childrenofbajablast | Test Drive Meme #1

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!tdm

Test Drive Meme #1

Arrival

Broken Palace by Jonathan Eng

0:07 / 1:13

▶︎

Click here to listen.

During 2014 Jonathan Eng composed the soundtrack for interactive narrative experience The Sailor’s Dream, consisting of a mix of instrumental tracks and a seven-part musical story told in folk song-form.

code

Like all who come through summoning circle, your arrival is heralded by a dream. Waking up is a dizzying, disorienting thing... and possibly made worse by the fact that you aren't alone.

Right after you appear, so does someone else. If you're lucky*, they'll simply blink into existence by your side. If you're not, there's a chance they spawned below or above you. That's one way to make a memorable first impression. Best untangle yourselves and get things figured out.

If you're extremely unlucky*, instead of another person being brought through the summoning circle, it's a monster. The creature bobs, laughs maniacally, and immediately begins to spit flames your way.

Some welcome this is. If you aren't the fighting type, hopefully someone nearby is. Eventually, one of the local Town guards will slay the monster before it - and you - cause too much trouble or fire damage.

Town Tricks

After your unexpected introduction to either your fellow offworlder or monster, you'll be given a proper one from Charlie in Town. He sends you on your way shortly after to get settled in properly and deal with then next offworlder that walks in. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a revolving door right now so he doesn't have time for a more in-depth explanation or to answer too many questions.

Nor does he remember to warn you about The Fae.

Although native to Talahee Forest, which is currently off-limits to offworlders, the surge of magic from the summoning circle has piqued their interest. While the faefolk vary wildly in appearance, the ones scouting are pixies.

These tiny tricksters may be too shy to reveal themselves outright... but that won't stop them from playing pranks on all these fun, new victims. Some examples of what can happen are:

At night

Thankfully, these Fae mean you no harm. In fact, if you react with hostility they will give you a wide berth and simply find someone more fun to play with.

Rocky Talky

One of the things that was given to you in your welcome pack from Charlie was a summoning-stone. Although it looks like, well, an ordinary stone- It's actually magic! You can look through it and see someone else's face too if you're both viewing your stones at the same time. It can also record your speech and deliver that to someone else in a snap.

One of the other features is that you can scrawl on it. It will turn your writing into legible text that you can send others to read on their stones. Of course, you need to attune yourself to your stone first. To that end, it prompts a small questionnaire:

Name:
Age:
Race:
Favorite soup? Why?:
Is soup something you eat or drink?

The last couple of questions might seem... strange but, surely, it must have a reason for asking. Once you answer the questions and unlock your device, you might pocket it and forget. Unfortunately, your scrawled answers were sent to the entire summoning-stone network throughout Town. Everyone can see what you put and they might even have some thoughts about it.

Registration Questionnaire

Notes

⁂ Hello and welcome to Children of Bahamut! If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback feel free to comment here!

⁂ For the Arrival prompt, feel free to roll a d20 to see how lucky or unlucky you are.

⁂ The Town Tricks example list for pranks isn't exhaustive. If you have other silly prank ideas in mind, feel free to roll with that and have fun with it! The Fae certainly are.

⁂ There is a correct choice of favorite soup and the moderators will remember your choice/opinions. (We're joking. Mostly.)

⁂ Full Navigation ⁂

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

After so much bullshit, one can eventually only go:

Yeah, sure, why not.

The dragon dream? Sure. Suddenly falling when he was back home last he checked? Sure.

Sephiroth being his cushion?

Well, at least something is familiar, even if it's not in this way.

Angeal hits him with a hard grunt, feeling it hard in his gut in a way that's just a little bit new. Immediately, he thinks he gains something of a headache, contrasting knowledge and experiences already rolling into him. "Damn - Seph. Hey." Pushing himself up so that they both have room to breathe, Angeal squeezes his eyes shut.

It's almost like breathing in the simulation. Muffled. But when he considers everything else-

"....We're in a real world."

Sephiroth pauses, considering this. Yes...now that Angeal draws his attention to it, it's obvious. They'd occasionally ended up in other worlds where they were truly alive, when they'd left the simulation...and this does feel like that.

But different, somehow, as well. Everything feels...less. (Well, except the ache in his midsection where Angeal landed on him. That is more.)

"We are," he agrees, after a moment. "But...why with no warning? And where are we?"

A beat. And then, with considerably more concern - "Where is Genesis?"

