December Test Drive Meme.

[sphererpmod]

TDM
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A new day has come.

So unlike many other places, the Sphere doesn’t celebrate New Years on New Year’s Eve. Instead they celebrate it in s three day festival commencing on January first to the third. The festival starts on the first at dawn with people waking up early to watch the first unofficial sunrise in the Sphere. Unlike most other days, this sunrise is universal, moving into each of the domes and filling them with such a bright light that it looks like an idealized version of a bright summer’s day. Groups of people join together to watch it in the dormitory dorms as well as in several public areas. The agriculture dome and the recreational domes are popular places for such activities and there are several places where there appear to be flowers blooming and almost the sound of birdsong.

Also in the more public places, there are large tables filled up with what seems to be a standard light breakfast of fruit, cheese and various loaves of bread, including a particular loaf of bread that everyone is given either in their attendance or in the dome itself. It’s a circular loaf with nuts on it that’s perfect for sharing. Indeed people keep trying to share a piece with the characters around them.

One thing that’s missing though? None of the places seem to have any sort of caffeine in any form. If questioned about it, someone knowledgeable will respond: “you can’t have caffeine until the sun sets!” The words come with a good natured laugh and characters are then handed a glass of fruit juice.

Out with the old and in with the new.

As the sun is about to set on the first day, crowds gather in the rec dome. There in the middle of the area there’s a large bonfire set up. The smoke billows up towards the top of the dome before it disappears. People gathered around the fires are throwing old possessions into it, some of which are their own and some of them are the possessions of the people who had left. The idea is to unburden yourself of things to face the new year with a clean slate.

There are smaller fires around, and they burn different colors with the smoke being sweet smelling and light. Some people show the newcomers how to gather the smoke in their hands and release it over their heads, in order to clear out dark thoughts and whatever is troubling people. The smoke gives people a slight feeling of euphoria, and makes them feel as if whatever is happening isn’t quite as bad as they think it is.

And we’re dancing through life.

On the second day, the public domes are fairly dead. The merchant dome is closed and only a few restaurants are open, and only those are for delivery. The entire city almost seems to be holding their breath and waiting for something. When the clock turns to eight pm, it’s almost as if the entire city is lit in a combination of stars and candlelight. In the gardens in the Rec dome, a large ball has been set up. Everyone in the city has been given their ideal fancy dress outfit, including mask in order to wear to it. The idea behind it is that the characters are in the middle of their transitional state. Day one was the day they put their old life behind them, and day three will be the day that they form their new selves for the year ahead. Which is why at the ball, people wear masks and have the option to give into some of the things that they wouldn’t normally do.

Wanna eat that there whole pint of ice cream? Go nuts. Wanna drink a bottle of vodka? Hey it’s your liver and it’s not like you can die! Wanna hook up in a dark corner with a stranger. It’s your life and there’s some nice velvet couches over there; out of sight and out of mind.

Dinner is in the form of an elaborate meal, sort of along the idea of Fat Tuesday in New Orleans, no expense is spared and everything is extremely well done and extravagant. Rich food, insane desserts, open bar, everything this night is too excess. At various points in the evening, the sky which has been showing stars shifts into things like fireworks, and glowy nebuleuses, causing people to burst into spontaneous bouts of applause.

All the while, there are various and shifting dance floors with an assortment of music to dance to, including classical, swing, fiddles, big band, pop, R&B, and basically anything that you can think of. The dances that people do there are as varied as the population, the drunkenness level and of course the all important dances of people's native Caucasia.

The party goes until dawn, at which point, the drunken releveries spill onto the streets, and people return to their personal domes singing loudly and off key.

...Is that… a squirrel?

For anyone who has been in the Sphere for any sort of length of time, one thing has stood out: there are no living creatures within the Sphere other than the people themselves. All of the meat has been generated versus harvested, and there’s not even bugs involved. Of course, all of that changes when there’s suddenly a random black squirrel darting in among the trees of the park in the recreational dome. It’s not frightened of people for the most part, unless someone tries to touch it. Then you better hope to god you’re a bard or you’ve got some ranks in handle animal, but this thing does not want to be touched.

Yeah, people who make the effort are going to get bitten or scratched. Yeah, that kinda looks infected. You may wanna see someone about it. Or hope really hard. But either way, at least the clinic is there for you.

Wildcard
Choose your own adventure. Some suggestions: network posts, roommates meeting, before the party, randomly interacting with shops or restaurants, trying to find a job, etc. Go nuts.

Inspiration images

Comments

[10milliondollars]

"So, Rick, what'd you do before? Y'know, where'd you come from?" Rhys asks. The man's got a firm handshake, so Rhys assumes he held some important position.

[redhandle]

Rick drops his hand away. “I was a cop,” he said but that doesn’t really cover it anymore. “But then the world kinda went to shit and so mostly I’ve just been a man trying to take care of his people and survive.”

And live, they were finally moving past just trying to make it to the next day.

[10milliondollars]

Well, that story sounds a bit familiar.

"When you say your world went to shit, do you mean an epidemic wiped out a huge chunk of the population? 'Cause there's another guy here with a similar story. He said the dead...came back."

[redhandle]

Rick raised a brow and inclined his head.

"That's exactly what happened."

[10milliondollars]

"It sounds pretty scary." He rubs the back of his neck with his flesh hand. "What did you do? How did you get through it?"

[redhandle]

Rick raised a brow at the question and there’s a little bit of a laugh. “Well, it’s not really over. We just take it fight by fight.”

[10milliondollars]

"That's...still happening? The dead people haven't rotted away yet?" Because of course Rhys is more concerned about the longevity of the corpses than the fact that the corpses are reanimated.

[redhandle]

Rick laughs more heartily at that question. It seems absurd and honestly, they never really had time to think about anything.

"More people die all the time."

[10milliondollars]

"I guess that makes more sense...As much sense as corpses reanimating, anyways." He laughs a bit nervously.

[redhandle]

"It's a virus," Rick said, or something to that affect. What it was really had stopped mattering. There wasn't a cure after all, wouldn't be one coming.

[10milliondollars]

That doesn't sound fun. "Well, at least you're here now. No viruses here. The people running this place say the Sphere wants to keep its inhabitants safe."

[redhandle]

"And you're sure that you can trust the people running this place, though?" Rick asked, not for the first time, really. Aaron had told him more or less the same.

[10milliondollars]

"I don't really have a choice, do I?" he counters. "Let's just say I'm cautiously optimistic."

[redhandle]

"Trust is always a choice ain't it?" Rick shrugs. There were probably worse things to be.

[10milliondollars]

Rick's comment stirs up memories Rhys would rather leave buried, memories about a choice he made to trust the wrong person. Or...Well, digital representation of a person. He slips his flesh hand into his pocket to gently finger over the small bit of metal and wires.

"I guess you're right. But who else is there vying for our trust? Just the council. No one else has stepped up as a leader. No one else has much information. Yet."

[redhandle]

"So you just trust a group of people because there appears to be no other options?"

Rick says and it sounds a bit disgruntled. "That's not really how I operate."

[10milliondollars]

"I trust them as much as I have to. Which isn't much. But, from what I can tell, there's not a guaranteed way out. For now, I've got accommodations, there's food and drink, and no one's trying to kill me." He's a little offended at what he's perceiving to be an insult.

"If any of that changes for worse, believe me, I'll fight. And I'm not giving up my investigation of this place."