annexedmeme | Test Drive Meme #1

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!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

People who don't like needlessly hurting others.

[It's him. He's people. Yes, he's effectively a tool for war. By why cause hurt when he doesn't have to? It's not Heero's way. He doesn't understand wanting to harm people. He kills only because it's war and he kinda has to, if he didn't have to? He'd never do it again.]

Then why have money? If you don't spend it on anything, it no longer has value.

[Isn't money just to buy things? Harley he doesn't understand. He turns around, no reaction at her change of clothes.]

Because it wasn't just a pair of suspenders. Was it.

Hurting, hurting, you keep saying that, but I ain't hurtin' no one.

[She doesn't see how swiping a few items that cost a few bucks is actually doing anyone any kind of real harm. Then again, it's not like she's averse to killing people or doing actual harm or stealing things that are worth more than a few bucks.

It's just that no one's ever asked her to explain that before.]

Sure it still has value.

[Pulling a lollipop out of the bag, she unwraps the wrapper and tosses it on the ground before popping it in her mouth.]

Whaddaya gettin' at?

Shopkeeper paid for those items.
He doesn't make money from them.
His family then goes without.

[It's not even that far fetched of a scenario. Things could get pretty tight on some of the colonies.]

For what?

[Last he knew money was only useful for buying things. Or for having the potential to buy things. Even for the powerful, it was usually the threat of being able to own you that got them their power.]

[Last question doesn't even get an answer, just a bland look. It's not this often he's this talkative with a stranger.]

Without a couple bucks? That ain't gonna break no one's bank, buddy.

[She's been poor before, poor enough she barely had the money to get herself a hangover egg sandwich, but she doesn't really think about that in the context of people she steals from. Usually, she's stealing from rich people anyway, because they have the best stuff.]

Because what if ya wanna buy a private island or somethin'? You need money for that, you can't just steal an island.

[She pauses for a moment, her expression going thoughtful, while she ponders how one might go about stealing an island.]

I take that back, you totally could steal an island.

It adds up.

[Unless she's banking on everyone else being 'chumps' was it? Which sounds more like she's the chump then, relying on other people to get things accomplished.]

Why do you want an island.

[Steal an island indeed. Think bigger, make yourself the Hero in the situation]

Don't steal the island, free it.

[Only works if you overthrow a shitty government, otherwise it's usually not seen as freeing.]

Yeah well, sucks to be them. Shoulda made it harder to steal from them then. Though, I mean, I'm really good at stealing.

[She realizes she's probably not making a friend here with this kind of talk, but what is she gonna do? Pretend to be some goodie-two-shoes? That's just not who she is and she's finally accepted that people should like her the way she is.]

Duh. I already freed an island. They had a democracy or whatever when we left.

[Shrug.]

[Small community like this wouldn't need to be worried about stealing. Until now apparently.]

Suit yourself.

[His only concern at the moment is if her shenanigans are going to make it harder on the rest of them later. Though if this was a different situation, he would be. Because stealing from your allies is stupid. But the witches haven't earned that title yet.]

On purpose?

[It sounds too altruistic for that to have been her goal, but what does he know? He knows next to nothing about her. Including her name.]

Kinda.

[It was a 'kinda' situation. They'd been there to protect the interests of the United States, but they'd stayed to take out Starro and save a lot of people. There'd been a lot they couldn't save, but they'd saved more than they hadn't, so it had been a win in her book.

For a moment, she's quiet, thinking about the whole thing. It was so recent, less than a week ago, but it feels like it was forever ago at the same time.]

We were there to shut down a secret science lab thingy, and destroy it. Which we did. But then the science experiment got out, which was this huge walking starfish like, the size of a skyscraper and it was controlling people's minds with baby starfish and stuff. Total mess. They told us we should leave it just rampaging but we decided to stay.

[A pause, and then, very self-assuredly.]

We almost died like 20 times.

[Okay, shut down a lab and destroy it. That he understands. He's done that a few times himself. But a giant walking starfish? That's.. definitely outside of his frame of reference. It sounds absurd, and he's not entirely sure if she's being truthful or not. Though it didn't sound like she was lying. Just telling him about an outrageous thing that happened to her once.]

I see.

[No, no he really doesn't. But that last bit? That he understands.]

Almost dying hurts.

[He's done that a few times himself. Not something he'd recommend personally.]

