annexedmeme | Test Drive Meme #3

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!test drive meme

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."

NAVIGATION

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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."

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.

There's a surprise and there's not telling them medical important intonation. He was certainly wanting to get his hands on her meddroid.

"Others. Also sliced her school's bells to play the Republic anthem." He'd heard of things over the years.

He trusted her to watch his back, but he didn't want it to be needed. "I love you too. And I will always keep you safe."

Unless what killed her happened suddenly; a final blow from the Dark Side.

"Did she?" Padmé is probably more amused than she should be. Anything of that nature would put Leia in danger. But she was always in danger, wasn't she.

"I know you will." she aims and fires at a drier tree - obviously partially dead - starting a fire between them and any pursuers.

That is what he believes happened, but isn't something he'd discuss here. It was for a private space.

"She did. She understood how to wield her status as Alderaan's future Queen as a shield, and later when she was a teenager, she used her position in the Junior Senate to hide Rebellion missions in plain sight." He was proud, honestly, and had been amused, even before he knew who she was She was clever and quick and hot-headed and passionate - things he'd always respected.

The smell of fire makes him tense. Of course, it would. But that's expected and he has decades of suppressing his reaction to just tensing. But it is a good barrier and he knows that. Relentless he pushed forward, rubbing the cheek of his helmet against her as he can't kiss her in the current environment. "Are you sore?"

Childbirth was traumatic, from what he'd seen as a child.

"She is the best of us." just like Luke. Padmé doesn't ask - can't ask - if he had faced Leia as an enemy. It seems inevitable. Yet Palpatine couldn't know their connection, could he? She trusts Anakin wouldn't have told him even if he realized.

The fire is on their side this time, creating a barrier that either their pursuers must put out or go around. She feels the rubbing and wraps herself around him tighter. She doesn't need kisses; just him.

"A bit." she admits, "But I would do it again."

For their babies? Unquestionably.

He's quiet, focused on covering ground and proving safety rather than answering. In part because he's not sure how to answer. Leia is the best of Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker, yes but is she the best of Padmé Amidala and Darth Vader? She'd been a thorn in the side of the Empire for years, set into play the downfall of Tarkin, fought and scraped and spit against Palpatine in a way that befitted a Sith. But the best of him? No, he didn't think so. At least, not yet. He saw glimpses of possibility there, however.

"The child here? She would have been. I do not know the young adult I've met in our home galaxy well." By design, he realized and then by her hatred of what had happened aboard the Death Star, but it's the only answer he can finally give.

"I'll try to move you as carefully as I can." It's all he can offer for now, although he keeps an eye out for foilage to nest down in the cave for her to rest on.

His silence is understandable. She is amazed at his ability to move at all. If she was imprisoned in a mechanical suit, she might not want to move ever again. But he has always been an unstoppable force - a knight, a dragon - strong when everyone else falters. Padmé is determined to be strong too. Her heart is fine and the fatigue will pass.

"She was a child?"

Maybe her heart is injured. The way it aches at the thought of their little daughter, fierce and ready to lead, can't be normal. If she could just hold Leia for a little while, maybe she could piece herself back together.

"You're doing fine, Ani." she kisses the side of his helmet, "I'm always safe when I'm with you."

He is an unstoppable force, and this requires him to be. She requires it of him now. So he will be one, unrelenting, unyielding, untiring.

"Nine when she was here." He could give her down to the day in Leia's age, counting the day of Padmé's death as their birthday.

She wasn't always safe with him. He knew that. They'd both lived it. It's why he just huffed back in response, but stroked over her shoulder blade with his thumb anyway. "Doesn't count here."

Nine. Younger than she had been when she decided to be queen, but around the age she had been when she traveled with her father to dying planets. Nine is also the age Anakin was on Tatooine when they first met. It's an important milestone.

"She would have had me wrapped around her finger." and Padmé would have welcomed it!

Why did their birthday have to be that day? Logically, she knows why, but it's...sad. When it should be a celebration.

She has purposefully forced the choking out of her mind - Anakin had been confused; he had assumed she knew Obi-Wan was on the ship. She hadn't known.

"It counts wherever we are." dream or reality. She trusts him. Without the influence of Palpatine, he can be himself.

That it had been the age he'd been when he'd left his own mother hadn't escaped his notice. That she was so much like Padmé in pose and so (frighteningly) independent hadn't either. He knew she was a troublemaker, it had amused him until things on Scarif had exploded, but he had expected the Princess of Alderaan to be more...pampered. Spoiled? Used to others caring for her, certainly. Not brave enough to wander the camp alone, unprotected. He was proud, of course, but it bothered him. More than he wanted to admit.

