fellmemes | Test Drive #1

Entry tags:

! test drive

Test Drive #1

Welcome to the August test drive—our first in

fellden! We're so excited to have you with us.

A few things of note:

✦ Test drive threads can be considered game-canon if you choose. They're essentially in a shared dreamscape and take place between your character leaving their world, and arriving in the audience hall with their faction leader.
✦ Reserves are open and will continue to be until 11:59 PM UTC on Tuesday, August 20th; they are not necessary to apply! They're valid for the first four days of the application cycle.
✦ Applications will open at 12:01 AM UTC on the 21st, and remain open until 11:59 PM UTC on the 27th. The IC & OOC intro logs will be posted two days later.
✦ Questions? We have a FAQ that's chock full of good information! If they are test drive specific, we have a top level thread below that allows for OOC questions to be posted.
✦ The network is available to use! No matter where your character is, their compass either arrived on their person or available in the Gods Wood. Please feel free to include a network post in your top-levels! Once opened, the compass will display instructions on use, such as using voice-commands to activate it. (Apologies for missing including this on the initial test drive!)

All set?

Perfect! Welcome to Fellden.

AS THE MOON RISES.
You’ll find yourself just outside the Temple doors, which will be locked if you try to open them. A little rude, keeping you out after bringing you all this way. The thing is, you can hear a lot of commotion in the distance, and smoke rising from the center of a district; you may want to check that out. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire!

Except the smoke is not at all something to be concerned over. Instead, people are gathered near a large bonfire in the decorated city square, drinking and carousing, singing songs of celebration; Moon saviors have arrived! War winners! The residents of the city laugh and sing and dance in pairs throughout the square, grateful for those who have come to aid them. Their merriment doesn’t dwindle as the sun begins to set on the horizon, twin moons rising in its place.

When you (and other new arrivals) are finally noticed by the revelers, do not expect to be left alone! Flower crowns will be deposited upon your heads, food and drink placed into your hands, while live musicians play loud enough for the dead to hear. You’ll be invited to dance, to drinking games, and offered food and flowers and other items of value. Some may cry when they look into your face, thanking you for becoming their champions during this long and exhaustive war.

Hopefully you’re here to enjoy the festivities. Sneaking off is just fine, too, but don’t expect to be let go of quietly; the people of the Moon Temple are so happy to see you! Enjoy the celebration while it lasts long into the night.

THE SETTING STARS.
Unlike the Temple, your arrival to the Court of Stars is met with a rather somber greeting, however expressions are relieved, despite any emotional guard that may be up.

A gathering of knights, weary from a skirmish along the border they're returning from, pat you on the back and lead you through an open air courtyard. All the gathered people of the Emperor's Court look up from their tasks, giving the passing Otherworlders a knowing nod. There's gratitude in their eyes, but that's all the welcome you'll receive: your presence is appreciated, but growing an attachment is another heartache for those that care so deeply for their faction fellows. The silence is broken when a high-ranking member of the guard gives the proclamation: "Our heroes have arrived! Court defenders, world travelers! Help has come from the far lands to aid us in our battles for our Emperor, for all of Fellden!"

From there, the few knights that have not yet departed will lead you through the Court's castle, a brief tour of the most important areas (dining hall, housing wing, guard barracks, and the throne room) is given before they instruct you to rest, because the real excitement begins when the sun falls behind the horizon.

Left to drift, you can explore the castle, or venture out to the surrounding city as it prepares for the celebration the Starfolk have in store for the returned soldiers and, now, the new arrivals. You'll be invited to the party that spreads across the entire Court city, drawn into large circle dances, and will find that the locals become more at ease and welcoming the longer you spend with them.

WELCOME TO THE GODS WOOD.
Between one blink and the next, your eyesight has seemingly been stolen from you. Or, perhaps it’s more likely that something is covering your eyes? Yes, that’s definitely a blindfold tied around the back of your head, although quite the mystery as to how it came to be there. You vaguely remember a wolf that may or may not have spoken to you, but the blindfold is certainly a new addition to the situation.

Once removed, you’ll find yourself in the thick of the woods, with no path or directional indicators in sight. The moon is obscured by the tree line, and the stars above do nothing to light your path; seems like removing the blindfold wasn’t as helpful as you may have thought. As your eyes adjust to the darkness, it’s obvious that you are not alone in this; other people are removing their blindfolds just as you are, staring blearily into the dark of the forest with a similar lack of understanding to how they came to be here.

Thankfully, you’ll find some nearby travel packs with self-lighting torches, a few rations, and your faction-provided communicator. The compass, unfortunately, remains broken, which means you’ll have to find your way out of the woods without it. Hopefully your sense of direction is passable!

