acatalepsy_ooc | test drive meme # 3

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test drive meme # 3

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test drive meme #3

It happens in the blink of an eye.

One moment, you are home. Perhaps you are with your family, perhaps you are at work. It's a completely normal day . . . and then, suddenly, your stomach drops. You are overcome with a sudden sense of vertigo. You cannot see up, or down, or where you are.

All you hear is a voice -- light, bubbly, warm, soothing, in your ear:

Don't worry, darling. This won't hurt a bit~ ♥

For those who recognize the voice, it will sound a bit strained. Possibly tired. But the moment happens so quickly it's hard to pin down, and once that moment is over, you fall flat on your face. It's bright, warm, and humid. It takes a few seconds for you to gain composure and catch your breath. You think, for half a moment, that a hand is on your back, rubbing between your shoulder blades in comfort, but when you open your eyes, no one is there. You are surrounded by ancient stone buildings, with carvings you do not recognize etched into the stone. There's a sense of nausea, overwhelming and sudden, when you realize you aren't in Kansas anymore.

Even worse, it looks like the tinier inhabitants of the Forest of the Fey are acting a little cheeky.

THE TEMPLE OF BEGINNINGS.

Welcome to the "Home Base" of Astoria's Circle. What the actual name of the base is called is lost to the ages, and there's no sense of where you could find it, unless you started asking around.

At any rate, this is a central hub of the Circle, a place of powerful magic and mysterious energy. It is a scattering of ancient stone buildings and for the most part, it looks abandoned . . . except for what seems to be a few items, some rooms taken, items moved or organized, even a small garden planted. These are just the smallest hints that there are people here that have been here before you arrived.

Overall, it's fairly beautiful. However, it is definitely not modern.

Upon exploration, you find that the buildings are kept up by some kind of magic. Some of the rooms have items, things from other Circle members already settled, and others appear to be unclaimed. Pick your rooms, explore the grounds, see the beauty and wonder all around you in such a magical place. However, be careful -- the sprites that reside within the Forest of the Fey seem to be exceptionally active, today, and tricks abound wherever you look.

KINGS AND QUEENS.

Typically, the sprites of the Forest of the Fey remain within the protective canopy of the surroundings. However, there seems to be something different in the air, and these little bastards are flitting about and giving out flower crowns to everyone. They are beautifully made, intricate and gloriously decorative, and most people would be happy to adorn one!

There's just one problem, though -- they don't come off. No matter how hard you try, those damn flower crowns are stuck on your head, and you cannot remove them no matter how hard you try. Hope you enjoy being a fairy princess for a day.

And, if you are alighted with a flower crown, your skin turns the same color as whatever flowers now sit upon your head. A wreath of blue roses? Congratulations, Violet Beauregard -- you're now as blue as a blueberry. The effect wears off in about an hour, and you can remove the flower crown then -- but have fun being every shade of the rainbow as the sprites take their time to torment the new arrivals.

BALLOONS FOR EVERYONE.

Normally, there are some animals that wander within the ancient stone buildings of the Temple. Tiny little white bats, sheep that grow on the vine . . . that sort of thing. However, the sprites have elected to add a little bit more flair the Temple, and balloon animals have invaded the living space. Where the sprites got the idea for balloon animals, no one can really be sure -- Astoria seems to think the sprites are waltzing through the spirit realm and seem to have garnered an idea there, whatever that's supposed to mean.

So, no matter where you go, there are balloon animals. Little dogs, brightly colored fish, dinosaurs, giraffes . . . except they seem to move, and make noise, and act like their real counterparts. Tiny balloon dogs nip at your heels, balloon fish flicker about in the waters that sprinkle themselves throughout the Forest, and balloon birds float through the skies.

Bonus? If you pop them, they explode into (biodegradable) glitter.

DECAYED DECADENCE.

Despite the shenanigans from the sprites, however, there seems to be something happening within the Temple that may be cause of concern. Flower crowns and balloon animals aside, there seem to be odd spots of the Temple that suddenly wilt . . . flowers that bend over and wither at a moment's notice, saplings that seem to creak as if suddenly dried from the inside out . . . and it seems, oddly enough, that it happens whenever you, an Arrival, get closer to the wild life.

Astoria seems to think that something is wrong . . . perhaps something the Circle members brought back from their last trip. An illness, or something more? Care to poke about and see how far you're willing to take it? Or does your magical gift enable the protection of plant growth? Try out your green thumb and see if you can help.

COMMUNICATIONS.

Upon arriving, you will notice on whichever is your non-dominant hand, you will have a fairly simply screen. A smart watch, if you will. Upon exploration, you will find that it has a directory of all those here with you at the Temple of Beginnings- names, and access to a direct message to them. The watch also has video, audio, and text capabilities, as well as what looks like a collection of messages sent to everyone who wishes to open them. This is your 'network', and also how Astoria can reach out and communicate with you.

There is nothing keeping you from removing and/or losing your watch! But remember that you will not have access to this network without it.

