Test Drive Meme #3

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Test Drive Info

⇝ Test Drive Memes take place in a virtual reality simulation occurring in characters' minds that tests them for 'fitness' before they enter the setting officially. Because it is set in a simulation created by the Sylphid, the missions, while being comparable to regular missions in the game, will be from a Sylphid perspective.
⇝ Characters will not be chipped during the simulation, and will have access to their abilities from canon, but will be chipped upon waking for the rescue.
⇝ Current characters can easily be pulled into the simulation if they are sleeping and dreaming when it's happening. The Sylphid cast a wide net with the simulation to fill it out with characters to interact with for prospective new arrivals.
⇝ Test Drive Meme threads may be considered game canon so long as all parties agree to it.
⇝ Test Drive Meme threads do count for Activity Check.

i. Awakening

It happens in a dream. You fall asleep and the next moment you feel like you're awakening again, but without any exhaustion, as if you've had a full night's sleep. You find yourself in a comfortable bed in a room full of comfortable beds, all of which contain other people waking up just the way you are. The room is large but cozy, with wide windows that are framed by light curtains, and the sun is shining in from an angle that suggests morning.

Once you're up and moving around a little, ready to explore this new place, you'll discover an open door on one of the walls in the room, through which soft strains of music can be heard, and above which there's a sign saying "Free Breakfast." Once you make your way into the room, possibly with some of the other people just waking up in this strange place, you find a buffet table loaded with breakfast foods - some familiar, and some strange, mainly featuring mushrooms and root vegetables. Quiet, soothing music is playing and there are a variety of tables with chairs available to settle down and enjoy some food.

This is just a dream, right? What could be the harm in eating a bit of food, maybe trying out some cool alien cuisine, and getting to know the other people here?

ii. The Mission: The Fungus Among Us

Once everyone has eaten their fill and gotten to know their new compatriots a little better, there is an interruption in the music playing in the room. Three musical chimes sound, and a pleasant female voice speaks.

Attention, new recruits! We have a mission for you.

The intercom goes on to explain that there is a forest of mushrooms called The Troop that borders on the northwest walls of the city, which releases spores near constantly (though more prolific in fall) that have a hallucinogenic effect on sentient beings. These spores can cause people traveling in The Troop to become disoriented and confused, experience vivid auditory and visual hallucinations, and become permanently lost. Generally, the spores aren't a problem inside the city or in the surrounding area because no one has built close enough to the Troop to suffer serious effects. However, this particular fall, the spore count has been significantly higher than previous years, and spores are making their way into the neighborhoods bordering The Troop. Even worse, the spores are having a slightly different effect on top of the usual ones.

The spores, once inhaled, are growing into microscopic fungi that populate in the brains of citizens and take over the brains of the infected. Once taken over, the citizens who are infected are servants of The Troop, and will do whatever they can to infect others by whatever means possible, whether it's by capturing spores and releasing them in people's faces or by gagging up fungi that will infect others. Beyond that, there is a kind of mania about the people who have been infected - they are wide-eyed and high-energy, they will accost random people with spores or fungi, they will chase people down on the street to infect them.

Beyond that, there's another effect. Those inflicted with fungal infection become distinctly lacking in any kind of verbal filter. They will say exactly what they're thinking, they will blurt out secrets, expose themselves emotionally, and share their innermost thoughts and dreams. After all, it's not like the individual mushrooms in The Troop keep secrets, they're all part of a larger whole, and that's how infected individuals will behave. It's as if they're sharing a consciousness, taken over by the hive mind of The Troop, and see others as simply extensions of themselves.

Will your character get infected, try to help the infected somehow, or just plain stay out of the way of all this madness?

iii. The Mission: Full Fungal Smackdown

As the infection gradually progresses, those who are infected start to become more violent, which is a big problem. The infection is slowly spreading throughout the low-income neighborhood that it initiated in and moving toward the city proper, with increasingly aggressive infected doing their best to infect others. Their methods are starting to become more aggressive as well, where before they would simply spray others with spores or present them with mushrooms, they are now altering common devices like leaf blowers to spread the spores over a broader area and violently attacking people to shove mushrooms into people's mouths, curling fingers inside their mouths to force the fungi into their victims' sinuses and infect them.

