TEST DRIVE ∞ May 2025

[thediadem]

Test Drive ∞ May 2025

The First Collision

©

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

⇅ Top

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

©

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

©

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

⇅ Top

©

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.

Main Navigation ::: ⇅ Top

Comments

[diametrically]

[ With the radio cut the sound of the rain hitting the car fills the silence between them. The peace that it brings is a stark contrast to what they'd had dealt with minutes before which comes somewhat as a surprise for him considering how unsettling the entire experience had been.

But the sting of the alcohol wipe against his skin draws him away from that and back to the present. It doesn't hurt so much as it draws a minor reaction from him in the twitch of his lips.

From what she says and how she says it, it occurs to him that there's probably more to her than meets the eye. But who didn't have some kind of story to tell? ]

A doctor here might actually cost me my arm.

[ But she isn't wrong. He probably should. Will he though? Unlikely. Especially if he can monitor it himself and hopes that it will just heal on its own. It isn't the first time he's wished that he had bacta gel in this world. ]

Secure. Cleaner. I should just come to you for this kind of thing. [ He pauses, looking back at her, the faintest ghost of a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. ] Thank you.

[pagings]

[ he reacts, gently, to the alcohol on his wound and karen smiles, gently, apologetically, but she doesn't stop. she finishes going through the motions, doesn't even notice how much of this she can do basically without thinking, and finishes off the bandage.

karen snorts, briefly, at the mention of a doctor here. it makes her think of the reason they all came here, or at least she assumes they came here, glancing out her window to the now dark building before letting out a sigh. she's disappointed in herself, but also in this whole trip - how this waste of time very nearly cost her her life.

( she doesn't know yet there's a bottle of medicine in her coat pocket. ) ]

Maybe- but only cuts and scapes, okay? Maybe even stitches, if I have to, but that's about it. [ a beat, and then her attention turns back to him, away from the window. she resettles, starting to feel the heat fill the cab of the car. his comment about coming to her has her shaking her head, exhaling, though there's a kind of acceptance in it. like she knew this was a place she would always end up being, in the end. ] You do this kind of thing often?

[diametrically]

[ They're both disappointed albeit Cassican can't help but think that even if it was a loss on the medicine front, at least Karen hadn't met a worse fate. That, surely, is worth more than anything else. Even something as valuable as medicine.

Absently he continues to flex his hand, trying to figure out if the strange numbing sensation is all in his mind or actually something he needs to worry about.

(Apparently he hasn't noticed that he's received a bottle of medicine in his own coat pocket.)

His lips twitch slightly. ]

Help someone from locked room or injure myself?

[pagings]

[ lucky for both of them, then. at least by the end of this they will have something more to show for it than a set of phone numbers and maybe, hopefully, a friend to have in all of this.

her eyes flick over to how he's still flexing his hand, wondering if she's tied it too tight, if there's something else he's not saying, but if he doesn't offer an explanation she won't dig. yet.

his twitch of lips has her huffing out a kind of laugh. ]

Both? Either? [ there's a kind of sparkle in her eyes when she looks back to him - amused at his humor. ] I meant rushing into danger to save someone you didn't know, but I'll take an answer to any of those.

[diametrically]

[ The likelihood of all of those things are pretty high. And with that in mind, maybe this entire ordeal wasn't that awful in the grand scheme of things.

(Though both of them probably could have done without the near-drowning, strange eldritch-esque experiences they respectively encountered.) ]

Not before today [ But did a jail break count? ], more than I'd like, and probably.

[ Though with how he says it, she might very well get the impression that the 'probably' is more in line with 'definitely'.

But right at that moment he shifts in his seat, feeling the odd lump in one of his pockets. Lighthearted amusement turns to confusion as he reaches into his pocket, extracting the small bottle of medicine. The dim flickering light of the building illuminates just enough for him to read the label. ]

I don't remember taking this.

