( MEMES ) TEST DRIVE >> 003.

[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.

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. What are you going to do?

2. Failed Upgrade. One of your upgrades is more wrong than right. How will you cope? What exactly is different? Who will help?

3. Mission outside the dome. You've come under fire. The strange things are coming towards you. Luckily, you have your suit, your teammates, and a lot of firepower. Or are you stranded on your own, looking for someone to come to the rescue? Perhaps you're the rescuer.

4.Infected Something bit you. Now you're turning into them, and all you can hear is a high-pitched squealing in your head, like a frequency you just can't quite hear. Do you tell your loved ones, or do you wait? Do you trust your doctor?

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. Chance encounter makin' my way downtown walking fast, faces pass--you get the point. You bump into someone! Shopping, or strolling in a park? Maybe just lunch in a cafe?

7. Glory to the Network! Network post. Text with general queries, say what you have to say to the entirety of the whole city.

8. Wildcard: Whatever you want. Mix and match, switch and swatch, make something else up entirely!

Comments

[theasset]

[That is a lot of emotions. It's a lot of words and it hurts trying to think through all of that but his hand is stroking her hair.]

I'm here. I'd never leave you behind.

[Not like others. Not like people had left him...He draws her forehead to his lips for a delicate trembling kiss before his gaze scans the entrance.]

They'll come back for us.

[There's a nervous edge to the words] They'll come back for us...

[sklent]

I don't think they can. And if they do. We'll deal with it.

Until then... [ She looks at him, hoping he'll understand. That he'll try this with her. ]

I want us to live. Please?

[theasset]

[His head aches. Between Captain America and the rest of it his mind hurts. There's a subtle crack in the impressive facade they've built over the remains of James Buchanan Barnes.]

...Take me somewhere safe.

[sklent]

[ Thank you she thinks but doesn't say. He can always change his mind later, and she will obey, because that is what she does, what she has been programmed to do. Some part of her chooses to, she knows this, whether or not the option presented is a real one.

She leads him out of District 4 and into District 2, to a small house at the edge of a farm she'd bought as a base of operations for her work for the Callsigns. It's...sparse, in it's way, but there's a warmth to the space that she enjoys.

A family lived here, she thinks, and not so long ago that she feels like she's haunting a once-full space.

Two floors, though the second is empty and she's been living out of the kitchen/living room/dining room area instead of setting up in one of the bedrooms. There are maps, and printouts, and a pair of glasses set up to a complex monitoring system she isn't entirely sure works as it should, but she built the thing. ]

This is safe. There's another place... [ On one of the monitors there are several doorways that look near identical and she taps it with her finger. ] Assigned. They'll have assigned you one as well. Probably not in the same building.

[ She'll need to deal with that. ]

[theasset]

[he? He is prowling.

For all of the training he's had to think of himself as less then then an animal he is very animal like in behaviors. Up the stairs into each bedroom, then back down and staring out the window.

He bares his teeth and the scenes outside]

I'm familiar with it. It's good you have a split base of operations.

How many SHIELD agents are here?

[sklent]

[ She is aware of his prowling, his growls, and she feels like she's pretended too long at not being a monster. He probably thinks two weeks have made her too soft.

He will either despise her for it, or be more driven to protect her, and she isn't sure how she should feel about that. If she feels anything.

She feels something. ]

Two. [ A pause. ] Fury and Rogers. Three if you include Banner, though I do not believe he considers himself to be one.

I have an agreement with Fury.

[ To rebuild SHIELD here, if SHIELD is to exist. ]

[theasset]

An agreement with our enemy?

[He's offering as much surprise as he can.] tactical advantage?

[He sounds panicked, or as panicked as he can be]

[sklent]

He is unaware of any ties I have to HYDRA, and SHIELD will be more invested in the protection of the 'immune' than the company that brought us all here.

[ She frowns, and looks away. ]

I needed orders. I can burn my contacts at any point.

[theasset]

[what about him. His hand clenches] ...Infiltration from within. That's good. [she's thinking better then he is. He puts his hands on the sink and stares out the window]

....You've done well.

[sklent]

Thank you. [ Her voice shakes but she means it. How long had she stayed up wondering what his judgement would be about her actions? She still wonders.

It hasn't all been lying, infiltration, but it's been mostly that. If only because she doesn't know how else to be. She has, at least, been honest with most about that. I am doing this for a reason. It's just that those reasons have, to this point, included the fact that she enjoyed their company. ]

I... [ Hngh. She should probably stop overwhelming him with intel and her own emotional instability. ] Earlier, I didn't mean that I wasn't your responsibility. It's just the name, Romanov, that's...someone else. A woman who made other choices than I was given. Than I would make.

[ Her hand comes up to his shoulder and rests there. ]

I will do whatever you order. You know that.

[theasset]

You're being compromised. [his voice is full of scorn.] You've been compromised. Hydra was good to us.

[But the words are said far too fast. Like he's trying to convince himself, to put it out there.

And the worst part is you're saying you wouldn't have chosen me? because that's what it sounds like.

And then it's there, like a physical hit to the face. Memories of a different man entirely. Smiles and whispered words.]

Do you regret the choices you've made?

