memesofeternity | Test Drive Meme III

Entry tags:

Test Drive Meme III

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Hm, that was... fairly awkward. He's never been told he looked like someone else, really. He doubts not many have, not from an outworlder, anyway. He gave a small sigh.]

The only thing I can offer is that name is the same as my middle name. But I've never met you before, as I am from Safer Osu. Not your world.

[He had no answers, and he wasn't sure how to address this. He wanted to see if he could find the younger interns and ask if something like this has happened before. He crossed his arms, metal clinking softly. He tapped a finger on his arm in thought.]

Owen Geremiah Coon. [She tests the name. Frowns.] Or is it Owen Gottwald Coon? [Either way, she refuses to consider it a coincedence -- a decision that's only bolstered by the sounds of clinking metal.]

The man I know was also fitted with cybernetics.

Geremiah.

[A small blink of surprise, not that she heard the metal but that this other person also needed magitek. Or, in her words, cybernetics.]

Why? I can't imagine losing your arms to be that common.

[Of course, he could be wrong and there was another reason for it. There are multiple body parts one could lose.]

He was gravely wounded in battle and given cybernetic enhancements as a measure to keep him alive. [She'll leave out the part about human experimentation for now, not because she has any qualms about speaking it aloud but because she doesn't want to put forth too many details. Not yet, anyway.]

I don't know the nature or the full extent of those enhancements, however. Our interactions were extremely limited after he suffered his injuries. You'll have to ask one of the others here from my world for specifics: Lelouch or -- [She pauses, uncertain which name Suzaku is using now.] -- Zero.

[Hm, so somewhat different. His arms were meant for him to overcome his disability, but he could survive regardless. He would have just needed assistance, he was only thankful even more so for the Magitek Guild.]

What I have are merely magitek prosthetics. They do not enhance anything about myself, merely give back what I lost.

[Lelouch or Zero, hm? And if there interactions were limited, that ruled out any sort of intimate or even friendly relationship. He wasn't so sure he would seek them out quite yet. What need would he have to do so?]

Hmph. [A small, humorless laugh.] I don't believe asking them will solve this mystery, if we can even call it that. This man, this Jeremiah Gottwald, is likely still on your world or lost on the Dream Width such as you were. As we are still researching it, there likely isn't an answer. Not yet, anyway.

[But. Certainly something to be noted. He would need to find his moogle, Violet, to do as much. She had his slate and he couldn't write anymore.]

I'll keep it in mind. May I have your name?

Edited (html) 2018-07-29 17:24 (UTC)

[Arches her brow at his easy dismissal of the similarities but decides against pressing the matter. Had someone approached her with similar observations in her own world, prior to her learning about Geass, she would have reacted in much the same way. To challenge him now would only serve to frustrate him, would only complicate the discovery of the truth. Besides, she knows only a tiny fraction about who this man is.]

Cornelia. If I may ask, were you born on Vaikuntha?

[There just wasn't enough for him to be alarmed enough. There was apparently someone who looked similar to him, nothing more. Cybernetics aside, he needed more before he started questioning this.]

Yes, I was. Safer Osu was where I was born and raised.

[Yes he'd said something to that effect earlier, hadn't he? With his reaffirmation, her curiosity shifts to his arms. Not wanting to be too blunt about it, and still curious about a great many things, she asks the smaller questions first.]

What of your career? Do you work for the Curti Center or are you providing temporary assistance?

I work here now. Prior, I was a dragoon.

[He's not entirely happy to admit he is no long one, but he was aware that people would ask what he was doing before.]

When I received the prosthetics, it became unfortunately clear I would no longer have the skills I once did. So, I spent my time on the family plantation until I decided to try my hand here.

[The pay is laughable, to be honest, but he gets an allowance from his family and he feels he could at least be a little more useful than before.]

I'm sorry to hear that. [A soldier, then? Or something along that vein. This, she also won't press; no warrior removed from the battlefield ahead of their time wants to talk about lost battles and lost potential, least of all with a stranger.]

This may strike you as an unusual question, but was it an orange plantation?

[He couldn't help the slight squint of his eyes at the question. Normally, he wouldn't balk at such a question, the Coon family's plantation was fairly well known. But for her to ask...

He lowered his arms, a hand on his hip.]

Yes, it is. Along with a vineyard and an apple orchard as of recently. [Head tilt.] Why?

[Another arch of her brow, only this time it's accompanied by a slight cocking of her head and a flash of suspicion across her eyes.]

