test drive meme #1.

[seeingyou]

Hello, passengers and potential passengers!! Welcome to the first-ever eyemind Test Drive Meme. Here you have a chance to play around in the game's setting before deciding to app, test out new characters, or just roll around and have some fun. Enjoy!

No invite is necessary to play in the test drive, but please remember that eyemind is a (semi)private game and you must request an invitation before submitting an application. Request an invitation here!

Please note: Threads from the test drive meme DO NOT count toward AC and ARE NOT considered game canon, but you are welcome to use them for your app samples.

SCENARIO ONE: LIGHT UP THE NIGHT



The ship has stopped on Arion, near the settlement of Taunican, at the height of harvest season, and since the planet is largely agricultural, that means there is a big harvest festival a-happening.

What's neat about this festival is that it's not just a celebration of the harvest - it's a celebration of the community, and of the planet as a whole. The dominant local religion (for lack of a better term) isn't exactly experienced in term of worship but of honoring the planet itself - the seasons, the landscapes, the crops. Natives talk of Arion as if it is a living, breathing entity, because for them? Arion is.

Every evening while the ship is docked, there is a bonfire in the fields outside the town square, starting at dusk. There's a giant potluck feast, with everyone in attendance encouraged to bring dishes to share, but no one will be turned away if they arrive empty-handed. Fiddles and flutes and drums provide the soundtrack for the folk songs about Arion the locals sing around the fire; dancing and games and laughter are everywhere. This is a peaceful, joyous celebration, and you're invited!

SCENARIO TWO: WE NEED TO GO DEEPER



You're asleep, but maybe you don't know that - in the middle of a dream, it's not always easy to tell the difference between reality and the scenes your subconscious creates. You find yourself somewhere that may or may not be familiar, doing something that may be mundane or fantastical, but you're not alone. This is a dream you're sharing with your shipmates. What secrets and truths will you learn about each other?

SCENARIO THREE: STOP HITTING YOURSELF



Ope, looks like Navi’s wandered a little too close to an interdimensional rift in space-time, and now things are getting a little weird. If you happen to have superpowers, you may find that you don’t have quite as good of a hold on them as you do normally, or maybe now there are unintended side effects that occur when your powers are used. Maybe your character usually possesses enhanced strength or speed, and now they suddenly find themselves too swol to handle ordinary objects without crushing them, or they may have uncontrollable zooms and be physically unable to slow their roll.

No superpowers? No problem! Non-powered characters may find themselves deprived of one or more of their natural senses, i.e., sight, hearing, smell, taste, etc. Have fun being suddenly and temporarily blind! Walk into walls, eat trash, be free.

Comments

[nerological]

[... It couldn't be. He couldn't be out here... Not many had seen the Legatus without his helm, but his closest, trusted officers? Well of course they had. What was he doing out here...? Where was his armor, he looked ragged, had he finished off all of them on his own...?

It was the only thing that made any sense right now. Why else would he be here before him, ragged as he was, as the Praetorium burned behind him? With his weapon pointed at him. His fingers tightened for a moment on the handle of the gunhammer as two warring urges clashed in his head. Drop the hammer, his Legatus had given that order as clear as a bell. Hold tight to that hammer, he didn't want to die today. And yet, with emotions running high, it was impossible for him to clamp down as he normally would have, on words he ought not say.]

Shoot me quick, and spare me the shame of your disappointment, Lord van Baelsar. It's all I ask of you.

[forgarlemald]

[He's not putting the gunhammer down.]

[Of course he's not putting the gunhammer down. Nero may be many things, but stupid has never been one of them, in any form. Out here in the desert, his post long abandoned, with a weapon pointed right at him (Gaius' weapon, his own legatus), what fool would simply drop his weapon. It's tantamount to suicide. Just as remaining in the Praetorium would've been.]

[And after everything...how can Gaius fault him for it?]

Nero, listen- [He doesn't miss the way that the younger man's grip tightens on the hammer. Raises Heisbane again instinctively, before he just as quickly forces himself to lower it. Nero is panicking, yes, and panicking soldiers are dangerous, volatile things, but Nero isn't stupid. He's smarter than this, Gaius knows he is-]

[But it's the words that hit Gaius harder than that hammer surely ever could. Everything goes suddenly cold, despite the overwhelming heat around them, and his pleas die immediately in his throat.]

[It's so many long, unbearable seconds where he can only stand there, pale eyes wide as he stares at the young man before him, the words echoing horribly loud in his mind. But when he finally moves again, it's to throw his gunblade aside, listening to the weapon hit the sand and skid far from reach without taking his eyes away from Nero, to approach him, with all the poise and confidence of the general he no longer is.]

No one is going to be shot. But I said put down the weapon, tol Scaeva. That's an order.

I'm not going to give it a third time.

[nerological]

[This was it, this was how he'd die. Not remembered as a brilliant engineer, not with dignity nor with grace, but executed by his own commanding officer as a deserter. A cowards death outside their compromised Praetorium, after what he could only assume was the Legatus's unquestionable victory. If he were a man more disposed towards it, he'd cry.

If nothing else, he'd die dry eyed and on his feet, the weapon having never left his hand-

The sound of Heirsbane hitting the ground and skittering away was as loud as a gunshot would be, to him. He jerked, as the blade bounced and slid across the sand, far away from Gaius. It was enough, in that instant, to cause his grip upon Mjolnir to falter, unable to take his eyes off the discarded gunblade. Unable to anyway, until Gaius began his approach at least.

