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

fluxdrift, the i chose violence option

[vallt]

[it's not that jyn exceptionally knows what she's doing out here; on the contrary, she knows about as much about driving the truck she'd been handed the keys to as much as she does some fucking bathhouse for rich people on coruscant — which is to say, nothing really at all. but, but, she's confident that most people on the road are fucking idiots.

case in point: whoever had let one of their tires blow out, whoever had started to allow themselves to spin out in the middle of traffic. that is an idiot.

and one she has neither the dwindling time, nor the steadily fraying patience, to deal with.

hands gripping the controls (the wheel) until her knuckles turn white, she swerves the truck, until it collides with the spinning vehicle and forces it out of the road.

there. how does this idiot like that?]

he deserves it tbh

[diametrically]

[ When someone's tire blows and is then subsequently sent careening into someone else's vehicle, the last thing they expect to happen is for the person they hit to retaliate by hitting them right back. It's a little ridiculous. Actually, it's more than a little. It just is.

(Though if he's being honest, he probably would have reacted in a similar fashion had their positions been reversed. But that's neither here nor there.)

Already in the throes of trying to keep his car upright he now has to overcompensate his turning to stay upright the other way. Whether this person knows it though, they had inadvertently prevented him from toppling over completely into the ditch. When they come to a screeching halt he all but throws himself out of the car, annoyance written across his face as he storms over to the driver's side of the truck. ]

What were you thinking? My tire blew out - you could have made things worse!

🫶

[vallt]

[the idiot is probably going to have something to say, some kind of stupid defense for being an idiot that she's probably going to tune out in five seconds. still, she'll give the opportunity for it to be presented. brows knitted, jaw set in a hard line, she rolls down the window just as steps begin to approach, just as a voice begins to speak to her.

a familiar voice. the last one that had ever spoken to her, moments before the brine and burn of scarif had overtaken everything to know.

the anger, frustration, everything else on her face and in the way she holds herself, it all vanishes in an instant, as her eyes go wide and her jaw goes slack. she stills, locked, frozen, hand falling limply by her side; a breath is held on the inhale for maybe an entire minute before she remembers she's supposed to exhale it.

is it relief that she feels? guilt? dread? there are a thousand things circling in her mind at once, coalescing into a mass that she can't even begin to parse.

she should —

get out of this stupid truck. do something, anything, but just sit here. as it stands, though, she can't even move. all she manages is barely forming one word.]

Cassian?

[it's her that's the idiot now for even asking that question, when the unmistakable confirmation is in front of her.]

🫶🙄

[diametrically]

[ Cassian hadn't needed to join the rebellion to get a good read on people. It's what had made all those years before Luthen, before having to deal with Maya Pei's headache inducing band of idiots, easier. When you knew how to work people, how to quietly understand what made them tick, it made everything else that involved them a hell of a lot easier.

But there's no need to read too deeply into what the young woman who had just tried to play galatic bumper cars with him because she's so visibly surprised at his arrival that it's clear she isn't guarding any of emotions in this moment. The anger, the very obvious expression of someone about to rip his head off with her own hands may as well have been a figment of his imagination.

And it successfully manages to diffuse the situation. Though it does also manage to leave him staring her a little less dumbfounded as he wracks his memory trying to recall if they've met before. Coming up short there's really only one thing to ask - ]

...Do I know you?

[vallt]

[he might as well have punched her, right in the gut, for the force of how that hits her. because maybe she doesn't know him that well, really, maybe it'd only been days before the end, but she thinks she'd seen enough to be able to tell the difference between some bantha shit faked for a purpose and genuine confusion. genuine lack of recognition.

this, the look with which he's regarding her, the tenor of his question, is the latter.

the first person who'd bothered to come back for her in years, for almost as long as she can remember — on jedha, on eadu, on scarif — genuinely doesn't know she exists. however it'd happened, whatever the reason, it doesn't really matter to her, because the outcome is the same.

it shouldn't hurt; this isn't that different from what she's used to. and yet it does. it has her hands gripping on the wheel a little more tightly, and visibly swallowing hard. it has her taking in a shaky breath, before she lifts her chin, before she reconstructs her defense, piece by piece.]

No. You don't. [the last of it comes in her voice, which she does her best to make flat, neutral.] Forget it.

[of course she doesn't have allies. what a fucking joke for her to ever think, even for one moment, that she did.

she's as alone as she's ever been. it's better this way.]

[diametrically]

[ Hurt is something he is all too familiar with. And the emotion written plainly on her face no matter how hard she may try to fold it back beneath a hard visage of someone who has to prove that she's fine to the rest of the world, is so loud that he immediately feels a pang of guilt spear through him.

He shouldn't feel guilty. Why should he when she is a stranger who knows his name but he has no idea who she is? Every instinct he's honed over the years and under the guidance of Luthen who is as cut throat as they come, tells him not to trust her. ]

No.

[ Something else tugs at the base of his skull. At his heart. She knows him. It's not a fake name, not some alias. Amidst the shock and surprise of seeing him, he had clocked something else flicker on her face. Recognition. They knew each other. This isn't the look of some ISB agent hot on his tail trying to catch him in the act of rebellion. This is the look of someone who knew him. Knew him well enough to have a glimmer of hope that he knew her too. And he'd failed her. Guilt tries to gnaw at that tender heart of his before he shoves it away, pulling the logical side of his brain back to the forefront.

