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

I. The R e s c u e

G'raha Tia was not having a good time. To be fair, none of the captives were, nor were they supposed to be, but he was particularly not doing well. He was more stressed than panicked when help arrived, having been very concerned over his inability to draw on or even detect any source of aether in the immediate area, including his own, as well as the inability to figure out where he was, why he was there, and what was going to happen.

And then a gun is shoved into his hands. He understands the basics of guns: you point them at things and shoot, but a gunslinger he is not. An archer, yes, once upon a time, but that was then and this is now and he's so glad he's a quick learner.

He keeps at least one hand on the gun the whole way through the building, just in case, even out into the courtyard. For whatever reason, everything sounds muffled, like something he can't see or feel is covering his ears, and no amount of twitching them seems to remedy the distortion. It's very disorienting and makes him that much more cautious about his surroundings.

II. The J u n g l e

The ATV is a suspicious thing. The Empire holds the lion's share of the world's technology, while the rest of it is Allagan-made, and both have been modified and repurposed by various groups as necessary.

The ATV is of Garlean (probably) nor Allagan make, and therefore G'raha doesn't really know what to make of it. Of course, it comes with another explanation, and it sounds simple enough, but in the interest of Not Dying, G'raha is offering the driver's seat to the nearest person.

"I feel that of the two of us, I'm less qualified to operate this..."

III. Central C o m m a n d

Knowledge is power, and as a scholar, G'raha is great at accumulating knowledge. Whatever's going on here might not be his normal area of expertise, but he's sure going to write down everything that sounds important so he'll have it for later. This also includes anything he's personally experienced on the way here.

He has a decent sampling of snacks surrounding his note-taking area and is absently grabbing pieces of food as he pays more attention to his notes and the orientation. Careful if anything of yours ends up near his snacks, as he might accidentally take it.

It might seem like G'raha has made a wise choice in giving up the driver's seat to the woman at his side at first. She's certainly enthusiastic about it, grinning and bouncing behind the ATV's controls with a bit more gleeful excitement than is probably appropriate given the situation. That being said, she exudes confidence as she brushes her hands over the handlebars and front panel, hazel eyes wide, intense, and impatient.

"Whatever you say!" Codi pats the side of her waist in a gesture for G'raha to hold on. "Buckle up, cat man. I think I kind of know what I'm doing!"

This is the only warning he gets before Codi makes to rev the engine - which actually has them lurching forward at an alarming speed. She whoops in surprise and exuberance.

"What's your name?" Codi calls over her shoulder while they fly through the mushroom forest. Because this is a great time to get to know each other, right?

He's definitely not one to dampen her enthusiasm. If she wants to take control of it and has a good idea of what makes it go, all the power to her. At least someone's excited about something around here.

"'Kind of'? I was hoping for more of--aah!" His hands were loose around her waist before they suddenly jumped forward and immediately after that he's got both arms wrapped around her midsection, only unpeeling himself from her once their speed evens out a bit.

"Er...G'raha Tia. And yours?"

"Codi!"

She turns further in her seat to get a better look at her new companion. It's a long look. Too long? Probably too long - not just because it's impolite to stare, but also because, whoops, she's driving! Codi does a double-take and adjusts their path with a rough jerk of the handlebars, then pats one of them with the same affection someone might show a favorite horse.

"Dakota Perkins, if you wanna get formal. Nice to meet you G'raha!" A beat. "--I mean, this sucks a lot, but I'm glad I got to meet you! You're very interesting!"

It's a bit unusual for someone to linger on his appearance for a very long time, as he's not super interesting back home. Here, perhaps, as he has yet to spot any Miqo'te other than himself, and his red features stand out extremely well against the drab grey of the prison uniforms.

"Nice to meet you too, Dakota--ah, Codi," he responds, ears flattening slightly when their trajectory through the jungle is altered then abruptly adjusted. It's exciting, but he's more than a little worried how they'll fare if they crash the craft, if she's anything as disoriented by their arrival as he is.

"Me? I'm not that interesting, at least not right now..."

"Not interesting?" Codi says with loud, exaggerated disbelief. She would pass G'raha a Look, too, if she wasn't trying so hard to stay on the path that the other ATVs in front of them were using. She's not quite comfortable enough with the controls to go on a spontaneous mushroom forest adventure (yet).

