nolandspam | TEST DRIVE MEME

Entry tags:

TEST DRIVE MEME

NOTES:

IF BOTH CHARACTERS APP IN AND AGREE, THREADS USING PROMPT 1 CAN BE COUNTED AS GAME CANON.
PLEASE READ THE FAQ TO DECIDE YOUR ORGANIC FORM BEFORE POSTING!

PROMPT 1: ARRIVAL

You awake laying on your back in an, admittedly comfortable, pod. You can't move anything but your eyes, can't even feel your body yet. How you got here or why is a blank. You may have been in the middle of your day, asleep, or even- for what you remember- should be dead. Then a screen directly in front of your face flickers to life and in crisp, black and white displays: DON'T PANIC. The following video then plays:

Watch on YouTube

The screen flickers again and reads: CONGRATULATIONS ON PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE! WELCOME TO VAULT LIFE, CITIZEN. WELCOME TO YEAR: [ERROR]. YOUR PERSONAL BELONGINGS ARE LOCATED IN [FILE CORRUPTED. SEE SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR]. ENJOY YOUR STAY AND THANK YOU FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT VAULT-TEC.

The pod then unseals and you are able to, unstably at first, climb out of the pod. Your body may feel foreign for a moment- perhaps entirely foreign if you suddenly find yourself a human, ghoul, or super mutant for the first time. But whatever your form, you have two items on: a bright blue jumpsuit with the number 66 in yellow on the back, and a mechanical device known as a Pip-boy sealed onto your arm. If you click on the buttons it takes you to an instruction screen.

You look around to find yourself in a room of other pods. Some are just opening, other people looking as confused as you climbing out. Others remain closed with the status of 'STASIS' on the screens attached to the pods. The rest of the room is less than impressive. Computer systems that seem out of place compared to the technology level of the pods are scattered across the room, apparently running the chambers. Trying to access them, even for the most talented hacker, will simply result in SEE OVERSEER being displayed. There is large metal door leading to the rest of the vault, a lever on the wall next to it that will cause it to open.

Welcome, dweller, to vault 66.

PROMPT 2: SETTLING IN

The living quarters of the vault leave something to be desired. While the current occupants of the vault have made some improvements, it's hard to ignore the pile of skeletons placed into storage (it’s a pretty impressive pile) and the mildew on the beds. It's clear that whatever happened to the last occupants of the vault, whoever they were, it wasn't exactly a peaceful end. The medical wing has some of the worst blood splatter...but that at least you can pretend was from needed medical interventions. Right?

Thankfully, the Vault has power at least. The juke box in the recreation area cheerfully pumps out some jazzy tunes and the refrigerators are happily humming along. There's also clean, if very mineral tasting, water in the sinks, toilets, and showers. There's a pool table if someone can relax enough for a game and doesn't mind the fact it looks like a pool cue shoved in the eye socket may have caused the death of a couple of the previously mentioned skeletons. Further, the kitchen is stocked with some food! It's all pre-apocalypse or some newly collected ‘meat’ (ask the current residents if you want to know), hyper preserved canned goods and sugary cereals that somehow haven't gone bad yet, but it's something.

Today all the local robots have been recalled by the newly found ‘Captain’ to undergo mandatory repairs and maintenance. They’re locked away in the Overseers office, leaving only the human residents to great the newly awakened dwellers. Or to do any of the other day to day tasks in the vault, like make food or keep things tidy. The pool table was cleaned before Louis took off, leaving a fine game open for people to try.

PROMPT 3: A Literal Exodus

The Vault opening earlier in the month lead to a few unintended side effects. First, of course, were the giant mirelurks and their young that had to be fought off. A few weeks later, though, there's a new one: frogs. In the now standing two feet of radioactive water in the entrance area, what used to be eggs in the water turned into tadpoles, then turned into frogs. Not super huge killer frogs or ones that shoot acid, mind you. Just somewhat ugly frogs, occasionally ones with two heads or eight legs or some other small mutation. And without their normal predators around (radroaches don't swim), they're starting to venture into the vault at a somewhat biblical plague level.

