Sept/Oct Test Drive Meme

[computerized]

Alpha Complex Test Drive Meme

Please feel free to take a Test Drive to see if the environment would suit your character! All potential players are welcome.

It may be your first day in Alpha Complex or your hundredth, either way, you are in serious trouble.

Scenario One
Your character has been accused of treason!

Whether the accusation is true or not, you are a wanted citizen!  Do you turn yourself over to IntSec (Internal Security) for questioning?  Do you make a run for it and go AWOL?  Will you fight for your right to exist or hole up somewhere safe until the chaos passes?  Do you become The Fugitive and try to prove your innocence?  Or are you guilty as hell and seeking help from friends or other parties who would be willing to assist you for a price? 

Beware of the security cameras everywhere - some of which actually work - and being spotted by citizens who might be willing to turn you in to gain points with The Computer or to prove their own loyalty.

Scenario Two
Your character has been given the mission to hunt down a traitor!

It is your job to hunt down and apprehend the traitor by any means necessary.  If you fail or refuse, you might be accused of being a traitor yourself.  It doesn't matter if the person you are hunting is innocent or had good reasons for their treason.  It doesn't matter if their crime was major or some minor form of treason, Friend Computer wants their head.  You have twenty four hours to complete your mission.

Please post your character name and fandom in the subject line.
Work Together. Turn On Each Other. Survive.

Premise | Setting Information | New Arrival Introduction

Comments

Katniss Everdeen | The Hunger Games

[stillplaying]

Pain.

Her entire world is pain.

It's as if all she's ever known is pain. The pain of fire licking her skin. The pain of loss so deep that it's like a stab to the heart. Her entire body, her entire world is pain.

Pain. It's all she knows. It's all she deserves to know.

Then suddenly it stops. It's all gone as if it's never even been there. She feels groggy as she sits up on the table, confused and lost. All the physical pain is still there but the mental pain... That's harder. There's still a deep ache in her heart, a pain that threatens to tear her from the inside out. A name dances on the tip of her tongue (Prim), or would if she dared to speak. But speaking, that's not something she does anymore. Right?

Wrong. Those memories are wrong. She hadn't been on fire. She hadn't woken to the news of her sister's death. She never had to fight Peeta to gain some semblance of his sanity so that she doesn't lose him to the lizard mutts, too. They're a glitch. That's what the video says. It's a glitch and life is normal. There is no pain.

Just to make certain, she watches the video again. And again. And again. Katniss wants to believe. She wants to believe so badly because the memories in her glitch hurt. They hurt so much and she wants them gone. She's a citizen of Alpha Complex. She has a purpose.

But it doesn't take long for that purpose to unravel. For an accusation to be made that makes her remember other things (mockingjays, arrows, fires, rebellion, golden parachutes exploding in the hands of children). Traitor. Is she?

It's strange. Talking is strange. Still, she manages to utter a handful of words. "I'm not," she insists to anyone who will listen. There's a fire in her voice that's more reminiscent of the girl that she used to to be. "I'm not a traitor. I'm ."

[dorkify]

Gracie is also one of those accused of being a traitor. She's one of the traitors that is running because she doesn't think that there's anything fair in this place. There's nothing that will save her. She's been here longer than Katniss, but she doesn't know much more than her. She has glitches like Katniss, but they're not nearly as traumatic. For that, Gracie is grateful.

She meets Katniss in a hallway and the only reason she doesn't run is because she hears Katniss saying that she's not a traitor. She sneaks closer, body pressed to the wall, sliding along as quietly as possible, trying to avoid the cameras when she can. She hears Katniss say it again and looks around the corner to see that she's said it to no one. It follows 'my name is Katniss Everdeen. I am seventeen years old'. She hisses at Katniss, unwilling to come around the corner.

"Here," she tells Katniss. "I'm not a traitor either, but they've accused me of it."

Hopefully that'll be enough to get Katniss' attention and entice her into coming into Gracie's hallway where there isn't a camera right now.

[stillplaying]

Katniss should run. Running is smart. Running keeps you safe and out of the spotlight. Running keeps you from having to fight. But running is also exhausting. It requires a mental capacity that Katniss highly doubts that she has right now. Her thoughts are too jumbled, her memories too sore. Sitting requires much less thought.

On some level, she also knows that if she doesn't run, she should find someplace more secluded. If she's a traitor, someone will eventually come for her. That's what they do, isn't it? Go after the people who are against them. Make an example of anyone who speaks out. But there's something to be said about coming off as mentally disoriented. So many people tend to walk by when you sit there muttering to yourself.

It works until it stops working. Until Katniss looks up at the sound of a voice and sees a girl looking at her. She frowns, clutching her knees to her as if she could disappear if only she would curl up in a tight enough ball. Of course that isn't how things work and the girl keeps talking. Claims to have been falsely accused, too. This is when Katniss realizes that no matter the memories, she doesn't trust easily. She scowls. "So?"

[dorkify]

Running is also hard and frantic and wears on you. Gracie isn't judging her for not running.

