( MEMES ) TEST DRIVE >> 6

[contagio]

THE TEST DRIVE




Like it or not, you've been dragged from your world into the sanctum. It's a pretty nice city, all things considered--sci-fi, high-tech, glamourous.... Except, of course, for the giant dome encircling it, and the threat of glitching, contaminated zombies at your door. Looks like humanity's built itself a fortress that looks suspiciously like a cage, too. Toss in the odd memory blanks and the everpresent logo of Bifrons incorporated and it's enough to make someone paranoid.

The object of this meme is to get people familiar with the world of the Sanctum, and to try to see if their characters would fit in a sci-fi utopia such as this. Here are your options:
1. Intro: Waking Up. Make your intro post, folks. You wake up in a strange place, and get a strange transmission to go with it. There's a pair of glasses connected to some sort of communications network, but otherwise not much else in the room with you. What are you going to do? 

2. Environmental Glitching. You know the story of Noah? No? Now you're living it.  Sealed portions of the districts are overfilling with water, flooding streets, fields, and select city blocks. Do you climb up to get to safety, shut off the water, or find a way to break down the barrier to the next sector over? 

3. Genetic Altering. What it says on the tin. Except...it's not quite gone right, has it? Are you supposed to spit acid when you hiccup?  Are your insides acid resistant? No? Oh dear.  Warped experiments gone wrong, your augmentation has twisted around on you for horrific or hilarious results.

4. Memory Glitch. No one knows your face. You don't exist on the network. In fact...you're not all that certain you are who you think you are anyway. Haven't you always lived here?  

5. Military Training. Everyone's got to start somewhere. You're training the green folks, maybe you're one of the newcomers yourself. Maybe you haven't even touched a gun before in your life. Either way, you'd better start now.

6. Outside the Dome You're out and about without an armed escort, suited up against the atmosphere and dysthropes.  It's supposed to be a green sector in this run down shell of what used to be a suburb, right? Nothing could possibly go wrong

7. Wildcard. Choose your own adventure or create a cocktail from the presented options! The choice is YOURS.

Comments

Joel || The Last of Us || #5

[ohmygodshivs]

The pistol was held loosely in one hand as Joel glared at his student. It was a very natural, readily available expression amongst his limited arsenal of facial expressions. In fact it was one of the easiest and therefore most common of looks Joel gave anyone in any particular situation. Therefore it didn't necessarily mean he was pissed off.

But, he was pissed off. He had just spent the last twenty years fighting for his life every day against people who had been turned into monsters of the most tragic variety. Joel had no intention of fighting this war here and now, for this world. He was too old, too spent. This wasn't about fighting for any damn cause though. Joel was here for the money, short and simple. Money was a thing again in his life and Joel hadn't had a regular damn job in those same twenty years. This was what he knew, and what he was good at now. It made sense he would do this for a few months until he had enough money to maybe get into a business for himself.

"Alright, you know how to handle that thing?" What he was really asking was if he should be worried about getting shot or the student shooting their own damn foot off.

[colorfulapathy]

He's going to need to worry about both because April has lived a cushy life thus far, despite the world she lives in. There's never been a need in her life to mess with a gun herself and the only reason she's here is to justify why she's been hanging around the militia compound so much because apparently to see the new Ghost Wolfs training isn't good enough.

That doesn't mean she's going to make this easy on her instructor. Her hold on the pistol is loose and she waves it a little in the air as she answers, her voice is its usual deadpan, apathetic self. She should probably care more with a loaded weapon in her hand. "Yeah, you just point this thing wherever and bam."

[ohmygodshivs]

There was a little vein in his temple that flexed with repressed rage as Joel looked upon the lady. He stared hard at her, his brown eyes unblinking. The hand not holding the gun came up and made a motion downward with an open hand.

"No."

That was the most he could say for a few seconds without exploding. Joel counted down from ten before he spoke again. "You only point it where you plan on shootin', which means if you're pointin that weapon at someone you need to plan on shootin' and killin' it." His soft Texan accent did nothing to betray how concerned for his own safety he was at that moment. "You understand what I'm sayin?"

[colorfulapathy]

"That's what I said." No, it isn't, but she'll stand by that.

She's still holding the gun wrong, similar to how people in a cartoon might as that's about the extent of her real knowledge of guns, though at least she's aiming it in the general direction of the target. So hey, small improvement. "So, I aim it at a bad guy's head and pull the trigger a bunch."

