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legionclubhouse2016-08-15 10:43 pm
letsgolegion) wrote in legionclubhouse2016-08-15 10:43 pm
The "Life Finds A Way" Test Drive Meme
 The Time Trapper, the being responsible for bringing people into the Legion's universe, is up to some strange tricks! It's now creating illusions of alternate universes and dumping the Legionnaires into them to try to test them as Legionnaires. Each time this happens, the captives -- er, participants have knowledge of the scenario, their role, and what they're supposed to accomplish planted into their heads, but still remember who they once were. To complicate things, the Legionnaires from the 31st century aren't the only ones pulled into this adventure. Strange people from many worlds are being yanked in and finding themselves thrust right into the heart of these conflicts. These universes technically are just illusions (probably!) and all the participants have an inherent knowledge of this placed in their heads, but it's up to them if they believe it -- and the danger is real. If you die in one of these scenarios you stay dead. This time everyone is being dumped into a scenario where they're dealing with... THE SETTING At its opening, the Cretaceous Days amusement park was considered one of the most technologically advanced amusement parks ever created. The technology of the United Planets was advanced enough to allow for the cloning of a variety of prehistoric species from many worlds, from Earth's ancient, feathered dinosaurs to the scaly pretorians of Colu's past. Now the park has broken down and the animals have gone out of control! With electric fences failing, forcefield walls going down, and all protective technology being mysteriously disabled, everyone in the park is in danger. Dinosaurs from Earth's ancient history are running wild here, but prehistoric animals from other worlds are just as vicious and ferocious. While this is possibly one of the Time Trapper's strange pocket dimensions, this dimension is very similar to the game universe, and whether or not the sentient beings in need of saving are real or not is impossible to tell. It's a bad idea to risk not helping them in case real lives are on the line. Based on player preference, for the purposes of the meme, characters can either lose powers, retain their canon powers, or find themselves with new powers. It's up to you. SCENARIO A: RAPTORS Forget velociraptors, herds of larger Deinonychus are now freely roaming the park. Dangerously intelligent, they're hunting in packs, and smart enough to use various tactics to herd and surround their prey. Places like the vast indoor food court and gift shops can sometimes be used against them, since they provide hiding places, vents, and areas that can be closed with doors. The deinonychus aren't the only things that can work in numbers. Perhaps if you team up against them you'll have a chance of survival. SCENARIO B: GIGANOTOSAURUS The T-rex's bigger cousin, a Giganotosaurus is now rampaging around the park, and it has one hell of an appetite. Perhaps you can escape by climbing up a tree taller than it and jumping from tree to tree to safety. Or maybe you might figure out a clever way to trap it once more. Whatever the case, if you don't successfully stay out of its reach, you'll wind up its dinner. It's a good thing you don't have to face the hulking monster alone. SCENARIO C: ALIEN CREATURES Dinosaurs aren't the only prehistoric animals rampaging around the park. The tentacled let'ek of Omiclon 6 might try to choke the life out of you. Or you might find yourselves mesmerized by the hypnosis powers of the blue-billed Stenothians from Winath's ancient times. (Players may make up any ancient alien creature they like for a scenario and make up ways for it to be defeated.) SCENARIO D: PROTECTING CIVILIANS Personal survival is important but most of the civilians trapped in the park don't have a chance of escaping the many creatures that are now loose -- unless you work together to give them one. There are shelters and safe places they can be taken to, and even places where you can find small escape ships to evacuate. SCENARIO E: WILD CARD! There are all different threats and objectives possible within the park. Perhaps you have the technological skills to turn on the safety protocols in each of the sections of the park, one by one -- but only if you can get to the manual consoles. Perhaps you can tame some of the more docile creatures and use them as mounts or convince them to attack the predators threatening you or civilians. Maybe you can find a way to safety through some of the automated systems that handle feeding (or waste processing) but can't get through the dangerous obstacles in them without the help of a new ally. ✦ Current players in game can jump into this and do starters if they like so they can play with new players and each other. This meme will count as part of the game canon for those that opt in, though they'll find their memories somewhat fuzzy afterward. These threads can count toward your AC, however the "new CR" credit cannot be applied since not every character joining in is guaranteed to join the game. This takes place before "In Brightest Day." ✦ Potential players can use this as a standard test drive and may use these threads as their log samples. However, at least one post in their thread must fit the requirements for apps, both in length (200 words) and in quality. If you do plan on using a thread as a sample, please make sure the writing throughout your threads is a good example of your writing skills and has some solid examples of the character's voice. ✦ Potential players can also opt to keep these threads as game canon when they app in, so that their character remembers the scenario and then suddenly finds themselves in the game universe. However, this is opt in and players can choose to introduce their characters fresh if they'd prefer that and no other characters will remember they were there. Please just note which you'd like in the additional info field on your app. ✦ If you are considering apping to the game, currently 25 of 50 player slots are available. The character limit is 4 characters per player. You can also scope out some of the game's upcoming plots here to get an idea of what kind of plots are in the game and what's to come. ✦ Non-players who like the meme but aren't really considering apping to the game are free to jump in. The more the merrier! The Time Trapper wants a confusing situation and will enjoy the chaos of lots of strange people trying to figure out what's going on. |
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At least that's what she'd assumed she would be greeted with when she turned. She'd actually seen the dinosaur for a split second, and she caught all of Dipper's Tyrannonerd speech, so what else could be happening? Besides maybe seeing her brother in a weird costume he wasn't just wearing on the bus. And seeing him sporting some freaky new powers.
