Test Drive Meme III

[eternitymods]

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. SUMMER SUN [insert Sheryl Crow track here] Vaikuntha offers opportunities for many summer activities. Only some of the beaches hold the risk of being attacked by aquatic monsters, the others are a perfect destination for a day trip on a sunny day. Take a hike up the mountains and relax in some hot springs at the top. Go camping in the woods just not on Friday the 13th. Enjoy a refreshing sea salt ice cream bar. Just because you’re here, it doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to a vacation. K. WILD CARD Feeling inspired to create your own prompt? The power is yours!

Comments

sky

[garyoutensei]

Baiken was clearly not amazed. In fact, Pidge's exclamations received a very pointed, narrow look in her direction, not unlike the sword strapped at the one-armed woman's side.

"Calm down or I'm tossing you overboard, kid."

Very grump. Much scowl.

[pidgeypidge]

Pidge was just giddy enough that she wasn't terribly worried about if the people around her felt the same. So in response to the thinly-veiled threat, she just turned slowly to get a look at the sourpuss who, for whatever reason, was not totally entranced by the mechanical wonder that was this airship.

"I might be a little excited, but I'm not threatening to throw people around," she pointed out. Maybe not the best way to go about it, but there it was. "Don't tell me you're not at least a little bit excited right now~"

call her crispy bacon because she's overdone and unpleasant

[garyoutensei]

"I've been on enough of these things it doesn't really matter," of course airships were a thing in her own world, too, and she's been on the Mayship, which was well more impressive than this passenger ship, in her opinion. But beyond that, she was just made anxious by other people's enthusiasm.

"You'll get used to it, too."

crispy bacon is the best though

[pidgeypidge]

Pidge just blinked at that. "Huh." Apparently not everyone shared her level of enthusiasm for this particular airship. And that was alright, she supposed. But she really wasn't keen on being thrown overboard, so Pidge decided to tone it down just a bit after all.

"I hope I don't ever get so used to it that it's no longer exciting," she countered with a little shrug. Because then it would start getting boring and wouldn't be nearly as amazing.

[garyoutensei]

Baiken grumbled, pulling out a pipe from her kimono, putting it between her teeth before the same hand went back, fishing out a bag of pipe-grass and a match, managing to stuff and light the pipe, which wouldn't be remarkable, really, save for the doing everything one handed thing.

After a few puffs, she spoke again.

"It's gonna happen. All sensations will dull with enough exposure. It's part of life, kid."

[pidgeypidge]

She was mostly quiet as she watched all of this happening. The question was right there on the tip of her tongue, but even she seemed to realize that asking might not be such a good idea. Even so, it was impressive that she'd just done all of that one-handed.

"Maybe you're right. But that won't be for a while." Right?

"So what does it take to impress you?"

[garyoutensei]

"Are you aiming to impress me?" Baiken let out a long trail of smoke on the exhale.

[pidgeypidge]

It wasn't terribly high on her list of priorities, but now she was curious. "Maybe?"

[garyoutensei]

"Do you drink?" That could only lead great places, sure, offering asking that particular question of someone that was clearly underaged.

[pidgeypidge]

She paused, thinking back to the handful of times that Matt had snuck her champagne when their parents were looking. Somehow she doubted that was what this woman meant. But life was too short for technicalities. "I have a couple times."

[garyoutensei]

"Then follow me," Baiken set out a puff of smoke before turning on heel, walking towards the private cars. She was pretty sure if this went south, and she'd wind up nursing the poor kid after a bad drink, Pidge would probably appreciate not doing so where everyone could see. A matter of dignity, and all that.

[pidgeypidge]

"Uh... okay!" She had to hurry to catch up, and then fell easily into step beside her. This had certainly taken a turn, but she couldn't just say no because that would be rude. And Baiken actually seemed fairly nice when she wasn't threatening to throw her overboard! What was the worst that could happen?

[garyoutensei]

Once inside, Baiken propped herself down in one of the booth couches, leaving her pipe between her lips before unstrapping the cask that was at her side, placing it on the table.

"Sit down."

[pidgeypidge]

Pidge was already moving to take a seat before she'd even mentioned it, and she just nodded a little as she settled back into the sofa.

[garyoutensei]

"If you believe in any kind of god or afterlife, I recommend you say a prayer before you take this stuff. This is warrior's sake. It's not really for kids."

Despite. You know. Offering her some, clearly. Baiken set her pipe on the table, onto an ashtray, before taking up the cask and pulling out the cork with her teeth.

"There you go. Impress me."

[pidgeypidge]

Well, those were certainly comforting words. "Do you say a prayer before you drink it?" Her tone is curious more than anything, but mostly she's trying to buy herself a little time in order to properly prepare herself for this.

Instead, all she'd managed to do was watch as Baiken made herself comfortable. But now she was wondering how much of this she'd need to drink to be impressive. Sake didn't sound like anything she'd had before, and she couldn't quite decide if the other woman was trying to scare her a little or not.

But even still, she'd already committed. There was no way she was going to back down now. So without any further adieu, she leaned forward to take the cask and immediately took a sip before she could start to think twice about it.

[garyoutensei]

Pidge would find the sake was strong. Very strong. Someone had once described it as 'battery acid'.

"Well? How is it?"

[pidgeypidge]

On the bright side, she could now say that she'd had something stronger than the champagne that Matt used to sneak her when their parents were entertaining.

On the other hand, this had to be the strongest thing she'd ever tried. She'd only had a sip, but it burned all the way down. Her throat felt raw and she was trying very hard not to act like this was the craziest thing that had happened to her in a long time.

"It's uh... it's good!"

[garyoutensei]

"That so?" the slightest smile tugged at her lips.

"Then you won't mind having more, right?" she lasted longer than Hunk had, but she still hadn't fully impressed Baiken. Not yet, at least...

[pidgeypidge]

Oh. "Yea, it's great." This was fine. She could totally have another sip and nothing crazy would happen!

"It would be rude to keep drinking without you, though," she pointed out.

[garyoutensei]

"Good catch, kid," okay. A little impressed. Maybe.

Baiken took up the cask to her lips and took several gulps, a trail of it spilling out over her jaw and running down her chest before it was pretty much slammed back down, Baiken letting out a long sigh.

"It blends well with the pipe-grass I've been smoking today."

[pidgeypidge]

There was really no way she was going to have more of that. Being impulsive and going along with something just to see what would happen was one thing. Willingly subjecting herself to something that could make her sick or worse was entirely another.

Her throat still hurt and her head was starting to feel funny, so she just kind of stared as the other woman took several much larger gulps. That was fine. Maybe she'd drink all of it.

"Ah~" She really had no idea what else to say to that, so Pidge settled for giving her a thumbs up instead.

[garyoutensei]

"You can calm down, by the way," Baiken's tone was lighter than it had been before.

"You already had some and managed to keep it down. You're fine. I'm not gonna make you drink more if you're legitimately not up to it."

[pidgeypidge]

"Hey, I'm calm." Or calm enough, at the very least. But she couldn't help feeling just a little relieved that Baiken also seemed a little calmer than before.

"I'm gonna be honest. That's probably the strongest thing I've ever had." And she'd had some pretty weird things in the time since she'd left Earth with the others. "But I'm still upright, so that's a plus! Right?"

[garyoutensei]

"You're doing better than the last guy I pulled this on," a low chuckle. "A guy named Hunk, but considering he was getting over air sickness, maybe I was a little too hard on him," there's... a definite fondness in her tone when she brings him up. "Guy's been one of the few bright spots about being stuck here."