TEST DRIVE MEME 001

[larkers]

> TEST DRIVE MEME #001

Welcome to the Meadowlark test drive meme! After waking up in strange and rather worrisome conditions, characters will need to begin to live their lives in this new world. All TDM threads take place after the arrival process, so please assume that the initial adjustment period has passed. Now it's time to see the bright sights and sounds that New Amsterdam – and beyond – has to offer. All Meadowlark test drive memes will not be game canon. Please feel free to carry on relationships that make sense, but if your character is off on a colony researching terraforming or in jail because they vandalized corporation signage with Morningstar's emblem, that will be a little harder to transfer into game. All applicants can use threads from the TDM for their samples.

> RESOLUTION DAY FESTIVAL

One day a year, everyone the whole system over participates in the annual celebration of Resolution Day. It's not explicitly stated what Resolution Day actually is; there's no reason to declare what everyone already knows, and characters may find themselves experiencing some intense culture shock as they stumble into the festivities. The celebration starts early and finishes late – very late – so whether you choose to join in the fun, learn more about the history of the festival, or take advantage of the revelry for other, more nefarious goals, you'll have plenty of time.

> NEW AMSTERDAM

The festival sprawls wildly throughout the streets of New Amsterdam, giving even the most desolate parts of the city new life with bright lights, noise, and plenty of food. Most businesses are shut for the day, giving their workers the time to enjoy the celebration, but some might consider this one of their most profitable days of the year – if you've gotten yourself a restaurant, rickshawing or corporate PR job, you might find yourself stuck on a double shift. Better snatch what small moments of enjoyment you can! > 001: ENJOY THE FESTIVITIES Anything you'd think it would be at a festival in the year 2511 is definitely at this festival. Care to play a game? All attendees can play for free. Some games – like the hoverblade racing, the augmented reality fightboxes and the street-wide bouts of laser tag – involve a partner or a competitor, so you better hope someone's willing to do you a solid or bring out your competitive side. Or maybe it's time to try the delicacies of New Amsterdam. Hundreds of food trucks have turned out today in droves with high hopes that they'll come away turning a profit. Down for some Mexi-German fusion? Or perhaps you're hoping that pad Thai still tastes the same with grasshoppers? Share your food – or give away whatever you don't like. Food trucks are the hub of activity, and the busiest ones might be worth the time, but you'll be standing in line for a while. > 002: HISTORY LESSONS Aside from your typical booths of free samples, charitable causes, volunteer applications, and white chocolate-covered beetles, you'll find an opportunity to learn about Resolution Day’s history. There are various stands available where you can view video about the origins of the festival, and what, exactly, everyone's celebrating. Take a moment or two at any of these stands, and you'll soon learn that this is the day that the humans successfully put down the AI uprising. If you'd like to feel like a hero, the UNA are running several virtual reality simulations where you can be taken to the battlefield to fight alongside fellow soldiers, working to bring the AI to submission. The virtual reality simulation interacts with your neural implant to give you the most realistic experience possible. If you don't ground yourself enough, you'll be certain that the sights, sounds, and smells around you are real as you march in formation toward the brutality waiting up ahead. Feel free to team up with a partner on a side mission, or maybe try to keep someone from plugging in for what could be a traumatic experience. Eerie, heart-wrenching music plays when you die, but is promptly followed by the image of several corporate logos reminding you that they sponsored this day and this event. If you're uncomfortable with this information, no one will understand why. AI sympathizers are not present among the native population. Will you risk trying to change their minds? > 003: USING DISTRACTIONS There are other opportunities in the city being flooded with festival-goers. It's a time for everyone to come together, after all, and in all the crowds you may be able to find that one elusive corporate exec you've been wanting some time with for weeks. Whether you're hoping to pitch an idea for some new tech or are more interested in seducing – or squeezing – some information out of them, following them into the next bar or karaoke booth may give you the perfect chance. But you might want a lookout to watch your back, a co-conspirator to keep them plied with drinks, or maybe you'll need a voice of reason to stop you from squeezing too hard. Just remember that whatever you pitch won't have a contract attached. Whatever exec you pin down may not have your best interests in mind.