A terrorist used the word Orange to cast suspicion onto Jeremiah and his loyalties. Subsequently, Jeremiah betrayed the military and his empire by acting in accordance with the terrorist's wishes. [Geass is still widely a secret here, so she doesn't mention that he had acted against his own will. Besides, it's not immediately relevant.] For this crime, he was granted a choice between two punishments: to be demoted to the lowest possible rank or to leave the military and spend the remainder of his days cultivating oranges.

[So, this Jeremiah was a traitor to his people?]

Should I be insulted that I was mistaken for someone who was a traitor in your world, then?

[A snort and a shrug of his shoulders. He didn't understand what that had to do with him, except maybe irony and coincidence.]

I suppose if the code word Orange was used then it should be a fitting punishment, although it seems like you gave him an out with allowing him to be demoted. It certainly would not fly amongst the dragoons, I assure you. [He gave her a hard look.] Another similarity, I suppose, that I will need to note, but no need for you to regard me with suspicion. I am not Jeremiah Gottwald.

You simplify matters by calling him a traitor -- [She knows enough about his fate to accept that he isn't one, first through Geass, later through the fact that Britannia had abused him beyond a point where they could expect him to be absolutely dutiful. And she freely acknowledges that if it wasn't for his loyalty to her family, she would not be alive. But Owen doesn't need to know that either.] -- and by assuming that I'm suspicious of you and not of the circumstances surrounding the striking similarities between yourself and him. Your strength of pride, for one, and how it manifests itself.

I am merely going by what you have told me thus far, Miss Cornelia, so if I have made an error then there is clearly more to the story than you are letting on.

[And apparently her suspicion wasn't of him but the similarities they have connect so far. To Owen, they were simply that, coincidences.

Perhaps because there was just no other explanation for them. He was born on Vaikuntha, he was raised by the Coon family after being on the streets, and he faithfully carried out his duties until he was honorably discharged. Nothing about any of that was fake, how could it, with so many witnesses to his life?

He crossed his arms again, hefting a sigh.]

I am not the only person with pride. Ask any Elezen, even a halfbreed like myself will have plenty of it. And I owe much to the Coon family, besides. It's hardly a surprise then and I find it an admirable trait.

Be that as it may, I'm not sure what all of this actually means. I would need more information before taking this further than having an uncanny resemblance. After all, I am to apparently to trust you in what you say, limited though your information is, am I? You must understand, I've had a full life here of 30 years. All I know comes from that. None of this talk of code words after fruit and terrorists.

[He's generally dealt with monsters and beasts, otherwise Vaikuntha has had peace for a very long time.]

[If he thinks that speech on pride his helping his case rather than bolstering her own, he's sorely mistaken. She fixes him with something of an, "are you kidding me," look, more reflexive than intentional, and herself sighs.]

There's much more to the story, but the details that aren't classified are at best questionably relevant. He was a Margrave before being disgraced and has a younger sister, Lilycia. Prior to joining the military proper, he served as a royal guard for one of the Empresses of Britannia and despite how his loyalties towards the empire were twisted, he retains his loyalty to the royal family to this date. [Another pause. Should she tell him about the purists? No, probably not. The comment on his lineage reveals enough on its own.] What more information do you require before you're willing to act on what I've told you?

And how exactly am I to act on this?

[The story of Jeremiah was far different than his own, but she didn't ask for his story, so he didn't tell it.]

His life was different than mine. Mannerisms and looks aside, what exactly do you want me to do?

[Seriously, he has no idea where he would even begin to start. Especially because:]

I'm not sure what you are trying to get me to believe. That I am, somehow, this Jeremiah Gottwald? Or what?

[He held his hands out in a bit of a helpless shrug, metal clinking as he waved his hands.]

I am here to try and find a new purpose for myself, not to have some sort of identity crisis from an outworlder who has confused me for someone else.

Dozens of people have been brought here against their will only to be left to their own devices and provided with minimal information on their wider circumstances. We're told repeatedly that not even those who claim the strongest familiarity with the Dream Width understand the phenomenon of our arrival and are reassured at length that research into it is ongoing, but four months have passed and as far as any of us are aware, there have been no new developments.

[It's a very frustrating thing to not access to whatever information she desires. To be idle. To be reliant on people who she doesn't even know by reputation. This frustration is clear enough that she cuts herself off and shifts her focus back on him, specifically.]

Perhaps everything is as you say and you are simply Owen G. Coon, but what if that isn't the case? There's more to the Interdimensional Cloud than anybody here realises and you may be a key to solving at least part of the mystery behind its existence. If I'm attempting to convince you of anything, it's that the similarities between you run so deep that I cannot and will not ignore them regardless of what you chose to do with the information, even if your choise is to dismiss it all as the ramblings of an outworlder.