And this freed the island?

Well, I didn't get hurt or nothin', at least not bad.

[That's in response to the boy saying that almost dying hurts.]

Was more a whole lotta close calls. We did lose people, though.

[Her expression changes at that - instead of the manic glee or mild confusion she's been showing so far, her expression goes soft and a little sad. She can't help but think of them, the people they lost. Flag and Polka-Dot Man and Boomer, not to mention all the others in that first part of the mission. Mongal and Weasel and Javelin and Blackguard and Savant...they hadn't been her team for long, but they'd been her team.]

Yeah. The rebels took it over while the government was distracted tryin' to kill us.

[Doesn't quite sound like almost dying to him then, at least not in his professional opinion. There's not even a coma involved or anything! Tch.]

To the starfish?

[Sorry, he wasn't trying to discredit them or anything, he's just... still trying to figure out how a giant walking starfish does damage. It's too far removed from anything he's familiar with to use as a frame of reference. Maybe if he thought of it as a mobile suit? Because taking out one on foot would be difficult.]

You served as a distraction.

[So that the people who actually wanted to free the island could do so. Not that Harley directly freed anything. Heero's pretty sure he's slowly starting to put a picture together of how this happened.]

[She's actually never been hurt that bad in the line of duty, just captured and shot at and almost hurt a lot. She considers herself lucky for that, because a lot of people had gotten a lot worse.]

Polka-Dot Man got squished by the starfish. Just straight stepped on.

[She says it a little sadly, and then sounds more sad when she says the other part.]

Flag got killed by one of our own. Betrayal. That was the worst.

[Thankfully, most of them had gotten out, but it was still way too many people to lose.]

That's not even counting Mongal and Weasel and Blackguard and TDK and Savant and Javelin, who are all probably dead from getting shot or burned or whatever. And Boomer. He got torn up by a helicopter.

[That makes her sound even more sad, and she waves a hand as if she could brush it off, but it doesn't work.]

Oh yeah. Flag told 'em to do it while we were distracting them.

[He listens without any real reaction. The names would be absurd where he's from, but that doesn't mean they are where she is from. So he doesn't judge them. A name is just a name. He would know. This one isn't his first after all.]

Betrayal is... never an easy thing to face.

[The listing of names was not unfamiliar. He's caused.. many such lists himself honestly. But it didn't hurt to at least listen. But such things happen in those situations, so he's.. not exactly the most sympathetic]

A wise call.
One that apparently worked.

[In a way it meant they were fighting on multiple fronts. Which usually meant losing more than you'd win.]

[The names are pretty absurd where she comes from too, but she also doesn't judge. She can't judge, not when she is who she is.]

No. It was seriously the absolute worst, but at least Bloodsport shot the guy who did it. Was only fair. Besides, he was gonna kill Ratcatcher too.

[More absurd names, people Heero doesn't know, but it's feeling good to get it out, because it's all so recent. She'd only just fallen asleep on the plane home before coming here, and it's all fresh still.]

Yeah, it worked alright. They had democracy for the first time in like a billion years on the island when we left.

[For all he knows those names are normal where she's from. Can't judge when you don't have context.]

Understandable.
I'm sure you all did what you had to do.

[Heero is actually pretty good as a sounding board. Unless it's really, really intensely stupid he doesn't tend to be judgmental and he's not the sort to interrupt. A good skill to have really, in his work. Whether he's fully realized it yet or not.]

It might not feel like much, but those people will forever live on in the memories and gratitude of the people they protected.

[Maybe not directly, but it's still a thought.]

I did. We all did.

[This is hitting her surprisingly hard, but it's been a hard day. It's been a real hard few days actually. For a moment she feels very tired, and very sad, and very cross.

Digging into the bag, she pulls out a bag of some kind of sweet snack she'd picked up in her rampage of petty larceny and opens it. But before she can even try whatever alien snack she's got, he's saying those people will live on forever in memories and gratitude and suddenly she's all teary and she shoves what looks and feels like a giant gummy mushroom into her mouth, chewing furiously. Because she's not going to cry, she's not.

Except that she's crying. A little.]

I know that!

Then you've done enough.

[Oh no. That's... not something Heero knows what to deal with. What does he do??? Awkwardly he turns, looking away to give her a little space. Emotional privacy something he understands more than privacy for clothing even.]

It was recent, wasn't it.

