TEST DRIVE #6

[fairyfoes]

TEST DRIVE MEME

Considering apping to EACHDRAIDH? Why not give the setting a test run here! OPTIONAL SCENARIOS 01. ARRIVING IN THE DRABWURLD. The Seelie and Unseelie courts welcome you with mirthful revelry and hearty food. After you have been briefed on your purpose here, you will find an endless feast and a night filled with entertainment to placate your concerns. Mingle with new arrivals, sneak down the castle halls and make sure your eyes are always on your glass; fairies and imps have no bias when it comes to tricks! 02. THE STATION. Looking for a little slice of home? The Station gives you all that and more. Take advantage of the wifi, have a cup of fairy-brewed coffee (the one they didn't spit in) or sit back and relax on the patio. You can even move your things into one of the available rooms! 03. WILDCARD. Your own scenario! Explore the Drabwurld or simply take advantage of your Locket!

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locket

[starspangled]

They say it's been going on for centuries.

[Even Steve can't imagine that, and doesn't much want to. He's seen the hell that war can put a world through after just a few short years.]

As for why, I can tell you what they say about that too, but it means taking their word for it.

[But also importantly to him:]

You're a ranger? Army?

[Because he noticed that posture. He'd know the type anywhere.]

[fissions]

[ If Mako's surprised by the face that comes on, she doesn't let on. She's still learning the exact parameters of this particular interface, but what he says troubles her. ]

Centuries? It looks very well-preserved for a world that's been at war that long.

[ Mako's seen one hell of a lot more devastation, and that war barely lasted two decades. But she wants to know more. ]

Jaeger pilot. The Pan Pacific Defense Corps. [ The set of those shoulders, that bearing. American. He's not wearing his colors but she'd know his type anywhere, too. ] And you?

[starspangled]

The fighting's a little less nukes here and a little more...swords.

[And magic, both things that Steve had to get used to when he arrived. One the plus side, he got to feel like the modern one when he talked to knights. The looks they gave him must be the ones he gives Natasha when she's telling him about all his smartphone's bells and whistles.]

You're a pilot? [Steve's eyebrows jump, and he thinks of Sam, likes her already despite never having heard of that branch.] Army, then S.H.I.E.L.D. [A pause.] Formerly.

I'm Steve.

[fissions]

[ Good point. Much more difficult for mortality rates to skyrocket without nuclear weapons. Mako deadpans: ] Let's hope they never discover nuclear fission.

Yes. [ Mako draws herself up a little straighter at that surprise -- the look of a woman who's spent her life proving she's just as capable, just as strong, going shoulder-to-shoulder with the big boys and holding her own. But he's gentler than most others she'd met (he reminds her of Raleigh), and she inclines her head, manners dictating she return the courtesy before asking the questions. ]

Steve. My name is Mako. It's a pleasure. [ Genuinely. At least here's someone who's military -- she's not sure how to relate to knights and princesses and ladies-in-waiting. Then, ]

What's S.H.I.E.L.D?

[starspangled]

Yeah, let's hope.

[Steve's tried to do a little catching up on that subject himself. It's still more Banner's department, even Starks. What he does know is that he's not so sure how he feels about his own world discovering it.]

Mako. The pleasure's mine. [His smile returns, even if it fades from his eyes when she asks about S.H.I.E.L.D.] Strategic homeland intervention, enforcement and logistics division. It was created to protect people. [He pauses, not sure what to say after that.] But it was recently disbanded.

[fissions]

[ He reminds her of Raleigh.

Mako notices. Steve's thoughts are practically written all over his face; he's startlingly expressive, and she doubts he realises it. ]

I'm sorry to hear that. [ And she means it. It's a tragedy when an organization created to protect civilians is disbanded. The PPDC, after all, suffered a largely similar fate. In different ways, but. ]

It must've been important to you.

[starspangled]

It was.

[There's no denying that. Maybe it was even too important to him, because he didn't have anything else. Or maybe that's the reason why it was so important to him.]

But it's like someone special once told me, sometimes the best thing to do is start over.

[fissions]

[ Starting over, huh? Rebuilding from the ashes, there's a thought. Up until now Mako hadn't had the bandwidth to think of life beyond the kaiju. She smiles after a moment; and it's faint and bittersweet. ]

Often, that's the only thing you can do. [ He knows loss, she learns. Bone-deep, and so much more than personal. She knows the look -- she's seen it in the mirror, in her co-pilot's head. Mako tilts her head, quietly curious. ] Are you planning to start here?

[starspangled]

[Steve lifts his head at that, and his expression...well, it's not like he hasn't considered it. But her question makes him do it all over again.]

Less pollution than in New York, I'm missing my bike less now that I've learned how to ride a horse. Plus there's people here that I care about. [People that he'd never see again if he went home too.] It might not be so bad.

What about you, Miss Mori? Nervous about settling in here?

[fissions]

A horse? [ Mako echoes, intrigued by the idea. She hasn't actually seen a horse in her life -- drawbacks, she supposes, of being so steeply mired in the Kaiju War. So much more she hasn't seen.

She bites her lip at that question, unable to keep a flicker of quiet distress at the idea of being here -- her missive to LOCCENT has obviously failed, and --

( More control, Miss Mori. )

She takes a breath, schooling her expression into something more measured. ]

I don't know. There is so much to rebuild back home. The kaiju destroyed almost everything. [ It bothers her. She thinks of sensei , of Chuck, their bodies in the deepest trenches of the ocean, and wonders if she's
not a little bit lost, too. ] I cannot imagine that my skills would be better served here than at the Shatterdome.

[starspangled]

Kaiju?

[Now it's Steve's turn to repeat, because he's not familiar with that word, but he has an interest in anything that's that destruction.

He probably needs a new hobby.]

I can't say that I blame you for feeling like you're needed back home. But I'm sure there's plenty of use for your skills here too.

[fissions]

[ Steve totally needs to watch Godzilla, just saying. Mako's brows raise in surprise at his reaction, wonders if he doesn't know it. Which, considering the overall scale of destruction, is impossible, right? ]

The great beasts that come from the deep. Monsters the size of skyscrapers that destroyed cities. [ Mako's curious, now. ] Have you not seen them?

[starspangled]

[He might've watched a couple of the older movies, late at night when nothing else was on and he couldn't sleep. Black and white movies have a certain kind of nostalgia attached to them.]

No, I haven't. [But oh, look at that brow, just look at it.] They came from the deep and not the sky?

[fissions]

[ Oh, she's looking; Steve looks genuinely lost about the whole thing, and Mako's not sure what to make of it. Is there something else going on here? Surely they both came from the same world...? ]

A breach within the Pacific. [ Mako picks her words carefully. ] K-Day was in August, 2013. San Francisco.

[ Does he remember, does he know? ] The first one destroyed three cities in a thirty-five mile radius, before it was killed by the United States military and British Royal Air Force.

[starspangled]

[He knows those places, the branches of military. The date that she gives him is less than a year from his own time.

There's just one little discrepancy.]

None of that happened in my world.

[Steve looks her in the eyes when he says it, his steady and earnest.]

And I'm betting you've never heard of the Chitauri either.

[fissions]

[ ...Huh. Different times, or could it very possibly be different dimensions of the same time? She knows of theories about that, of course -- but those were largely unproven. How do you do you begin to prove something like that beyond calculations?

Mako pauses, that word incredibly foreign to her. ] No. Are they monsters as well?

[starspangled]

Sort of.

[A part of him still can't believe that he's talking about things that belong in comics or science fiction movies. The kind of stuff that Bucky always loved.]

They're aliens.

[fissions]

[ Pretty cool, really. But a lot of them lose their romance when it actually happens. Mako's interest is piqued, and she leans forward, just a little. ]

Were they friendly, or hostile?

[starspangled]

Hostile. Definitely hostile.

[Steve gives her half of a smile, which softens before his next words.]

We had to use a nuke. But it's okay, the portal that they were coming through closed before it went off.

[fissions]

[ That's a very, very familiar scenario, and Mako smiles back, with just the faintest touch of sadness, understanding. ]

Things are not so different between our worlds after all. The media frenzy must be overwhelming.