annexedmeme | Test Drive Meme #1

Entry tags:

!test drive meme

Test Drive Meme #1

Test Drive Info

⇝ Test Drive Memes usually take place in a virtual reality simulation occurring in characters' minds that tests them for 'fitness' before they enter the setting officially. However, for the first TDM, it will be set in the real world and centered around the arrival of the first crop of extra-universal "recruits."
⇝ 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.

Welcome to the Broken World.

You can't even remember how you got here.

All you know is that one moment you were in a world you were used to, comfortable in. It might have been a regular day or the most important day of your life, in the middle of a meal or brushing your teeth or the battle to save the world or the moment of your death. Whoever took you didn't seem to care what you were doing when you were taken, and now that you're here, they still don't seem to care.

You wake up after 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."

i. The Rescue

The moment of peace and freedom doesn't last for long.

Even while you're still disoriented from everything that's happened in the past few hours, the person who's just freed you pushes a gun into your hands. If you're familiar with guns, it's simple enough to use, with a recognizable safety and trigger, a magazine of bullets attached to the bottom. If you're not familiar with guns, well...the person who just rescued you will give you a minute-long introduction to it. Press this button, click this hammer back, pull the trigger to shoot. Nothing fancy, but enough that you won't hurt yourself or anyone else you're not supposed to be hurting. Probably.

After being handed the gun, the person rescuing you looks at you not unkindly and gestures for you to follow, leads you through a maze of concrete corridors to the entrance of the building. There, you'll find something of a small warzone, a battle in progress though almost completed, in the parking and courtyard area between several small, squat concrete buildings. There, huddled in the safety of the building's entryway, the person who just rescued you will point across the courtyard toward an encroaching patch of jungle and quickly explain the situation - you've been brought to this place by the Sylphid, long-standing enemies who will "eat your soul" and replace you if they catch you, and the person rescuing you is part of a resistance army intending to overthrow them. You're to make your way across the courtyard and into the jungle, where you'll find someone named Brycen, a blue-skinned man who will get you out of here even as the battle rages on.

The courtyard is mainly open, with a few benches and trees that can be used as cover, and there is a small group of Sylphid - the enemy, the people who took you and are now shooting at you, but who look like average everyday people - who are taking potshots at whoever crosses the courtyard even as they engage with the rebels. You'll be provided with suppressive fire from those same rebels while you cross the courtyard, but other than that, you're on your own unless you want to take the run with whoever else just got rescued.

ii. Race Through The Jungle

Once you make your way across the courtyard and into the jungle, you'll find Brycen waiting for you about a 10 minute walk in. The moment he sees you, he gestures you over and leads you a few feet further into the underbrush where there are a few All-Terain Vehicles parked in a small clearing. Shooting you a little grin, Brycen spreads his arms to present the vehicles, then heads over to the closest one. What follows is a quick explanation of how to use the ATV, a small hovercraft that can seat two. Brycen points out another ATV that is driven by a member of the resistance, and tells you that this person will guide you to the Witches Camp, where you'll be living from now on. But it's on you to pilot the ATV from here to there.

Well, you and your new friend.

See, there are half as many ATVs as there are people, and each one does seat two. Brycen gestures at the nearest extra-universal arrival and tells both of you to hop on. Now, you're both bound for the Witches Camp together, for better or worse. It's a long walk, so don't piss off your pilot!

Or overturn the ATV or crash it, because the path from the clearing to the Witches Camp is rough, without many trails or paths that have been carved out of the underbrush, something the revolutionaries have done to avoid being tracked back to their home. The ride will be bumpy, hover-vehicle or not, with a lot of swerving to avoid obstacles and dodging to avoid branches. Hopefully, you won't have a run-in with any of the local jungle wildlife, which can range from small, relatively harmless animals to lizards the size of small dinosaurs and wild cats.

