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worldofmemeness2016-09-30 05:31 pm
modmachine) wrote in worldofmemeness2016-09-30 05:31 pm
Entry tags:
TEST DRIVE 01
Don't feel limited to the scenarios presented - make up your own prompts as much as you want! Reserves will open on the 7th and Applications on the 15th. In a grassy square in the Central District, wedged in between dorm halls, there is a tree. Far wider than it is tall, its leaves are just beginning to turn from yellow to orange, with a few green stragglers near the top and a growing carpet on the grass beneath it. At one end of the tree's reach, there is a picnic table, the sort with benches built in to either side. Anywhere under the boughs, a distinct ticking, like the sound of a clock, can be heard. Moving about makes it clear that the sound is loudest nearest the trunk. Numerous small gears stick out of twists between branches, though they do not appear to move to the naked eye. Someone has hung a string of orange lights in the branches for Halloween, along with some cotton spiderweb. No matter how closely you look, there doesn't seem to be an end where the lights plug in to anything. Otherwise, there is nothing unusual about the decorations. In the center of the table, half-covered by leaves, there is an iron plaque that has not been particularly well-treated for rust. Some of the writing on it is almost legible. It is chill to the touch. Someone's carved their initials and a date into the end of one bench - Abandoned vehicles are by no means an unusual sight in the Sixth District. Abandoned buses are slightly more unusual. This particular bus has boarded up windows, a black light string hanging over the windshield, and the words HAUNTED HOUSE written along the side, where the old inoffensive public-transit advertisements have been painted over. The front door serves as the entrance; the back leads into the wrecking yard and the haunted "house" proper. A girl in her late teens in slightly unsettling gothic lolita sits in a cheap folding chair around the front of the bus. She doesn't charge admission, though there is a candy bowl labeled for Donations on the card table next to her with a few bills and some change in it, in the center of a group of candles that burn in skull holders. She reminds everyone who passes her to please not touch the actors or props inside. Occasionally, mist from a smoke machine on the other side of the wooden fence billows around her ankles, almost seeming to form caressing fingers running down her legs. Across the street from her, two men sit in a beaten up old pickup truck, the much taller man smoking cigarettes with the windows open. The shorter man fidgets almost uncontrollably, constantly glancing in the direction of the girl and her bus. Their voices aren't loud enough to hear distinctly from the haunted house side of the street, but the woman at the bus entrance shoots them occasional looks none-the-less, alternating between pleased smiles and blank stares. Painted along the sides of the truckbed, in much dirtier letters than those of the haunted house, is the phrase NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH. In a bar downtown, it's not much different from any other night of clubbing, except that everyone is wearing masks. Ranging from the elegant custom work of a nearby boutique (conveniently open even after sundown tonight, if you need to pick one up) to cheap colored paper held on with elastic handed out at the door of the bar, masks are the must-have accessory tonight. Indeed, many of the parties won't let you in if you don't have one. Those paying careful attention might notice little dots of red on the necks of some of the partiers, especially those who seem a bit pale and have called off drinking for the night. Aside from that, though, it doesn't seem like anyone's really getting hurt; it's just a fun time for everyone. Except for the poor guy who made the mistake of wearing an owl mask and yellow contacts, anyway. Just within hearing range of the beating bass of the clubs, a young woman in a red jacket holds a mask in her hands, turning it over and sometimes holding it to her face to look at in a window reflection. The long face of it calls to mind some kind of black dog, perhaps a Doberman or German Shepherd. She isn't dressed at all for an evening at the clubs, and has a canvas bag slung over her shoulder with the shape of heavy books straining the fabric at the bottom. Not everyone seems to be getting into the spirit. A playground near the center of the city has precious few decorations - save for a spiderweb on one of the swingsets that seems to be natural, not man-made. A pumpkin or two have been left near the edges, but they're all smashed, the orange guts running along in a streak that seems to blend into a thin line surrounding the entire perimeter. The see-saw looks like the board's been freshly painted, but otherwise all of the equipment looks almost lonely and old. The rust on the metal stains everything an orange-red, and the slide in particular seems the worst hit. Still, everything is at least standing, and those who attempt to play on it will find it sturdy and warm in the cool night. ... Except for the merry go round. That one seems to be bent, as if someone very heavy sat on the edge. It still turns, but it wobbles dramatically, with horrible squeaking noises. Still, it's usable, for anyone who would like to play. | |
no subject
The first reflex that shoots through Kitty's brain is distrust, questioning anything nice that is said to her. She's experienced kindness in her life, more perhaps than most children in the worse parts of the sprawl, but she's also lived where she grew up for long enough to get plenty of reason to identify overly trusting behaviour with betrayal and death, or worse.
On the other hand, the woman could be honest. And if she is, her help would be welcome. Getting away from here and to a safer place would be good.
While her instincts are battling each other, she continues to pretend to be unconscious which will give Stella a limp body that can be moved and checked without resistance.
There are minor injuries on her fingers, little scratches and cuts. On the fingers of her left hand, that is, because the right one is gone along with a part of her right forearm. It has been bandaged and isn't acutely bleeding anymore, but there is blood on it.
There is blood all over her clothes, though only a bit every here and there, as if bloody hands touched everywhere to pull at them.
no subject
Already she's thinking of what might have happened. Was it intentional? An accident? If the former, why would the attacker bandage the wound afterward? Guilt? Remorse? There are a lot of scenarios here, and unfortunately none of them are of the especially pleasant sort.
She'd had her phone in her coat pocket when she'd come here, but a cursory check tells her the battery has run out. Stella can't in good conscience leave the scene, but there's a public telephone booth a short distance away. In the end she stands up and, keeping Kitty carefully in her sight, goes over to the phone to call emergency services. The conversation is a short one, and within a couple of minutes she goes back, kneeling down next to the girl to wait, smoothing strands of her hair off her forehead with her fingertips. "I've called an ambulance," she says, still not sure if Kitty can hear her but not especially caring. "Everything's going to be all right."
The air is a little cold, and after a moment Stella takes off her own coat — black wool, lined with satin — and drapes it over Kitty as an additional layer. She has no intention of letting her get to the hospital only to lose her to untreated shock.
no subject
It makes so little sense that she stares up at her, or at least looks. Staring requires a bit more force than she has in her right now. Her own voice sounds thin and feeble to her when she speaks. She really must be badly off.
"I don't have a contract." No, she can't have meant that, nobody calls... "And not," she has to pause to gather strength and breath and brain, "you're mistaking me for someone else." Maybe that is it. Maybe she thinks Kitty is some sarariman's daughter who is in a megacorp's health system.
She wants help, but being picked up by some megacorp is really the last thing that she wants. People like her who aren't considered people end up in a laboratory quicker than others, and her best chance would be that she ends up with one that realizes that she is a mage and hires her instead. And when the best chance includes becoming something - a salary mage - that she definitely doesn't want it is... yeah. She'll survive somehow. Probably. Still, staying here will be better than being mistakenly picked up by a corporation.