That's kind of a lot to take in, especially after a major candy loss.
When Dipper does finally turn and manage to squeak out her name, he's met with an equally shocked squawk of "DIPPER?"
Mabel scrambles to her feet to get a better look at him, and to try to figure out what's going. Without giving him a chance to actually explain (of course), her barrage of questions begins.
"What happened to you?! Did the bus leave without me and crash into a costume shop? Did you find another amulet like Gideon's? Wait, no! Were you--" She breaks off to give a scandalized gasp. "TIME TRAVELLING WITHOUT YOUR SISTER? Is that where you got him?!" She motions frantically to the dinosaur that is getting closer to chewing through his makeshift gag, before she continues in a more admonishing tone, "Why did you bring him here, Dipper? He probably doesn't have any money!"
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Also, a dinosaur is trying to eat them.
The crack as it finally bites through the display, and the ensuing terrifying roar, is enough for him to grab Mabel's hand and tug her along towards the door that leads to the rest of the visitor center. By bending down low, the Giganotosaurus can fit in the gift shop through the broken windows. It won't be easy for it to move around but it'll only be slowed down for so long.
They have to move. Maybe to a higher floor? He's not sure if that thing can handle stairs.
"I didn't do it!" is the first thing that pops out of his mouth because he knows how totally uncool it would've been to time travel without her on purpose. "I mean, I did time travel, but it wasn't my fault!"
That really doesn't explain anything, though.
"I got kidnapped by a cosmic being to fight against another cosmic being, and taken to another universe 1000 years in the future, and now I have superpowers? And I helped free the spirit of God's vengeance -- like the actual God, apparently? I'd rather not think about it -- to fight a planet-eating, giant purple man with a really stupid hat -- "
None of this makes sense. It happened to him and it sounds like nonsense.
"--and I'm getting way ahead of myself here, but my point! Is that I definitely didn't time travel or go on any interdimensional adventures without you willingly. I was kidnapped. Space kidnapped."
If there's one thing he's learned during his time with the Legion it's that it's space everything. They're in the space future, they use the space internet, they're space superheroes. It's just a thing they all do. Everything is 'space' something now.
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If it had been anyone else, his story might have sounded like nonsense to her. But, coming from Dipper? She knows it must have been serious. Even if the image of a giant purple guy taking a bite out of a planet was a little funny.
There is something nagging at her though, as they slam the shop door closed and turn to determine their escape route. She glances at her brother, looking vaguely hurt.
"They didn't space kidnap me too? I could have helped..."
Sure, she gets it had nothing to do with Dipper. He was taken against his will, so it isn't like it's his fault. And it's not like 'space adventure' would be her first choice of places to be kidnapped to. But, if Dipper was chosen to save something, she should have been picked right along with him! They saved the world together after all!
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He knows she doesn't blame him for it, so it's not that. It's more like an internal scream rings inside his head, "YES, YOU COULD HAVE, THE TIME TRAPPER SHOULD HAVE," that he has to hold in -- that he's been holding in, for quite some time now.
So much of what's happened has been good. He's made friends his own age without nearly as much difficulty as in the past -- and without needing Mabel as social glue for once (even though he definitely wouldn't have minded her help). He's found mentors that've taught him cool things -- cool, adult, dork mentors even! (There is a light at the end of the awkward nerd tunnel!) He's solved some mysteries, helped save a whole lot of people, done the kinds of things that he hoped to do as Ford's apprentice.
But then there was the yellow ring. Initiation. "Conditioning." The fight with Hiccup and Hal. The telepathic treatments. The crazy drawings on his Medbay walls that he used to sort out his mixed up mind.
And he knows it all would've never happened if she'd been there. There's no way she'd have tolerated him holding onto that yellow ring long enough to get captured, and even if he'd been captured and brainwashed anyway, all it would've taken was her telling him to knock it off and he would have. Just like that.