OOC: Also feel free to join us and other possible players on our discord server!

enjoy! ♥

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Swinging a blade at something that lives, wants to live, has a life– wishes, whims, and desires– it makes her feel more like herself, it gives her purpose. She is twice dead, but offered no mercy by this world because her blood still flows and her pulse beats angrily in her ears.

Her body begs to move, unable to sit still, unable to be comfortable with all these signs that she lives still.

Zero stumbles backwards at the force, swinging her sword and missing, but parrying the blade at the last second with her left arm. A2's sword does not cut away at flesh– Zero's arm clangs against the blade, vibrating uncomfortably as Zero pulls back. ]

Miss Stick Up Her Ass tells jokes, does she?

[ Her feet jump apart, her metal hand braced against the ground as she crouches. There is something feral in the way she smiles– sword more a claw than weapon. ]

Cute.

[ She jumps again, feinting a kick aimed at A's head and then swinging her sword. ]

[Her blade hitting metal instead of flesh and bone surprises her, sends unpleasant vibrations up the sword, makes her teeth snap together. There's a mean sort of flintiness that fills her eyes now, something sparking to life beneath the weary flatness that had been there before.

She's never seen a human with a prosthetic. So her nearest approximation then, is one of the androids like those in the Resistance, piecing their bodies back together from scrap metal and the remnants of comrades. This excites her, and though she loathes the feeling, she can't help but reach for it too. It's familiar.

She rears back at the kick, flipping backward before the sword can hit her, skidding back and landing on one knee, hard. Pain lances up her leg from the force of it, a new and unwelcome sensation, but she shakes it off.

Her movement has left grooves in the ground that look too deep, as if she weighs far more than she appears to. She runs forward, swinging again, and Pod buzzes behind her, taking in this fight and compiling an appropriate response.]

Alert: Combat in this instance is illogical. A2 is advised to cease and desist, or encounter the risk of further bodily harm.

Don't you ever shut the hell up? [This is directed toward both Zero and Pod as she brings her sword down.]

[ She has barely a second to startle silently at the way A2's feet dig into the ground before the other woman is on her again. The adrenaline thumps out a loud and painful metronome that she can hear in her ears and taste on her tongue.

It doesn't matter if this woman is human or not– anything that lives, anything that wants to live, falls all the same if you hit it enough (if you fight harder than its will to live).

The flower is little more than an ornament now. It offers no strength in exchange for a place to take root– so when A2 brings her sword down, Zero finds herself unable to hold her off with her sword alone. She brings her metal arm up, maneuvering it between the both of their blades. ]

What? Getting tired of me already–?

[ She has to dig her feet into the ground as she shifts all of her weight onto her prosthetic arm. Metal against metal against metal screeches loudly, almost excessively, like it needs to make its presence known. Zero lets out a yell, guttural and loud, as she pushes A2's blade away with her arm and sword.

Shards of sharp black metal fly back with it; the fingers on her metal hand are left splintered and jagged. Zero seems not to notice, lunging again while she still has a chance. ]

Better shut me up then. Better swing that nice big sword and you better make it count– better kill me in one shot. Who knows what I'll do if you don't.

[Unaccustomed to this sort of trash talking during a fight, all it does is infuriate her, which is...essentially one of her two modes of operation. Her thoughts run parallel to Zero's, which is a fact she will likely never know, and won't acknowledge even if she somehow did. In this, they reach an understanding, one communicated through violence: it's kill or be killed.

Her sword hits metal again, and this time it's enough to at least slow her down, because one of the flying pieces of shrapnel hits her right in the eye.

She jerks back, reflexively, and although her eyes aren't like a human's the injury is enough to knock her visibility out of whack. Not that it matters though, because she's crazy and just swings her sword again —

At which point, with the most awful timing in the universe, one of the terrible balloon birds flits airily between them. It's a seagull or something, but it doesn't matter because its short life is over the moment A2's sword comes down —

And douses her and Zero in glitter.]

What the fuck —

[ The smart thing to do would be to dodge. She knows already she's outclassed in sheer strength, it wouldn't take much for A2 to slice her in half. But she is undeterred, perhaps a little exhilarated at the prospect of meeting her blow for blow and seeing just how far she gets.

That's the only thing she knows how to do, after all.

And so, that's what she does. ]

[ Except um, a stupid fucking bird happens to fly over them at the worst possible moment and before Zero even lands the stupid thing explodes its glitter guts all over them.

Zero coughs and spits up glitter. ]

Good going, asshole. Talk about killing the fucking mood.

[ She takes the corner of her cape and uses it to literally scrub the glitter off her tongue. The absolute picture of grace– she pauses mid tongue scrub to look critically at A2, a sort of shit-eating smile taking over her features. ]

You look so stupid right now.

[ Between the colors, and glitter, and crown.

Never mind that she's, yeah. ]

[Her eye hurts, she, her sword and Pod are covered in golden glitter, and she's covered in a piebald lavender pattern. There's a stupid flower crown on her head.

She's well aware of how stupid she looks, but she narrows her eyes (well, eye - she's covering the other one with her hand) at Zero anyway, before making a disgusted face at the sight of her scrubbing glitter off her tongue. Elegant, refined...]

