen is a simple message:

Welcome aboard the Aurora!

You have been selected by the Star Prince as a potential hero, tasked with saving the universe from Malice. As a passenger I, your Construct and Conductor, will attempt to provide you with quality lodgings and safety. In return, we ask that you join your fellows in making bonds and doing your utmost to bring joy back to the Stars.

Due to the process of restoring your body, you may find some things are missing. We apologise for the inconvenience and hope to return them to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation.

★ One
Upon investigation, you'll find some basic clothes matching your team's theme in the storage provided in your room. Or, perhaps, you're wandering out of the room still undressed. Either way, downstairs you'll find someone has left a tray of cups of hot tea on the living room table. Drinking it may be simply pleasant, or it may cause you to feel a sudden need to warm up to the others in your carriage -- emotionally or physically. Welcome to the team, newbie!

☆ Two
Shortly after your arrival, you find yourself wrapped up in some monster NPC's Game. You're inside what appears to be a stone temple, with a massive golden scale on one wall. Suddenly, on one side, a heavy metal weight is dropped. As the scales tip out of balance, the floor begins to slowly disappear, brick by brick, ready to drop you -- and whoever is with you -- into an abyss. Your only hope comes in the form of an inscription on the altar:

How much do your secrets weigh?

Every secret you tell causes a weight to fall onto the other side of the scale. The bigger the secret, the bigger the weight. If you can collectively tip the scales, the floor will quit dropping bricks and a door will appear to allow you back to the train. If you can't, you'll fall, seemingly forever, til you pass out. When you wake up you'll find yourself unable to lie.

★ Three
Whether you've just arrived or whether you've been a longstanding resident of the Aurora Express, you are asleep in your bed when it happens. A flash of light-- and then the sound of tiny objects hitting and bouncing off the roof of the train, abrupt and more solid than rain. Hail? Except it begins and ends too quickly to be hail. It's almost as if the sky opened up and dropped marbles on everything below. Weird.
Whether you wake up in the middle of the night or later on during real person hours, when you step outside... you will find hundreds of tiny star-like objects reminiscent of candy littering the ground. If you touch one you may feel a lingering sense of longing... as if this is something that "belongs" to you, but somehow is out of your reach. An emotion perhaps, or something that you buried deep inside... someone you love, something you covet. Whatever it is, the feeling consumes you until you decide to do the inadvisable.

Should you decide to consume the mysterious sky candy you just found on the ground the feeling that drew you in washes over you like a warm blanket... or a cold one, depending on the flavor of the candy.

Pink: Affection. The desire to love and be loved, or simply the desire to be close to someone. It feels like soft bubbling warmth or a burning need.
Orange: Anger. You've been wronged somehow. Who wronged you, do you remember? It feels like poison that bubbles just beneath the skin or a burst of fire that threatens anyone that comes near.
Yellow: Happiness. Inexplicable and bright, nothing can bring you down and everything is exciting. It feels like a burst of sunlight on a cloudy day, or a rush of energy that can't sit still.
Green: Covetousness. Jealousy and envy, what they have belongs to you, or at least it should. It feels like a painful longing that twists your stomach, or a fidgety itch in your fingers.
Blue: Sorrow. You can only be strong for so long, sometimes you need to break. It feels like a sharp stab in your chest, or a well of emotions that threatens to burst.
White: Wildcard. Go wild?

How long these effects last is up to you... or up to how much candy you eat. Let this be a lesson to you; do not eat things you find on the ground.

☆ Four
Wildcard. Make up your own prompt! Check out the setting and team pages for info on the train. If you have any questions, ask on the q&a page. Otherwise, apps open on June 8! In the meantime you're free to join us on Discord.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yeah. And to the creepy factor because mine did too," he said. And they are very different body types. "So we got kidnapping ninjas since neither of us can remember being brought here, who got our measurements and clothes ahead of time."

Yaaaay.

"Find anything interesting in your room, or want to see if they're keeping the skin suits downstairs?"

"Does this count"

He held up the Chain.

"I shouldn't know how to use this, except I do."

It was a bit like when Desdemona remembered something he didn't, except Desdemona didn't have any idea what this was either.