"Who knows why." Sometimes, there were barely any warnings back in the simulation as well. Just things they had to deal with on their own, because they sure weren't going to get real assistance from the alleged gods or creators or whatever they wanted to call themselves.

It's something that can be figured out later. Because Sephiroth has a good point: they're missing more than a couple of people from this sudden bit of bullshit, and someone especially important.

Angeal does what he's often done during missions, which is take a breath and find his center. There's no point in panicking.

"I can't smell him in the immediate area... but my sense of smell feels off as well in a way that's different from both the simulation and the worlds we used to visit back then. I don't hear him either." And it's Genesis. He never stops to be loud. "There's a chance... he hasn't arrived in this place yet."

Yet.

"Yet," Sephiroth echoes, hanging on to that word for dear life. But then...that's what he and Genesis had done, when Angeal was the late arrival. Declared he was simply late, because surely he would show up eventually.

And, to be fair, he had.

But the thought of life without Genesis - even life temporarily without Genesis - feels even duller than his senses are right now. As hollow and cold as a tomb.

"Perhaps he's here already, and he's simply moved elsewhere?" Sephiroth's gaze slides across their surroundings, landing on the sign that says TOWN. That Genesis is here and simply waiting for them to find him is an even more palatable idea that he will show up, at some unknowable time, and simply hasn't yet.

"Possibly..." Angeal pauses to shake his head slightly. No, that's the pessimist in him crawling out again. He can't let himself trip back into dark thoughts. Especially not when Sephiroth is right here, relying on him. "There's only one way to find out, and it's better for us to get all we can anyway before we find him."

Right. That's what they'll do. As long as they're doing something.

So pushing himself up onto his feet, Angeal glances around their surroundings. "I have to say, Town isn't a particularly descriptive name... It feels like a placeholder in a story."

"That, or we're in so rural a place that the locals here all know there can only be one town the sign is referring to..." Sephiroth shoots Angeal a sidelong look as he rises to his feet as well. He doesn't say anything, but there's a sense that he is looking to Angeal's country boy expertise here.

Angeal scoffs, even as he patiently waits for Sephiroth to be ready before setting off in the direction of the only bit of civilization around... if they're not being lied to, anyway.

"For your information, Banora was so rural that we assumed if you had made it all the way out to an island in the middle of the ocean, you damn well knew its name ahead of time." It's just a little bit harder, after all, to accidentally stumble out to a place like that. "But it's a possibility. Still, you'd think there would be just a little more pride in the town's name in that case..."

Tucking his hands into his pockets, Angeal considers things. "Once you get a certain amount of ways from the larger pockets of civilization, that does tend to happen, honestly. 'We survived out here in this little place, don't you forget it'."

"I will take your word for it." It's not like Sephiroth has experience with these things. He falls into step with Angeal easily, years of walking beside him making their strides match without either of them even having to think about it. "I do know one of the smaller towns I've been to...they almost seemed to be daring the landscape to kill them."

Listen, Nibelheim, he's just saying that nobody could be that bad at building bridges in the mountains on accident.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Angeal agrees easily enough. "When you don't have a whole lot to tart with, some of the little thing end up mattering a lot. Even when they're really petty and nonsensical."

Like whatever the hell is going on with Nibelheim bridges.

....It's going to be a walk to this town. Even with decent strides and plenty of energy. Angeal rubs his fingertips together, just takes in the simple experience of feeling. There's an ache in him that's getting harder to ignore as time passes by, where his body collided with Sephiroth.

"...Recall anything, before we ended up here?"

Sephiroth shakes his head. "Nothing unusual...nothing that gave any indication things would suddenly change." On some level, he's hoping that this is temporary, and they'll soon return to the simulation. Not because he prefers the simulation to a real world where they're truly alive like this, but...simply because they had an established life there. A beautiful villa, decorated the way they wanted. Genesis' dumbapple orchard. Zack, and Nanaki, and Mithrun, all coming and going. Angeal's bakery. The cookbook Sephiroth had been patiently working through. The VR training room. Sephiroth's cat Des, and their DTFs. And, perhaps more than anything else...a sense of security that had settled in over time, that perhaps they'd found a lasting peace. Somewhere they could simply live together, happily, for the rest of their days.

But...this doesn't feel temporary. It doesn't feel right. The strange, muted way everything about Sephiroth feels...he's never felt this before. It feels like parts of him have gone partially to sleep, but across his entire body.

"Do you remember anything?"

So nothing strange on his end either. Well, that's not ideal, but SOLDIER is at least often meant to handle things which aren't "ideal". They'll figure it out. Work through it. What else are they supposed to do?

"No - things seemed well enough from what I could see of the hub from Annie's Bakes." He frowns. "I think I must have started to nod off, however... Weird dream." Or was that a dream?

It's hard for him to figure out, at least immediately. The muted sensations of the simulation, clashing with the strange feelings in the dream... Make it maybe not a dream Potentially. Angeal doesn't think he has enough information to say anything about it yet.

"Then I fell onto you."

A weird dream... "Did it involve a dragon, by any chance?" It's probably a shot in the dark, but, well, they've got a lot of time and they may as well compare notes, even over seemingly trivial things like this.

He's quiet for a moment. "Angeal...have you been feeling differently, since we arrived?"

Well.

"Going to take a guess that you saw something similar," Angeal says, not sounding particularly pleased about the idea. It may be a clue towards just what is going on, he knows, but still. Sometimes, one sort of hopes that a stupid dream is just a stupid dream.

Well. Then that makes it clear it has something to do with what Sephiroth brings up next. "Senses feel dulled. Aches actually stick around. There's a sense of *reality*, definitely, but like I'm not all there to enjoy it."

Dammit. He crosses his arms. "Something must have happened in the transfer from the simulation to this world."

Sephiroth frowns. "So, a significant weird dream, then." He doesn't bother answering Angeal's implied question; it's obvious enough to both of them. "Though there aren't any dragons here...so I wonder what the significance actually is."

He sighs. "But...your experience is in line with mine. I feel...limited. Not able to do half the things I should, not healing at the rate I would expect. I've had stab wounds that have stopped hurting faster than my stomach where you landed on it, yet that still aches..."

He glances sidelong at Angeal. "You think it was some sort of...transfer error?"

"Glad that I could actually land a hit that really got you, then," Angeal says, just a little bit cheeky.

It's the best he can offer for the time being, to help keep them both from starting to panic or feel too much out of their depth.

"And that's as good a guess as any. Clearly those significantly weird dreams are connected to our appearance here. There's a possibility that whatever power was behind them connected oddly with the power running the simulation. They never did really explain how the whole thing worked with us, after all." Angeal sighs. "Although that would have been Genesis's expertise more than mine anyway..."

He tilts his head to take in the brilliant blue of the sky. The real thing truly is better than a sim. "We'll just have to do some more investigation. I wonder if there are any myths about dragons here? Like there were back home, with entities such as Shiva."

"Who knew that your ass was your deadliest weapon," Sephiroth deadpans, without the slightest change in expression. The banter can't be quite as light without Genesis here, but...they never can resist it.

And, much like Angeal...it holds onto normality by its fingertips. Staves off the fear they both feel.

"We haven't even tried flying," he murmurs, glancing at the sky as well. "I feel, even without testing it...as though it won't work here. Do you feel that as well?" Not something in his wing, necessarily, but in his whole body. A feeling of...weight, perhaps? That is foreign to him. Not as though he's heavier, necessarily, but that everything takes so much more effort. Simply thinking about flying, in the context of that feeling, makes it feel...distinctly unachievable.

"I suppose we would have to meet some locals to inquire about regional dragon beliefs. But would that necessarily be tied to dreams? It almost seems as though we might want to ask about dreams even more than dragons themselves."

"Genesis," is the immediate and fully confident answer.

Listen.

If anyone would know....

Which is good that someone knows something, because Angeal's lips twist in distaste at the reminder of flying... and what this might mean for a lot of their own capabilities. "You know that I don't do that nearly as much as you and Genesis do, but... I can see what you mean. We've definitely been weakened, to some degree." Although does that mean they can't pull their wings out at all? He's not sure how to take that thought. Or, rather, he's trying not to think about it too much.

"Dreams seems as though it could be too vague... Everyone dreams, after all. Still, it's better not to discount anything I guess. We could split up the work."

"I suspect Genesis might have some argument to make about what aspect of yourself is the most deadly," Sephiroth says mildly. If he...emphasizes the first syllable of 'aspect' significantly, no he didn't, don't worry about it.

"To find Genesis when we don't know where he is and we're worrying about him, you would fly," Sephiroth points out. "I'm sure you would consider that pressing reason enough. But it isn't really an option..."

