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acatamods. ([personal profile] acatamods) wrote in [community profile] acatalepsy_ooc2018-08-20 11:54 pm
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test drive meme # 3







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! ♥
undeserved: (were out on patrol)

i FORGOT how cute this tag was until i came back to it... SIMON!!!

[personal profile] undeserved 2018-08-29 02:48 am (UTC)(link)
[ if she weren't used to him and also a battle-hardened combat robot, she might be a little unnerved by him coming towards her without a word; as things stand, she's still a little uncertain, even going as far as shifting an inch back before he makes contact.

Unsurprisingly, she's not used to getting hugged. In fact, Simon is probably the first person to ever do so. She tenses up, awkwardly freezing in place. It's not that she doesn't know what he's doing; it's just that it's so unexpected and so utterly unfamiliar that she hardly knows how to react, especially with so much else on her mind. ]


... Simon?

[ She repeats his name, questioning, a little confused, a little awkward. Maybe something bad happened? He's not usually like this. 2B isn't callous enough to ignore this and shove him aside, even for 9S's sake. ]
theseuschip: (D( 3SIM0NzV+ ;~P/Vlq½)

(⚈້͈͡ ͜ʖ⚈້͈͡)

[personal profile] theseuschip 2018-09-01 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
[ When he pulls back it’s a bit awkwardly. It’s not so much her reaction - were Simon to try to predict 2B’s response to being hugged, bewilderment and a lack of reciprocation is pretty much exactly what he’d expect - as it is that it seems to be asking for an explanation. One that he’s not about to give, ever. ]

You’re- [ his eyes shift in his brief search for a good ending to this sentence, which lands on the only real candidate there is- ] here.

[ a pause, then, when he notes the conspicuous absence of the little robot usually floating around her: ] Where’s your Pod?

[ simon don’t turn into the multiverse equivalent of that friend who only comes over to play with your dog ]
undeserved: (it hurts to think of them)

[personal profile] undeserved 2018-09-02 05:53 am (UTC)(link)
[ it's fine, it's nothing she doesn't already know about. Sorry she didn't tell you that she was dead, buddy.

Her unspoken question is largely unanswered, but she can surmise that something happened, even if she doesn't know what. It's not a stretch to guess that it's the same "something" that happened to her and put her in this place rather than their next mission. Her first guess is that maybe she's the only familiar face around for him - hence the strong reaction. The idea makes her insides twist. Funny how she has the ability to feel such an emotion when she doesn't even have insides. ]


It's not with me. [ it's weird that Simon is asking about that, too, but she doesn't pay it too much mind. She doesn't know where Pod went, either. Yet another thing putting her on edge. ] ... Have you been alone here?
theseuschip: (aAbxNREMAIN_ug Z Wa7)

[personal profile] theseuschip 2018-09-02 08:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[ From Simon’s perspective it seems like it would be weird to be without the Pods, since they’re always just... around. But when he showed up here he assumed everyone who hadn’t was simply back at Headquarters, which isn’t a bad place to be, so he figures she must be doing the same. ]

There’s hardly anybody from Hathaway around, but Nines is here.

[ Because hey, that’s what she really wants to know. And he accompanies that with a tilt of the head toward the door — like unspoken I-won’t-think-you’re-rude permission for her to stroll right out of it and end this conversation to look for the guy, or text him, or whatever.

Not that he doesn’t have more questions, but now that he got the good answer to IS 2B DEAD? they suddenly feel sort of extraneous in comparison. ]
undeserved: (i dry out completely)

[personal profile] undeserved 2018-09-03 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
[ he can trust that it is absolutely weird, and she's worried about where it went, since it's not exactly designed to be out on its own. The idea that it might be with A2 where she "left it" doesn't cross her mind, seeing as it had stayed with her in Hathaway. However, at least for the moment, she puts her worries about Pod 042 aside; Simon confirms 9S is here, and 2B breathes out a quiet sigh of relief. ]

Good.

[ it's selfish of her to be glad he's trapped here with her, she knows, and yet she's fairly certain he would be wishing the same if their positions were switched; after talking with him before, she doesn't feel as guilty about these selfish wishes.

If he's here, though, she'll find him eventually; were she speaking with anyone but Simon, she probably would run off to get him, but she does have a connection to him - she cares about him. So she stays put, seeming to relax just slightly. ]


It doesn't seem like this place or that woman have anything to do with Hathaway. We should be careful.