Dwellers can find them everywhere, in the food stores, in their beds, merrily croaking in the toilets. Sometimes they can gang up and take out a radroach or two (good for them), but more often or not the roaches will win, meaning even more of these insects are venturing into the open to snatch up these free meals. So the occasional radraoch in the bed may be happening too as they chase down a froggy snack.

Captain Simmons has requested the frogs be herded back into the entry way and that dwellers start working on a way to drain the radioactive water out of the area, but it's not much of a priority. For now, enjoy the newest Vault pets- or eat them, race them, or just get used to waking up to them bouncing on your pillow.

PIP-BOY CHATTER

Post text or audio messages to the pip-boy network to get to know your fellow dwellers!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She has always been very fast. And before her pod's door has even opened fully she has punched a hole in it, ripping it from its hinges, and leapt down to the floor, with the door ready to use as a shield or a club, whichever is necessary. She has never had to suddenly wake up before. And with her robotic strength, there's not any good explanation for how she got here.

After a moment to scan the room, she puts the door down, turning her attention from the current threat level - apparently none - to the machinery that is, apparently, now bonded to her directly. She tries, immediately, to peel it off - but it is bolted directly to her reinforced, artificial arm bones. She'd have to detach the limb to get it off. Interesting.

She had just been getting onto her own feet, too, finding her way in the universe. The only Human Replica Droid who can fight, or kill. And just figuring out who she was away from the malign influence of Black Sun.

Time to explore, try to find whoever is responsible, and see if she can't hammer her way to freedom.

"Are you done? Because if you still plan on using that door to hit someone I can wait out here."

Azula had made a habit of walking the length of the vault each day, memorizing it's layout, the little nooks and crannies that might be useful to her some day if she should need to stage a mutiny, or an escape.

As it happened she heard the noise and came to investigate. She peered her head around the door, sharp eyes studying the newest member of their ragtag little community.

"And before you ask, I'm not responsible for any of this. I woke up in one of those pods same as you."

"Almost," she replied, her voice calm. Almost unnaturally so.

She picked up the door again, and without any apparent effort ripped the inner layer away from the outer. She spent a few moments trying to identify parts, to scavenge what she could. But it was all so...foreign. Nothing made sense. Aside from a few tiny power sources, which she picked out, just in case. Waste not, want not.

"I doubted you were," she finally replied, standing tall again, "you don't seem the type."

She doesn't elaborate on what that means. But more that her advanced scanners are pretty good at picking up when baseline humans are lying. It doesn't work so good on Hutts. But then again, they're almost always lying. They get nervous when they have to tell the truth.

"I'd take offense to that but you're right. If this were my scheme this entire room would be much cleaner."

Stepping into the pod room properly she was able to size up the newcomer more thoughtfully. Strong, willing to be aggressive but not out of control. More then a human which was something new to the Vault.

"I am Princess Azula, and I suppose since I'm here I can attempt to answer some of the questions you have. But I should warn you most of us are still learning. I've only been awake a couple months."

Her attitude reminded her of Savan, the niece of Prince Xizor. It might be a cover, an act - humans did that all too often, she found, even when it was completely unnecessary. For the moment, she filed her under the category of 'harmless - to be watched.'

What Azula would see would be a woman of slightly above average height. Fit, but not obviously muscular. Blond hair, blue eyes - for all the world she would look like any number of women from Earth. So much like a woman in fact that she could fool all but the best medical scanners. She supposed she was actually a woman, if indeed an artificial one. She had a spark of something more than a droid, she knew that much.

"I am Guri," she replied, taking in the room again, hands folding behind her back, out of the way. "But yes, I believe you can help me. What planet is this?"

Perhaps her intuition was off, the longer she studied Guri the harder it became to pinpoint what was setting off her warning bells. But this one was at least interesting.

