Test Drive

[uploadedmods]

TEST DRIVE 001


-TDM threads can be considered game canon if players involved agree & if it suits any roles you may decide to choose for the current plot.
-Any reserving player that does not submit an app by Saturday morning will be subject to challenging applicants.
-Participation in the Test Drive is worth a flat 10 points per month rather than per thread, and you must have a minimum of 5 comments in that month to qualify for it.
-This TDM is good for the duration of the Mist setting. A new TDM will go up before the next setting.

The NETWORK for this setting is a voice-only walkie talkie system that can be used to communicate between all locations. The default channel will be open to all walkie talkies, but characters can change to an unused channel for private conversation.
of note: There seems to be something strange about these walkie talkies, in that there is no static. The quality is disturbingly crystal clear, like the person you're speaking to is right next to you instead of miles away.

CONTENT WARNING: Some prompts contain gore, character death, and substance abuse.

Reserves will open on Saturday, September 8 until Saturday, September 15
Applications will open Saturday, September 15 until Saturday, September 22

General Prompts


The lights above you are a blindingly, pristine white. The walls around you curve up into the ceiling like the inside of an MRI machine. Your hands, feet, and midsection are strapped to a clinical table, and minutes seem to tick by, with no clear course for escape presenting itself to you.

The curved white space above you flickers with color, and a perfect square like a television screen expands before your eyes. It pans over what appears to be a town, something small and simply populated.

“Hello, and welcome to your first setting,” a neutrally cadenced feminine sounding voice begins, riding the line between human and machine. As she speaks, captions of the text type themselves in neat and perfect Arial font. “The location is loosely based off Bridgton, Maine, United States of America, Earth. The year is 2007. You have been selected to participate. Obedience ensures an enjoyable and immersive experience for our audience. If you have been granted a role, instructions will follow. Do not talk about the role. Do not attempt disobedience. If you have not been granted a role, your objective for this round is simple: survive.”

After that, the shackles may release promptly and allow your character to roam free. Or perhaps not — perhaps they've been given a role to play, and if so, further instructions will play out upon the screen. Once suitably briefed, characters will be released to their own devices. Beware the mist.

CHECK OUT THE CURRENT SETTING PAGE FOR DETAILS ABOUT THE LOCATION.

learn from the mistakes of others

A pair of unperturbed mall inhabitants decide to chance the mist. They're the first of a handful to trickle out the front doors, and they seem to get by just fine. About a minute ticks by, and they disappear completely into the dense fog that presses in from every direction. It's so anticlimactic that for a moment it almost seems stupid to feel uncomfortable by the sight of it.

Until precisely one half of a body is hurled abruptly and with great force from an indeterminate point in the obscurity. It's not a top half or a bottom half; no, it's a cleanly sliced left half, head to toe as though a neat line were cut down the middle. It slams into the transparent glass doors and crumples before them, still and obviously unmoving, slowly leaking.

After a few seconds, a dark tendril of something reaches out, curls around the jutting left ankle, and drags it with painstaking slowness back into the fog.

At least the rest of them probably made it, right?

Right?

Hopefully you weren't one of the others to follow their lead. If you were, that dark shape seems to be closing in awfully quick.

eff this, let's bounce

A pair of car keys can be found discarded or perhaps dropped in their owners' haste. Braving the mist when it's at its lightest and pressing the key fob will cause a car to beep politely, flashing lights to indicate its location in the fog. Take anyone willing to go with you and pile in. Try to get the hell out of dodge!

An excellent idea....

Within five miles of the car's journey the battery will die and the engine will stall. Consider yourselves effectively stranded and with no one but yourselves to blame. Perhaps help will come if you wait long enough? Hours, surely no more than a few days... Maybe you should consider braving the fog to get back? Five miles can feel like a hundred in conditions like these.