[It's very hard not to rehash the same conversation he saw on the slate not that long ago, instead he pinches the bridge of his nose.]

Unfortunately, I don't know as much as I would like about what has been found by the Curti Center, only that which has been given to the public thus far. But research is ongoing, I assure you, however slow it may be or seem. And yes, we are aware there is more to the Cloud, how can we not with recent events? It doesn't make the research any easier, just more confusing, to be honest with you.

[It really was a big anomaly even to those of this world, but so far, nothing ill has come of it aside from displaced people. None of them ever expected a sudden influx after so many years of just one or two at a time. And certainly not every other month like clockwork. All that he could gather was that something was happening, just what that Something was, is anyone's guess right now.

He face softened and he sighed once more.]

Who is he to you? To your world?

[Ah, there they are. The words she'd read from the other natives who'd made contact with the new arrivals. Professional, distant, meant to be comforting yet drawing from their own faith in Vaikuntha to soothe people for whom the world was nothing more than an elaborate cage. Her eyes narrow. She purses her lips. Then she takes a deep, cleansing breath.]

To me, a subordinate. I was the head of guard for the Empress he served and brifely commanded him when I took over the viceroyship of the Area where he was stationed. The world... hmn. A mockery. A traitor. A dedicated ally of a tyrant. I daresay that history will not favour him, but I suspect that he no longer cares about public perception. He found his purpose and saw it through to the end.

[He will never understand why the outworlders don't believe their words. It was the truth, all that he just said. They advised only on what they knew. But it seemed they would continue to be met with disdain.]

A harrowing journey, it seems. Perhaps he was no longer satisfied with his lot in life and was somehow reborn into the man you see before you. [A derisive snort. Like that was ever even a thing.] Take it for what you will, but I am my own person and so is he.

If... something further does come up that is more than mere mannerisms and looks, I'll let you know.

[Oh she believes them, but they're a very frustrating thing to hear.]

Please see that you do. In the meantime, would you object to telling me who Owen G. Coon is as a person?

Owen G. Coon... was neither a margrave nor working for any royals.

[He never did have to describe himself before, so it took a moment after to gather his thoughts. He also decided to pull off the leather clothes, quietly stuffing them into his pocket as he thought.]

I was born as bastard child of an elezen noble and a human maid. She abandoned me as she could not care for me and the nobleman likely wanted nothing to do with me. I grew up on the streets, a petty thief. [He shook his head, a soft smile on his face. Far different than Jeremiah Gottwald, hm?] But, the kind family, the Coons, took me in after I'd unwittingly helped one of their own during one harsh winter. They were the ones who taught me loyalty and pride. I followed my older brother to being a dragoon as well.

Unfortunately, my career ended three years ago when a highly tactical hamster found its way to our lands. It nearly killed my brother and I lost my arms killing it. Most of the men didn't make it either. That was how I came to be outfitted with these. [A gesture with his hands.] My family didn't want to see me suffer, after all, and made sure I still had some sort of employment, some sort of purpose. The plantation was a nice break but my pride wouldn't let me stay there for long. So, I am here as you can see.

[He rested a hand on his hip and gave a thoughtful hum.]

I would do anything for my family. They gave me so much, after all. I suppose you could say that my loyalty to them would be similar to your Jeremiah's to his Empress. And I am quite proud to be where I am today. I have a family, one who loves me just as I them. And while I may be biased, their plantation is perhaps the finest in Vaikuntha. [An amused snort, of course he was biased.] Look, I don't know what else I can say about myself aside from the fact that I am who I say I am.

Owen G. Coon. A halfbreed, a former dragoon and current employee of the Curti Center. And I am here to help should you need it.

[No, not even remotely like Jeremiah's backstory, though the fact that he was adopted causes her some pause ... which is quickly shaken off when she reminds herself that those ears of his do mark him as being half elezen. Whatever is behind their resemblance, it's not the Dream Width's time-space fuckery.]

You needn't say anything more than you already have. [There is more she would like to know about, particularly his experience with the hamsters -- which she still struggles to see as a legitimate threat despite all that she's read and heard to the contrary -- but again she assumes that it isn't something he'd care to discuss.] As you said, you are two different people. [Just not to an extent that satisfies her. They're as similar to each other as two different people raised under two unique sets of circumstances should ever be.]

[He nods to her.]

Thank you. Please keep it in mind.

[Until something else comes up, anyway, not that he expected anything to. For now.]

You have my name, you'll know where to find me should you have any further questions or concerns.

(no subject)

arosetowar - 2018-07-30 01:56 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only