"From what I can gather it's called "Earth" though we are in a place called "The Vault." Some kind of dwelling meant to protect us from a war that destroyed the surface. I believe you may have seen a video in that pod?"

At the time Azula hadn't understood much of the video but looking back on it now the pieces were coming together.

"Are you familiar with the energy called "Radiation"?"

"Earth," she repeats, shaking her head slightly. "Who names their world after dirt?"

But she had seen the video, though it made precious little sense to her. It had been so...routine about the idea of their world ending. It implied there was profit to that ending. Strange.

She leaps up on top of one of the pods, to get a closer look at what she thinks is a camera, long, well-formed legs appearing around her skirt. Her clothing is clearly designed for her to move. She answers from up there, poking at it, to see if anything happens.

"And I am familiar, yes," she says, unconcerned. It might, might affect her skin after some time - but the rest of her could go until her internal power runs out. Which, unless the thing on her arm has made any changes, would take a year, if she conserves. Presuming she doesn't hook up to a power supply.

Azula arched an eyebrow at her movements, her outfit and folded her arms attempting to look casual.

"Curious. The rest of us woke up in these jumpsuits. Perhaps they ran out when it came time to put you in your pod." She noted thinking about the rows and rows of jumpsuits down the hall in storage. She preferred trousers to skirts herself but none of the clothing down here was to her standards.

"In my world we'd never heard of it, but apparently this world is full of it." She held up her arm which had a device that matched the one on Guri's arm.

"This device can warn you when the levels are too high which is often. It also has a number of useful little features you might enjoy when you take some time with it." She toggled a switch a few times till music started playing from her Pip-boy. She turned if off after a moment.

A skirt like that served two purposes. The twin slits kept her legs unrestrained. And it was distracting, when she needed it to be, with a whole range of organics. On occasions of infiltration, every advantage had to be considered.

"Possibly," she responded, thumping back down to the floor, legs not bending as they ought to, really, from such a height.

"Such as?" she asked, referring to the other features - radiation not being terribly much of a concern for her. Then she tilted her head. "What is that music?"

Azula watched with fascination at the way this...woman? Moved. She was something unique that was for sure.

"The music is one of the features this device has. Another is a communication network with the others who live here. You'll figure the rest out when you're ready I'm sure."

Mostly because Azula knew that her understanding of technology was limited. The less she had to explain the better.

"There is another music box in the common area we all share. I have been informed that despite appearances there are no tiny men inside the device singing these songs we can hear. It's all electric somehow."

Nailed it Azula. 10 points.

"It shouldn't be hard," she responded, pressing a few buttons, experimentally.

And ah, not from a technologically advanced world, unless the stereotypical jokes about Agamar were true, at least. But that reminds her.

"I was on my ship," he says, "the Stinger. I was traveling between worlds...do you know what happened to it?" She then adjusts her aim a little bit, just in case. "It would look like a pod, but bigger, then with a body attached. Shaped like a quasi-flattened wine barrel?"

It's as close as she was ever going to get on that one.

"No ships. At least none that I've seen. And I've been up on the surface. Lots of poisoned radioactive water. No ships." She confirmed though in her head she was imagining a very different type of ship.

"Most of our personal effects have been taken from us. Either hidden away or removed completely. You'll have to start over until we figure out how to return to our homes."

"I don't need anything else," she replied, with something akin to a sigh.

She finally properly approached Azula, prodding about at the Pip-Boy.

"So the objectives must be to find out who is responsible, then see if they have my ship."

She is very much a mission-oriented sort.

"Incorrect."

If that was the way this new girl wanted to look at things? So be it.

"A simplistic goal like that might be easily misled. For the time being Vault Tec can be blamed for our situation until we find proof of someone specific.

Instead, our objectives are to continue to explore our surroundings, expand out power and dominion over the area, and use that power to find a way to return to our previous lives."

And now she was rapidly sliding into Xizor territory. Power and dominion? Really? Dominion?

