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annexedmeme2022-07-31 04:43 pm
modaccount) wrote in annexedmeme2022-07-31 04:43 pm
Entry tags:
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?
no subject
Once she'd made a bee-line towards the ATV, Obi-Wan had expected the vehicle and the chance to escape to have caught her attention. As such, and without the Force to warn him otherwise, he startled a little when she grabbed his hand.
"Wha..." he began, lips snapping shut as she asked after his own intentions. Glancing around, making as certain as he could that they were relatively safe for the moment, he stepped just to the side so they could talk without being in anyone's way.
"I'll be along," he promised, without promising when or how. "But I believe there may be more in need of help and was going to find Brycen and offer an extra hand."
II
It is impossible not to notice how she shuts down, and he can't blame her for the wariness. It shows good instincts on her part and he knows, were their positions reversed, he'd be feeling much the same. There isn't much he can do, however, except try to convey as much warmth and friendliness as possible through his smile.
"Earth?" He repeats the word and looks pensive for a moment. "I'm afraid I'm from no where that has any knowledge of an Earth." It was as honest an answer as trying to lay out the idea of Stewjon, by way of Coruscant, by way of, by way of, by way of. "And that is a bit of a feat, given the hundreds of planets that make up the galaxy. What is Earth like?"
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She hesitated, if only because she wanted to escape with him. But once he mentions his intention to offer aid to others who needed it, she could concede that idea was a bit of selfishness on her part. Concede, but not like. The number of people who have offered to help her -- let alone ones from other races -- was alarmingly small. She felt a sense of duty to him to make sure they were able to make it out safely.
But, for now, she'll brush that aside. "Okay." She pivoted toward the ATV before turning back. "Be safe." She wouldn't forgive herself if it was discovered that a scruffy man with a craggly voice did not make it.
II.
Eight lowered her head. If he was going to be evasive, then she feels no reason not to be vague as well. "It's nice. I like it." She chews on his own words a little bit. "So... you're a space traveler?" It would explain, in some part, his familiarity with other worlds.
no subject
Despite the scruffiness, he was a little harder to kill than most!
II.
"I am," there was no harm in sharing that fact. "I've traveled quite a bit in space, though after the first few trips I've always found it a bit tedious. Not nearly as interesting as landing on and learning about a new planet." He was nothing if not persistent, even if she was walling herself off.
"What are three things you like best about Earth?"
no subject
She sees him off with a nod, but as she prepares the ATV toward it's intended destination, her gaze returns to where he departed, if for a moment. Would she see him again? Well... there was time enough to wonder that when they were safe. She also has a job to do as well.
II.
He picked the right question to ask, because it was that desire which drew her to the surface. The desire to learn something new and to be a part of something bigger than the small underground dome she spent the first 16 years of her life in.
Her face softens a little, but she didn't think that Ben really deserved her words just yet. Instead she takes out an octopus-shaped smartphone and presses it a couple of times. She then flips the phone over for Ben to see [another world]. As she thumbs over the screen, the pictures are of [of nothing particular], and [lack context], and may even [seem a bit childish], but with each one she shows, she [lingers a little bit longer].
That last one especially seems to be angled closer to her than to him.
no subject
He waited patiently, as prepared to accept her continuing to shut down as he was to see if she shared anything with him. When she found a middle ground, a twinkle brightened his clear grey eyes, though he held his tongue and put his focus on the pictures she showed him.
It did not escape him that the pictures involved friends rather than places. While, as a Jedi, he was supposed to retain a certain aloofness to the idea of friends, Qui-Gon's teachings had often overridden the letter of the Jedi Code.
"A happy looking bunch," he observed and though it would be natural to ask after names, he figured she'd shut him down hard given his own lack of shared specifics. "And a beautiful world. I can imagine you want to get back to it?"
And now we II~
She fights a frown and gives him a quiet nod. A part of her wondered if it was even worth it and whether or not she would just be pulled away again by some sort of cosmic joke.
