nolandspam | TEST DRIVE MEME 1

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TEST DRIVE MEME 1

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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:

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. Like non-moldy bedding or fewer skeletons and less blood on the walls. 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?

At the moment, the entire vault is run only on emergency generators, creating dull, flickering light throughout the underground base. None of the computers are working yet, and what appear to be three robots are powered-down in various corners of the vault. There's only you and the people that woke up with you now.

Despite this, there's some hope. There's 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 skeletons laying around. Further, on exploring the kitchen there's even some food! It's all pre-apocalypse, hyper preserved canned goods and sugary cereals that somehow haven't gone bad yet, but it's something.

Those willing to explore a little more will find they are not alone in the vault. In the shadows created by the flickering lights or outside of the range of the light of your pip-boy, there is skittering. The noise isn't noticeable when there are groups of people, but get down to three or two and it's impossible to ignore. If you don't run away, you'll eventually come across groups of foot long radroaches, gigantic cockroaches that are ready for some fresh food for once. And it looks like you're on the menu. Hopefully you've got one of those pool cues or found a wrench or some other weapon, because it's gonna take more than a stomp to take these guys out.

PROMPT 3: A DAY OF REST

It's been a few days since everyone got out of the pods and started settling in. Louis, the 'Mr. Handy' robot in charge of cooking, can power up for whole hours at a time now. While he's recharging again now, he did make quite a feast beforehand. A whole cake, some tasty cola, and even grilled meat (if you helped kill the radroaches, you know where that meat came from). He even found some old party decorations that, once upon a time, were supposed to be used when the vault was unsealed and everyone allowed to leave. Everyone waking up is close enough, the robot had claimed, and hung the streamers and balloons throughout the rec area. There are even party hats, for the particularly festive.

The party lasts a good hour before the price for relaxing is paid: the emergency power flickers once, twice, then shuts down. Worse, the constant hum of the air vents you hadn't even really notice until now stops, leaving the vault in total silence and darkness. Only the pod room has any energy left, and all of that must be used to keep those still in stasis alive.

Repairs are going to have to be made.

((OOC: feel free to make assumptions and go wild with repairing the reactor or the emergency power supply. It's a TDM, mod approval not needed for anything)).

PIP-BOY CHATTER

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

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The curiosity has started to flicker again inside of her like a flame too long covered.

It used to be an insatiable hunger, which barely fought off the suffocation of being so trapped for so long. This was not behind any of the doors. This is not Rapture, not Columbia. She doesn't know where she is or how she got here. She waits for a sign of Comstock or- or Booker. There aren't any constants this time around. It's a world of variables. This is no afterlife, but the blood stains prove its a place of death.

robots

Elizabeth finds the depowered robots first. They don't have a large drill instead of a hand (the Big Daddy were more than a robot, she knows), and they're not as large songbird, but she's suspicious of them nonetheless. And curious. She searches them to learn what she can about them, trying to find ways to look inside and poke around, searching for instructions that she can follow to power them. She finds tools in the maintenance area, and she's attempting to use one to open the robot up.

It might be reckless. She would rather them turn back on while she has a better understanding of how they work.

kitchen

The curiosity brings her to the kitchen too. She pours the odd water into pots and pans to experiment with. She doesn't trust it so she tries to start a fire in the stove to boil it first before taking a taste test. Packages are opened (carefully and methodically so as not to waste any). She wants an idea of what this food actually is like maybe it will hold secrets, but she's lacking any way to test how safe any of it is. It's likely still food. Why would anyone bring them here only to poison them? Every appliance and item of food is caked in dust and rust indicating years of misuse.

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Does anyone have theories about what happened to the people who came before us? The blood indicates violence. The giant bugs aren't a likely culprit. Some of the pool cues were used as weapons. We don't want to repeat their same mistakes.

Are you sure that's such a good idea?

[Oh look it's the talking Unicorn. And she's got a bag of spare parts and tools she's apparently scavenged from one of the rooms near by in a bag.]

For all we know those things are what killed the humans that were here before us.

[ Elizabeth looks back her way. She is kneeling at the moment so they're almost eye level. She's seen so many universes and so many doors. None of them had a talking unicorn behind it before. It seems like a shame. ]

I'm not sure of anything. [ She smiles tiredly. ] I do know I don't want them turning on and killing us all while we're asleep. But you're right. It's a risk.

[ Trixie makes a face of genuine concern and eyeballs the nearest robot before dragging her bag of ill gotten scrap over to Elizabeth.]

