costco | TEST DRIVE MEME #1

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

TEST DRIVE #1

The universe is fading into a bitter, cold blackness. Planet by planet, star by star, life is disappearing. For the good ship Koska IV there is no return voyage, there is no home, there is only forward. Behind it is the devastating emptiness of a life devoured, and the threat of an unseen enemy always at its heels. It can be argued perhaps that where the Kostka goes death follows, that it leaves ruin in its wake. If you ask Ripley, though, she'll say that they're only just managing to outrun the inevitable.

Waking up aboard the ship feels strangely like waking up in a mausoleum.

You emerge from your cryo pod like climbing out from a tomb, born new into a world long gone silent and still. The monolithic vessel now exists as a ghost town, halls dimly lit with emergency power, the only sounds being the mechanical ticking and groaning metal of the Kostka, laboring on like a wounded, burdened beast. Don’t mind the dust, the grime or the occasional blood splatter; cleaning is a nonessential function the droids don’t have energy to waste on.

Kostka IV, once a transport designed for leisure cruises to and from new colonies, hobbles along on her last leg, urged on and on by the AI left to command her - R.I.P., affectionately termed ‘Ripley’ by her now absent crew. The sprawling, shadowy halls are only trafficked by Ripley’s minimal team of droids, the least that she can spare in straining her corrupted processes, much of both the ship and her systems in dire disrepair.

Preserve organic life: Ripley’s primary, core directive and singular focus, the one goal above all else, which must be met, no matter the cost. And now, your goal too, as on Kostka IV, though crippled, Ripley is God, and the body your consciousness inhabits now is not your own - a semi-organic, synthetic host that morphs to fit the form you left, rather than the skin you were born to. You were saved from what is coming (for her, for you, for everyone), because Ripley needs more hands to keep this last ark of humanity afloat, as the ship struggles to find safe harbor, making stops along the way to pick up resources, to search for life.

To find a home, and a future, for us all.

( Kostka is a panfandom, scifi, survival/horror jamjar, with elements of psychological and body horror (in varying, opt-out-able levels) peppered along with your general monster movie fair, driven by character interaction and influence with heavy meta-plot guided by regular mod events. Set on a mobile ship traversing through differing dimensions, characters are transported into semi-organic, synthetic bodies that replicate their canon form, able to be upgraded with powers through bonus AC rewards, and brought onto the crew to assist a debilitated AI in escaping a force destroying the multiverse, while they seek to salvage what remains of life. Events will feature some known canon worlds (like Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Bioshock, etc), along with some uniquely built between mods and player world-building. This game is invite-only, and we have a player cap of 30, with two character slots available for each player. The game has been inspired by: Battlestar Galactica, SOMA, Altered Carbon, Mass Effect, Passengers, Black Mirror, and various others. )

GOOD MORNING, STARSHINE

⬡ AKA; waking up naked with tubes/cables in half ur orifices probably, gross

A spark of electricity convulses through your body, and you jolt awake - underwater.

Or, at least, that's most peoples' first guess. The color is more vibrant than water should be, and heavier, your body feeling sluggish against the weight and drag of it. Or perhaps you're just slower to respond, distant, limbs and mind still drowsy and reeling. The bright fluid doesn't sting when you blink, if anything, it's soothing, healing, calming. Fortunate, that, because you're going to need it. As the pod-like chamber you're held in starts to drain of the liquid, your senses start to flood back in. Awareness filters in like a window curtain holding back the morning sun, gradually easing away with each inch the water line lowers.

There's something on your face - a mask, strapped around the back of your head, and other thinner tendrils against your cheeks, your ears, your neck. Narrow tubes are channeled through in your nostrils, and cables have slithered in through your ears, plugging into God knows what on the inside of your skull. There's a click that you feel more than hear, and the tension on them slacks, disconnected from somewhere inside you. Pull - up, back, to the side, whichever way you want - and they start to drag free. Far from the most pleasant feeling (likely leaves you wanting to crawl right out of your skin), but it doesn't quite hurt or burn, yet.

