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

[politicallyinclined]

(Padmé has no desire to fight her; she wants to help her. It's...upsetting...to say the least that someone so young has the skills of a trained assassin. Where has Li's childhood gone?)

No, we shouldn't be alone. (If that will soothe injured prides, she will go along with it. She isn't in any shape to argue or remain in a dangerous situation. The offered knife makes her wonder...how many people have been killed by it? But she takes the weapon anyway, nodding her head in gratitude.)

Thank you. I'm not sure they should be killed, but I can also see that we have little choice.

(Tucking the knife into her belt, she prepares herself to follow.)

I'm pleased to meet you, Li. Relieved to meet you, actually.

(Thankfully Padmé can move quickly and quietly. She is a small woman and trained in keeping a low profile when necessary. But she is focused on keeping Li safe too, regardless. How can she let anyone fight for her? The idea of having a bodyguard just brings up bad - yet wonderful - memories.)

[pupp3t]

[Li had never really thought of herself as young. Some of the others are younger, and were taken far earlier. She's not even that young, in her own opinion. Fifteen is plenty old. Practically an adult, really.

While she wouldn't mean anything rude by it, Li didn't particularly think of Padmé as capable of long-term survival in this situation. Someone unwilling to kill even in self-defense is at risk of being overwhelmed by this numbers more than someone who is. It's best to keep civilians out of combat. Some of the tension leaves Li's shoulders once Padmé takes the knife.]

We have to do what we can to survive.

[Clearly, Li had no such reservations. Or if she did at some point, they've long since been trained out of her. She honestly can't remember enough from that far back to be sure. She gives a nod in return to Padmé's statement, a sort of 'likewise' without words, but isn't great at pleasantries, clearly. Or maybe it's just that she's not really prepared to combine combat zones and smalltalk; those are separate things for her most of the time.

They make it to the end of the alley without incident, but getting to the next block over requires crossing the street. The second one of the crazed infected spots Li, he charges at her, some kind of bludgeon in his hand. Instead of dodging out of the way, she moves forward and uses the speed he's moving at against him, grabbing him by the arm and throwing him forward into the wall behind her. There's a sickening crunch as he makes contact. Something might've just gotten broken. The important thing is that he goes still and doesn't get up, so they're free to dart across the street into the relative safety of the next alley.

That safety is something she manufactured herself in advance. Three dead bodies lay on the ground between them and the fire escape, small puddles of blood under their throats or stomachs. Clearly she hadn't been aiming for the joints even though experience has started teaching her that works for them; old instincts die hard. The fire escape is locked in place four feet above them, but Li takes a running start and easily makes the jump, climbing up the metal as easily as breathing, scrambling up and on it to undo the latches that keep the ladder in place. It creaks down into place with more noise than she'd like. At least that keeps Padmé from having to climb any walls, though. That's one less thing to worry about.]

Climb up. [She effortlessly jumps down from the steps, landing silently.] I'll keep anyone from sneaking up on you down here. The roofs are always clear. There's no other access unless you know how to climb. [Which is clearly a skill she's got going for her.]

[politicallyinclined]

(If cornered, Padmé can kill - and has before - but it isn't something she wants to do. Their foes are people who can't help their infection and she would much rather save them than make them suffer further. Also fifteen is young, Li, but Padmé can't complain much since she was Queen of Naboo at fourteen.)

I am aware. (She is also aware that she gave birth to twins not even a day ago. Her body hasn't healed, though surely what caused her death has been mended. When they are attacked, Padmé draws the knife Li had given her but is spared having to plunge it into the raging victim. She looks down at the other bodies grimly and suppresses a shiver of disgust. Why have things gone so wrong for this planet?

The fire escape is a new problem - she can't climb in her condition - but again, Li steps up and takes the lead. Padmé grabs the ladder rungs and pulls herself upward, selfishly happy to leave the infected behind. Leaving Li to guard her back doesn't feel right and she glances behind her as she goes.)

Come up. We can pull the ladder up after us.

[pupp3t]

[It's not something she looks forward to doing or enjoys doing. Li simply doesn't have the capacity left to think of it as anything other than a perfectly practical option. This removes obstacles from their path. They're not even as relatively innocent as most of her targets back home were.

