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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
Leia frowned to herself while he lead her from behind. Imperial Intelligence? Occasionally? Her parents were part of the Imperial Senate but she was starting to understand there was more to the Empire than there seemed, and felt like she was missing a huge part of the picture. In terms of thinking for herself, she thought out all the innocent people hurt and damage done in her most recent adventure helping the Rebel Alliance (which she had no idea her adopted father was behind creating).
"I guess it makes sense that someone from Imperial Intelligence wouldn't give me a name, but what should I call you?"
no subject
He could have kept a rough grip. There was no reason to, however. He wasn't his master, who reviled in cruelty for the sake of it. Cruelty when used did serve a purpose. Harming the little Princess wouldn't. "Lord Vader." It's both a simple answer and a truthful one. Darth would have been more appropriate but she wouldn't understand it. Lord was close enough. "I'm not from Intelligence. Simply high enough in the military to work with them."
He kept leading until her got to three plates, flimsy things made of paper and picked up two, begining to fold and crease them with hard pinches on his finger into a shape only fractionally larger than a single pastry, building a bottom, sides, a lid to fold closed over. Picking up a knife to cut slits so it may be slotted closed. He was working off the cuff, based on other packaging. "Your father has interesting friends." More than the girl knew, and there was a part of him aware of her age, of the age his child should be, knowing they would have been friends. Reminded of another tiny girl on Ryloth and the knowledge Palpatine wasn't here.
Not here to stomp on his actions, to take away something away from him. There were no plans (yet) but the thought set heavily in the back of his mind.
"Knowing the planetary leaders and their families are also important information."
no subject
Vader. He was the one hunting Obi-Wan, the one who almost killed him, the one who lead the siege against the refugees on Jabiim and ordered the attack against their ship as they tried to escape, and who would have killed them if Ben hadn’t led him off.
Leia would meet Ben here too, later that night, but she hadn’t yet, and she wanted nothing more than to run to him and warn him that Lord Vader was here, too, and feel safe with him. It would be a great relief when he found her in her room later.
Why was he so obsessed with them? Or was it just Ben? Was she just a lure? She didn’t understand that yet but she felt used anyway, and very small. Which she was, obviously, but she usually didn’t feel small on the inside. She swallowed and recalled lessons of caution.
Vader was being so nice though? And polite, and forthcoming. What reason could he possibly have to be nice to a child when he seemed so dangerous to everyone else? Then again, so had almost everyone she met from the actual military of the Empire. It usually resulted in her kidnapped and more people dying.
She watched him do something clever with the paper plates when they got to the tables, listening to him speak. “He does. Some of them are nice. Some of them are really rude and stupid. Mostly, those ones are my cousins.”
Eager to distance herself somewhat from that cowardly bully, she didn’t think through her next statement. “They say I’m not a real Organa because I’m adopted, but my father told me I’m an Organa through-and-through, and reminded me that some day I’ll get to boss my cousin around. But I’m supposed to stop making him cry until then.”
A tiny eye-roll. She looked back at Vader. Was this really the same person who had almost killed her? She'd never seen him, somehow, the entire time he was at their heels, but he couldn’t be anyone else.
“Are you… here to hurt me?” ._.
no subject
She had it seemed.
"Alderaan has a long history of adopted heirs. Is he too conceited to know his own people's history or is he using your insecurity against you?" Was the boy jealous? Alderaan preferred Queens but Kings were not unheard of. Still it would have been foolish to assume the current Queen would have left the Throne up to chance.
One container finished, he starts making a second - he knew the girl had more than two in her hands after all. "No. The rather unfortunate business you were drawn into was the work of a Rogue Inquisitor, who has since been demoted." Possibly dead. He didn't really care. "Do you know what they do?"
no subject
"Yes?" It was a yes to her cousin being conceited and also trying to use it against her.
"I'm not insecure," she lied, terribly, as everything about this entire meeting had her increasingly on edge and her stomach was in knots. Leia felt like she was definitely not supposed to be talking to Vader, but not only was he not doing anything to suggest he was a threat to her, at least for now, he was even helping her feel better about her adoption and making her little boxes for her snacks.
She was a little insecure, it was true. But only because she didn't know anything about where she came from or who her parents were and NO ONE would give her straight answers. It was like they were keeping some secret and she didn't understand why, but the one thing her cousin was right about was that it did connect to why she was never allowed off-planet. And since she couldn't piece together why else she wouldn't be allowed off-planet when other kids her age got to, it left her wondering if what he had said was true. They don't want anybody to know about you because you're not one of us.
"...maybe a little," little Leia admitted.
She stared at the boxes instead of Vader for a few seconds before replying to his last question. Her voice was smaller than she intended and it made her brow furrow, annoyed at herself. "They hunt Jedi."
no subject
"Being adopted does mean something for you. I've been told the child often means more to the parents because they got to chose the child, instead of leaving it to chance." Never mind where he has heard it or what he believed on the matter. "And there were rumors for several years about the Organas planning to adopt their heir."