It isn't just infection techniques that are getting more aggressive. Their behavior in general is aggressive - the infected are starting fights, are attacking people, often shouting in a strange, unintelligible language. The tone of the attack is that of people defending their own territory, fighting off intruders or predators, even if the person they're attacking made no moves to strike first. Attackers may fight hand-to-hand or even employ weapons that they are familiar with to attack others, whether it's guns, knives, laser swords, or anything else they might use in their regular uninfected life. Even those who were non-combatants will use kitchen knives or other makeshift weapons to attack the uninfected.

They never attack the infected, somehow they seem to know immediately who is and who isn't part of the hivemind.

As the attacks start to really escalate and there is panic in the streets, characters will be informed that a cure for the infection has been found, and everyone who isn't infected should stop by one of the Sylphid trucks carrying syringes of the cure and load up. Anyone who's able to fight, or even who is just capable of carrying and using a syringe, is asked to take a bandeau of them and to inoculate anyone infected. Unfortunately, though, the only real way to tell if someone is infected is by that wide-eyed look, and the attack that comes out of nowhere.

iv. Welcome to the Broken World.

The simulation is over, and you don't even know how you got here from there.

All you know is that one moment you were participating in a mission to save the Sylphid children, to uphold peace talks, and then you were asleep again, after the mission was over.

You wake up in what seems like the blink of an eye, nauseous and dizzy but otherwise unscathed, possessions taken away, barefoot and dressed only in a set of plain grey clothing, like the most bland uniform ever imagined, in an empty room with empty walls and one single door with a small barred window and a single number printed just above it. The door is locked and cannot be broken by any means, you can feel your connection with any superhuman powers you had severed, leaving them just out of reach - you can feel them there, tingling at your fingertips or in the back of your brain, but you just can't get to them. There is no one to greet you or explain what's happening. You start to lose track of time, the only sound the distant ticking of what sounds like a massive clock.

Just when things seem hopeless, when you feel like you're about to go mad, there's the sound of a commotion outside your door. The sounds of a battle, or perhaps an infiltration gone just slightly wrong. Either way, when the door opens, there is a figure there with a hand outstretched.

"Welcome to the Broken World. Come on, we'll explain everything just as soon as we get you and the others out of here."

NAVIGATION

Comments

[pupp3t]

I'd rather stay here. Other than the temple, there's nothing back there for me now.

[There's no pause there. Li doesn't have to think about this, doesn't have to reflect long and hard upon which she'd prefer. This is better as a place to be simply because of the freedom it allows her. At least she doesn't have a handler here, or official orders. At least here mentioning her past won't get her hauled into a dark room, electrodes hooked to her as she is asked to repeat, again and again, that there is no future, there is no past.

She looks out at the city, with all its' screams of terror and roaming infected, and says softly,] I don't think I'd mind staying here forever. I'd miss dragon beard candy, though.

[Her gaze flickers over to Padmé.] I'm sorry you died. Ah, I don't know if you want to talk about it? I'll listen if you do. But you don't have to if you don't want to.

[concord_dawned]

Yes.

[ His answer is immediate, as is Boba's renewed attention on the woman. Does she have a hold-out weapon for him? Gun is a bit of a niche term, but so long as it has a trigger and a barrel, Boba reasons he can figure it out. ]

[purplexing]

The brief picture Li had painted of her life hadn't nearly touched upon how twisted and dark things were for her and whoever else had some kind of alien DNA. Donatello's slowly starting to piece together this puzzle and he's not sure he wants to see the whole picture. Maybe there is some weird positive thing to being abducted to a strange place, not that he can say just yet that this place is any better than where Li had come from. Dealing with spore-crazed people is definitely a downer.

