( MEMES ) TEST DRIVE >> 7

[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. Pet Adoption. Maybe you have the perfect genetically engineered pet in mind. Maybe you found a stray little escapee--do you keep it or turn it in? There's a reward if you let Bifrons know where the potentially dangerous little bugger is at, after all.

3. Alterations. Feel like you need an edge in the city? Find yourself injured and looking at options? Why not consider genetic alterations or, better yet, upgrading to a better, healthier you? Be warned, some of the side effects can be a little unpleasant.

4. Network Glitches. Strange garbled messages keep trying to come through in audio and text, but no way to track where they're coming from. Do you try to make contact? Compare notes with others? Surely it's nothing to be concerned about, right?

5. Dome Glitches. What was that in the window? There, again, in the bathroom mirror! Is that another you, living another life? Or maybe you spot an ominous shadow lurking around in the corner, something like a dysthrope but...worse. You're not going crazy, are you? Others see it, too, don't they? Oh, I wouldn't touch that reflective surface if I were you, or you might end up thinking you're living in that strange other world.

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

Caine Wise | Jupiter Ascending

[runtofthelegion]

[001 - Space Hunter]

[The air in the dome is truly bizarre. Caine can smell how recycled it is, knows there must be a filter somewhere that's making what limited oxygen they have breathable again and again. It's a little frustrating, to be honest. How is he supposed to track anybody when the scent barely sticks around for 48 hours? He has to get lucky.]

[He's been tracking this particular person for days because of the damn recycled air, but the real thing has finally returned to a usual spot-- a place where the scent is stronger. Caine falls into step behind them, navigating the street while trying to keep an eye on them.]


[002 - Space Wolf]

[Caine had zero problem with how he came into being. Genetic alterations, breeders, it was just the way things were.]

[...surrounded by a pile of puppies that smell like a fruit basket, he's starting to rethink things. Surely all these little guys couldn't stand to be around each other? Surely their sense of smell was completely blown out because they could only smell pineapple or strawberry all the time? And the colors... the colors-- at least Caine knew he'd been bred for a job, not to be someone's confection.]

[But the little pack of escaped boutique pets won't stop following him. He turns corners climbs up dumpsters, even goes into various businesses, but he can't shake all of them. When he'd said he was looking for a pack, he didn't mean he was looking for a pack of fruit-flavored gum.]


[003 - Space Boots]

[Guess who got his space boots back? This kid.]

[He makes sure they're calibrated properly in an open area in D2, but after that he's zipping around as though he hadn't spent months saving up to commission a decently engineered pair. He keeps pretty high above peoples' heads as a rule, but a couple of times he tests how quickly he can cut and fire the conversion units, touching down for a couple of steps then taking off again. It's a bit like work, but it does give him a welcome sense of the familiar. Even if he was far away, he could still do what he did best.]

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

"What in the hell do you think you're doing?! Get the fuck down here before you kill someone!" Or himself, Jesus. Whiskey snarls up at the flying idiot, arms crossed.

[runtofthelegion]

Caine looks down over his shoulder-- who else would he be yelling at, the other flying idiot? Once he sees who it is, he puts the brakes on immediately and comes down. Callsigns weren't exactly the authority he was used to respecting, but different world came with different rules.

"Sorry, sir." He wouldn't have killed anybody, of course. He was too careful for that. ...property damage wasn't out of the question... Caine stands awkwardly, waiting to receive the rest of his reprimand.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

"Are you try'n to give me a goddamn heart attack? What if those cut out mid glide?" Sure they're amazing peices of tech- in their original form. No way that's the real pair, he can see the goddamn Bifrons logo from here and he don't trust that shit for anything if he can help it.

Or maybe he's just being paranoid. Who knows.

"Coulda broken your own damn fool neck. Jesus christ." Whiskey scrubs his bionic hand over his face, pinching the bridge of his nose as he lets his fear driven adrenaline roil down to a simmer. Caine's a good kid, really, solid soldier. Just.

Different. He's still getting used to all the quirks. "You at least wear'n some kinda saftey gear?"

[runtofthelegion]

Cut out? They could cut out? Cain frowns and awkwardly shifts on the boots, trying to look for some faulty wiring or some reason why they wouldn't work the way they were supposed to. "Does Bifrons make defective equipment?"

The idea of sending someone out with something that could fail seems ridiculous. Sure it was always a possibility back in the Legion, but for the most part Caine trusted the equipment he worked with.