That's for the inch wide tube shoved down your throat and held in place by the mask. It's also what's keeping you breathing underneath this blue space-goo though, so maybe don't go yanking it off until the lid of your pod opens.

As the fluid drains, a voice crackles in over the sound of water oscillating around your ears. Not something played from a speaker anywhere, nothing projected on a screen, and whether the cables are still in your ears or not, you hear her all the same, as if she's more inside your head than she is broadcasting over a speaker inside the pod or coming muffled from outside. Even still, it's stuttered and interrupted, like the connection is weak, interference like static white noise buzzing through and covering up parts of sentences.

❝ I don’t have a lot of tim— RIP can’t spare the power to run this more t—, so pay attention.

No one knows where it came fr— out of radio contact when it happened, whatever it w— Everything in its path. There is no fighting it. Only surviv—

Droids handle most of the maintenance, but she’s getting wor— Take the load off. Whatever happe— just keep Ripley running. If the ship stops, we’re all dea—

—’re bodies are new, still adjusting. You’ll be on unsteady legs for a while, so take it slo— might end up face-planting, and there’s only so many replacemen—

Mess hall’s lock— so make do. The cryo pod fluid’s the most nutritious thing around, just don’t think about wh—

—’s all I can tell you.

Good luck. ❞

» » » READ MORE HERE « « «

At the end of the long lines of cryo pods, the halls meet at a small medbay. It seems some merciful someone has left a stack of thin, cloth sheets on one of the medbay tables, so it's best you pick one up, towel off a bit, and then toga it, until you find something more durable.

Hopefully, at some point, someone will discover a door leading to a storage room is unlocked. There, you'll find some very stylish, bright orange jumpsuits. With luck, you'll make it there before you freeze.

NETWORK

⬡ AKA; welcome to Kostka IV, Have Some K-Pop

While Projection is not yet available, all HOST bodies share free access to a neural network through which they can communicate via text, audio, or video. One of the first things the HOST platform will prompt the new mind housed inside it will be to set up a sequence of finger taps to open up the network HUD.

The system is fairly intuitive, and all one need do is reach up a hand to touch the option they wish to select. For text, a keyboard overlay will appear in the HOST's visual perception, and, dy default, all messages will show: a name, a username, and an ID code. Feel free to make these up as you like. These can be adjusted, and a HOST can post anonymously to the network as well (no guarantees Ripley can't trace it back to the origin, but she's not going to tell).

There are no real rules on the usage of this network, aside from don't try to hack your friends, or your not-friends (just don't hack anyone, okay, it's rude). Ripley does understand the human need to socialize, especially in trying and stressful circumstances, so have at it kids.

Ripley, however, will be making one quick announcement that she will not be capable of replying to just yet - waking you jerks up took a lot out of her, so give her some time. The voice that you hear doesn't come through any speaker or intercom around you, nor is it originating from any of the bodies or droids nearby. You hear what sounds like a young girl speaking as if inside your head, and she sounds exhausted:

❝ ATTENTION ALL CREW: This is Ripley.

While I realize abduction and consciousness displacement is frowned upon in many human societies, please understand this was an emergency protocol enacted at the last possible moment.

You have questions. I will answer as best as I'm able, as much as I'm able, but much of the data you're looking for has suffered massive corruption, held in a type of quarantine. The most important thing you need to know is that you, and all organic life within the multiverse, are being hunted. The mission of this vessel is to protect and preserve what remains of that life.

Take time to acclimate to your new platforms. We'll talk more later.

Ripley out. ❞

MAINTENANCE

⬡ AKA; get that human skull out of the filtration tank pls, or u stepped on a droid and now it's mad.

We're hoping you had time to get over the Bambi legs and get your space legs under you (as well as some space pants onto your body), because Ripley expended a lot of processing power to waking you up. That means it's up to you to make up the difference and get to work cleaning this place up to make it habitable for you and your new crewmates.