"Do you?" She asks feebly. She's not expecting an answer, really, she just wanted to change the subject.
no subject
"I'd only just reconnected with an old friend," he admitted; an indicator that there was a reason for him to go home. Then he turned his gaze back to her and his smile widened.
"But I've been raised on the belief that you often find yourself where you are needed, not always where you might want, and it is important to focus on the here and the now."
no subject
"I don't... really believe in fate." It was too unquantifiable, too open to interpretation that things ended up 'because they were supposed to.' "...but there is work to be done, indeed."
no subject
"It would appear to be the case," he agreed. Addressing the latter statement and leaving the comment about fate to the side for the time being. "And if what they are saying about our adversaries is the truth? Then it sounds like work for the benefit of many."
no subject
The tension only diminishes when she considers a very specific thought. One that haunted her and kept her from blind acceptance: "...if we are being told the truth..."
She was not going to be caught unawares ever again.
no subject
Reaching out, he would attempt to set his fingers atop one of her fists, though if she withdrew he wouldn't press the contact. It was mainly to draw her attention towards him as he spoke.
"We are as great an unknown to them, as they are to us," he would point out gently. "It would not be wise for them to show us all their cards until they can be sure of us. A little reserve on the parts of both parties, is only reasonable."
no subject
His words, however, does much to assuage her heart. Yes, they were unknowns were they not? This wasn't Kamabo Co., who had been studying Inkling and Octoling physiology for decades. This was Sylphids and Witches, but who knows how long they have had been playing this song and dance?
Still, the words reached her and she values his points. With a smile and a nod, she says, "That is good wisdom." And then a slight smirk, "...that is also true for strangers too, yes?"
no subject
"I was a General," he said. Perhaps it might seem to come out of the blue, but it was the only way he could think to practice that wisdom she'd just flattered him about. "But it was sort of a honorary rank, I never trained to be in the military. I was part of a different order; peacekeepers."
He glanced over at her, sadness in his eyes and on his face in the brief second before he looked back down.
"But needs must during war time, so ... a General I became."
no subject
"I was never given a choice to be in the Octrian Army either..." She took a deep breath, not entirely sure how to say the next part. "...but then I had a choice, and I choose not to be."
There was a million miles within that breath. One for each second she stared out and dreamed of a life beyond the Octo Domes. "...I'm not proud. Nor do I think ill of my... of my people. It just wasn't my life. I didn't know what I really wanted until I saw it come before me. Like the sunrise showing how many edges in what was once an unbroken horizon."
"And I knew I was to be a stranger and unfulfilled if I were to stay in the place of my birth. My... home... wasn't any longer."
no subject
He did not move to immediately fill the quiet that fell between them after her last words. Truth be told, the idea of my home, wasn't any longer struck a cord with him; though not for the same reasons as he suspected she meant.
"A friend of mine," he finally spoke, voice soft. "Would suggest that if we have faith in the For..." he paused, cleared his throat and slightly amended the word, "forces around us. We'll end up where we're meant to be."
Glancing towards her, he gave that small grin and a little shrug of one shoulder.
"Though it may seem a load of dirty wash in the moment."
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"I just don't want to have to fight when I don't want to. I want to choose and know what I am deciding." And there's the rub. Where was she? What was she doing? And can she count on any of these people to spit the straight truth?
no subject
Glancing up to where their hosts were milling about, speaking to some of the others as well as each other, he frowned pensively.
"You could ask them, if there might be some other way in which you could aid their efforts. Something that wasn't fighting?"
no subject
She could and it would be fascinating, but it settles like heavy lead in her stomach. But why...?
The answer did not take long to discover. Ah, Yes, of course. But of course that would be her answer.
"Maybe not..." She whispers, returning to Ben. "Or, perhaps, not entirely? I think helping in non-fighting ways would be nice, but... I wouldn't feel right knowing others or fighting and putting themselves for me when I could fight too."
But what was most important was that she had the choice not to too. That was enough.
no subject
"Either way, then it would be your choice."
Which was a sentiment he could support wholeheartedly.
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