vivalaooc | TDM #4

TEST DRIVE #4

The day begins as any other, you’re going about your day, living your life, when, without warning, you feel the world around you shift on its axis. You feel a great tear, welling from the depths of your soul as you are ripped from all you have known. If you’re lucky, you arrive in the wilderness of an unfamiliar world, where the language is foreign and the people are hostile. To make your escape, you must learn some language, flee, and occasionally fight, all to find your way off the floating isles you find yourself on and to the great ocean below, where rebel forces will welcome you.

If you’re unlucky, you materialize within a room full of armed guards and are quickly subdued with charged nets, stripped of your belongings, fitted with strange devices that suppress your powers and pressed into servitude. Your days are unimaginable pain and toil.

Fortunately, even in this world, there is still hope. For the denizens of this world have not given up. And it is for that dream of salvation that the Crimson Corsairs raise their flags and sail - for liberation. Perhaps you are one who has lived their entire life under the oppressive yoke of the Empire. Perhaps you have seen first hand your family and friends cut down by nobles hunting men for sport, or perhaps you have run afoul with the church and barely escaped with your life. No matter your origin, the Corsairs sail for you, for your freedom, for your life. And today, a taste of freedom will be won for all.

ARRIVAL/LIBERATION
The oil that greases the Imperial War Machine is slaves - aboard every airship are cooks, manservants, physicians, and a whole host of other labor provided exclusively by “servants”. In the last battle, the Corsairs managed to sink seven ships, two in Hesaeth province as they abandoned and collapsed the mine and five in the fight against the Imperial Legion in Flotsam where they successfully repelled the attack. And you, fortunately or unfortunately, were on board one of these ships.

While the Corsairs are in no position to hold themselves back, one of their top priorities after a finished battle is to hit the water and trawl for survivors. Imperial Ships don’t hold enough lifeboats for the servants, and when a ship goes down the servants are left to their own devices - any servant attempting to board one is killed on the spot. And thus, servants have learned through the grapevine to find good places to hide and brace themselves, to grab whatever you can and abandon ship once they hit the water or, Divine forbid, the ground. And, once there, to wait. If the old gods favor you, you will be found. You will be saved.

FUNERALS

While the Empire was repelled, it was not without cost. The amount of dead significantly outweighs what might normally be seen if the Corsairs had decided to flee. There is triumph in achievements, yes, but the cost still weighs heavy. When a Corsair passes, their friends and acquaintances will all meet in the deceased person’s quarters and sort through their personal effects. It’s common for Corsairs to maintain a will of sorts - every Corsair knows that their end could come at any time and it’s good to be prepared.

Once the will is read, personal effects will be doled out. As supplies are always a concern, any useful items will be returned to the Corsair leadership. Any personal mementos not claimed by friends or comrades will be returned to the Eternal Ocean along with the body, if it can be recovered. While there is always an official funeral with a reading of names for large engagements, it is common for wakes to be held for several months following a major engagement and loss of life.

A VICTORY LIKE NONE BEFORE

While there is mourning to be had, there is also much raucous cheering. Today, the Corsairs achieved what they had believed to be impossible. They stood against an Imperial Legion and won. Tonight, the grog flows freely. The sound of celebration can be heard echoing through Flotsam. In the halls of the Vault, the noise of partying for perhaps the first time ever drowns out the sounds of the constant bombardment. And even in Elysium, muted celebrations are occurring where it is safe to do so.

INFIRMARY

There were many wounded during the battle. These people have been taken to the Vault in order to convalesce, their wounds being treated in the underground hospital and those in need of certain therapies able to make use of the spas built into the natural hot springs unearthed underground. Even still, the medical staff are pushed to their limits with the influx of people, so there is a call for any available Corsair to come assist during this trying time. With so many wounded, everyone is going to need to step up their efforts to make sure the Crimson Corsairs keep their momentum.

WILDCARD

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OOC
Welcome to the fourth Test-Drive Meme for Viva La! All threads here may be considered canon once characters have entered the game. Threads here are eligible for use as a roleplay sample for applications, which will open on the 5th of the month at midnight.
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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Jesse stared out to see, flexing her hand. "Physically I feel fine, but paranturally..."

Probably the aftereffects of that damn suppression band.

"...I'm definitely not at my best, right now."

She actually homed in on the voice. It was a kid. Or at least he looked like a kid. Jesse had learned not to take everything at face value by now.

"...How strong are you supposed to be?"

He looks a little bashful when he answers, not used to bragging about his strength. This was typically where his sister would have jumped into the conversation and spilled everything.

"Breaking rocks or metal easily kind of strong," he replies, rubbing the back of his neck. He also doesn't tell everyone because it would mean dashing people's hopes finding out he had the potential but not the power to make a big difference in the war. Bending or smashing Imperial weapons would have been easy.

"How far would you normally be able to throw a piece of wood that big?" he asks. "It's still amazing how you can move something that big without even touching it!"

"I've got, um..."

I wish I had more practice at talking to kids.

"...special circumstances?"

Jesse waved that thought aside. "I dunno about how much further, but I could do it with a forklift if I were in tip top shape. Do you know what a forklift is?"

I don't know if anyone in this threshold knows what a forklift is.

He nods enthusiastically at her. As much as he enjoys learning more about this world and other magical places his new friends were pulled through the Gate from, it's nice to run into someone with at least a few familiar inventions in their homeland.

"An entire forklift? I've seen other robots lift large objects from afar, but only because they had a wireless connection with it. That's not something that can be done with just any object. I've never seen someone lift a forklift!"

He chuckles. "Just the forklift doing all the lifting."

“Did you say robots?”

God, it’s been so long since I talked to someone who knew what a robot was. I’m so tired of this gas lamp fantasy bullshit…

“Where are you from, kid?”

"I'm from the country of Japan, on a version of Earth. We robots are pretty common, but there are still more humans overall. And forklifts are common too," he jokes. "My name is Atom. What's yours?"

I thought they only had robots like this in those weird Japanese cartoons…

Oh who am I kidding. I don’t qualify to call anything weird anymore.

“Jesse. Jesse Faden. You may not have met a parautilitarian before but I’ve never met a robot advanced enough to pass for a human before, so I guess were even.”

~~And to think she's looking at the OG robot from a weird Japanese cartoon.~~

"Parautilitarian..." He shakes his head. From the word alone, it sounds like a label based on what someone can do. "Does that refer to people who have the same kind of power you do? Is it telekinesis?"

~~Half the people in the Crimson Corsairs are from Japanese cartoons! But alas, Jesse was not genre savvy enough to recognize this.~~

"It's...MUCH more complicated than that." She's not gonna start talking about Carl Jung or the Astral Plane just yet. "I don't think I understand it all myself. But...in broad strokes that's the general idea."

"That's okay. I don't always have the words to describe what my AI is doing. Some things just seem to happen." He shrugs, then nods towards the leaders who are observing their powers.

"You might get some questions from the people at The Vault in particular, but the Corsairs are concerned with results above all. If you can float people to safety or soldiers away, they'll be pleased."

Jesse sucked a breath in through her teeth, practically wincing.

"I'm...not great at the soft touch. I think if I tried to pick people up like that they'd end up with broken bones if they were lucky."

"Well, there are plenty of air ships and armors that need big hard things tossed at them!" he tries to reassure her a bit. "I've already seen more than one situation where we had to dig people out of fallen ships or collapsed caves in the month that I've been here. Your power would be really helpful for that."

An additional idea hits him. "And if you ever want to practice for soft touch, you could try it on me. My system should detect the approximate physical force level."

TDM #4

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