It's a wild ride, but eventually you make it to the Witches Camp, a sprawling maze of low-to-the-ground buildings and markets interspersed with jungle for cover, and the rebel leading you keeps doing so until you pull up in front of Central Command. This building is one of the nicer ones in the area, and houses the Witch herself as well as the seat of the revolution. This is where all of the rebel plans are made and where new arrivals are put up.

iii. Welcome Home

Once you enter Central Command, you'll find that they've prepared space for you. First, you'll be led to the residential area of the large building and given the keycard to your new apartment, a small furnished studio apartment with a main living/sleeping area, a desk, kitchenette, bathroom with shower stall, and a walk-in closet for storage. Once you've been oriented to your new apartment, you'll be taken to pick your network device from an array of devices ranging from ultra-modern tablets that can fold into the shape of a phone to an equivalent of regular modern-day cell phones to magical tablets or books that can be interacted with by characters unfamiliar with technology. They'll also offer to alter your own phone or device to access the network, if you prefer that.

After that, you will be guided to one of the big board rooms in the Central Command, where you'll find a large spread of food on the table, ready to be dug into - all the staff at Central Command have brought food from home to share with the new arrivals. You'll also find notebooks and pens to take notes, because this is the official orientation, and you'll come out of it having learned pretty much everything about the rebellion, the Sylphid, how the rebellion originated and most importantly, how you got here and how you can go home.

This is where the rebels point out that helping them is helping yourself, because the only way to send you home is to commandeer the device that brought you here in the first place, and the only way to do that is to overthrow the Sylphid overlords.

After this presentation, no matter how accepting or skeptical you are, you'll be given a small stipend and set free to explore the city, linger around and chat over the potluck leftovers, go back to your apartment, make a network entry to meet other people, or whatever else you'd like to do. Want some new clothes? They can direct you to the markets. Looking to start learning magic? They can direct you to the Mage's Sector where you can find a teacher. Looking to dance your cares away in the wake of this terrible upheaval? They can direct you to a club in The Electric Heart that sells cocktails that'll erase all your pain for the evening.

Go wild. The Witches Camp is your new home. What will you make of it?

iv. Network

Once you've settled into your apartment in the evening, you're free to browse the internet and intranet on your new network device. Care to make an entry and meet the others in your same situation?

NAVIGATION

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ezra Bridger has never been without his connection to the Force before. Never. For years before he'd had for proper words for it, the Force had guided him. Had told him when to run, when to hide. It had kept him alive when he'd had no one and nothing else; he knows that now.

And now he's simply...cut off and it's like missing an entire part of himself.

But still he remembers the things he's learned, all those years, on his own. And the things that Kanan and the rest of his family had taught him. He tries to keep his emotions calm and level, with meditation, even without the warmth and light of the Force. He waits and looks for an opportunity to make his move.

When the moment comes, it's harder to navigate the chaos than he's used to. There's no instinctive nudge, from beyond himself, only the rest of his senses and logic to guide him.

Then he stumbles, and a hand grabs him, and then a voice - he knows that voice, even if it's rougher than he remembers from a recording he'd listened to, many times, and one brief face to face meeting. The face too, once he gets a look, is the right face.

"...Master?" he gets out, eyes wide. And then bites off the rest of what he was going to say.

He's only partly convinced this whole thing isn't an Imperial game. Surely he shouldn't Obi-wan Kenobi by name out loud?

'Master?'

It had been over a decade since Obi-Wan had heard that word from any lips aside from his own. Let alone heard that word spoken in that tone; one Jedi to another. 'General', 'The Negotiator', names not repeated in polite company and of course 'Ben' was what he was used to answering to. Ezra's address left him stumbling in the middle of a firefight.

"Who are..." he began to ask the natural question, staring at the younger man without recognition beyond an ingrained response to the word 'Master'. It was just long enough for a bullet to land close to their feet, galvanizing Obi-Wan into motion. Though unless Ezra shook him off, he now how a lock grip on the younger man's wrist; pulling him through the firefight towards the safety of the woods.

As an aside, however, were they not running for their lives and freedom, he would definitely have made a noise of approval for Ezra's instincts not to call out his actual name.