That she might have hurt him had been a brief thought. She'd been so focused and intense back there, and it had been impossible to tell what was going through her mind. He hadn't thought too much on how easily she'd obeyed when he'd said things until she wasn't doing anything but remaining on stand-by. Her reassurance is better than nothing, and he wants to believe her. His information-seeking mind however questions just what identifies someone as a civilian. After all, the threats they were currently up against were technically civilians too...

He buries that thought deep. Li trusts him. She's telling him these things, and despite the potentially dire reasons that have prompted it, it still seems like a very personal thing, hints of a life, a person, other than the cold, focused fighter she could be. "...well I'm glad it worked out that way. It means you're still Pan Xiaohu, no matter what else has happened." He doesn't internally flinch at her touch this time, bringing his hand to gently close over hers with a light squeeze, a faint but welcome warmth in the chill of a foreign place.

"I've been through all sorts of strange. Makes it a little easier to take things in. And something tells me the strangeness won't end here. Come on, Xiaohu. -it okay if I call you that? Let's see these people to safety."

[forceguided]

Guess it's only natural to not want to talk about things that are painful.

[Though his voice still shows that he really wished he could have grown up knowing at least a little something about his family. But it's not something he can change, and it's better now so he's not going to dwell on it.]

You're right. I might not like Tatooine, but it could have been a lot worse.

[He's heard a fair bit about Rey's life on Jakku after all. Could have been a lot worse. Even if Luke could wear on his Aunt and Uncle's patience, mainly his Uncle's, fiercly over the years.]

Focusing on today sounds good.

[After all, none of this quite feels real so just in case he's going to enjoy it while he can. Like soaking up all the affectionate gestures she decides to bestow upon him. The kiss is met with a beaming smile, because why wouldn't he feel proud to receive such a gesture?]

Great! Then we'll eat.

[He's reluctant to pull away, but still hops up before holding out his arm to her with a grin. Still growing himself, there's very few times he's not down for food. And it's becoming increasingly common for him to feed the people he cares about. A love language of food, apparently.]

Maybe one day I can take you around the market stalls. There's a lot of interesting food there.

[nouskaiananki]

She maybe should have known - her sister had twins, after all, but also he didn't understand why the meddroid hadn't told her.

"So do I." There was rare regret in his voice, not being with her had been a long-standing guilt of his. Not being with her and their children, not having a say in their fates, not being there. "Leia looks so much like you. I don't know how I didn't see it right away." Because he hadn't thought their child(ren) lived. So he didn't look (or listen).

He could feel her moving, hear the blaster whine. He wasn't worried about her missing if she needed to fire, and even if she wasn't a skilled shot, he could manage - the goal at this point was evasion, as much as he wasn't normally one to turn from a fight. The goal in this case wasn't a victory over a battle, but safety and information.

"We'll be all right."

[scarabwings]

[One corner of her mouth ticks ever so slightly upward, and she draws a small pistol from where it's secreted within her coat and offers it to him, grip first.

That is definitely not a blaster. It's also, judging by the lack of wear, relatively new.

She's not unaware of the risk inherent in arming the people they're rescuing - disoriented, angry, and frightened people don't always make the best choices, and that's leaving aside the possibility of the Sylphid seeding one of their own amongst the prisoners. But the likelihood of getting out without encountering any resistance is slim. They need all the advantages they can get.]

[concord_dawned]

[ Boba takes the weapon and gives it a look over. Trigger. Barrel.

He's got this. ]

Thanks. [ Even if it's not a blaster, the feeling of a weapon in his hand comes as a relief. How long has it been? He'd lost track of the days in prison on Concord Dawn and he has no idea how long he's been in this facility. At least he's sure he isn't rusty. He's been handling firearms since he was a kid; it's not the kind of skillset that just fades away.

He takes a brief moment to test the sights, keeping the pistol pointed down and away from Layla, then looks back with a nod. He's ready to go. ]

You said something about an exit route?

[dramaticallydisrobes]

Obi-Wan has never been great at making sensible decisions, but at least he stopped himself from a horrible one here.

It would be quite pleasant to go through a day, even two, without having to question his personal experiences, morality and ethics, but that has yet to happen in recent times. He is, simply put, on a speeder with Vader of all people. Obi-Wan sighs grimly and fires, then fires again. One of their followers spins off into a tree and an explosion. Another one speeds up.

[nouskaiananki]

Irritating a highly volatile Sith who was genuinely trying to rescue you was up there a far as horrible ideas.

Vader heard the exceleration and mutters a colorful phrase under his breath, once again using the Force to grip into Kenobi as he sharply veered to one side, so steeply it pitched them at a 30 degree angle while also spinning them on their y-axis a close 160 degrees. All at a speed which has the engine screaming and has them now charging their pursuers.

Hanging into the handle bars one handled, he drew his saber, ignited it and set his course. The Slyphid would back down or find themselves impaled.

The latter was his preference.

[pupp3t]

She's still not even yet begun to hint at the worst aspects of things. This is just what she can't plausibly find a way to avoid talking about - she'd love it if she could pretend to be normal in front of him, but the reality is that he's too smart not to see the many ways in which she isn't and she's not even sure what normal is. Some degree of honesty is forced by circumstances. The picture that honesty paints is not one she'd want to give to anyone, or one she'd have picked for herself, but as should be evident from the name change and the mind control, she never had a choice. None of them did. That's why Li isn't upset about being here - fighting isn't new to her, and at least here she can speak without fear of someone overhearing her say the wrong thing and reporting it back to her handlers or superiors. At least here she can pick who she's fighting.

Anyone attempting to kill herself or her handler gets shifted out of 'civilian' territory into 'acceptable target'. Beyond that, though, there are hard limits on who she gets to fight. Even thinking about fighting her handler would give her severe nausea, let alone trying to act on that thought. Now that her mind has established him as at least a part-time handler, she can't fight him. That could probably go badly if he were infected, but she trusts him to keep that from happening. He knows how to handle himself and he's smart. They'll get through this.

She's trying so hard to be a person that it's probably coming out incomprehensibly convoluted and ridiculous, this life she's lived, this world she comes from. But above and beyond all other things, she doesn't want to be evil. The desire to not be an active threat has her delivering more truths than is probably wise. Tactically this feels unsound. Emotionally, though, he just doesn't seem like someone who'd take what she said and use it against her. Her heart soars at his words. To still be who she originally was, to still be a person and not a Creature, is all she's ever wanted. "I hope you're right."

The smile on her face slips away at the question. That's complicated, too, it seems. "You can call me that if it's just us. If there's any chance someone from home could be here, you can't. You don't want to know what they'd do if they knew I remembered, assuming they didn't order me to self-terminate on the spot." That thought set aside, though, she takes a deep breath, straightens her sleeves, rolls her shoulders to force the stiffness out of them, and nods. "Let's go get to work. I've got your back."

[purplexing]

His smile is almost a smug one, a hint of his usual ego that's been tentatively packed away in the face of a dire situation. "Of course I'm right. There's enough proof of that simply based upon the difference between how you acted before and after that fight just now, and in what you've told me. And you've said so yourself, you don't like it when you're that way, which would make sense because that's not who you are."

The concern that there might ever be someone she knows is a valid one though, and not one Donatello will overlook. He looks a little sick at the possibility that they'd have her 'self-terminate', and the notion that what might happen otherwise would be worse just makes him shiver. So he nods, his face grim, but he's not going to put Li in danger like that.

They head back towards where those they'd been escorting have been left, those who've remained anxiously looking to them once they come back within sight. Some have pressed on, not something Donatello is going to be upset about, and he would have rather they all kept moving although at the same time he can understand why they wouldn't want to. He heads up to start helping the children down from the roof, trying very hard not to look too uncomfortable as some latch onto him. Transporting them back down by flight had not been his intention but it proves to be at least a quicker way to get them off so he can head back up- a double-edged sword as the other kids see this as a much more fun option than climbing down the fire escapes.

[pupp3t]

That confidence is deeply comforting during a moment like this of such utter self-doubt. It was drilled into her for years that she was not a person, until it became as much as fact to her as the sky being blue, but he says it's wrong like it's written in stone, like it was never true at all. Li wants to believe him. She wants more than anything for him to be right, and so she lets herself try to hope he is. "Thank you, Donatello. You always seem to know the right thing to say. Your family is lucky to have you."

His easy agreement to calling her by Li makes her visibly relax. Some days she'd take death over reconditioning. Some days she's not sure. Either way, she'd rather not have to suffer the consequences for having remembered the handful of things that she has. Donatello's somber expression tells her he understands the stakes of this situation. That's enough to make her trust him. She wouldn't if he were human, but people who aren't human live very high stakes lives and appreciate the gravity of these things.

Those who hadn't pressed on are largely families, and Li can't fault them for that. Better to stay together than separate from those they loved. The children, at least, seem in high spirits, one of them yelling to his mom that he wants a jetpack for Christmas, one looking at Donatello and squeeing, "So! Cool!" even as his body language radiates discomfort. Li undoes the fire escapes and leads the adults down the stairs, asking about injuries and seeing if anyone needs help. People are shaken, but unharmed. That's very good news. Better still, a few have talked it over with each other and come up with the path to safety that involves going by the mostly empty part of uptown without adding too many minutes to their schedule, which will help avoid infected.

A little girl tugs at Li's skirt. "Is it okay if I don't go down with the fancy gizmo guy? I don't like heights." Li nods, and holds open her arms for the small child to climb into, carrying her down alongside her father, who's carrying twin infants in his arms. Clearly, this man is not having a particularly lucky day.

Getting everyone together on the ground takes less time than she'd thought it would, and this time, having seen their unlikely heroes fight for them, people are a lot more willing to give Li directions and thank her and Donatello both. They resume their trudge forward with a lot less internal tension, even if one or two of them seem jumpy, spooked by earlier events. It's understandable. This isn't something anyone here is used to. But the path ahead is much more certain now. That's enough to keep spirits from falling.

jayce talis | arcane

[hexarcanum]

I. Awakening

[It would be a lot easier to ignore the food like he should if he weren't so damn hungry.

Of course, a little hunger should come second to figuring out where in the hell he is and why he's here and whether or not this is a dream, but the food smells so good. Jayce manages to keep his head about him enough to make sure he sees someone else eating first, to make sure it isn't poisoned or drugged, but after that, he can't resist anymore. Piling up a plate full of sausages and eggs and toast, he takes it to a table and looks around idly, as if he could find someone there that he knows. It is a dream, after all, isn't it? Shouldn't the usual suspects be here? Viktor, Caitlyn, Mel (in the better dreams), even Vi?

But he doesn't see anyone he recognizes. So he takes a bite of a sausage and chews, swallows, lets out a contented sigh, and then turns to the nearest person he can see. Maybe it's a dream. Maybe it's not, because why should he be dreaming when he was just in the counsellor's chamber, advocating for peace?]

Do you happen to have any idea where this is?

II. The Mission: The Fungus Among Us

[When the call about the mission goes out, Jayce is certainly interested. Abandoning his mostly-finished meal, he stands immediately and pushes his chair away from the table, looking around for anyone who might be in charge around this place.

For a moment, he mills about, feeling entirely out of his element, something that Jayce Talis isn't used to at all. He finds he doesn't like the feeling.]

Excuse me, do you know where someone in charge could be? I'd...like to help out with the research on this fungus thing. Biology isn't my strong suit, but maybe another mind on it might help...

IV. Welcome to the Broken World.

[The awakening is less than pleasant.

He's nauseous, dizzy, disoriented, and it takes him a while to get vertical from where he was slumped on the floor of what looks like a prison cell of some sort. After he gets vertical, he paces back and forth, trying to keep warm in the cold room, shaking his head, fists clenched, uncertain of what he might have done to bring this on himself.

It's not Stillwater Hold. It's nowhere he's familiar with.

There's just enough time before the commotion starts outside the door, to think good and hard about where he is. About all those times he threatened people with Stillwater without really knowing what it was he was threatening. Vi's words come back to him so clearly in this situation, pacing a cell back and forth with no idea how long he's been sentenced to, or what he even did to end up here.

But then there is a commotion, and someone opens the door for him. Light streams into the door and he winces, squints against the sudden brightness of it, but moves toward the exit. 'Welcome to the Broken World.']

The Broken World? What? Where am I?

V. Wildcard

Hit me up by PM or on discord at onlilypads #8008 to plot something or just hit me up with a random starter if none of these work for you!

[purplexing]

His family... It's a complicated bundle of feelings there, manifesting in a wistful sort of smile. He feels the truth is more that he's lucky to have his family and admitting that makes it more blatantly obvious that they're absent. Donatello leaves it at that, opting to latch onto the warmer reassurance of gratitude instead.

It's still weird to him to be interacting directly with people. They were ninja after all, they tried to make sure they kept out of the public eye. So admittedly they weren't that great at it, and when you tended to drive around a giant tank shaped like a turtle it was pretty difficult to expect to be inconspicuous, but people still never really saw who was inside. And now there are kids clinging to him. He sure hopes they're clean. Still, it's kind of nice being acknowledged for the risks they'd taken to keep these people safe.

Having overly curious and grabby children serve well enough as a distraction from other things, Donnie absently shaking them off as he still keeps an eye on their six. Honestly he'll be glad to get everyone packed away somewhere safe, and while their new route is more winding it's at least apparent that none of the actual chaos has reached this part of the city. He glances ahead to see where Li is, but so far as he can tell, things are relatively clear.

I

[purplexing]

[Maybe there's something in the food after all- this guy's all green!

Not that the kid seems bothered by it as he sits there beside Jayce, meticulously stacking eggs and cheese and ham onto several interwoven, open-faced bagels in the style of a submarine sandwich.]

Nope, not a clue, weird dream in someone's school? Pretty sure this isn't Eastlaird University but I haven't been to that cafeteria so who's to say?

[His focus seems to be mainly upon his strange sandwich creation as he starts laying down strips of bacon.]

[politicallyinclined]

What happened to your home?

(She has visited planets that failed to thrive. She has seen them dead, flowing through the galaxy as hunks of dark, broken rock. Lifeless. Had that happened to Li? If so, yes, being here is better.

She scans the city too, wincing at the screams. There is nothing she can do. Nothing. But listen.)

Tell me about dragon beard candy. What are the ingredients?

(Maybe she can find that much to give her rescuer a taste of home.)

I appreciate that. (The kindness reminds her of friends...long lost and out of reach.) I was so excited to deliver. I got through it, I know I did, and I saw my twins. But then something happened. I couldn't breathe and I was so...tired. I felt like my energy was draining.

It confuses me.

[politicallyinclined]

Talking about it doesn't undo it. I wish it was that simple.

(They didn't want Luke running away to start a war he couldn't handle. The Lars were smart and she owes them...everything.)

We find that out, one way or another, when we venture away from home. I visited other worlds as a child and seeing the lack of food and water - things I took for granted - put things into perspective for me.

(He is Anakin's son. They should have been prepared to have their wits tested.)

Oh I get to be escorted? (She beams, fully, genuinely, at his offered arm. Of course it is taken immediately and she finds herself...hungry. Being near him makes her feel stronger - like she is clinging to life harder.)

I would be honored. I can cook! I learned from my mother.

[politicallyinclined]

Well she had wanted a surprise! Padmé was ready to embrace their blessing (blessings!), choosing a name for each gender beforehand. Names Anakin assented to, of course.