In all fairness to Li, she has no way of knowing Padmé recently gave birth. Li hasn't even been around a pregnant person before, unless passing one on the street now and then en route to a mission counts. She can tell something is physically different about Padmé compared to other people, but that's about it. Padmé in turn can probably tell that something is physically different about Li - no normal fifteen year old could've made a jump up that high, and those red eyes are hardly human - which in any other circumstances would be worth commenting on but between the bodies and the pressing issue of safety, now is not the time. At least Li isn't shuddering or even really noticing that this is 'wrong' or a distressing state for the world to be in.

Taking the lead is really something she's only equipped to do in combat situations. Unfortunately, this entire city currently qualifies. Li blinks up at Padmé like the idea someone's concerned about her is completely baffling, then shrugs internally and decides to take orders. Pretend she's a handler and you're back in Suzhou, she tells herself, and climbs up rapidly, knife still at the ready, lingering behind Padmé with her gaze still flickering around the street below, lest they get caught by surprise.

Climbing up to the roof doesn't take long. Longer than Li would like, but the important thing is they pull up the ladder when they're on the landing, and after that the remaining climb is infinitely less stressful. And the roof itself, while offering little else, has no other rooftop access points, making it genuinely safe. Li takes the opportunity to stretch, cracking her ankles the way other people might their knuckles, then turns to Padmé.]

Are you injured? From what I can tell, the spores don't seem to get into wounds, but I don't want to test that, so I've been using some of the disinfectant I stole from a store here to make sure. I've still got some left if you need it.

[politicallyinclined]

(She isn't sure how to mentally cope with the fact that she gave birth recently and then promptly died. How can she tell a stranger - much less a young woman - what she endured? All she can think about is keeping them both safe. Li isn't normal, per the standards on Naboo, but there are many, many other planets and races. Some look human, others don't. Padmé just assumes Li is of a race she has never met.

On the roof, with the ladder safely raised, she sits down and tries to slow her breathing. Her body doesn't hurt necessarily, but there is a weakness - a lethargy - that she doesn't like and won't serve her well in the current conditions. She has seen battle before.)

To be honest, I... I gave birth to twins less than a day ago. I'm not sure I should be pushing myself. Not that we have a choice.

[pupp3t]

[Usually, when Li does escort missions, no one speaks to her other than to give her orders. This woman doesn't owe her an explanation of any kind, for anything. They're strangers. If Padmé held her tongue, Li would let sleeping dogs lie. She hadn't been put through eight years of training without learning basic protocols like 'don't pry'.

Li isn't sure what to do when the admission is dropped. At no point in her life has she come into contact with a pregnant client. She's seen pregnancy, of course, in civilians on the street, but not often. Maternity leave is very much a thing in China, and the old traditions keeping newborns and those that just gave birth secluded away for a month so as not to tempt fate or bring down bad luck is still going strong in some parts of the country. For a moment, Li stares, wide-eyed and dumbfounded.

Then that last thought sets off another:] Where are the babies? I can go grab them, just tell me the location. You can stay here and rest.

[Retrieving babies doesn't sound terribly hard. Transporting them back here might take a bit, given how delicate babies are, but it's doable, given enough time and careful avoidance of detection. If she can find something to carry them in, maybe a backpack of some kind...]

[politicallyinclined]

(If only she could have been secluded with them. That would have been a small paradise. However Li does, at least, surprise Padmé into a small smile. The offer is selfless and sweet even if Li probably won't see it that way.)

They did not follow me. I left them in the care of a dear friend.

(Obi-Wan will make sure Luke and Leia are safe; she trusts that.)

Thank you for offering. I wish I could see them...and hold them...but I can't.

[pupp3t]

[She nods, and there's some visible relief in her expression. Babies in a place like this would be horrific. Nothing is as defenseless as a newborn. Li is fast, but would she have any chance of arriving in time? She doubts it. Perhaps it's best they're back home, even if it hurts their mother to be separated like this.]

They're safer there. This isn't a good place for them.

[Comforting people is not Li's specialty. She can tell that a mother separated from her newborns needs it. That much is obvious even to someone bad with people. What's not obvious is how to try to be there for someone who's in emotional pain. Physical wounds are easy. This is not a problem she knows how to solve. Awkwardly, she places a hand on Padmé's shoulder.]

Just focus on staying alive right now. We only have the present to live in.

[politicallyinclined]

(Li is absolutely right. Padmé would be a wreck trying to protect the twins and she would likely fail. They are better off with Obi-Wan, who can see them to a family - or families - who will love them and watch them grow.)

I wouldn't wish for them. Not here.

(The logic is comforting in its own way. Padmé is a realist and the last thing she would do is put her family in danger just to satisfy her desire to see them.)