He can't confirm Master Kenobi's identity with the Force, but that reaction both looked right, and also did not.

Wrong, because when he had found Master Kenobi - or rather, the Jedi Master had found him - Obi-wan had somehow known his name already. But Ezra can see, with another second or two of study, that strangely, Obi-wan looks, age wise, in between the recording from the fall of the Republic, and that encounter in the wastes of Tatooine.

Well, not too long ago, Ezra had pulled Ahsoka from years in the past. Time...is not always a straight line. Ezra doesn't know much more about temporal weirdness than that, but he does know that.

And this man's reactions did read like that bone deep reaction to being called Master, that tracked with a Jedi in hiding. Instant curiosity, a hint of protectiveness.

So he lets himself be pulled along. "I'm Ezra," he offers, before shutting up and refocusing on getting out of here in one piece.

They can talk more, later.

"Ben," he responds a bit more readily. Though he is also cut off from the Force, he's got a few more decades of battlefield experience under his belt, and instinctively drags them in a zig-zag pattern across the open space towards the woods.

Any actual avoidance of incoming projectiles is a combination of battle experience, lucky happenstance and yes; an extra protective alertness to threats, rather than Force use. Doing his best to keep his body between Ezra and the majority of the flying projectiles, they're going to scurry like womp rats towards the trees.

Ezra accepts the alias without comment. Kanan had changed his name, too. Ahsoka'd had her code name. It makes sense.

The unbalanced feeling from not being able to touch the Force aside, he does have years of experience in battlefields himself, and even more in running and hiding. It's not too hard to keep up.

And of course he notices the position Ben puts himself in. Part of him wants to protest that he doesn't need protecting, that he'd rather be the one protecting one of the few living Jedi Masters left. But there's no point in wasting time arguing right now, and besides he'd thoroughly lost that argument that first time he'd had it with Master Kenobi.

Eventually, they hit the tree line, which gives them more cover. As they pause under the shelter of a relatively large tree, Ezra makes a battle code hand gesture he learned from the clones commander that means Clear for sitrep?

All in all wise decisions on Ezra's part.

The gesture is both familiar, and disturbing. It stirs up memories that Ben hasn't entirely settled in to work through since deciding to get his head out of his ass in terms of moping around the dessert. He'd figured it would be something he could take his time on working through once he reached whatever distant destination Qui-Gon and the Force lead him to back in the dessert.

But right now it conjures up a mixture of emotions: grief, anger, resignation, sorrow, sympathy and regret. None of which are going to do either of them any good in there here and the now.

Rather than responding with an answering gesture, he just nods.

Ezra is silent for a couple seconds, trying to rapidly sort through his thoughts to pin down the most relevant information, figure out the right questions to ask.

"I'm Caleb Dume's padawan," he whispers, then swallows down the tumult of emotion conjured up with that admission. But those bare facts are already known to Empire, so they're relatively safe to say. If he is meeting Master Kenobi is some sort of out of fashion, those are things the Jedi sort of needs to know.

Then he adds, after a beat of hesitation. "Was-"

Kanan is dead. But that's not important right now. He shakes his head, trying to clear it.

"The guy who let me out mentioned meeting up with...Brycen? What do you think?"

The name Caleb Dume takes a minute to process and once it Obi-Wan feels the weight of grief threaten once again. A small figure standing just behind and to the side of Depa Billaba. He knew Depa had fallen during the Purge but had never followed-up on the status of her Padawan.

'You just assumed he was dead,' Obi-Wan flinched slightly as he was forced to acknowledge the unkind truth, but he quickly shook it away. Another item to meditate on, when and if he got the opportunity.

'Back to the here and now, my young apprentice,' Qui-Gon's exasperated tones echoed in his head. The amendment to the past tense did not escape the scruffy master, though he did not offer any platitudes. Not at that very moment, at least.

"I think," he took a breath and drew his focus back to the moment. "That we know our captors are that way," he pointed towards where the Sylphid were shooting from. "We've been liberated, armed and told by our liberators that our next step lays this way," a motion towards where Brycen was supposed to be located. "One is a given, the other an unknown but I suppose we'd best hope it is an unknown in our favor."