You've got a point. Need an extra pair of hooves?

[She may not have her magic anymore but Trixie knew a thing or two about basic engineering. It came with the territory when you were responsible for all your own special effects and cart maintanince.]

[Elizabeth's experience with robots starts with Songbird. It was created to protect her and to trap her at the same time. They had a connection that was engineered. Most of her life has been spent isolated and alone. The offer of help has her softening her hard exterior somewhat.]

Yeah, I could.

[It's not like she knows exactly what she is doing here. These are a different brand of robots.]

What have you got there?

Some spare tools, parts that might fit with these things. Mostly scrap that I thought might be useful for cobbling together something new. I just hadn't figured out what yet.

[Nosing around in the bag she produces a roll of tape to give an example before spitting it back into the bag.]

Since I can't rely on my Unicorn magic I'll have to resort to more practical magic while I'm here.

That's smart. If it's as broken down as it looks, we'll need those parts to fix most of the machines around here.

[Tape is especially useful and versatile surprisingly so. Her expression turns curious, attempting to heave one of the robots around to see if there's a panel on it to access its inner workings.]

You have unicorn magic?

[ Trixie sighed and looked away sounding bitter.]

HAD Unicorn magic.All Unicorns are born with natural magic which would make lifting and moving thing so much easier.

[Shuffling around in the bag she produced a hammer balancing it on her hoof somehow.]

If Earth Ponies can do it, Trixie can do it better.

[Elizabeth has never met anyone who was born with powers before. She opened up tears by studying quantum physics and by having her pinkie separated from the rest of her body and remain in the world she was stolen from. Most people in her world didn't have magic. She couldn't even call what she did magic. It was explained by science like vigors or plasmids gave people their own special abilities.]

I'm sorry you lost your magic.

[Her tone is quiet but genuine. It can be difficult to adjust. She knows from experience.]

What all could you do with your magic?

[ On the one hand, talking about losing her magic does make her feel bad in a sense...but talking about herself is enough of a temptation to keep her going.]

Oh I was quite the versitile show pony. Any Unicorn can levitate or manipulate objects with their magic to get through their day to day life, but Trixie's charms and spells were awe inspiring cantrips and dazzling displays of light and wonder.

[That's still pretty vague and intentionally so.]

And unlike some Unicorn's Trixie didn't let her practical skills go to waste either. If we can find the right chemicals down here I'll start restocking my supply of smoke bombs.

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It's an elaborate cage designed to torment the occupants. I imagine there's someone watching this all unfold somehow. Somewhere.

The previous subjects were pushed to the edge of their sanity and they turned on each other. Such is human nature.

[It makes her think of her own cage. It makes her think of how she was experimented on her entire life. It makes her want to rail against nonexistent bars to the cage they have been placed in.]

I thought the same, and I met someone who came from a world like this one. Maybe she's from this world. She said it's what the vaults were used for. People signed up for protection from a real war without knowing they were signing up to be part of an experiment.

So then the question is can we escape it?

[He shares a very similar sentiment. For many years, he had also been trapped in a cage on account of his strange, inhuman appearance.]

So there are multiple cages scattered throughout the land. Lovely. I admit, it does seem a brilliant way to get people to sign their lives away.

I am not used to such advanced technology, but I have been attempting to familiarize myself with it inside and out. Would seem to be a grandiose oversight for there to be no exit at all.

Besides, those wretched bugs are getting in, somehow. There must be a way to get out as well.

[It's a horrible experience to share and to relate to one another in, but she would be grateful to know someone else could relate.]

I'd say you would think people would be more discerning of what they sign their lives away to, but in my experience, that isn't the case. If there truly was a war of such destruction like the video shows, maybe there wasn't much choice.

My thoughts exactly. If the bugs can come in and out, we can.

What year are you from?

War or no, there is always a choice. It is simply easier to be led to the slaughter rather than think beyond.

Then again, here we are, trapped like animals regardless of the choices we would have made.

The year was 1855. I'd been in Prague, not America.

I think these people were set to be slaughtered regardless of their own choices. Either slaughter by the bomb being dropped from above or slaughter from the experiments held in this place.

You're right. None of us chose this.

Here you are from even earlier than I. I was born in 1912. I went to other later years after, but that is when I was born.

And yet, there are many shades of slaughter. Slow and torturous, fast and blinding or, of course, the ever popular pool cue-through-eye socket.

I can promise you though, this cage will not hold me for long.