It's been nothing but RIP and her droids for the last who knows how long, so those things that need to be functioning for the continued survival of organic bodies need to get working. Here's the chores on the docket:

⬡ Water Filtration; Hydration - always a must for you squishy, fleshy things, isn't it? The canal that runs through the Ring atrium is a large part of the reserves, and at one dark innocuous end an uncomfortable grinding noise can be heard. Beneath the surface of the water where there should be wall, there is instead an enormous fan about ten feet in diameter. It's grinding so loud the sound escapes the water barrier, and the cause is pretty clear. There's something wedged between one of the fan blades and the circular housing it's contained in. Someone will need to dive down ten or twelve feet and unstick the human skull stopping the filtration system from running. Beware, though — the second it's free the fan blades will begin spinning, sucking gallons upon gallons of water down into the depths. Hope you can swim!

⬡ O2 Garden; Oxygen - another must. The up-side here is that the facility has been virtually untouched, yielding unchecked growth for the time no one's been tending to it. The bad part is more about the chaos that's left behind. The garden is nearly a jungle at this point, and if crew is to make their way around easily, manage the hydroponics, and set up the vegetable gardens again to provide food outside of the cryo soup, there's some major work to be done. It likely doesn't help that some of the more volatile samples have broken free from containment and mixed in with the rest of the garden. One hostile species will spit acidic venom at things wandering close to its roots while others just chomp down on anything that ventures within reach. Riply advises boots and protective gear when taking on this task, but getting rid of those weeds is up to you.

⬡ Assist the Droids; The won't talk, but they do beep and boop and shove things at your person to hold. If you're unwilling to help with anything else going on, you'll be assigned as a glorified pack-mule. Hold whatever the droids give you, hold it right there, hold it steady, and if you get shocked because you moved too much to the left, well, you really only have yourself to blame. Keep a mind to where your feet are falling as well - stepping on a droid zooming past will not only be likely to get you knocked on your ass, but probably earn you an short, sharp, electric shock from them as well.

Good luck, have fun, try not to die because Ripley's exhausted from waking you up, and the droids suck at first aid— not to mention, very stiff bedside manner.

VR / SAFETY TRAINING

⬡ AKA; ur gonna die a lot because space sucks.

Let's face it, we weren't all born ready to space labor, or even space living. Loath as Ripley is to expend the power reserves on VR, the lot of you need to be trained up and the droids lack that personal touch that inspires excellence. RIP will be taking point on this assignment.

It's a One Time Offer (well, we're calling it that now): the crew working away has freed up some CPU for Ripley, and because positive reinforcement is proven to work well on new puppies, she is rewarding you with Brain Stimulating Activities (aka safety training (or not)). This ship, especially dilapidated and running on emergency power as it is, is a dangerous place to be, even without the endless vacuum of space waiting outside to murder the absolute shit out of you. Characters will be given a VR visor, droids tapping a few buttons on a nearby console, and zipping away. Which, regretfully, means you won't be getting a warning or a say in what you're walking into, but walking into it you are, none-the-less. Sort of. Virtual walking.

⬡ Space walk; The Kostka IV has seen her fair share of daring battles and random asteroid clusters, leaving the frame of the beast of a ship pock-marked with damage. There's weakened structure, thermal panels missing, guns that don't want to get un-stuck and retract back into their housing. All kinds of nonsense. It's your job to tend to all that. Instructional videos will crop up on your HUD, walking you through your repairs, but that's assuming you can get to your spot at all, rather drift off into the sparkling black nether of the universe. Keep a good grip on the handrails outside. Now and again, something might give a quick, sharp shove, like hands against your side or your arm, attempting to dislodge you. Hold on tight, don't be tricked, and don't get lost.

⬡ Planet-Side; Suit up, it's time for a (practice) deployment, onto a little planet that doesn't exist in reality. The objective in this mission is resource retrieval, with taking samples of life forms as secondary. Some of the life forms, however, are not feeling that friendly.