For one wild, embarrassingly terrified moment, he fixed his grip, shifting his weight as if he actually meant to swing. Only to have his hold once more falter... and then fail entirely, releasing the hammer and letting it fall into the sand. How could he? How could he even follow through with that swing?]

... My lord.

[The defeat in that tone spoke volumes, more than any actual words might.]

[forgarlemald]

[My lord, he says, and Gaius could almost bitterly laugh at the wild, unexpected absurdity of hearing that title again, when he still remembers so vividly the pain of waking beneath so much debris, remembers the suffocating, agonizing heat of the fire where his lord had ultimately died.]

[He doesn't laugh, though. Doesn't even flinch when it looks as if Nero might actually strike, because he knows - hopes so badly that he's right - the man better than that. Knows Nero's loyalty, regardless of the harrowing situation at hand, would never allow it.]

[And the sound of the gunhammer dropping to the sand is almost too difficult to hear over the heavy sound of his heart inside his chest. As if it was exactly the signal he was waiting for, Gaius' slow approach breaks into a jog across the sand, and his hands are on the young tribunus the moment he's close enough to grab, bandaged fingers running across the man's face, searching out injuries.]

I thought you'd died with all the others. [Nero's scratched up, bruised and bloody, but it's nothing as dire as it could have been, and for that Gaius is overwhelmingly grateful. Though it's harder to see if he carries any injuries elsewhere; Nero's once immaculate armor is heavily scarred from his battle with the Warrior of Light, and now isn't at all the time to go removing it. Not here, not when the Eorzean armies are still so close by. Finding two highly wanted corpses very much alive isn't a victory he's willing to give them this time (this time?), and they can't linger overlong. They should leave, while Gaius still feels as steady as he does, adrenaline still running like fire in his blood. He doesn't know if he's going to wake up, or if this is some undeserved second chance, but Nero is alive.]

[And Gaius pulls the younger man to him before realizing what exactly he's doing, the magiteck armor digging painfully into his own injuries as he wraps Nero into a crushing embrace.]

[nerological]

[He couldn't do it. Even with the threat of being executed laid out before him, he couldn't bring himself to attack the other man. He'd never been a person of high morals himself, what was right and wrong but an entirely subjective collection of opinions anyway?

But the loyalty he had for Gaius was, and would always be, an objective concept. The only person who's trust it would hurt, did hurt, unimaginably so, to betray. He still so firmly believed that his Legatus meant to end him here that, as he saw the other man break into a jog, he stiffened sharply, anticipating violence in spite of the weapon being flung away from him.

Instead of death however... He felt hands across his face, the bandages wrapped around Gaius's hand (how did those get there, what had happened) catching in the occasional sticky smears of blood from scratches that, at least upon his head and face, looked worse than they were. His thoughts had already begun to scatter and fray when Gaius tossed away his gunblade, the wheels in his head stuttering and slowing when the other man touched him in search of injuries. But everything officially ground to a halt when Gaius, Lord van Baelsar, the Black bloody Wolf, pulled him in for a tight, almost fatherly embrace. The pain of the injuries beneath the armor went unacknowledged, and for the first time in his life he seemed utterly unable to figure out what to do with himself.

After a moment however, what else could he do, but release all of that fear? No blade in his belly or bullet in his brain, every muscle near went lax all at once, supported in part by the locking of his knees, his armor, and by Gaius's own hold. He made a noise, a short, almost delirious little chuckle.]

As if I'd be so easily dispatched...

[He could manage that much, at least. A sliver of that usual pride.]

[forgarlemald]

[Ah, and that certainly sound like the Nero tol Scaeva he remembers. Gaius snorts, the noise startled out of him and muffled against the younger man's armor, but it's proof enough that Nero can't be that badly injured if he's still more than capable of being prideful and arrogant, and his hold on Nero tightens, bandaged fingers digging uselessly into the magitek armor as all the fight seems to drain out of Nero all at once.]

'Twas foolish of me to ever believe otherwise, and I hope you'll forgive me for it.

[Forgive me. If he had known Nero had escaped, if he had thought, for even a moment, that any of his men had survived...]

[It's surprisingly easy to support the other man's weight as Nero seems to sag against him, no doubt in no small part thanks to the adrenaline still coursing through his veins. Adrenaline that spikes again, followed too quickly by worry, as Gaius pulls from the embrace just enough to reposition the younger man; with a grunt, he wraps one of Nero's heavy, armored arms around his shoulders, and braces the younger man against himself as well as he's able. Because this is still far too open, and they need to move...somewhere. Anywhere else, so long as it puts the burning remains of Meridianum far, far behind them.]

Can you carry your hammer?

[nerological]

Consider it forgiven and forgotten, my lord.

[The conversation was surreal, and his foggy brain only threatened to haze further if he tried to think too hard about it. Forget it, then. He'd ponder upon this later, ask questions later. For now, Gaius's almost casual tone, the way he gripped him, the overwhelming and open concern the other man clearly displayed in this moment, would not only go unquestioned, but would be accepted with relief and gratitude.

He labored not to put too much weight on him, hissing softly as he tried to brace a little better upon his own two legs. If Gaius was offering it, then he'd not refuse the other man's help, as wildly confusing as this moment was aside. Right, they... couldn't stay here, so close to the fighting. It would be a shame to have escaped dying in there, only to be captured and killed here.]

Of course.

[The ease in his tone bore hints of strain regardless, though he moved to reach down and take the hilt of his hammer in hand. Even if he had to drag the damn thing, he'd carry that hammer. Metal could be fixed, paint replaced.

Dead was dead.]