> THE LOWER LEVELS

The festival's reach is wide, spreading through the whole city, but traveling down from the hectic main city streets reveals a different side from the gloss and promise of New Amsterdam. Economic disparity runs rampant throughout the city, and while you won't find any festival streamers or booths in these streets, people still have their own ways to celebrate. Some neighborhoods have spilled out from the doors of their cramped apartments, holding noisy street parties between their homes. Some quieter corners and unused doorways have become temporary shrines commemorating the many lives lost in the war. And from darker shadows, the illegal activities which plague the city respond to the celebration by spreading, taking advantage of the countless distractions available to operate in plain sight. Whether you're here exploring, working a favor for Morningstar, or following up on something for your own piece of mind, you'll find that Resolution Day may be the best time to explore the less glamorous parts of New Amsterdam. > 004: CRIMINAL ACTIVITY Organized crime still has a strong foothold in the world, with gangs and more established families working drugs, weapons, property and black market cybernetics, to name a few. These organizations are sprawling units that regularly recruit new members into their ranks, so long as they can prove themselves by passing the intensive hazing. Maybe you'd like to have a role in such a powerful organization. Or maybe you'd like to use your relative anonymity to burn it all down. One way to get an in is through their numerous clubs and illegal gambling dens, where to get past the door you have to know a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy. Don't know a guy? Feel free to try to use brute force or some chicanery to make them believe that you belong among their numbers. Just don't get caught doing anything they don't like – which could be breathing the wrong way, if you're unlucky enough. Best to have an escape plan in place, like perhaps stealing one of the many hovercars or hoverbikes parked outside the establishment. If you've got the skills, you'll be able to weave through the chaos of Resolution Day and make a clean getaway – just don't let the chase run for too long, or you'll have law enforcement on your ass as well. > 005: FIGHT CLUB No matter the occasion outside, New Amsterdam's fight club events are held every evening. The bouncers at the door don't have too many scruples on who they let inside. All they care about is whether someone has the money to pay the cover charge. The interior of the fight club reveals the sophistication of a business that's used to uprooting itself regularly. All the fights take place in a fighting cage in the center, and you remain on your feet while you enjoy the show. There is a special VIP section if you've been lucky enough to receive an invite or bribe your way in. Regardless of where you end up, there is one rule: what happens in the fight club stays in the fight club. This tenant is law, and everyone's heard stories of the different (and sometimes extreme) lengths which have been taken to maintain it. Maybe you're here to sign up and test your chops against other fighters. Everyone's fired up from the Resolution Day celebrations, and many of the fighters boast illegal cybernetic enhancements, so it would be a really good idea to have someone on hand who knows some first aid. Maybe you'd prefer to just enjoy the show, or take the opportunity to grill the bartenders for information. Just be careful not to make a fool of yourself. Asking too many questions might catch the wrong kind of attention – the kind that might find you being thrown into the ring, whether you wanted to be there or not. For all the blood spilled, these fight clubs thrive on discretion, so whatever you do, try to keep it quiet.