[pagings]

[ well, yes, they both very much could have done without the near drowning. but karen also won't have any regrets about it, considering where this first meeting will lead them.

he says not before today and then more than I'd like and probably, and karen can't help the way her mouth curls up at the edges. yes, she is pretty sure she's seeing the real definition behind that probably, but she won't push him on it just yet. will let him live in that denial.

that's when he shifts, and then pauses. karen's smile falters a little, her brow furrowing into a brief, still moment before she decides if she needs to panic, or if it's something else. that's when he pulls out the small bottle of what looks like antibiotics, and the furrow in her brow immediately softens to surprise. she reaches over - all but taking it out of his fingers as she reaches up and turns on a (barely working) light above their head. ]

This is- this is the medicine they said was inside. [ a beat, and then she looks at him, excited and a little impressed. ] You don't- wait. [ she pauses, then reaches into her own pocket, pulling out a matching bottle. that look of confusion, and a little awe, crosses her eyes as she looks back to him. ]

I definitely didn't take this. I didn't even see inside the crates before the water started rising. But...how?

[diametrically]

[ A part of him is incredibly tempted to question how. In fact, his mind is already beginning to race down every possible path and avenue that he can recall outside of the murky memory of hurting himself - only to come up short. There is no explanation to how this ended up in his pocket because there hadn't been time to pick it up.

Karen's life had been at risk.

There's no resistance as she plucks the bottle from his hand to examine it further before realizing that she has one of her own too. Nerves on the back of his neck begin to prickle and his suspicions begin to rise before another voice tries to talk himself down. Karen is safe. They have the medicine. Why does it matter how they got it? ]

Neither of either of us had time to pick these up.

[ But the statement lingers there with no explanation to follow it because frankly...he doesn't have one. And as much as it kills him not to have that answer, he stops himself from going further down a rabbit hole that might very well lead to nowhere. When he looks from the medicine bottle back up to her his gaze holds steady. ]

Maybe that's our sign to leave it alone. We got what we came for, didn't we? And you're safe. That's more important.

[pagings]

[ she can tell he's just as suspicious as she is, and after another moment she hands him back his bottle, looking over her's with a hesitant eye. part of her wonders if it had been in the water, but even then, cassian hadn't been inside with her. he'd been on the outside, finding the pad, getting the door open, and then-

her mind starts to spin, wondering if this is even safe, if they've been planted with something dangerous. was that the plan all along? to give them something- poison, maybe? send them back to the city with it? but if that was the case, then how would they even know they'd survive? karen was so close to not, so close to drowning until cassian showed up, and even then how would they know he would? how would they know they'd take it back to the city with them? it looks like medicine, sure, but-

his voice pulls her out of her thoughts, and she looks over to him at the comment. maybe that's our sign. he says you're safe so casually that karen almost doesn't apply that to her. yes, she almost died, yes, she almost drown, but-

no. he's right. she is only now safe, and for all that this might feel like something else, she needs to count her blessings. she exhales, tension flooding out of her with it, and she nods. ]

You're right. And we probably need to get it checked, anyway. Take it back to the city... [ have someone test it, before it's used. she unwinds herself from the blanket, now that the cab of the truck has warmed up, and pulls her seatbelt on. ] We should probably head back. I can drive you to your car?

[diametrically]

[ That they're both some level of suspicious or paranoid is a good thing in Cassian's mind. Especially so here. Privately, he isn't certain that anyone who arrives here without some level of that will make it here very long. Even with pockets where it's clear some fluxdrifters have created a community for those closest to them, Panorama is cut throat.

The former is what keeps him from scratching the urge to jump into anything that remotely looks like organization despite that being what he's been trying to help do for the better part of a year now. ]

I know a guy.

[ It's one of the less shadier clinics in the neighbourhood he's in. And while Cassian doesn't fully trust the pharmacist yet, they've been fair in all of their transactions with him so far. He pockets the bottle. ]

Thanks. It's not far.

[ And to prove his point he motions just around the building where a car-shaped shadow can be seen being battered by the rain. All the same he'll pull his seatbelt on too. There's no point taking any chances. ]