[sklent]

Good to us?! [ It takes everything in her not to slam her fist into the countertop. ] They kept us alive, barely that, but that is all they've done for our betterment. There is nothing good about HYDRA.

[ She looks at him, really looks, tries to get him to turn and face her. ]

The ones I've made with you or without? [ Frowning, she shakes her head. ] No. I only regret that I've had to spend two weeks not knowing if I would see you again.

[theasset]

[his gaze is stone cold and if there's fear...it's buried deep. But it's still there, dug deep within him. He can't respond to that last part.

Instead he raises a hand to her cheek, staring her down before lowering his forehead to hers.]

And have you lived little Natalia? Have you lived a good life without me?

[sklent]

[ Her breath comes out shaky. It should be a threat, she thinks, but it isn't. Or she doesn't want it to be. ]

I've...tried. I've made...friends. A lover. I don't know. [ Shutting her eyes. ] They knew my voice, they called me by her name, and she disappeared. There was one like you, if you were his distant past, and he disappeared too. My hand was called before I had even drawn cards. I didn't know what to do.

[theasset]

[A lover.

Why does that make his stomach hurt.]

Where are your medical supplies.

[sklent]

[ Because they need to discuss it. Because they need to discuss what they are to each other now. ]

Beneath the sink.

What do you need?

[theasset]

[Not talking is easiest.

Early days he used to shoot his mouth off a lot. Then he shot his mouth off even more and it got both of them hurt.

So he doesn't talk, two minutes, three, five, ten, rummaging through her medical supplies.]

Antacid.

[Sedative. Please god, hydra, a sedative, make this nightmare go away and let him sleep.]

Give me a further status report.

[sklent]

[ It takes her half that time to realize what he's looking for and she stands, silent, before she moves away just as he demands further information.

To the bathroom. Where she keeps the sedatives now. These aren't hypo-pens but tiny glass vials with hand drawn syringes. So that she knows exactly what she's doing and has time to decide why.

She sets them down on the counter next to him. ]

This planet has advanced technologically in every single sector from what we know. From anything HYDRA or SHIELD has managed. The complication of several people sharing a similar history or even just a face happens here so often that it is easily dismissed. Multiple universes is a standard accepted reality.

I have been hired by two of the Callsigns to investigate anti-Sanctum sentiment being propagated by a former Callsign who still goes by Kilo. The higher up the Callsign, the more likely it is that they know every nuance of our history. Of anyone's history that has arrived here.

[theasset]

[He puts a hand on them.]

...and SHIELD is involved in this mission?

[sklent]

Only inasmuch as their director wishes to have answers as to why he and Rogers and others he considers 'his people' have been brought here.

The greater danger is likely the company that controls the city, Bifrons.

Do you want to sleep? You might dream, with this.

[theasset]

[He might dream.

That thought is terrifying. Especially after what he saw. He knew Rogers, that much was true -

his mind slips back - no time, no date stamp. All he knows is that Zola, the father he'd never knew he needed is standing over him.

"Do you see? You've been dreaming of him lately, your precious friend, your brother in arms?"

He'd watched the video tape, filtering in and out of his mind. Only it's not Zola, it's Pierce, Zola's protege standing there smiling at him and the video tape is a disc.

There's a flash of red, white, and blue and a man with a SHIELD, a shield he knows.

"He's alive."

Something in him snaps and he lets out a sob, "...You - Zola...Zola told me he'd..."

"Died. No. He's been alive this whole time. All this struggle that you've had." His hand strokes his hair, "All the pain you've given yourself. Steve Rogers has been alive this whole time."

"It's a lie."

"He's left you."

"A lie!"

"He's abandoned you. For his new friends."]

I've dreamt enough.

[He stares at her] Never lie to me. Never leave me. Or I'll kill you do you understand.

[He left him. If she left him too he'd feel...he'd feel...

His features contorted]

[sklent]

[ Ah. Here's the threat she was expecting, when he asked if she'd been living without him. ]

I stay with you because I want to.

I love you because I want to.

I can't lie to you. I don't know how. I can't, I honestly can't, and I wouldn't change that. Of everything HYDRA has done to my mind, I wouldn't change that.

I'll never want to leave. I'll never want to lie.

...Do you think a lover changes what has been true my entire life?

[theasset]

["He's betrayed you. Do you see how they cheer for him? That should be your homecoming."

"You-" You did this, you stole it from me, you, you, you...

"I care." Pierce's voice was soft, "I know what you have done. but I don't want to lie to you. HYDRA doesn't lie."

"Turn it off."

"You need to see this. You need to see the life you should have been living. The life you would have lived. The life you'll live one day when the world is truly free.."

"...Please. Turn it off...Please."

"Do you want to sleep?"

"Yes."

Softly, like the voice of death itself, "...Say it."

"I want to go back to sleep."

He squeezes her hand, so tight that it's almost painful.]

...I love you.

I don't think it's wise however that you tell Rogers and his ilk that I'm here yet.

[sklent]

[ But she doesn't flinch or pull away. This is the way they are. ]

I wasn't planning on it.

I will, however, need to dissuade certain other parties from trying to figure out why I'm not home.

[theasset]

Home. that's cute.

Are they as domestic as we are? [Is that curiousity, perish the thought]