> SPACE

Humanity isn't limited to only Earth in this new universe. Whether you'd already made your way off planet, or are now looking for an escape from the hustle and bustle of the megacities – and the truth about Resolution Day – all you need to get out and explore space is the means. You probably don't have them from the start, but you can improvise, right? > 006: STOWAWAY Trips out in space are monitored and regulated, and unless you've signed up on the government's incentive scheme, passenger tickets aren't going cheap. Want to get off planet untracked, or don't give a damn about proper regulation and insurance? Freight flights are many and plentiful, and in all the excitement (and lingering intoxication), it just got a lot easier to slip past one crew or another. Of course, you'll be catching a ride with stacks of water containers, or fermented beans and canned pickles. Better hope that they keep everything secure, or it might get a little smelly – or cramped – in there before long. But most importantly, don't get caught. If you do, you better make sure you have a damn good story, or perhaps just knocking out whoever caught you would be safer than risking a quick flight out of the nearest airlock. That's not saying that sneaking on board is the only option. Perhaps stealing a ship for yourself would be more to your tastes. It won't be easy – all spaceships are monitored and carefully regulated – but there's plenty of rarely used fancy private shuttles parked up at the space port. Evading the guards, breaking past security and piloting out of there is all a bit much for one person, so you'd better have brought a buddy to help you with the wild ride ahead. > 007: THE COLONIES Coming to space might have seemed like an escape from the mess of society contained in the megacities of Earth, but it turns out the colonies aren't the shining new frontier all the advertisements and billboards made them out to be. Whatever brave new world you'd come out here hoping for, waste management probably wasn't at the top of the list. That's the job of a greenie, though, and it means you won't be getting any time off while everyone else sneaks away to join in on the festival fun. You and your current partner in custodial engineering have to clean up the mess. With everyone... "preoccupied," waste management takes on a whole new meaning. Without anyone else to tag in, you're the only two left to respond when one of the now all too familiar warning sirens start wailing. The problem this time? Yet another part of the colony's water reclamation systems is breaking down. It may be worth trying to fix it yourselves – god knows you've seen it done enough times in the couple of weeks since you started here – but the mechanisms are dangerous, and you could potentially drown or lose a limb or two in the process. Hesitation is understandable, but the work needs to get done. Your job is on the line, and if you fail, the lives of the people in the colonies could be at stake. On the other hand, failure – or doing nothing – may appeal to you. Chaos begets change, doesn't it? It's clear something needs to happen.

> THE WILDCARDS

> 008: POWER AND CONTROL For some people, getting a new power is just a day ending in Y. But even if you've had a power before, you haven't had this power. Without a good idea of precisely what's now inside of your body, you might find yourself wishing that you'd been making more of an effort to find out exactly what happened. These powers can either lie dormant or come out at moments of high emotion, and as the Resolution Day festival fills the streets with a crush of bodies, noise and lights, it might be very easy to get stressed, confused, scared, or maybe even angry. To get things under wraps, you'll want to duck away to somewhere more private or hidden. Thankfully, there are numerous underpasses, dark corners, and currently-empty shops, but you'll need to be quick to avoid raising any eyebrows – or avoid hurting anyone. You might want to see if there's any friendly faces nearby, as a helping hand to get away quietly and get things back under control might very well be necessary. > 009: GO NUTS Resolution Day isn't all there is to explore, so feel free to branch out! Visit a doctor about some advanced cybernetics (on a day that isn't a holiday, of course). Get used to the technology. Make a bold declaration to set out into the wilderness and become a llama farmer. Use the SETTING for inspiration and choose your own adventure. Of course, you may just want to reach out: physically or technologically. Perhaps an accidental brush of hands has brought the new EMPATHY BOND to light, or you want to use the NETWORK to make sure everyone knows how you're feeling about these new discoveries. Surely everyone will care about your thoughts on cricket chowder soup, right?

> NAVIGATION

Comments

[saviorexe]

[She eats, and Markus just stands and watches as she asks him What's changed? His reply comes out evenly, without much hesitation.]

Everything.

[This isn't the sort of response spoken for the sake of dramatics, a declaration of the wrongs done to him. He means it sincerely -- it feels like everything has changed, when your insides that had once been mechanical are now made of flesh and bone and sinew. Warmth and sensitive nerve endings and the thrum of a heartbeat in the cage of his chest; a much different sort of steadiness compared to what used to be a Thirium pump.]

Those battles might have happened a long time ago, but that doesn't invalidate their relevancy to someone like myself. Just because my body has changed doesn't mean the core of who I am is any different.

[persists]

[ It would be ignorant for her to keep insisting that he's wrong for how he acts — but she grows to be indifferent. The passion he speaks seems obvious, an intellect he possesses stems in connecting ideals between worlds. How one society can repeat history, or at least, that was what he fears. ]

You were metal?

[ THAT'S THE FIRST THING SHE ASKS, SORRY. ]

[saviorexe]

I—

[ciri pls

To be fair, he can hardly discount the question. She’s like him, obviously, from a world different than this one, maybe even from a time so far detached that her query isn’t unreasonable. He wishes to clarify, but he’s also wary of saying too much in a place where they’re quite literally celebrating the downfall of an AI uprising.

His brow lifts, ever so slightly.]

