TEST DRIVE ∞ May 2025

[thediadem]

Test Drive ∞ May 2025

The First Collision

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Jump ⇅ :: Arrival — Panorama — Fringes — Invite Request

The Diadem is an invite-only panfandom game set in a retro-futuristic world where uprooted souls find themselves deep within an eerie wasteland of roads and highways frequently assailed by cosmic storms. Three united strongholds keep the population. Its capital is Panorama, a large metropolis at the planet's center.

Soon, you realize you aren't alone. Calling themselves fluxdrifts, the "locals" have similar stories to you, either for themselves or their ancestry. You speak to an old woman who claims she hailed from another star. You meet a young man who says his great-great-grandfather knew a strange language everybody spoke "back home." As you explore, you stumble across a coin you recognize or your sister's locket. How did it get here? What does this mean? That's for you to discover.

But first, you need to find a ride.

No invites needed to play on the TDM. Everyone's welcome! Use the Invite Request thread below to request an invite from another player.

∞ Summary ∞

IC-wise, arrivals are scattered throughout the month. Events described on the TDM are also ongoing throughout the month. If you'd rather jump right into the action, you're free to begin in media res with your character having already been on the planet for several days.

Post-impact, characters will wake up in a med tent by the Scrapyard. From there, they must accept a vehicle on loan and make the 2-hour drive to the nearest city, Panorama. If they refuse the car because they don't want the loan, they'll be in debt for medical bills instead...so just take the car. It'll come in handy.

Some things to keep in mind when bringing in your character:

• Pick an injury. At minimum, they got knocked out; at most, whatever they can recover from. Medicine is decently advanced so they'll heal faster if not painlessly.
• Decide items kept. Reasonable items on their person only: photos, keys, clothes, costumes. No pets or animal companions. Wildly out-of-place tech and personal cell phones will be damaged beyond repair.
• Select a weapon. Do this only if eligible. Guidelines about weapons and powers are on the FAQ.
• Choose a vehicle. Decide whether your character gets 2-3 options or if they're stuck with something they hate. Players can pick directly from our collection or source their own images. Anything under a similar aesthetic will work. If your character needs accommodations for driving, they can have them. Ask us for details.
• Get a phone. Characters have to obtain a phone (and a SIM card) themselves. If they've got one from home, it's damaged beyond repair. Phones are cheap. It'll only take a couple of weeks to afford one. You need to know the number before you text or call anyone. Read about phones and the Forum before you hop on it.

TDM threads can be canon if characters are accepted. Top-levels made to the TDM should be open to all.

TDM Questions? Here — Game Questions? FAQ

Setting — Taken — Reserves — Applications ::: ⇅ Top

Fluxdrift

Arrival & Introduction

Date: Throughout May

You've tumbled over a cliff. You were fighting for your life. You're on the cusp of death. You slipped in the shower. Whatever the catalyst, you struggle to cling to consciousness. As darkness overtakes you, a swirling vortex warps light and shadow in a way that defies all physics. A dark wail etches into your very bones. You couldn't describe it if you tried. You can barely comprehend what it is.

Then you open your eyes.

Through the figure's mask ©, you swear the face is grinning down at you. The tent you're in smells of antiseptic, and scratchy blankets line your cot. Injuries you've sustained have been bandaged. In the corner, you spot a MedBot that's fixed you up. Depending on the extent of your injuries, the doctor on duty might give you some painkillers before you go. Thankfully, your belongings are by the exit. Sorry if anything's damaged. Your landing was pretty rough.

You follow the figure outside. They are Yom Crook, here to lend a hand to fellow fluxdrifts like yourself. Their car's parked beside them. Actually, there are lots of cars around, but Yom Crook's stands out with its painted shark mouth. They explain they found you, unconscious, in a diffusion zone and brought you here. The nearest city is a 2-hour drive northeast. Forget about walking. You'll never make it. Also, you owe the doctor a lot of money for patching you up. But you're in luck: they've got some wheels for you and if you accept the vehicle on loan, Yom Crook will cover your medical bills. That's a good deal, right? It's not the shiniest car or motorcycle, but it'll do. If fortune favors, you'll get to choose between two or three options. Plus, if you need accommodations to drive—like adjustments to your seat height or modified controls—you'll receive all that for free.

Take the vehicle. (And the loan.) Yom Crook assures you that you'll have six months before collectors come around. Any time you're ready to pay a part of it down, return here to the Scrapyard. You'll get a receipt and everything. Paying off the loan in six months isn't impossible, but it will take a lot of work. Just don't get too lax. There's a good chance you'll be juggling multiple loans as you try to get by.

