xistentiaooc | Test Drive Meme #6 (tw violence)

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Test Drive Meme #6 (tw violence)

Test Drive Meme #6

I want neither revenge nor relief.

CRASH LANDING

Exit one dimension, enter the next. It was chaos: pressure against your ears, light bending in an impossible, unimaginable way. The very molecules of your body vibrating against one another. If you have windows, the view outside makes no sense. Even if not, your hands, your face, your feet seem like an uncertain thing. It's the feel of reality itself tearing apart, reshaping, reconnecting, thread by thread.

And suddenly, there's a beach— or ocean, whichever you land in. Smoke. Fire. Salt water churning up, fizzing around.

Maybe you crash, in a ship wrecking into sand. Maybe you merely stumble out of a portal, a ragged wormhole in space. Or maybe you fall off the back of an incredible steed, some creature that carried you into this place. Either way, there's pandemonium around you. Incredibly, severe injuries are far and few between— nobody's screaming about the dead. But you might have to help pull someone free of wreckage, or move quickly to salvage burning belongings from the landing craft. Maybe it's the crafts themselves, that you're trying to salvage.

Likely, you don't know them, these other strangers who arrived here^[1]. Maybe you don't trust them— you just came out of a dying world, after all. But you all have one thing in common: you're here now.

When you get a second to breathe, maybe you'll see it. The brilliant green forest across the sand. Beyond that, the glint of a faraway city.

BATTLE WITH D.E.S.T.I.N.Y.

November has barely begun, when chaos strikes again ^[2]. Perhaps you've had weeks to settle in, finding yourself a new home and getting accustomed to the neighborhoods... or maybe you've had no time at all. Your daemon warns you of a massive invasion coming from the West, the ocean where you first arrived.

The enemy has come for you again. D.E.S.T.I.N.Y., the cosmic threat to not only your homeworld but the entire Multiverse.

When the violence makes land, it's shockingly similar to the exit from your original world, yet mashed in with the experiences and genres and world details of other refugees— soldiers in red armor wielding weapons of all kinds, both advanced and rudimentary; airships, bizarre monsters; firestorms and quakes that seem sentient in the way that they move, pursuing people through the beach and the forest. You see the injured and the dead, and people running in panic. Heat and gunfire break up the ordinary peace of wilderness, driving animals into stampedes and filling the sky with panicking birds.

There are children and doctors and engineers among the many refugees of Xistentia, and not everyone can fight back— but maybe you're one of those who can.

Think fast— that's a crimson spear launching at your head now.

The city's defenses are buckling too. While ordinarily, the civlization possesses unnatural physics that subvert violence, the onslaught starts to wear agains them. The only safe place is the Temple. Here, civilians and injured combatants are banding together to try and boost morale... which coincidentally also can boost the defenses of the land by with the energy collected from emotional connectivity. For better or worse, there is plenty of negative feeling to go around, the air thick with fear.

Whether you're recovering from injury or afraid to fight, you can still contribute here. Tell a story, sing a song, make a meal out of one of the cookfires started in the hallway, or even help with medicine. One thing is for certain: we're in this together.

NETWORK

Today, it's peace time. By now, the city of Xistentia has a population of over 500 people. Shops line the streets of downtown, and increasingly well-trodden paths will take you into the agricultural zones nearer to the forest or even down to the beach. There are still distinctive animal presences around— careful with that— but the most common critters you'll see are birds crapping on your stuff outside and tiny winged hairless people creeping your food.

One afternoon, you are taken from whatever you’re doing - taking a walk through the city, sunning yourself on the beach, running around in the forest shoring up defenses - by a message, appearing on your Daemon’s network screen. It’s a simple notification, that reads:

TEXT MESSAGE SENT

It would appear that your daemon accidentally sent a text message misfire.

CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE

hells yeah

Footnotes

Some of these can be nameless, plot-device NPCs to facilitate interactions! But even in this case, please avoid gore in describing their current state of being. Anyone dead or catastrophically injured will have disappeared by the time your characters make it to Xistentia. There are no corpses or dying here.
This is connected to the war plot, coming up in November. Please read the announcement for more information! Features include good, old-fashioned violence, hurt/comfort, and "drift compatibility."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ another face is given to him. since when should compliments be expected between them? bro, pls. ]I said I'm relieved to find you alive. I did not say you're typically good company.

[ insulted. and. stabbed. he's known this is life with his little brother since like 8 okay he's used to it. and yet, for those many years, thor always sought out loki's presence, his counsel, his camaraderie. no matter how they'd fought, or hurt one another. even now, really, at odds as they are, and yet, is it really so different? right, gonna muse about that later, shove those feelings right back into the feelings corner, we got shit to do. ]

Tell me, then. What is this place?