"Obi-Wan must have concealed them from you." it's the only, heart-breaking, conclusion she can come to. He would have been able to sense them otherwise.

"Luke looks so much like you." she smiles at the mention of Leia, "I imagine she gave you quite the speech?"

From what she has heard, little Leia is a force of nature. And a politician. The horror.

His back will be protected; Padmé is grim in her conviction, ready to lift, aim and fire. She couldn't protect him before, but even if Sidious turned up behind them, she wouldn't miss.

"I'm safe with you and I love you." always. Sith Lord or Jedi. She won't agree to ruling anything or anyone, but he will always have her by his side, alive or not.

[pupp3t]

I don't really have one. Or, I guess I did, [and that's hard to admit, strange to think after years spent having her memories erased, so the admission comes out as an afterthought more than anything else,] and I was taken from it. But even if I wanted to go back, I couldn't, for a lot of reasons. Things are, um, complicated.

[There's no nice, succinct way to sum up her world and she's not sure that talking about it won't stress her out, which is not something poor Padmé needs after giving birth, dying, and waking up here of all places. This woman's been through enough without having to hear about just how bad things are getting back on Li's Earth.

The screams don't bother Li, but if it helps distract Padmé from them, she'll happily tell her about the candy.] Well, you need white sugar, peanuts, coconut, sesame seeds, rice flour and maltose syrup. I don't remember all the steps to making it. Mostly people buy it on the street from vendors, instead of making it at home. But it's white and fluffy on the outside, and then there's warm nuts on the inside. I guess that's why it's always been popular in Harbin, where I was born. We have some of the coldest winters in the country. [Cold winters, but still night markets - Heilongjiang was a province that embraced sometimes contradictory traditions, in that sense.

She frowns, trying to apply her limited medical knowledge to the situation.] You could have had internal bleeding somewhere. That happens in some births, I've heard. It's not impossible to treat if it's caught in time, but if it's not...

[The human body is a very resilient thing, but it has limits. There's a point where even the strongest people can't keep going through injuries.] I wish there was a doctor here. They'd have better guesses than I do.

[pupp3t]

She doesn't remember her family clearly. A woman who might've been a mom or an older sister brushing her hair, a man with dark red-brown eyes who held her in his arms, and... that's it. There's more people she's forgetting, she's sure, but they're beyond her ability to recall. Maybe one day she'll get those things back. (Secretly, she hopes that one day, when she's fully free, she can go back to Harbin and try to find them. Pan isn't a rare surname, but nor is it common. It'd be a slog, but doable, in time.)

Interacting with people isn't her usual thing, either. She's just trying to act as if she knows what she's doing and hoping that works. Thankfully, no one seems too inclined to question their credibility anymore, having heard fire and explosions followed by Donnie and Li returning to them. Parents get their kids to leave the nice man alone and come walk with them, kids grouse about it but obey, and overall it feels less like herding humans and more like actually guarding willing clients this time around.

Granted, none of her clients ever included fussing babies before or numbered in the double digits. That part still makes her uneasy. The more people are involved, the harder it is to keep an eye on all of them. She doesn't know how long they can plausibly keep the whole group covered. When the intel proves to be correct and no further infected lurch out at them, Li somehow gets more tense, not less. Nothing ever goes this easily. There's always some other hidden trick, some snag in the plan, something else that can go wrong.

It says a lot about her life that she considers only having her life threatened twice by swarms of zombies to be 'things going too well'.

[purplexing]

Donatello chooses to be cautiously hopeful as they near their destination, but he can't shake that tension either. It would be careless to let his guard down otherwise. At least he doesn't have to worry about kids in his personal bubble for now.

The group isn't the quietest given all the children and the parents doing their best to keep them under control, but it's about the best they can hope for. He doesn't think noise levels will make too much of a difference given how uncoordinated the threats they have to watch out for have been. There's not much by way of instinct, the only ingenuity they've proven to make use of has been with their victims' knowledge of tools, their primary directive being to spread the influence of the Troop. Now that he's got more time to think about such things, Donatello's convinced things could be far worse if such a hivemind really had the capability to operate on a more intricate scale.