You either know how to drive, or you'll have a bare-bones manual to get you started. Road rules are more a suggestion than enforced, so just hit the pedal and go. The car has some basic features. The built-in compass will help you navigate.

OPTIONAL PROMPTS: a flat tire; a body on the road (is it a trap?); a fender bender

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Panorama

Explore & Settle In

Conditions: Warm spring temperatures, light showers

After 2 hours on the road, you find civilization. The largest of the strongholds, Panorama is where the economy thrives. Massive power plants glowing red make it visible from a distance. The city is divided into three districts. For now, you can access the Pavilion and the Blocks. Don't worry about the Sanctum; they're not letting you in.

You only need to know two things about Panorama: 1) it's big, the size of a modern metropolis, and you'll need your car to get around; 2) anything goes as long as you don't pick a fight with the wrong person. Street smarts will get you far. Despite its geographical size, the population isn't huge. With roughly a million people in a city designed for over twice that number, Panorama is far from deserted, but nor is it overcrowded. It's a good thing. Resources are limited as it is.

The Pavilion: Free Samples

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Like any large city, Panorama features a couple of supermarkets. The stock's not as consistent as a proper supermarket. On occasion, shelves can remain cleaned out for a week or two. Regardless, the long tradition of free samples remains. If you're not already shopping, you'll notice the crowded parking lot and clusters of lines inside.

Try samples, push through the crowds as you shop, or give yourself a five-finger discount. If you're cautious, you can pocket a few small items without consequences. The Pavillion doesn't have the infrastructure for surveillance; unless someone sees you, you won't be caught. Steal from the store or pilfer someone's wallet. Maybe you even make a new friend if you bump into another fluxdrift. Or, start a fight with somebody who cut you off in the cheese line. Don't make too much of a ruckus, or you'll be thrown out.

As you look around, you'll see posters advertising temporary positions for the cash register or graveyard shifts in the warehouse. Seems they might've lost several employees recently (how'd that happen?), which is good for you! It's just a 6-week position, but it'll get you on your feet. The city has temporary positions like this all over. Permanent ones are harder to come by when you're new.

Samples include: steamed cabbage dumplings, synthetic cherry juice, cheddar cheese, and chocolate-covered alien eggs (it's crunchy and weirdly tasty). They're served in the usual throwaway paper cups with little toothpicks.

The Blocks: Power Outage

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Power's finicky in Panorama, especially in the Blocks. Saint Margery's Hospital, located in the same area, has priority for power so the first to go are the motels. Maybe you've been in your room for a couple of weeks, maybe you just got here—and by the way, every motel desk is happy to put the fee on your tab if you don't have the money upfront—but all the motels on the east side are in a blackout, leaving only the west side motels up and running.

What do you do? You have three choices:

• Risk leaving your room and head to the other side where there's power. Knock on some doors and negotiate with another to share the room. They might shut the door in your face, ask for a favor in return, or be nice enough to help you with no strings attached. There's no guarantee your unattended room will be untouched, though, and you'll be on the hook for any damages an intruder causes.
• Sit in the dark and deal. It's not the worst idea, but the TV's down, the vending machines are powered down, and with the entire place plunged into darkness, you risk getting robbed. If you struggle with defending yourself, you might want to find some trustworthy company. You can also sneak out of there and let them take your leftover pizza. It's not like you've got a ton of valuables, right? Plus, clobbering someone in the face with a frying pan sounds great until you realize you've gotta do something with the body. And what if this person's got a friend waiting?
• Get in your car and drive (or grab a friend for a road trip). If you scroll the Forum, you might notice reports on diffusion zones southward. Besides, these motels are hardly your forever home. The city can only provide so much. Why not go for a ride and see what you can find out there?

OPTIONAL PROMPTS: clean up on aisle 3 (what is that goo?); a knock at your door but no one's there; you hear screaming or a commotion down the hall

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The Fringes

Quad 3: Lockdown

Conditions: Stormy, with flooding roads

Felix Bjurstrom
> Date: 125-05-17
> Time: 02:15:57

> Emergency road lights have been reported in Quadrant 3! Please, can someone go see what's there? When last we chasers investigated emergency lights, a whole truck filled with sour candy had tipped over. Our stores were stocked for weeks! Oh, be careful - reception looks bad in that zone.

Whether you end up here on your own or you were following a tip on the Forum, the outcome is the same: you come to a stop in front of a 2-story office building that's flooded several inches deep. Emergency lights from a roadblock flicker through the stormy night. Stepping out of your car, you're soaked within seconds. When you check your phone, you don't have any bars. No calls in or out.

Through the open windows, a computer awakens and displays a cheerful smile. The lights inside switch on.

