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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
Acknowledged. [He holds out his hand for her gun.] You drive. I'll shoot.
[Afterwards, Heero doesn't wait for pleasantries, doesn't introduce himself. Instead, he climbs inside the ATV and prepares himself. They can talk later. Or not. As of this second he doesn't really care. They have a mission and right now, that's his focus.]
Don't worry about me, just focus on the terrain. I'll handle the rest.
no subject
Obviously. I trust you wouldn't have put yourself up for the job if you weren't capable of doing it. [Direct as ever. Mikumo starts up the ATV, steering it behind the leading vehicle and then accelerating. She gradually moves up to speed, eyes roving around the jungle corridor and noting the kinds of obstacles they're likely to be encountering. She can only go so fast when there's this much hostile terrain, so she levels off at a respectable but still maneuverable speed.]
Mikumo, by the way. [While her eyes are still on the terrain, and she's undoubtedly taking the driving with all the seriousness of a professional, there's a touch of dry humour to the tone. He's not the first pilot she's met lacking much of a mind for even the most basic pleasantries.]
no subject
I meant, don't worry about your flying messing with my aim. I'll be fine. [Why is communicating so hard? Tch. He falls silent as they pass through the forest at a respectable speed. She's... not bad. Someone with experience in the field in some fashion as best he can guess. He'll remember that, for the future - her competence.]
Heero. [As she doesn't give a last name, neither does he. Eyes scanning intently over the terrain. Not the best of vision and while their speed isn't extreme it does mean he has to remain on edge. Until he sees... something, but he can't really say what it is. Without hesitating, he fires a round. It hits. The creature lets out a roar that is way louder than he'd anticipated. Two more bullets and the noise stops. Lizards like small dinosaurs was it? Next time he'd take the briefing more seriously.] It's a pleasure.
[Oh, now he's got jokes.]
Your training. What is it you do?
[Either he just pissed off the local wildlife and they're about to get swarmed or the rest will take this as a sign to leave them alone. Either way no reason to stress it. And he was, mildly, curious about his temporary partner all things considered.]
no subject
Shifting left to avoid a mound in the earth and then right again for a jutting rock, she figures that if he's conceding to deadpan humour at this point, she can too.]
Sing. [Knowing how absurd that probably sounds to anyone outside the cluster (or outside the galaxies that have had significant conflicts handled with the aid of song), she lets it hang on the air for a few moments before elaborating.]
I'm the lead singer of the tactical sound unit, Walküre. Our singing has a special property which calms a condition we call Var Syndrome, which can drive large numbers of people into berserk rages when there are major outbreaks.
[Hence the battlefield element. Var doesn't discriminate as far as whether it's civilians or military driven berserk by it, or who's caught up in it, and that's ignoring the more forward-planned military operations involved in the job besides dealing with outbreaks.]
We're accompanied by Delta Flight on most missions, so don't worry, I have plenty of experience with the manners of fighter pilots.
no subject
[He does deadpan at that, because it does sound ridiculous to someone who's not familiar with Walkure and what they do. Or just generally the properties singing can have in different universes.]
[But he listens without judgement. Nodding slightly, before remembering that she probably was too busy to see him do so.] I see.
We have nothing like that where I'm from.
[An understatement. Though if there more peaceful ways to achieve peace, he's actually all for them. He's tired of all the killing and fighting. He's been doing it for... far too long considering his age.]
I wasn't worried. [The tiniest of smiles, not that she'll ever see it.] But good to know.
[Though not all pilots are as.... Heero-like as Heero.]
no subject
What kind of machine do you pilot? [Specific choice of term there, because it could be a plane, or it could be a carrier or something similar to a variable fighter, or something else entirely. While they're stuck on this ATV together, she may as well work on gauging the kinds of other people who've ended up here. She's not particularly pleased about being separated from Walküre, but it's going to be much harder to play lone wolf in a place she's entirely unfamiliar with, so she needs to identify the people who are reliable.]
no subject
Mobile suit. [The answer is prompt, because it's the truth. His gundam is just a specialized advanced mobile suit.] Most things. Fly one, can learn to fly them all.
[She might make a halfway decent mobile suit pilot with some work. She's not bad, good solid head on her shoulders and a good eye.]
[There's a pause.]
Do I need to explain what a mobile suit is?
[She has magic combat singing, they might not have mobile suits then. Valid question.]
no subject
I think I might have an idea, but I'd prefer to have it confirmed.
[There's even a similarity in some respects to his "fly one, learn to fly them all" remark - she remembers hearing that Hayate controlled his first variable fighter based on what he'd picked up piloting workroids. A lot of controls can cross over between machines, especially when some companies might have fingers in both civilian and military pies.]
no subject
There are multiple types of mobile suits. [This is probably the most he's going to talk in a while. She's quite lucky in that regards.] Different versions have different uses. Some are suited only to underwater combat, some excel at ground or air combat, and some are highly specialized for a specific user.
[There's no need to specify that he had one of those, it was a given. Ironically, he's the closest of his kind to the Valkyries and VFs she's used to back home.]
Mine had two forms. A more traditional jet and a more humanoid form. A hybrid type.