"Perhaps, but I've been active for less than five minutes."

This one bore watching, definitely. She really, really hoped she wouldn't have to deal with anybody here. Using violence to solve her problems was yesterday's Guri.

Not that she couldn't, when her punch was like being hit by a concentrated freight train, but it wasn't preferred.

"Give me an hour to survey the vault, I can respond accurately."

"You can have longer then that. Things move slowly here so take as long as you need to come to your own conclusions."

She gestured to the door allowing Guri the chance to lead them from the room if she so chose.

"While you explore, be sure to chose a room to your liking as well in the dorm area. We've cleaned some of them, removed the bodies and such but if you find one we missed you can move it to the "trash" room."

And she moved through it without hesitation, watching everything carefully. Then, because some old habits die hard, she gestures at Azula to go first. It looks polite and deferential.

It absolutely isn't.

"To clarify: these bodies were already there, or...?"

Because if she's trapped in here with a homicidal lunatic, things are going to get interesting very fast.

"Ugh please. As if I would have wasted my time on them. Yes they were long dead before we woke up." She gestured to the hallway which...while clean still had some signs of age to it.

She was comfortable taking the lead though once she had the newcomer behind her she tensed up as if expecting to be attacked.

"The former residents of this vault in theory, had a disagreement with each other over what this place should be used for and killed each other off in the conflict. All we did was move their skeletons to a room out of the way."

Well, that reaction implied some cleverness, at least. In a confined space, with nowhere for an enemy to maneuver, Guri could do a colossal amount of damage in a very short time. And so she folds her hands behind her back, adopting the most non-threatening posture she can.

"Don't humans usually have elaborate burial rituals? Granted, if you're trapped in here, I can see how that might have been put in abeyance."

There's a telling word in that sentence, really.

Azula appreciated the gesture. She did not relax all that much but she hasn't been able to properly relax in a couple of years so this isn't new.

"We do normally yes, though I've never been particularly interested in them I know the rituals of my nation and how we honor our dead. These people however were not of my Nation." After a pause she added "Also we couldn't leave the vault until recently so there wasn't really anywhere to put them to rest."

And no one really seemed interested in it.

"For the record, am I to infer that you are something other then human? You wouldn't be our first but it's just nice to know."

"More than, and yet not," she replied, it being the simplest of all possible explanations.

"But I see - even in this setting, I must say that I expected them to form at least some sort of crypt. The lack of which would infer a dire situation indeed."

"Ooo mysterious." Azula's voice danced with a blend of sarcasm and amusement. "Well when you feel like opening up about it you'll find plenty of willing ears. Most of our residents are fairly welcoming and soft." She paused and then added "But when you meet Jiro you'll quickly figure out he is not interested."

It was honestly one of his better traits.

"While I can't speak for the dead or those who built this place, I can say by the time I came out of my pod they'd already established a designated room for bones. I suppose you could call it a crypt for now."

"Not so much that as difficult to explain, to one unfamiliar."

Besides, there were a lot of species - a lot of them - who had issues with non-organic life.

"Welcoming and soft," she repeats. "I presume that is not a compliment."

Azula actually chuckled there. "Well you might be right there. I still struggle to figure out some of these new machines that my world didn't have."

As for the second part she glances back at Guri over her shoulder.

"Perhaps not, but it depends on how much value you put on such things. I think it suits them."

"I suppose that is all of us, sooner or later, in some way. I was fortunate enough to experience...something akin to magic, where I am from. Something the universe thought was gone. I still cannot comprehend it, but it changed my life regardless."

"And how do you mean?"

TEST DRIVE MEME

Guri | Star Wars Expanded Universe

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I botched the clothing thing, thanks for rolling with me on it, I hadn't noticed. :P

That's ok, I figured you just needed a nudge.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

So how's my driving so far? I've never really done a game test drive. :P

Slid into your DMs with a response but I think you're cool :D

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)