Pick your scenario role below. Your thread partner doesn't need to take the opposite role! They can join you in the same scenario (i.e. trapped together). Players are also free to create a generic NPC for the other side to facilitate the thread.

After characters escape, they'll find one bottle of antibiotics in their pocket or car, whether they remember taking it or not.

A: Sealed In
As you peer through the windows, you see crates of medicine floating around. Antibiotics in the diadem are valuable. Hospitals and doctors are always buying. You can keep it for yourself or make a quick buck. Or maybe you're compelled to help somebody back in the city who's in need. Whatever the reason, you decide to take the risk and step inside.

Water splashes around your ankles. The lock buzzes behind you. If you try to break the windows, you discover they're unnaturally resistant to shattering. With the whole place locked tight, the water begins to churn. Then the computer lights up again.

Warning, it flashes in large, bold text. Quarantine in progress. Release code required for exit.

• To find the code, you'll have to search. Duck under the water, go through sopping envelopes and sticky notes or pick the locks on the filing cabinets and desk drawers. You can also try hacking the computers. Use your computer knowledge or fall back on the age-old trick of seeing who wrote down their password.
• The files, notepads, and emails start innocuous, but as you look through them, disturbing phrases jump out at you—a dark thought you've had or a cruel taunt from someone in your past. The longer you're fixed on the terrible words, the higher the water begins to rise. Only another can break you out of your trance.
• With the rising water comes fear. And the more you're afraid, the more the water also rises. You begin to see faces in the water, bobbing like balloon heads. Do you recognize them? If you move to take a closer look, they will sink back beneath the surface as if never there.
• If you manage to swallow your panic, you can eventually find a triple-laminated binder with the release code and instructions. Bad news: you need someone on the outside to punch in the 6 strange symbols in order. The instructions explain that the code panel is located at the back of the building.

Let's hope a friendly face comes along.

B: Set Free
As you peer through the windows, you see not just the crates of medicine but someone trapped inside. They look like they might be in trouble, and from your vantage point, you notice that the water is bubbling strangely. It's definitely not normal rainwater. As you watch, the water rises unnaturally, stopping and starting. It's as if the water level is responding to an external stimulus.

• The glass is soundproof. You can't hear what the person inside is saying, so you'll have to communicate with each other another way. Try charades, typing on your phone, or whatever you think of. Eventually, you determine that they're stuck and that you need to enter some sort of code onto a pad located—according to your trapped partner—at the back of the building.
• Around the back, shadows swallow your surroundings. The panel must be pried open, but a slippery substance makes it hard to get a good grip. Each time the substance touches you, you grow uneasy. You swear you see eyes watching you, though when you turn around, nothing's there.
• You can't seem to keep the instructions in your mind. And those symbols...they burn into your retinas. Through them, you glimpse an incomprehensibly massive figure unfurling in the darkness, pulsing as if in a deep sleep. When you snap back to reality, you realize you've injured yourself, slicing your hand on a sharp edge or a bruise you can't remember getting.
• Once you manage to release the doors, the water inside the office drains upward into the sky as though sucked out by a giant hose. The darkness spreads. Get out of there fast before the shadows drag you or your partner into the void.

Of course, you don't have to help anyone. You can leave the individual there, make a deal, or outright extort them. But remember, you're not the only person on these roads. You might want to play your cards carefully, even if altruism isn't your first instinct.

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Comments

[betenoir]

[His hand remains curled around the handle of his cane, though when she relaxes his fingers loosen their grasp. His voice descends to a gentle tone but conversely loses none of its edge.

There is only one important question in this conversation. Come the end of it all, would he ally himself with another expedition to return home and defend his family? The answer would always be a resounding yes. But getting there is complicated.

He raises a brow. There is no response to her fathoming his name. It is a fact he processes and puts aside.]

Walking? That's your plan?

[It is more observation. Quiet solitude is why he was outside, after all. Time to think, time to reflect. One thing they have in common.]

I suppose we have time if nothing else.

[Would he ally himself with another expedition to observe and sabotage them? That's also a yes.]

[foretells]

Actually, my plan was to use my car, but I'm not inviting someone who could murder me behind the wheel.

[ It's said cheekily with a quirk of a smile. Sure, they've just somewhat agreed to not kill each other, but she can't be too careful. Especially when a certain someone caused problems at the beach. So, instead, walking! ]

Besides, as helpful as those things are, we're not going to see what actually is going on in the city if we're racing through it. You don't know the danger until you've watched it and assessed it.

[ She's not speaking of him but she is, in a way. A hunter doesn't attack a predator without watching for their tells; as the eyes of the group, she has to look, has to see, before she makes a decision. And while that means everything in a fight with someone like Renoir...

