driftfleet_ooc | SPRING TEST DRIVE MEME

Entry tags:

SPRING TEST DRIVE MEME

THE TEST DRIVE MEME

Got someone you want to try out before you app? Well this is the post for it! Feel free to use anything that fits in the setting of Drift Fleet! Want to play bumper shuttles? Want to go wild in a med bay? Play around with the current plot? Have at it!

Threads from the Test-Drive may be made game "canon" but DO NOT count toward AC!

FOR NEW PLAYERS: You DO NOT NEED an invite to participate in the TEST DRIVE! If you decide to APP into the game, ONLY THEN will you need an invite from a current player! Applications for new players open April 1st.

Helpful Info for Ideas!:

April's Star System

Game Details

From now on, Test Drives will be posted SEASONALLY (or every three months!). So the next one will be posted in the summer!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Presented and accounted for. Although the jingoism is a bit much. [ she can tell (of course) that tony is speaking wryly. and yet she feels the need to suggest that she might approach the same subject equally as wryly. she may love the man, but she loved him for his flaws as well as his strengths. ]

[ good. that's good. steve knows what to do in situations like this. knowing cap, he's already gathered up a group of folks that are figuring things out and saving cats from trees.

steve, who is probably. rightfully super pissed at him right now.

welp. ]

Nah, it's not enough.

[ but if steve is here -- ]

If Cap's here, then I'm sure the bake sales for freedom have already begun. [ great ] Who else?

[ oh, darling. you're speaking with someone who's seen those uso shows up close. peggy could tell you stories.

but for the time being: ] Not many I know all too personally. Understandably, I'm the odd one out when it comes to decades. But Ms. Maximoff is here -- and a couple others of less than solid standing, depending on your perspective.

[ ms. maximoff. wanda. someone who was on less than solid standing herself until recently. but an ally is an ally. captain america. the scarlet witch. iron man. pretty good match-up thusfar. ]

GImme the bad news.

[ rip the band-aid off ]

Are you at all familiar with a James Barnes?

Uhhh, let me think.

[ give tony a moment -- he really is thinking, combing through his (admittedly impressive) brain to match up the name, but it doesn't take long. james barnes. cap's old friend. the one that blew the shit out of washington d.c. the -- ]

Long-ish hair, metal arm, kinda looks like a HYDRA experiment gone wrong 'cause he totally is, and wants to end the world? Goes by the totally lame pseudonym 'Winter Soldier' when he wants to take down SHIELD or whatever you guys do in your spare time? Lust for blood and Captain Americas?

Sounds familiar.

[ also sounds like the guy should probably be dead in his opinion but whatever ]

[ a hydra experiment gone right, technically -- but it's hardly polite to quibble about a man's very existence like that.

remaining composed: ] He's here. But he's being...rehabilitated. I'll understand if you're hesitant to believe it. I was, myself, at first.

[ unlike steve, she is not quite so clouded by her sentimentality. barnes had been at war with them -- but peggy understands that some situations cannot be saved. only lately, she's started to believe that this one can be. ]

Rehabilitated according to who? Cap?

[ judging from tony's tone, he is not so sold on that level of impartiality. ]

I wasn't around for when he was trying to kill everybody, but I got the memo in my inbox. Washington D.C. was a mess after the Winter Soldier came to town. Half a building and a helicopter wound up in the Potomac.

[ half a building and captain america, but tony won't go into that much detail. ]

My own opinion, in point of fact. And one that wasn't formed lightly. [ she may not have a reputation of being particularly...merciful, at times. ] I can't say his...programming has been removed, but he demonstrates a genuine desire to undo what HYDRA did to him.

Perhaps you should put your family name to good use and help us in that endeavour, Anthony, instead of slinging mud.

[ peggy elizabeth carter takes no prisoners. ]

It's Tony.

[ this time, the response is automatic -- he let it slide the first time, mostly because who calls him anthony, but no longer. prepare for war, agent carter.

genuine desire to undo what HYDRA did... which is great and all, and important, and tony won't discount that. but still doesn't mean jack shit in whether or not he has an ability to do so, nor will it mean bucky will ever be rid of it. he's a ticking time bomb unless they figure out his reprogramming.

which tony could do, ostensibly. he's the farthest thing from an idiot in existence, but that doesn't mean his technology extends to matters of the brain. it. could. rewiring the brain... rewriting memories, utilizing technology. he's thought about it, but has never actually done it. mostly because he would experiment it himself, first, and tony doesn't want to dredge through his own back catalog of nightmare. talk about not sleeping for a week.

but he doesn't have his lab. he doesn't have his tools, or his resources. poking around brain meat without those things is difficult work, and who's to say that tony even wants to do it in the first place, this dude blew up a chunk of the nation's capital, for christ's sake -- ]

I'll bite -- but my family name's got nothing to do with it.

[ howard stark, helping the winter soldier? tony can't really envision it. but how well did tony know howard anyway? clearly not at all. ]

You're telling me he's rehabilitated to the point of -- what, conversation? Not stabbing people? What happens if someone from HYDRA shows up, or someone that can control minds? 'cause I hate to break it to you, but the Winter Soldier's been the least of our problems over the past five years. We've dealt with worse.