"G'raha, I--let's skip over the fact that I have no idea what you even are, I'm sure you come from a planet of red-haired cat people and this is totally normal or whatever. Do you really think these Sylphid guys would've kidnapped you if you weren't at least a little interesting?"

"Miqo'te are normal, but--" He's a bit out of the realm of 'normal Miqo'te', for one. Being male, of a particular tribe, with more accomplishments under his belt than many others could think of. But that's not something you dump on someone you've just met, especially not on a frantic ride through an unknown jungle. "Well, ah..."

"You've a fair point, but I can't begin to guess what they might hope to accomplish by taking a researcher with some combat experience."

It's probably the Allagan tech. Everyone wants the Allagan tech, even if they don't know what it does. It looks cool, sometimes makes weird noises, and occasionally makes sinister-sounding (empty) threats, so it has to be useful, right?

Miqo'te. Earmark that. Codi files away the mental note as an 'ask around about this later if we don't die first' task, to see if someone that knows of his species could tell her about their natural abilities and culture from the outside. It's undoubtedly difficult for G'raha to fathom what parts of his life are exceptional, after all - like if Codi off-hand mentioned that she slept in a bed, and that absolutely floored whoever she was talking to. She would've never assumed.

Besides, that's not the most important detail he's shared with her. "You're a researcher?" Codi asks, passing him another sidelong glance over her shoulder. "So, you're smart enough to make it your job? I'd call that interesting! What do you study?"

"History. Ancient civilizations. Though I've kept my focus primarily to one I've held an interest in since I was a child."

It's not technically a lie to say that, but when it's a big part of your family history, it's not something you just kind of ignore very easily. Normally, he'd be more than happy to talk about the Allagan empire, whether its good or its bad points, but at the moment he's kind of tired and if Codi isn't familiar with even Miqo'te, she might need an explanation of a bit more of his world if she wanted to understand one of its societies.

"I won't say I'm not smart, but more of my job has been being in the right place at the right time."

Codi makes a noise of understanding - a bit louder than strictly necessary, but she wants it to carry over the rumbling hum of the ATV motor. "So you're like, an archaeologist?" she asks. "That's really cool! I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit, G'raha - it sounds like you're smart and lucky."

If she's at all distracted or exhausted from their current ordeal, Codi is not showing it. Getting to meet someone new that is totally unlike anyone else she's met before? Might as well be back at the office, for how casually she's treating the circumstances that have brought them together in comparison.

Eight has to practically force herself to listen to the presentation when there was something that was far more interesting in front of her. Every time G'raha's ear twitches or a tail moves she loses a second or two of important information.

Now that the orientation is over, Eight is spending the rest of her time looking at the fuzzy swishing of the tail as he goes over his notes. It's real. This one really was a cat person.

It's taking everything she could not to reach out and touch.

He is indeed a real catperson, and one who would feel very guilty if he knew how distracting he was being. As it was, he was very absorbed in his note-taking, very determined to jot down whatever he could about the Sylphid threat and how to deal with it.

She may not be touching his tail, but after a few minutes he gets tired of sitting in the same position and has to stretch in his seat and does so, said tail also stretching out and curling against Eight.

G'raha notices, of course, though not until most of the way through the stretch and startles.

"My apologies! I thought I had a bit more space!"

The girl for her part becomes quite alarmed by the sudden texture of fur and tail wrapping around herself. In that brief moment between stretching and realization she wonders if there is an appropriate thing to say in such a circumstance, and whether or not this was overstepping the boundaries.

The startle, however, causes and immediate physical change. Octarians are naturally reserved and a bit shy, and the sudden intrusion of both personal boundaries and the feeling of becoming trapped is enough for the girl's body to dissolve into a puddle which eventually reforms into this creature.

Well, that's certainly an interesting reaction, enough to make him abandon his notes altogether to examine what used to be a girl and is now...a sea creature? Were he a little younger, he might gently poke her to see if she's still alive, but as he is, he doesn't quite do that, though he does reach out like he's might to offer her a hand.

"I--er...are you alright?"

The creature's swivel toward G'raha and seem a bit... embarrassed? The tentacles swish, propelling it feebly away from him. When it makes a bit of distance the figure of the octopus becomes a puddle of a paint-like substance before rising forward into the form and then the figure of the girl.

Shaking the excess paint from herself the girl reappears a safe distance from the cat man, one arm across her chest.

"I'm fine..." She murmurs. "...sorry..."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive Meme #1

G'raha Tia | Final Fantasy 14

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