[ohmygodshivs]

"Lady, you got to have more respect for what you're holdin' than that. If you don't, you're gonna wind up shootin' either yourself or somebody else." Joel motioned to the target while he said this, as if it were a friend rather than the dummy they were going to be shooting.

"...because I swear to God if you wave that around in my direction one more time, you are being sent home for the day. No money is worth gettin' shot for today." Joel stepped forward to put his hand over the top of hers, the one she was holding the gun in, to get her to stop waving it around so carelessly.

[colorfulapathy]

Her hand steadies when he grabs hold of hers and decides to be a tiny bit more serious since she's holding a deadly weapon in her hands. To start, it will be decidedly pointed at the target instead of wherever her waving was taking it.

"Can I pull the trigger yet?"

[forcemageure]

Oh. "Well, I thought I did, right up until you said that."

Now he's looking at his--what kind of gun is this is again--like it is perhaps a fancy hairbrush. But surely he can't have gotten this far without at least realizing which end points which way, right?

There are probably other instructors, by the way. It's just that Hawke is drawn to frowning people like a bug to a bug zapper.

[ohmygodshivs]

"It's better you admit it then make dumb mistakes." Joel's tone was slightly accusing, although more coaching. He would truthfully rather someone say they didn't know how to do something than try and fake it -- most especially when it came to weapons. There was no room for pride with a loaded pistol.

"They ain't toys. You got to respect what they are and what they can do. You got that?" It probably sounded like some nonsense an old man would say but it was the goddamned truth, that was. He'd seen it all too many times. These young people picking up guns for a handful of ration cards thinking they could take on anything, only to get themselves or their friends killed (or worse). Joel moved to where he was standing more to the side of the young man and he showed him, without speaking, how to flip the safety on and off of this model of pistol they were going to practice with.

[gotsjokes]

"Yeah, I got this." She huffed at Joel. It was only the fourth time he's asked her whether or not she was going to shoot either herself or him. "It's not any different then at home.. except these guns are in better condition.. I don't know.. they're just smoother.. sometimes the ones home would jam." She shifted her weight then calmed herself.

Fifteen minutes later and with a ringing in her ears she and Joel were seated down on the counter eating some packed sandwiches that she brought.

She wasn't there for military training, she was there for lunch. Joel was still a long day ahead of training the candidates and she came around daily to eat with him and often just hung out with him.

After a bite of her turkey hoagie she tactfully spoke: "How'fn.. mer 'en day .. go?"

[ohmygodshivs]

The proper tools to thoroughly clean and maintenance guns were even more rare than food, back on their world. It was little wonder that the guns they did have were all worth shit compared to well-maintained ones back before the world drowned in mushroom-zombies. Joel watched the young teen as she settled herself in front of her hoagie. The two of them had gained a good twenty pounds, right around their middles, since waking up here.

Joel's hands were full of a nice fat hoagie too, although he took the time to swallow before he spoke. "Brat. Don't talk with your mouth full," he teased her. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes crinkled even further, a subtle indication of his mirth and that he was actually teasing her and not just being a dick.

"We're all civilized now, right?" Joel gave a soft chuckle before he took another, unnecessarily large bite of his sandwich.

[gotsjokes]

"I don't get that.. like, this guy told me I shouldn't steal but then.. we were stolen .. so - uh - how can we be civilized in an uncivilized world? Besides.. fuck you." She laughed before she stifled it with another large bite of her sandwich-"Mhhhm~ Mmmm!" A small sway left and right to give him some sarcastic body language to go with her mouth.

He wouldn't take her sass anymore negatively than she would him calling her a brat, and they seemed to like pushing their boldness with one another in that department. Maybe tomorrow she'll give him the finger. Ellie snorted between bites.

[ohmygodshivs]

Joel wiped his fingers off on a napkin (what a luxury), then licked a small glob of mustard from the corner of his mouth. Before he answered her, he took another large bite and took his time chewing and swallowing. They were both far too used to chowing down their food as fast as possible whenever they had it. It was a hard habit to break, and not one he was eager to break truthfully. They were both still in the honeymoon stage of plentiful food.

"We don't got to steal to survive any more." Joel wasn't telling her not to, nor going into the moral equation of whether they should or not, it was simply a statement for her consideration. The reason he even took this job was to get some money for them to buy a house and settle in -- maybe discover together what normal could be now. "Just don't go gettin' into trouble."