nolandspam | TEST DRIVE MEME

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TEST DRIVE MEME

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IF BOTH CHARACTERS APP IN AND AGREE, THREADS USING PROMPT 1 CAN BE COUNTED AS GAME CANON.
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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:

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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

"Hey there! Just take a deep breath."

The panicked look in this boy's eyes is getting more and more familiar to Zhao Yunlan -- well, the look in the eye that's easier to read, anyway; the other's in the middle of a scar that looks worse than Fire's. That's a hell of a thing to see. Kid's lucky he didn't lose the eye.

Yunlan steps away from the door, spreading his hands, open and empty. He's in a blue jumpsuit, twin to Zuko's except for the mud stains and a few unmended rips, with a jacket of home-tanned, sparsely furred leather over it.

"This place is a lot to take in, I know. But we're all friendly here. What's your name?"

The greeting has Zuko jumping back, his right fist pulled back high, as if he's ready to throw an odd punch from roughly shoulder-height. He stands there for a moment, tense, until he takes in the raised empty hands. Slowly, he drops his fist.

"What's going on?"

Deep breathes, yeah. That's a good idea. "Zuko." He says it abruptly. "My name's Zuko."

"Zhao Yunlan." He doesn't recognize the stance the kid had taken, but weird though it might be, a punch is a punch, and he doesn't step forward to offer a handshake until he's sure Zuko's relaxed enough not to hit him for it.

Hand extended, he continues, tone easy and casual. "I've only been here a couple months myself, but from what we can tell, this's a bunker made for people to wait out nuclear war. They froze a bunch of us, and the ones who were awake ended up fighting each other over some experiments some of 'em were running. Nasty stuff, people wound up dead from the experiments and then everybody wound up dead by the time the fighting was over. That was a long time ago, but hey, just so you know, if you find any stray skeletons... they go in the storeroom next to the dorms, with the rest of 'em.

"About three months back, the people they froze in those pods started waking up, and here we are! There's food, there's water, there's some robots to help with chores and maintenance, and if you sweet-talk the boss robot he'll even let you go up top and poke around. It's a nasty radioactive swamp up there, but there's people. And giant mutant crabs, but the people are nicer to talk to."

He's an idiot. He could have at least given this Zhao - and sorry about the reflexive scowl at that particular name - the moniker he'd used while roaming the Earth Kingdom. He has no idea who these people are or what they want with him and he's lived through too many assassination attempts to not be at least a little more careful.

Idio-- wait, what? "Stray skeletons?" Wariness gives way to confusion (though near-panic is definitely also still present.) He did listen to the rest, but he might have to hear that again.

He catches that wince; well, Zhao's not a rare name. Apparently Zuko's had a bad experience with someone who shares it.

(Yunlan is a rarer one, and he'd be very surprised if that's the part that the kid's objecting to.)

"When the first of us woke up out of those pod thingies," he says, "this place was full of corpses rotted down to old bone. We've moved most of the bodies to that storage room. I'd like to make a proper pyre for them up top, one of these days, but, you know. Middle of a swamp, don't want to send up a big old smoke signal to anyone out there who's not friendly, et cetera."

Attracting unfriendlies is something he's acutely familiar with; he nods along with that explanation. Zuko forces himself to relax, by just a fraction at the very least, and crosses his arms. He's the Fire Lord; he should act like it.

"You said three months?"

"Since the first of us woke up, yeah. Two months for me -- I got here a bit late. Lucky me, it means I skipped the worst of the cleanup!"

The kid's taking this a lot more calmly now that he's started to get details. It looks like he's used to thinking tactics, too. Yunlan surveys him, expression thoughtful and cool for a long moment, and then breaks into a friendly grin and reaches out to clap Zuko on the shoulder.

"Well! No reason to stick around this creepy little spot forever. Why don't I give you the tour of the Vault?"

The seeming genuine grin is the only thing that keeps Zuko from ducking the clap on his shoulder entirely. As it is, he tenses (even more than he already has) but does not shove Yunlan away.

"How big is this place?" And how does he know this isn't just some really bad dream? Sokka was right; he shouldn't be eating spicy food right before bed.

"Big enough to hold probably five, ten times the number of people we have here." He doesn't leave his hand on Zuko's shoulder. One pat's probably as much testing as the boy's personal space boundaries need for right now. He's tense, maybe a little paranoid, but not dangerous about it.

Instead, he starts towards the door, leaving it up to Zuko to follow. "We've got two big dorm rooms, plus a rec room. The basement level's got all the tech that keeps the place running - there's a nuclear reactor down there, so watch your step and be careful what doors you open. Two of the others here, Saya and Chocolat, got a pretty nasty dose of radiation fixing it."

He shakes his head as he follows, because some of those words mean absolutely nothing to him. There's enough context, though, to suss out that "nuclear" and "radiation" are nasty business and that's enough for him.

For now, at any rate. He can dig into it later, once he feels like he has his feet underneath him. (That doesn't seem likely any time soon.)

"How many people are here?"

"Nine." He counts off on his fingers as he leads the way. The corridors show signs of recent cleaning, but there are still stains that aren't so easy to get out: rust streaks, dark residue ground into the cracks between tiles or wall panels, water marks on the ceiling. "Ten, now you're here. There's Jill - ex-military, tough lady. Saya, who's good with technology. Jiro, Chocolat, Harley and Azula are decent fighters. Fair warning, Chocolat walks around with no shirt on most of the time, Jiro's got a temper and you don't want to sneak up on Azula, especially if she's got her sword. Sandy's a kid but she's great at scavenging, and Hal used to be a robot."