Have you seen yourself?

[ Zero blows a raspberry, mostly in an attempt to get the last of the glitter off her tongue since her mouth was wide-fucking-open when the balloon bird went kaboom. Kind of mocking A2 in the process is just an added bonus. ]

Obviously not, dumbass. And it's not like that changes what you look like.

[ The mood has passed, and any satisfaction she might get out of killing A2 (or being killed by A2) is no longer viable. So she sheathes her sword, pausing to glance at her damaged metal fingers.]

For an uppity bitch you sure do know how to let loose when you wanna'. Repressed girls like you are always the worst.

[In response to that, A2's eyes narrow. But her sword disappears to land back into the circular lock at her back after a pause as well. The mood is shot. The fight had been absurd and pointless before, but only right now is she fully convinced of its pointlessness, mostly because she looks like a moron and Zero is still alive enough to annoy her.

She doesn't know what she means by "uppity," or "repressed" (???) but she's got enough context clues to know they're an insult.]

You really never shut up, huh. [A long-suffering sigh. She studies her, curious now that they aren't trying to murder each other.] What are you supposed to be, anyway?

What do you mean what am I supposed to be?

[ She says this but she knows there's a number of things the other woman could be referring to.

Truthfully, she's not really sure how to answer that question herself anymore. She hasn't known for awhile. ]

Human? I guess? Physically, anyway.

[ She casts a look towards the deep grooves in the dirt, created from the pressure of A2's feet alone. ]

And you?

[The influence of the flower crown on her head begins to fade, gratefully. The lavender bleeds out slowly into her true skin color, and she brings a hand up, watching this magical phenomenon for a few moments instead of answering Zero right away.

Another human. Each one was stranger than the last, though she is grateful the fight ended before she did the unthinkable.]

An android. [She reaches up to pluck the crown off her head. It pops off easily, like it hadn't been practically welded there for an hour.]

[ Zero watches the color dissipate from A2's skin wordlessly, only remembering the crown on her head half way through the process. She shrugs it off and grinds it into the ground with the tip of her shoe.

If she didn't hate flowers before.. ]

Don't know what that is.

[ Zero says simply, dismissively. ]

But whatever you are, it looks like you've got a few neat tricks under your belt. Show me some more next time– when there's no shitty balloon animals to give you an excuse to pussy out.

[Watching this casual destruction of the flowers makes A2 uncomfortable, beneath the veneer of indifferent disregard she's taken on. She does not do the same to her own crown, letting it dangle loosely between her fingers.

She doesn't like this human. Not that she was especially fond of any of them (she would like to think), but this one blares danger, like an animal painted bright colors. She doesn't clarify what an android is - it would take too long to explain, and she doesn't think this person deserves it.]

I had the upper hand. [She says bluntly, because it's true. She blinks hard once, twice. Her eye still hurts - likely metal grazed and cut against it - but it's nothing that would slow her down too much.] You must really want to die.

[ The crown is nearly pulp under her foot, but she doesn't stop– grinding it against stone and dirt in an almost incessant, restless manner. ]

So?

[ It's hard to tell which of her statements she's addressing. In the end, it doesn't really matter all that much. ]

I'm already dead, stupid. Can't want what you already have.

[ She says it like it's the most obvious thing in the world. Like anyone should be able to smell the non-existent decay and dusty bones. ]

Consider it a favor– to help you loosen up. You look like you need it.

[This is the second human she's heard say this, and feels a flare of anger, brief, but intense and bright. So much for fighting for humanity, dying for them. "Glory to mankind," her ass. They didn't even give a damn if they lived or not, welcomed death like it was a bizarre sport. This one tortured things for no apparent reason. The other one ran into lightning like an idiot, and both spouted pseudo-philosophical bullshit about already being dead.

Say nothing of the others, all risking harm to save androids and worthless machines masquerading as androids.]

I don't need any favors from you. And you aren't dead, obviously.

Says who? You?

[ She is and she isn't.

Executed, revived– by thin threads, puppet strings masquerading as life lines. Sealed away and brought here.

But she knows death had come even before all of that.

Zero's foot comes to a sudden stop, though it stays in place for a moment– and then she closes the distance between the both of them, stops when she stands right in front of her. ]

Why the fuck does it matter to you anyway? Dead, alive, who cares? Hell– weren't you trying to kill me like.. two minutes ago?

You're breathing, and you're conscious - enough to be a pain in the ass. Sounds alive to me.

[She crosses her arms when Zero approaches, head tilted slightly as if in challenge, but she merely holds her ground.] I'm correcting you. Doesn't mean I care.

[ She raises a brow but says nothing, almost as if her thoughts come to a full stop at that sentiment.

And then she smiles, though it carries no warmth– no mirth. ]

Guess you've been dead for a long time, if you think that's all it means to be alive.

[To that A2 has no answer, but the empty coldness of her gaze speaks volumes.

...

She inclines her head in Pod's direction, who bobs a little closer to her, and they both wordlessly make to leave.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

test drive meme # 3

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