annexedmeme | Test Drive Meme #4

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"No," she says. There's no distaste in her voice, where there once might have been - she states it as though it's a simple matter of fact. "We're not a cohesive unit. Half the people here are civilians. We don't know what to expect from each other. It limits our effectiveness."

It feels, more than anything, like a giant trap.

She's not wrong. It's not the kind of op he's used to, and from what he's observed, most of the people here wouldn't follow orders even if they knew what they were doing.

He turns back to the white board, mouth in a flat line. Then he draws a little star and fills it in with the red marker, and points it at the village. "They should just send me," he says. "I can get in and out alone with minimum casualties and retrieve their components."

He doesn't know the components are people.

"You're augmented." It's not really a question. It's the only thing that could possibly give him that much certainty - at least, that much certainty without a hint of bravado to go with it. She gives him a brisk once-over, and this time she does trigger a scan to see just how deep that metal goes, with only the barest flicker of guilt at the invasion of privacy.

"We don't know enough about these components. Assuming they actually exist, they may be too cumbersome for one person to move on their own."

He nods anyway. The metal is grafted under his skin to most of his skeleton, on the left side of his torso, all built as supports for the weight of the metal arm. The welding of it is not elegant, and it's probably pretty clear it does him damage to use it, but he doesn't hold himself as if he hurts. Not too much, anyway.

"They are not sending us with carts or boxes," he comments. "No special equipment for retrieval. They can't be that big." He isn't really sure how to work with these people, anyway. And the thought of working with this blonde woman is... dangerous. And familiar. He thinks maybe she could beat him, if they were pitted against each other.

"They are providing transports," she points out. "Something that could be easily moved by a dozen people with vehicles working together might still be impossible to move efficiently for one person working alone."

There's a moment's pause before she adds, "More to the point, I'm not convinced we're intended to succeed. It makes no sense to send an untrained, untested unit to secure critical supplies. But we could make a very effective distraction."

That does make him pause, half in some half-formed offense that he is untrained and untested. He is not the distraction; others make distractions for him. And half because-- they're all supposed to do this. And aside from the tall blonde, most of them do not seem trained and tested.

"And most of the people here, even if they could do this, most likely will not," he agrees after that pause. "They are not obedient to strangers. It is. Not a sound plan." He's not supposed to question the tactics he is given. But this... isn't HYDRA. He thinks. It isn't SHIELD. It isn't any group he knows about. And it is a bad plan.

"Not taken at face value," she says. "But if they're planning to hit from another angle while the rebels are occupied with containing the chaos this group can create - or if they're hoping to draw personnel away from a more valuable target..."

She traces the path between the outpost and the camp illuminated on the map with one silver-chased finger, not quite touching the board.

"They may consider any losses more acceptable than sending their own people."

It still doesn't quite fit together - bringing them here - wherever 'here' might be - must be resource intensive on its own. The possibility that it could be some sort of game or test is still there.

Some losses are acceptable. Even optimal. He has been told this. He has operated on this principle for longer than he can remember.

He doesn't like it. (He is not allowed to like or dislike things. But HYDRA is not here. And the Sylphids are not his operators. Yet.)

This woman might be one of them, testing him. Deciding if he can be their asset. He doesn't know what the right answer would be. (He doesn't know what he wants.) "I can still go in by myself," he says slowly, after a pause. "Leave the rest of you to see what happens."

She considers this - considers him - for a moment, then shakes her head. "We need to scout the area before we trigger a confrontation. Two people would be better than one. We can watch each other's backs."

It isn't, even now, how she usually operates. Not any more, not for a long time. But something about his willingness to walk into that camp alone nags at her, too familiar for comfort, not familiar enough for her to be absolutely certain that she's not mapping old scars onto new acquaintances.

That earns her another cautious, sidelong look. No one watches his back. He's a tool. He either handles himself or he is retrieved.

But this isn't HYDRA, he has to keep reminding himself. And she isn't whoever is twinging at his brain. (He thinks. Probably.) And if the components are bigger than he can carry (if there are components, if she's not right), she can help.

After a long pause, he finally says, "Acceptable. You are augmented, too." Maybe not the same way he is, but that is definitely metal over her eye, there.

Test Drive Meme #4

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject