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annexedmeme2022-07-31 04:43 pm
modaccount) wrote in annexedmeme2022-07-31 04:43 pm
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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
[More times than he can count even and Heero can count pretty damn high.
He notices her nervousness, sees the way she looks at the angry people, and then at the bag. Ah. That explains everything. Part of him wants to turn her in, simply to see what these people would do. It'd be a good way to judge their character. But, he's been on the other side of 'the law' enough to feel just the tiniest bit of compassion. Eyes casing the area, he decides on an appropriate course of action. Grabbing one hand, she's only going to get one second of preparation time.]
Run.
[Then he's off, heading for an alleyway at a dead sprint, dragging her behind him.]
no subject
Thankfully, it turns out he's not, when he grabs her hand and says run, and she laughs, abruptly and gaily, and does so, running after him as they head to an alleyway, keeping up easily.]
Oh, maybe you are fun after all!
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Why? [He asks as they run, making decent progress to put distance between them and the shopkeeper despite the unfamiliar area.] Do you not have enough money?
[He finds this unlikely, but he also doesn't see the point in stealing just for fun. So while he's not exactly a law abiding fuddy duddy - what rebel ever is? He's not an anarchist either. He's every bit the vigilante type, but with a slightly more neutral leaning than some of the ones she's run into before. Not everything is black and white after all.]
I have been told I am not fun a lot.
[Just in case she gets ideas. Duo definitely finds him more of the fuddy duddy type. But it's precisely because of Duo that he's helping this stranger now. Damn it, Duo Maxwell.]
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Paying is for chumps.
[It's half that she's got a sort of moral obligation to not pay as often as possible, and half that it's just so fun to steal things. Total thrill of the moment, even if it's something stupid and she's got the money for it. Why bother paying when it's so fun to steal?
Heading down the alley, she makes her way into the darkest corner of it and continues laughing, softer now, a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound of it. When she finally gets control of herself, she gives her head a shake.]
Why not?
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[Okay, so turns out Mr Rebel is actually a bit of a goody goody at hear. Sorry Harley.]
Or is it just because it's... fun.
[The word isn't a swear word, but it feels awkward coming out of his mouth all the same. Why go out of their way to harm the people who've taken them in? He doesn't quite understand this logic. Which is the issue, he's trying to think logically.]
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[So what if the word itself isn't really what he's confused about? For now she's just going to be explaining that. By using other less-obvious words.]
Oh, nothin's really worth payin' for, not when you can steal it, and yeah, it's fun. Nothin' wrong with a little fun, right?
[With that, she squats down and sits on her heels, digging around in the bag and pulling out the sparkly shirt she'd just stolen, giggling to herself for a minute. Then she looks up at the boy and waves a hand at him.]
Turn around.
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[He's familiar with chatterboxes who like to dance around the topic of conversation, that's nothing new. He's not much of a dancer however, sorry.]
If it's not worth money, it's not worth taking either. [At least the object is a real thing that has an obvious use. Money has no real use except to buy things or amass enough and you can buy power. Heero's not particularly interested in that sort of power. So, currency is ultimately pretty useless to him.]
When it hurts people, it's not so fun.
[Yes, he's a fuddy duddy, you've found him out. No fun zone. Except.... when she says to turn around he wordlessly does so. Doesn't even hesitate. Enjoy Harley.]
no subject
[When he turns, she digs out the sparkly shirt and a pair of shorts she'd acquired, shucks off the stupid Sylphid clothing and shrugs into the new stuff. Grinning, she pulls out a pair of suspenders and clips them on.]
My money is for me, nothing's worth paying for.
[His comment about people getting hurt is heard but not acknowledged, not at first, but after a few moments of thinking about it, she waves a hand.]
You can turn back around. An' no one gets hurt when I steal a random pair of suspenders. It's a few bucks. What's the big deal?
This is making me see similarities between him and Bruce ngl
[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.
omg, I can see it
[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?
Probably end up more like Jason tho,
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.]
oh god. you're...right...
[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.
Heero the antihero.
[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.]
amazing
[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.]
no subject
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.]
no subject
[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.
no subject
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?
no subject
[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.
no subject
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.]
no subject
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.
no subject
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.]
no subject
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.
no subject
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.]
no subject
[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!
no subject
[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.]
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