Either way, it seems like you're trapped in the car for about as long as R. Kelly got trapped in the closet during that one unfortunate CD.

radio chatter

Characters in the library and the church will be able to communicate via walkie talkie radio chatter immediately! Characters in the mall will not have this ability until later in the month, so any network style threads with a mall character will take place during Week Two of the October plot or later, after most people have already been fully introduced to the setting and given time to adapt.

Roles

Employee of the Month (Multiple)

Some characters will be printed wearing a designated kiosk uniform, their name sloppily stickered in slightly crooked letters onto a Dippin' Dots badge, or whatever store they may happen to be assigned to. The cool voice that introduces them to the mist will carry on to tell them that they'll be playing employee # _____ in this month's immersive experience. Their motivations and objectives are simple: go to work.

Except the role seems to be bugged, because they can never not go to work. If they leave the five or six foot radius of their designated post they'll begin to experience consequences, which worsen in severity based on distance and duration. The role doesn't end at mall closing, it doesn't end on Saturdays, it simply doesn't end. Hopefully next month's code push will have a bug fix; we apologize for the inconvenience.

(If choosing to keep these threads as game canon, the role will wear off within the first in-game week)

Aggravated Assault

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing the role of a CONVICTED FELON having recently been released on parole. Your motivation for this month's immersive experience is frustration. Having undergone hard time, you'll find that we have increased your aggression and temper characteristics, and lowered your inhibitions. Your objective is to find and begin an altercation with Snuff the Rooster, who will be playing the role of the person who turned you in, NARK. Your altercation must take place in a public space with witnesses, and may not stop until Snuff the Rooster is unconscious, evicted from the mall, or someone intervenes.

Thank you for your participation!

Consequences for not completing the objective in this role can be moderate to severe.

Snuff the Rooster

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing the role of NARK. Formerly a close friend and ally of CONVICTED FELON from Aggravated Assault, you were quick to roll on them during police questioning in exchange for your freedom. Your motivation is to turn over a new leaf, and get your shit together. Your objective is to survive the altercation.

Thank you for your participation!

The Lovers (Duo Role)

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing one half of a partnership role! Please seek out (character 2). Your motivation this round is love, and the need to protect your partner from threats both inside and outside of the mall. Your objectives is to greet your lover with a kiss and place them above all others. Do not act like strangers.
Consequences for not completing the objective in this role or failing to present a convincing couple can be mild to moderate.

Pathological

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing a background character in our current setting. Your motivation is to tell lies; at least one third of what you say must be unarguably untrue. Your objective is to keep these lies from being discovered as false.
Consequences for not complying with this role can vary from mild to severe, with the compulsion to tell larger and larger lies growing as time goes on.

Scared Speechless

Congratulations, participant! You will be playing a background character in our current setting. You may choose one person, stranger or otherwise. This is the only person you may communicate with, either verbally or through writing.
Consequences for not complying with this role are severe.

Glitches

potency error

Someone seems to have miscalculated the relative strength of intoxicants; all inhibition-altering substances seem to have been cranked up to eleven. One shot has the strength of three, though the taste seems to stay exactly the same. One or two drinks will quickly creep up on you. One of the joints found discarded in the bathroom trashcans will easily green you out. God forbid you've got anything stronger.

greatest movie of all time

Settling in to the relatively nice theater found at the far end of the mall is a decent way to make the time go by. The projectors are automated, and there are six different theaters that show flicks at scheduled times.

Except that every single one of them is showing Spider-Man 3. Every single one, every single showing, no matter what is advertised, becomes Spider-Man 3. That's how you know this is a horror game. Hope you didn't wander in by mistake because the doors will shut behind you and leave you to watch the entire showing. Please keep your feet off of the seats.

please replace toner cartridge

It seems there was an error in printing someone this first time around; everything came through but the visuals somehow. Your character is flesh and blood, fully formed, wearing tangible clothes even, but are completely invisible. Donning additional clothing causes it to clip out and then promptly disappear. Taking clothes off will cause them to reappear. Hopefully this gets fixed in the next lite patch.

(If choosing to keep these threads as game canon, the glitch will wear off within the first in-game week)

code bases by tricklet

Comments

[not_over_yet]

[ Basil remains frozen a split second longer before registering that he's being addressed. Even then, his eyes flick to Lavellan before he manages to... well, finish "rebooting", as it were. ]

"New"? Have you been here long?

[lavelly]

A whole five minutes! [Lavellan beams up at him. It's patently false.]

I'll give you the tour, if you like. Over there are some machines, [he gestures, helpfully, never actually getting off of the floor] and as you might have noticed, we are currently in a corridor.







[Apparently, that is the extent of the tour.]

wildcard, i do what i want

[lavelly]

[It feels like he's been wandering through this strange complex for hours, and he's yet to find anything even remotely familiar. Panic prickles dimly at the back of his mind, less a true feeling and more an impression that he might be feeling it were he capable of feeling much of anything right now.

Which he isn't. He's been struggling through a fog of apathy since he got here, and he's not inclined to change that. There's something comforting about it.

But spotting Tex in his explorations nearly knocks him out of it without even meaning to; she's the first thing here he recognizes at all, and while she wouldn't be anywhere near his first choice, he finds himself clinging to it like a lifeline.]

Texas?

[He doesn't even try to be subtle as he makes a beeline right for her.]

Where's everyone else? [Everyone else meaning... Normandy Securities, or anyone else at all from the station.] You're the first familiar face I've seen since I got here.

[unshielding]

"Not on me." He wouldn't mind getting that shield back that he'd just had in the fight, though. He'd even feel a little better if he had something or even someone familiar.

"I have a feeling we're going to have to improvise." Or do without. "Are you feeling alright other than your lack of clones?"

Steve's not sure what to make of that, but he can't pretend to know all the ways a person can get powers. He's lost count of all the different things he's experienced that could give powers or grant abilities and there must be more out there in the universe that he hasn't seen.

[not_over_yet]

Wouldn't explain my changing species. [ The response is clipped, annoyed. ] And if this were simply more of the usual nonsense I'd still have my magicband. [ At that, he pauses, processing his own words.

Aaaaand switching from "general aggravation" to "outrage with a singular target". ] If this is Bill's attempt at fixing his own goddamn mistake, I'll--I've no attachment to a specific location, but changing my species is NOT acceptable! How dare--[ No, no, rein that in, it's still entirely possible this is just another kidnapping and not due to a failed bugfix,, ]--this had best not be his doing.

[ grumble grumble, idiot scientists with too much access to godlike powers ]

[unshielding]

Steve steps out of the car and he pushes the door closed, but doesn't risk slamming it. It's one thing to talk and another to start banging things. They don't need to announce where they are to whatever might be out there.

The fog is so thick he feels like he could choke on it, but he ignores that feeling. They have to get someplace better than inside a dead old car.

He starts to step around the car to Bucky before he speaks, but once he hears his name, he jogs the rest of the way over to Bucky.

"I'm here. I'm right in front of you."

Standing there, facing Bucky in the thick mist, he's never felt so isolated in Bucky's presence before, but he can't see much around them and Bucky can't even see him and it feels like something is clawing at his heart. He would hate to be in Bucky's shoes and know Bucky's there but be unable to even see him. It can't be easy for Bucky, either.

"This is going to be me touching you." And at least out here, Steve thinks to warn him before he reaches for Bucky's bicep.

"Let's see if we can get inside that building, okay?"

[cryfrustration]

"I dunno, is a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach 'all right'?"

Look, he's got to joke, okay? He doesn't know how the hell to get through this without a little bit of gallows humor.

Serious answer though: "Aside from my magic, I seem to have all my fingers and toes. But if what that voice in the," he gestures vaguely towards the machines behind them; he doesn't know what they're called so, "thing said is true, I'm only allowed to talk to one person here, or else." Who the hell knows what the "or else" is meant to entail.

"So I guess that's you now, my invisible friend. I hope you're a cool guy." He's putting on a brave face by saying it this way, but the truth is he's scared as hell. He'd really like to have someone or something familiar around too. Instead he's got a man he can't even see. The only thing to do is just to make it work though.

"Are you feeling okay--aside from the whole transparent thing?"

[not_over_yet]

[ Mmhm. Now there's a recognizable flavor of exasperation. ]

Dealt with many inter-dimensional kidnappings?

[ His sympathies. ]

Don't suppose you've any idea of who to blame for this one.

...Er. Did any teenaged girls arrive during that past five minutes? I may or may not need to locate said girls--they mightn't have come along this time, I've no idea.

[freightcars]

He doesn't startle at the sudden voice, though it does raise the hairs on the back of his neck. Paranoia and a lifetime of hypervigilance don't mesh well with mist and invisibility. He does seem to relax minutely as a hand secures round his bicep, and shifts a little into it. Lowers his arm to make keeping a grip easier.

It helps.

"Yeah," he mutters in agreement, tugging them forth through the rolling waves of thickening fog toward a set of pillars just tall enough and close enough to be spotted in clearing waves. If isn't really a question, he can break into damn anything. Whether or not it'll do them any good? Hard to say, but it's a start.

It's a courthouse, with thick mahogany doors and a brass handle that doesn't yield to tugging or twisting the knob. Wordlessly he shifts, clamps his bicep down on Steve's arm to keep him where he is, and brings the full force of a metal fist down on the knob. In one easy whack it hits the ground and rolls away. After that it's a simple matter of driving his metal shoulder into the seam of the wood, and with a crack it gives way, swinging wide.

Inside isn't clear, but the mist is certainly lighter. Somewhere there must be a breach - a cracked door, a slightly open window, something letting in the finest trappings of fog. Better, at least, than the street behind them, so he leads them in.

MY PRE-COFFEE SELF CANT BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR ANYTHING

[nanoprobing]

[ There is a hard, utterly dispassionate press of her lips to his, held for a count of three, and then released. She lets go of him, posture straightening. ]

That will be sufficient.

We are to survive together in this scenario. I will prioritize your safety. Do not engage in any activities which may complicate that.

[ She gives him another once-over, gaze shrewd and merciless. ]

I suggest you focus on not becoming a liability.

Accompany me to search for a weapon.

[ This is clearly the chemical imbalance known as 'love', for Seven to be tolerating Niles Crane's obvious imperfections. ]

[nanoprobing]

I am Seven of Nine. 'Seven' will suffice.

[ She gives Diamond another long stare. ]

A non-organic carbon based life form of a species unknown to the borg. Clarify your species and origin.

[ This is all information she will need to assimilate for the purposes of maintaining the illusion that she would be romantically involved with this... creature. Being an individual is exhausting. ]

[noctyourking]

[ Oh, no, he’s far from alright. This was exactly not what he was expecting. What he was expecting was to be able to fight, respond with force, even warp away from danger—

none of his resources were available to him and he was frustrated, scared, and covered in gore from someone who.. who may have come from a world where they too could have fought to save their lives.

This isn’t right at all. Noct looked down to his hands and he began huffing and puffing again with distress. ]

[noctyourking]

[ Yes, very much the case. Noct thinks but he’s more than mess at the moment to clearly articulate his failed plans and poor execution. To have been out there and seen nothing yet be in clear danger and be able to do nothing about it was significantly messing with his identity.

He was a fighter, he could call on the powers of his old kings, of his lineage, of his birthright and fight! He could wield an arsenal of weaponry and he could warp to safety for further assessment of the situation if need be.

But he had nothing but his own two feet to lead him astray and turn him right back around in fear of his life. ]

I couldn’t… I couldn’t do anything!

[ A life was lost and in a way that was horrifyingly traumatic; and even with that thought he felt selfish for having considered that! Someone lost their life - probably a lot or all of the ones he walked out with did. But he was perturbed in the incredibly inconvenient terrorizing way in which half a body flew past him to coat him with gore. ]

I’m going to be sick..

[ He stumbled forward and began to dry heave. ]

Be safe!! Also, I'm a terrible prose at heart in bracket form... :( I always fail the tenses up ;3;

[noctyourking]

[ Noct feels uneasy in the extreme distress kind of way. Once he gets sight and smell of himself he turns his head and crunches his body with a significant moment of dry heaving. Nothing’s come up, but tears from the emotional and physical shock he’s processing through currently. His whole body aches now.

He composes himself enough to focus back to his friend and there’s a familiar expression on his face that reads the same as times they’ve shared before. It speaks clearly of inadequacy and insecurity, of self-loathing and hopelessness. He’s been down like this before—

yet even before, during those times, he still could rely on his power. His birthright, his warp even to safety. Here he had nothing but his feet to carry him and not so much as a stick to beat off whatever would (or did) come for him out there. The feeling of uselessness paled his skin and left him grey in contrast to the various hue of crimson and pink which dripped from his body.

He followed Ignis with full consent, no matter how dire, hopeless, useless, or insignificant he felt, Ignis was always his core, his foundation. Soon thoughts of gratitude flooded over his body and his eyes glistened with a painful warmth of tears and he reached out to his friend to grip onto while they moved further into the mall. ]

[noctyourking]

[ Noct lurches forward with a gasp and he slides into the mall with an easy glide with gore covered boots to cause the slippery traction. ]

[redclown]

[Niles can't see it (or maybe he can, it's not like it matters either way to the man in the mask), but he and his fancy hanky are being thoroughly, expertly sized up, from his slight frame to the oversized suit draped over his narrow shoulders, and... You gotta be shitting him... Guy like this wandering around out here? Really?

But whatever. Those keys are legit enough; he's never been the type of person to look a gift horse in the mouth, and if the slightly twitchy quality to his body as a whole is anything to go by it's about time he seriously thinks about getting out of the shit for hot minute.

Parts of him are still bleeding from his last 'walk', he's pretty sure. What's with that, anyway?

...Eh, later problem. Time to get to it! The man sags visibly, letting out an exaggeratedly relieved sigh.]

Good, cuz that'd have been awkward. Anyways, five stars to Oo-bah! Soooo... [He peers around into the mist, squinting in the direction of the beep.] Where's my ride at?

[...Is the fog getting foggier, or is it just him?]

GOD I SHOULD HAVE PUT THAT HE'S COMICPOOL IN MY TOPLEVEL I AM A FOOL, AN UTTER BUFFOON....!

[redclown]

[Is that a giant splinter or are u just happy to see him?

Wade holsters his gun, but his arm hovers nearby just in case. You never know.]

That's what she said.

[And while he's pretty sure he recognizes this particular one-arm mcangsty stud, he just can't help himself, tilting his head at Bucky's metal arm and tapping his chin, mask-eyes narrowed in consideration:]

...Hmmm, arm's not quite screen-accurate, but I'll only dock you a few points- you can thank your superior construction for that, I can tell you really put your heart into it.

Phil Coulson | Agents of SHIELD | OTA

[avengeme]

Role: Pathological
Dancer

It's probably been a few days of living together by now. As much as living together qualifies in a mall. It's hard to say which of the names Phil's told by now is the real one. He answers to almost every one within ear shot, even ones he hasn't (??) told someone it is yet. James, Patterson, Charles, the list goes on.

Heck, it's hard to say he seems bothered by the situation broiling up on the outside with the mist sometimes.

Today, while near a group of people (whether they gathered by some means or not), he starts dancing. Not even good dancing. Spider Man 3 Peter Parker dancing. Maybe he's gone to the movies too often? Or he's gone mad? Who knows. He's really into it, with the winking and the finger gun and all. Singular because he's still missing his lower left forearm which has likely been lost in a war, or in a terrible Saw accident. It's hard to say for sure yet.

"Good morning!" he says while tipping a fedora he probably stole from a store somewhere. At least he doesn't have enough hair to do the emo comb-over.


Book store
Apart from his rampant storytelling and odd behavior, he seems to keep to himself when he can. Like he's putting on just enough appearances to be noticed and talked about before going off somewhere. He can be found at the book store most often, making a small pile on a table where he appears to go through them for a bit. Bother him?


Food court
He leans over while eating a twinkie. (how did he get that open with one hand?) "Ever tried Rocky Mountain oysters?"


Wildcard


((Anything goes. I apologize for the nature of the first prompt. I could not help it.))

[proactive_with_pep]

"Like Stefani?" She can't help herself from asking. Partially because she'd find out if this girl was from Earth, or if she was from who knows where else they were beaming people up from. And well, Buffy hasn't been able to get 'Spiderwebs' out of her head for the last three years.

The thought of attacking the monster and making it angrier had crossed her mind. Briefly. There was the expected weighing of both pros and cons. Needless to say Buffy fell in favor of the pros before deciding, "I'm not going to attack it unless it attacks first." No point in trying to get herself killed if she could avoid it. Though attacking first wasn't exactly the whole truth, "Or if I see someone out there who needs help." She wasn't going to let someone who was either leaving or coming to the mall out there by themselves. Sure it wouldn't be the smartest move, but the guilt that would follow was something she wasn't going to let herself carry. If she could do something, anything she would. It was better than possibly standing around and doing nothing while someone suffered.

"We should have a game plan. Even if we have no idea what the game is other than 'don't die'." Their game was don't die. Whoever sent them here probably intended for the opposite in the end. Not dying was as good a start as any. "Got any suggestions?"

bookstore (role: employee of the month, bc lol)

[notawitch]

Loki has, by this point, gotten used to the idea that he can't safely leave the establishment. He isn't a fan of it, because he isn't a fan of anyone thinking they can control him, but he's even less of a fan of the "consequences," which manage to be both alarming and undignified.

He's elected to stay where he is and see how things play out, at least until he's in a position where he can actually see about breaking free of this nonsense. At least it's a bookstore he's stuck in. A Midgardian bookstore, full of tedious Midgardian "literature," but it's much better than a movie theater or an "arcade" or whatever kind of drivel mortals like to consume for entertainment. It's easier to lay low in places like this.

Until he sees Coulson. It's been years since their last encounter, of course, but it was the kind that makes an impression. Especially since Coulson looks very much alive, which is just rude. Oh well, at least it's something new and... different, if not interesting.

He lounges all casual like against the nearest bookcase, and can only hope Coulson doesn't notice his stupid uniform or impossibly misspelled nametag (how does someone misspell four letters?).

"Aren't you dead? I'm very sure I killed you."

[personalquestions]

[Connor blinks and looks around, contemplating what she said.]

This seems like a lot of effort to go to just for a laugh. Problem is, I don't quite know a better explanation at the moment.

[personalquestions]

If Connor had all his software intact, he'd be able to scan the woman and discover the synthetic nature of her. As it is, he's flying a bit blind, and it's a bit disorienting.

He turns to face the woman, tilting his head a little as he surveys her rather frayed appearance. Her words, however, definitely catch her attention. The security feeds. Of course! Perhaps it's a sign of how out of sorts he is that he didn't think of that before.

"Right. Good idea," he replies, moving to follow her, "Whoever has us has tampered with my programming, but I'll do what I can."

Sephiroth | Final Fantasy 7 | OTA

[sanephiroth]

A) Learn from mistakes of others? Not exactly.
Sephiroth, looking like he's just come from a cosplay convention (sans sword), will be grabbing the first random person from the crowd and slamming them by the throat against the glass door. He wants badly to lift them up for an added intimidation factor but he doesn't have that strength anymore, which is just piling on top of the things that are annoying him right now.

"Tell me what's going on or s/he ends up the same," he growls at anyone gathered. The only thing unusual left about him being his extremely long silver hair and the bright green eyes with slit pupils.

Earth? Maine? Nothing explained so far means anything to him. He's so bizarrely into the intimidation thing he hasn't even considered the possibility that he could be taken down in his current nerfed state.


B) Mr. Grump.
Whether eventually subdued or forced to play along for now, he can be found being generally frowny and grumpy within the mall. But he will have to interact eventually. The need for food and hygiene does eventually have him coming out from the Hot Topic-equivalent shop he's chosen to hole up in. As he makes his way to the destinations, he spots someone and rather reluctantly gives them an almost imperceptible nod and an reluctant huff from his nose.

If anyone has any specific shampoo needs, he may be using up the ones on display fairly quickly.


C) A week or two later?
Finally relenting to the fact that nothing's about to change, he starts taking to dressing more like the general masses he witnessed on the first day. T-shirt and jeans. And maybe a spiked collar and chic black bracelets he picked out from his hiding spot.

As much as he wants to take over the world still, he has to rely on everyone else like a normal human for a while.

"I'd deal with them if I had my sword," he might mutter during a conversation.


Wildcard


((Seph's gonna be a bit antisocial to start with so don't mind him. It might be a whole new experience for him to have the tables turned on him too since he's used to being the most powerful guy around.))

Dirk Gently | Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency | OTA

[holistic_detective]

Learn from the Mistakes of Others

Hello, what is this now?

For the briefest of moments, measured in the time it takes for a house fly to realize that the dark shadow above him does not wish to be friends as it disappointingly hopes, Dirk believed he was back at Blackwing. However, the idea was swiftly squashed. For all the years he had lived at the super secret government facility he never remembered an automated voice informing him of the role he was to play. Dirk was quite aware of his universal role. Well, more or less. Mostly less. It was a feeling, really, and not always a strong one. It would take far more time to explain than it would to describe the scene ahead so the universe would have to forgive him for summing it up as "He was mostly sure of his place in the universe." And being mostly sure meant that he was almost positively sure that this place was not Blackwing. It was something else; perhaps a clue.

"Todd? Farah?"

Dirk wandered around the strange mall searching for his friends. He hoped that they had accompanied him on this journey, but he wasn't too concerned if they hadn't. He was sure to run into them at some point, hopefully. By then he'd hope to have a better handle on the situation. He noticed a group of people armed with some fairly heavy machinery and decided that they looked to be the sort of people who had an inkling into what was going on. Dirk waved his hand, prepared to give them a cheery "Hello there, how are you" when the group gave a terrific battle cry before they ran towards some glass doors.

Dirk watched in fascination as they filed one by one out the doors into the gray mist that surrounded the mall. He approached carefully, his hands reaching for one of the door handles as if to follow when something large and heavy hit the glass door with a sickening splat. Thick, viscous red fluid dripped down the window pane. Dirk recoiled in horror, hoping the hideous crunching sound was simply the survivors walking on leaves and not the munching of bones.

"On second thought, I don't believe they knew what was going on," he said to himself, stepping away from the doors. "Better to look for clues elsewhere...preferrably less... monster-y."

Wildcard!

[Open to any and all ideas!]

[arkproject]

People are not interesting to Catherine. Artificial intelligence is very interesting, however, and she just about stops short in her task to jerk her head and look over at him. Being physical is very convenient in some senses, but extremely inconvenient in others. Ordinarily, she'd be housed in the computer systems of whatever station on PATHOS-II she was at, and could look at security feeds as she pleased. Maybe she'd need a security cypher to get in, but... none of this running around.

Having a different AI-based point of interest to distract her from her internal griping is extremely welcome.

"Mine has definitely been tampered with," she answers frankly, without hesitation. "Normally my consciousness is embodied on servers. I've never seen an advanced A.I. housed in a humanoid system before, but you seem totally comfortable with it." Catherine's curiosity is open and friendly, a scientist who feels, at her core, more comfortable with robots than people.