Test Drive Meme #4

[modaccount]

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: Think of the Children

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 the Sylphid have a new clutch of sparks, the name for their infant form, that are ready to be properly born and introduced into society. The problem? There is a component that is vital for their birth that's been stolen by a group of jungle-dwelling rebels who took it to a small encampment. These rebels have been causing endless troubles for your concerned hosts, and this is the worst thing they've done yet.

If you don't retrieve the components necessary for the birth of the clutch of infant sparks, those sparks will die.

The new recruits will be led by an attendant into a large room adjoining the banquet room to find a large map of the area projected onto a table, and plenty of simple dry-erase markers to go around that can be used to mark the surface of the map, in a staggering array of colors so that everyone has a different one to illustrate any ideas they might have. On the table itself, a location outside of the city, which is partly illustrated to one side of the table, there is a red circle built into the projection that highlights the outpost where the components of spark birth are being held. Further to the west of that is a much larger settlement labeled "Witches Camp."

The attendant quickly explains the details of the board, indicating where they're located now (a small outpost to the southwest of the city) and where the outpost they're planning to raid to return the components is. The attendant goes on to explain that while they have a rough plan, to take hover-ATVs and other vehicles to the settlement, swarm it, and return their goods, they could use the input of the new arrivals to improve the plan.

"Consider it your first test." says the attendant, with a smile, "If you have any ideas for how to approach, make them known."

iii. The Mission: Retrieving The Components

Once the planning has been completed, it's time for the mission itself. The attendant, while not rushing anyone, has definitely been encouraging people to be quick to finish planning, as the mission is urgent and the sparks are dying as they speak. All input has, however, been taken, and the new recruits are invited by the attendant to visit the hangar, where they can choose their vehicles to transport themselves to the outpost in question. There are a variety of vehicles, from two-seater hover-ATVs that characters are encouraged to use in teams to larger 'dune buggy' style vehicles to a couple of large transport trucks intended to bring back the components that have been stolen.

Characters are welcome to follow the simple plan that the Sylphid made up in that room - to take the vehicles and overwhelm the rebels with numbers, to take back the components necessary. But they are also encouraged to enact their own plans, whether it's stealth and infiltration or straight up weapons-toting warrior badassery.

Once the group gets to the outpost they will find themselves faced with a small outpost containing only about 10 small buildings and one central building that obviously serves as a central gathering place. One of the other 10 buildings is more secure than the others, obviously the place where they keep supplies and most likely the components needed for spark birth that they've stolen. There are about 60 rebels in the compound, all very well-armed, some with weapons both magical and technological, some with magic, and some with supernatural abilities. Some are armed with both abilities and weapons. This won't be an easy fight, as the rebels are hardened, well-armed, and used to raids on this particular outpost.

On top of that, there will be a rebel supply delivery happening shortly after the battle begins, which will bring in backup in the form of rebels from the larger settlement that are equally well-armed and accustomed to fighting. These arriving rebels are also tasked with bringing the components of spark birth back to the larger settlement, the Witches Camp, which is to the southwest of this small outpost by about a half-day's ride through the jungle.

Characters currently in the game can either be with the invading force, or be coming to bring supplies in this drop-off, playing either the part of Sylphid allies or rebel forces protecting the outpost.

Either way, once the new recruits allied with the Sylphid manage to break into the secure building, all they will find is racks of supplies - food, water, medical supplies, and entertainment items - and a makeshift living area outfitted with bunks, a card table with cards on it, and a small 'kitchen' consisting of camp stoves and ice boxes. In that living area? People. People just like the new recruits, from a variety of worlds and planets, alien and human alike.

Once a new recruit makes it to that building and see the inside, the simulation will end for them.

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

Questions.

[modaccount]

Re: Questions.

[flurryofbeaus]

How would the attendant respond to characters trying to push for specifics on what these components of birth are, or what the rebels are rebelling against?

[modaccount]

They would get pretty straightforward answers without much beating around the bush. In the minds of the Sylphid, they are in the right and have the right to reproduce regardless of the method of reproduction. There would be a touch of delicacy about it, they would say the components of birth are 'bodies' and that the rebels were rebelling against the rightful rulership of the Sylphid, who only have their best interests at heart.

