( 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

[tearmeanewone]

[Yes, it would be a stupid question if that's what Elizabeth had been suggesting. But it isn't. She smiles at him, squeezes his elbow a little.]

No, not like that.

She was six, maybe seven. Pretty white dress. She wanted you to pick her up, and you still could even though she was clearly getting too big for it. I saw it in my shower door a few months back. I thought it was a tear for a moment, but it only happened in reflective surfaces.

[amonglions]

Oh.

[Well now he's glad he didn't ask. But he seems nostalgic for something that never happened to him. This version of him, at least. In the millions and millions of worlds that exist - that was real in one of them. Maybe more.

Booker is hesitant to say what he thinks. That it sounds rather nice.]

Well. Sounds better than what I saw.

[It's not a contest Booker.]

[tearmeanewone]

Sounds better for you. [Elizabeth arches an eyebrow and smirks faintly at him. It had been heartbreaking for her-- the amount of intense jealousy she felt was overwhelming to the point where she just sat there and watched it for hours. Wishing it could be her, hating Comstock again.]

What'd you see, then?

[amonglions]

Comstock.

[It was pretty pointless to lie about it. Especially after they'd clarified that she knew everything there was to know. Certainly took the pressure off of keeping up pretenses.]

Or at least, I thought it was.

[He knew it was Comstock...but at the same time...he wasn't really sure...

Nevertheless, Booker wasn't going to be looking at reflective surfaces anytime soon. ]

[tearmeanewone]

[Elizabeth looks at Booker in the window, her face getting stony. Yes, Comstock was never a good topic of conversation, but she knows how Booker feels about him and his relation to him.]

You're probably right. But if he actually was right here, I wouldn't be hanging on his arm eating ice cream.

[amonglions]

[Booker's first instinct is to argue. That he is technically the one in the same and that Elizabeth shouldn't look at him with different colored glasses just because he personally didn't lock her up in a tower for her entire youth. But he's had this argument with her before, could probably tell you exactly what Elizabeth would tell him in response.

So he just smiles. A little bitter, perhaps but he still smiles and squeezes her arm for good measure.]

Small favors.

[Because really he's happy she differentiates them. Booker doesn't want to live in a world where Elizabeth hates him. Completely. He'll always doubt that, somehow.]

[tearmeanewone]

[She does more than differentiate them-- Elizabeth practically worships Booker. Her dearest friend, her only friend for the longest time. Her family for now. Even if he doesn't belong in Proles, even if he has a baby daughter waiting for him somewhere, Elizabeth wants this to be her second chance with him. However long it lasts.]

I'd do it with you every day, if we could. [She grins and squeezes back, then tries to pull Booker away from the window. No more visions of Comstock.]

Come on. It's my only day off this week, we shouldn't talk about him.

[amonglions]

[Booker has no idea he has a second chance at his life with Anna waiting for him. For him - this is it, the second chance he truly didn't think he'd be getting. But here he is, living in a strange city and walking with Elizabeth on her days off.

It's pretty surreal. But that doesn't mean he won't milk it.]

Alright. What do you want to talk about then?

[Honestly, he likes hearing Elizabeth talk. It makes him proud that she's so smart. In a really roundabout way.]