annexedmeme | 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

You'd be surprised how reliable they remain even in the face of supremely advanced technology. Between that and solid melee options, very little can stand up against a determined team if they have the skills to back up their will.

[Not that energy weapons of any sort were out of place, but good old kinetics never goes obsolete.]

I can shoot, and I'm good with a sword, but I'm used to uh, a different sort. Blasters and, uh, energy based blades.

We relied on those as well, when situations called for it. [Although often that 'call' is simply based on the relative power of the weapon...] Ether blades were particularly reliable. Generally, it depended on what you were best with and what paired best.

Ether blades are a new one on me.

The sword one I used the most was focused plasma.

A Beam-attributed photon saber, it sounds like. Not a common weapon, but we had some very skilled wielders in BLADE.

[Oh, you know what, this could all be a trick, but he'll go ahead and say it.]

We called our lightsabers. And yeah, not common. Most people would use a vibrosword, if blades were their thing.

From the name, I assume that's a sword designed to vibrate for the purpose of enhanced cutting power. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the xeno manufacturers experimented with that sort of thing, but miranium and its associated technology would have made that sort of boost redundant.

[If it's a trick, she sure isn't getting much out of it. Really, the only thing he has to worry about is the hair streaming behind her.]

[Yeah, they are definitely not from anywhere near each other, Ezra decides.

With a ghost of smile, Ezra admits-]

You lost me, again.

I'm Ezra, by the way.

[She nods, not needing to look to pick up that faint amusement.] Elma. Formerly of Earth, currently of New Los Angeles on the planet Mira. BLADE captain. Did any of that mean anything?

[Dryly-]

Your name is Elma and you come from a place with space travel, I think. That's all I've got.

That's about all that's immediately relevant in any case. Except -- you're human?

[Some xenos look very human-like -- Qlurians, for example, whose only obvious difference is their ears. But for an actual human to exist, well... that's really, really concerning.]

[People so rarely ask outright, he's not quite sure how to respond.]

Oh, um. Yes? Or mostly, probably. My hair enough hits of blue there could be something else back there in the gene pool.

Where I'm from that sort of thing isn't necessarily important unless there's a medical issue. [He's vaguely aware attitudes can be different in the Core, but out on the Rim, he can't recall anyone treating him differently for that.]

Considering the current state of humanity I'm familiar with, it's a bit of a curiosity. I'm starting to suspect that we may be in a multiversal conflux, as improbable as that must sound.

[Of course she can just say that and expect to be understood. Why not?]

[Sorry, Elma, he's bright, but his education has been almost entirely hands on or space memes.]

A multi-what-al?

In short, quantum mechanics posits that for any event or occurrence that has multiple possibilities, a universe spawns in which one of those possibilities happen. That means there are infinite universes out there, comprising a multiverse.

[He sucks in breath hard-]

Infinite paths and infinite possibilities. Yeah.

I think the sort of nexus I've seen before was...a little different.

I use the term because I don't know what else to call it. If yours is more officially termed that, it makes sense.

Oh, no, the words I'm using aren't official anything. Nearly everything I know if on the fly type learning.

That's about where we stand too. Duck.

[He better have listened, because that tree branch sweeps low over the ATV -- just barely missing Elma as she presses herself down and forward. Not much of a path, is it?]

Test Drive Meme #1

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