He glances over his shoulder, pose casual, gaze keen. It's all useful information, and fairly basic - he'd learned most of those things in the first five minutes of chatting with them, so he's not giving away any personal secrets. He's also curious to see whether he was right to think Zuko's accustomed to thinking strategically.

This place is dirty beyond what a good scrubbing can help and Zuko files that information away; he's slowly building a picture of this place and he doesn't like what he sees. Old, dilapidated, though tended to. These ten people here seem to be trying to make the best of it.

Ten of them, though; it's not much but he's changed the world with less. He's already thinking it through, wondering about these people and their skillsets, when Yunlan completely throws his mind off its track.

He stops walking. "Excuse me. Azula?"

"Azula. About yeah tall, long hair, princess of the Fire Nation?" Yunlan's stopped, too, at the tone in Zuko's voice. He turns around. The intensity in his gaze is dead serious, though the curious expression he's donning is carefully casual.

Have they finally found someone who woke up knowing another person here? It's hardly likely, but up until now, Yunlan has been running on the assumption that it's impossible.

Oh, no. Of all the people he could meet here, Azula is one of the last people he'd like to see. (And it's for a variety of reasons; his feelings toward his sister are, to say the least, complicated.)

"Dark hair, hazel eyes," he covers up the scar with one hand and says in a passable approximation of Azula's voice, "'bow before me, you peasant'? That princess of the Fire Nation?"

Not that there's more than one.

"I can't say I've heard that out of her," Yunlan says dryly, "but..."

He squints.

"You know, there's a resemblance. Sister? Cousin?" From the tone Zuko's adopting, he's willing to bet his newly scavenged revolver that the two of them were raised together. And are not friends.

Zuko drops his hand by dragging it over his face with a sigh. Azula is here.

Azula is here. Wherever here is and however it's happened, she's here and that can't be good. They can barely look at each other without trying to murder one another. (Though, in his defense, it's usually him letting down his defenses hoping that this time will be different and her lashing out.)

"Sister," he admits. "How much trouble has she caused?"

Yunlan exhales, looking away. His eyes are focused on some point far beyond the steel-paneled walls. So, Zuko is Azula's brother. So, it's possible that two people who know each other can both wake up from those pods.

So. Maybe--

Hope hurts like the blood rushing back to a trapped limb, pins and needles everywhere. He shrugs and, with an effort of will, musters a careless grin.

"Honestly, she's been all right. On edge, but we're all on edge. What with the situation."

There's something else going on here; something he's said caused a reaction completely unrelated to Azula, he's thinking, but he's not going to ask. If he needs to know, he'll find out and if he doesn't, it would be information overload right now.

"She has?" On edge, he gets. Azula lives her life that way, but 'all right'? That doesn't sound like the Azula he knows. "Really?"

"Hey, she wasn't the one who tried to club me with somebody's femur," Yunlan shot back. "Let me guess -- you're the older brother?"

Plus, obviously, some sibling rivalry going on. Although to be fair Yunlan was setting the bar for 'all right' low.

"What were you expecting?"

"Two years. Ish." Zuko rocks back on his heels and wrinkles his brow - as much as the scar lets him, at any rate. So someone likes to club people with femurs; good to know.

"Murder, for one. Setting everything on fire." He's ticking these off on his fingers. "Breaking everything. Screaming at everyone. Having a complete mental breakdown."

"Who's she murdered?" Honestly, when it comes to breaking everything, screaming at everyone and having a breakdown, Zhao Yunlan can relate. Arson might be a touch more of a problem -- he already condemned himself to eternal fire once, he's not a fan of burns -- but then, she's said fire's a special power back where she's from.

So maybe arson is less of a problem here.

Murder is a problem everywhere, though.

"Me," he said, a touch wry. "Almost." Obviously, since he's still standing here. He sighs, pinches his nose. "Azula is complicated." As is his feelings about her and his relationship with her. "But if she's doing all right here, then that's good."

Standing here wasn't always a guarantee of not having been killed, but Yunlan doesn't see any need to bring up that awkward subject. He shrugs, instead, and begins walking again. They're almost to the rec room; the faint strains of staticky jazz from the jukebox are just on the edge of hearing.

"Speaking as a cop: attempted murder and murder are very different things! Glad you're all in one piece, though. What do you think, are the two of you going to need a chaperone for your chats to make sure there aren't any more attempts?"

He head his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "I'll only act in self defense. I promise." He steps into the rec room, frowning at the static trying to pass as music, and keeps his gaze on Yunlan.

"I make no promises about keeping the volume down, though. We're both kinda... loud."

Yunlan wags a finger at him. "That's a terrible promise! Why would you say something like that? If things are getting tense you should yell!"

With a bark of laughter, he breaks eye contact and heads for the jukebox, smacking it on the side until a little of the static clears from the music. By now, he recognizes every one of the limited library of tunes, but it's better than the impersonal and distant whoosh of air circulation fans, as background noise goes.

"That way, we can break it up before I have to haul any more corpses to the storeroom. So this is our rec room! Kitchen's over there, our household guru Louis the robot's usually floating around somewhere, and that's the pool table in the corner. We're low on pool cues on account of mostly using 'em to bludgeon hostile animals, but you could probably set up, I don't know, mini bowling with the balls."

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