TEST DRIVE MEME: The First (Fixed Setting)

[thecrows]

TEST DRIVE MEME
HOW TO: Post with your character in what will be a fixed setting for the first round! Do a top level, respond to others! If your thread is substantial, it can be used as a first-person on your application! Remember that this is not game canon, and everyone is welcome!

You were just ushered into a large park by a murder of loud and insistent crows who somehow manage to get the gate shut behind you before they fly off. The park is awfully green for such a dead-looking town. It's dusk, and things are starting to get a little noisy at the edge of the tall iron fence that surrounds the area. There are gazebos, cobblestone pathways, gentle slopes, and of course, the lake and the island with the large, dead tree. It's full of crows, and if you stare at them, they'll all stare back. Feel free to take a load off on one of the many iron and wood benches, but the gates to the city are closed!

This does not, however, mean you are barred from ghost-watching as night progresses. Remember, they won't see you!

Comments

FlickerFox ♫ OC

[syntech]

[There are few things that get the better of someone like Fox. Ending up in an unknown place isn't even that new to him - the cybernet is a bizarre sort of world, especially for agents like himself.

What is new is that it isn't his avatar that's been dragged into this park, inside a grey, deadened town - it's he himself. And his avatar appears to be offline, the cybernet completely unreachable. He'd made the mistake of pulling out a monitor for about six seconds before the birds came, attracted by the shimmering bubble, and then took to looking around.

Outside the gates, beyond the fence, people walk by seemingly listlessly, unfazed by anything going on inside this verdant area, and a quick push of his hand through the links, grabbing at someone out there manages to... catch nothing but air. So, either this is some bizarre virtual program, or... just maybe, something even more bizarre's happened.

Gritting his teeth slightly, Fox looks up at the height of the chainlink fence - even if he weren't physically weak, climbing that would have been questionable at best, and the gates were plainly locked. Which left only the inside, didn't it?

Adjusting the fingerless glove on his left hand self-consciously, he turns away from the chains to scan the area. Maybe someone he recognises will be here, though that's growing increasingly unlikely. Son of a bitch.]

[johannesthetraitor]

[Johannes was at the foot of the dead tree, staring up in his armor. He rubs his hands together slowly before turning away. His armor worn a heavy dust, it looked like an ashen gray for sure. Though it was no ashes, simply decay. He walked back away before finding his way towards Flickerfox. He at first made no change in his movements, but was soon finding a beeline to the man. He spoke as he approached to the distance appropriate to strangers.]

Greetings. I see another thwarted by crows and their beaks. I am Johannes.

[syntech]

[Truth be told, Fox heard him coming from quite a distance - it was a thankful sort of thing he'd been allowed his gloves and headphones, and all their capabilities therein.

Still, he'd only watched him approach in silence, trying to ascertain what sort of person he was - armoured, and strangely so at that... If not for the dusty, ashlike appearance, he might have thought him one of those history enthusiasts - the kind who delved back into the past to 'bring to life' what the world was like in the 20th century, and even before that. Were he more inclined to be interested in that sort of ancient history, he could perhaps guess the era this one was supposed to come from.

Still standing where he was, near the fence, he considered how to respond. If this was a virtual world, if he was still at home, it would be downright dangerous to respond aloud in his true voice... and, though he was quickly coming to believe it was otherwise, that was a sort of danger he didn't need. So, his fingers flicked across the segmented circular panel on the back of his left wrist, a small keyboard flickering into existence in midair. Well, what one would recognise as a keyboard, if one were from a time where they existed.

There's no screen to see what's being typed, only the sound of a voice far more feminine than not playing from... well, actually from the sound-box in his headphones, but just sort of 'out of nowhere' to the uninitiated. It isn't quite mechanical, though the inflection is a bit strange and unnatural.]

"Is this a common happening with the crows? You can call me Fox."

[It's harder to glean his wariness from the voice, but Fox keeps a sharp, tense stance and his eyes practically never waver from Johannes.

[johannesthetraitor]

[His odd manner of even coming to a speech was more than a little frustrating to the man. He had quite the rage, all told. Or at least his non-indoor voice could trigger at any moment. But the keyboard? Not that Johannes recognized it, being far too old for that. Then the feminine from the soundbox? Just seemed like a wizard was trying to impress him. He still decided to speak, looking back at those never wavering eyes in the same sharpness.]

Since you refuse to speak in your real voice, wizard, I shall call you Reynard. Make of it what you will. I am not sure, but as far as I can tell the crows are quiet insistent on how they urge a person here or there. Though personally more concerned with recovering my source of power than the crows, but their God appears absent today.

Not that I have belief that there are any real gods, only powerful beings masquerading behind masks.

[syntech]

[Oh. Good. Not only was he apparently off his rocker, he was a rambler. And rude, dismissive, and assumptive. And, by his responses, not scripted - so even if this was a virtual world, this was at least another 'player'. Thankfully, Fox was a paragon of patience - this was no worse than dealing with a member of GRAFT. Still, his expression didn't soften at all; backing down wasn't really something he did anymore.]

"One shouldn't presume to know whether I have a voice beyond this one, don't you think? It's a pretty problematic thing, making assumptions.

Regardless, call me what you will - I'll no doubt set you with a designation in short time anyway - and I am no wizard."