Did you die too?

(Those words are interesting. "We only have the present to live in." That is especially true for Padmé, but is it true for Li as well?)

[pupp3t]

No mother would. Or father. At least, not mine. He...

[Fought to protect her. Latched ahold of her and ran when that failed, running through icy streets barefoot, determined to keep her safe. She shudders without realizing it, sadness coming over her features before Padmé says something that snaps her right out of it.]

No, I didn't. I was on my way back from the market. I'd finished work, and I was going to go get something to offer at the temple to Guanyin uptown. And then... I don't know. Then I was here.

[politicallyinclined]

(She waits patiently for Li to say more, though she doesn't need to for her sorrow to be apparent. Padmé reaches for her hand and gives it a warm squeeze. The blood won't stop her.)

I'm glad you have something to return to. I hope this place is just a strange dream for you one day.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[politicallyinclined]

(If you keep this up, Li, Padmé will adopt you and give you a home. Somehow. Somewhere. Everyone deserves that much - even if they are super powerful soldier types.)

I'm here to listen if you ever want to talk.

(No pressure. Listening to someone else will help her forget the shock of what happened to her. Maybe. Padmé does like helping others and she does have a tendency to ignore her own worries in the process.)

It sounds delicious. (Though she only recognizes some of the ingredients.) I'll try to find you something warm, nutty and sweet.

(The possibility silences her and she looks down at herself, trying to remember those last moments. She had been so focused on the twins and telling Obi-Wan...)

I'm not sure why the droid couldn't help me, then.

[pupp3t]

I'm fine. I'm one of the lucky ones, in a lot of ways. I don't think I really have a lot to complain about.

[At least Li's family is alive, somewhere out there, even if she can't see them. At least she was only trained in this and not something worse. She knows how bad things can get in the darkest recesses of her world. Compared to other people, she's doing fairly well. Especially now that she's here, where no one can give her orders and no one can harm her if she disobeys those orders.

Padmé is the one who died. That's substantially worse. For her, this is the afterlife, and what a strange, baffling afterlife this must be to arrive in, too.]

It is. The one good thing about moving from Beijing to Suzhou is that even though Suzhou is smaller, it has the better food. Even when I wasn't allowed to get some, even the smell is nice to have around. It makes the air sweeter. [Very few things distract her from her work, but dragon's beard candy, flower twists and sachima will make her attention divert, if only for a moment. Somewhere underneath the layers of professionalism is a sweet tooth that never got fully trained out of her.

Li shrugs, a little helpless as to how this happened.]

You'd have to ask a doctor. There might have been something else wrong that isn't obvious to you or I but a doctor could identify. I don't know much about pregnancy to start with. I'm not capable of getting pregnant so I just never looked into the science of that kind of thing, honestly.

[politicallyinclined]

(There is a lot of strength and bravery in Li thinking that way. It's better to count your blessings, but Padmé is worried that Li isn't allowing herself to feel. She has been in that mode, pushing forward relentlessly until something in her snaps. She doesn't want Li to reach that point.)

Lucky or not, you've suffered. It's okay to be sad.

(She is torn between smiling and frowning at what Li shares. A growing girl should have access to food - especially something she likes now and then.)

One day I hope I can enjoy those treats with you.

(It's a nice thought - much better than thinking about...before.)

Did something happen? (Li isn't capable...?) Forgive me for asking. I know accidents can be very traumatic.

[pupp3t]

[Li gives Padmé an uneasy look. It is not okay to be sad, it is the exact opposite of okay, and the punishment for that kind of thing is steep. She's in no hurry to say the wrong thing and let it be clear how heavy the load she bears is.]

I'm fine, [she repeats, looking unsure what else she's supposed to say.] I'll be alright. I'm tougher than I look.

I think you'd like dragon's beard candy. Or at least some of the sweets from the northeast; there's something for everyone, in amongst the varieties there. Almost all of it is good to me, though. I'm not a picky eater - unless it's cornbread, in which I'd rather abstain.

[Her noses crinkles at the thought in disgust. Ugh. That texture is gross. No food is infinitely preferable to cornbread in all its' forms.]

Eh? Oh, no, hybrids just can't always have children with humans, and since humans are over ninety-nine percent of the population back home... [A shrug. It's not a traumatic thing, for her, just a fact of life. In a way, she's too young for the impact of it to hit; what teenager wants to think about having kids and being a mother? Maybe when she's older, this will have more weight to her.]