[If he was the sort to show his emotions he'd probably be tugging his hair and shifting awkwardly, but no. Of course not. Instead he just stands there, shoulders tense. This sort of pain he does understand well enough. Even if he's shit at consoling people.]

[She sniffles a few times and rubs her hand over her face, serving to further smudge her already pretty messy makeup. But thankfully the moment passes quickly and she's not quite back to normal, but at least she isn't crying anymore.

Just a little teary. That's doable. And it's not like she expects more comfort, because she's not used to any comfort in the first place.]

Recent? Yeah, real recent. Like just before I woke up here recent.

[A sarcastic little laugh.]

Finished the mission, got set free, climbed on the plane to go home, fell asleep right beside someone else, then bam, poof, and I'm in some Sylphid prison cell.

[Oh good, but mostly because he's pretty shit at giving comfort. Unfortunately you can't shoot someone's emotions for them.

Or at least you probably shouldn't.]

I would say that's recent, yes.

[At least he had a few days "off" after the war. Though "off" isn't really a Heero concept yet.]

... Did you have plans?

[He'd had plans. Kind of. Not that it matters now.]

[Wouldn't it be handy if you could shoot someone's emotions for them?]

I dunno.

[Did she have plans? She's not sure. Sure, she'd love to go back to Gotham and restart her life there, resume her big new beginning, but she's liable to end up back in jail there, because the cops have a hard-on for putting her away. Her specifically, when there's just so many other criminals they could be focusing on.

She could always join back up with the Birds of Prey. But who knows if they'd have her after she stole the Canary's car?

Still, Gotham is where she belongs.]

Guess I wanted to go home.

[Right? Oh you're sad? BAM! Not anymore. Sounds like a Persona heba power waiting to happen.

He doesn't answer at first. Because it's not like there's any simple, easy way to fix it or make it better. Words really aren't going to help in this situation, so why use them?]

Home.

[He doesn't have one of those. A series of safe houses, sure. But a home? He doesn't actually remember ever having one. So what do you say to someone who clearly misses theirs?]

Good luck.

[Nailed it.]

[And that? That's more comfort than she was expecting, or hoped for. So he's all good in her books, as far as comforting people go. In fact, she thinks he's pretty compassionate really.]

Yeah. It's called Gotham City.

[She lets slip a little smile when she says it, a smaller, more nostalgic smile than her trademark grin while she thinks of her home and the people and places she'd left behind. Sure, the Joker is still there and everyone's still got grievances with her, but it's her town.

She says it again, with a little more conviction this time.]

Thanks. Because yeah, that's my plan. I wanna go home, and I wanna start fresh, all over again. I'm at a pretty good place back home. And in the meantime, I'll start fresh here too.

[Heero's not used to being so well psycho-analyzed, so quickly, don't let him catch on or it'll mess with his head.]

Gotham... never heard of it.

[Different universes then, that's not a surprise considering giant starfish people who apparently kills lots of people. If that was something that happened in his world, he would have known about it even if it had been just a historical event.]

Start fresh.
What does that mean?

[Because he's been told he should do that before, but as a concept it's not one he quite understands.]

[If there's one thing that getting your PhD in psychiatry is good for, it's psychoanalyzing people!]

Oh yeah? What was your city called, back home?

[She assumes he had a city, assumes he had a home. Because most people do, don't they? Somewhere they've lived that they loved and felt safe in, where they knew all the best holes in the wall to eat at and the best spot to go out at night?]

Y'know. Be my own woman. Try not to kill anyone. Except Sylphid, obviously, I already killed a ton of them.

Edited 2022-09-01 02:52 (UTC)

[Yeah, that'd probably do it, wouldn't it?]

I don't have one. [So very matter of fact.] I've never had one.

[Okay, maybe he did as a baby, but since he doesn't remember it, it doesn't count. But nope, his entire life has been go for a mission here, go for a mission there, move on, and move on.]

I see.
[Not really.]
Start fresh. A good goal.

[There's an idea, but those are vague enough parameters he could probably manage them. Though he's not really sure what being his own man would entail. Choosing his own missions again? Been a while since he got to do that.]

Edited 2022-09-02 20:10 (UTC)

This is making me see similarities between him and Bruce ngl

omg, I can see it

Probably end up more like Jason tho,

oh god. you're...right...

Heero the antihero.

amazing

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