He gave Ezra what he hoped was a reassuring smile, before angling to lead the way from the cover of the tree towards where the ATVs were supposedly stashed. If he happened to be reminded of Leia, comments about needing friends, and how that gamble had paid off? Well, he was going to keep that to himself.

Ezra watches those minutes shifts in body language, but again doesn't remark. Ben having very complicated feelings about all this is completely understandable. But this is also not the right time to pick it all apart.

What the older man says all tracks with his own thinking. He's glad they're in agreement.

"Ok. I've made riskier gambles," he mutters as he continues to follow along, keeping alert for any of their captors who may have tried to follow them into the jungle.

Definitely not the right time to pick anything apart. Truthfully, they were probably quite a ways away from a right time to pick things apart. Even if it appeared that the further they got into the forest the sound of gunfire faded, rather than chased.

That didn't mean Ezra was wrong to be keeping an eye out, or that Obi-Wan wasn't keeping an eye out of his own. It had been a long, hard ten years since he'd last worked with a Jedi partner, but a master's instinctive watchfulness seemed to be a non-perishable skill. As he watched, he recognized that Ezra was doing well at covering their one side, so Obi-Wan gradually let himself focus more completely on the other.

Eventually the clearing with the ATVs caught his eye and he reached out towards the younger man's shoulder.

"Think we've found our ride."

The teenager examined the ATV's with skepticism. "...Do they not have decent speeder tech? Who goes with wheels in this sort of terrain?"

Then Brycen pokes his head out to explain the next steps in the plan. Ezra listens, visibly tense, but keeping his continuing uncertainty about all this off his face, as much as he can.

"Rock, flimsi, scissors, for pilot's seat?" he murmurs to Ben, out of the corner of his mouth.

"I'm sure they will prove adequate," Obi-Wan's response was part, 'master suggesting we don't be rude to our saviors' and part ... hoping to convince himself that the ATVs would be adequate.

"You go ahead," he called already side-stepping towards the direction Brycen had dashed off towards. "See how you can help at the other end of things."

Unspoken, but hopefully clear from the order he was instinctively putting out between them was the idea that Obi-Wan planned to stick around and help at this end of things. The order wasn't just to get Ezra to safety. He was going to expect a sitrep once he'd caught up!

At that, Ezra startles, and then plants himself solidly, protesting, "I wasn't saying we should split up!"

He face sets into mulishness. From his perspective, he's already left his family behind once this week. But that had been necessary, to protect them. To protect Lothal.

How is leaving behind Obi-wan here necessary?

"Well, no. Though I do believe that was my intention," if he appeared a little on the backfoot at getting push back on a suggested course of action, it was due to the fact that it had been a long time since he last argued with Anakin.

That thought, everything that came crashing along with it, including the recognition of how he'd slipped into his old, high handed ways, saw the older man giving his head a shake in the next moment.

"Do as you wish," he said. Though he was moving to seek out Brycen to offer his help.

Edited 2022-08-09 01:40 (UTC)

And just as quickly as Ben backs down, Ezra's defiance breaks. "Hey," he calls out, quietly, taking a couple of quick steps to keep pace.

"I'm sorry I snapped. Just-" He blows out a breath slowly. "I'm happy to help everyone here, too. Is there a reason you think I should head out ASAP?"

Ben turned when Ezra called out, and though his eyes were a bit more haunted than earlier the smile that touched his lips was genuine.

"Only that we could be offering a unique set of skills at both ends of this chaotic moment," he gave honesty rather than obfuscation, stepping back towards Ezra. His next words came once he was close enough so that they would not be overheard.

"Even without the Force, the ability to be calm and focused in uncertain times is trait none of us can escape," he had gotten good at wiping the word 'Jedi' out of his vocabulary; using 'us' instead of the word. "It may be needed there as well as here."

Ezra listens. Thinks that through, reasoning through, and nods, and then his chin lifts again, in resolve.