In any case, Sephiroth does spread his wing, experimentally. Yes, it's still there, at least...which means Angeal's must be, as well. He experimentally flaps it, with enough force to stir the grass before them...but then shakes his head, folding it back out of sight.

"I don't even feel like I could jump to the top of a building, much less fly there." Which is...deeply unsettling, to a man who's been used to performing such feats as a matter of course throughout his entire life. How can he fight like this? He feels...alarmingly defenseless. Vulnerable.

Something like he felt in the dream, when a dragon was bearing down on him and there was nothing whatsoever he could do about it.

"But...yes. We should explore any and all avenues of inquiry."

It may be Sephiroth's first idea to take to the skies to find Genesis, but not Angeal's. So all for the best that Sephiroth takes his wing out first to test the air, so to speak. Ignoring the way his hairs stand up on the back of his neck, he waits silent for the verdict.

"That's something we're going to have to keep in mind, then... although there's an alternate way to see if we can't get in contact with him." And for that, Angeal simply reaches underneath his shirt.

Two things always hang down there, generally speaking. The first would be his engagement and wedding ring, kept on a small reliable chain so that he'll never lose it.

The other would be a pair of dog tags, hanging from similar. A lot of the time, Angeal likes to keep Bahamutt out and in their dog form, for personal preferences. It's just nice to have a large dog around, really. However, in some cases, it's much more preferable to have Bahamutt in a convenient form close at hand. Often at the bakery, where dog hair (even virtual) isn't a pleasant thing to get mixed in with the ingredients.

It's the latter which he keeps looped around his fingertips. "Bahamutt, hey. Come out." A pause. No reaction. "Bahamutt, message to Genesis."

Still nothing.

Sighing, Angeal lets the dog tags drop against his chest, and keeps moving. "Completely out. This isn't the first time it's happened to me, but I really don't like it in a situation like this."

Sephiroth frowns. "If this isn't the simulation," he says after a moment, "and we have no reason to believe it is, then the instruments of the simulation likely no longer work. Which means...I expect that Leviathan and Bahamutt and the others are beyond our reach, unless we return to the simulation..."

This is a more distressing thought than he might have expected. But the DTFs...they weren't simply communication devices. They were animals with their own personalities that they'd all come to care for. How often had Sephiroth lounged with Minerva, or had Bahamutt bring him a tray of Angeal's food from the kitchen with careful, impressive balance? How accustomed had he become to having an extension of his mates languidly prowling their house, in arm's reach even when his mates themselves were not? To suddenly not have access to them...it's far more than simply not having an easy way to keep in contact.

"Not necessarily," Angeal counters. "When we went to pilot those robots for Sol, our DTFs still functioned in that world too. And when there was the murder, a lot of us were messing around in the yokai's world when we all got the notification. They clearly still worked in some weird capacity outside of the simulation itself... but I think only in places that were properly connected to the simulation." Rosie buying back Hiromitsu, and the necessity of them going to Sol's world....

"But for places more accidental, such as the doors that suddenly appeared... That's when Bahamutt never worked for me. So that's at least some point of information. And he did come back when I was in the simulation again..."

He holds onto that information just a bit, maybe. Because if Bahamutt is dormant, essentially sleeping... Then it's less permanent a silence.

That's something, isn't it?

But there's another thing hanging in the back of his mind. Another bit of information that he needs a split second to process, and which hits him right after he finishes talking about Bahamutt. In an instant, he's twisting around, grabbing Sephiroth by the wrist.

"This is a real world," he says, a hinge of breathlessness catching the edge of his words. "Seph - you don't feel it?"

The creature lurking in his skull, the thing that made him so reluctant to ever want to leave the simulation? The piece of shit that convinced him it was better he stay sealed away like that?

What lead to Sephiroth curled up on the floor, surrounded by white feathers, as Angeal coaxed him through it all?

Sephiroth is a bit startled by Angeal's suddenly wheeling on him, but not alarmed - he trusts Angeal on a level where he could never truly fear anything he did. ~~Except perhaps what Angeal might do to himself.~~

But the question...his eyes widen slightly. He's become so accustomed to the dormancy of Jenova in the simulation that, initially, he hadn't even thought twice about the fact that it's still quiet here...

But that was certainly not the case in the last real world they'd been to. Angeal is right. Why doesn't he feel it?

Inwardly, he interrogates this...and finds that he does feel it. Distantly. But it's nothing whatsoever like the blinding thunder of Jenova's will hammering against his own the moment he'd last left the simulation, of being in a rowboat and having to fight every second not to be capsized in a violent sea trying to drown him. The jackhammer scream in his temples of MINE. He still remembers the distinct feeling he had gotten from that - that Jenova believed, at least by that point, that he was the intruder in his own body, that its will was meant to be the default for the vessel he represents.

He remembers the immensity of the effort it had taken, insisting otherwise. And having to keep insisting, with every second, and how he'd been certain he couldn't possibly keep it up for long. (He had reached some kind of functional equilibrium, eventually, but those moments...)

Jenova is there, still. He supposes it would be ridiculous to imagine it could ever be otherwise. But its voice is so weak that it could hardly be characterized as demanding. It is the one being drowned out. By...what? Some magic of this place? Whatever is dampening their abilities? Or perhaps...

He can feel something else there, as well. Some consciousness. He's felt it ever since the dream, on some vague level, but as it has been even more dormant than Jenova, he's simply dismissed it until now - focused on the immediacy of the present, outside of himself. But he certainly knows when there's a foreign presence in his head, if anyone does.

Is it somehow keeping Jenova down...? If so, it may be the best thing that has ever happened to him.

"I feel it," he says slowly. "But...in the way you might hear a voice on a radio that has had its volume turned down nearly all the way. Distant, barely audible. It could be that whatever has weakened the abilities we've gained from Jenova has weakened Jenova itself..." He shakes his head. "Or it could be something else. There is - some presence, in my mind. Outside of Jenova. It seems to have accompanied...the dragon. I can't detect anything from it, but perhaps it's holding Jenova back in some way. Or it could be a combination of factors. Whatever it is...certainly it's well within manageable levels. It feels more or less like I did back before Nibelheim - before Jenova had ever tried to take control. And like in the simulation. Such a faint thing that I can ignore it entirely. Enough that I would say...I don't believe it poses any threat here, unless something changes."

As Sephiroth focuses in on himself, Angeal focuses on him in turn, breath stifled right there in his chest. A part of him feels like he knows the answer just by basic observation, by the logical connection of facts as he's observed them.

And yet he doesn't dare believe in anything. Doesn't let himself belief in anything.

Not until Sephiroth finally answers, works through every little detail with that careful observation he's so good at. Only then does Angeal's breath rush out in an exhale with the kind of relief that can't be spoken about with words. "Well damn," he says, not much air available for those two little words. He reaches out, hands gripping onto Sephiroth's arms as though he can hold onto this precious moment, this thing they've all been wanting with a soul-deep ache. "Thank god."

And then a laugh. A low one, at first, and then it just keeps rolling, picking up speed, a stone finding momentum with the hill. Laughter, all connected, first from just pure and beautiful and elated relief.

Then, something else, too.

A loud guffaw, the kind that shakes Angeal's whole chest, and he leans in closer. "Oh - oh shit - oh can you imagine how so insanely annoying - Genesis is going to be?" He has to fight to get the words form past all the laughter. "When he finds out that potentially a dragon is muffling that piece of shit??"

Oh -

Angeal sounds so beautiful like this. For some, the laughter would be infectious; for Sephiroth, he's far too caught up in watching Angeal, utterly entranced. His eyes even dilate a bit, the way they always do when something captures his full fascination.

It takes Angeal some time to get the words out, to explain his laughter, but once he finally does, Sephiroth smiles. Yes, Genesis will be insufferable. Because Genesis will be here. Genesis would rip a hole between dimensions with his bare hands just to get to Angeal when he laughs that way. "You think he'll take a bit too much satisfaction in it, then?"

Genesis will definitely be here. If he tries not to think too deeply on it, doesn't let his pessimistic brain chew on the thought, and just focuses on other things...

Then he can let himself believe that.

He can keep himself from panicking.

His hands slide down, fingers linking inbetween the gaps of Sephiroth's as he finds his breath again amidst chuckles still passing between his lips. "You know he will," he manages after a minute, able to speak properly. With their hands joined together, he pulls Sephiroth along. "Even if it's just an unproven theory, he'll take that running."

An exhale. Lets himself think about the situation. "...Dragons, huh. Think the one I saw was a little gaudy, personally."

Test Drive Meme #1

finally finds the tdm again

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