Whether you team up with others, or go your separate way is entirely up to you, but you must find your way out, and the fog rolling in is not going to be of any assistance. This is a Dropping, and the Gods Wood is not kind to loiterers.

DRAWN TO THE COASTLINE.
Needing an escape from the hectic energy that greeted you in your faction, an empathetic bystander pointed you in the direction of a nearby transport mirror, which you either stepped into without stating a destination, or didn't give one with enough clarity for the mirror to understand. Spitting you out on the beach just outside Kyst, it doesn't seem keen to let you back the way you came; temperamental teleportation magic.

As the largest trade city in all of Fellden, there is no shortage of things to do here! Shopping with what coin was hoisted upon you before your departure, mapping out the city itself to memorize the in's and out's, enjoying a drink on the house at a local tavern where you can get into a mean game of cards with some faction soldiers, or even meeting someone else that seems to have stumbled into this world just as you did. Perhaps you're more keen to the outdoors, rather than the bustle of a large city, wandering away from the city just far enough to find a stretch of pristine beach and inviting crystal clear waters of the ocean; the salty air fills your lungs while the rays of the midday sun are almost blinding against the swath of bright white sand that meets the crashing waves.

Regardless of what you decide to do, or where you end up, you're in the closest thing to No Man's Land you can get; enjoy your time fraternizing with the enemy, make some new friends in this neutral land, or stick with those from your own faction to get a lay of the land.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I: As The Moon Rises

"...you can't run forever, Jack."

"Watch me."

A hand on the button, and the world had tilted around Jack Harkness, different than the usual blips of using the vortex manipulator. And, of anything, was there a voice?

The party he crashes in is decidedly not the ship he had been aiming to hitchhike onto, but he cannot bring himself to care. There are cheers through the crowds, as if they were expecting him, which is strange. But in the next instant, there are drinks, and music, and Jack lets himself be overwhelmed by the exact kind of escape he was looking for.

The last image of the hill in Wales spills out of his mind.

It is hours later when Jack finds himself on the fringes of the party, drink in hand, and a moment of clarity hits him. This isn't where he was aiming for, but, then, where is here? He deliberately seeks out another tourist, for lack of a better term. Someone else who sticks out like a sore thumb.

Always easier to start with the classic:

"Captain Jack Harkness, and who are you?"

II: Drawn To The Coastline

Reality has come crashing back in to Jack's Party Vacation, and, guess what? Something weird is going on. Because something weird is always going on, and someone always needs saving from something, and Jack may have thrown himself through the first strange portal he saw in an attempt to get away.

Somebody needs to tell them they have the wrong man.

Jack has turned to another time-honored tradition of finding a tall rocky outcropping to look down on the beach from, letting the wind whipping around him clear his head. The perspective shows how far the sea extends, that even this is no escape. The Vortex Manipulator is gone, so there's no going home. But there was no going home anyway. Is this really any worse than what he had planned?

Jack isn't surprised if anyone else needs to get away, now that he has realized he isn't the only one in this predicament. So he'll welcome any company.

"Hell of a view, hunh?"

It's all too much. There had been no time to really think about it; when that creature had asked what she would do to save her world--her family--Lightning hadn't hesitated.

Anything, she'd said, because it was true. The wolf had almost seemed to smile at that and then she was here. Caught up in the press of the city and the revelry and the celebration and the dancing and it was just--too much. She'd escaped, fled the city, and found herself here. The salty air tugs at her rose-colored hair, pulling at the remaining deep red petals from her long discarded flower crown as she turns her head at Jack's question.

"I've seen better."

Not much can beat the colors of a Bodhum sunset, and this doesn't stand a chance.

The corner of Jack's mouth quirks upwards, as if what she said was some correct answer he'd been waiting on. He turns to look at the newcomer, and he eyes the woman up and down, taking her in just as fully as he had been the sunset. "There's always a better view."

Just the right measured pause, enough for his audience to wonder what he meant by that, before he sticks a hand out. "Captain Jack Harkness. I take it I'm not the only one a long way from home?"

It's too easy to fall back into the pattern, the game, of being the larger-than-life figure he has built up.

The pause only earns Jack a narrow-eyed glance; Lightning's gotten enough of those kinds of comments to understand at least part of what he's getting at, but is it worth pointing out?

No. He's not the only one to fall back into an old routine. It's easier to be a soldier now, to not think about the true cost of all of this, than to deal with the emotional toll of being ripped away from home and a mission left unfinished. A family left behind.

"Lightning." She returns his handshake without hesitating. Her grip is strong, firm, but doesn't last long. She's just not a people person, really. "I think most of us are a long way from home."

How many people back in town didn't know where they were, or what was going on? Too many. For a place that seems so glad to have them here, they're sure doing a bad job at explaining all of this. She snorts.

"Some army we're turning out to be."

"Pleased to meet you, Lightning." The humor falls out of his voice into something more serious. When she lets go, he points at her with his freed hand.

"Now there's the strange part, don't you think? Okay," hand raises in defensiveness, "not everybody's woken up on a different planet before. Sure, that's strange. But what's really strange is that if they were looking for an army, there's nowhere near enough of us for one."

Shit, he really can't stop, can he? His mind automatically leaps into trying to analyze what is going on. Internally, Jack is kicking himself at the same time as a voice that sounds not at all like him is laughing in his mind.

"If you want to fight a war without using your own people, yeah. Pull them in from other worlds, use them as cannon fodder, it's a great strategy. One that's likely to backfire, but if you have the capability for it? Good."

"...So why are there only a couple of dozen of us?"

A few seconds pass in near silence, the only sound the wind and waves below as she turns his words over and over in her head. Why only a few of them? If this was a fal'Cie she'd say that only they'd gotten close enough to be branded. Pure chance, opportunity, or bad luck. All three.

But the relief of the people in town, and that fuzzily remembered dream, cause her to lift a hand to her chest. There's more to this than chance. It's...something else.

"What if we're only the first wave?" If this is a war, not just a singular battle, they can't be expected to win on their own. Not with this few a number. Six would have toppled the fal'Cie but that was a single target. To win a war? Her eyes narrow. "They could be bringing others in behind us. We're just meant to clear the way."

Cannon fodder. Clear a path, then bring in another wave to do the same. Rinse, repeat, and never risk one of your own in the process. Her stomach twists at the thought; it's a very...fal'Cie like thing to do. Dammit. What did she get herself into this time?

Jack's whole face twists in disgust at the thought that the both of them are coming to, one cursed word at a time. "Yeah, but I think they got something more then they bargained for, if that's their plan."

He doesn't just mean himself, but there is a quick second where he has to keep himself from being sick at the thought. If this 'Moon Temple' knows what they have? It's always the religious nuts.

"Every single one of us is a wildcard. They could be getting anything. Anything. And there are some dangerous things out there in the universe. They pull in the wrong person, the right alien? And their whole house of cards is gone."

Her hand twists into the soft leather of her vest, buckles tinkling. It's the fal'Cie all over again, isn't it? Powerful beings bringing in those capable of acting on their own, capable of making their own choices, and letting them loose with the hopes of completing a goal.

Destroy Cocoon. Win a war. It's always the same in the end.

"The only question is if it takes us all with it."

What would you do to save your world?

It's a good trap. People may not care about other worlds, other wars, but their own homes? Their own people? Most would do a lot to save those. She would. With a disgusted noise, she lets go of her vest and turns back to the sea. The trap is sprung, there's no way back, and yet. And yet.

"Or if we're going to let it fall in the first place."

It is only after he has spoken that Jack realizes how what he said sounds. But Lightning's determination doubles down his own.

"I'm definitely not saying to just abandon these people. But."

He looks past Lightning to the horizon again, searching for something, eyes going back and forth. But he sees no sign of what he would hope for.

"It would take a great person. A better person than me. To find a middle ground. There's obviously a conflict here, something big enough that it drove them to do this. To reach out and grab us. So we can't turn our backs on it."

"But damn if they didn't pick the worst possible way to fight their little war." A whisper.

It would take a better person than either of them. Lightning's only doing this for her world, her people. Whatever they want her to do, whatever they need her to do, so long as they protect the ones she left behind...

It's a price worth paying. Crossing her arms over her chest, she closes her eyes into the wind.

"They asked us what we'd do to save our worlds. Fighting in someone else's war isn't much of a price to pay."

Could they have been nicer about it? Sure. Could they have actually explained what they were doing, what they were getting into? Definitely. But desperate people do desperate things. Maybe this was the only option they felt they had left. It's too hard to say without knowing more, and with so much at stake...she can't fight them. Not yet.

But once they know more...it's on the table. Something tells her it'd be much the same for Jack, too.

"Depends on the war," another whisper, the words of another man coming through Jack's lips unbidden. He shakes his head.

"If there is any being or force out there in the universe that was watching me? Specifically? Then they already know what I'm willing to do to save a world." But he has to keep talking quickly to keep Lightning from harping on that point because he is so far from ready to talk about that, he just teleported away from a world to keep from talking about it.

"So, personally? I think they grabbed me because they could get me."

He tilts his head at Lightning. "Have you done any planet-hopping, dimensional travel, anything of the sort before this?"

They've all got their secrets. So though Jack earns himself a Look, he speaks too fast for her to so much as get a breath in to ask what the hell he means.