A little more complicated than that, but you have the right idea. [A beat.] Is that going to be a problem?

[persists]

[ Just this icon as a response.

His question catches her off guard and there's a lighthearted shrug as she takes another bite. ]

It matters not to me. The company I keep is always a bit questionable.

[ She herself is an oddity. ]

So long as you do your best to blend in, there's more pressing matters to tend to.

[saviorexe]

[A small amount of tension eases from his shoulders, which he admittedly wasn't aware he possessed until she answered his question with borderline flippancy.]

You're very concerned with blending in, aren't you?

[Not that Markus has been doing much else since his arrival, but he wonders how long that'll last. How long until one must take action to delve for answers, and sometimes slipping out of shadow was the only way to do so -- to take risks, when risks were needed.

But to ease the sense of judgment from his tone, he offers her back his skewer. She looks... hungry.]

Here. I don't need this.

[persists]

I know what could happen if you stand out. Garner the wrong kind of attention.

[ If anything, a child of the Elderblood can appreciate the lack of people hunting her down for her powers. It's the little things. There's a skeptical look when he offers the skewer back. ]

Are you for certain? You say that until your stomach grows weak.

[ Ciri has two meat skewers in hand and it's just... a funny sight. ]

[saviorexe]

[Looks like CIri is just going to have to stand there with two skewers, because Markus will die on this hill. Sometimes it’s just the principle of the thing; a different story if he were starving, potentially, but he’s in no such state. He had sadly eaten a little before his encounter with this ashen haired woman.]

If I’m hungry later, then that’s not an issue. I can manage.

[Hunger is such a debilitatingly human thing, and Markus has learned to not let it reach the point where it gnaws at one’s insides, where it threatens to take over thought and focus. Biology is hard-wired to revolve around survival, which isn’t surprising. But indefinitely inconvenient when it comes to eating three square meals a day.]

Let me ask you something. Are you interested at all in finding out just what’s… happened to us?

[To everyone brought to this world. The how’s and why’s.]

[persists]

[ UGH. She just still awkwardly stands there?!? ]

Fine. I know when to revoke my charity. [ Her tone indicates that she's teasing, but at the very least — she has her meal and then some for the evening. Markus may be adjusting to basic human needs that wittle down over time, but Ciri is oblivious to that notion.

Ciri's ready to leave this district entirely, but she stops mid-turn. Looking back, she almost seems offended. ]

Of course I am. It's not every day someone can hop between worlds, but it's even rarer someone forced the lot of us to do it against our wills. How we arrived here, how we awoken with our bodies changed — it's more than curious. It's disrespectful. [ There's a bitterness in her mouth. ] But, we can't do anything unless we move in the shadows, hide in plain sight, and blend in.

[ Her voice grows a bit cold. ]

No matter the world, people fear what they don't understand. I don't plan on being hunted down.

[saviorexe]

[Work that second skewer, Ciri.]

I’m not ungrateful. Your charity wouldn’t normally be wasted if it were any other day.

[But as for the rest of it? He listens, because there are parts that resonate with him in ways that she might not realize. No matter the world, people fear what they don't understand. I don't plan on being hunted down.]

You can’t always hide in shadow. [But there’s that sticking point, that tiny bit of not-quite-contention that is at least a disagreement.] Sometimes the attention is good, if applied in the right way. Though I understand that’s a hard sell when we’re so... lacking in answers. And therefore, no real clear path on how to proceed.

[persists]

[ Delete that comment. ]

The shadows are safe. There's millions of people in this city. We can be whoever we need to be to use our time wisely. Someone who entices a riot doesn't look too lucky to get answers.

[ A tease, but whatever? Eats?? ]

I'd love nothing more than to interrogate someone, but until I make the right friends, that won't seem to happen easily.

[saviorexe]

[You can't tell me what to do.]

And just who do you consider to be ‘the right friends’?

[He asks, and it sounds like criticism. Maybe on the surface it’s shaped more like skepticism, couched in actual curiosity. If you’ve a lead in to somewhere where they can glean answers from this place, to dredge up clues and leads regarding what trails to follow, Markus wants to hear it. Probably wants in on it, with enough consideration.]