"She would have yes. She did all of us."

He hadn't. He couldn't remember it clearly, but he remembered doing it, revisited in his nightmares. Regretted it, hated himself for it. She might have been able to put it out of her mind, might have understood he was confused and paranoid, probably hadn't known how far into psychotic the stress, lack of sleep, emotional trauma, and Dark side had pushed him, had more than once. But he didn't forgive himself for it.

He hadn't wanted to hurt her. He really hadn't.

"As you say, my Lady." He's only teasing, gently. Even if it's something he's said before when he doesn't agree with her, but isn't going to argue with her either. Even pressed her closer to his chest. "We'll reach a place to reinforce ourselves soon."

Padmé too had been raised in a family that could have easily pampered her. Yet she found herself wandering refugee camps years before she became one of the youngest Queens of Naboo. There is something deep inside the Naberrie and Skywalker women that demands they serve. Being spoiled and arrogant just doesn't factor in and they both know Bail wouldn't have allowed it.

Hearing Anakin talk about their little daughter is a balm to her soul. Not once had she questioned his love for their children, but after all he has been through, for that love to still exist is a miracle. She hasn't lost him.

Her voice is choked when she speaks, but her tears are happy tears.

"We need to stay around in case she returns." she wipes at her eyes and readjusts her hold on the blaster, "If it isn't far, I can walk."

They love has always existed, however hidden and buried. And he's had to hide it, because PALPATINE had spies everywhere.

"I'm going to stay." And he's going to keep her here too. "No." It isn't far, but he's reluctant to put her down. "I've got you."

Palpatine would only manipulate that love if he knew of it. Anakin is wise to hide it.

"I am too." Padmé smiles at his stubbornness, hugging onto him tighter, "I know you do. I'll watch your back." always. Even when he feels like he is alone, her spirit isn't far.

He would and had. Vader had suffered that lesson on Ryloth and it wasn't one he'd been in a hurry to repeat.

"I can imagine other reasons you will, when I can get you home." Where home was and why she'd want to stay? He'd hold onto that for now. "Thank you."

It's a rough, steep hike up to the crack in the rock that made a shallow cave, which was the reason Vader would use to explain why he didn't put her down. And it was shallow - slightly less than three meters deep, the roof almost five meters above the fairly level floor, with the opening barely large enough for Vader and Padmé together to squeeze through. For defense it was almost perfect, giving them room to move a bit and a tightly guardable opening, almost completely vertical from the top, a rough hike up to it, and a lack of plant matter left on the last few meters to the cave gave them a good view.

Vader carefully sat her down, then returned to the opening, creeping in a defensive stance, while also trying to thnk of a way to keep her more comfortable.

Sidious will not rest easy after he dies. That too is a lesson the Sith Lord likely knows. Why else does he seek to carry on endlessly? She wonders if he hears the voices of the dead; if they call to him, demanding justice.

Likely not. Any human part of Palpatine perished long ago. Thus why he laughs at Anakin's suffering.

"Home." she repeats the word, liking the sound of it, "You've made a home for us?"

That's all she needs to know. The few times they had been able to live together for extended periods of time had been wonderful. Falling asleep beside him, waking to him, spending meals together... Padmé wants nothing more for their home.

The cave is a good choice and when she is set down, she presses her back to one of the walls. Everything hurts - like her body has been in a battle - and some silly part of her feels like crying.

"I was about to ask if you wanted the blaster." she tries for levity, keeping her voice quiet, "You don't need it."

Edited 2023-01-24 04:15 (UTC)

Personally, Vader doubts it. Palpatine - he won't honor the man with his Sith title here, never in his private thoughts - merely fears and loathes the mud and nature of being mortal.

"Anywhere you are is home." His own apartment wouldn't be comfortable to her, but would also likely remind her of a smaller slave boy's bedroom, only colder, with less comforts. But he did still have her things, packed away carefully, for her return and he knew she'd have an apartment waiting too.

"I don't. And I'd rather you be armed if I need to leave."

But he is mortal and he will learn that lesson before he is victorious. Then he will serve as a dark lesson for the future generations until the details of his story are forgotten.

"You know I feel the same way about you." Padmé smiles at the sweet words. Even if the apartment is sparse, she will be comfortable; there is nowhere else she would rather be. She will do her utmost to bring color and comfort back into his life as much as she is able.

"Don't go." her smile fades, "I didn't think I would see you again."

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Test Drive Meme #3

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