...it also applies to the little moments that could be missed. Who in the city is struggling? Who is always hungry, looking for work? Will they be accepted here if they have to spend any amount of time? ]

When we go beyond the city - and we'll have to - then we take the car. You've got one too, yeah?

[betenoir]

[Humor as a means of disarming. Renoir can almost accept it, but he cannot afford to appreciate it. Not when he is alone in this place. Not when he needs to keep standing for that day he will no longer be alone.

His fingers curl around the handle of his cane, lifting it off the ground. But he repositions the tip rather than bring it to bear as he had done upon the beach. His head angles, almost positioning itself on his shoulder.]

That strange contraption? I believe so.

[The price of which is nothing. It is hardly the biggest debt he owes across his lifetime.]

Do you intend to leave this city alone?

[Are you in this city alone? Are your friends here? Does he need to make contingency plans? Will he have other people on which to direct his attention?]

ehhhhhhh idk timelines, we'll just go with it

[foretells]

It's odd, right?

[ This feels certifiably like an odd conversation she's having with him, but it's no more unnerving than speaking to a white Nevron. No, actually, it's definitely more unnerving and uncomfortable, but there's not much she can do in the moment. And she's committed herself down this path for the time being. The only way out is through.

Sciel can't know his thoughts but she can almost imagine where they're headed. Will you be looking for help? Will there be more Expeditioners? Will the others be there?

And she answers honestly: ]

If I have to, then yes. It's not ideal but there's no one else.

[ No one she's come across, at the very least. So if she's the only one, then that's that, and it's likely easier that way. If Sciel is the only collateral on offer, then it's a better trade than to involve too many variables. And she'd never forgive herself if her dalliance with peace cost one of the others their safety.

She gives a half-hearted shrug. ]

I don't know what anyone else here has gone through. These others who have shown up from...other worlds. [ She doesn't like the way it sounds in her mouth, too fantastical. ] I can't ask them to make that risk. I've got less than a year left now. It's better that I take the chance.

that's how we roll

[betenoir]

[Renoir says nothing about the concept she explores through words, finding it too fantastical to dwell upon. Were she to study his expression, cold and solemn, she might learn his own opinion seems much the same.

He also says nothing about her intentions. Because though he can believe her, he intends to plan for their arrival, for all possible contingencies.]

Really? I would advise you to go home but...

[His shoulders gesture beneath his coat. They can't go home, can they?]

Perhaps it's better you take the opportunity.

[foretells]

And that's the plan. To go home. But we don't know which way.

[ Scouting the city and understanding what they're in for seems wisest first. Then she can at least get supplies and figure out the best course of action. While returning to the general area of the car depot seems like it might not be the worst choice... She just doesn't think there's merit, if each and every other person has also been dumped there. It just means it's not consistent.

Sciel gives a little shrug just the same. ]

So...getting prepared and trying to strike out makes the most sense. I don't know about you, though, but I'm flush out of any coins, and won't be able to get supplies without them. Or without stealing.

[ She can't exactly be exchanging chroma. She's already tried poking in for food and the asking rate isn't in a currency she recognizes. ]

[betenoir]

It seems life has handed you a hard decision.

[His low murmur is still resounding. His soft and thoughtful curiosity for what she will do in the moment. He cannot think people from Lumiere have been in this position before. Oh, they know where their lives are leading, but to truly become part of their moment where they must make a decision?

He looks towards the nearest family whose children are opening packets containing some kind of food. For the briefest moment, his face is coloured by something like regret and empathy. Does he? Doesn't he?]

You might learn what you are capable of when your back is forced against the wall.

[He does nothing. He isn't hungry. He also certainly isn't the sort of man who steals food from the mouths of children. Not when his own family are nowhere here.]

miiiiild spoilers but vague

[foretells]

[ Something about what he says rattles her. No, that's not the word. It...angers her, actually. This idea that this is where she might learn what she's capable of, that this is the worst thing she has had to endure. Separation from home, something unknown, being away from the people she cares the most about...

All the while there's a ticking clock somewhere out there, unseen, until the numbers 33 become 32, and then she'll be gone like all of the others. For a moment, she closes her eyes, hoping to rein in whatever impulse emotion might overtake her.

There's a thin, reedy exhale through her teeth when she opens her eyes again. They settle on the kids eating, on the families sitting close by. ]

It's not the first time. This is just...the last.

[ The last chance she has at changing anything. And if it doesn't work? Then the outcome doesn't change what would have happened otherwise. Her hope isn't for herself: it's for Lune, it's for Maelle, it's for Lumiere. For those who come after.

Because she, as far as she cares, has already reached the end before. And all of this is just a little extra time.

Sciel starts walking. He is welcome to walk with her - or he is welcome to go his own way. He isn't beholden to her, after all. ]