Depending on how the VR roulette spins you, it could be a dry planet, with deserts bordered by harsh mountain ranges, low on vegetation but populated by carnivorous dinosaur looking, that burrow deep, deep underground for water, and sometimes reach up to grab onto an ankle, pulling prey down into the sands to finish them off. It might be a thickly forested planet, humid and crowded with exotic flora. Ripley will tell you to collect water and samples of plants, perhaps bring a couple of fauna with. The smaller ones look cute and harmless, until they open their maws and you see rows and rows of needle-sharp teeth. Once you've been in there for a while, though, you start to feel a little paranoid, a little like you're being watched. Remain too oblivious, or just happen on bad luck, and your new stalker will be leaping out to make a meal of you. Or, maybe you end up somewhere completely different. Players are free to get creative with the setting as much as they like!

Remember, this is VR, so they can (and likely will) die as much as you wish. Ripley will just spin the VR program back up for them to start again.

⬡ Crew Bonding: It's time to learn CPR! These kinds of first aid basics are necessary when having little fleshy people running amok, and Ripley would rather the crew be responsible for resuscitating their peers than having to grab a droid every time someone needs a shock back to life. An explanation will be given, and crew will asked to pair up and practice either on each other or a few spare HOST bodies not yet filled with a mind save. But, when it comes time for a test, one of the new crew will have to play the victim. Ripley's always been one with a vested interest in authenticity, so she takes control of victim's HOST platform - they stop breathing, their heart stops beating. It’s been a while since she’s People’d, okay? Anyway, the pressure is on, and your crewmates are counting on you to keep them alive. If you fail, she'll... probably turn their hearts back on before they're well and truly dead. We hope.

» NAVIGATION «

General questions about the game can be directed to the FAQ, while TDM questions can be answered on the comment header below! Awakening threads for GOOD MORNING, STARSHINE, MAINTENANCE and NETWORK can be used as game canon so long as all parties agree. Arrivals are on Day 1, while the other two prompts can take place any time during the first 5 IC days of the game timeline. The VR PROMPTS diverge a bit from what we have planned for the opening and cannot be used to game canon, so please feel free to get creative with those!

Reserves will open on: March 1st @ 8PM EST
Applications will open on: March 5th @ 8PM EST

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

No idea.

[ about the place, that is. she knows her own name —but the thought of amnesia takes her back to lucas. roan. his name is roan and she's not thinking about him. ]

I'm Dorothy.

[ she's got her arms wrapped around her legs, but she unwinds one to lift her hand and wiggle her fingers in a weak wave. ] Woke up a while ago. Are you hurt anywhere?

No.

[ he groans, stretching his arms and legs carefully. that pod had been big enough to fit him comfortably but it still feels like he'd been floating in a fetal position for way too long.

he shakes some liquid off his hands and then slides it through his hair. gross. gross and grosser. ]

John. [ he nods once. ] Can you walk?

[ as long as "gross" is the worst of their problems, dorothy's happy. her welcome to oz had been a car accident followed by torture; this is an improvement over that, even if it doesn't feel that way right now.

she clears her throat. ]

Yeah. [ well. ] Maybe. I haven't tried yet, but I think so.

Okay.

[ that means he doesn't have to carry her, at least. a good thing since his arms feel sluggish and slower than they should. he tries to shake more of the goop off his arms before he tries to work his way to a standing position. ]

You been sitting there long? Or laying there long?

[ aka has she been watching him float around for awhile? ]

Not long, I think. [ her brows draw together briefly. ] A couple of minutes.

[ maybe five.

and she hasn't been watching him float around, exactly, too distracted with taking in everything else about this place, too distracted trying not to freak out —but she's watching him struggle to stand, now, gaze lingering on his legs and his abs and his chest and shoulders.

it's a much better distraction, but it's probably also rude and so she lifts a hand to wipe some more goo from her face, smearing it into her hair on accident. it gets her eyes off him, at least. gives him some privacy. ]

[ as he gets to his feet, he realizes that he can actually see his feet. and his legs. and everything else. right, he's naked. hadn't really realized that what with coming out of a pod and taking off a freaky alien mask kind of thing. naked in front of a woman he doesn't know.

he's not shy but this is still — this is weird. ]

Huh. I don't know about you but last thing I remember, I was wearing clothes.

