memesofeternity | Test Drive Meme II

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Test Drive Meme II

A. RETRIEVAL

Dreams fade slowly, and awareness returns in increments. The hum of machinery, the smell of recycled air, the murmurs of others waking up around you.

The interior of the ship has been outfitted with cots for those Biggs and Wedge retrieve from the Dream Width. Outside of the makeshift infirmary, windows set into the walls of the worn lounge area offer a view of space.

It’s time to meet your fellow new arrivals who have been brought together on Biggs and Wedge’s airship. The other newly-awakened people have no idea how they came to be here, but now's a good time as ever to introduce yourself to the others on the airship and glean what information you can.

B. CURTI CENTER

The researchers at the Curti Center are not quite so unprepared as last time, but it is still obvious that they are struggling to understand the sudden influx of interdimensional travelers from the Dream Width. "Please step into the lobby for a quick survey. Perhaps there is some common thread we haven't discovered yet..."

The staff will do their best to help the off-worlders settle in. They answer the questions they can, write down all proffered information they can about the arrivals' homeworlds, provide maps and pamphlets about Vaikuntha and the destinations within it, and even guide the arrivals to a neighborhood where housing has been provided for you. Yes, due to the strange influx of arrivals, you’ll be expected to share, but the Curti staff are doing the best they can, considering they are still housing the previous arrivals here on the island.

Experiences like these bring people together. Perhaps you are the only one here from your world, but at least you are not alone in this experience. Others are right beside you, learning the same information, planning trips to visit the same new cities, checking out these Job things, and settling in to their new (temporary) homes.

C. UP IN THE SKY

There’s a whole new world to explore. It’s almost enough to distract from the fact that there’s one place you can’t go- home.

You are on an Airship, the main mode of transportation between the major cities of Vaikuntha. While the majority are owned by airlines, perhaps you hitched a ride with a friend that has their own. You can go anywhere in a matter of hours — One can only hope you don’t have motion sickness.

D. GUILDS

Proud representatives of the Guild are lined up, ready to demonstrate their skills for the new initiates. Make sure to stay behind the designated line, this might get dangerous.

So you want a new Job? You'll have to first travel to the Guilds, sign the papers, go through the orientation and introductory lectures, and get basic training. Afterwards, you can freely chat and practice with your fellow members, celebrating your new powers, and checking out your new wardrobe.

E. LET'S BE ADVENTURERS

Separated from all of your material possessions, connections, and everything you know, and really, what you’re left with is time. Better try to make the most of it.

Enough expository banter. It's explorin' time. Maybe instead of spending every day in your room, you'd rather spend it living it up in the city of Lavode, or betting on Chocobo Races in Sparks Goldsaucia. Or maybe you'd rather go and explore the caves and ruins near Arito. With Airships and Chocobos at your disposal, you can go nearly anywhere!

F. SIDEQUESTS

Maybe you’re telling yourself, ‘I didn’t sign up for this.’ But wait, you did. At least it pays.

It all started when you checked the Quest Board. All you wanted was a few gil to spend, and here you are in the wild, hunting for a Malboro Vine. Or maybe you are in some ancient and decrepit ruins looking for an artifact. Or you could be asked to be janitor for a week. Consider yourself lucky though, at least you don't have to do that alone.

G. GET A JOB (THE OTHER KIND)

You’ve got a Job, but Claire keeps sighing and muttering about layabout space-people not earning their keep, so it might be time to seek out Employment as well.

There are plenty of opportunities to earn some gil in Vaikuntha, no matter where you choose to settle down. Your iMog slate includes listing for employment opportunities. Hopefully you can find something you can live with so that you can start saving up for an airship or the security payment for your permanent housing.

H. MOGNET

*Ding!* You’ve got Mog-Mail!

Thankfully, you can instantaneously chat with your friends around the world thanks to you iMog Slate. And unlike old-fashioned Moogle Letters, you can even send messages to everyone in a blink of an eye! However, despite the change in technology, the old tradition of Mognet Strikes have never gone away. Nobody knows any more whether the Moogles have legitimate reasons to go on strike or if they are just lazy. But today, Mognet is down, and to get information you have no choice but going to the public boards or risk message corruption and mishandling.

I. RANDOM ENCOUNTER

The ground trembles, and out of nowhere, something hostile appears! ~~Is that battle music playing?~~

You were minding your own business walking around, and suddenly monsters attacked you! Time to put to use the skills you've learned with your Jobs! Will you try to fight on your own or seek help? And remember, you die in random battle, you die FOR REAL. There’s no shame from running from enemies that are a higher level than you!