When the second box was finished he put it down in front if he for her to pack away her snack. "Yes, they do. Do you know why?" He started in a third.
no subject
Leia wondered if people could take the chips out. Maybe she should have paid attention to the debrief a little bit. Did she want him to have the Force back? Probably not. "That was a nice thing to say. I'll remember that. And thank you for the...snack boxes."
She began to pack them mostly as something else to look at while she learned why he thought it was ok to hunt Jedi. Because she couldn't think there would ever be a good reason to hurt them and loved at least one, personally.
"No. Why?"
no subject
"If you are going to carry food with you, you'll need to learn how to do so it doesn't spoil or get lost. A knapsack would be a good idea. You could carry a canteen then as well." Despite the sass - perhaps because of it - he continued to be helpful.
Because he could.
"Years ago, before you would have been born, the Jedi attempted to kill the Emperor and take over." He knew why. He was there after all. It's where he was born. "The Galaxy had already been at war for years, with a great many lives lost and untold more suffering. They would have extended the war right as it was drawing to a close. Opening up more destruction when the people deserved peace and security." He'd meant what he said on Mustafar.
“I’m sleeping,” he says
It is a lot to take in, especially after today. But it’s important, and it effects people she cares about, and knowing history and effecting politics and seeing the many sides of things will be her responsibility some day.
The greyness of it all seemed intuitive but it still upset her. It seemed no matter what side a person took on any issue, at home or here, there was always something to wrestle with. Someone who thought you were wrong, and genuinely believed what they were doing was right. Her understanding of all this was a bit simpler, but the sentiment remains. She boldly looks back up at Vader.
“I’m sorry that happened to those people. I don’t like war. But I’m also sorry for all the people still suffering, and dying. It doesn’t seem any different to me. There’s still fighting, and innocent people getting hurt.” A pause. Did she dare?
“When we were running from Third Sister, it seemed like…like a lot of people didn’t trust the Empire, or feel safe. That doesn’t seem like ‘peace or security’ to me.”
no subject
"Moffs in-fight and backstab. They care about their people, only power. My authority is limited, I cannot make them act in their people's best interest." If he could? He would have. A pause.
A heartbeat.
Several.
"The Emperor allows it. Even encourages them." He never planned on Palpatine ruling so long. It should be his wife. Never mind what Vader is saying is dangerously close to treason. "Someday you'll have to chose people to help you rule. You'll have to decide people who only want your favor or people who truly care about the people you give them dominion over. One group would do anything you asked, tell you anything you wanted to hear. Pretty, sweet lies. Others won't. You'll have to decide what is better." He sat down a third box.
"How many do you have?"
no subject
“You should keep that box for if you find any…nutrient paste.” Good luck with that.
“I hope I don’t get in trouble or make you mad at my parents because I ask a lot of questions…but…” She considered what she wanted to say. Someday you'll have to chose people to help you rule.
“Which one of those groups are you, for the Emperor?” She wonders both what he sees himself as and also what he thinks the Emperor sees him as.
This is when Leia slowly marveled over the fact that someone as powerful and feared as Lord Vader was being so calm and honest with her. Maybe he was just really lonely and hated his job?
no subject
"I'm for the Empire, regardless who occupies the Throne. It is to the Empire I pleaded my loyalty, and it is not an oath I intend to betray." Liars he'd decreed some. Not one to betray his oaths. Read properly, one could understand much of Vader's person with those sentences. "Ideally the person to occupy it would be wise, concerned with making sectors work together instead of against one another." With force if needed. Or with him. "Our current Emperor pretended to be one such person until he was unmasked and showed his true self." One Vader still desired to kill.
One he may learn here secrets to do so. Among other feats.
no subject
You are wise, discerning, and kind-hearted...passionate, fearless, and forthright.
You will find your own way to lead.
Someday... You'll have to decide what is better.
She was going to have to sleep on all this. She needed a break though. Leia didn't ever think she'd have the opportunity to talk to someone like Vader, let alone ask him so many questions. But if he was stuck here like everyone else, there would be time to ask more. Her brain would very much like to be done working so hard for the rest of the night, though.
"Thank you for talking to me, Lord Vader. I don't know how long we'll be here, but I hope I see you again." She wasn't lying. Leia was going to have to learn to be cordial and sociable with people she wasn't sure about, and that was a lot easier than being polite to people she didn't get along with at all. She had a lot to think about, though she was still upset about how he felt about the Jedi, especially since there was still war and he didn't even like the Emperor very much, it seemed.
"May I...be excused, for now?" She wanted to go fall into a bed and cease all thinking and formality for at least the rest of the night. Or at least have a nap.
no subject
No.
Was he going to be up paroling the area?
Yes.
Would it be guaranteed peaceful?
He doubted. But he could send the child off without frightening her for now.