His fingers curl around the edge of the still rolled down window as if that would somehow keep her from driving off. ]

No, no - you know me. How do you know me?

[ Because if she was someone Luthen worked with that had been kept behind the scenes, out of sight in some other part of the galaxy, then they could possibly figure this out together. They wouldn't have to be alone. ]

[vallt]

[what good is it, she thinks, to still be here? the point's been made, and there's no sense prolonging the inevitable. she'll continue down the road alone, and when she does, she'll be fine; it's what she knows best. he can forget her existence, just as he's already forgotten it, or... whatever's happened.

all she has to do is press down on the pedal, leave this behind. move on with, apparently, what's going to be her life now.

but she knows she can't do that. no matter what he does or doesn't know, does or doesn't remember, she owes something to cassian andor. when it had mattered most, he'd refused to leave her behind, so she can't leave him behind, either. forget what they'd blathered on about after she'd woken up; this is her debt to repay.

what she sees cross his face, what she can't look away from, hurts in a different way, too. her eyes soften, and when she attempts to answer the question, so does her voice.]

The Rebellion. We worked together. [in a moment of hesitation, she swallows, trying to figure out what else to say — because that, alone, isn't enough. but i think we're both dead isn't the answer, either. there's something that has to be in the middle.

eventually, she lands on:] There was a mission that took both of us.

[diametrically]

[ Cassian can see the wheels of her mind turning over her in her mind and that, he can't help but think, is not something she'd want to hear. Their short interaction thus far has led him to believe that she would much rather be perceived as someone who would rip your throat out before admitting that she wanted or needed help. Whether that was born from a desire to remain standing on her own two feet or a consequence of something else that had happened to her in the past he couldn't say but it didn't change the fact that it occurs to him that he's seeing a part of her that he shouldn't see.

But the hard edge in her eyes wears away and he's left standing there suddenly feeling exposed. And the news that she gives him, well.

His mind rages against the truth (though his mind hasn't quite accepted that and will likely take time to). No one wants to hear that they've died. It is the inevitable, it is one of two outcomes when you've decided to join the fight so you can help win the war. But in his mind the "Rebellion" doesn't exist yet; not as an organized group. It is a movement, a fractured segment of people who are still rallying and gathering and working together to rail against the Empire. She speaks with such certainty like she's lived it. Like she has some sort of future insight, some knowledge that he doesn't.

He had believed himself being fine with ambiguity because there would always be a certain level of that with any mission he embarked on. And while he accepted the risks, the thought of leaving those he cared so deeply for behind with no knowledge of where he had gone or his fate squeezes his heart like a vice. He lets out a disbelieving noise still clearly uncertain how to process anything she's telling him. ]

I would remember that. What mission? What were our objectives?

[vallt]

[he doesn't believe her. and it's not as if she'd really been expecting him to, through the memory loss or whatever this is — it's something that would be hard to believe without having the experience of being there — but a kneejerk reaction doesn't know that. a sting of hurt moves through her again, and her still remaining grip on the wheel tightens, just so it has somewhere to release.

there's a defense sitting on the tip of her tongue, just waiting to be flung his way. if you're not going to believe me anyway, then why would i bother telling you? it's a weapon that wouldn't be hard to use; she's done it hundreds of times, more, in her life.

it's a weapon that wouldn't be hard to use — against anyone else. against someone she doesn't owe something to.

as it stands, jyn forces herself to swallow it down. it doesn't go down easily, but it goes down all the same. she's trying; she's really trying.

finally,]

We were there to steal plans for a weapon. [after a pause, she elaborates:] On Scarif, where there's an Imperial archive.

[the name leaving her mouth, the first time she's spoken it out loud since waking up, has her hands, even still gripped, shaking visibly. her breath shakes, too.

in her mind, she counts to five. then:]

You helped me transmit the plans to the Rebel fleet, at the end of it.

[diametrically]

[ Though a part of him is still reconciling with news of his alleged death Cassian know it isn't something he can focus on right now. It is inevitable. Natural, even if you did it to happen before life really began. Pragmatism screams at him to leave that alone for now because it doesn't matter nearly as much as this discrepancy in what he knows to be true and what she seems to know.

And besides. His own death doesn't matter, hasn't mattered, nearly as much as the ones of his loved ones. And if he went on this mission and perished – what did that mean for Wilmon, Brasso and Bix? That is the unknown that terrifies him behind belief. Would she know? He wants to ask, the question sitting on the tip of his tongue, but the vice around his heart tightens again and he wills it not to, forcing that thought away too to focus on something else. Anything else.

Which is how he sees the way her hands shake, clinging onto the steering wheel like it's some sort of lifeline. His own knuckles mirror hers, white and drawn tight as he grips the edge of her car window. ]

Scariff?

[ His mind spins. They'd heard of activity on Scarif for a while now but it had never been anything to be worried about. Not immediately anyway. Urgency bites at his heels all the same. But no – maybe it doesn't matter. He doesn't want it to matter because he doesn't remember it and because though he's fighting and doing this work, he can feel in his heart that there is a finite timeline to this. There is only so much risk he's told himself he'd take because the rebellion would never matter more than the people he cared for. Never. ]

Then why didn't we didn't survive? If you and I here then what happened?