J. CHOCOBO MADNESS

You look at the giant chicken, and the giant chicken looks back at you. Could this be the beginning of a beautiful relationship?

The kind folks at the Chocobo Farm have provided you with the tools of the chocobo-catching trade: greens, a bridle, and more advice than you can remember. Time to go find your new steed.

Or perhaps you have already captured a chocobo, and your friend has captured a chocobo, and now you'd like to bring some chicks into the equation. Chocobo breeding may be the minigame for you!

K. WILD CARD

Feeling inspired to create your own prompt? The power is yours!

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Helping out at Swordmaster Guild, Adrien was demonstrating the styles with the other members. He was still a novice compared at the actual world members, but he'd like to think he put on a good show for the newer arrivals after him. Even showing off some of the abilities.

"Oblivion!"

A swift series of chaining slashes took down a training dummy no problem and he stepped back with a slight grin. Looking at the group standing there, he waved - but then blinked. It became more enthusiastic, but how could it not at the sight of a familiar face?

So maybe the Swordmaster Guild was not the place for her, but that didn't mean she planned to skip out on the demonstrations. If nothing else, it would be interesting to see what they could do.

That had been the plan, until she heard a voice she'd probably recognize anywhere. Her eyes went wide, and her head whipped around in time to see Adrien waving at her. And smiling.

Why was he here? He was probably the last person she'd been expecting to see in such a place, and yet here he was, casually looking like he belonged.

But it would be okay if he stayed over there being generally perfect and waving a sword around, because then she wouldn't have to try and talk to him. Waving she could handle, so she did, and she even managed a smile.

He wanted to go talk to her, but his part of the demonstration wasn't over yet. There was still another fight to participate in and a few more skills to demonstrate, all of which took about fifteen minutes actually, but it still felt long enough.

The moment he can though, he set his sword aside and hurried over to see his friend.

"Hey Marinette! Did you like the demonstration?"

The next fifteen minutes were spent watching the demonstration, which for Marinette, translated to watching everything Adrien did intently with a dreamy sort of smile on her face. Anyone who tried getting her attention would probably find it difficult to do so.

By the time it was over, her mood had improved, if that was even possible. She'd been content before, but now she was giddy and anxious and oh goodness he was coming over after all...

"Adrien! Hi!" That wasn't so bad. Maybe she could do this. "You were great. In the demonstration. Yea!"

Nailed it.

"Thanks. This is the first time I got to help."

Of course, it would be his first time since he only arrived less than a few months ago, but it felt so familiar already. The atmosphere was far different though than the sessions he had with D'argencourt back home.

"Were you interested in trying out the Swordmaster asterisk?"

She nodded at that, even if it was a little surprising.

And now she was wondering if that was because this was the first time they'd trusted him enough to let him help, or if it was something else. There were so many questions!

That last one made her laugh, though.

"Oh no! I'm much too klutzy for that," she told him with a shrug. "I'm not sure which one I'm going to try out just yet, but it seemed silly to wander off when the demonstrations were going on. And I mean it. You were really great..."

"If you say so, but I think you'd be able to pull it off." After some practice, anyone could do it. Even if she was a klutz, she'd have help while getting the hang of it. He nodded at her admission, chuckling himself. "Take your time. It's way hard to decide which asterisks to take first with all the options."

Except... maybe Freelancer.

"Thanks, Marinette."

His confidence was inspiring, but she wasn't quite sure she felt the same. "Thanks for saying so," she told him, smiling.

That made her pause for a moment, too. "How did you decide?" Aside from the obvious fact that he was an excellent fencer.

"You're welcome."

Anything she put her mind to, he was sure she'd likely succeed at.

Raising a hand to his chin, he nodded. "Well, you could probably guess fencing contributed to the choice. I thought about Red Mage, but I wasn't sure about picking up magic immediately over picking up new sword stances." It really came down to a comfortable familiarity.

His smile grew.

She just grinned at that. "I had a hunch, yea," Marinette admitted, smiling up at him. It made sense, honestly, and she couldn't blame him for going with something he was already good at.

"Would Red Mage be any harder than this?"

"Red Mages are fencers and jack-of-all-trades when it comes to magic. So, it would be a little bit harder." He continued beaming, imagining the prospects of being Red Mage soon enough. "I think I'll try it as my next Asterisk... well, after Ninja, too."

"Too hard?" she questioned, before she could really stop herself. But honestly, Red Mages sounded really interesting. The idea of learning magic seemed pretty exciting, too.

Until he mentioned something about a Ninja. "That's a thing here, too?"

