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annexedmeme2022-11-06 09:45 pm
modaccount) wrote in annexedmeme2022-11-06 09:45 pm
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Test Drive Meme #3
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."
Li Ya-Jing | Original | Info in journal
[Upon finding herself in a dream, the first thing the fifteen year old does is get up and straighten up. The uniform for her current undercover job must be perfectly maintained, jacket adjusted, skirt dusted off, tie flawless. Even in dreams, habits die hard. On instinct she looks around her surroundings, carefully calling out the name of her handler. His lack of presence is a relief, but not a complete one. This wouldn't be the first time he popped up on delay. This would also not be the first dream where dangers popped up in broad daylight. Her head is held high and her shoulders tense as she walks. Li is no fool.
Food has been a trap for more than one Creature in her position in the past. There's no way to tell what's poison or not. So she doesn't eat any of the food on display, though she does look at it with curious eyes that say she wishes she could. Yesterday was a long day and she'd love to rest, eat and relax, if only she had the luxury. Running a gloved hand through her already mussed hair, she stares at it in contemplation.
Approaching someone else is something she has even more mixed feelings on. Li hasn't spoken to people freely without the threat of supervision in a long time. Even when she isn't watched, she knows she could be, which has always tied her tongue; is there any reason to assume a dream would be any less hostile than the waking one? The unnaturally pale girl mulls it over and eventually forces herself to at least give it a shot, if only once. Just be normal, she tells herself. Don't sound strange or draw attention. Just speak like a normal person.]
Hello. May I ask, what's your name?
[Nailed it.]
2.
[Not acting is not an option. Li knows exactly what it's like to have control of your mind hauled away from you, and she will not let others suffer that same fate. This is an easy mission to take. All it requires is not speaking, and she can avoid compromising herself in any way that might anger her superiors should they appear here or should this get back to them, even if she's infected with spores. That said, fungus is not something she's ever had to fight before, and that makes this something she needs some help figuring out how to combat. Li seeks out someone who looks as if they're also going to take action against this in order to get, if not advice, a second opinion on this.]
How do we fight a fungus? I have combat experience, but not in this context. I'm open to suggestions.
3.
[Finally, something that feels familiar. Attempts on her life, violence, chaos, it's enough to snap her back into Creature mode, and a Creature-mode Li is an effective Li. She readies her knives, sticks to shadows, and slits throats of obviously infected, actively violent people. The big problem, Li discovers, is how many people she's facing down. That, she isn't used to. Fortunately she's fast, borderline superhuman in speed, and dodges attempts to infect her, rolls on the ground under swipes and inbetween one attacker's legs, then keeps running until she can clamber up onto a dumpster and then jump onto a roof, observing those on the ground with a calculating gaze. A fire would be effective, but too likely to chew through non-targets without discrimination. She could go to another building, try to find a way around the largest group, but it's likely the targets she's meant to be saving are through the sea of these people.
She checks her small collection of knives, taking out her piano wire as well, and looks at it on the ground, trying to figure out the best way to proceed. What she really needs is backup, someone to cover her back as they carve a path forward. Creatures often worked in tandem with one another. Is anyone from before nearby, and willing to help?
The sound of someone else on the roof has her whirling around, eyes going from merely red to flashing and luminous, inhuman, as she shifts into a defensive position, silent as the grave and ready to strike. She does not speak. All she does is watch, ready to defend herself if she has to but not foolish enough to pounce when the other person might be far better armed than she is.]
4.
[This time, when she wakes up, Li stares at the ceiling for a long time, waiting for her handler to come grab her. It does not occur to her that he would not do so. It does occur to her that this lack of energy, of the old power she's always had running through her veins, feels odd. She's felt similarly terrible after reconditioning, though. Perhaps that's why there's the gap in her memories and a sluggishness clouding her mind.
Eventually she gets up and looks around. She does not touch anything. She does not attempt to break out. The punishment for those actions is too steep for her to risk it. Instead, she simply paces and waits. Li has waited many times without knowing when she'll be retrieved. Creatures aren't often informed on their future assignments, just recaged and left until needed.
The person who opens the door is not any of her handlers or superiors or fellow Creatures. And only then, finally, belatedly, does it dawn on her she might be away from them. The idea roots her to the spot in sheer shock for a moment.
Then she takes a deep breath, nods, and takes that hand in her own.]
How can I help?
2.
I guess it depends on what they're doing... Maybe incapacitate them?
[Brigitte turns properly to face Li and gives a wan smile, tucking the screwdriver away as she speaks.]
They aren't giving us much to work with, are they?
no subject
Incapacitate or kill?
[It's a valid question. Those options require very different skills and approaches, and she'd rather know which she's expected to do from the outset.]
This is not the most efficient or thorough mission briefing I've gotten, no.
no subject
[As the words leave her mouth, Brigitte realizes how weird it sounds, especially because you'd think the briefing would mention it. She shifts from foot to foot, trying and failing to come up with a reasonable explanation for the limited information.]
I dont know... It seemed more like a history lesson than a real briefing.
[she muses for a second more. The intercom did say the people eventually lose themselves but not immediately... now everything felt a little suspect.]
Its our duty to give the sick a chance to live.
no subject
[They're not going to get anywhere if they can't kill anyone at all. Some of these people are going to be too far gone to save. Some are going to be active dangers to everyone around them. There is such a thing, Li has learned, as an acceptable level of sacrifice. Ideally everyone would get out of this alive. Ideals are not the same thing as reality. Ideals don't stop an infection or keep others from being hurt.
It's a grim tone of voice she uses when she speaks. This is not a fun concept. No part of her enjoys what she's suggesting. But to ignore the reality of the situation will only make this worse.]
It's our duty to make sure the maximum number of people survive this. That's going to require some losses along the way.
no subject
You're right. Every fight has some loss, but I would want a chance to live. We can restrain them, quarantine infected, evacuate nearby neighborhoods--there are other options we should try before we resort to that. Maybe they don't have to die.
[Brigitte breaks the gaze and lightly rests her hand on the hilt of the flail hung against her hip.]
I should be able to stop initial infection when I fight, that will buy enough time to catch them. A few zipties and face masks will go a lomg way to stop the spreading.
no subject
[It's not impossible, but it's not anything Li has known. Brigitte's training likely isn't the same as Li's in terms of what they were taught to prioritize, so Li's mind goes to different places than hers. Results were more important than personal preferences. The denser a combat zone, the less likely the chances were of no casualties. Leaving people alive was all nice and good in theory, but endangering one's self or the lives of others in order to try to achieve that was not the correct thing to do. The people who could go down as a result of that were no less valuable than the ones taking them down. And with no cure actually confirmed to be at play, it cannot be assumed that keeping someone alive is actually a kind action to begin with.
Results being her priority, Li's luminous, unnaturally red eyes lack the hesitation or usual guilty apprehension a normal person's might have. She nods at Brigitte, even if she doesn't particularly have faith in the long-term viability of this plan.]
If you have zip ties and face masks, it's a viable idea. I arrived here substantially less prepared for this situation. I'm going to focus on evacuation of the vulnerable. The fewer people are turned, the less hostiles we need to fight to start with.