[Despite the obvious centuries long gap between his own scientific knowledge and the nature of this place, he is rather determined to find a solution. At the very least, it gives his restless mind something to chew on.]

Nearly an entire lifetime, how fascinating. Whomever our captors were, they certainly assembled a riveting lot of subjects.

[Wait. Her verbiage has struck him as odd.]

You speak of time as if you have not lived it linearly.

There are many different types of slaughter. It's true.

We have that in common then. It won't hold me for long either.

[She'll do whatever it takes to free herself of another cage. It's the reason she so fervently studied lockpicking while locked away- she needed to know how to free herself of any cage she found herself in. It became its own obsession.

She still ended up locked away again for six months instead of 20 years. Still she failed herself when it came to that at least.]

For the most part, I have lived a linear one but not always, no. My world was full of tears between worlds and times. I had the power to open them and sometimes create new ones and travel through them. I lost the power shortly before I ended up here.

( Slade finds himself in the kitchen when his self-guided tour of their new home eventually leads him there. Also his stomach. That played some part as well.

He'd be fine with something simple. Doritos, Lays chips, a basket of apples, maybe a bottle of beer if he's lucky. He's a simple man. What he finds is Elizabeth playing scientist with any number of dried goods, and a kitchen that may as well been from another century. Not simple. )

You're making dinner?
Should I wait until you're done to call everyone down, or can I get my plate early?

( When he attempts to open the fridge, he finds himself frowning at the rust that flakes onto his hand and the way the handle nearly breaks off from the effort. )

[Elizabeth tilts her head to look over her shoulder with a thoughtful frown at the question. She glances back at the food. She's arranged it all out on the counter one after the other. She wipes her finger over a can, watching the dust that is removed at her touch and sticks to her thumb. There are countless years on the food in front of them. They might not have much in terms of options but it doesn't mean they have to make themselves sick.]

It's more like I'm trying to figure out if any of this food is safe to eat for dinner, but if you're volunteering to be a guinea pig, feel free.

[She's aware they don't have much in terms of options. If they start throwing up everything they've consumed, it won't do much good to them ultimately either.]

( Guinea pig isn't a good look for Slade. None of this is. Not the location, not environment, not the tacky jumpsuit. He's going to have to get used to it, though. And it's not like there's much else he can do. He's walked the corridors, mentally catalogued each important room, snooped around for anything that could be useful to him. All he's found so far is a pool cue and a pack of sketchy syringes.

So he might as well volunteer. )

Can we start with the most recently expired and work backwards?

( When Slade joins her in investigating the canned good, he frowns to note that not only are the cans covered in dust, but the labels on the majority of them have faded to the point of oblivion. Some are even missing the most base of nutrition facts let alone a printed expiration date. )

...Trial and error it is.

[Elizabeth turns his way at the question. He doesn't ask more. She doesn't answer, because she knows the food covered in dust will explain more than she can. There are no expiration dates in the faded labels. There's only the cold, real knowledge these foods have been around for years at the least. She watches him have the realization but still insist on trying the food.]

Are you really sure you're willing?

[She wouldn't expect anyone to actually be a guinea pig. She has been experimented on for most of her life. It's nothing she'd wish on anyone else, but at least he has a choice. yes or no.

It's nothing that was ever given to her.]

Really, really.

( Slade, too, has been the subject of experimentation. In his case, however, the experimentation that led to his super-soldier enhancements was much more voluntary. He and Elizabeth don't have that in common.

This enhancement is the main reason he's willing to give what could very well be dangerous food a try. Even if he becomes sick, the feeling will pass in an hour.

...Or that would be the case if his abilities hadn't been zapped between the time he was taken to this place and now. What Slade doesn't know will definitely hurt him. )

Think you can at least make it look good? I'd like to start with the truffles and veal, but I'm not picky.

Maybe they all just went crazy from never seeing the sun?

Or they really hated sharing the vault with each other? Like bad room mates?

It was not as if Chocolat was much known for her subtlety to situations, nor was she one for personal space. So it was without question that, as she spotted the curious looking girl leaning over the strange metal contraptions, she couldn't help but be curious herself.

Arms folded behind her back, she made her way over rather stealthfully, leaning over Elizabeth's shoulder to see what exactly she was examining so closely.

"These things really are pretty weird looking, huh? I wonder what purpose they served."

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TEST DRIVE MEME 1

elizabeth dewitt | bioshock infinite

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⸻kitchen

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