It's perfectly fine if a character finds these answers sus and decides to make a break for it. If you want to do something like that, just let me know and I'll give you an idea of how that would go!

Jack Russell | Werewolf By Night

[wereperrito]

I. Free Food!

Jack is never one to turn down free food. He's got a plate full of a random selection of items by the time someone else comes to talk to him. "I have no idea what this is, but it smells very nice, doesn't it?" he asks cheerfully, pointing to a bowl of some kind of dip.

He might be a little bit worried, with no way to call out and make sure Ted knows where he is, but for now? Food! Everything's a little easier on a full stomach, right?


II. Tactics?

"We can't just talk to them?" Jack asks, frowning in consternation at the white board, a bright green marker in his hands. He isn't using it, he's just kind of fidgeting with it. "I'm really not great at this sort of thing. I'm much better when I can talk to people."

Frankly, the whole kidnapping thing-- and he's sure now that they've been kidnapped, the lot of them; this makes far too much sense to be a dream, and anyway in his dreams he tends to be a wolfman as often as a person-- is not making him very happy about this whole plan.


III. Help!

Jack doesn't protest being bundled up onto one of the ATVs, but he does jump off before they actually hit the village they're attacking. Instead, he approaches on foot, circling, and looking for a friendly face.

As soon as he finds someone who looks like they won't shoot him as soon as see him, he pokes his head out of the jungle and waves a little. "Um. Hello? Hi, can I talk to you?"

III.

[scowlish]

Onni finds himself awakening in what feels almost like the dream realm, crouched already in the jungle at the outskirts of a small settlement that can't be anything but part of the Witches Camp, despite being small. Glancing around, he sees a hover-ATV behind him, the second seat loaded up with boxes of supplies like he's seen in the Camp before.

He isn't sure how he got here, so he's taking his time to sort it out. Surely, judging by the history of this place, there's sure to be some sort of battle about to come. So, he reaches up and pulls his bow down from his back, drawing an arrow from the quiver, but he doesn't draw just yet, still getting his bearings.

It's then that he sees someone creeping through the jungle undergrowth, waving at him and asking to talk.

"To me?" he asks, blinking, "Yes?"

[wereperrito]

"Yes, if you don't mind," Jack says, coming the rest of the way out of the jungle. "Apparently there are some people who call themselves Sylphids who are saying you stole something from them that their children need? I, er, had some questions about that."

III

[unpredictablejustice]

Bro. Bro. It's not like Juggler looks like he's going to shoot anyone--swords like the one he's holding loosely at his side generally don't look conducive to such things--but he's aware that he doesn't exactly look super approachable in this form. He's a bit amused to be approached at all.

Earlier, at the briefing, he'd played nice in the guise of a straitlaced military man (how fortunate he'd still been wearing Hebikura's uniform), and when the time came, he'd slipped away and into a form that was far better suited to skulking around trying to suss out what the hell was going on here. "You're talking to me now, aren't you?"

Re: III

[wereperrito]

"Well, may I talk to you a little more? Without you raising an alarm and coming to arrest me?" Look he doesn't know this is the guy from the briefing. The armor and distance are fooling his excellent sense of smell. Maybe once he gets closer he'll figure it out...

II

[worthyobjective]

"Talking would imply the possibility of compromise." The answer comes from the tall blonde woman approaching from his left, smelling faintly of smoke and ozone, and beneath that, of leather and metal. The latter two are easily explained by her appearance, leather jacket over clothing if some unidentifiable fabric, semi-circle of some similarly unfamiliar silvery metal over her left eye, more of the same running along the fingers of her left hand like some strange futuristic brace.

"I don't think these people do compromise." She tips her head toward the attendant to indicate who she means by 'these people'. You know, the ones who kidnapped them.

Bucky Barnes | MCU

[worthallthis]

I. New Person Nerves

The Asset has not touched the food. He's standing as far back in a corner of the room as he can without being conspicuous about it, head down and eyes darting around, tracking people, looking for surveillance equipment, not meeting anyone's eyes. He might also he pulling his left sleeve down further to cover as much of the metal arm as possible, so there's only the glint of fingers visible.