Even without her being there, it hadn't mattered.
"You did help," he says enigmatically. And then he uses his 'I am totally not telling you something and I'm hoping you won't notice because I'm focusing on something important' voice. "Mabel, let's just focus on not getting eaten by a dinosaur right now, okay?"
His whole brainwashing escapade -- and what broke him out of it -- isn't something he wants to get into until they actually have a moment to breathe.
Mostly because she already has that betrayed look now, and he's almost afraid to see the expression on her face when he tells her that someone actually managed to make him forget she existed, even if only for a little while.
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She's not going to forget to bring it up again once they're safe though, especially since the idea that she somehow helped without actually doing anything is perking her up a bit again. Enough to get her back into the 'running for our lives' spirit anyway.
Also helpful is the very sudden and loud slam coming from the door that Dipper just barricaded. Their new friend has apparently managed to claw his way through the shop.
"The bus! The bus can drive us away! And Waddles is there! He really hates being eaten, Dipper. We have to hurry!"
So, on one hand, she's still under the impression that this is just a terribly run pit stop on the way home and that Dipper brought the dinosaur. On the other, she's darting around now, looking for the best way out. Which may or may not actually be helpful.
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"The bus isn't here. Time travel and interdimensional travel, remember? This isn't even where I was. This is a thing that one cosmic being does. The Time Trapper creates these little mini-worlds to throw us into to challenge us. Waddles and the bus are back home."
It's important for her to understand that so she doesn't think Waddles is in danger.
"We need to get to higher ground," he says, running towards the staircase. "It's too heavy to climb stairs so as long as we can get above its head --"
A completely alien prehistoric animal, some kind of land squid with three mouths filled with razor sharp teeth, suddenly appears at the top of the stairwell. It spits acid that starts making the flooring of the stairs bubble and smoke.
"Oooor not. Outside. It's inside right now, so let's go outside and then try to find a way to get higher."
He turns to the nearby door to see four feathered Deinonychuses walking in.
Dipper balls his hands into fists.
"Oh come on!"
This isn't fair. But there is a way the odds can be evened out. He turns to his sister and grabs her by the shoulders.
"Mabel, do you randomly have superpowers?" He knows that happens sometimes, to the people that show up in these weird bubble universes. "Try blowing something up with your brain!"
A pause. "Wait."
Realizing she's looking at him at the moment, he pivots her to face the raptors.
"Now try blowing something up with your brain!"
He has his teke but this will be a whole lot easier if she's developed powers, too.
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Maybe he's right! Maybe she has powers too, and she just hasn't realized yet. It's like when a car falls on someone and you can magically throw it off them or something! You have to have the right circumstances.
She scrunches up her nose, while staring the raptors down. She's concentrating, trying to blow them up... And still trying...
"Um, Dipper..." She's starting to panic just a bit here. "Nothing's happe--"
That's when it happens. Nothing blows up, but the twins are knocked off their feet as a translucent pink ball of energy forms around them. It rolls a bit as the two of them topple to one side.
Mabel gets to her knees, and clasps her hands in front of her. She looks up at the top of the bubble and whispers, "DREAMS ARE HAPPENING."
And now she knows what she must do. Start hamster running at the raptors at full speed to smash them! She can think this through after taking action.
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He laughs. It's a good laugh. It's a "my sister is making me laugh by being my sister, and I missed that" kind of laugh.
"I totally, definitely, possibly, maybe knew that would work!" he crows.
Like he so often is, he's immediately on the same page, so he starts running the same time she does, adding speed to their rolling instead of just being knocked over.
"Raptor bowling is a new one. Think we can manage a strike on the first try?"
It seems a little more difficult than mini-golf, but only a little. Generally speaking, the two of them are good at hitting things with other things.
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Luckily, the raptors don't seem frightened by the hamster ball. They can still see the kids inside, and that's all they're worried about. And Mabel, driven by the idea of getting the first ever raptor strike in history, pushes harder.
Working together, they've picked up an impressive amount of speed considering the short distance. And when the ball rolls straight into the group it actually launches each raptor it hits into the air. Each raptor toss is accompanied by a strange buzz. Kind of like pulling two staticky socks apart.
"Dipper, we're doing it! We're winning!" She cries, raising a fist triumphantly.
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"And now we're running! Runrunrunrunrun--" He looks back over his shoulder briefly. "Oh, huh. That's convenient."
The squid monster apparently attacked the dinosaur and is clinging to the dinosaur's head while the dinosaur thrashes around.
"I can't figure out if the squid-thing is trying to eat the dinosaur's brain or make out with it," Dipper says, looking both confused and disgusted. Then he shrugs and shouts out to both creatures, "Mazel tov! I guess?"
Good for them. Love is probably hard to find for dinosaurs and weird squid monstrosities.
"While they're distracted with starting their new life together, let's roll out."
They're almost in the clear!
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"Dipper, does the ball feel heavier to you? Maybe this is why hamsters have such puffy cheeks. I NEED CARBOHYDRATES." She's poking her own face as if expecting treats to appear inside of it. She's slowing down a bit too. After the adrenaline rush, it turns out that keeping up the ball is kind of tiring. "HOO! Do you think my snack pouches will come in soon?"
And yet, despite the energy drain, she hasn't stopped.
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They've wheeled a good distance away and it doesn't seem like they're being followed now. He looks around to assess the new area they're in to see if there are any other dangerous creatures and it looks like they're in the clear.
"I think we're safe enough for you to drop it." He points to some massively high prehistoric type trees nearby, ones that are far taller than all but the very tallest dinosaurs. "I think I can get us up there."
Or they can use the grappling hook.
The tree canopy seems devoid of flying dinosaurs at the moment and the trees are so massive, it looks like they could spread out in the crook off one without even risking falling off.
"I want to get a higher vantage point and get the lay of the land anyway. We can rest up there and we'll only have to worry about Pterosaurs. And maybe some alien...whateverosaurs."
While it's been a relief to finally see Mabel again, he does actually have a job to do. There are possibly innocent people or teammates that need help out there, and he needs to see if he can spot any, especially since the comms never work in these bubble universes.
And maybe while they catch their breath, he can explain things.
There's a lot to explain.
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She hasn't forgotten that explaining either. That's why, after a moment or so, she manages to climb to her feet. After brushing the dirt from her sweater, she turns to Dipper.
"Silly Brother, did you really forget that you have the most amazing sister in the universe whose special talent is getting to high places?" She tsks at him as she pulls her grappling hook from her sweater.
She shoots up into the branches and quickly grabs Dipper. Before he can respond, she releases the trigger and sends them zipping into the trees.
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"You know, maybe I did just a little?"
Just like he forgot what it felt like to have Mabel covering his back and coming up with some kind of eleventh hour miracle, like a random hamster ball.
The tree is so huge that the crook where several branches meet is large enough for them to chill in, like it's a little vine-covered nest. As soon as they're safely up there, he digs through one of the many pouches in his belt and pulls out a protein bar, shoving it at her.
"Here. Refuel."
The wrapper has weird space writing and a happy purple blob alien with five eyes on it.
"It's snozzberry flavored. Apparently in the glorious robot future, you actually can taste the rainbow. They even have made up ice cream flavors that don't actually taste like anything else."
Yep, distract her with the cool future stuff. That's what he's doing while he leans out on a branch and gets the lay of the land, and tries to figure out what to say. There's a lot of ground to cover, and when it comes to the bad stuff that happened specifically to him, he's not even sure if he should tell her.
Okay, he is sure he should tell her. She'll be really mad if he doesn't tell her. But he doesn't have to tell her all of it right now, right?
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"Oh my gosh. Berry snozz is my favorite kind of snozz." That's sort of mumbled as the entire bar is in her mouth now.
And since her hands are free, she makes herself a nice little pillow out of some spare vines. With a contented sight, she flops back onto her comfy tree spot.
"So... Now that monster matchmaking is over, wasn't there something you were going to tell me about how sweet and helpful I am?" She added the sweet part herself. WILL HE NOTICE?!
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"Eh. I could've handled it on my own eventually," he says breezily, purposefully not talking about how helpful and amazing and resourceful she is.
He'll get to it, but he just wants to have fun annoying her first. It's been far too long since he's been able to pull on her pigtails and he misses it just it as much as everything else.
Like hugs. He plans on going for one of those soon, too. (After pretending his sister isn't super awesome for like five seconds, which is probably the longest he can manage).
"Spontaneously summoning up the perfect power to save the day? Meh."
No big deal. It isn't like she totally saved their butts back there or anything.
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"I see what you're doing! You're disappointed!" She levels an accusing finger at him. "You wanted to marry the squid! Bro, I had no idea, I swear! Let's go back and fight for your love!"
Two can play at this game.
"I'M READY TO BE AN AUNT!!"
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"I'm not marrying a squid, dum-dum!"
Still laughing, he drops to his knees near her and throws his arms around her, pulling her into the kind of hug that leaves no survivors. There is no awkward in this sibling hug. Maybe a little neediness, but this is definitely one that's of the more sincere variety.