[ and now he's just wearing blue liquid. ]

Right. This is weird. Weirder.

Yeah, me too.

[ dorothy doesn't mind her own nudity, generally, but —in a situation like this, a layer of clothing between her and the world would feel more like protection than anything else, she figures. or the lack of it feels like a lack of protection.

she's glad she averted her eyes a moment ago, that he hadn't caught her staring. she's also glad for the fact that she's got her knees drawn up and her arms wrapped around them. ]

This is not the first time something weird like this has happened to me, but the last time, I got to keep my clothes. [ she's trying for light-hearted, here, but can't quite keep her voice from wobbling a little. she'd only just gotten back to kansas. ]

You've had something weird like this happen before?

[ should he feel better that he's apparently here with an expert or worse that her luck might be catching? he's not sure just yet.

what he does know is there has to be something around this room to cover up with. blanket, towel, clothes but all he sees is the pods, the blue goop and the masks. this didn't feel like a sentinel services experimentation program though. he'd be chained to a table if that were the case. ]

How long ago did that something weird happen to you?

Not like this. Last time, I got-

[ she breaks off, shaking her head a little. lifting a hand again to run through her hair, goop and all. the fact that they've both woken up naked in some weirdly futuristic-looking place with pods and blue goop should mean some suspension of disbelief, but she still swallows the words. ]

You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

[ well, there's a story there. he glances back at her and then turns, still aware that he's naked. so, he keeps moving so he's not just standing there, bare as the day he was born, and talking to her about where she came from.

there's small talk and then there's this. ]

Try me.

[ he knew a guy who bled the sunshine, basically. this would have to be something truly out there to make him disbelieve. ]

Edited 2019-03-05 20:28 (UTC)

[ she breathes out, a little shaky, somewhere between laughter and panic. ]

Yeah, all right. Just remember that you asked for it.

[ there's bravado in those words, in the jut of her chin where she looks up at him even as he turns. ]

The last time, a tornado picked me up and deposited me in a place called Oz. No technology, nothing like this place, but a lot of magic.

[ and a war brewing, a monster waiting, torture as a welcome and getting her heart broken shortly before leaving. she can only hope this place will turn out better. ]

[ he takes all of that in, considers it and then nods. ] Okay. Never heard of that place but I believe you.

[ really, he'd be a pretty big hypocrite if he didn't believe her after all the crap he'd seen, experienced, been through, and survived. ]

You could shoot me about ten times right now and it would hurt but I'd survive. So, we've all got our things, seems like.

[ the only thing they didn't have were clothes. ]

Seriously?

[ she doesn't bother hiding the way she looks at him at that revelation, glancing at his body for any signs of —what, armour? she's not even sure what she's looking for, but she doesn't find it.

just a lot of solid muscle. ]

I mean, you look sturdy, but not that sturdy. No one looks that sturdy.

[ while he listens to her, he finally finds a drawer with a few towels in it and, after a grateful sigh, tosses one to her before he tries to cover up a bit. it's a small towel, just big enough to go around the waist but it'll do for the moment. ]

It's a thing.

[ a whole mutant x gene thing that she doesn't seem to be aware of. huh. ]

I'd say I'll prove it but I really don't wanna be shot just yet.

[ she's never heard of the mutant x gene, and she's a nurse. if it was a thing in her world, she'd like to think she'd have heard of it.

as it is, she has no idea what the cause of his sturdiness could be. ]

Yeah, I think not getting shot is generally a good idea.