This is some new HYDRA shit. He's sure of it. If not them, then SHIELD, which is just HYDRA with a nicer coat of paint, anyway. He might be a little bit terrified, but that's nothing new.

Come talk to the scardy cat hiding in the corner? Or don't. He can just stare at your left shoulder while you get your breakfast.


II. Not Procedure

Since when does anyone ask for his input on battle strategy? The Asset is confused, but he is also... good at this. He takes a long time to edge up to the board, but he does mark down, in thick black lines and block lettering, a better approach route that splits the force into two branches, more difficult to defend against.

He does this without speaking or looking anyone in the eye, and only when there's no one at the board.


III. Familiarity

This is what the Asset is used to. He lets the organization (Sylphids, okay, maybe they're newcomers, he doesn't even care), transport him to the mission site, then he's stalking in, gun at the ready, looking for targets to take down.

He'll mow down anyone who shows up in his sights, whether with the guns they gave him, his knives, or his bare metallic hand. He's practically a force of nature, when it comes to battle.

He finally bursts into the target building, and stares at the sight of... nothing but more people, gun held up, ready to shoot but not shooting yet. What is he supposed to retrieve. The Sylphids didn't tell him what the target was, dammit.


IV. Turning On Its Head

Being shoved in a cell after successful mission completion is, honestly, standard procedure. Not remembering how he got there: also pretty common to be honest. There will be cryo prep and maybe another session in the Chair and then cryo and then he can finally sleep.

What he doesn't expect is the door busting open and someone offering to get him out. The fuck is that about.

After a moment of staring, he says flatly, "I'm supposed to wait."

IV

[scarabwings]

This isn't Layla's first rodeo. She's expecting suspicion when she opens the cell, would not at all be surprised by hostility, but this? Resignation's a new one, and she blinks at the man in surprise for a moment.

"You've actually spoken with the Sylphid?" she asks, and it's only just a question rather than a statement of disbelief. "If they told you to wait, that's all the more reason not to."

III

[tech_nically]

The sound of gunfire is enough to push his slightly disoriented thoughts aside in order to leap into action. The transport vehicle hasn't even stopped when Tech drops down from it, dashing towards the building. He pulls his visor down to get a read on how many people were within, gauging the potential threat.

The clone has a gun out by the time he nears the entrance, his HUD nudged back up as he approaches the apparent threat.

"I suggest you stand down."

II

[worthyobjective]

It's the gleam of metal beneath the cuff of his sleeve that first catches Seven's eye. Not out of fellow-feeling, exactly - he is definitely not Borg, current or former - but it sets him apart, as her own implants set her apart. She spends a little time watching him, discreetly, out of the corner of her eye. Military, of some stripe. Cautious.

She approaches him at the board, stopping with a wide slice of it between them, hands folded behind her back.

"Not a bad strategy," she says. "If this group can coordinate well enough to pull it off."

Juggulus Juggler | Ultraman Z

[unpredictablejustice]

[I]
Well. Juggler is pretty sure that whoever or whatever's behind this doesn't exactly know who they've really picked up. He looks like just a normal human guy, wearing a military-looking jumpsuit with the name S. HEBIKURA embroidered on a small patch on the front, along with a military-looking logo bearing the word STORAGE.

He's perfectly pleasant, gives people looking in his direction a smile and nod. He also takes a plate of food--not too much, just enough to where he can casually move his food around and make it look like he's eating. He absolutely doesn't trust this buffet setup at all, thanks.

[II]
Oh, a military briefing. Just like old times with STORAGE. "Hebikura," as he's been introducing himself, is very comfortable with this part. There's no hesitation on his part when it comes to marking up the map and offering suggestions.

[III - a]
Hebikura quickly volunteers to pilot a hover ATV--"I've got a lot of piloting experience," he claims--but tragedy strikes, and he takes a bad step.

"Ah, it's nothing, just a bad ankle." He'll limp off to the sidelines and try to wave off any concern. "Go on without me," he might say, or "I'll catch up." He even sounds genuinely regretful about all this. With any luck, this ruse will work and he won't have to crash the hover ATV into anything instead.