"You'll find me, when you can?" he asks, levelly. Force willing, he means, to imply. Neither of them can control what happens next, not really.

But neither does he like the idea of Ben just...disappearing on him, by choice, either.

Only days ago he had done everything he could to chase a lost, young Jedi away from him; for both their sakes. He'd failed, add it to his long list, but now he did not feel even a twinge of anxiety at the idea of catching up with Ezra.

Reaching out, Ben set his hand on the younger man's shoulder and gave him a nod.

"Absolutely, just make sure you're somewhere for me to find." Force willing indeed.

Ezra broke in a real, full smile, at that bit of affirmation.

"I will." And then. "May the Force be with you." He didn't bow; that's not something Kanan had taught him. Many of those cultural lessons had fallen by the wayside to focus on the practical, in his apprenticeship, under the Empire.

Right now, he headed to one of the vehicles, feeling a little less alone.

***

When he spotted Ben again, later, he didn't go to him immediately, just met his eye for a second and carried on with what he was doing. Nor did he hover close during the welcome meeting, or even the meal afterward. He glanced over a few times, keeping tabs on the older Jedi, but he was also paying attention to everyone else around him too.

Eventually, he did come over. "So I was thinking I'd run some errands. Want to come with, Ben?" So they could talk more with fewer people around who might be interested in what they had to say?

Obi-Wan had felt an unJedilike sense of relief when he'd seen Ezra at the meeting. He didn't even try to scold himself for it, balancing it instead against the pinch of grief that came with the thought of Nari. Ezra had done the right thing, keeping his focus on the meeting and on interacting with some of the others gathered in the room with them.

Lost to his thoughts, Obi-Wan looked up with a blink when the young man joined him, awkwardly pausing before he caught up with what Ezra was suggesting.

"Ah. Yes. Wouldn't hurt to stretch my legs," it was a bit of a rambling response, but he set down the smeared vegetable and looked for a trash receptacle for his plate.

Edited 2022-08-10 00:40 (UTC)

He clocked that Obi-wan seemed...distracted. Maybe being so cut off from the Force was getting to the older man, too. Well, as awful as that thought was, Ezra felt a little less like he was handling this all badly somehow.

"Exactly," Ezra agreed, easily, his gaze flicking around to double-check whether anyone was particularly watching them, as he kept pace. "Take more of a look around."

Were he to ask, Obi-Wan would explain that being cut off from the Force was actually one of the least challenges on his mind at the moment. It wasn't comfortable, and if he had the option he would not shut himself off again, as he had for the previous ten years. But those ten years were still fresh in his mind; he knew how to handle the separation.

Plate disposed of, the older man folded his hands together almost as if he wore a traditional Jedi robe. He tilted his head towards Ezra, eyebrows lifted.

"Did you have a specific errand, with which you wish to start?" Unspoken: did something catch your eye that you'd like to explore in greater depth?

"Well," Ezra replies, biting the corner of his lip thoughtfully. "I wouldn't say no to clothing that would, uh, blend in a little better."

He's not vain, exactly, although his personal preference is brighter colors. Mostly, he'd like to look less like a prisoner.

"And maybe a look over some more of the technology, here."

The magic, he's less sure what to make of, and is more inclined to be cautious about. "What about you?"

Above all, he wants to talk.

Obi-Wan grinned. It was a shade of his old, impish smirk but there was enough of a twinkle in his pale eyes to suggest something was amusing him. In this case he was being amused at himself as he gave an answer that sounded more like Qui-Gon Jinn, than Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"I believe I shall let my feet carry me where they may."

Which meant he would either follow Ezra and let the younger man lead them towards the objects of his curiosity, or if Ezra chose to follow Obi-Wan? Well. They'd find what they would find.

Erza startled into mirroring grin.

"I guess we don't need to be able to feel the Force for it to guide us, huh?."

And with that, he set out of the common room to start heading out of Centeral Command.

I (I hope ancient Rebels spoilers are ok?)

Spoilers are A-ok!

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject