thecrossinglogs | TEST DRIVE #2

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TEST DRIVE #2

TDM #2

Welcome to The Desert, wayward souls.
It's good to see you again.

The TDM is game canon and will be active FEB—APR. For further details about the setting, please reference our current setting page. All the information there is fair game for this TDM.

arrival

— BENEATH THE RIVER ( NEW CHARACTERS ONLY )
CW: claustrophobia, being buried alive
If your journey is starting here, you begin as all others have, and all others will: in The River.

You awake in the dark and the damp, with pressure all around you. In this case, however, it isn't water that surrounds you— but earth. Specifically, it is mud made from the sand of the desert and the standing water of the sparkling white salt flat that The River has become, and it behaves like quicksand. It has you here, and it doesn't want to let go.

You aren't in any direct danger; you may or may not notice that you don't need to breathe down here (or at all). But that may be difficult to appreciate in the moment: immediately on waking, you are seized by what was perhaps your last memory— or, at least, the somatic feeling of it. Panic, terror, pain; or (depending on the circumstances) maybe peace, or relief. It is the moment of your death as told by your body's visceral, emotional response, and it won't stop until you pull yourself out of the mud.

You are close to the surface. Even a bit of lucky thrashing might be enough for you to break through the sludge, and crack the shell of salt above. But The River will not release you easily; it will continue to suck you back down until you are able to fully pry yourself free— or someone else is able to lend you a hand.

— BEYOND THE RIVER ( EXISTING CHARACTERS ONLY )
If you arrived here from the Cavern, you'll find that the cave you came from opens up onto a rocky cliff face, not unlike the one you may have found yourself settled in before The Crossing. From here you can see the sprawl of the Desert ahead of you: the Oasis tucked against the base of the cliffs, the endless dunes, and the wide, white expanse of The River — though it hardly looks like one now.

There is no city to be found among these cliffs, though. They are steep and rocky, with dry, loose sand making finding and keeping traction difficult. There is a narrow, winding path to the Oasis below, but it will take time to hike, and the sun is already hot and oppressive above you.

Theoretically, there's a more direct route... if you're feeling bold. The cliffs are covered in jutting striations (as if, say, carved by a massive river, or maybe a River) that make halfway decent handholds and footholds for anyone hoping to climb their way down instead.

Just don't change your mind too much. If you turn back, you may find that the path behind has become impassable or now leads somewhere else entirely. You don't ever see it happening, but it's almost as if the cliffs are rearranging themselves whenever your back is turned.

shelter from the storm

— THE OASIS
The Oasis, as well as the rest of the surrounding Desert, is bustling with life. (Or do plants and animals have a Journey they need to complete, too?) It's a green, if not lush, patch surrounding a small lake of fresh water, partially shielded by the arms of the cliffs from the winds blowing across the dunes.

There are creatures besides you making their homes here: from small, skittering mammals to circling scavengers. If you look closely, though, you'll find it's a bit of a mishmash, as if an ecosystem appeared rather than developed... and, depending on where you're from, some of it might even be recognizable to you.

Those of you that came from the Cavern might appreciate the return of natural light, though you might be disappointed to discover that day and night don't always arrive at the cadences you might expect them to... In fact, they don't seem to follow any recognizable or even trackable pattern at all. Some noon suns stretch on forever; some sunsets speed run straight into dry, cold night.

If that were all the unpredictability the Desert had to offer, it might be tolerable enough... but the weather proves to be just as erratic. One day is clear and bright, with wide-open skies; the next brings dust clouds and lightning storms rolling in from the dunes. (And when today might be half as long as yesterday, those swings add up.)

Luckily for all of you, there have evidently been others here before you, just like in the Cavern. There is a collection of shelters lining the Oasis, no more than huts designed to keep everyone within as cool as possible. There's less space than there was in the Subterranean City, but that means some things are easier to find... The huts are decorated just like the city was before it, as if in layers with the odd familiar trinket from your home stashed in a drawer or under a mattress.

shifting sands

— THE DUNES
The Ferryman is holding vigil at The River, as they always are. They have positioned themselves (and their Lantern) so that their Light casts over the Oasis— but that aura can only cast so far.

The Lantern's Light might not be quite so obvious here as it was down in the Cavern, drowned out as it is by the desert sun, but you can still feel when you approach the edge of its protection, the way the sense of comfort and safety wanes. Beyond it are the rolling dunes of the Desert, where wraiths gather in great numbers.

Those who have been paying close attention will recognize that these are not the same wraiths you encountered in the Cavern. Or, at least, none of the wraiths you encountered in the Cavern are represented here.

These wraiths are not the violent, wailing beasts encountered by some during The Crossing. They are just the same as the wraiths originally found in the Cavern: silent, insubstantial, and always watching. The ones who have found the Oasis prowl the edge of the boundary; the others wander the dunes as if lost. Or, perhaps, searching.

If you, yourself, wander the dunes, you'll find them at best difficult to navigate— or, at worst, impossible. You may be swallowed by a sand storm, or lose sight of your landmarks when descending into a valley between the dunes. You might find yourself somewhere you never expected to be... Or, you might just need to send a message out to the others for help finding your way home.

code

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yes. [It doesn't seem like the skeleton is surprised that it's a skeleton, though. That, and its shifting skull, speaks to something weirder than being a reanimated regular skeleton.] Everyone here is. This is an afterlife. Do you need help getting the rest of the way out of the mud?

[It's a horrible confirmation to receive... but better to receive it than go on not knowing, probably. He thinks he should be more crestfallen or horrified inside, but no - his emotions are stuck on the baffled surprise and hurt channel. Maybe it's shock.]

Y-Yes, it's... this mud really doesn't want to let me go! [He forces the amused tone of voice, and it's more audible a strained laugh than usual.] Of course, I can't blame it, but I wish it was being a little less clingy about it.

[Nagito offers his hand again.] When I showed up, I just had to climb out of a river. This new way of arriving seems a lot messier!

[This time, Nagito will actually try to pull the skeleton up. He's still not all that strong, though.]

A river! I wish this was just water...

[Maybe Nagito's not all that strong, but the skeleton's not all that heavy. While he may technically be dead weight (on account of the recent murdery demise), practically speaking he's doing at least his share in gripping that hand and scrabbling for a hold on the bank to pull himself out the rest of the way.

A bit of tugging and pushing later, and there's a whole costumed skeleton on the bank, panting from the exertion despite the lack of lungs, and now feeling the fresh shock of new emotions flooding through him.]

A real... afterlife. I thought those were make-believe. H-Happy stories, to console people, who were grieving...

I thought the same thing. But apparently not! [Nagito looks the skeleton over curiously. Of course, there's a lot of mud in the way, but Nagito really is looking at some sort of skeleton creature.] You know, you're the strangest person who's shown up so far. I'm not even sure if "person" is the right term.

[He's relieved to still exist, and baffled at the need to continue making conversation so quickly after being killed, and - yeah, still surprised and hurt about it all, actually. He'd thought they were friends, who'd resolved all need for murdery feelings between them, and then...?]

Uh. You, uh, you aren't? [It's almost a little worse, that making conversation is an extension of his brand new ambassadorial responsibilities, like remaining friendly even in the face of rude comments, and doing a helpful explanation about the misconceptions before doing a helpful explanation about the rudeness of them. But then - surprise and a spark of realization cross his skull.] Don't tell me... You died before monsterkind returned to the surface?

Monsterkind? [Nagito echoes the term, turning it over thoughtfully.] So you're a monster? That might make you sound a little scary to the others.

[But right now this skeleton doesn't seem all that frightening to Nagito. It seems just as thrown off by its situation as anyone else who just arrived.]

Where I'm from, monsters aren't real. Even if we're all in the same afterlife, we're not all from the same places.

[The skeleton is certainly thrown off - by the situation of finding himself here, of dying so suddenly, of trying to maintain a conversation while grappling with his own feelings - but he has no cause to expect this to be an afterlife shared by multiple worlds. That's too scifi a notion to jump right to mind. So instead, he looks politely skeptical, like he's only vaguely humoring the human's claims.]

Yes, it didn't seem like most humans I met really believed in us anymore, either... Some thought we must have all died long ago, sealed away like that... And some even thought we were only stories? Ridiculous, but I guess I can't blame them too much.

Ah, so your world has humans and monsters? That must be interesting! [Nagito sounds like he's humoring the skeleton in return.] But that's not where I'm from at all. I think you'd be much jumpier if you were from my world!

[Being unsealed--whatever that means exactly, Nagito is imagining anime--and stepping right out into either an unfolding or only just-ended apocalypse wouldn't lead to such a casual attitude.]

But, you died a while ago...?

[It's a question that trails off, as he can't remember if this seemingly-human specified any details like that. Specified or not, though, it's question enough to get back to the point.]

I understand, you likely went your entire life thinking we weren't real! Because you died before we returned to the surface. A human not believing in monsters is like monsters not believing in stars... Sure, books and school and movies say they exist, but if you never see them, how true can they really be?

It was only four months ago. [Nagito sighs, running his robotic hand through his hair. The other one is too muddy for such gestures.] There weren't any books or movies saying monsters existed because they don't where I'm from. If you can't understand that, you're really going to have a hard time here.

...But at least you understand you're dead. Otherwise it would be really hopeless.

A hard time, huh? [The skeleton can't quite tell if this maybe-human, apparent-cyborg meant that as an insult or threat or what, but... after dying so recently, it's hard to take it too seriously.] Oh no! Are dead people so quick to bully each other? And when it was only... about three months ago.

[His smugness of maybe winning this conversational battle is, it has to be conceded, a little emptier after voicing just how short a time it's been, really. Barely double digits of weeks. His battle body isn't even half a year old... He shakes it off and rallies.]

Well, even if you're not from Earth, and are actually some, cyborg alien I guess? You did say there's others around too. Maybe some of them know a little more about monsters.

I'm from a different Earth, actually. [He can provide that much direct clarification as to the world situation he's talking about.] But even if you've only been unsealed for three months, it should be easy to tell the difference. Was the sky polluted and red? Of course, there are some places where it's starting to turn blue again, so how about the cities? Are they mostly rubble? It would be hard to miss the aftereffects of The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History.

[He'll address the cyborg thing later.]

[The ruined alternate world backstory, well, a skeleton's poker face can be pretty good without all those pesky muscles to give micro-expressions. But in another feat of not being a human skeleton, his eyebrows rise with each additional (clearly capitalized) adjective of The Event.]

That sounds unspeakably bad. At least a factor of three in badness. I suppose you might be onto something after all! The sky was only red around sunrise and sunset, and only polluted near pollution factories... And the cities I visited were not so rubbly.

[Not that he visited many personally, but with modern advancements in computing technology there'd been a lot of video calls and live rivers and other photographic evidences of more of the surface. Some rubble, yes, but nothing so superlative inspiring.]

[Nagito looks more satisfied now, and less condescending.] There, you understand now, right? If you want to be useful to the group, it's important that everybody is on the same page about these things.

[Nobody has assigned Nagito the role of making sure people are useful, but nobody has to.]

'Useful' to the group...

[Rather than respond to the claims that he understands now, the skeleton looks back down at himself, where the drying mud is starting to flake off, but not so much so that the weight of it isn't clearly showcasing that rip in his shirt. Somehow his battle body is damaged, but his bones behind it... no sign of injury. And yet, checking his neck again - yes, that seems scarred.]

So we are dead. But... there's things... we need to work together, to do?

We all have to do something called the Crossing, where we travel to other locations. When I arrived, we were in some caverns, not a desert. [Nagito seems to have settled down for now.] We're all traveling together, and learning about this afterlife, so we should all work together, right?

So we should! Especially in the face of such mysterious travel-based mysteries...

[Given how enthusiastically this Earthen alien cyborg wanted to play conversational one-upskeletonship about who knows what and how most tragic their respective homes are, the skeleton can't quite tell if this is a gambit for showing off some more.