That's kind of how Gracie understands it. Traitors are encouraged to turn themselves in, but if they don't, someone will come after them. The guardbots most likely. She doesn't think being mentally disoriented will save Katniss.

Gracie frowns at Katniss' reaction, realizing that this girl is suffering from a lot more than simply being accused of treason. "So, we can hide together. Safety in numbers. Try and find some place a little safer."

[stillplaying]

She doesn't need Gracie to judge her. Katniss judges herself enough for the both of them. She judges herself for not running. She judges herself for not turning herself in (because she should, shouldn't she? to protect others? everything will be better if there's no mockingjay anymore). She judges herself for her glitched memories, for every little thing that's happened or has yet to happen.

But even as she judges herself, she can't bring hrself to do anything about it. If she turns herself in, what will happen? Will they kill her? Worse? Because there is worse than death, isn't there? Something she thinks she's feeling inside right now.

The guardbots will catch her and maybe that'll be okay. Because she knows what Gracie is proposing. She doesn't doubt it. An alliance. She wants an alliance. Safety in numbers is a lie. It's a way to get yourself killed. Katniss scowls again, more forcefully this time. "So you can turn me in?"

[dorkify]

Except that the computer has a skewed sense of what treason is.

There's worse than death and the Computer could probably come up with something worse.

Gracie gives her a funny look and shakes her head. "No. That's not--I wouldn't. I just thought that we could help each other."

[stillplaying]

It probably does. Not that Katniss cares as much as she probably should. Those glitch memories seem to indicate that she's committed treasonous acts before. Acts that make her wonder if she should be reported. Turned in. Punished. Something like that. Even if the fate is something worse than death, could it really be so bad? Her sister's dead. Or a girl that part of her brain claims to be her sister. What else does she have to live for?

"That's not how Games go," she mutters, knowing that the mention of the Hunger Games stems from her glitched memories. She doesn't know how to explain it entirely, just that it's how Games go. "Even when people ally, it doesn't last forever."

Except her and Peeta. But President Snow had fixed that, right? Or is this all in her imagination, too?

[duelo]

He's not really expecting — or looking — for conversation when he sits down beside the girl dressed in the same ugly red jumpsuit he's wearing, her hair pulled to the side in a braid. It's just that the seating in the commissary is both very much divided by color and fit to burst; they're practically packed in like sardines.

Accusations of treason fly through this place with more consistency than literally anything else he's observed to this point, so it doesn't surprise him that there's a list of accused traitors that morning, not unlike every other morning. He severely doubts that anything ever comes of most of those accusations, though.

When he hears her speak up from his left, Derek turns his head to look at her, more than a little glad to have a legitimate distraction from the slop in front of him which is pretending to be food. He gives her a sympathetic smile. "Hey...I'm willing to be most people on that list aren't traitors. If no one has proof, you're good. I wouldn't let it worry you too much. Looking at someone the wrong way is treasonous, but hard as hell to prove. You'll be all right."

[stillplaying]

That's okay. Katniss doesn't want conversation. For all she feels alone and lost, incapable of making sense of any of the memories in her head, she doesn't want to talk it out. She doesn't want words of comfort or reassurance. She doesn't want someone to try to fix her or tell her that she isn't a traitor. Truth be told, Katniss can't say for certain what she wants. Never to have awoken in that room here? Never to be given those glitched memories to begin with? Except she thinks that those memories might be something she deserves anyway.

Talking is strange. It still feels as if she hasn't talked for a long time now. Like she had chosen to take a vow of silence or something. In her glitched memories, it makes sense. Because in those memories, she stopped talking after her sister's death. But those memories can't be right because she doesn't have burns covering her body like she should. Nothing makes sense.

When Derek turns to look at her, Katniss narrows her eyes at him in return. She hadn't meant for anyone to reply. Her words were to herself. Katniss doesn't care about any advice he might offer. It doesn't change her own opinion. That maybe she should be turned in for treason. He doesn't know her. He doesn't know what she's done. "What?"

[duelo]

His eyebrows lift in response to her expression. "...you said you weren't a traitor," he reminds her. Maybe she was talking to herself and he should've just minded his own business, but why let some potentially innocent kid beat herself up over something probably stupid that'll get overlooked in favor of something more heinous later, anyway? Obviously, he doesn't know her or anything, but to look at her, she's nothing special. She's smallish, looks malnourished to a point — or maybe she's just always that lean, he wouldn't know — and he can't really picture her doing anything all that damaging in this place. Home might be another story, because it seems like it always is, but they're not home. They're here. And here, everything is treasonous. The likelihood of her even being out here having the chance to contemplate it instead of already rotting in jail — or whatever it is they do here for that sort of thing — suggests to Derek that whatever she did probably wasn't that bad.

So he shrugs. "And I was just saying that if you're not already arrested, you're probably gonna be just fine. It's practically impossible to not be a traitor in this place. Like I said, if you look at somebody the wrong way, that's potentially treason. So, you know...don't stress it too much unless they send the guardbots after you."