[III - b]
Having pulled off some sort of plausible medical issue for Hebikura to scrub himself from the mission, Juggler now feels he's free to go see what's really going on. He slips away, taking his majin form, something more monstrous and armored and not immediately identifiable as Hebikura, and sets about hanging out in the shadows trying to observe what's going on.

But if he sees a fight, what the hell, he'll jump in. It's just anyone's guess as to whose side he's on--he'll strike out at all combatants equally.

I

[flurryofbeaus]

"Pretty sure they wouldn't bother poisoning the food." The comment comes from a compact, muscular woman who also looks entirely human, though her clothing is a little more outlandish - martial artist by way of a fantasy novel. She tucks the bastard child of a pear and a blueberry away in a pocket, then takes a bite of a mushroom stuffed with some sort of rice mixture - see? it's fine.

"They'd probably just fucking...flood the room with poison gas, if that's what they wanted. Or smother us in our sleep."

IIIb

[purplexing]

Being immediately informed that they're under attack is an excellent distraction from trying to figure out how the heck he even ended up here in the first place. Yes, he came apparently to assist with bringing in supplies, but the rest of it is incredibly fuzzy.

It doesn't seem like Donatello's going to be given the chance to work anything out as he pulls out his staff to fend off a sudden attacker. "Hey, watch it pal! No Sylphid allowed!" Are they Sylphid?? It's hard to tell when people look like, well, people. But they're clearly invading this outpost and that's definitely no bueno.

[I] and holy crap hi

[roaminglight]

[Gai, on the other hand, has a plate with huge helpings of everything. There are dumplings - or kinda dumplings, anyway they look like dumplings so that'll do - some kind of fruit, a sweet purple dessert, and various pastries on his plate. He's happily contemplating it all as he chews his first mouthful, then he looks up and sees-]

[he starts choking]

Beauregard Lionett | Critical Role (C2)

[flurryofbeaus]

I. Awakening
There is a short, muscular woman, dressed in grey and blue chased with gold, quarterstaff slung across her back, busy picking over the buffet table. Beau's loading a plate with all manner of interesting-looking things - though some of her selections, the more portable, less messy ones, don't make it to her plate, vanishing instead into the pockets of her coat.

Just because this might be a weird-ass dream doesn't mean she won't need emergency snacks later.

When someone comes up beside her, she slants a glance their way, bright blue eyes flicking over them from head to toe in quick assessment before she snorts quietly and asks, "So, did you get drunk and wake up in a fucking cult too?"

II. Think of the Children
It doesn't take long after they're led into the map room for Beau to corner the attendant. The mission briefing is just a little too fucking vague for her liking, and the longer this goes on, the less it feels like a dream and the more it feels like a kidnapping, and that's a combination that makes her feel even less cooperative than usual.

She doesn't really keep her voice down as she presses the attendant about what these 'components of birth' are - bodies, apparently, and don't think she doesn't notice how the attendant glosses past just who these bodies belong to. (Sure, there are clones and simulacra and other, weirder shit, but after the Somnovem, she's primed to be suspicious.) Or when she asks what the rebels are rebelling against - the rightful and benevolent rule of the Sylphid. It's possible to watch her tension ratchet higher and higher, like someone's winding a spring nearly to the point of snapping.

Nearly. It's on that last point that she breaks away, stalking over to glower at the map like she's willing it to burst into flames. Given that the map's a projection and she hasn't awakened as a sorcerer in the last thirty seconds, it doesn't really have any effect. For a little while, she's there to talk to, or chastise, or shove out of the way if one's not particularly concerned with how many fingers they might pull back.

And then, she's not - somewhere between planning and departure, she slips away.

III-ish. Off Mission
It doesn't take long for Beau to decide that laying low in the Sylphid's territory is a losing proposition. Even after stealing some clothing from one of the houses on the outskirts of the - town? city? all she knows is that it's huge - she stands out. She doesn't have Fjord's knack for convincing people he belongs, or Caleb's knack for vanishing into the background, and she hadn't gotten out entirely clean. She has to duck a few patrols in the first two hours, and while she's able to dispatch the pair she isn't able to dodge, that only makes her more likely to draw attention.

Fortunately, she'd gotten a good enough look at the map before she'd slipped away to have an idea of where to head. Taking sides in a conflict she knows very little about, between people she doesn't know, without any allies isn't ideal, but if she's going to get home, she's probably going to have to work with someone, and the side of 'not kidnapping assholes' is usually better than the side of 'kidnapping assholes'. Plus there's that whole bodies thing, which hasn't stopped making her skin crawl since the briefing room.

And so, maybe an hour before (simulated) sunset, anyone passing by the entrance to the (simulated) Witches Camp might overhear a woman arguing with the guards. "--not listening! I'm not a refugee, I'm trying to fucking warn you."

IV. Welcome to the Broken World
When she wakes this time, it's in a stark, empty room. She's nauseous, and dizzy, and aching from the memory of a killing blow, not entirely sure if she'd been dreaming, or if she's been healed of her injuries but taken captive. The unfamiliar clothing gives her no indication either way; her skin beneath is unmarred when she checks, but magic can work miracles, as she's had many an occasion to learn.

She rattles at the door, curses herself halfway hoarse, and punches the cold metal, which serves only to leave her knuckles aching for half an hour. She knows how not to break her hand, but she's still only flesh and bone pitted against steel. Or adamant. Or whatever the fuck that door is made of.

She paces a little. By the time the sound of fighting reaches her, she's taken to push-ups. It's something to do that isn't just listen to the endless ticking, which she's pretty damn certain is meant more as a form of torture than for timekeeping.

She bolts to her feet, and tucks herself away beside the door, and whichever poor bastard gets directed to free her from her cell will get about three words into their greeting before they find a very fast, very solid punch headed squarely for their face.

I

[wereperrito]

The gray-haired man isn't a lot taller than she is, and his plate is similarly loaded up. "I didn't get drunk," he says ruefully, "but this does seem a little cult-like, doesn't it?" He's not sold on the dream idea. It seems more like a kidnapping, to him.

III

[tech_nically]

This sensation that he's missing something is becoming more annoying that concerning, but naturally there's something else to draw his attention away from the matter before he can try to tug on the loose ends. Helmet tucked under his arm, the clone glances over towards the entrance before stepping over.

From what he catches of the argument, it makes the situation quite odd. "Where did you come from?" he asks as he nears. He doesn't seem to notice the irritated looks the guards give him then, or probably just doesn't choose to acknowledge them as he shrugs. "If she claims she has a warning then it would not hurt to listen to what she has to say," he reasons.

IV

[morganknight]

Morgan has a major advantage here: a punch aimed for his face has to travel up as well as forward, thanks to the dramatic difference in height between the two of them. He snaps his head back so that her fist passes a hair's breadth from his nose, then twists with one arm already coming up to deflect the next blow that he'd expect anyone who missed their first punch to aim his way.

"Getting you out! Getting you out!"

yelena belova | mcu

[quip]

I. AWAKENING

Yelena hardly dreams, and when she does, there's always a buffet of food and a dead sister ready to join her to scoff it all down.

She thinks twice about it. Actually, she thinks about it more than twice. Weighing the pros and cons of eating food that's been strangely laid out in an even stranger room several times, Yelena decides to do what Natasha wouldn't do.

She tries it.

Approaching the table hesitantly, Yelena surveys what's on display—mushrooms, root vegetables, foods she doesn't know, some she hasn't eaten since she was a little girl—and plucks a small piece of bread. The bread's pretty safe. Who's going to tamper with bread? After studying it between her fingers, she breaks it and eats it.

With her mouth full, she turns to whoever is near her and says with a thick Russian accent, "Nice spread. This is for free, yes?"

Being nice and approachable means she gets information… and she feels less lonely, too.

III. THE MISSION

After having led her own squad of Widows successfully on dozens of missions, Yelena doesn't take the easy route. She doesn't want to go in guns a-blazing. There's a delicacy required when dealing with an enemy that has the upper hand. After all, she's still new, and while she thinks she's gleaned all the information she could possibly have in her hands, she's still missing so much.

All she knows is she has to complete this. And she can. She can. She has the skills, the experience, and this strange spike in her adrenaline that makes her feel powerful.

Yelena sneaks around one of the buildings and comes up behind a rebel. It's with a swift kick at their calves and an elbow to the head that she easily knocks them out.