[ even if she kind of wishes that she still had the cop's gun on her, like she did in oz. what she gets instead is a small towel tossed toward her. it's not really big enough to cover much. her waist or her chest, not both. she uses it to wipe at her arms and legs and her hair and then just. holds on to it, staying where she is.

her legs feel steady enough to get up, but convincing herself that she should is a struggle. if she gets up, if she explores this place —that'll make it real.

no point sitting around, is there? so with a sigh, she pushes to her feet, holding the towel in front of herself a little awkwardly. ]

It hurts. It doesn't come with my recommendation.

[ even if the pain he felt was much, much less than a normal person. it still hurt and he'd ruined so many shirts already. not that he had a shirt with him right now but he'd lost a lot of good shirts to mutant hating humans who thought violence would solve anything.

he sighs and tries to run a few fingers through his hair. it's not an easy process considering the liquid that's still clinging to various parts of him. ]

Think we should look around? [ he doesn't hear anything beyond the walls which worries him a bit. nothing was ever this quiet. ]

Yeah, guess we should.

[ it hurts, he says, and dorothy's mind goes to being the only person in oz with a gun, goes to lucas' fear of the gun, to the wizard duplicating guns so that he could kill witches.

sylvie involved in a war. sylvie dying. sylvie getting up again. she doesn't want to think about any of that. she doesn't want to think about guns. and still, she almost wishes she had one. it'd make her feel better. ]

Maybe we'll get lucky and find the showers and a walk-in closet.

I'd take a towel bigger than a shoe at this point.

[ because this was ridiculous. he doesn't feel vulnerable but he does feel less than his best. between the blue goop and the lack of clothing, it feels like the set up for a really bad movie. like they're going to start walking around and something's going to jump out and spear him through the chest. ]

This doesn't feel right. This doesn't feel like anywhere I should be. [ obviously. ] And this is definitely not where I'd choose to go on a vacation.

[ she feels —less than her best and vulnerable and confused, but so long as they're talking, she can keep from focusing too much on that. it's fine. it's just awkward. no one's tortured anyone (yet). it's fine. ]

Who wouldn't want to go for a cocktail of blue goo? [ she presses her lips together and slowly, carefully takes a first step, and then a second. her legs wobble a little, but they hold. ] With a little umbrella in it.

[ john steps closer just in case her legs can't handle her weight. once she takes the first few steps and doesn't end up on the ground, he steps back to give her some space so it doesn't seem like he's hovering. ]

Sounds like it might be nice.

[ but not here. ]

If I were sitting on a beach and not standing pretty much naked in front of someone I don't know after having been spit out of a pod.

Trust me, I'd like a beach a lot better, too.

[ any other time, she'd resent the way he takes a step closer, ready to catch her. it reminds her a little too much of lucas, before he remembered his past, before he became roan. he'd been so ready to protect her. as it is, she's glad for the way he's there, even if he's a stranger.

it beats being alone. ]

Can't remember the last time I got to a beach.

[ he takes careful, measured steps like he's expecting the floor to open up at any second and swallow him back. like whatever brought him here is going to make itself known. if not sentinel services than some other group that wants to open him up and see what's inside. ]

Guess we can't stay in here forever. [ even if it is safety. ] You good?

I've never been to one. [ dorothy admits after a moment. she'd never even left kansas before her surprise trip to oz. she still hasn't left kansas, except for her trip here in addition to the one to oz, now. this is not what she had in mind when she wished for more on her birthday. ]

Yeah, I think so.

[ her steps are a little slower than his, not covering quite as much distance on account of her being smaller. ]

Let's see what this place has in store?

Famous last words.

[ god, he hopes there's nothing terrible outside this room. he's still recovering from the blue goo. ]

Come on.

[ and then he's pulling the door open and slipping out with her. ]

[ yeah, she hopes there's nothing terrible outside this room, too —but she's not really holding her breath. there probably is. hopefully, they can handle it. chances are, they can't.

she's not going to let herself panic about it. she's not.

she pulls the door open and walks through and dorothy follows. getting separated is the last thing she wants right now, even if she doesn't know him.

safety in numbers, right? ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

TEST DRIVE MEME #1

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