Eventually some of the adults at the head of the group with Li begin to point ahead as they come within sight of their destination. Donatello can feel the mood shift as spirits start to lighten. He allows himself a sigh, feeling like he'd been holding his breath the whole time they'd restarted their trek.

[pupp3t]

The first instinct of several kids is to dart forward. Li ends up with one under each arm, trying to prevent them from rushing off - if there was an unexpected hostile up ahead, it would be all too easy for one of them to get snatched up - and then grunts in pain as her injured shoulder protests that movement. Parents quickly retrieve their children from her, looking embarrassed. Li is grateful Donatello is bringing up the rear where he can guard that half as all of her attention swiftly turns to keeping on high alert for this last stretch. Some part of her dreads the idea, but it wouldn't surprise her if this alleged safe haven had been corrupted.

Remarkably, despite this day being nothing but a sea of poor luck prior to this, her pessimism is proven unfounded. They arrive and it's not overrun or compromised, just a bit overcrowded and full of people trying to find other people. Only when the very last person from the group is safely on the other side of the large metal gates (this was someone's private, fancy, gated property, once upon a time) does Li finally let herself slump against the side of it and exhale a long sigh, followed by a deep breath.

She turns to Donatello and gives him a small smile. "We did it."

[purplexing]

It's an anxious last few blocks, but Donnie's willing to let the others go off ahead of him while he swings around to keep an eye on the surrounding open streets. He can't help but listen for any signs of those eager sounds of the kids as they rush off to be suddenly cut off, but when that doesn't happen and the sounds of footsteps begin to peter off bit by bit, the turtle teen finally moves towards the perimeter of the designated safe-haven himself.

The atmosphere's so oddly different from earlier on. Maybe it's just the sense of having accomplished something that makes it so. It's a minor thing, but he'll take it.

He joins Li as he finds the girl finally allowing herself to relax. Watching the last few people head inside, Donatello offers her a grin. "Yeah. We did."

[forceguided]

[He's already tried a time or two even without being told anything. Because the Hutts are awful and he'd hated the injustice he'd seen on Tatooine. Not that it matters, he ran off to fight in that war he probably can't really handle basically as soon as they'd died]

That's normally how that works, yeah.

[The fact that maybe here, things aren't quite so set in stone, is something they can cover later. Like how he and Rey are desperately hoping they can change his own future because of talking here.]

There are places here that are just full of water. Just to have fun in it! [A foreign concept to the desert bound life he's lived up to this point.] I've been learning how to swim.

[Apparently being Anakin's son hadn't been enough of a warning. Go figure.]

Of course! A fine lady should have a fine escort.

[Their beams are similar enough that it makes Luke's joy even brighter. Mother.]

I don't usually cook that often.

[He can do some basics, but he'd never needed to learn more. Plus now that it's mostly just him at meals, it just doesn't feel worth it.]

But I want to eat your food. I bet it's delicious!

[But there'll have to be some adjustments for what ingredients are available here. As it is, he leads her out of the sleeping area and to the area with tables. Finally letting her go so he can get two plates, handing one to her with a grin.]

[scarabwings]

[Layla watches him out of the corner of her eye, most of her attention on the rest of the cell block, and on listening for any sign the fight's coming their way. There is, perhaps, a faint flicker of approval in her expression, though she knows better than to voice it.]

This way. Stay close.

[And she continues toward the door at the far end of the cell block, pausing to listen a moment, then swipe a stolen keycard across the security panel and crack it open to peer through from her spot pressed up against the wall - out of any easy firing line from the corridor beyond.

Unless there are lurking Sylphid with the ability to render themselves invisible, it's empty - so far - and so she eases the door open the rest of the way and slips through, trusting him to follow her.]