[... But wait. Source of power? What in the hell did that mean...? One of Fox's hands reached absently to press against the back of his neck, confirming that piece of tech was still there - not that he couldn't feel them all, if he tried, but still. The words that follow, while maintaining that deep, feminine tone, almost seem dismissive - possibly because of the look on his face as they sound.]

"This really is neither time nor place to be musing the efficacy and reality of Gods. Your words indicate that you presume the crows - or their master, more precisely - carry what you've lost; the most sensible step would be to force them to call their master, wouldn't it?"

[johannesthetraitor]

Considering we have been taken here by one, having my power stolen by their head Goddess, and my link severed by another, I think this is the perfect time to muse on the efficacy or reality of Gods. And how much they are bastards. I do not know how to force them, though. Shall I build a fire to smoke out the entire lower sky? That is the only thing I could think of.

[The man looks over the other man for a few moments, the ashen armor making noises as it rubbed parts together now, looking into that deep, feminine tone now as he takes a few moments. He was at first going to ignore the earlier statements. He had no interest in his own disquietness about his nature. But the thoughts of his own life came back to him and brought him to bring up something.]

I once was prince, but they call me Traitor now. Even if I was the one who brought vengeance on my murderous father. If you prefer titles above names, as you seem to. Vixen.

[No, it was unlikely he'd stop screwing around with the 'fox' name.]

[syntech]

"If you don't think them Gods, but powerful beings masquerading as such, it's foolish to give them the moniker. I'm unsure where you get the idea that some God brought us here - other than the ring, the offer of this place's name, we've been supplied with no further data, have we?"

[His eyes finally break from Johannes, to the birds in the tree. Life in the dead, black flickers across branches that should likely break under their weight.]

"...They are crows, I would think something shiny would work considerably better than attempting to light a fire that large."

[Though really, the idea isn't without merit. A fire in that very dead tree, for instance... but right now, that requires tools he, at the very least, doesn't possess. Again, his eyes flick back to Johannes, a sort of vacant smirk crossing his lips.]

"A designation is a term by which to refer to a unit. You act without princely mannerisms, and as yet you haven't had a chance to betray me, and so neither shall be your designation."

[Really, if he was trying to elicit a reaction with the feminine terminology, he was scrabbling up the wrong tree; not that Johannes would have a clue about that.]

[johannesthetraitor]

Gods has a much better ring to it than very powerful being. But they did take the Fountain Of Youth from me and severed my connection to it. Something like that would take powers I would have only associated with God.

[Johannes rarely was staring at one place. Though his moving did make a lot of noise, so it was rather noticeable when he did it! He also meant no insult by calling him Vixen, he was simply running through fox names at this point.]

Zorro, I think it would be the fault of spending a great deal of time alone. I have lost much of my princely mannerisms in the intervening time.

[syntech]

"God. Alien. Powerful being. I suppose the words are unimportant."

[It's... easier than it should be, maybe, for him to wrap his head around all the statements. Fountain of Youth? His connection? There's no context to go with it, but in his own experience, belief is everything.

That's what Tales of the Veil operates on, after all - belief. If his expression turns sour, it's for but the briefest moments, before it returns to that slightly upturned 'blank'.]

"Time alone affects everyone differently, I suppose. I can't say I've seen them, outside of the virtual creations - hardly an ideal litmus test."

[johannesthetraitor]

[He looked over at him, reading his expression as the man mentions the time as affecting them differently. Sure, could get behind that. Though the mention of virtual creations, well, he had no idea what something virtual was. Though he did recognize the man had no idea what the fountain of Youth was.]

I will admit, I do not quite follow.

[syntech]

[Waving a hand dismissively, Fox shrugged at the words.]

"It's a little hard to explain in laymen's terms. In a way, it's like your 'wizards'. Illusions programmed to follow a pattern or instructions.

Fake princes. Things like that."

[It's funny, sometimes, how easy it is to roll with it. But honestly? He's seen stranger things in the Worldnet.]

"... Given you were here first, I don't suppose you've gathered any relevant details about this place? Other than the 'gods' taking your... connection, of course."

[johannesthetraitor]

I have heard illusionists talk of the ability to construct such things, if they had some sort of web to work together on. I suppose your wizards are much better connected then. I assure you am not fake, only disgraced.

Information? I have only filled in the gaps from what I can assume. Something god like gave us the rings and took the powers of those here. In my world, the... Fountain of Youth as it was called, was a source of ultimate power. For most, it was just a way to gain immortality. But... it and its dungeon was more than that. I bonded with it though. I'm not sure if it was to protect itself or I had taken control of it...

To rip that out of me and bring me back from death, that's why I'm certain the creatures who brought us here are certainly powerful.

[syntech]

[There's something funny in the way Johannes says it; a web they're connected to... haah. The sensation of his network ID - just a phantom feeling, honestly - draws a quirk to his lips. The story the ex-prince gives him, too, is a bit bewildering. It's practically straight out of a game, in his opinion.

The fountain of youth, a dungeon...]

"Everything certainly seems on the side of impossible, here. Powerful seems about right, but if they've brought us here... I wonder what they intend for us to do."

[Gaze returning again to the crows, he shakes his head. Surely, just living here can't be the answer. He... has far too much to do for that to be the case. Not to mention this place is eerie at best.]