How would teamwork be needed for mystery solving, when people could walk around looking, touching, and tasting their environments to learn from them? Maybe it's 'help' more in the form of social encouragement, nudges to keep going, like he's done with Sans for years... Or, more difficulties like that clinging mud and the lingering shock of death? (Easier to think of the quicksand than the question of whether he's left his dust for his brother to find. Easier to find something else to focus on.)]

I'm so glad you're recognizing the powers of friendship, and teamwork!

[Not that he said anything about them being friends, just to 'work together', but the simplest way for - the skeleton - to win any incoming conversational gambits is to befriend each other and render such competitions nearly moot.]

You don't think that sounds cheesy? [Nagito doesn't sound like he's admonishing the skeleton again; rather, he's used to people rolling their eyes at him whenever he says something like that, and isn't really used to hearing it from someone else. Of course, he's not going to make any presumptions about friendship.] But yes, teamwork is the goal. There's too much space for any one person to cover, and the Crossings can be--kind of stressful on your own.

Only the type of cheese that's good for you, having calcium in it. [There's still enough mud on the skeleton that it might be unclear he's clad in a makeshift superhero costume of sorts, with a logo on the chest and a capelet scarf and everything. His face is better cleaned off, and gives no sign that cheesiness bothers him, at least in the context of 'friendship and teamwork' - he does briefly look surprised and accomplished, like he's winning a conversational gambit of his own already.]

But, space to cover... Don't tell me, are we searching this entire place for, uh, people like us? [Waking in the dirt, or river, or whatever else is past the cliffs... Actually, doing a slow spin to take in the sights of the landscape gives him pause. The horizon is too low, even for the surface. The lands by the underground - by Mount Ebott, another name he remembers easily - had been hillier than this.]

Finding people like us isn't a problem--everyone comes out of the River. [Of course, the River is a salt flat right now, unfortunately.] And we're all staying in the oasis, so it shouldn't take you long to meet the others. Of course, I don't know how they'll react to a skeleton... [Maybe some of them expect that sort of thing, though.] We're looking for anything that tells us more about our situation and the people who might have been here before us. You can find a lot of odds and ends just looking around!

[The skeleton gives that re-congealing hole in the salt-encrusted mud he was pulled from a skeptical look, like he's unsure everyone in the River is actually getting out without the help of a search party. He had to bolster himself to keep going a few times, and he knows there's monsters out there who need even more bolstering than him. Sure, he would have gotten out without the helping hand eventually, but would everyone...?

But even through the unpleasant mental image - of someone like Sans or Dr. Alphys choosing to languish in the mud - he doesn't miss everything the cyborg alien(?) says. He's happy to drop it, in favor of the notion of the mysteries of the afterlife.]

I'm... sure I can do a calm and reasonable introduction with everyone, no matter how they react. [Time as ambassador has at least somewhat practiced him in it.] But what's this about, our situation? This afterlife travel troupe... is also a scavenger hunt?

Well, I prefer the term investigation, but I suppose scavenger hunt isn't that far off... [Nagito did spend a significant amount of time carrying around a lot of miscellaneous paperwork until Sunny got a backpack to put it in.] We've only really just started, so there are a lot more questions than answers. We don't know where we're going, exactly, and some of the groups that went through before us might not be gone. Ferryman-san doesn't seem to answer questions directly, and of course there's the matter of how many memories we might have to give up.

[There are so many questions! Nagito doesn't seem to emphasize any of them in particular, no matter how alarming some of those things may be in comparison to others.]

Edited 2025-03-09 07:00 (UTC)

...Memories.

[Oh, there were other little correctiony conversational turns and details about the whole situation that he'll need to think about and learn about soon, probably. But one detail in particular stands out, draws... the skeleton's full attention.]

Oh, yes! [Nagito says, smiling as if this wasn't a potential issue.] We go from place to place, and you can travel with or without Ferryman-san. To travel with them, you have to give up a memory, but nothing can attack you. You can go without them, too, but if you get attacked, you'll lose memories anyway. At least, that's what we know about the process so far.

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Papyrus used Passive Aggressive Friendship Quest?

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