"You're amazing," he says into her shoulder, relenting and giving her praise-ey due. "And the hamster ball was amazing. And your grappling hook is still amazing. And it's amazing being able to tell you that you're amazing."
It is. He even missed that.
"Because you're here. You're actually here." She's there and solid and real and huggable. She's real enough that she's probably already causing his uniform to have contact glitter contamination. She's there.
He doesn't know if she'll wind up being pulled into the Legion's universe, or get sent back home, but even just having this moment of seeing her is a relief, regardless of what happens next.
And just like that he starts getting soppy, in a way that he knows is going to alarm her, because even being apart for a long time wouldn't usually be enough for him to get soppy. But it isn't just that she wasn't there, it's that very bad people tricked him into thinking she wasn't real for a little while, and now he's got more proof than ever that it was all a trick.
It's just a sniffle, but he keeps his face hidden in her shoulder, because that's the only way he can think of it to keep it just a sniffle.
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"Dipper..." Her voice practically dripping with concern, she hugs him back.
There's never really been any secrets between them. At least, not for long. So, she knows he'll tell her about whatever it is that's eating him, even if it takes time.
But, she also knows that giving it time to twist you up inside rarely does any good. It can drive you to run away and inadvertently unleash an apocalypse, after all. And really, it's an older* sister's job to pry!
"What is it?" She asks worriedly. "Is it really just that we've been apart?"
*5 minutes 100% counts as older
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"Fine. I'm fine," he lies. (Badly).
He's not, but he will be? It's one of those kinds of things. He will be. He's getting there.
"Superheroing is hard. It's like -- it's the most amazing thing in the world, being able to help people, and having superpowers, but bad stuff happens. You wind up facing enemies like--"
His jaw clenches and he can't say the name. Everything with the yellow Lanterns only added onto Weirdmageddon. When he'd faced his fears in his fear lodge, it'd been Bill that he'd been fighting. When he went totally bugnuts crazy after they messed with his head, he'd been willing to call Bill up as a ring construct, something he never would've done otherwise.
They made that whole thing worse when it should've been getting better.
"You know..."
Him.
He drew in a deep breath and tried to calm down.
"So I'll get to that. Eventually. There was this thing, and it was bad, but it's over. And it's just--it's really good to see you." The tears are more relief than sadness or anything like that, and relief isn't necessarily a bad emotion. "Right now you need to know what's going on. Because that's bad, too. Like...really bad. Really, really bad. It's big, bigger than the random dinosaurs, bigger than anything we faced in Gravity Falls, bigger than even Weirdmageddon."
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She finds it a little strange that he doesn't want to tell her what kind of bad thing happened to him, but something else catches her attention. 'Bigger than Weirdmageddon'?
"Uh, Dipper, what could possibly be worse than the universe getting destroyed?" She says with a laugh that is both nervous, and slightly hopeful. He's probably just exaggerating! Maybe. Hopefully.
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"More than one universe getting destroyed." He winces as he goes on, "Every universe getting destroyed."
That alone does a good job of relaying why all this fighting he's done has been so intense, even if he's not getting into the specifics (yet). In a fight like that, bad things periodically happen, and it's just par for the course.
"That's what the one cosmic being involved in all this wants to do. Chronoblivion. It eats universes. It wants to destroy everything. Every world everywhere. If It gets entirely into the world I've been a superhero in for the last few months, that's it. It'll be strong enough to eat every universe everywhere -- including ours."
The thing with Bill hadn't been nearly as all-consuming. They only had to save their own world and while that been daunting (and terrifying), it still felt like it was doable, especially with the two of them working together, and with the rest of the town backing them up. Bill hadn't really been all-powerful -- things like the unicorn spell and Gravity Falls' natural weirdness magnet effect had worked as a hurdle in his plans.
But something that could overcome whole universes couldn't be hindered with one measly spell.
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Sure, eating all universes is probably more evil than weirding up only one, and maybe she doesn't totally grasp how powerful of a force they'd be up against... Or that she's not even guaranteed to go back to this future with Dipper. But, what else can you do but hope for the best? And fight back as hard as you can.
She gives him the most reassuring smile possible.
"Mystery twins, right?"
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Basically, they'll either get to fight side by side, or he'll have to fight alone but have an easier time of remembering the family and future he's fighting for.
Despite all the worry about Chronoblivion and despite all the badness that happened recently, the tension flows off of him, and he smiles a genuine smile.
"Mystery twins," he says, holding up a fist for a fistbump.
What was it those blue Lanterns kept saying while trying to give hope to everyone when they were fighting the yellows and reds? 'All will be well'?
To Dipper, now it finally feels like it really will be.