interstellar404 | TEST DRIVE MEME: SECOND STAGE

☆WELCOME TO INTERSTELLAR

And welcome to our second TDM! We've got two types of prompts to use this time around: the first takes place while your character is in the process of being captured, and the second is during their first brainwashed rockstar networking gig. The former is designed to be considered 100% game canon if you make it in officially, while the later is more speculative and will only work if you get lucky during label and band selection.

☆THE TALENT SEARCH
These prompts are design to be kept as game canon after acceptance, and can be used as the official story of how your character was captured. Importantly, the kidnappers entering your timeline causes massive time distortions, which means that the outcome of this scenario will stagger and replay itself multiple times before settling on an outcome. This means that after the fact, you character may remember being captured multiple ways, or going in more than one direction, before the timeline settled on a final path. Or at least, they'll remember this until their memories are wiped shortly afterwards, but that's okay! That's what memory regains are for. Read this page for more specifics on this situation. Any powers the characters have will be weakened and prone to malfunction to the point of uselessness.

►A1) THE SEARCH: It always starts out this way, doesn't it? At some point in your life, you were just doing your thing, wherever you call home. Then, all at once, it's like you've been torn from your dimension by the roots. Time and space displace, and it's like you've been shifted one layer of reality to the left - like some kind of subspace where you can see your reality through it, like a rainbow surrealist image of your home. Even if you can see this ghost image of where you were, you can't interact with it meaningfully. Any friends or family are somewhere else. As you begin to wander, without any other options, you'll find that the scenery gradually shifts to ghost images of other places, other worlds. If you wander long enough, you'll even find other people, lost just like you are. But you probably won't have much time - you've been brought here for a reason, after all.

►A2) THE HUNT: It could happen almost immediately, or it could happen hours later - but, at some point, your dimensional kidnappers start to do their sweep. Space Men in black body suits and gas masks pursue you on foot and in small spaceships, trying to sweep you and the other displaced up like fish in a net. Their guns contain a weird pink gas that will knock out most with only a single breath - and for those more enduring, they have the heavy artillery, like electrical nets and guns. The fallen will be sealed up into stasis pods for transport and loaded onto the ships, which seem like the only way to get out of this place by choice. This is where it ends, but are you going to put up a fight?

NOTE: Characters already in game can't really tag into these sections, so try to tag around to other first time character tests if you can!

☆WELCOME HOME
By default, these prompts aren't considered canon, but if after you are accepted and sorted they can be tweaked into working for you, it'll be totally okay to keep them as a part of your rockstar's personal history. This occurrence is something that will be happening around November 15th game time, but of course, what remains canon and what doesn't will be subject to who is accepted and where they are placed. This takes place after being kidnapped and brainwashed, as your character is first joining their new label. As usual, this is celebrated with a party.

►B1) PLAY IT STRAIGHT: It just another large scale soiree, something typical to the high music society of Vista City - but maybe it's not yet typical to you. For a number of the freshly signed on newbies, this is their first real taste of what their new label has to offer - either Virgo or Pride - and the sheer glamour of it may be intoxicating. Industry big wigs scatter the floor, as do performers of all the tops labels and bands. Maybe you feel intimidated. Maybe you want to make your mark. Or maybe you're not quite as new as some, and are just trying to get through the evening. Either way, they is plenty of booze available if you need some liquid courage. And is that a hookah pipe corner over there? Probably.

►B2) TOTALLY NORMAL: The signs of it are small, at first. Glasses you set down seeming out of place, stuff that almost looks like words written in the condensation on your glass. These little hauntings only get more and more persistent as the night continues, almost like some otherworldly presence is following you. You can feel them lurking nearby at times, like an unusual spot of cold or warmth in the air. None of the higher ups seem to notice but...to some of your new peers, this feels like old news. Eventually the signs become bolder, and at some point in the evening you'll hear it whispered in your ear or written on the bathroom mirror: "Remember."

►B3) REMEMBER: And you do. It strikes you suddenly, a feeling like a foreign presence straying through your mind. You remember something of your past, pertaining to the emotional affinity Love, Duty, Passion, or Hope - whichever feeling describes the person you used to be best. Except you know nothing of that life now, nothing except this single, strange thought in a room full strangers.

