Annexed Mod Team (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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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
"It isn't a bad idea, just complicated to execute even if we are in the right universe."
Her chair tips further, balance now verging on precarious. "Assuming this isn't all just some massively multiplayer hallucination."
no subject
(Steven... Right! Sorry.)
"Unless it magic," Steven rambles on. "I guess magic could do it. Or a god. But I don't know how we'd tell if it was magic, or deities acting up. Or even different universes, actually, how would we even tell that much? We're kind of stuck without a lot of information, here."
no subject
"It could be magic. Or it could be a product of the chips on our heads, if that isn't a lie. If it is an illusion, there's going to be cracks somewhere. Not that I'd recommend jumping off buildings to see if the training wheels are on."
She drums her fingers idly against her leg, the pattern vaguely reminiscent of morse code. "If we assume this is real, alternate universes are probably the easiest part to prove."
no subject
He's also not great at splitting his attention, because he misses half of what she just said, eyes on her moving fingers. Huh. What is that? That's clearly a pattern, but what pattern is it? It's not the normal twitchy finger-drumming that Marc engages in all the time (Steven prefers pens and fluttering fingers to finger-drumming, personally) but he doesn't know what it is.
He registers she stopped speaking, blinks up at her face, and hurries to catch up. "Uh. Well. Probably best to assume it's real, since if we don't and we, you know, die, there's not exactly any coming back from that, right?" He shakes himself a little. "Why would alternate universes be easiest to prove?"
no subject
She has not quite convinced herself that she's not dead, that this isn't some strange prison conjured by the soul stone, or some purgatory she's earned for her many sins. But she's already reached the same conclusion: in the absence of proof to the contrary, best to assume this is real, that they're all flesh and blood.
"The idea behind the infinite universe model is that every single possibility happens, and branches off a separate universe. Some of those alternate universes would be indistinguishable from one another if you were able to inspect them from outside, because someone wearing blue socks instead of green in 1923 isn't going to create a consequential difference. But other divergences - you're going to see ripple effects that would change history, technological development, even geography. Find someone who still has zeppelins in the year 2023, or for whom World War II never took place, or the Cuban Missile Crisis spun off into World War III, and provided they're a credible source, you have proof of alternate universes."
no subject
Steven shakes his head. "Well, if it helps, none of those things happened to in my universe. It's 2023 and there's no zeppelins or World War III or anything. I don't know much about the Cuban Missile Crisis, though. Not really my field, is it. What's your universe like?"
no subject
She considers him for a moment, expression thoughtful, before saying, "Let's start with an easy one, then. Does Thanos mean anything to you?"
no subject
Well, really, probably so could Layla, and Layla is objectively prettier, but still! He wasn't expecting this!
no subject
She isn't exactly incognito. She also doesn't exactly want to draw attention.
"Natasha," she says. "My friends call me Natasha."
Which is a drastic overstatement, but 'fellow interstellar and possibly interdimensional kidnapping victims' is a mouthful and a half.
no subject
no subject
after I check the official timeline and find out MK happens ICly AFTER Hawkeye
no subject
"Complicated question," she says. "But the short answer is 2023."
no subject
no subject
She shrugs, forcibly setting aside the why that sits like an icy weight at the back of her mind.
"Did you get a look at whatever was ticking on the way out of the compound?"
no subject
no subject
There's a faint flicker of a grimace there. Not getting a look at the mechanism - and there has to have been a mechanism, a large one, with how pervasive the sound has been - is a lingering point of frustration.
"Must've been something on a lower floor. There wasn't much time to explore."