[And that's enough out of that. No more details, that's more than he's exposed to many about his suit. After all gundams are highly personal and... also highly secretive. They spent much of the war with the basic idea of anyone who saw their suits needed to die after all.
He says all this while still keeping an eye out for anything, but maybe the shots from before would be enough to give them a quiet ride.]
no subject
And then he mentions how his own machine works, and a slight smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. Likely a sign that her suspicion was confirmed, though perhaps even more so than she was expecting.]
Here I was thinking that they might be similar to the humanoid form of a variable fighter. Yours sounds almost identical to a variable fighter, which are used for basically all air combat where I come from.
[Unless it's something like a Macross-class and it's a variable carrier instead, or the occasional non-variable giant war spaceship. Before she can say too much more about that, though, a rumbling growl emerges from the trees to the left of them. Mikumo's head turns sharply, a difficult-to-read expression crossing her face. If this had been her own world, she should have heard any incoming creatures well before now, but her senses have felt dulled ever since she arrived. She'd initially hoped it was an aftereffect of however they were sedated, but she's starting to think not.]
no subject
[He finally agrees, nodding slightly. Though his gundam had firepower almost worthy of being Macross class, it wasn't anything so large. Just... overpowered.
The rumbling has him on alert instantly, but as yet he can see nothing to shoot at. Eyes straining in the dim light. So instead he focuses on his hearing, trying to get bearing by sound instead. He focuses, wishing he had Zero to tell him what to do, but he can't rely on the system now. Only his own senses. So after a few moments he fires. Misses, but he fires again almost immediately. There's a very loud yelp, but clearly he'd just injured the creature. But hopefully that would be enough.]
no subject
After the yelp, there's a scuffle of underbrush, and while Mikumo's hearing isn't as good as it once was, it doesn't sound like a charge. It does sound like the creature might be attempting to come closer, but cautiously, and if that speed remains, they're going to be well out of range of it before it comes after them.]
Seems to be plenty of opportunistic wildlife here. [Most of the planets she's worked on haven't had much, even when she has worked in more wild areas.]
no subject
Area feels fairly untouched, probably not used to dealing with... [He pauses and decides that human isn't necessarily the correct term.] People. [Better.]
Good to keep invasions at bay. [His lips turn up slightly in amusement. Seriously, did they hit anyone? Ridiculous.]] There aim is pretty bad.
no subject
After a few more swerves, the trees even out again, though the path seems to be curving more than it did before. Probably putting more forest between them and whatever civilisation their destination is trying to stay out of sight of.]
A surprising amount of militaries have terrible aim under pressure, it seems. But if they have the numbers, then averages might win out in the end. [Though there's still a certain amusement to her tone despite trying to be realistic about it.] The jungle itself would have to be a strong deterrent as well, if it's taking us this much effort to get where we're going even when we've got a guide.
[Even as she says that, she has to jump a ridge of rock and gnarled roots, the landing a little harder than she'd like even with preparation. It's not exactly a kind route, even to people who know what they're doing.]
no subject
Hm. [He thinks about this for a moment and then has to admit that it's true.] You might have a point.
[Who would have guessed that war might simply boil down to 'which side handles the pressure best'? Then again, his side 'won' and he literally self-destructed the first time things looked really bad. So.. maybe that's not fully it either.]
A good defensive strategy. [A pause.] Maybe they're even worse at flying than they are shooting.
[He's got jokes. Mikumo what did you do to activate his humor circuit?]
no subject
I would hope that these people had more sense than to hide their base under just a layer of foliage, or I might have to walk out as soon as we get there. [While there's only that ever-present faint humour to her tone as she says that, it seems she's taking up the joking as well.] Their technology level can't be too backwards, if they have vehicles like this.
[Even most land vehicles where she comes from are still wheeled ones, because it's just more practical for the most part.]
no subject
Why walk? Smarter to keep the craft.
[It depends on the terrain, the way this ride has been the hovercraft makes increasingly more sense the farther away they get from their starting point.]
no subject
At the very least, while the path is still messy, the section after those slalom trees is more about bumps and the occasional jutting rock, which means less throwing the ATV around to dodge things. The lead vehicle seems to be slowing down slightly, though it's hard to tell whether that's because there's a worse section coming up, or because they're getting closer to their destination.]
What do you think, are we getting close or is the next section so bad that even the experienced drivers have trouble?
no subject
[These clothes, while sufficiently covering, aren't exactly jungle-ready and the lack of something like a machete to help with clearing the way would make trying to travel pretty rough on foot.]
Hard to say. [They've been traveling for a while now, but it's not like they'd been given an ETA. On one hand, the more distance between them and the place they left the better. On the other light's starting to get lower and with the dimmer visibility the harder it's going to be to traverse the area or find any potential problem creatures.] Hope for the first.
[Thought if it gets too much worse than it has, he might volunteer to swap positions with her.]
no subject
The jungle does seem to be getting a little bit denser here, but it's largely in overhanging foliage and narrower gaps between trees than jutting rocks or terribly uneven ground. Line of sight isn't too bad yet, but there's definitely enough crowded plant life down the sides of their path that it's going to be harder to spot approaching wildlife against hearing them, even with the lower light aside.]
I'll keep an ear out on this side.