"It is weird how old school they went," he said, pulling out his own chain. "It doesn't even have basic screen projection." He taps at the screen a few times. "And it has these weird apps, for a game I guess, but no home screen or anything. Not sure I trust the communication apps though, not yet."

"You call this old school?" Penric looked dumbfounded. He muttered under his breath, "what sort of school did he go to?" The muttering was in a different accent.

"Well, yeah? By...I dunno. A century? More? Hard to call when the projection systems were common," he said with a shrug.

Though he focused on Penric when he mutters. Because he noticed the difference accent and there's. There's something about that that grabs his attention. "What was that?"

"I knew what was happening a century ago, and-" Pen (or his secondary accent) was cut off. "Oh, well..."

Lie or tell the truth and freak out the first and only person he's met so far when Desdemona couldn't help defend them. "Would you believe that I talk to myself?"

"No," he said, immediate because he doesn't. It's weird. It's like he knows this. He knows what this is, but trying to connect what it is, that's hard.

~~Certainly not because the voices in his own head aren't always his.~~

"What's with the accent change?"

Well, this was going spectacularly. Penric sighed. "What do you know about sorcerers? Temple sorcerers, not hedge sorcerers." He added quickly.

He was glancing at the door. He was nearly certain this man wasn't Roknari, and mostly certain that if he was, he could get through the door, possibly while throwing a pillow as a distraction. But even devout Quintarians weren't exactly easy about sorcerers.

Good going, Pen. He wasn't sure if that was his own thought or Desdemona's... probably both.

"They a thing that might exist," he said. Because on one hand, he wants to say no, on the other hand, he's also pretty sure magic is real. So why wouldn't sorcerers be real. "And that's it."

Well, at least he didn't have to worry about a reaction of fear. Yet.

"All right. Sorcerers get their power because they possess a demon. I occasionally let mine have a say about things."

Desdemona might object to the framework of 'let', but she also acknowledged that even looking like she was the one with the reins over Penric's body would lead to trouble for both of them.

"She... well, she didn't grow up, exactly, but she learned human speech in Cedonia, not the cantons. Wealdean isn't even her first language."

And suddenly it occurs to Penric that neither of them -- all of them -- are speaking Wealdean. "... but we're not speaking Wealdean right now. Or any other language I... we recognize."

Again, it was like when he first inherited Desdemona in that knowledge wold suddenly appear, except it wasn't Desdemona doing it. Are we sure there's no one else in here?

There's no room, the answer came.

"Well, that's reasonable. If you're going to be running around the in the same body, it'd be pretty annoying to have someone not have a say all the time," he said.

Should he be concerned it's a demon?

....eh, honestly, it's not like humans can't be outright horrible, who knows how chill a demon might be in reality. Saying they're just worse than people when people can be pretty horrible seems like myths and legends can't be trusted.

Now why two people, one body sounds like a reasonable thing to happen, but not a normal thing, he's having a hard time putting into words. That's annoying.

"Aren't we speaking English?"

"No. Because I... neither of us speak that language. Or even know where it is from." Maybe somewhere in the far south?

"...you don't know English? It's the primary human language, at least off world," he said. "Needed to agree on one without making space travel a shitshow."

~~Thank you, Halo, for actually answering that question.~~

"I know several languages but... off world? Space travel?"

Nope, he has nothing.

"Yessss? You know? Going to other planets? Colonizing? Getting resources and occasionally ancient alien tech?" He said. "I mean, there's other languages, but English is the main one."

"No, I don't know," Penric said. "At least half of those words might as well be in a foreign language."

Well, okay, he understood them but not in a context that made sense.

He opens his mouth and then closes it because how does? He approach that? "....well. I guess that is a thing to shelf for right now. Anything else strange in your room?"

"Let's see. I've woken up in strange clothing, with more of it with me, and a device that I don't understand, but you see as old-fashioned. I'm speaking a language neither myself nor Desdemona -- that's my demon -- remember learning, and to someone who is so foreign we're having trouble finding common references. Have I got everything?" N

Edited 2019-07-13 17:00 (UTC)

"Yeah, sounds about right," he said, a hand going back to rub at the back of his neck. "It's very weird. Technology should at least be pretty universal for people to recognize...."

Though this guy didn't mention any amnesia other than getting here. Maybe it's just him?

"Exploration might be the only way to go. Hopefully there's someone else around somewhere."

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