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

"Intentionally? No. But those are new toys and I know for goddamn sure they don't test new tech as much as they should. Not as bad as it used t'be when upgrades were first introduced to the market but- till we're sure of 'em keep low. And wear a goddamn halmet for fuck's sake." The idea of the kid's skull just splitting open on the pavement is a visceral one that he doesn't need this time of day.

[runtofthelegion]

...untested gear. That sounds like a can of worms he really doesn't want to get into. How could he work while wondering if his boots were about to cut out and throw him into a brick wall or a car or something worse? They were heavy when they weren't running, too.

Nonchalantly, he powers them down and slips out. "Don't have one. Never really needed one before, when the atmosphere was breathable."

[oldfashionedfutureboy]

"You've never landed on your head." He doesn't doubt that offhand but- the risks, jesus. There are so many of them.

[runtofthelegion]

"Sure I have," Caine blinks and shrugs. "Just got back up afterwards. If it was really bad I just sprayed it with a healing compound."

He picks up the boots and puts them over his shoulder. "But it doesn't look like you have anything like that around here. And since getting here, I've felt like I couldn't take as much punishment as I used to. Does everybody feel like that here?"

prompt 2

[pain_train]

"Oh my gosh, puppies! Wow, are these all yours?"

Yes, that is the badass veteran of the Line, squeezing. She likes puppies, okay?

[runtofthelegion]

"Mine? No," Caine watches a dozen colorful wagging tails jump around Wrath's ankles and thinks this could be his chance. He starts edging backwards slowly, but a lime green one catches on and the pack goes running back to him. "But they seem to think they are. I must smell familiar to them."

[pain_train]

"Oh? What do you smell like?" Wrath leans on her cane, bending as much as she can to offer the puppies her other hand. All the licking and nipping just makes her laugh.

[runtofthelegion]

"Like one of their genetic ancestors, probably," Caine puts his hands on his hips and watches the puppies leap around Wrath. They were certainly dog-shaped, but who knew how they were engineered. For all he knows, they took a strawberry and introduced canine genes into it.

"People like me don't entirely lose traits of their genetic ancestors, that includes scent sometimes."

[pain_train]

"You're part puppy?" She doesn't sound disbelieving, more like she wants to make she she's understanding correctly. She knows stuff like that happens with plants and animals, obviously. Humans not so much, but it's possible. She wouldn't put anything past Bifrons at this point.

[runtofthelegion]

"More than part. I'm more dog than human, if you want the truth."

The blue one starts gnawing on Wrath's cane, and Caine is quick to bend down and pick it up. "Hey, hey there, that's not yours."

[pain_train]

She squints at him, still smiling. "You look pretty human to me," she remarks. Then coos at the puppy. "Yeah, you don't want to eat that. It's got a nasty metal center."

[runtofthelegion]

"Trust me, it's just for looks," he snorts softly and puts the puppy down. It goes right back to attempting to eat the cane, so Caine sighs and picks it up again. "He'll only learn if he gets to it, but I'm sure that wouldn't be so great for you."

[universal_charm]

Caine might be trying to avoid people's heads, but there's at least one person intent on chasing him. Jim is tucked low against his bike, taking the turns sharp and hard to keep up with the flyer, letting out excited little whoops whenever Caine executed a complicated move.

He had a med kit tucked into the compartment beneath his seat, because prudent suggested that they should bring one on the test run, in case the mechanics had been done wrong. Though, watching Caine, he didn't think they'd need it. The sight was oddly beautiful too, watching someone defy gravity like that, as if it was natural, easy.

Jim brought the bike to a halt when Caine finally came back to Earth, taking off his helmet and trotting up to him, slapping his shoulder. "That was amazing! To be honest, I really didn't believe you about these, but that was cool to watch!" A pause, his blue eyes bright. "Can I try them?"

[runtofthelegion]

"You're still here, Jim?" Caine laughs, showing plenty of canine and patting him gently on the back in return. He'd definitely been trying to lose Kirk, just to impress him and really push the boots, but maybe he hadn't gone anywhere Kirk couldn't follow on purpose. He couldn't show off how useful the boots were if Kirk couldn't see him.

Caine pretends to think about Kirk's request, then playfully shoves the captain. "Not on your life. Took me weeks to get the credits for these. But I'll tell you what-- take the keys out of your bike. I'll give you a ride."