[ 2B is running on the false assumption that he also just showed up here. It's only logical. Which isn't worth much, considering there are magic balloon pigeons flying around, but. ]
theseuschip: (how dare you i love breathing oxygen)

[personal profile] theseuschip 2018-09-07 04:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Uh, yeah. They don’t. She’s not exactly running the tightest ship, but-

[ she’s not really acting like she hasn’t seen Simon or 9S in weeks, though, which is pretty much what it takes to remind him of how they were told that time in their own worlds would stop while they were in Hathaway’s service. ]

Wait, did time freeze back there? We’ve been here for weeks.

[ It was never particularly relevant to him when he was actually there, not when he had Catherine, in Omnitool form, and then Catherine... but not in the Omnitool... whatever. The point is, it’s not as if Earth could miss him. ]
undeserved: (right in front of me)

[personal profile] undeserved 2018-09-08 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
[ that makes her frown, even if she can put the pieces together almost immediately. It's easy to guess that something strange has happened travelling between dimensions when it's already happened to you once.

It's a nuisance, but not too troublesome for her. She just hopes 9S managed to hold it together all right for those few weeks. ]


A few hours ago, I was supposed to have arrived at our next mission destination. After Drakstaden.

[ She'd seen him and 9S then, too. Clearly, something went wrong. Maybe that's why he embraced her like that...? Was her absence really that keenly felt? It's... hard to imagine, mattering that much to anyone. 9S was a bizarre exception. ]
theseuschip: (ok but when i imagined the apocalypse)

[personal profile] theseuschip 2018-09-14 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[ he goes still and eyes her, the eerie lights roaming as if trying to find her expression underneath the not-blindfold. ] I don’t remember that. We’d just-

[ Whether it’s some sort of weird timeline thing or something else, the idea of another Simon running around where — Simon thinks — he’s supposed to be, doing stuff he had no knowledge of, sits as well as it ever did. Which is not very, even when this other Simon is also a sad swamp robot. Is everyone remaining at Hathaway en route to their next mission, right now, with 2B and 9S and Simon, while all three of them are here? ]

-Never mind.

[ time to not think about that!! ] Anyway, compared to Ophelia, it feels like this group’s half robots. You might actually like it.

[ This is based only on Simon’s knowledge from their oblique conversations that 2B felt perpetually out of place in Hathaway’s service. Even if he’s sure she’ll miss it, too. It was... organized. ]
undeserved: (those kinds of dreams again)

[personal profile] undeserved 2018-09-16 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[ his "expression" is impossible to read; 2B is left only guessing what's going through his mind. Upset about losing memories? For her, the idea of duplicate bodies and various instances of herself is commonplace enough that she doesn't even think to associate it with shifting timelines. ]

... Is that better?

[ she also doesn't feel particularly relieved hearing that most of the people here are robots (if they can be called people) - after all, her sworn enemies had been machines for almost her entire life. She tilts her head at him. ]
theseuschip: (_NRECLAIMug Z  Wa7)

[personal profile] theseuschip 2018-09-16 06:52 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Is it? Simon thought it would be, possibly mainly because he’s unable to shake all of his humancentric perspective and failing to consider that 2B would have about as much in common with some robots as she has with any human. Still, that one distinction’s always seemed important to them. ]

Well, it might be less isolating than being the only two androids in a guild full of humans.

[ as he remembers the other of the important distinctions, he adds, ] They’re not all androids, but they’re not “machines”.

[ The edge that might be in his tone if he were talking to 9S is absent. Enemy machines, and that learned difference between them and androids that allows YoRHa androids to kill them, are no less elements of 2B’s life, but she’s never been as... ...vocal about it. ]
undeserved: (i couldn't hold them in)

[personal profile] undeserved 2018-09-19 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
[ Less isolating... She wonders. Simon had always been a little bit easier for her to talk to, even if she knew that he was really a human (or she considers him one, anyway); he fell somewhere between human and android, and she was less inclined to put him on a pedestal high above herself because of it. Yet her worldview is so narrow that she has a hard time even imagining what an interaction with a mechanical being that falls outside of the machine-android dichotomy might be like. Maybe it would be equal, familiar, like he suggests.

Or maybe it would just be sad.

2B does hold some lingering resentment towards the machines after what they did - but hers is not nearly as blinding and all-encompassing as 9S'. Her apathy towards the war smothered whatever fires of hatred might have burned in her before. She just shakes her head. ]


Most of the machines aren't intelligent enough to be recruited for something like this. [ if they can call this "recruiting." ] Why are there so many... "robots?"

[ it feels like an archaic term to use... ]