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

[godjr]

Some universes are parallel. I was in one that wasn't mine, but identical to it, and my family had been to a few others. But this one is different, it's nothing like any of them.

[ Jack is used to the universes mostly mirroring each other because that's what his grandfather did, he created the same thing and just tried to perfect it, or he left it to rot because he got bored. He still does think that Chuck exiled him here. It's just outside of his common space, maybe? Jack doesn't know, he's not an expert on any of that. ]

These are the gear shifts. This makes it go forward, backward, and also you change it when you want to go faster. It's kind of intuitive, when you start going things will feel more natural.

[ Jack adjusts the mirrors. ]

You want to be able to see behind you and the mirrors on the sides so you don't hit anyone. And there are the lights you put on, and the windshield wipers.

[ Jack does all the little buttons so she can see when they work and what they do. These are the details that she could probably come up with by poking at things on her own, but he's here so he might as well guide her. He wants to be a good teacher! He's never been one with all the knowledge before, it's fun, he could get used to this. ]

I don't know if they have speed limits here, but there may be signs you see that say how fast you're supposed to go.

[foretells]

[ And he can tell that this one is different without having been here very long. Something about that feels...disquieting to her in a way she can't put words to. It feels like too much knowledge, too much burden, and it's equally unsettling that he takes it in such strides. It prevents her from really asking about it and so she pays more attention to what he says about the car, the gear shifts, and all of that.

And, unfortunately, he gets a little bit of a blink for his trouble. ]

Speed limits.

[ Well, what was the point of being limited on fast you might go if you need to get somewhere? She's no fool, she knows it's to prevent accidents or hitting someone else, but that also just feels like it's sucking the joy out of things.

Esquie didn't have a speed limit... ]

Do you think the terrain everywhere is going to be like this? Or do you think it's going to, you know, open up a bit?

[ Not just for driving but... Surely there's better space for greener pastures and more lush environs. Or even just farmland. Something that doesn't look run down and on its last legs. ]

[godjr]

Yes, speed limits. It's to keep drivers safe. Though Dean, one of my fathers, thinks they're more like guidelines than strict rules.

[ Though in that case it's because he has a badge he can whip out and pretend to be FBI if a cop tries to pull him over. They have a lot of freedom that way. He let Jack speed once but they were on an open highway with no one in sight so it was a safe situation to be a little reckless. He's going to have to be very cautious in his motorcycle. He knows that they can be trickier because they don't have the protection of a big metal car around them.

This doesn't seem like the kind of place with speed limits, but he hasn't been out driving on the main roads yet. He'll be curious to see. ]

I don't know. I've never seen a world where everything's one thing, so probably there are differences out there. In the United States where I'm from, if you drive long enough, you can get a variety of climates all in the same country.

[ Kansas is one way and then its surrounding neighbors another, until you get to one of the coasts and it's even more different there. Jack's done a little bit of exploring so he's experienced something like that, but never for very long. It seems impossible that the entire country (he thinks it's probably a big country) is the exact same. Which is exciting! ]

Exploring a new world without someone trying to kill me is kind of exciting as an idea.

[foretells]

He seems like a wise person.

[ Because those speed limits are absolutely going to be guidelines if there's no one else on the road. She isn't going to be constrained by things like that. At least, not once she has the hang of it. Until then, she'll be more careful. (Maybe.)

Sciel's brow dips, furrowed, then releases. She gives him a brief glance over, outward emotions not quite wavering but certainly finding a foothold in something less than comfortable. ]

Well, I'm going to hope there's something more fertile to be found around here. I can't imagine how people are meant to survive if there's just long stretches of land.

[ It's also the long lost itch of wanting to work, to lose herself in a task that's physically strenuous enough to put her out of her head. If it means helping out, she knows she can do farming and manual labor. But this whole car thing, the long stretch of road to go... That's the unknown territory. Another whole world to explore. She just assumes there'll be monsters too.

And here she is, without a scythe. ]

...Is there a reason why people would be trying to kill you? Sounds like this isn't your first pass through experiencing something like that.

[godjr]

He is, in his own way. He taught me how to drive.

[ Jack and Dean have a contentious relationship, one that he understands and respects for what it is, and he has always found that Dean was the most aware of what he was capable of. Even if it meant he hated Jack sometimes, he could trust him to say the truth on this matter. And also he's probably right about driving and guidelines on that. He is the expert driver after all!

Jack hasn't given much thought to the climate but he is used to being around greenery too. He lives in a bunker and spends most of his time inside and downstairs.]

I hope so too. There are places in the United States that are all deserts though, long stretches of them, but even they have cactus and some plants. I really like parks and gardens.

[ He was just at the Garden of Eden which was a beautiful place, and if they have a park or garden where they're going next, he will probably spend time there just sitting quietly and contemplating the universe. He didn't think about it until now, what it'd look like and be like when they explore the rest of their new home.

He realizes what he said when she brings it up and he hesitates, but at this point there's no reason to try to lie. And also, he's terrible at it. She seems nice. He doesn't have to be afraid. ]

I was in another world in the past, the apocalypse had happened. Almost everyone was dead and it was a wasteland, there were very few things alive left in it. The people in charge, angels, were trying to exterminate the last people there, including me and my friends.

[ Jack is technically one of them but he wouldn't say that about the terrible and vicious angels who loved to torture and kill the humans left over. Michael wanted to go to a new world where he could do it all over again, just destroy and consume until he finally got his father's attention. Jack didn't hate anyone as much as he hated Michael, not even his father Lucifer. He experienced too much time in that world with the good people who were barely surviving his uncle's terrible actions. ]

I'm hoping that isn't going to happen here.