[universal_charm]

If they other had been dodging more between the rows of buildings, up and over, he could have easily been lost. Kirk knew the city pretty well, but his options were limited when it came to his hover bike in terms of ways to go. Up was not really one of them, and he was generally restricted to left and right.

He flashed the other an equally toothy grin. "Have to work harder than that to shake me."

There's a brief moment of hesitation, if only because there was exactly only person Kirk allowed to carry him about in Proles, and Caine was not that person. But, it meant he could get a ride on those boots... worth it. He moved the bike into a better position and took out the keys, sliding them into the inside pocket of his riding jacket before zipping it up.

"If you drop me..." he warned, coming back to Caine, preparing to piggyback.

[runtofthelegion]

"Don't let go, then," he teased, crouching down so Kirk could climb on. When he'd first met Kirk, it'd been blatantly obvious that Kirk had someone he was either mated to or close with on a fairly regular basis. It was a very foreign smell, and it had Caine wondering just what kind of person gave off such a scent. Kirk was wild and carefree, like Caine tried to be when he was working off some stress, and he admired that. It isn't something he'd have for himself, probably, but that was alright. He could get a bit of it when he had to.

"Alright, ready?" he asked, hoisting Kirk up onto his back and supporting the other's legs with his arms. "If you thought I was good using my arms for balance, just wait--"

Caine takes off, easily, as though he wasn't carrying another adult male. This time, he's taking to the open dome. No streets, he's running on thin air and gliding in large, slow arcs.

[universal_charm]

Mated was a strong word. Far to strong. He would violently protested had it been used. As for the care free bit - well, he wasn't a believer in letting things get you down. He'd had his moments, sure, but his own personal methods of dealing with them seemed to mean he bounced back fairly quick. If he pulled others along in his cheerful wake, well, he couldn't say he was sorry for it. Caine always seemed like he could use some cheering up, and he was glad to see that the boots were giving him such a boost.

The Star Fleet captain wrapped his arms around Caine's shoulders, his legs grasping his hips. Precarious and a bit uncomfortable, but he reminded himself of why he was doing this and the discomfort faded, nothing more than a passing notion.

"Whooo!" Kirk called, his head twisting as he looked around himself, seeing the dome laid out below, nothing between him and the street but air. He should be terrified, but his heart hammered with excitement, eyes dilating with adrenaline. "And you did this all the time back in your world?" he asked Caine, gripping a bit tighter - for safety's sake, of course.

[runtofthelegion]

For Caine there was 'mated' for splices, and 'love' or 'dating' for humans. He had no idea who Kirk was sleeping with, but he kept his assumptions to himself and would wait to be proven wrong. In the meantime, there's flying to be done. All of that wasn't really vital to know.

Egged on by Kirk's obvious enjoyment of the situation, Caine leans forward and makes a sharp corkscrew just to make Kirk's head spin.

"...Not all the time," Cain said after a moment's hesitation. Obviously he hadn't when he was imprisoned. "But they were my signature when I was a legionnaire! Most legionnaires didn't like to get too close, but I thought it was the most effective way to handle some situations."

[universal_charm]

He saw starts for a second, but fear didn't touch him as they spun and glided. He almost wished he could shrug off his jacket and let his wings out behind him. He could feel like he was really flying. His heart raced in his chest, resisting the urge to reach out with his fingers and try and brush the sky. He was sure Caine could feel the thrumming, smell his excitement or something. Excitement had a scent, didn't it? Maybe he'd ask Caine when they were dirt side again.

"Hey, I'd get as close as I had to to be able to use these!" Kirk called, sure the other could hear him, his fingers gripping tight to the other's shirt even as he lifted his head to let the breeze of their passage kiss his cheeks. He tapped Caine's chest, teeth flashing in a new, wider grin. "I know you have more tricks than this!"

[runtofthelegion]

Kirk's excitement did have a scent, and it was one that Caine rarely smelled and didn't feel some apprehension towards. Usually excitement didn't involve him in a good way, usually it came in situations like watching Titus smile as he put Caine out the airlock. This was actually contagious, and Caine felt himself grinning along with Kirk.

"If you're sure-- hang on!" Caine cuts the algorithm and they both fall towards the street. Before it can get too nerve-wracking though, Caine starts the boots again and they slope gently alongside the normal street traffic. He weaves through the cars before spotting a hole in the foot traffic and racing them up the side of a building. All the way to the top, then Caine turns them over in midair.