[ if anyone is likely to know the most about what the fuck is going on around them, it's loki. he's always had a knack for finding his feet quickly. ]

[

]

[ Loki shoots Thor a dirty look even as he responds. ]

Xistentia. A waystation between the different universes and realms. I assume you remember those from your studies.

[ A pointed tone there to illustrate Thor's ability to retain factual knowledge from their childhood. ]

It seems the multi-universes are crumbling due to an outside virus or organisation. Much like the Dark Elves, they wish to return to the nothingness.

[ SORT OF. A LITTLE BIT. REMEMBER WHEN YOUR GIANT ROBOT BARBECUED HIM? YEAH THAT WAS GREAT. anyway.

loki's shot a withering glance, voice a long suffering drawl. ] Yes, Loki, I remember. Waystations. Places in between.

[ mostly, anyway. he understands the gist of it, even if he couldn't get into as exact specifics as loki likely could. couldn't find all the secret pathways in between places. he knows the concept, not the practice. SEE? INSULT. but they have plenty of time to squabble, and have already devoted centuries upon centuries to it. about that nothingness thing. ]

A virus. Like a disease? [ or organisation, but he'd said virus first, and that means something. ] And this spread, how is it stopped? Is it present, on this waystation?

[ LITTLE BITS DON'T COUNT like Loki's fall and his weird miraculous recovery. At any rate, Loki merely smiles at Thor's answer because he knew Thor didn't remember all the details and his point was made. Thor was a warrior and as he grew older, that was all he concerned himself with, while Loki, too gangly to lift a sword gave up trying to achieve that ideal. Knives made for better weapons anyway. Still, his expression grows serious. ]

It continues to spread. No doubt that is what swallowed your precious Earth and its denizens. You were lucky to have survive. As to whether it can be stopped . . . [ Loki shrugs. He's not hero, but his survival instincts are intact. He is certainly not keen on dying. ] . . . that remains to be seen. I have not been here long enough to know. But the others speak of organized fighting militias, an upcoming war that may yet reach these shores.

[ THEY DO WHEN IT COMES TO DEATH AND NEAR DEATH. but okay yeah out of the two of them, loki has definitely almost-died more. much as thor dislikes that, and the part where here repeatedly mourns for years at a time. you dick.

something in the bluntness of earth's destruction irks thor, knowing loki's thoughts of the people who'd been lost. perhaps there's less bite to his brother's words that thor imagines, but he casts eyes both angered and still hurting at him. ]

There were friends among those denizens. Noble and good. Undeserving of this fate. [ to snuff out an entire realm so quickly and fiercely, the immensity of that death and sorrow is still a shock to him. the less glamorous burn in him for revenge still a fever pitch. the mention of oncoming war, while not something thor's proud of, does something to soothe that despair. if for nothing else than having something to do besides fail and flee. ]

Others? What others?

[ Friends. Loki bares his teeth like a wild dog before reigning himself in. Thor's friends, Thor's people. Thor's sheep lost to the slaughter. The old anger comes bubbling back, the gentler changed Thor who stayed for Earth, who defended it when not moments ago, would have slaughtered them all in the name of glory. The hypocrisy of it stings even now. Thor so keen on defending a race of helpless infants, Thor who came home and didn't understand what Loki was trying to do, what he was doing for them, for all of them. his brother would have understood. if Thor had never left, he would have understood Loki.

( or he would have killed him. everything is 50/50 these days )

He pulls his gaze away. ]

Stark is here. The Captain. A few children who hail from the same world.

[ calm your magic tits, loki, no one likes losing loved ones, even you, you butthole. thor sees it from the corner of his eyes, the venom that curls with loki's lips, unmasked vitriol that thor should have seen growing in his younger brother long before. maybe did, and simply chose to ignore it. while he holds his ground in their eternal argument, part of him can't deny there's blame that falls to him for who they came to this end. how loki did. regardless, it is what it is, and he won't apologize for mourning those left behind the same way he would loki or sif and the warriors from home.

while his eyes linger on loki's disgust for his sentiment, any commentary is held in. now isn't the time to rehash that old debate once again. instead, he takes in the information given. ]

Already? [ he stops midway through wanting to say he'd only just been in the plane with them, but then again, there's a year's difference between him and his brother. it falls in line with warped time. okay, but-- ] And children?

... You were talking with children? [ l o l . ]

[ His gaze skitters back to Thor, wondering what he's playing at with that remark. He can talk to kids, Thor!! He has some social skills!! ]

I was. What of it? Everyone is rather young here.

And they didn't run away screaming?

[ the mental image of loki doing anything with children outside of passing them by as if they don't exist just seems completely bizarre to thor, in an amusing kind of way. enough that he smirks a little, a sarcastic pat to the back of loki's shoulder as he moves off towards the forest, and the city in the far distance. which he's assuming is where the people and children are at. ]

If this dark sorcerer thing doesn't work out for you, at least you know you have babysitting to fall back on.

[ Loki huffs, his earlier venom draining away. Never gone, of course. Loki keeps his resentments close and they have never been addressed. Until then, Loki will always remember, will always make a note of it. No one else will. Still he follows closely at Thor's heels, unable to let him have the last word. ]

I don't want to hear that from someone who couldn't pick up his toys without breaking them.

[ if there's one thing thor can trust about his brother, it's that he won't be allowed to win an argument with him. which makes it very convenient if he wants to both investigate the city and keep his not-so-dead brother within sights. all he has to do is keep being difficult. ]

See? You already have the nanny tone down and everything. I think you'll have a bright future in this venture, Loki.

[ loki's school of hard knocks etc etc he'll make a lovely mary poppins some day. ]

[ Loki openly scowls at Thor as they trudge away from the beach and closer to the city. ]

Obviously, since I had to nanny you once all the glory went to your head.

[ Not that Thor ever listened to him. Not that anyone did. He grimaces, burying that old hurt down. ]

[ thor turns, walking backwards to face his brother with a cheeky grin, boots kicking sand as they make their way. ]

And in return, I let you frame me for all the mischief you made around the palace. And had your back when you pissed off the wrong people, didn't I?

[ loki was always too clever for thor to maneuver his way around when they'd been younger, even if he's grown wiser to it now. these days, it's more knowing loki and who he is and how he thinks that has him keeping up. ]

It evens out.

[ Except you stopped, Loki bites back. Thor made new friends, people ready to gallivant off to new worlds, to fight giants and monsters while Loki, utterly lacking, cast a spell or two to aid in their escape. Tricks. Not worthy of name and song. His gait stutters briefly, caught in the dark veil of his thoughts before brushing it aside. Loki may not have moved on, but at least he has learned to temper his anger. ]

It was a long time ago.

[ with all he's grown and all he harbors guilt for, these things he still doesn't pick up on. the more sensitive shortfallings loki attributes to him. the things he didn't do. he understands the veiled sorrow buried behind the words, but doesn't understand the source of them. ]

Not that long. [ thor shrugs. ] Roughly a decade years in the face of a thousand?

[ still only a blink in comparison to their lifetimes. ]

[ He huffs at that, but the darker feeling ebbs away at that. There is little point in getting angry with Thor for things Thor himself missed. As angry as he gets, he's not necessarily stupid about it. At least, no longer. ]

It felt longer to me. That's all.

[ well that sure as hell hadn't stopped loki from it before. anyway, he turns back to the trees, letting the conversation sit for a handful of seconds, thinking back on the recent strife between them. ]

Years added in exhaustion, perhaps. [ how tired they'd become in this. ] Let it not be said a war with Loki of Asgard isn't a devastating and weary one.

[ thor's life has felt turned upside down since loki's revelation, and that first fight with him. ]

[ It wouldn't have. Loki hasn't grown, not by much, but he's learned from his own rages, his spiraling anger. And even though it is very much present, his frustrations beating in tandem with his heart, Loki is still smart where it might count. ]

I am hardly of Asgard anymore.

[ thor snorts a laugh, head rolling up to look at the sky, arms lifted up for a moment and dropped again. ]

You're always of Asgard. Maybe spend another thousand years as another planet's prince and another man's brother, and you might be able to claim otherwise.

[ sorry, booboo, he's claiming you, and since thor's of asgard, loki must be of asgard too. probably not the best or most comforting approach, but such is thor's nature. he's deeply possessive of the things and people close to his heart, and he refuses to call their childhood together invalid. ]

[ Loki is used to Thor's possessive nature, and despite himself, he finds himself loosening under Thor's steady words. Loki is — has always been Thor's younger brother. If Thor had said the sky was green, Loki would have believed him. Would have followed him anywhere. He can no longer do that with his eyes closed, but some habits are ingrained in his bones. ]

What should I claim then?

Whatever you like, I suppose. So long as 'of Asgard' is still on the list.

[ because he's being adamant about that. thor's head tilts, pondering it, as he swings mjolnir idly at his side, wandering through the trees towards the city. ]

Loki of Magic? Loki of Too Many Knives? Loki of Green Dresses? Oh, Loki of Back Seat Driving, that's a good one.

[ Loki scowls, shoving his hands into his pockets in a sulk. It seems no matter how many changes you go through, you cannot give up the whiny younger brother routine. ]

Need I remind you that I wasn't the one fond of dresses when I was younger? That was all you, brother.

And yet, who's running around on the beach in a green robe?

[ thor turns back just enough to wave a pointed finger in the general vicinity of loki's clothes. ]

Two guesses and here's your bonus hint: it's not me.

[ Loki's scowl goes deeper. ]

At least I don't trip over my robes.

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