To your first question, I haven't witnessed a single instance of violent intent from his person. He's standoffish, and stoic, and often cold to the point of discomfort -- but I believe he fervently does not want to hurt anyone. He's shaken whatever immediate control they had over him, because simply due to the augment now present in his system. Which leads all too neatly into your second question...

I won't lie. [ she doesn't have time for her own ego, and so speaks in clear measures. careful, but confident. ] I can't promise the switch can't be flipped back. But -- well, I've seen mind control shattered before. [ with howard as its victim, in point of fact. ] My aim is to mend the harm that's been done before someone shows up to commit more of it.

The brain is nothing more than an electrical system housed in a lump of meat. Switching things off and on is easy -- ripping out what's already in the ground and laying down new wiring is a pain in the ass.

[ trauma, brainwashing... getting rid of all of that is a lot more difficult than tricking the brain into what's already there, or what isn't already there. ]

That's why controlling someone's head is easy. It's nothing more than messing around with a few electro-magnetic pulses, firing the wrong synapses, and suddenly you're drooling on the ground while someone steals your car. Stark Industries had dozens of experiments and cool toys on manipulating the brain until I shut down the weapons department and used it to build even cooler toys that weren't hellbent on blowing up the Middle East.

[ his father's legacy, as it were. ]

TLDR; I can probably figure something out, but I don't have my lab, or my robots, and my AI turned into a god last episode, so I'm in the dark. Unless these ships have something I can mess around with, the Winter Soldier is out of luck, and he's not coming near me or my friends without a ten foot pole and a taser in my hand. Sorry.

Don't apologize, Tony. [ now that he's offered his correction, she wields the shortened form of his name like a knife-blade. precise, and particular. almost familiar -- though it's a false familiarity, built on the backs of his last stint here. and upon howard, of course. ] Cooler minds couldn't blame you for harbouring your suspicion. [ ... ] I am not Steve Rogers.

[ she may love the man to the very depths of her soul, but she feels that this needs to be stressed. underlined. lit up in broadway lights. she is not steve rogers, and does not harbour the same boyhood sentimentality when it comes to the winter soldier. to her, barnes had been another g.i., and another commando. important, a good friend, and someone she'd be unwilling to lose. but that man also made his choice the day he saved steve on the train -- and peggy must take her own advice, and allow him the dignity of his self-sacrifice. ]

But I can tell you that the man trying to rise from the Winter Soldier's ashes is worth saving. He dances -- he tells the occasional joke, if he likes you well enough. He likes apple pie. I'm not asking you to hug him, Tony. I'm asking you to help -- so I'm glad you'll bite, however slow the process may be.

[ steve rogers, who almost certainly will defend bucky and his honor to the death. which is fucking annoying, because he won't listen to reason, and tony knows that. he wants natasha here -- natasha, because she'll understand steve's point of view while also telling him it's stupid. she would be on his side in this, tony is certain -- or as much on one side as natasha can be.

but picking sides is dumb, and tony sighs before shrugging. ]

It's not like there's anything else to do here.

[ gotta keep busy or tony will literally lose his mind. ]

So whatever, I'll do a good deed. It'll help out my karma. [ of which he needs. a lot. ] Who else is here that ticks us off, because I've only got so many favors to hand out to questionable bad guys, and I'm already going to have to deal with Cap's soliloquy about how this guy is worth saving, so the list better be short.

Loki.

[ no preamble with this one, tony. peggy doesn't much like the guy -- and understands why he's such a looming figure to the avengers thanks to an intel file uploaded to her device. there is the question of why rogue cares/d so much for the self-called god, but that's a different puzzle. ]

And I doubt even Steve would waste much of his breath soliloquizing on his behalf.

[ there's a noticeable shift in demeanor, at that name -- a tension in his shoulders, a setting in his jaw. the winter soldier -- he's a problem, but manageable. loki is nothing sort of a professional pain in the ass, but beatable. clearly. they managed against him, in the end.

after nearly destroying most of new york.

but they had thor. they had had bruce. tony had his suit. they barely have a collection of avengers here. but presumably loki has behaved himself, if the fleet is still operational. he also doesn't have his glowstick of death, apparently, give peggy didn't voice that as a concern with bucky. but a god is still a god, which means he's still dangerous.

there's a newfound pressure in his chest (which he steadily ignores), and he rolls his eyes, settling back into the chair he's taken over. ]

No one would, he torched half of Manhattan.

[ and tony's tower, that son of a bitch. ]

Has he done anything Loki-ish? Mind control, summoned aliens, tried to destroy the galaxy because his daddy didn't hug him enough? The usual?

He's made no outward moves. Nothing much, really, aside from stirring the pot and exchanging verbal blows with a number of us. [ ... ] I dare say he's trying to convince the Fleet he's reformed.

[ peggy doesn't even know the guy, and she's reluctant to let his story hold any water. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

SPRING TEST DRIVE MEME

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video

video