Probably better that way. They've all got their secrets, and some things. Well. Some things are better off unsaid. She shakes her head, snorting out a laugh. Planet-hopping, huh? Well, before this little excursion, there is one thing that might count. fal'Cie, when did her life get this insane?

"Does leaving a hollow world for the dead world it floated above count?"

It's. Complicated. Cocoon hovering above Pulse but not having a proper core and Pulse being dead and empty except for bloodthirsty wildlife and wailing stones and. Gah. What a mess.

Oh, Jack's eyebrows are all the way as close to his hairline as he can get them at that statement. It takes a lot for Jack to hear something actually new, and Lightning's words have just done it. Time out, and put a pin in the existential questions for a little while.

"I..guess.. it does? Although that brings up a thousand follow-up questions."

Jack's tone shifts from reluctance to abject fascination, and he puts his hand in his chin. "A windswept cliff might be the best place for a first meeting, but not for getting any of those thousand questions answered."

A better view than the sunset in a lot of ways. "Do you have the time for a drink and a story, before our overlords decide to tell us what they want out of us?"

It isn't as if they're doing anything else right now! Still, she searches his face. Talking about her past, her world, makes her stomach twist. It's not something she enjoys, least of all to a total stranger, but.

The others aren't here. She made the choice to come here and keep them all safe, but not even she can fight a war alone. Odin is out of reach, perhaps forever, and so there is one thing she knows: she needs allies. Jack's got what seems to be a decent head on his shoulders, so.

"Only if you can figure out the strongest drink on their menu."

She needs to be sober for this, but afterwards. Well, afterwards is fair game.

[Jack was seeking out a sore thumb, and just so happened upon the sorest. Hector is horrified to be here, in a veritable mob of humans. He has untied the red sash from around his waist and wrapped it around a little bundle in his arms. He's doing his best to keep it shielded from the crowd, but there are people everywhere. It's Hector's nightmare scenario.

He realizes he's being addressed, and he throws a distracted introduction at the captain.]

Hector. I have to go. How the hell do you get out of here?

[He's tried to walk out, but there are well-wishers and revelers at every point of egress.

The bundle, meanwhile, shifts and whines, and a small, flat head worms its way through the folds of the fabric. It's a pug, and even with the cloth draped around it and the tiny flower crown Hector's perched on its head to further obscure it, it's pretty plain to see that the dog is missing some pieces. It seems perfectly happy, though, and snorts at the newcomer. Hector is quick to wrap him back up, but the metaphorical cat is already out of the bag at this point.]

[Jack's manner turns a little more serious when he sees the man is anxious, trying to find a way out. Okay, understandable, parties aren't for everyone. Jack stands from his seat, and he reaches out to start to guide the man, when-

That is a dog. That is a.. not-alien dog? But a strange dog.

Jack clearly sees the dog, hesitates, glances up at Hector, back down at the dog, and makes a split-second decision.

If there is one thing Jack is incredibly well-trained at, it is making himself a spectacle and a nuisance, so he is far better at parting the crowd than Hector would be.]

"He-ey! Pardon me, excuse me, hey, great to see ya, what was in that drink? I might'a had one too many, which way to the little heroes' room?"

[And on and on as Jack is absolutely not shutting up, but is also successfully cutting a path through the crowd that Hector can quietly follow in the wake of. All he has to do is follow, and no one will pay him any mind.

Because now Jack has seen the dog, and if he doesn't help Hector out right now, then he will never know what is going on. It's just too interesting a problem for him to turn his back on.]

[The endless stream of empty small-talk from one Captain Jack would normally have Hector bee-lining in the opposite direction, but he caught that quick, determined look before the man turned away from him. Hector can recognize a gift when its handed to him.

Tucking the sash more securely around his pet and hissing at him to stay put, Hector goes against his better judgement and follows the trail Jack blazes through the thick of the crowd. He's not wont to trust easily, only...Jack had looked at Cezar, and he hadn't flinched.]

...pardon....coming through....

[He murmurs as he weaves through the people still stunned by the magnitude of the Captain's presence. Hector usually only thinks of vampires when he envisions someone you'd describe as 'a force of nature', but here they are.

The crowd finally begins to thin around them, to Hector's relief and Cezar's disappointment. Hector can finally breath a little more easily as he reaches the shadows outside of the bonfire light.]

The other man taking in the view is tall with white hair cut short except for a tuff in the front. His uniform is gray with bars of yellow on the shoulders. He turns towards Jack and his right arm is revealed to be a large white mechanic limb floating right at the property alignment for the forearm.

A deep blue glow from the port at the shoulder casts some light on their faces. “Yes, and it tells us absolutely nothing. I don’t see the portal I came through, do you?” He crosses his arms over his chest and glances back at the ocean below them.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Test Drive #1

Captain Jack Harkness | Doctor Who/Torchwood

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Coastline