"They would've seen you in seconds," she says to the person that she's consequently saved. "Bad hiding spot. Stick to the blind spots." She points to the corner on the other end. "You would've had the upper hand there by five seconds."

That fight was easy. She knows that rest of this mission won't be.

IV. WELCOME

Yelena sits with her head in her hands as she breathes deeply. If she can catch her breath and knock the nausea away, then she can beat this. She's done it before. Granted, she'd escaped the Red Room while on mission and Natasha had escaped it while in the very belly of the beast.

She can do this. She can outsmart Dreykov again.

When the door opens, she squints up at the person before her. She'd blink if she felt it'd give her any clarity, but as she sits and stares and feels her nausea not only grow but subside and her desire for that irreplaceable adrenaline spike she'd felt on the mission field.

Everything's so messed up. It's been messed up since she came back from the Blip.

Looking at their hand like she doesn't recognise it to be a hand at all, she lifts her gaze back to them. It takes a few moments for her to register their words.

"What the fuck?"

Eloquence is a skillset.

[ ooc: Yelena's coming in from the end of Hawkeye. She's a skilled fighter, but please come save her ass! ]

IV

[scarabwings]

"Yeah," Layla says. "Pretty much."

It's not without sympathy. It hasn't been that long since she'd been in one of these cells, for all that it might sometimes feel like she's spent a lifetime in the Witches' Camp. She remembers the disorientation and confusion all too clearly.

She winces a little at the sound of gunfire, distant, but not nearly distant enough for comfort.

"Come on. We don't have a lot of time before the people running this place get a call out for backup."

Seven of Nine | Star Trek

[worthyobjective]

I.
There is a tall blonde woman standing near one of the windows in the buffet room, methodically sectioning an orange as she scans the faces of those milling about like she's looking for something specific. Between her height, her straight-backed posture, the strange gun strapped to her thigh, and the gleam of some unfamiliar metal arching over her left eye and curving along the back of the corresponding hand, she strikes something of an imposing figure.

Imposing, but not, apparently, hostile - when one of her fellow...conscripts? prisoners? passes too close by to ignore, she gives a curt nod and asks, desert-dry, "Come here often?"

III.
Disruptor pistols don't have a stun setting. Fortunately, phasers do, and Seven has been making liberal use of this fact as she makes her way through the outpost. It's a risk, perhaps, leaving hostile agents alive but temporarily immobilized behind her, but something about this mission doesn't sit right.

Nothing about this mission sits right. No sane commander would send a unit made up entirely of conscripts out with no training and only a scant few hours to plan, certainly not for anything as important as this is supposed to be. It has to be a distraction, or a test, or some form of mindgame.

She crouches in the shadow of one of the small buildings, tucked in between empty supply crates - not impossible to spot, but unlikely to be spotted by anyone she doesn't have a chance to notice first - and peers over at the one truly secured building. If there is anything to this retrieval mission, it will be in there - and she has no desire at all to walk in blind. She taps the silvery arch that forms the visible portion of her ocular implant, and lets it play through the spectrum. There's nothing untoward until she hits heat signatures, and then...

"No."

IV.
By the time the door to her cell cracks open, Seven has inspected every inch of the walls and floor. Twice. The lightheadedness she'd awoken with has passed, but her stomach is still a writhing knot, and she isn't certain if it's nerves, or anger, or whatever mechanism has been used to take all but the most vital of her implants offline, leave her human-weak, thoughts slowed and senses dulled.

It isn't anything like waking up as Annika Hansen.

She stares hard at the person standing in the doorway, backlit by a hall that's much more brightly lit than her grey, grey cell. Her posture's stiff, clearly defensive, but she has enough discipline not to lunge for the door. "Give me a weapon," she says, clipped and short, controlled almost to the point of being inflectionless. Almost.

IV

[fightingevilbymoonknight]

Marc pauses, then quirks a wry grin. "Gotta admire a lady who knows what she wants. Good thing I was already planning on arming you." He pulls out his spare pistol and flips it, offering it to her butt first.

"You okay with following instructions?" he asks. "Cuz I can get you outa here if you can stick with me."