diademooc | TEST DRIVE ∞ May 2025

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TEST DRIVE ∞ May 2025

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

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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

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

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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.

Main Navigation ::: ⇅ Top

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ARRIVAL
cw: injury, emetophobia

[ castiel's shaken out of his mind like a flea off a dog's back. for a moment, he opens his eyes to a room, where he's surrounded by people he knows and standing in the center of a sigil.

someone says his name, and his world goes black with a violent jerk.

when he finally wakes, it's in the tent, with a screaming headache and gauze taped to the side of his head. his double vision doesn't immediately resolve itself when he sets eyes on his savior— yom crook, he says his name is— but he ignores it and sits quiet as it's explained to him the situation.

one debt, two debt. wherever he is, he can tell it's not home. so he takes the car (a beige 2001 impala, dusty and rust covered, with a substantial dent in the rear quarter panel and the word ASSHOLE keyed in big block letters in the same side back door; the colorful, cutsey stickers covering the rear surrounding the also-rusted license plate don't do much to liven the image), takes the debt, and heads in the direction of the city.

when he arrives in panorama, he spends three days sleeping off his head injury in his new car before it finally catches up with him. 2am finds him puking his empty guts up in the parking lot and stumbling away in the direction of the nearest motel. ]

SETTLING IN / POWER OUTAGE
cw: blood, bugs/inverts/technically it's a mollusc

[ for almost two weeks, castiel remains in the relative comfort of his room: even after the power goes out, he lays in the dark and doesn't sleep, doesn't dream, doesn't do much of anything at all. it's not until he hears a knock at the door that he finally gets up the gumption to venture outside again.

only, there's no one there.

he stands on the curb for a long time after, listening, before he shuts the door behind him to walk out into the drizzle. there's still gauze taped to his left temple, dark brown with dried blood. he pays it no mind as he kneels to lift something from the sidewalk. a hundred dollar bill? a penny? no— it's a fat brown slug. when he notices he has an audience, castiel speaks without turning, in a casual tone, like people pick slugs up off sidewalk and have conversations about them all the time. ]

This isn't a very good place for a gastropod to live, is it?

THE PAVILION (FREE SAMPLES)

[ with a blank look, castiel watches a bag of cat food kibble scatter across the pet aisle with no regard at all for his dignity. he blames it on the head injury, but the truth is, he's always been a little clumsy— made more than his share of messes working at the gas-n-sip. so instead of flagging down an employee, he walks away and slips into the back room like he already works there, taking one of the cleaning carts for his own use without even a by-your-leave.

he doesn't get caught until he's already halfway through cleaning up the mess, and the poor young woman is so baffled ("Why didn't you just flag down one of the staff...") that she can't even bring herself to put a stop to it. ("Well, put the cart away when you're done," she says, nonplussed, before she returns to her job.)

when he is, he rolls up the ripped, half-empty bag of cat food and sighs, speaking to the person nearest— or maybe just himself. ]

This isn't even what I came here for.

THE FRINGES (SEALED IN)

[ the long drive doesn't feel so claustrophobic when castiel realizes that the door's locked shut behind him and the windows won't break.

annoyed, he turns his attention to the computer, which he feels is personally responsible, somehow. the water soaks his socks as he searches through drawer after drawer for anything useful. his long coat becomes heavy as it drags through the water. over the sound of sloshing, he can hear ambriel's voice just as clearly as he can see the writing on the notepad he's been flipping through: we're both expendable.

she kills us... no big loss.

another joins her, after, in bleeding black ink.

blue eyes, you're not even worth the effort. ]

OPTIONAL PROMPTS

• somebody's car breaks down (cas'/yours) and cas/you stop to help
• cas gives your character a ride somewhere
• your character meets cas while he's working part-time at the grocery store
• your character meets cas while they're both fueling up at the gas station

( ooc: hit me up on discord to plot! you can find me @ hayyot. )

[ Jack has been alone since arriving and he's adapted pretty well, he likes to think, he has met nice people and some not nice people, he didn't total his motorcycle, and he is planning on getting a job in this very store. He doesn't need a resume which is nice, because he doesn't know how to make one and he can't put fake FBI on it, that would require an explanation. He hasn't been on his own in a long time, and he doesn't think he likes it.

He has also taken to picking up items or straightening aisles in the supermarket without being an employee, they are very alike after all, and he is curiously looking at the boxes when he hears that familiar voice. It rings right through him and his head whips up, anxiously looking around. He weaves a little too quickly and knocks over several boxes as he turns the corner to see Castiel. His smile is instant and relieved, trying to pick up what he knocked over in his enthusiasm. ]

Castiel. I thought you were in the Empty. Dean said you were gone.

[ He thought he was gone and the world was about to end and God was about to finish destroying the universe. It seemed wrong to be without Castiel for the last fight, especially when they had a good plan at the time. He feels emotions well up in him, gratitude more than anything else. Castiel's here. Everything will be okay. ]

I'm glad you're here. It's been very strange and I don't think I opened a portal this time.

Dean said— What.

[ dean? the empty? what portal? castiel blinks once, slowly. it's all a bit much, especially when you're suffering from a head injury. castiel stares at the young man presenting himself to him, speaking as if he knows him. he isn't an employee (yet), so he lets him pick up the things he knocked on his own, never once breaking eye contact. ]

He knows that I'm gone?

Yes, you were together fighting Billie, and then you were gone. He was upset so he didn't go into detail.

[ For the obvious reason, and also because Dean is Dean. He wouldn't say more toward Jack even if he felt like explaining. Jack straightens out the aisle and returns Castiel's very direct gaze with his own. This isn't unusual for either of them and he assumes they're on the same page. ]

I missed you. I was worried the world would end before I got to see you again.

[ It probably should not have been high on the list of concerns when they were fighting God, but Jack is a simple enough youth. He cares about his family above most things. ]

It's okay though, we had a plan.

Billie? I—

[ should probably clear the air, here. funny thing is, the mention of the world ending is least on his list of concerns, too. it happens so often. it's happening back home. that's why he let lucifer take him.

to help. ]

—don't know who you are.

[ Jack frowns at him, eyebrows furrowing. That's a confusing thing to say. There's never been a day in Jack's life where Castiel didn't know exactly who he was, he's been as constant a presence as possible since coming back to life. ]

Did you hit your head?

[ It must be a wound that made him this confused, although it would have to be a really big hit for an angel. Still, it's not impossible. Jack can just wait for him to get better. ]

I'm Jack. You're my father.

[ it feels like he's hit his head again. unfortunately for jack: ]

I don't have a son.

[ when would he have had the time? and who would he have—? ]

I can't have children.

Oh.

[ Jack frowns. It is, of course, true that he isn't Castiel's real son, but it feels uncomfortable for him to say that so precisely. Because he is, in all the ways that matter, and Castiel has never made him feel like anything less than that. But he understands. These are facts, and Castiel hit his head. He needs the facts. ]

Adopted son. You and Sam raised me. Dean sometimes helped. And Mary.

[ It hurts to say her name and acknowledge the truth about that. She's the only mother he ever knew, and look how that turned out. Jack looks sad, dropping his eyes. ]

We never use that word though. You are my father.

castiel | supernatural

Pavilion

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Power Outage (slug time)

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