"I mean, it seems like picking up an Asterisk means immediately mastering the Job and it's only a matter of getting more experience to learn more skills, but... I don't know. Maybe I actually wanted to get away from fencing for a bit." It was always possible... and he hadn't really considered all his personal hangups at the time of the tour.

He nodded. "Yeah. It's my Passive Job."

"So you just pick up the asterisk and it's like you're a professional at whatever it is?" That was ... an odd thought, but maybe she wasn't understanding correctly. "It's okay if you want to get away from fencing," Mari told him. "You don't have to do that just because it's something you're good at. I'm sure there are other things you could do just as well."

She just giggled at the thought of Adrien as a ninja. Still, she couldn't help being curious about it. "Do you think it's something I'd be good at?"

"Pretty much." It was weird to think about, but that was how it went. He did appear relieved when she said getting away was okay. "Right... There are other things I would like to try, but at some point, I'll always come back to it."

And he wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

He chuckled. "I think so. You're pretty athletic when you need to be."

That was an interesting way to do things, and it kind of sounded like something out a video game. "Gotcha. What other things would you like to do?" She knew that he hadn't really had much of a choice in any of the things that he did back home, so she could only imagine how much he was enjoying being here now.

"There's no rush to go back to it."

Mostly she just wanted to see him happy.

And he was right about that, she supposed. She could be klutzy at times, but she also had her moments where the stars aligned and things went right. "Maybe I'll check it out. Thanks, Adrien!"

"What other asterisks? Hm..." He hadn't really been thinking about what to do outside of the three. "... If I could, I actually wouldn't mind trying Cavalier. But, since that's not really an option, maybe Bard or Black Mage."

He nodded, smiling.

The bright smile grew at her thanks. "You're welcome!"

To be fair, she hadn't done a lot of preemptive research about the different asterisks. In fact, she'd sort of been hoping that by watching some of the demonstrations, she'd be able to make an informed decision that way. But maybe it wasn't quite that simple. She was curious about which ones Adrien was interested in, though. Something related to fencing seemed logical, but there were just so many, and she kind of admired that he wanted to branch out and try something else.

"Which one was Cavalier?" The name made it sound cool, but it was possible that it was done to be misleading. Was that something that happened here? She couldn't even say for sure. Bard and Black Mage seemed pretty obvious if one played video games, and now she was trying to imagine him as either of those things. "I bet you could do either of those things if you really wanted to," she told him. He could probably do anything he set his mind to. "I still haven't made up my mind," Marinette admitted. But there was plenty of time for that, she supposed. Ninja just sounded cool, though, and she definitely intended to check it out later today.

"Cavaliers raise and ride Chocobo, those large birds that are usually yellow." And with that explanation, she could probably figure out why he couldn't take the Job. He'd love to see what it was like, but the bird feathers were killer on his sinuses here. "Thanks. I'm just not sure which one would be the first to try."

Tilting his head, he gave her voiced concern a thought. "Hm... I'm pretty sure you could do any job. If you want to go for familiar, maybe Gourmand? But Puppet Master might be good too. You're crafty enough to make your own Puppets that's for sure... though, Summoner, I could see you befriending Eidolons easily."

That actually seemed like it might be a lot of fun, though she could see why Adrien would have troubles with it. Anything to do with birds would probably just be torture for him. "Oh, neat," she murmured, and casually added that to the list of things to look into. She could already tell that this was going to get complicated.

He was right, though. She'd actually looked a little into Gourmand because it seemed like something she'd be good at. She already knew how to cook, and yea there was probably a lot more to it than that, but she was confident. And she was crafty, so making her own puppets wouldn't be too difficult. Summoner she wasn't so sure about, mainly because she wasn't entirely sure what Eidolons were either, but if he thought she could do it? Might be worth checking out. "That's... not actually helpful! But I might just have to check all of these out before I try to make a decision," Marinette told him with a little shrug.

"I'm sorry, but there's a lot of Jobs to choose from and you're just capable of doing pretty much anything." He doesn't mean to be unhelpful to her at all, but he wasn't lying saying Marinette could do anything. She's just one of those individuals capable of succeeding if her mind's in it.

His confidence in her was flattering, and she felt her cheeks burning. "You're fine. I'll just have to figure out the best thing for me," she assured him, because she didn't want him to feel bad about not being super helpful. "Thank you."

"... You're welcome. Hopefully it at least gave you some ideas where to start..." But it sounded like he may have just confused her even more. He hoped that wasn't the case.

"Don't worry. I'll figure something out!" And she's more than confident that she would eventually. As confused as she was, she was sure she'd work something out eventually.

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Test Drive Meme II

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