NOTE: Current characters definitely go to this party on November 15th, but it isn't required play. Besides the haunting and meeting new characters, it is considered business as usual.

☆HELPFUL INFO
► Follow the mod plurk for updates: interstellar5555
► Check out the game NAVIGATION
► Reserves open on November 6th at 12:01AM EDT
► Applications open on November 11th at 12:01AM EDT

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[She looks harmless, but Finnick knows better than that. He backs away and keeps his distance.]

Who's Simon? Are you from thirteen?

I do not think I understand. You can be from a number? [This is not something she's learned yet. She is from Teppelin, but perhaps this is an Outside thing she doesn't understand??? She's workin' on it.]

[His body shudders with a sob, and he looks around at the nothingness desperately.]

Someone please help! I won't leave my room again... just...

[He brings his hand to his face, to cover his eyes as he tries not to fall to the ground.]

[She. Does not understand what's happening, though she's dealt with despair before, she's never seen it come on so suddenly or violently. She reaches out a hand to steady him.]

Why would you not leave your room? Have you done something worth punishing? I do not know how to help you, but perhaps it would be better if we stuck together...?

[Finnick draws away from her.]

Don't! How do I know you're not a trick?

[He takes a few steps away from her, looking around for an escape, but then he falls to his knees. He's still trying not to sob, because he knows he won't be able to call out if it starts.]

Help! Please, help!

[She doesn't approach for a moment, but then she follows his steps and crouches in front of him. Her head is tilted to the side and a concerned frown sits on her mouth.]

I know it is very frightening to not know where you are. Not very long ago, I woke up very far from what I had once thought was home. I have had to deal with many frightening things since then, and many people who have met me have had to deal with terrible things as well.

It is all right to cry, but you should not give up. If you are frightened, perhaps think of things you can do to help yourself.

[He thinks of ways to help himself, but it comes back to the same thing over and over, but he can't. He's never been able to. He won't do it, won't leave her alone, not while they could still save her. He's the only one that knows her, that can protect her, even while he's like this...]

I can't...

[He sits down on the ground, drawing his knees up. He's not quite crying anymore, but his tone is broken and lost.]

They'll come get me. Or the Capitol will come kill me. I don't care which anymore.

Do you no longer want to live, sir?

[She hasn't moved, she just looks confused.] Simon said something similar to me, once, that he did not care what happened to him. But I think that is wrong. Because you are still seeking out help, you must want to live, mustn't you?

I would not want the capitol to kill you, because I do not think you want to die.

I don't care. I just don't care anymore.

[He slouches further forward, hugging his knees tighter. He can't think about Annie because he'll just think about what awful things they're doing to her, to get information. Even if they've figured out she doesn't have anything, she's still trapped there, in that awful place.]

I don't think that's the case at all. [Nia frowns again and reaches out for him again.]

If you did not care, you would not be afraid of me.

[He pushes her hand away and wipes at his face.]

There are worse things than dying.

Would you at least tell me your name, sir? I do not want to leave you like this...

[God, how long has it been since someone asked his name? Ten years, he thinks. That's how long he's been a victor. The question's so foreign and unexpected that he winces.]

Finnick.

That is a very nice name. Might I ask to make sure that you are also a human?

[He turns to look at her, his exhausted expression taking on a hint of disgust.]

What else would I be?

I have never met another human besides myself and my father before recently. But you looked like the humans I know... and you act like Simon did when we first met.

You're very hurt, aren't you? [Nia stop asking the nice PTSD victim intrusive questions.]

[Finnick makes a frustrated noise and grabs handfuls of his hair.] Were you sent here to annoy me to death?

[He looks at her, angry.]

How old are you?

I am only trying to help... [Yeah she's used to that too.]

I do not know. My father never told me my age.

[Finnick lets out another frustrated groan and curls up tighter, until his forehead is resting against his knees and he's formed as small a ball as a man his size can make.]

... Am I hurting you?

[Is he crying again? He may be crying. He doesn't lift up his head.]

I never stop hurting.

But why is that? Is there something someone could do?

No.

[He is most likely going to stay like this until someone forces him out of his ball.]

[What a sad man.]

[Well then. Excuse Nia as she sits beside him more comfortably, then. It's no good to lave someone in a dangerous situation.]

TEST DRIVE MEME: SECOND STAGE

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject